Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Event Review: The Planetary Society's 25th Anniversary Gala
by Don Rose
Twas a starry starry night -- as in the stars of space, science and science fiction. A galaxy of them, plus their fans and friends, came out November 12th to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Planetary Society, one of the leading organizations devoted to moving mankind off this Pale Blue Dot and off into the heavens.
The buzz in the room was palpable. Literally, since I got to meet Buzz, as in Aldrin, second man on the Moon (as if I need to tell you that, and if I do, it may be past your bedtime). Many other celebs of the sci-tech world also attended, including Vint Cerf , one of the Founding Fathers of the Internet (now at Google)... Ray Bradbury, titan of science fiction... Ed Stone, former head of the Jet Propulsion Lab... and Ann Druyan, widow of one of the co-founders of the Planetary Society, Carl Sagan (the other two co-founders, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman, were of course in attendance). Ms. Druyan mentioned the DVD release of COSMOS, the groundbreaking PBS series which is also celebrating its 25th anniversary.
In addition to the wonderful dinner, the highlights of the awards gala at Santa Anita Park included Ray Bradbury receiving the Thomas O. Paine Award for the Advancement of Human Exploration of Mars... Nichelle Nichols, of Star Trek "Uhura" fame, reading a passage from Ray's classic tome, "The Martian Chronicles"... James Cameron receiving the Society's inaugural Cosmos Award for Outstanding Public Presentation of Science (accepted on his behalf by his colleague, fellow director Steve Quale)... Bill Nye (you know, the Science Guy) serving as affable and amiable host/MC for the evening... and a mock gameshow near the evening's close, where selected guests got to display their grasp of space/science knowledge within a humorous format.
To cap off the perfect evening, guests were indeed blessed with a starry night, for real, and got to enjoy it all the more thanks to the telescopes of various stripes set up outside, letting us gaze skyward. Bill Nye walking up excitedly and saying "Give me a hit of Mars!" was one of the classic lines of the night, as was Ed Stone saying the biggest surprise about Saturn was "finding the spokes" -- such statements encapsulate the fact that those who love science or practice it are folks who can revel in the beauty of the equations as well as the sheer wonder of it all, and the amazing fact that we can know anything at all about the world and worlds around us. Here's wishing the Planetary Society another successful 25 years, and here's hoping we will all eventually follow the advice of Arnold in "Total Recall" when he said, "Get your ass to Mars". I'm sure everyone at the gala in Arcadia would be first in line.
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Dr. Don Rose is Editor In Chief of “The Rose Review”, an online magazine available at www.therosereview.com . He also serves as writer and editor for “New News Network”, at trrnnn.blogspot.com . He may be reached at ddrose@aol.com .
