On August 27, the planet Mars will be closer to Earth than it has been in more than 50,000 years. To celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime event, The Planetary Society is declaring to the world that August 27, 2003 be Mars Day. The Society will mark this occasion with special events around the world, including an 83rd birthday party for a man whose name is now synonymous with the Red Planet – Ray Bradbury, author of the famous The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury’s birthday comes the same week as this historic Mars opposition.

The Planetary Society’s Mars Microphone will hitch a new ride to the Red Planet on board the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) NetLander mission in 2007. CNES is the national space agency of France. NetLander will deploy four landers on the surface of Mars and network them together to study the deep interior, geology and atmosphere of Mars. “We have seen other worlds and even touched them via robotic senses,” said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society, “but the Mars Microphone will offer humanity the first opportunity to listen to the sounds on the surface of an alien world.”

Last week, the Planetary Society’s Red Rover Goes to Mars Student Scientists made planetary exploration history. They were the first members of the public to direct a camera aboard a spacecraft orbiting another world, the NASA Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). One of the pictures they targeted shows something new about the planet’s surface — a surprising cluster of dark-colored boulders smack dab in the middle of light-colored terrain. How the boulders got there and what geological history they represent on Mars are questions scientists still need to answer.

Nine Student Scientists have been selected from over ten thousand entrants worldwide to serve on the Planetary Society’s Red Rover Goes to Mars Training Mission. Ranging in age from 10 to 15, the winners — four girls, five boys — will select a possible landing site on Mars for some future sample return mission. The nine winners hail from across the globe — Brazil, Hungary, India, Poland, Taiwan, and the United States. The winners are Zsofia Bodo, 15, Hungary; Kimberly DeRose, 13, USA; Bernadett Gaal, 14, Hungary; Shaleen Harlalka, 15, India; Iuri Jasper, 12, Brazil; Hsin-Liu Kao, 11, Taiwan; Tanmay Khirwadkar, 13, India; Wojciech Lukasik, 10, Poland; and Vikas Sarangadhara, 10, India.