Get Involved


Space advocacy resources

Here are some places to a) find out more about the earthly benefits of space research, and b) spread the word about those benefits. There are many, so they’re grouped according to who created them. There are also links to some projects where you can do space science yourself. Please feel free to suggest additional resources.


Space advocacy groups and individual projects

  • The Planetary Society - Founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman to inspire and involve the world's public in space exploration through advocacy, projects, and education. Today, The Planetary Society is the largest and most influential public space organization group on Earth.
  • Penny4NASA - Founded to uphold the importance of Space Exploration and Science, believing that federal funding of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, at a wimpy 0.48% of the total, does not reflect the hugely important economical, technological and inspirational resource that this agency has been throughout its 50+ year history.
  • The Mars Society- Founded to further the exploration and settlement of the planet Mars
  • What the NASA? - Kid-friendly version of WTF NASA? Quick hits of things space has done for people.
  • Explore Mars - Explore Mars was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades
  • Uwingu - A new approach: this LLC will sell Internet products (apps) in the space arena to fund space research, education, and exploration projects around the world.
  • The Space Foundation - A global, nonprofit leader in space awareness activities, educational programs that bring space into the classroom and major industry events.
  • SaveSpace - A movement started by people on the Space Coast to raise the awareness of the nation & the president: Space needs to be a priority for America!
  • Friends of NASA - Builds international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce & scientific discovery.

Articles and videos in the media

Celebrities, scientists, politicians and other public figures

  • Neil deGrasse Tyson - Often the face of space, and soon to be host of the new "Cosmos" TV series
  • Bill Nye - The Science Guy and director of the Planetary Society
  • will.i.am - A booster of STEM education, he was present at the launch of the Mars Curiosity rover, and wrote a song the rover transmitted from Mars

Science projects open to public participation

  • Spacehack - A directory of ways to participate in space exploration
  • Zooniverse - Real science online
  • CosmoQuest - The place where you map other worlds, explore our universe, and contribute to science
  • Citizen Science Center - A resource for all things related to citizen science: books, papers, discussions, project listings
  • SciStarter - Science we can do together
  • SETI@Home - A scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.
  • EINSTEIN@Home - Uses your computer's idle time to search for weak astrophysical signals from spinning neutron stars.
  • MILKYWAY@Home - Creating a highly accurate three dimensional model of the Milky Way galaxy using data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
  • BOINC - The open-source software for volunteer computing and grid computing that powers the '@home' projects.

Commercial sector and private spaceflight firms

Aerospace industry

Private-sector spaceflight companies


More ways to speak up

Want to make a real difference? Tell your local government representative how you feel. It's never been easier.

Congress.org - Find your senators and representatives, see advocacy tips and guides.

Contacting the Congress - An up-to-date citizen's congressional directory.

POPVOX - Aims to bridge the gap between the input the public wants to provide and the information Members of Congress want and need to receive.

Your Voice in Europe - The European Commission’s “single access point” to a wide variety of consultations, discussions and other tools which enable you to play an active role in the European policy-making process.

Change.org - Start and promote petitions.

GoPetition - Online petitions with a global perspective.


Software & tools

Some tools and apps that help visualize space exploration and Earth observation.

Eyes on the Earth

eyesonearth

Amazing site. See daily pictures from the spacecraft keeping an eye on Earth, and track those spacecraft in real time and in 3D. View recent data for air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sea level, ozone, ice and water.

Go there »

Mobile Apps

esa app

Missions & images from NASA
iOS | Android

esa app

Visualizes recent global climate data from Earth Science satellites
iOS | Android

esa app

Missions & images from the European Space Agency
iOS

esa app

Beautiful science visualizations
iOS

esa app

Data User Element (DUE) from the ESA Earth Observation Programme
iOS

esa app

Daily views of the sun and how it affects the Earth from the Solar Dynamic Observatory
iOS | Android


Buttons & banners

Use these buttons on your own site as a quick way to give your visitors an answer to the question 'why do we go to space?' These are a standard 120 x 90. Many more sizes and styles to come. Don't worry—there are no tracking codes or other shenanigans included. Please feel free to suggest something else to include in this section.

badge1

Paste this into your page:

<a href="http://www.RidingWithRobots.org/earth"><img src="http://www.RidingWithRobots.org/earth/img/badge1.png" width="120" height="90" alt="Here on Earth" /></a> 
badge1

Paste this into your page:

<a href="http://www.RidingWithRobots.org/earth"><img src="http://www.RidingWithRobots.org/earth/img/badge2.png" width="120" height="90" alt="Here on Earth" /></a> 
badge1

Paste this into your page:

<a href="http://www.RidingWithRobots.org/earth"><img src="http://www.RidingWithRobots.org/earth/img/badge3.png" width="120" height="90" alt="Here on Earth" /></a>