For Immediate Release: December 4, 2006

Contact:
Susan Lendroth
1-626-793-5100 ext. 237
susan.lendroth@planetary.org.

Foundation Joins Planetary Society Call for An International Lunar Decade

The Secure World Foundation has joined forces with The Planetary Society
in calling for an International Lunar Decade to begin in 2007. The
International Lunar Decade, following in the tradition of years of focused
scientific research, such as the International Geophysical Year, will
create a global space agency framework. The Secure World Foundation has
committed $66,000 to enhance the work The Planetary Society is doing with
other international organizations to create the ILD. See

http://planetary.org/programs/projects/lunar_decade/

for more details.

"Many nations have set their sights on the Moon," said Louis Friedman,
Executive Director of The Planetary Society. "Such worldwide interest
calls for worldwide cooperation - an International Lunar Decade that will
begin next year with the expected launches of Chinese and Japanese
missions, and will continue until 2019, the target date set by the U.S.
for a human return to the Moon. We are grateful to the Secure World
Foundation for their involvement."

India, the United States, Russia, and Italy are also planning lunar
missions, and the European Space Agency recently completed its SMART-1
lunar orbiter mission.

The International Lunar Exploration Working Group and the Committee on
Space Research (COSPAR) have already endorsed The Planetary Society's call
for an International Lunar Decade, and the concept has been presented to
the International Astronautical Federation General Assembly for
consideration.

The Society will present the ILD concept next year to the United Nations
Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The Planetary Society
is a non-governmental (NGO) consultative member of COPUOS.

"The International Lunar Decade provides an opportunity for the world to
combine our talents and our dreams to develop cooperative, sustainable and
secure systems for moving out into the global commons of space," said
Cynda Collins Arsenault, President of the Secure World Foundation. "We
are pleased to work with The Planetary Society, who has long recognized
the importance of this new frontier."

An International Lunar Decade will help nurture the popular vision needed
to sustain political support in each of the spacefaring nations planning
lunar missions and will help further both science cooperation and mission
coordination. A cohesive framework will also enable scientists from many
nations - in addition to those conducting missions - to gain support for
lunar studies.

The Planetary Society and Secure World Foundation hope to provide an
opportunity for young scientists, particularly in developing countries, to
gain more public and private support for lunar research in their nations.
Both organizations believe that international cooperation will enhance
peaceful exploration of space.

Calling for a unified approach has precedent in the scientific community.
Previous examples include the International Geophysical Year, the
International Polar Year, and the International Space Year. Just as those
"years" were not always literal (some extended to twice that length), the
proposed International Lunar Decade (ILD) is not exactly ten years.

The International Lunar Decade should begin in 2007 to coincide with a
year that marks the 50th anniversary of Sputnik and will see the expected
launches of Japan's SELENE and China's Chang'E lunar missions. The
"decade" will end twelve years later in 2019 with a human mission to the
Moon.

2007 is also the 40th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty, which called
for broad international cooperation in the scientific, as well as the
legal, aspects of the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful
purposes.

The Planetary Society, in coordination with The Planetary Society of Japan
and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is already helping to
raise public awareness of Japan's SELENE mission with the "Wish Upon the
Moon" campaign. The Society is collecting names and messages to send to
the Moon on SELENE. Learn more about the "Wish Upon the Moon" campaign at

http://planetary.org/selene.

-o0o-

THE PLANETARY SOCIETY:

The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other
worlds and seek other life. Today, its international membership makes the
non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group in the
world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded The Planetary
Society in 1980.

SECURE WORLD FOUNDATION:

The Secure World Foundation supports efforts to develop sustainable space
governance. This will require the rule of law, reliable mechanisms of
enforcement and global systems providing the means to settle conflicts
without resorting to war.

WEBLINKS:

The Planetary Society http://planetary.org
Secure World Foundation http://www.swfound.org/
International Lunar Decade
http://planetary.org/programs/projects/lunar_decade/
Wish Upon the Moon http://planetary.org/selene