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30th Anniversary of The Planetary Society
 

The Planetary Society Blog

Archive

Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.


  • Nov. 11, 2009 | 09:09 PST | 17:09 UTC
    Tracking the stars -- and Earth
    This was a neat photo from ESA today. Pretty much every single spacecraft carries one or more "star trackers," cameras or sensors designed to provide information on the spacecraft's position and orientation based upon the observed positions of... More»
  • Nov. 10, 2009 | 12:21 PST | 20:21 UTC
    Four moons and a ring
    Thanks to Mike Malaska for the tip on this one. The image is part of an animation that ends with Rhea transiting Saturn. In the middle of the sequence, Cassini's narrow-angle camera captures four of Saturn's moons in the same shot -- a rare... More»
  • Nov. 10, 2009 | 09:38 PST | 17:38 UTC
    Rosetta is homing in on Earth
    Heads up! ESA's Rosetta spacecraft is approaching for its last flyby of Earth, on Friday, November 13. It is now close enough that its OSIRIS high-resolution camera can resolve the Moon (and presumably Earth as well). Here's that photo of the... More»
  • Nov. 9, 2009 | 13:53 PST | 21:53 UTC
    Planetary Radio Q and A: Are meteorites on Mars actually interesting?
    This week's Planetary Radio features Ann Druyan on the legacy of Carl Sagan on the occasion of what would have been his 75th birthday, and on The Planetary Society's announcement today of the LightSail project. On "Questions and Answers" I answered... More»
  • Nov. 9, 2009 | 13:27 PST | 21:27 UTC
    A million dollars says The Planetary Society can make a solar sail fly
    The Planetary Society announced today that an anonymous donor has put upone million dollars to help us get a solar sail in flight. That money will kick-start our ambitious new LightSail program, a series of three increasingly large solar sails that... More»
  • Nov. 8, 2009 | 14:39 PST | 22:39 UTC
    She moves! "First drive sequence in 145 sols" for Spirit
    It's been an awful long time since we've seen one of these from Spirit:"Drive" animation from Spirit sol 2078Spirit returns thumbnail images from the navigation camera to Earth to document drives. This animation documents Spirit's first drive... More»
  • Nov. 6, 2009 | 14:14 PST | 22:14 UTC
    Space Image Processing Classes are Go!
    I got a huge response from readers interested in me conducting some online classes on space image data -- how to access and process it. Some of you are interested just in being armchair explorers, but I also received a surprising number of... More»
  • Nov. 5, 2009 | 19:32 PST | Nov. 6 03:32 UTC
    Reviews of several space-themed books for young children
    While I was on maternity leave I suddenly decided to see what books were out there that could help me teach my daughters (one's three years, and the other six months old) about the science and the thrill of space exploration. I bought a pile of... More»
  • Nov. 4, 2009 | 14:14 PST | 22:14 UTC
    Planetary Radio Q and A: Saturn's Hexagon
    Before I get to this week's Q and A, I should mention that the Carnival of Space can be found over at the Next Big Future. This week's Planetary Radio features Lou Friedman on the Augustine Human Spaceflight report. On "Questions and Answers" I... More»
  • Nov. 4, 2009 | 14:02 PST | 22:02 UTC
    Planetary Radio Q and A: Not-so-gassy giants
    I've forgotten to post Planetary Radio Q and A for the past few weeks, so I'll post a couple today. Planetary Radio for October 19 featured Bruce Murray on the persistence and importance of water ice on the Moon. On "Questions and Answers" I... More»