Blogs
Blog Archive
Small Could be Beautiful - Planetary SmallSats
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/08/23 11:05 CDT | 4 comments
A new breed of small planetary spacecraft may allow for more frequent flights to the planets for highly focused missions.
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/07/11 06:17 CDT | 4 comments
For those wishing to bore into more details of our Laser Bees project itself, graduate student Alison Gibbings from the University of Strathclyde has sent their technical paper that resulted from the 2013 Planetary Defense Conference.
Dueling Op-Eds on NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/07/11 01:29 CDT | 9 comments
NASA Administrator Bolden and the Chairman of the House Science Committee published opposing op-eds in The Hill newspaper today, illustrating the uphill battle NASA faces to sell Congress on this mission.
Mars 2020 Science Announcement Live-blog
NASA's next Mars rover now has a mission
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/07/09 01:57 CDT | 6 comments
Follow along as NASA reacts to the recommendations of the science definition team for the next Mars rover.
Uranus or Bust (and on a budget)
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/07/09 12:38 CDT | 3 comments
New plans may make a mission to Uranus affordable within NASA's new, constrained budget.
Planetary Society Hangout: Arkyd Telescopes, Planetary Resources, Chris Lewicki
Thursday, Jun 27, noon PDT/1900 UTC
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/06/27 11:15 CDT | 2 comments
We talked to Chris Lewicki, President of Planetary Resources, about their upcoming Arkyd telescopes including one for the public, asteroid mining, and more. Hosted by Bruce Betts with Jennifer Vaughn.
POSTPONED: Planetary Society Hangout, Planetary Resources' Chris Lewicki
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/05 11:23 CDT
The Hangout has been postponed because of technical difficulties. Stay tuned for rescheduling information.
NASA Administrator Highlights Advanced Propulsion Systems at JPL
An ion engine will be used on the proposed asteroid retrieval mission
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/05/23 06:18 CDT | 6 comments
Charles Bolden stopped by JPL to highlight research being done on advanced propulsion techniques that would be used in the proposed asteroid retrieval mission.
Report from the Starship Century Conference: Tuesday
Posted by Jon Lomberg on 2013/05/22 06:54 CDT | 5 comments
This week Jon Lomberg is attending the Starship Century conference, which brings together scientists, writers, and futurists to imagine the future of interstellar travel. Here he reports on presentations by Freeman Dyson, Peter Schwartz, Robert Zubrin, Geoff Landis, Neal Stephenson, and Patti Grace Smith.
Report from the Starship Century Conference: Monday
Posted by Jon Lomberg on 2013/05/21 10:42 CDT | 11 comments
This week Jon Lomberg is attending the Starship Century conference, which brings together scientists, writers, and futurists to imagine the future of interstellar travel. The organizers are Greg and Jim Benford, and among the attendees are: David Brin, Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge, Joe Haldeman, Alan Steele, Geoffrey Landis, Freeman Dyson, Jill Tarter, Paul Davies, Nalaka Gunawardene, and Daniel Richter.
ISIS: Blasting a Crater on Asteroid Bennu
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/05/16 08:00 CDT | 2 comments
An exciting new option to enhance NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission has been proposed by Steve Chesley at JPL. The ISIS spacecraft would impact asteroid Bennu to expose its interior structure to OSIRIS-REx.
Mars One astronaut selection announcement
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/21 08:29 CDT | 25 comments
Today I am on my way to New York City, where I will be serving as the moderator for Mars One's first press briefing.
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/04/03 01:08 CDT | 6 comments
Aviation Week and Space Technology reports that the President’s next budget request for NASA will include funds to begin developing a mission to bring an asteroid to the Earth-moon system. The initial goal will be to provide a destination for a manned mission to an asteroid, but if the idea works, it could kick start asteroid mining.
LPSC 2013: Future Planetary Exploration
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/03/26 12:20 CDT | 2 comments
Last week, planetary scientists gathered for the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Only a tiny fraction of the presentations at LPSC dealt with future missions. Even so, this is still one of the best sources for insights into details of missions under development. In this post, I’ll cover some of the abstracts for the presentations that give a flavor of the breadth of the proposals.
Instruments for the JUICE Jovian Mission
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/03/07 12:20 CST | 6 comments
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced the list of instruments selected for its JUICE mission to explore the Jovian system for three years starting in the 2030 following a 2022 launch.
Checking in with the Future of Mars Exploration at NASA
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/02/27 02:17 CST | 4 comments
Reporting from NASA's Mars Exploration Program working group on the latest updates in scientific exploration of the red planet.
Brother, Can You Spare $1B for a Planetary Space Telescope?
Posted by Van Kane on 2013/02/20 12:29 CST | 2 comments
Imagine you had a Hubble-class telescope and could use in any way you wanted to explore planets. What would you do with it?
A New Statement on NASA's 2020 Rover Mission
A collaborative effort with various scientific organizations to emphasize a balanced program of exploration
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/01/29 06:15 CST | 3 comments
The Planetary Society remains committed to a balanced program of solar system exploration, with Mars, outer planets, and small missions all playing an important part.
Human spaceflight update: the modules edition
Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/01/16 10:41 CST | 2 comments
NASA made Wednesday a big day for human spaceflight following the official announcements of two new partnerships with Bigelow Aerospace and the European Space Agency.
Posted by Louis D. Friedman on 2013/01/14 02:37 CST | 13 comments
Louis Friedman discusses what he expects to be the future of space exploration. According to him, it won't be in manned missions, but in remote, virtual exploration available to anybody.
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