Emily Lakdawalla • July 25, 2018
A radar instrument on one of the oldest operational Mars orbiters has discovered possible evidence of present-day liquid water on Mars.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 27, 2017
Three launches to the Moon and one each to Mercury and Mars; two arrivals at near-Earth asteroids; and an approach to an encounter with a distant Kuiper belt object are highlights we anticipate in 2018.
Justin Cowart • November 04, 2016
Still images of Mars often give a false impression that Mars is a dead planet—but time-lapse imaging from the European Mars Express spacecraft reveals the planet as it really is.
Justin Cowart • May 04, 2016
Justin Cowart shares some spectacular images showcasing Mars' volcanoes from Mars Express.
Emily Lakdawalla • March 04, 2016
Mars Express' Visual Monitoring Camera is taking photos again! The camera was turned on for the first time in six months on Leap Day to take some lovely photos of Mars.
Emily Lakdawalla • February 29, 2016
Welcome to my monthly inventory of the 20-plus spacecraft actively exploring our solar system. Highlights of this month include the impending launch of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander, currently planned for March 14, and the resumption of regular VMC Mars images by Mars Express.
Mark Sequeira • February 26, 2016
A group of students from Georgia, USA, were able to explore Mars through the Mars Express #VMCschools campaign, with a little help from The Planetary Society's image processing tutorials.
Emily Lakdawalla • January 27, 2016
Geologist and amateur space image processor Justin Cowart has dug into the Mars Express archives and located some lovely, wide views across great swaths of the Martian globe.
Emily Lakdawalla • November 04, 2015
There have been several important pieces of news about European missions in the last month: Rosetta's fate has been determined; ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter's launch is slightly delayed; and they have selected a landing site for the ExoMars rover.
Jason Davis • September 10, 2015
The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft captured a sweeping view of Mars' south pole, along with a region extending northward to Hellas Basin.
Emily Lakdawalla • August 10, 2015
I'm back from two weeks' vacation, so it's time to catch up on the status of all our intrepid planetary missions, from Akatsuki to the Voyagers and hitting the Moon, Mars, asteroids, comets, and Saturn in between.
Emily Lakdawalla • March 06, 2015
Dawn has successfully entered orbit at Ceres, becoming the first mission to orbit a dwarf planet and the first to orbit two different bodies beyond Earth. I also have updates on Curiosity, Rosetta, Mars Express, Hayabusa2, the Chang'e program, InSIGHT, and OSIRIS-REx.
Bill Dunford • February 02, 2015
More examples of imperfect--but tantalizing--images from deep space.
Emily Lakdawalla • January 16, 2015
What happened to Beagle 2? It's been a mystery for 11 years. That mystery appears to have been solved.
Emily Lakdawalla • November 03, 2014
It's been two weeks since comet Siding Spring passed close by Mars, and six of the seven Mars spacecraft have now checked in with quick looks at their images of the encounter. I round up all the results.
Emily Lakdawalla • October 20, 2014
All seven Mars spacecraft are doing perfectly fine after comet Siding Spring's close encounter with Mars.
Emily Lakdawalla • October 14, 2014
Today the Mars Orbiter Mission released a nice four-image animation of teeny dark Phobos crossing Mars' huge orange disk. Mars Orbiter Mission joins a long line of Mars missions that have produced images of Mars and Phobos together.
Emily Lakdawalla • September 29, 2014
Ever since I first learned about the capabilities of Mars Orbiter Mission's small payload of science instruments, I have been anticipating one type of data in particular: global color views of Mars captured in a single 2000-pixel-square frame. Just days after entering orbit, Mars Orbiter Mission has delivered on that promise.
ESA Mars Express Team • September 17, 2014
The Mars Express Flight Control Team at ESOC have been actively preparing for the flyby of comet C/2013 A1/Siding Spring on October 19. Initial estimates gave the possibility that Mars Express might be hit by 2 or 3 high-speed particles. Happily, additional observations by ground and space telescopes have shown the risk to be much lower – and perhaps even as low as zero. In today's blog post, the team explain how this (happy!) real-life, real-time development is affecting their preparations for fly-by.
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