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Blog Archive
Bruce Murray: Personal Reflections of a Former Student
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/08/29 01:44 CDT | 2 comments
I am saddened by the loss of my professor and mentor, Bruce Murray. I celebrate him here by sharing some personal memories and reflections. There is much to respect, and also much to amuse as we reflect on the life of this great man.
Posted by Louis D. FriedmanCharlene Anderson on 2013/08/29 11:32 CDT | 52 comments
One of the most remarkable minds of 20th century exploration was stilled this morning, August 29, 2013, when Bruce C. Murray died of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 81. The Planetary Society owes its existence to Bruce.
Results of ten Venus years of cloud tracking by Venus Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/29 10:55 CDT | 4 comments
What Venus Express' Visual Monitoring Camera images of Venus have taught us about the motions of Venus' atmosphere.
Chang'e 3 proceeding toward December 1 launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/28 11:02 CDT | 2 comments
News agencies are reporting that China's soft lunar lander and rover, Chang'e 3, has passed its final critical reviews and is now proceeding toward launch.
China Goes to the Moon and Beyond?
A Conversation with Space Journalist Leonard David
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/08/27 01:06 CDT
Planetary Radio guest Leonard David has been writing about space exploration for more than five decades. He has collected analysis from around the world about China's big plans for space exploration.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/08/26 04:37 CDT | 4 comments
A deep lunar crater exposes some of the Moon's secrets.
Posted by Sarah Hörst on 2013/08/26 03:14 CDT | 11 comments
By now I hope that everyone has seen some of the spectacular images of the Saturn system (and especially Titan!) from the Cassini-Huygens mission. However, the measurements that often make my heart race are taken by instruments that reveal Titan in ways that our eyes cannot see.
New Horizons: Late in Cruise, and a Binary Ahoy
Posted by Alan Stern on 2013/08/24 09:16 CDT | 2 comments
New Horizons has just completed a summer of intensive activities and entered hibernation on Aug. 20. The routine parts of the activities included thorough checkouts of all our backup systems (result: they work fine!) and of all our scientific instruments (they work fine too!).
Updates on Curiosity from Ken Herkenhoff: Embarking for Mount Sharp (sols 326-372)
Posted by Ken Herkenhoff on 2013/08/23 12:07 CDT | 1 comments
United States Geological Survey scientist Ken Herkenhoff posts regular updates on the Curiosity science team's plans for the rover on Mars.
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 Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/22 07:02 CDT | 3 comments
LADEE's launch window opens two weeks from today, on September 6. The brief little mission aims to study the lunar atmosphere and dust environment before future soft landings disturb its currently pristine state.
Photo gallery: MAVEN being prepped for launch
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/21 04:56 CDT | 2 comments
Watching MAVEN go through its final launch preparations via the photo gallery at the Kennedy Media Archive.
Producing global views of Vesta from archival data
Posted by Björn Jónsson on 2013/08/21 12:18 CDT | 3 comments
Björn Jónsson produces beautiful color and 3D global mosaics of Vesta from Dawn's archival data.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/20 07:37 CDT | 4 comments
Those sneaky scientists on Curiosity managed to catch a Phobos transit of the Sun with one set of cameras, and to watch its shadow darkening the surface with another. COOL!
Caution: Spacecraft Under Construction
Visiting JPL's high bay clean room with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/08/20 10:39 CDT | 1 comments
Join Emily Lakdawalla and Mat Kaplan inside JPL's High Bay 1, where two Earth-revealing missions are being readied for launch.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/08/20 01:27 CDT | 7 comments
Beautiful maps of a mysterious place.
Field Report From Mars: Sol 3397 - August 13, 2013
Posted by Larry Crumpler on 2013/08/18 11:06 CDT | 1 comments
Opportunity arrived at the base of the next segment of the Endeavour crater rim and is now investigating the contact.
Movie of Phobos and Deimos from Curiosity: super cool and scientifically useful
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 05:01 CDT | 5 comments
Yesterday, the Curiosity mission released the video whose potential I got so excited about a couple of weeks ago: the view, from Curiosity, of Phobos transiting Deimos in the Martian sky. In this post, Mark Lemmon answers a bunch of my questions about why they photograph Phobos and Deimos from rovers.
Asteroid Telescope First Light
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/08/16 03:04 CDT | 4 comments
Using a Shoemaker NEO Grant a new telescope is operating in Illinois to do asteroid tracking.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 11:24 CDT | 4 comments
In which the fifth graders of Kipp Heartwood Academy argue the competing sides in the is-Pluto-a-planet debate through the medium of rap.
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