Blog Archive

Guest post: Matthew Chojnacki: Public service announcement by, and for, planetary grad students

Posted by Matthew Chojnacki on 2012/03/19 04:58 CDT

The President's proposed 2013 NASA budget calls for deep cuts to the nation's very successful planetary science program. These cuts not only threaten the future of planetary science, but also impact our ability to conduct deep space missions. As the next generation of planetary scientists, the graduate student community is deeply concerned about the ramifications of these budget cuts, and we must voice our concerns to policymakers in Washington, D.C.

Ready for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference?

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/19 01:25 CDT

A post the night before the 2012 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

Snapshots From Space Video: Revealing Jupiter's (Mostly) Unseen Treasures

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/03/18 01:46 CDT | 2 comments

Tens of thousands of Jupiter images were taken by the Voyager spacecraft, but relatively few have been processed to reveal their true beauty and wonder. The latest Snapshots video from Emily Lakdawalla explains why.

Visiting a Solar Sail in the OC

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/03/16 06:33 CDT

The city of Tustin is about an hour's drive from Planetary Society HQ in Pasadena. That's when the freeway gods are kind, which they never are. The trip I made there yesterday was well worth the trouble.

Cool stuff brewing at Honeybee Robotics

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/15 03:05 CDT

Yesterday I was treated to a little tour (little, because it's a little building) of Honeybee Robotics' office here in Pasadena. They were putting on a show for a state visit by the new NASA Chief Technology Officer Mason Peck, and had invited media. I was one of only two media who showed up, and I have to say that people who stayed away missed a cool show. Honeybee is developing some great technology for future space missions for Earth, Mars, and beyond.

"False-tonal recording?" The sounds of a coronal mass ejection

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/15 12:26 CDT

A new "sonification" of the recent solar storm by Robert Alexander (a University of Michigan graduate student), employing data from the MESSENGER and SOHO spacecraft.