Van Kane

Van Kane has followed planetary exploration since he opened his newspaper in 1976 and saw the first photo from the surface of Mars. The challenges of conceiving and designing planetary missions has always fascinated him. He doesn't have any formal tie to NASA or planetary exploration (although he uses data from NASA's Earth science missions in his professional work as an ecologist).

Kane writes a blog about the future of planetary exploration.

Latest Blog Posts

Europe Will Select Its Next Major Science Mission in November

Posted 2013/09/25 01:22 CDT | 2 comments

The European Space Agency will announce two major science missions this November, one of which is likely to be devoted to solar system exploration.

Finally, an FY13 NASA Planetary Budget, Just 11 Months Late

Posted 2013/08/30 05:32 CDT | 10 comments

The final news for NASA's Planetary Science program is better than had been proposed, but still a substantial cut over the previous year. There may be serious future consequences as a result of the smaller program.

Small Could be Beautiful - Planetary SmallSats

Posted 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.

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