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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Curiosity's tracks across Dingo Gap

How NASA Plans to Land Humans on Mars

On the surface, NASA's humans to Mars plans seem vague and disjointed. But that's because the agency is playing the long game. Right now, it may be the only game they can play.

OSIRIS sees Philae multiple times during landing

Rosetta imaged Philae during its descent -- and after its bounce

This morning ESA released a set of images of the Philae lander taken by the Rosetta orbiter during -- and after -- the lander's first touchdown. The images contain evidence for the spot Philae first touched the comet, and a crucial photo of Philae's position several minutes into its first long bounce.

Philae touchdown (artist's concept)

Now Philae down to sleep

My last post on the drama in Darmstadt, where ground controllers believe Philae may have fell asleep for good.

Solar system montage with eight planets

Want Funding? Then Be a National Priority

On Monday, Jason Callahan published an article in The Space Review discussing the importance of aligning the goals of federally funded scientific communities with national priorities. This post highlights some of the main points of the article and suggests a possible role for The Planetary Society.

Philae falling

Philae status, a day later

The Philae team scrambled all morning to comprehend the initially confusing status of the lander, and the picture is much clearer today. Speaking of which, there are lots more pictures!

Philae's first ÇIVA panorama from the surface of Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Brief Philae "Morning After" update: First ÇIVA panorama from the surface

I'm just getting up to speed on the news from overnight, which is mostly good: Philae remained in contact with the orbiter (which means the CONSERT radar sounding experiment was working), and it's sitting stably on the surface, although it's not anchored in any way. And they released the first ÇIVA image from the ground!

ESA Rosetta and Philae team at European Space Operations Centre, Nov. 10, 2014

Report from Darmstadt: Philae status and early Rosetta results from DPS

I'm reporting live from the press room at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. There's little news on Philae yet except that its status is good. Meanwhile, Rosetta scientists presented their first early comet results at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Tucson, Arizona, which I watched from afar using Twitter.

Donald Pray at Sugarloaf Mountain Observatory in Massachusetts, USA

Hunting Binary Asteroids

Thanks to The Planetary Society’s Shoemaker NEO Grant program, a new telescope has been brought to bear focusing on searching for and understanding the properties of binary asteroid systems.

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