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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Spirit Discovers Surprises in Martian Soil, but Earth Weather Blocks Commands to Continue Work
Spirit got off to a running start this week, using three of the four instruments on her robotic arm to study a patch of Martian soil, and the football-sized rock Adirondack.
Titan: Arizona in an Icebox?
A week after Huygens' descent, the emerging picture of the surface of that smoggy world is of an arid, icy desert, where periodic storms of methane rain create transient rivers that wash sooty soil from icy highlands out to short-lived pools and lakes. The pools dry up -- perhaps sinking into a sandy soil of glass-like water ice -- and the Titanian desert waits for another methane storm.
Spirit Ventures Out to First Target
Spirit ventured out yesterday, driving nearly 10 feet (about 3 meters) to its first target -- a football-sized rock that scientists have dubbed Adirondack. Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, successfully completed its first trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) in four months.
Spirit Extends Arm and Takes First Close-Up Images of Martian Soil
Spirit has extended her robotic arm for the first time to examine a patch of fine-grained Martian soil, and joined forces with the European Space Agency's Mars Express to successfully conduct the first-ever, international, coordinated observation of the planet's atmosphere.
Spirit Hits the -- Martian -- Road!
Spirit gets 6 wheels on soil. For some of the team members, this was the real landing.
Let's Roll: Spirit Poised to Cruise onto Martian Surface
Spirit is ready to roll.
Spirit Begins Maneuver to Roll onto Surface; Mars Rover will "Head for the Hills"
As Earthlings slept last night, Spirit completed the first part of a three-part maneuver that will take her down the ramp and onto the Martian surface early Thursday morning Earth time.
Mars Rover Spirit Sends First 360-Degree Color Panorama 'Postcard' and Prepares to Roll onto Martian Surface
As Spirit slept soundly after another near-perfect day of picture taking, science gathering, and data relays from Mars, NASA released the first color 360-degree panorama postcard it sent home.
Spirit Set to Roll Off Lander Thursday
Spirit is up -- standing at full height on all six wheels -- and is ready to roll off the lander heading west by northwest, probably sometime early Thursday morning Earth time, according to the latest plan.
Spirit Returns More "Exquisite" Data, Inspires New Generation of Space Explorers
Spirit continues to return
Spirit: A Star is Born, A Space Agency and A Nation Are Lifted
If a Hollywood screenwriter had crafted the scenes for the last few days of the Spirit Mission Team at JPL as they really happened -- success after success, triumphant image after triumph he or she would be out of a job.
Spirit Spends First Full Days on Mars; Scientists Report "More Good News"
With additional data due later today and early tomorrow morning, the mission team is hoping to receive and piece together the first color picture perfect panoramic postcard -- from the PanCam, a high resolution stereo vision camera -- for the briefing tomorrow.
Mars Rover 'Alive and Well' Returning More Images
Spirit spent a quiet, cold night in Gusev Crater, and woke up to return streams of new data, including more black and white 'postcards' from Mars.
NASA Begins Countdown to Spirit's Arrival on Mars
Spirit – the first of NASA's two robot geologists en route to the red Planet -- is “in “excellent” health, NASA and JPL scientists reported at a news briefing at JPL this afternoon, and the countdown to touch down on the Red Planet has begun.
No Icecaps at the Lunar Poles
New observations reported this week in the journal Nature have cast doubt on the theory that thick deposits of ground ice lie conveniently close to the surface in permanently shadowed crater floors at the lunar poles.
Researchers Discover Lakes on Titan
Recent radar observations of Saturn’s moon Titan have produced the first direct evidence that the second largest moon in the solar system may be hiding pools of liquid hydrocarbons underneath its smoggy atmosphere.
Cassini Captures Its First Image of Saturn
The Cassini spacecraft has captured its first image of its target planet, Saturn.
Voyager's Last View
Home. Family. This will be Voyager's enduring legacy: It has changed forever the feelings raised by those words. Through its robotic eyes we have learned to see the solar system as our home. Through its portraits of the planets we know that they are part of our family. Apollo astronauts showed us a tiny Earth alone in the blackness of space. Now, with these images, Voyager has shown us that Earth is not really alone. Around our parent Sun orbit sibling worlds, companions as we travel through the Galaxy.
The Devon Diaries
Emily Lakdawalla reports on her expedition to Devon Island, where The Planetary Society is taking steps toward the goal of humans and robots working together to explore Mars.
Haughton Impact Crater
Haughton Crater measures about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) in diameter, and was formed 23 million years ago when either an asteroid or a comet collided with our planet.