Articles

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

IKAROS: Successful sail deployment and solar power generation! Hooray!!

JAXA finally issued the formal announcement: they successfully expanded IKAROS' square sail!

Big hunks of carbonate rock on Mars at last

Carbonate rocks should be all over Mars. But it's been hard to find carbonates—surprisingly so.

Hayabusa: Waiting

We're in the final days of the Hayabusa mission, but until Sunday I think we're in a state of

U.S. Citizens: Please write your elected representatives about restarting plutonium-238 production!

I'm hereby posting a request that was sent earlier today to members of the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society by its chair, Candy Hansen.

Hayabusa's final approach on target; Japan's ready to receive samples

Hayabusa's final maneuver, a three-hour

Progress -- with pictures! -- on IKAROS' sail deployment

Several pictures from the sail deployment monitoring cameras showed up on the IKAROS blog overnight.

IKAROS team proceeds with final stage of sail deployment!

Just a brief update on IKAROS: According to their blog, JAXA has decided to proceed with the final stage of IKAROS' sail deployment.

Full Triple-J Laser Interview

Hey, remember when I was randomly interviewed by the Australian radio station triple j a few weeks ago as part of their feature on the 50th anniversary of the laser?

Apply for a Shoemaker NEO Grant! Deadline extended to June 24

Amateur astronomers, get your proposals in for this year's round of Shoemaker NEO Grants!

Hayabusa: "I did my best!"

While he was in Japan to observe IKAROS' sail deployment, Lou Friedman couldn't help but notice the country's excitement over the impending return of Hayabusa.

A brief history of Hayabusa

For those of you who found my Hayabusa mission recap too long, here's a graphical version of the history of the Hayabusa mission.

Bill Nye Signs the Principles of The Roadmap to Space

Bill Nye Signs on as Planetary Society's New Executive Director

Bill Nye the Science Guy® will take the helm as the new Executive Director of the Planetary Society.

Six days left for Hayabusa: A recap of the mission

The Hayabusa spacecraft is about to die. On Sunday, June 13, at 14:00 UTC, Hayabusa will burn up in Earth's atmosphere, bringing its dramatic seven-year mission to an end.

IKAROS update: Rotation rate inexplicably increasing

JAXA's end-of-Sunday update on IKAROS' status gives more details about an issue they are working on the spacecraft. The spacecraft itself is in perfect health, but its dynamics are different from what was expected.

IKAROS sail deployment delayed until at least Tuesday

This is just a brief update to yesterday's post to add a few sentences that Lou wanted to hold until JAXA had had a chance to issue an official statement.