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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Martian Maps: the North Pole
The polar plains, charted in unprecedented detail.
SpaceUp LA and the MAVEN Launch on Planetary Radio
Check into the latest Southern California
Features at both rover field sites on Mars named for Bruce Murray
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced today that the geologists on both Mars rover teams -- Opportunity and Curiosity -- have named landmarks at their field sites after the late Bruce Murray.
Curiosity Update: A stop at Cooperstown and a warm reset, sols 433-451
Having racked up several kilometers in the drive to Mount Sharp, Curiosity paused for a second science stop at an outcrop called
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 5: Blues for a Red Planet
Episode 5 focuses on Mars, the planet that has stubbornly refused to conform to the wishes of humanity for hundreds of years, from Lowell to Sagan. Grab your cosmo and join our discussion of 'Blues for a Red Planet.'
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Gets Back to the Past at Winter Site
As fall began to give way to winter at Endeavour Crater, Opportunity cruised deeper into her campsite on the western side of Solander Point in October, heading for a site that may contain clay minerals and the rover's next big discovery, and the Mars Exploration Rovers mission trekked another month closer to its 10th anniversary in January 2014.
PLANETARY RADIO LIVE: MAVEN Launches for Mars
Host Mat Kaplan will be joined by Bill Nye the Science Guy, Bruce Betts and Emily Lakdawalla for this special live event.
Field Report From Mars: Sol 3467 - October 24, 2013
On sol 3451 Opportunity began its climb of Solander Point. This is the highest “mountain” that Opportunity has tried to climb yet.
Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian, oh my! --Mars' Geologic Time Scale
The Martian Geologic Time Scale is a lot more complicated than the Moon's.
Curiosity update: Roving through the shutdown toward Waypoint 2, sols 388-432
After a brief science stop at Darwin (formerly known as Waypoint 1), Curiosity has driven hundreds of meters toward Mount Sharp. Autumn has come to Curiosity's southern hemisphere location, bringing lower temperatures. That means more power is required to heat rover actuators, leaving less power for science along the drive.
How I Gave My Preschool Class Mars Fever
It all started when we read a book called, There's Nothing to Do on Mars, by Chris Gall. And then something wonderful happened.
DPS 2013: Confusing Curiosity SAM results
What did I learn about Curiosity at last week's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting? There were a few talks, most of which concerned soil and atmsospheric chemistry. I can summarize their conclusions with one sentence: More data is needed.
An Ongoing Odyssey
Twelve years on, Mars Odyssey just keeps sending great images.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Roves to Solander West, into Winter Campground
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission stepped up preparations for the coming Martian winter in September as Opportunity rounded the northern tip of Solander Point and drove into what will be her campground at Endeavour Crater for the next six months or so. It's been nearly a year in the planning. Now, from the rover's first look around, this winter could turn out to be one for the books.
Google+ Hangout with ESA about Europe's Mars exploration
The European Space Agency invited me to join Mars Express project scientist Olivier Witasse, and spacecraft oeprations manager Michel Denis for a Hangout on Europe's recent and future exploration of Mars and Phobos.
NASA's MAVEN Mission Spared from Shutdown
Launch preparations will resume for NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, due to launch to Mars on November 18th. Work had previously been suspended, potentially causing the spacecraft to miss its once-every-26-month launch opportunity.
Super cool Phobos and Deimos animations from Mars Express
I've been delving in to the Mars Express image archive this week, checking out its images of Phobos, and found a couple of really cool time-series of images to assemble into animations.
Yes, there seems to be a hole in Curiosity's left front wheel, and no, that's not a problem
Some brand-new images just arrived from Curiosity on Mars, and two of the most recent are Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the wheels. Today's images contained two little surprises.
[Updated] A Government Shutdown Could Delay MAVEN's Launch to Mars
NASA confirmed that a government shutdown could affect pre-launch processing of the MAVEN spacecraft, currently scheduled to launch to Mars on November 18th.
Europe Will Select Its Next Major Science Mission in November
The European Space Agency will announce two major science missions this November, one of which is likely to be devoted to solar system exploration.