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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Downselect: NASA narrows future mission destination to comet 67P or Titan
The winner will be picked in 2019.
A closer look at China's audacious Mars sample return plans
China is making steady progress on a proposed mission to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth in the late 2020s.
#AGU17: JunoCam science
JunoCam may be an outreach instrument, but its superb photos of storms on Jupiter are providing plenty of data for scientists to talk about.
Brief note from #AGU17: Juno observes volcanism on Io
At the American Geophysical Union meeting, members of the Juno team showed observations of active volcanism on Jupiter's moon Io.
An exoplanet-hunting space telescope turns and takes a photo of Earth
On December 10, Kepler—NASA’s prized exoplanet discovery telescope—will finally turn back and take a picture of the Earth.
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Returns Fundamental Finding in Perseverance, Cruises Through Winter Solstice
Opportunity continued the historic winter science campaign inside Perseverance Valley and delivered the goods that confirmed an important discovery in November, and then cruised through winter solstice, driving the mission closer to its 14th anniversary of surface operations coming up in January.
India's Chandrayaan-2 mission preparing for March 2018 launch
India plans a return to the Moon with an orbiter, lander, and rover on the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
Clipper Slipper
Will NASA's Space Launch System be ready to launch a Europa mission in 2022?
Dawn Journal: Second Extended Mission
Building on the successes of its primary mission and its first extended mission, NASA has approved the veteran explorer for a second extended mission.
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Pops Wheelies Over Etched Rocks in Perseverance
As brutally cold got even colder at Endeavour Crater in October, the depths of winter gripped Opportunity, and ‘life’ on Mars slowed. But the robot field geologist continued to work on through the doldrums of the season.
Mastcam-Z team blog: Preparing for five-hour operations
It takes hundreds of scientists and engineers many years to design and build just one instrument for a Mars mission. In the first Mastcam-Z team blog post, we'll talk about the special challenges we expect for Mars 2020 operations, and how we're planning to overcome them.
#DPS17: The Moon's Giordano Bruno crater through many eyes
Today's story from the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting looks at one youthful rayed crater on the Moon from many different spacecraft.
#DPS17: Wobbling the Moon and art by James Tuttle Keane
James Tuttle Keane is increasingly famous (among planetary scientists anyway) for his remarkable illustrated notes from conferences. Here's his work from the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, illustrating both his own and others' research.
#DPS2017: Progress report on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring
Three years ago, on October 19, 2014, comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring passed within 138,000 kilometers of Mars. At the 2017 meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, we heard a progress report on Mars orbiter imaging of the comet's nucleus.
Cassini’s Last Dance With Saturn: The Farewell Mosaic
Amateur image processor Ian Regan shares the story of processing Cassini's final images of the ringed planet.
Dawn Journal: 10 Years in Space
A decade after leaving its first home in the solar system, Dawn is healthy and successful at its current residence around Ceres.
A new year's worth of Mars Orbiter Mission data
India's Mars Orbiter Mission has now completed three years in orbit at Mars, and ISRO celebrated the anniversary by releasing the mission's second-year data to the public. Emily Lakdawalla spent a week downloading and processing data for your enjoyment.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Braves Onset of Winter to Picture Perseverance
The Martian winter began to grip Endeavour Crater in September, slowing Opportunity's pace. But she braved the brutal cold in Perseverance Valley and followed her commands to visually document everything in sight.
Earth flyby tests OSIRIS-REx's cameras
As expected, OSIRIS-REx's Earth flyby on September 22 was a success. The mission is slowly releasing beautiful images of our home worlds taken by its many cameras following the flyby.
Fall 2017 issue of The Planetary Report now available
The Fall 2017 issue of The Planetary Report is in the mail and available online now to our members!



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