Articles

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

Ending a year, looking to the future

This year has been great for space exploration. With your support, we’ll make sure the future is even better.

A long night, and “so long!” to InSight

Celebrate the December solstice, be thankful you’re not on Triton, and say goodbye to the InSight Mars lander.

Capturing the Cosmos

This week we have images snapped the old-fashioned and cutting-edge ways, creative ways of thinking about exploration, and artwork that expresses the beauty of it all.

Out-of-this-world astronauts (literally)

Celebrating 50 years of Apollo 17, the last crewed mission to the Moon.

Best space pictures of the month: November 2022

NASA's chief of exploration mission planning Nujoud Merancy walks us through a picture from the Orion spacecraft.

A year in review and a reddish hue

Get ready for a total lunar eclipse and pick your favorites from this year in space.

Creepy Cosmos! Scary space! Petrifying planets!

An especially spooky Halloween edition of The Downlink.

Your guide to water on Mars

Mars used to have oceans, lakes, and rivers. Where did the water go, how much is left, and how can we use it for science and exploration?

Brighten up your day

JWST captures more astonishing images and insights, and DART gets ready for impact.

Tianwen-3: China’s Mars sample return mission

China's Tianwen-3 aims to be the first to collect samples from Mars and deliver them to Earth, potentially landing back home two years ahead of the NASA and the European Space Agency MSR project

Space rocks!

Rock stars love space, and who can blame them! Take a look at awesome images, exciting science, and the connection between music and exploration.

It’s a team effort

Robots, scientists, citizens, and artists team up to explore the Cosmos in this week’s Downlink.

How NASA will use helicopters to return samples from Mars in 2033

NASA's latest plans for its Mars Sample Return mission will rely on the Perseverance rover and two 'Ingenuity-class' helicopters.

Cloudy with a chance of life

Looking at the myriad possibilities that may exist within the clouds of Venus.

NASA's InSight mission is dying. Next could come the ‘Mars Life Explorer’

If there is Martian life then it could be in ice water under the red planet’s surface. The Mars Life Explorer, included in the most recent Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, would search for this.