Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

In a lovely talk, in his uncommonly engaging way, Steve Squyres presents the portrait of him that now hangs in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

Emily Lakdawalla

Today the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast aired my contribution, Unmanned Space Exploration in 2011, about what to look forward to in solar system exploration this year.

Emily Lakdawalla

These two movies were posted to the JPL website a couple of weeks ago, and they are just amazing.

Emily Lakdawalla

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just snapped another photo of Opportunity sitting on the ground on Mars. These pictures never get old.

Emily Lakdawalla

While I was writing yesterday's blog entry on Mars Express' Phobos flybys I realized that I didn't understand Mars Express' orbit very well. So I sent an inquiry to the Mars Express blog, which they answered in a blog entry today.

Emily Lakdawalla

The Mars Express blog has been reactivated today, as a new series of Phobos flybys is already underway.

Emily Lakdawalla

Each day until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these squirrely spots?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the seventeenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these strange promontories?

Emily Lakdawalla

Today Opportunity has driven to within 20 meters of Santa Maria crater, and the blocks around it are really, really cool-looking. This one is a dead ringer for the severed tail of an alligator.

Emily Lakdawalla

Don't blink when you play the video below -- it's only 15 seconds long, but it's so cool.

Emily Lakdawalla

Opportunity is on a kilometers-long eastward road trip across Meridiani Planum toward the rim of a large ancient crater named Endeavour; it'll be many months yet before she gets there.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the eleventh door in the advent calendar. Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these sinuous ridges?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the fourth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this crater-specked mound?

Emily Lakdawalla

To celebrate Mars Express' recent mission extension to 2014, here are some cool pictures that it took of Mars' inner and larger moon Phobos.

Emily Lakdawalla

JPL has just released some test images from the camera that has just been installed on the end of the Curiosity rover's robotic arm.

Emily Lakdawalla

In the last few days, Opportunity's passed by several craters, and the rover drivers took advantage of the chance encounters for what they call

Emily Lakdawalla

Adrian Lark has posted several new flights over gorgeous Martian landscapes to his Youtube channel. My favorite of his recent ones is this dive into Zumba crater.

Emily Lakdawalla

Just a linky post here.

Emily Lakdawalla

Waaaay back when Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004, the Planetary Society helped the public participate in the missions with a number of projects, including one where we printed

Ryan Anderson

We wrapped up the landing site workshop on Wednesday afternoon by revisiting each of the four sites and discussing them in turn. Unfortunately, the way that we did this was very disappointing, and made for a frustrating afternoon.