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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Hunkers Down for Solar Conjunction, Final Science on Matijevic Hill
As the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission trekked further into its tenth year of exploring the Red Planet, Opportunity spent the month of March finishing up its science investigations on Matijevic Hill.
ISRO's Mars mission now undergoing assembly and testing; NASA, ISRO agree to future space science cooperation
India's Mars Orbiter Mission has been much in the news in Asian media over the last week as a result of the release of ISRO's Annual Report 2012-2013. Also, ISRO and NASA issued a joint statement from Washington a week ago endorsing interagency cooperation in the space sciences
Dawn Journal: Staying warm en route to Ceres
Marc Rayman's latest Dawn journal explains the temperature adjustments engineers make to save power and keep the spacecraft warm.
Curiosity update, sol 227: Some sharpshooting and a dusty deck
Curiosity is back to science operations, though the activities are limited in scope by the fact that conjunction is fast approaching. Here's a couple of neat images from sol 227.
Field Report From Mars: Sols 3237-3262 - March 4–29, 2013
Flash memory or computer problems oddly occurred on both Curiosity and Opportunity around Feb 27. One possibility is that a large solar flare resulted in radiation at Mars sufficient to temporarily corrupt the memory on both rovers.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Reports from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
On Thursday at noon PDT / 1900 UTC I'll report on some of my favorite findings from LPSC, and answer your questions about the latest planetary science.
LPSC 2013: watery Martian minerals
Some interesting results from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on clay minerals on Mars and what they might mean about ancient water.
LPSC 2013: License to Chill (or, the solar system's icy moons)
Reports from the March 19 session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference covering eight icy moons in the outer solar system: Ganymede, Europa, Dione, Rhea, Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, and Miranda.
ALMA Adventure--Complete Interviews With Planetary Radio Guests
The extended, mostly unedited recordings of my conversations with many of the people I spoke to at the ALMA Observatory in Chile. Also, the full English translation of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera's speech.
A Different Angle on Mars
A new slant on Martian landscapes from Mars Global Surveyor.
LPSC 2013: Sedimentary stratigraphy with Curiosity and Opportunity
A mind-boggling quantity of information is being presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. In my first report from the meeting, I try to make sense of the Curiosity and Opportunity sessions.
Messages of Wonder
Some lovely, rarely-seen images from the MESSENGER mission.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Being WISE about asteroids, comets, and brown dwarfs with Amy Mainzer
This week I'll be talking with NEOWISE principal investigator Amy Mainzer about moving objects that the WISE mission has spotted both inside and outside our solar system.
Comet PANSTARRS from the other side of the Sun!
Comet PANSTARRS is delighting northern hemisphere viewers right now. But it's also big, bright, and beautiful to the STEREO spacecraft.
Checking in on Jupiter
We don't have any spacecraft at Jupiter right now, which is a pity. Until we do, we have to rely upon Earth-based astronomers to monitor the changing face of the largest planet.
Yes, it was once a Martian lake: Curiosity has been sent to the right place
The news from the Curiosity mission today is this: Curiosity has found, at the site called John Klein, a rock that contains evidence for a past environment that would have been suitable for Earth-like microorganisms.
Atacama Diary for March 10, 2013--Pisco Sours and Liquid Helium
Great dinner and great conversation with staff of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, topped by Chile's national drink.
Atacama Diary for March 8, 2013-Noon at LAX
Another audio blog post, with excerpts from the National Science Foundation briefing on the ALMA Observatory, edited while I was waiting for my planet to Chile at LAX.
Instruments for the JUICE Jovian Mission
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced the list of instruments selected for its JUICE mission to explore the Jovian system for three years starting in the 2030 following a 2022 launch.
Sea Salt
Ever wonder what it would taste like if you could lick the icy surface of Jupiter’s Europa? The answer may be that it would taste a lot like that last mouthful of water that you accidentally drank when you were swimming at the beach on your last vacation.



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