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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Figuring out the shape of Mars (and other places)
An amateur named Bernhard Braun (
Odyssey's going to start listening for Phoenix
It's been the second most popular question I get from readers:
Arizona Daily Star reports MRO managers working to avoid "unlikely but potentially fatal scenario"
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in safe mode for nine weeks, since August 26, the date of the fourth in a series of safing events.
HiRISE sees Phoenix in the Martian spring
These Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE images of the defunct Phoenix lander in the early dawn light of northern spring have been out for some time, but no one had accomplished the difficult task of locating the Phoenix hardware in them until this week.
Beautiful 3D animation of Spirit's environs in Gusev Crater
Doug Ellison has done it again: he's created a spectacular overflight of Gusev crater based upon digital elevation models of the terrain produced by the United States Geological Survey from HiRISE data.
New HiRISE image of Spirit at Home Plate
There's a lovely new color HiRISE image of Spirit at Home Plate. It was captured on July 16 (sol 1,968), and Spirit is firmly entrenched at Troy, on the western side of Home Plate.
New image of Opportunity on Mars
I really can't explain why it didn't occur to me to search for the rover in the image of Victoria crater released by the HiRISE team on Wednesday.
Mars eye candy: New oblique view of Victoria crater
Today the HiRISE team released a lovely new view of Victoria crater, taken nearly a year after the Opportunity rover departed it.
Looking at Mars with the MRO CTX
Looking at Mars with the MRO CTX
Mars: "Follow the Water" Is Not Dead
Sometimes it is a bit awkward being a planetary scientist.
Exciting Times Ahead: 2010 Will Sizzle, and 2011 Will Really Cook!
Today, I'm kicking the week off with a look at the unusually intense confluence of far flung planetary exploration that's just around the corner, starting the middle of next year.
Pretty Dunes in Gale Crater
This is a tiny subframe from the HiRISE image PSP_009294_1750.
What are the rovers up to? March 2009
As usual, troubled Spirit's progress sometimes amounts to only centimeters, while golden child Opportunity has already clocked four kilometers on its trek toward Endeavour.
New Google Mars
Google Earth's latest edition was just released and guess what? It has a Mars setting!
Spirit moved!
Hallelujah! For the first time in almost an Earth year, amateur mars mapper Eduardo Tesheiner is able to scratch a tiny little line on his map of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's peregrinations across Gusev Crater.
Five Years of Spirit on Mars
On January 3, 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on Mars, and I was with the science team at JPL when it happened! I can't believe it's been five years since the successful landing.
Solar conjunction: Holidays for Mars missions, and an Opportunity update
The period of Mars solar conjunction has just begun, which means that a host of scientists and engineers whose day jobs entail interaction with the five active Mars spacecraft are getting a five-week break from the daily grind of operations.
Opportunity's got a long road ahead
Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator Steve Squyres announced on National Public Radio's Science Friday show the next goal for Opportunity, and it's a long, long, long way away: a huge crater about 12 kilometers southeast of its current location, which the team is referring to internally as