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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Photo proof of good progress on IKAROS sail deployment
We have photo proof that the multi-step process of the deployment of IKAROS' square solar sail is going according to plan!
Initial checkout of IKAROS complete
JAXA has posted a short update on their solar sailcraft IKAROS.
Akatsuki captures goodbye shots of Earth
Three of Akatsuki's six science instruments have now checked in as operating normally, producing lovely photos of the receding homeworld.
All's well on IKAROS and Shin-en
Today JAXA posted a very brief mission status update on the IKAROS spacecraft, launched yesterday along with Akatsuki. Brief is good; all's well.
Akatsuki, IKAROS, UNITEC-1, and your names are on their way to Venus
It was a picture-perfect launch for three Venus-bound spacecraft this morning: the Akatsuki Venus orbiter, the IKAROS solar sail, and a university-built minisat named UNITEC-1.
Akatsuki and IKAROS new launch date set
According to the Akatsuki Twitter feed, the next try for launch of Akatsuki and IKAROS will be Thursday, May 20, at 21:58:22 UTC.
Akatsuki and IKAROS launch scrubbed due to weather
The countdown for the planned launch of Akatsuki and IKAROS got to about four minutes before they decided to cancel the attempt due to weather, and I can't blame them.
Photos of your names on the IKAROS spacecraft
IKAROS, Japan's solar sail, is nearly ready for launch, piggybacked behind the Venus orbiter Akatsuki.
Venus, and the Moon, and Atlantis, and ISS, and Magellan
Pam Chadbourne, one of the many engineers who made the Magellan Radar Mapper mission possible, sent this note out to Magellan team members this morning, and graciously permitted me to post it here.
A Martian Moment in Time, revisited
A good start to my day today: The New York Times' Lens Blog featured the
Akatsuki and IKAROS getting ready for launch, with your names aboard
I've been so focused on the dramatic return of
Venus Express evidence for recent hot-spot volcanism on Venus
Venus? What? Somebody still studies that planet? Yes, and in fact there's an active spacecraft there: Venus Express, the poor little sister to Mars Express.
Akatsuki arrives at Tanegashima Space Center
The Akatsuki spacecraft (also known as PLANET-C or Venus Climate Orbiter) arrived this evening, Japanese time, at the Tanegashima Space Center.
LPSC: Wrapping up Tuesday: The Moon, Mars, Mercury, Vesta, and back to Mars
Well, it's already mid-day on the Friday a week after the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ended and I'm STILL not done writing up my notes.
LPSC: Venus
Despite the fact that I began my career in science doing research on Magellan images of Venus, I've often avoided Venus sessions at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference because they've tended to be pointlessly contentious. But I decided to attend the one this year to see how things went.
ESA mission analyst suggests 2010 AL30 might be Venus Express rocket
2010 AL30 zipped past us harmlessly about five hours ago. Because of its one-year orbital period, many people speculated it might be a manmade object, but 2010 AL30 might, in fact, be artificial.
New Mercury Atlas
The United States Geological Survey has just released a new atlas of Mercury, the first to be based upon the three flybys worth of image data gathered by the MESSENGER mission.
Send Your Name to Venus, now with a certificate!
I wrote a few weeks ago about a new Send Your Name to Venus campaign conducted by the Akatsuki mission. Now The Planetary Society has arranged with JAXA to collect names and messages on our website.
Carnival of Space and Planetary Radio
This week's Carnival of Space may be found at Steve's Astro Corner.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 4: Mercury
Mercury is the smallest of the eight planets and, like Uranus and Neptune, has so far been studied only during flyby encounters.