Articles

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

InSight places the heat probe instrument on the ground, sol 76 (IDC)

Touchdown for InSight's Heat Probe

InSight has gone two for two, placing the second of its instruments gently on the Martian ground.

Location of the InSight landing site within its landing ellipse

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spots InSight Hardware on Mars

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has finally spotted the InSight lander, its parachute, and its heat shield resting on the Martian surface. The images confirm the location of InSight's landing site, a little to the north and west of the center of the landing ellipse. The lander is located at 4.499897° N, 135.616000° E.

First image from InSight's Instrument Deployment Camera on Mars

New Cameras on Mars!

There was jubilation when InSight landed, but I'm just as happy to be writing about a distinct InSight event: The flow of raw images sent from Mars, straight to the Web, has begun.

BepiColombo's first image from space: solar array self-portrait

Following perfect launch, BepiColombo takes self-portraits from space

BepiColombo's launch was nominal -- the best thing any launch can be. Following launch, the spacecraft documented successful solar array and antenna deployments with self-portraits.

The surface of Ryugu from a few meters away

MASCOT landing on Ryugu a success

For 17 hours on 3 October, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander sent data to the waiting Hayabusa2 orbiter from multiple locations on Ryugu.

The OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule imaged by Stowcam on March 2, 2017

OSIRIS-REx shows us space isn't entirely empty

What a cool photo of OSIRIS-REx's sample return capsule! But wait, what's that black dot near the top?

Opportunity's sol 5000 self-portrait

Last week the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity celebrated its 5000th sol on Mars, and it celebrated by taking the first complete Mars Exploration Rover self-portrait.

Schiaparelli lander crash site from HiRISE in color

Schiaparelli investigation update; crash site in color from HiRISE

ESA issued an update on the Schiaparelli landing investigation today, identifying a problem reading from an inertial measurement unit as the proximate cause of the crash. Meanwhile, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is operating its science instruments for the first time this week, and HiRISE has released calibrated versions of the Schiaparelli crash site images.

Opportunity's unsuccessful attempt to image Schiaparelli

Brief update: Opportunity's attempt to image Schiaparelli unsuccessful

Today, the Opportunity rover attempted a difficult, never-before-possible feat: to shoot a photo of an arriving Mars lander from the Martian surface. Unfortunately, that attempt seems not to have succeeded. Opportunity has now returned the images from the observation attempt, but Schiaparelli is not visible.

OSIRIS-REx’s cameras see first light

As OSIRIS-REx speeds away from Earth, it’s been turning on and testing out its various engineering functions and science instruments. Proof of happy instrument status has come from several cameras, including the star tracker, MapCam, and StowCam.

Philae spotted on the surface of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Ever since its landing, Philae has been elusive. It went silent just three days later and never returned any more science data, though it made brief contact with the orbiter last summer. Now, just a month until the planned end of the Rosetta mission, the orbiter has finally located the lander in a stunning high-resolution view of the surface.

National Selfie Day: Spacecraft self-portraits

It's apparently National Selfie Day. I'm not entirely sure who has the authority to declare these things, or why they decided we needed a National Selfie Day, but since the self-portrait is one of my favorite subgenres of spacecraft photography, I couldn't resist writing about them.