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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Every Mars landing attempt as of June 2020
Two maps by The Planetary Society show all the places we've landed or crashed on Mars as of June 2020.
Phobos over Mars
Today the Mars Orbiter Mission released a nice four-image animation of teeny dark Phobos crossing Mars' huge orange disk. Mars Orbiter Mission joins a long line of Mars missions that have produced images of Mars and Phobos together.
Russia's Ambitious Planetary Exploration Goals
Roscosmos has ambitious planetary exploration plans in the coming decades, including a series of solo lunar missions and joint missions to Mars with the European Space Agency.
Mars, Old and New: A Personal View by Bruce Murray
An interview with Bruce Murray from 2001 about his perspectives on Mars science and exploration: past, present, and future.
A special Phobos eclipse
Those sneaky scientists on Curiosity managed to catch a Phobos transit of the Sun with one set of cameras, and to watch its shadow darkening the surface with another. COOL!
Russia's Mars 3 lander maybe found by Russian amateurs
Виталий Егоров (Vitaliy Egorov) is a Russian space enthusiast who enlisted help of fellow enthusiasts to search for -- and maybe find -- the Russian Mars 3 hardware on the Martian surface. Here he explains how he did it.
Book Review: The International Atlas of Mars Exploration, by Phil Stooke
I've been waiting for the publication of this book for years. Phil Stooke's International Atlas of Mars Exploration, just published by Cambridge University Press, is an exhaustively awesome labor of love, chronicling the first five decades of Mars exploration in pictures, maps, and facts.
Mars Exploration Family Portrait
Jason Davis put together this neat summary of the checkered history of Mars exploration.
365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: Small Worlds
Today the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast aired my contribution, Small Worlds, about the smaller denizens of the solar system visited in the past year, and due to be visited in the next.
The First Rover on Mars - The Soviets Did It in 1971
Two robotic rovers reached the surface of Mars in 1971 during the Soviet Mars 2 and 3 missions.