Blogs

Global view of Mars from MOM: Chryse and Acidalia Planitiae and Kasei, Mawrth, Tiu, and Ares Valles

A closer look at China's audacious Mars sample return plans

Andrew Jones • December 19, 2017 •

China is making steady progress on a proposed mission to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth in the late 2020s.

Meet VOX, a proposed mission to uncover the secrets of Venus

Van Kane • October 09, 2017 •

Van Kane brings us newly released details of the Venus Origins eXplorer (VOX), one of NASA's 12 New Frontiers mission proposals.

Here's what we know about the 12 proposals for NASA's next New Frontiers mission

Van Kane • August 10, 2017 •

NASA officials are in the process of selecting the agency’s next planetary science mission from a field of 12 competitors.

HERA team completes 45-day mission to explore asteroid, from Texas

Tim Evans • July 25, 2017 •

What's it like spending 45 days confined to a habitat at Johnson Space Center simulating a crewed NASA mission to an asteroid? Tim Evans sends us this report.

How we would explore Uranus or Neptune

Van Kane • July 06, 2017 •

One fact dominates the planning for any mission to Uranus or Neptune: They lie far from the sun. A newly released NASA report looks at how we can explore these icy giants.

This giant, flower-shaped starshade creates an artificial eclipse to see distant exoplanets

Jason Rhodes • June 23, 2017 •

Starshade is a proposed flower-shaped spacecraft that can create an artificial eclipse, allowing space telescopes to spot planets orbiting distant stars.

Announcing a New Paper on NASA's Mars Exploration Program

Casey Dreier • June 06, 2017 •

NASA’s robotic Mars Exploration Program is on a troubling path of decline—and decisions must be made now in order to stop it. A new report by the Society explains why.

Planetary Science Just Got Its Best Budget in Years

Casey Dreier • May 05, 2017 •

The President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, funding the U.S. government for the remainder of the fiscal year. NASA got a boost to $19.65 billion, and its Planetary Science Division saw a budget increase to $1.846 billion—its best budget in more than ten years.

Postcard from Kentucky: Space in the Bluegrass State

Wayne Hall • March 16, 2017

In Kentucky, some very driven people are writing their own chapter of space exploration based on vision, entrepreneurial risk, and scientific and engineering know-how. Wayne Hall shares their stories.

Half-phase Enceladus in color, 7 April 2010

Explorer of Enceladus and Titan

Van Kane • February 01, 2017 •

For the third time in less than a decade, scientists have proposed a multiple-flyby mission to explore the habitability of Saturn’s ocean moons Titan and Enceladus.