Explorer

A new company called Earth-i has announced it will be launching a constellation of satellites into Earth's orbit that will download "fast-turn-around pictures and colour video of the planet's surface."

When you read a scientific story in a popular blog or magazine, many times you will see the caveat "artist interpretation" next to some of the accompanying images. This as a gross undersell of the time, effort, and most important, accuracy, that goes into developing the renders. While we don't know what a black hole or an exoplanet looks like, it is important to attempt to visualize them, and to do it as accurately as possible. This video is an interview with two people who are responsible for

On 5 June 2017, India performed a full launch test of their GSLV-MK3, putting a test-satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. This is a huge step forward for the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which could eventually use this rocket for human space travel. For the details on the rocket itself, as well as a rundown of ISRO's history check out this article from the Planetary Society.

The Cassini spacecraft has only 11 more orbits left of the ringed planet Saturn before its destruction. On September 15th, 2017, Cassini will make a planned plunge into the clouds of Saturn, which will cause it to break up. The science is packed in for Cassini over these orbits: it will study the rings by imaging and sampling, create a more accurate gravitational map of Saturn, and measure the magnetic field of Saturn. Here take a look at the summary of science in the final phase of the Grand

A team of planetary scientists pulled together by NASA has created a preliminary report on how and when humans could send a probe to Uranus, Neptune, or both. The two Ice Giant planets are easily the least explored in the solar system, owing in part to their distance from the Sun, and competing interests elsewhere. However, with the success of recent missions to Jupiter and Mars, and Cassini coming to a close at Saturn, it has prompted NASA (and the space agencies of other countries) to look

NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission has begun its final mission phase, making its first dive between the planet Saturn and its rings. It is the only craft to ever make that plunge. Check out some of the amazing images it took as it went through, including the north pole hexagonal vortex.

Ever heard the phrase "it's not rocket science?" Usually uttered when attempting to complete a task that, in relation to "rocket science," should be much simpler. Well, in this article, the Planetary Society's David Shortt gives a short introduction to exactly what rocket science is: the math, the engineering, and how we use it to get to space.

NASA is in the middle of developing a new heavy-lift rocket, that will be used to get humans beyond low Earth orbit to places like the Moon and Mars. The last time NASA was in full scale development mode was in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the beginning of the Shuttle program. According to some investigations on the part of the Planetary Society, it looks like NASA's going to miss their launch date of Nov 2018.

A short description of the upcoming Grand Finale of the Cassini Spacecraft. Over the next 5 months, Cassini will make 22 plunges between Saturn's rings and the planet itself. No craft has ever been that close. During this final phase, Cassini will make close up measurements of the rings for the first time, image the planet's cloud-tops in unprecedented detail, and even answer long-standing questions like: how fast does Saturn actually rotate? It's going to be a very interesting 5 months.

In early April 2017, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), a division of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), announced a new robotic explorer to be launched towards Mars in 2024: the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX). The goal is not to observe the red planet, but its two moons: Phobos and Deimos. These two moons (about 25 km wide) are just a fraction the size of Earth's Moon (about 3400 km wide), and their origins are still disputed. Maybe Phobos and Deimos were