Human missions
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7 years ago
How are we preparing astronauts for a return to the Moon?
Planetary.orgReturning to the Moon won’t be easy, even though we’ve been there before.
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7 years ago
Chang'e 4 relay satellite, Queqiao: A bridge between Earth and the mysterious lunar farside
Planetary.orgChina's fourth lunar mission, Chang’e 4, is expected to begin on May 21 with the launch of a Long March 4C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwest of China. The launch will carry a spacecraft named Queqiao, which will serve as a communication relay satellite between Earth and the lunar farside.
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7 years ago
Eleven perijoves
Planetary.orgSeán Doran has made a cool visual index to the images that JunoCam took during Juno's first 12 closest approaches to Jupiter.
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7 years ago
#Mercury2018: From MESSENGER to BepiColombo and beyond
Planetary.orgA Mercury meeting held May 1-3 summarized the current and future science of the innermost planet. Emily Lakdawalla was there and shares her notes.
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7 years ago
Funpost! We both began to giggle like school children
Planetary.orgNASA astronaut Scott Tingle describes his first rocket launch.
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7 years ago
Is NASA painting itself into a corner with its ISS transition plans?
Planetary.orgBy 2025, NASA wants to create a new humans-in-LEO market, and then become the non-primary customer for that new market.
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7 years ago
Fire at ISRO's Space Application Centre
Planetary.orgTwo weeks ago, Indian media reported a fire at the Space Application Centre (SAC) of ISRO in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Although it was a big fire, it was in an isolated building and no spacecraft was damaged.
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7 years ago
Juno meets Cassini: A new merged global map of Jupiter
Planetary.orgThe Juno spacecraft that is currently orbiting Jupiter has obtained the first good images of Jupiter's polar regions. I am presenting here a combined global map of Jupiter, made from a Cassini map I made for the equatorial and temperate regions and polar maps made from the Juno JunoCam and JIRAM polar images.
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7 years ago
Book Excerpt: The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the radioisotope power system works
Planetary.orgReaders, colleagues, friends: it's finally happened. My first book is finally out in the world. Here's an excerpt that explains the design and operation of Curiosity's MMRTG, (it also applies to the future Mars 2020 rover power supply).
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7 years ago
An 'Exploration Exhibition' to launch the new Planetary Science Caucus
Planetary.orgWe helped launch the new Planetary Science Congressional Caucus in Washington, D.C., with an exploration exhibition to highlight the range of academic, scientific, and industry partners engaging in planetary exploration. Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye and its Board of Directors were there to welcome members of Congress and hundreds of staff and policy experts.
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