WASHINGTON — Despite a small funding increase for 2023, NASA’s planetary science programs still face “significant stress” financially that contributed to the delay of one mission and could push back the start of others. NASA received $3.2 billion for planetary science in the fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending bill signed […]
planetary science
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WASHINGTON — As NASA takes the first steps to implement recommendations of the planetary science decadal survey, the agency is warning that projected funding for at least the near term will fall short of that’s report’s projections. NASA’s planetary science division held a town hall online Aug. 18 to discuss […]
The last time the planetary science community came together to conduct a decadal survey, Mars was ascendant. NASA had flown a series of Mars missions and was working on its most ambitious rover yet, Curiosity. The decadal survey endorsed continuing that Mars exploration strategy by backing a mission to collect […]
WASHINGTON — A study outlining priorities in planetary science for the next decade backs continued efforts to return samples from Mars while recommending NASA pursue missions to the planet Uranus and an icy moon of Saturn. The final report of the planetary science decadal survey, developed by a committee of […]
NASA is set to fly the first test flight of its tiny Ingenuity helicopter on Mars Sunday, marking the advent of drones for space exploration. Why it matters: If successful, this flight will be the first time a human-built aircraft has flown on a world other than Earth, opening the […]
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is conducting a final flyby of the asteroid Bennu on Wednesday. The spacecraft made history when it briefly touched down on the asteroid on October 20, 2020, and collecting a hefty 2-ounce sample from the surface. The sample, safely tucked inside the spacecraft, will be returned to […]
New forest growth may have sparked the mass extinction 360 million years ago by fueling massive plankton blooms that sucked all the oxygen from oceans – and experts say it is happening now at an even faster rate Sediment records shows new forests sparked the Devonian Mass Extinction There was […]
It has been 117 years since Orville Wright took flight in Flyer 1 for 12 seconds on a historic December day in 1903 at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In the image captured by John Daniels, a member of the US Life-Saving Station at the site, Orville’s […]