Articles

Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Big Sky Country

Well folks, I'm headed off to Big Sky Country tomorrow (aka Montana)! I'll start the week at the MSL camera team meeting, where I will get all sorts of cool news about the MastCam, MAHLI and MARDI cameras which I will not be able to share with you.

Umbra in Paradise: The July 11, 2010 Planetary Society Solar Eclipse Expedition

If you've never seen a total eclipse of the Sun, make sure to put one on your bucket list!

Facebook conversion

I both love and hate Facebook. It's enabled me to reconnect personally with lots of long-lost friends from high-school and college, not just virtually but also helping me meet up with people as I travel. But despite the proliferation of Facebook presences of space missions and NASA centers, I've found it next to useless professionally.

A brush painting for Hayabusa

Upon James Aldridge's return from Japan, he posted several albums worth of amazing photos, including several of their calligraphy instructor, well-known artist Aiko Tanaka, creating a gestural brush painting to commemorate Hayabusa's return.

Bill Takes a Job

Bill gives an introduction about his feelings on his new position here at The Planetary Society.

3QD Finalist!

It looks like my MSL: Mars Action Hero post is a finalist in the 3 Quarks Daily science blogging contest. The winners will be chosen by none other than Richard Dawkins.

A moment in time

On Mars, at 15:00 local true solar time on May 2, a solitary rover gazed southward across her own dusty deck and snapped three photos, actually three sets of three photos, which were combined to make this view.

MarsSed 2010 Field Trip Day 2: Stromatolites, Gypsum and Layers

We started off Day 2 of the field trip by driving up onto the eroded rocks of what used to be the tidal flats of the ancient reef, between the shore and the continental shelf.

MarsSed 2010 Field Trip Day 1: Guadalupe Mountains and Evaporites

Hello everyone, I’m back from the MarsSed 2010 meeting in El Paso!

Anticipating the end of Hayabusa

A successful sample return for the Hayabusa mission will mean the fiery death of Mr. Hayabusa himself. The poignancy of this is not lost upon the people in Japan who are following the mission.

Discovery's penultimate mission to the Space Station

Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer witnessed the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on its STS-131 mission to the International Space Station in person and filed this report on the successful mission.

Off to MarsSed 2010

I’m headed off to El Paso Texas tomorrow! Why? Because that’s where the Mars Sedimentology and Stratigraphy workshop is!

Revolutionary NASA Solar Explorer Roars to Space

Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer reports for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he is covering the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, set to launch this weekend.

Endeavour Launch Ignites Night Sky

Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer is reporting for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he is covering the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, set to launch this weekend.

Endeavour Crew Arrives at KSC

The crew for the STS-130 flight of shuttle Endeavour arrived at the Kennedy Space Center late in the evening on Tuesday February 2. Blastoff is slated for February 7 at 4:39 AM and will be the final night time shuttle launch.

Voting is Fixed!

There were some issues with the voting widget on the University Science Writing competition, but they have been resolved, and it turns out it was counting the votes all along! So go vote for my post if you haven't done so yet today!

Vote Early and Often!

Remember when I mentioned a few weeks ago that I submitted a blog post about MSL as an action-adventure hero to ScientificBlogging's science writing competition?