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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Report #2 from the New Horizons Science Team Meeting
The second report by Ted Stryk from the New Horizons science team meeting, focusing on the search for Kuiper belt object (KBO) targets.
Report #1 from the New Horizons Science Team Meeting
The New Horizons science team is meeting this week. Ted Stryk was invited to attend the meeting, and he sent the following notes from the first day.
I need help at AGU
This is a call to anyone else who's planning to attend the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting, which will take place all next week in San Francisco.
MSL Workshop Eve
It's almost time! Tomorrow the third Mars Science Laboratory Landing Site Workshop begins!
MSL One Year from Launch
One year from today, the Mars Science Laboratory will launch. It seems fitting that the workshop during which we choose the final three possible landing sites begins today.
Last Year's MSL Landing Site Workshop: Day 3
I'm in the airport on my way to California to participate in the third Mars Science Laboratory Landing Site Workshop, so I thought I would take this chance to post my blog entry from day three of last year's workshop.
Last Year's MSL Landing Site Workshop: Day 2
Today was a marathon of landing site presentations, ranging all over the martian globe, and targeting just about every potentially water-related feature on Mars.
Last Year's MSL Landing Site Workshop: Day 1
Coming up next week is the 3rd Mars Science Laboratory Landing Site Workshop, where the Mars science community will come together to narrow down the possible landing site choices for MSL.
LPSC: Thursday: Rovers, Titan, Mars, Venus Express, Neptune
I spent a large portion of the day at the Lunar and Planetary Institute's library and presented my own poster during the poster sessions, so my coverage of Thursday's sessions is limited.
LPSC: Tuesday: Volcanism and tectonism on Saturn's satellites
I received this report on the Tuesday afternoon special session on volcanism and tectonism on Saturn's satellites from Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer from the University of Virginia who I first met at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in 2005.
LPSC: Wow, Titan can be a Really Flat Place, and other Titan Talks
Jason Perry, a member of the Cassini Imaging Team and an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona, reports from the Titan sessions.
A few words from John Spencer on the OPAG meeting
John Spencer, erstwhile guest blogger (see here and here), just sent me a few notes on the recent Outer Planets Assessment Group meeting.
OPAG, Day 2: Update from the NASA Advisory Committee meetings this week
During the first day of OPAG, the chair of the group, Fran Bagenal, was not present because she was participating in some rather important discussions taking place in Maryland.
OPAG, Day 2: Ground-based study of the small bodies in the outer solar system
After the political discussions of the morning, Mike Brown stood up to give the
OPAG, Day 1: Hot-air ballooning on Titan
The next presentation at OPAG was given by Ralph Lorenz and Tom Spilker on a Titan Montgolfiere Mission Study. What's a Montgolfiere, you ask?
OPAG, Day 1: Uranus equinox is coming up
Heidi Hammel gave a brief but spirited presentation designed to wake up the audience to the fact that Uranus is fast approaching its equinox, an event that will happen on December 7, 2007.
OPAG, Day 1: Status of radioisotope power and communications support for future missions
Following the mission- and science-focused presentations of the morning, there came two rather alarming presentations.
OPAG: Looking back
The two-day meeting of the Outer Planets Assessment Group is over and I have 30-odd pages of notes to wrestle with.
OPAG, Day 1: Cassini and Juno status
The Outer Planets Assessment Group opened with the status of two of the three actual outer planets missions, Cassini and Juno.