Keeping an eye on things

NASA has announced the science instruments for Artemis III. When astronauts return to the lunar surface, they’ll bring three scientific instruments with them, NASA announced this week. Astronauts will deploy these instruments to study moonquakes, the surface environment’s effects on space crops, and the lunar regolith’s ability to propagate an electric field. Pictured: The lunar south pole, where Artemis III astronauts will land and deploy instruments, imaged by ​​NASA's Clementine spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS.

Europa Clipper is well-equipped to search for life. New studies suggest that even a tiny fraction of cellular material could be identified by the kind of mass spectrometer that will be onboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is set to launch this year for Jupiter’s icy moon. This increases the chances that the mission will be able to detect life if it does indeed exist in Europa’s subsurface oceans.

The Odysseus lunar mission is officially over. The privately-developed spacecraft, which landed on the Moon on Feb. 22, did not survive the lunar night. Intuitive Machines, the company that built Odysseus, can still celebrate the mission’s overall success in becoming the first American spacecraft to land on the Moon since the Apollo program.

It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the Sun (figuratively). Although we don’t recommend looking at the Sun yourself, it’s extremely important that we Earthlings monitor and understand the Sun’s activity. As our star reaches the peak of its activity cycle, the danger of a major solar storm — which has the potential to cause blackouts, disable satellites, and wreak other havoc — is now at its highest in over a decade. Learn more about solar storms, what we’re doing to understand them, and how we could mitigate their effects. Pictured: This split image shows the difference between an active Sun during the April 2014 solar maximum (left) and a quiet Sun during the December 2019 solar minimum (right). Image credit: NASA/SDO.

Direct your eyes this way! We’ve got a new batch of the coolest space pictures from the past month. This month features human spaceflight, Jupiter’s storms, a Martian transit, and more.

We’re watching NASA’s budget, and so should you. The Biden Administration released its 2025 budget request for NASA on March 11, 2024, and it’s not enough. Planetary Society Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier explains what the budget includes, what it’s missing, and what you can do to fix it — including registering for our Day of Action to meet with your representatives in Washington, D.C., and advocate for space.

Let's talk about the books that put the "science" in "science fiction!" Andrew Fraknoi, an esteemed astronomer, educator, science communicator, and author, recently joined Planetary Society members in an online Q&A to discuss his curated selection of new and classic science fiction tales that adhere to science. Watch a recording of the event here.