The solar system—our Sun’s system of planets, moons, and smaller debris—is humankind’s cosmic backyard. Small by factors of millions compared to interstellar distances, the spaces between the planets ...

A near term laser ablation of micropellets can be made to rapidly accelerate one ton space probes to reach Pluto in one year. The NASA New Horizons launched in 2006 took 9.5 years to reach Pluto and ...

John Casani spent more than half a century turning speculative ideas about distant worlds into working spacecraft that could survive the trip. His quiet influence at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ...

NASA has announced an updated plan to continue New Horizons’ mission of exploration of the outer solar system. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on gathering unique heliophysics ...

Introduction: NASA's solar system exploration paradigm : the first fifty years and a look at the next fifty / James L. Green and Kristen J. Erickson -- Part I. Overview. Exploring the Solar System : ...

China envisions exploring the solar system, and it seems that would happen soon. The country launched Tianwen-2, an innovative space probe tasked with retrieving samples from an uncharted asteroid and ...

Pt. 1. The golden age, 1957-1982. The beginning -- Of landers and orbiters -- The grandest tour -- Pt. 2. Hiatus and renewal, 1983-1996. The decade of Halley -- The era of flagships -- Faster, cheaper ...

With November marking the 13th year of permanent human residence at the International Space Station, NASA is beginning to look for new opportunities for space exploration. Its new Solar System ...

"This has been a decade-long detective story, with each recorded meteorite fall providing a new clue." Ten years ago, astronomers from various institutions, including NASA and SETI (Search for ...

Apollo's lunar missions were primarily driven by Cold War geopolitical competition with the Soviet Union, prioritizing a rapid lunar landing over sustained scientific exploration. In contrast, the ...