Making history with the InSight lander

The InSight lander successfully landed on Mars November 26, 2018. Since that time, InSight has already made history in a slew of scientific firsts. Although it’s still early days for InSight’s two-year mission, the robotic lander is already collecting groundbreaking data. What is InSight? InSight is an acronym for “Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, […]

November 1, 2019

Cassini’s Grand Finale reveals Saturn’s mysteries

The Cassini spacecraft explored our solar system for 20 years. During this time, the spacecraft took nearly half a million photos. Its mission? To further humanity’s understanding of the Saturn system. Cassini was a mission of firsts. It was the first landing humanity ever accomplished on a moon other than our own. It was the […]

November 1, 2019

FEELING THE HEAT WITH THE PARKER SOLAR PROBE

The Sun is one of the most definitive bodies in our galaxy. A constant in the Earth’s history, the Sun makes life possible on our blue planet. But even though much of our life revolves around the Sun, we know little about it. Distance, gravity, and incredible heat make it a challenge to study the […]

November 1, 2019

Curiosity led us to the red planet: The rover’s recent findings

Curiosity is a Mars rover that launched from Earth on November 26, 2011. It landed on the red planet on August 6, 2012, after a 350 million mile journey. Its mission? To investigate the Martian climate and geology for future human exploration. Specifically, scientists tasked Curiosity with looking for habitable conditions and evidence of water […]

November 1, 2019

How does NASA repair equipment on Mars?

Mars is 33.9 million miles away from Earth. It takes months to journey between the two planets, which means all mission components have to last. While NASA is using robotic landers and instruments to study Mars before human exploration, robots come with their fair share of problems. On Earth, you can take your broken computer […]

November 1, 2019

Paving the way for humans on the Moon with lunar payloads

Congress’s ambitious Space Policy Directive-1 gave NASA a challenge: work with American companies to put our astronauts back on the Moon by 2024. This is no small feat. Through the new Artemis program, NASA is approved to grant $2.6 billion in contracts to American companies over the next 10 years. NASA is partnering with private […]

November 1, 2019

NASA kicks off Artemis Moon program

The next era of space exploration has begun with NASA’s new Artemis program. Congress tasked NASA with putting humans on the Moon by 2024, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by the U.S. for decades. The program, called Artemis, will put humans back on the Moon. However, the Artemis mission is nothing like the world […]

November 1, 2019