With President Barack Obama proposing a relatively flat budget for NASA in 2013, a group professional astronomers is urging the White House and Congress to find a better balance between the space agency’s planetary science and exploration needs. Continue reading
Europe’s ambition for a spacecraft to return autonomously from low orbit is a cornerstone for a wide range of space applications, including space transportation, exploration and robotic servicing of space infrastructure. Continue reading
Sample return is something of a holy grail to planetary explorers. The advantage is that age dating and extensive compositional analysis can be done better with modern instruments in Earth-based laboratories than on miniaturized instruments that have to prepared years in advance for space flight. Continue reading