Space probes as a research area encompasses the design, deployment, and scientific utilization of uncrewed spacecraft sent beyond Earth orbit to investigate planetary bodies, small Solar System objects, and the heliosphere, and increasingly to perform astrophysical observations from deep space. Research focuses on mission architecture, autonomous navigation and operations, radiation-hardened avionics, long-duration power systems (e.g., RTGs, advanced solar arrays), high-gain communications, and in situ and remote-sensing payloads optimized for extreme environments. The field integrates planetary science, space plasma physics, and instrumentation, emphasizing data acquisition strategies, sample return capabilities, and technology maturation for future interplanetary and interstellar exploration.
Three small NASA rovers that will explore the lunar surface as a team have been packed up and shipped from the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, marking completion of the first leg of the robots' ...
Space Exploration
Feb 11, 2025
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Three months after its launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency's Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter's orbit in 2030 to take close-up ...
Astronomy
Feb 4, 2025
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Boeing executive Mark Nappi had been the face of the company's Starliner program during its beleaguered Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station that ultimately left its crew of two NASA astronauts behind when ...
Space Exploration
Feb 4, 2025
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In October 2020, a van-sized robotic spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of Bennu, a 525-meter-wide asteroid 320 million kilometers from Earth.
Planetary Sciences
Feb 2, 2025
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The idea of traveling through interstellar space using spacecraft propelled by ultrathin sails may sound like the stuff of sci-fi novels. But in fact, a program started in 2016 by Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner, known as ...
Space Exploration
Jan 30, 2025
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Sometimes, the best innovative ideas come from synthesizing two previous ones. We've reported before on the idea of having a balloon explore the atmosphere of Venus, and we closely watched the progress of the Mars Oxygen ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 30, 2025
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It took two years for NASA's OSIRIS-REx space probe to return from asteroid Bennu before dropping off a small capsule as it flew past Earth, which was then recovered in the desert of the U.S. state of Utah on September 24, ...
Astrobiology
Jan 29, 2025
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A private U.S. spacecraft bound for the moon has captured stunning images of Earth one week into its flight.
Space Exploration
Jan 24, 2025
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With the installation of a charged particle detector on Dec. 3, 2024, all 10 of NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) science instruments have been fully integrated on the spacecraft.
Space Exploration
Jan 17, 2025
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Blue Origin launched its massive new rocket on its first test flight Thursday, sending up a prototype satellite to orbit thousands of miles above Earth.
Space Exploration
Jan 16, 2025
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