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.
This series of images shows NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as it got a rock stuck to the drill on the end of its robotic arm, and—after waving the arm and running the drill a few times—finally detached the rock. The imagery ...
Planetary Sciences
May 5, 2026
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On April 17, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP. The nuclear-powered ...
Space Exploration
Apr 20, 2026
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77
Do aliens exist? Could Earth really be the only planet hosting intelligent life?
Astrobiology
Apr 16, 2026
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We have been searching for signals from other civilizations for over sixty years. Radio telescopes on Earth have swept the sky, listened patiently, and found nothing but silence. It is a search that demands extraordinary ...
Astronomy
Apr 14, 2026
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28
Observations conducted with the Subaru Telescope and its first-generation wide-field camera, Suprime-Cam, have revealed new insights into the relationship between the color and size of Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Astronomy
Apr 10, 2026
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The planet Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, and also the most difficult for spacecraft to visit and explore. This is because as spacecraft get closer to Mercury, the sun's enormous gravity pulls in the spacecraft, ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 1, 2026
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Dragonfly integration and testing—the activities involved in assembling the mission's rotorcraft lander and testing it for the rigors of launch and extreme conditions of space—is officially underway in clean rooms and control ...
Space Exploration
Mar 13, 2026
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An old NASA science satellite plunged uncontrolled from orbit and reentered over the Pacific on Wednesday.
Space Exploration
Mar 12, 2026
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30
Asteroids are some of the oldest objects in the solar system: leftovers from the chaotic time when planets were assembling from dust and rock. They're time capsules, preserving clues about what the early solar system was ...
Astrobiology
Mar 9, 2026
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Estimating a mass for a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is perhaps the single most important thing to understand about it, after its trajectory. Actually doing so isn't easy though, as the mass for objects in the tens ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 2, 2026
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