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.
Since the early days of human space exploration, the endeavor has been haunted by a very good question: why spend so much on space when there are so many urgent problems here on Earth?
Space Exploration
Sep 8, 2025
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This week marks 48 years since the Sept. 5, 1977, launch of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to study Jupiter and Saturn up close. Nearly a half-century later, Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2 are ...
Astronomy
Sep 4, 2025
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Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has completed a mission study detailing how a proposed spacecraft could fly by an interstellar comet, providing remarkable insights into the properties of bodies originating beyond our ...
Space Exploration
Sep 3, 2025
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Perseverance has continued exploring beyond the rim of Jezero crater, spending time last week at Parnasset conducting a mini-campaign on aeolian bedforms. After wrapping up that work, three separate drives brought Perseverance ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 28, 2025
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Asteroid Bennu—the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona—is a mixture of materials from throughout, and even beyond, our solar system. Over the past few billion years, its ...
Astronomy
Aug 22, 2025
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Another U.S. military mini shuttle blasted off Thursday night to conduct classified experiments in space.
Space Exploration
Aug 22, 2025
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It won't have any crew, but the U.S. Space Force is set to send the Boeing-built X-37B spacecraft—which looks like a miniature space shuttle—back for a long-duration mission to orbit during a late-night launch Thursday.
Space Exploration
Aug 21, 2025
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On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than ...
Space Exploration
Aug 21, 2025
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Headed for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche spacecraft successfully calibrated its cameras by looking homeward.
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2025
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New research led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has confirmed decades-old theoretical models of magnetic reconnection, the process that releases stored magnetic energy to drive solar flares, coronal mass ejections ...
Astronomy
Aug 18, 2025
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