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.
It's been more than 18 months since NASA narrowed to three the field of competitors vying to build the nation's next moon rover.
Space Exploration
Oct 20, 2025
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62
The search for life on Mars has taken a leap forward, as a key instrument for a major space mission begins its journey from Aberystwyth University to Italy for testing.
Astrobiology
Oct 13, 2025
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20
In recent years, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has given us a close-up look at the sun. Among the probe's revelations was the presence of numerous kinks, or "switchbacks," in magnetic field lines in the sun's outer atmosphere. ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 8, 2025
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2118
The China National Space Administration's (CNSA) Tianwen-2 probe is currently at a distance of about 43 million km (26.7 million mi) from Earth. This places it in a stable geosynchronous orbit (GSO) and almost halfway between ...
Space Exploration
Oct 8, 2025
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27
For more than twenty years, the Mars Express orbiter has studied the Red Planet and remains the European Space Agency's (ESA) only operational mission. In that time, it has provided the most complete map of the Martian atmosphere ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 6, 2025
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79
Surface features on asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, as identified by the Southwest Research Institute-led Lucy mission, have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The surface features of ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 1, 2025
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29
What type of lander could touch down on Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io? This is what a recent paper presented at the AIAA 2025 Regional Student Conference hopes to address as a team of student engineers from Spartan Space Systems ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 30, 2025
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51
A swarm of spherical rovers, blown by the wind like tumbleweeds, could enable large-scale and low-cost exploration of the Martian surface, according to results presented at the Joint Meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress ...
Space Exploration
Sep 25, 2025
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268
A research team led by Prof. Tan Peng from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed the temperature regulation mechanism of lithium-Mars gas batteries (LMGBs), ...
Space Exploration
Sep 23, 2025
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34
On May 21, 2010, the Akatsuki orbiter ("Dawn" in Japanese) launched from the Tanegashima Space Center atop a H-IIA Launch Vehicle, establishing orbit around Venus in December 2015. In so doing, Akatsuki became the first interplanetary ...
Space Exploration
Sep 22, 2025
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