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.
Proxima Centauri b is the closest known exoplanet that could be in the habitable zone of its star. Therefore, it has garnered a lot of attention, including several missions designed to visit it and send back information. ...
Space Exploration
Jul 7, 2025
3
5
As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft traveled through the Kuiper Belt at a distance of more than 5.5 billion miles from Earth, an international team of astronomers used the far-flung probe to conduct an unprecedented experiment: ...
China's Tianwen-2 probe continues on its journey to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) before heading to the main asteroid belt. The second in China's interplanetary exploration program (which translates to "Questions ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 3, 2025
0
1
The NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission explored Saturn and its moons from 2004 to 2017, providing the most detailed images and data on the system ever taken. This included Saturn's largest moon, Titan, which the probe examined ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 2, 2025
0
8
In the outer reaches of our solar system, far beyond the orbit of Pluto, lies Sedna, one of the most mysterious objects ever discovered. This reddish dwarf planet follows such an extreme orbit that it takes more than 11,000 ...
Space Exploration
Jun 27, 2025
6
140
What methods can be used to identify subsurface oceans on the five largest moons of Uranus: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon, and Miranda? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ...
Space Exploration
Jun 27, 2025
0
2
What processes during the formation of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, potentially led to it having cryovolcanism, and even an internal ocean? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 27, 2025
1
37
Inhabiting Mars has long been a futuristic fantasy fueled by science fiction. However, successful landings over the past half-century have made this seemingly far-fetched idea increasingly plausible.
Space Exploration
Jun 24, 2025
0
112
New images from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover show the first close-up views of a region scientists had previously observed only from orbit. The images and data being collected are already raising new questions about how the ...
Astrobiology
Jun 23, 2025
0
2
Virtually all space probes that explore the sun from space view our star from the ecliptic. This is the plane in which the planets orbit the sun. Although this plane is slightly tilted relative to the sun's equator, the angle ...
Astronomy
Jun 11, 2025
0
47
