Eugene ApolloPalooza

GET READY TO CELEBRATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MOON LANDING!

Where: Eugene Science Center in Eugene, Oregon
2300 Leo Harris Parkway, Eugene OR 97401

What’s happening Inside: Special planetarium shows, virtual reality gog…

NASA selects planetary mission proposals large and small

As NASA selects its next major planetary science mission, the agency is also funding studies of very small missions that seek to capitalize on advances in smallsat technology.

13th IAA Low-Cost Planetary Missions Conference

The conference is a forum for planetary scientists, technologists, engineers, project managers and agency officials to gather for the exchange of information and ideas for making this class of robotic mission richer scientifically while remaining …

NASA dealing with cost growth on planetary science flagship missions

While NASA’s overall planetary sciences program is enjoying record funding levels, the agency is grappling with cost growth in two of its largest missions.

Committee praises NASA’s planetary science program but raises some concerns

NASA has done a good job implementing the recommendations of its latest planetary science decadal survey despite past budget problems, but needs to improve some programs, a recent report concluded.

NASA examines effects of 2017 spending bill on science programs

As members of Congress took credit for NASA funding levels in a fiscal year 2017 omnibus spending bill, the agency’s science leadership is examining how those funds will affect its programs.

NASA hails planetary science funding while scientists worry about other cuts

NASA officials praised “historic” funding levels for its planetary science programs in the administration’s fiscal year 2018 budget request at a conference March 20, even as some scientists in attendance worried about how that budget would affect other agency programs.

Full-scale production of plutonium-238 still years away

The United States has begun manufacturing nuclear spacecraft fuel for the first time in a generation, but full production of the stuff is still seven years or so away.

JWST’s Top Astronomer to Planetary Scientists: Start Your Engines

The James Webb Space Telescope’s Nobel Prize-winning head astronomer advised planetary scientists to get started on proposals for focusing JWST’s 6.5-meter mirror on objects most closer to home than its usual cosmic quarry.

Two Discovery Missions Now Means Fewer Later, NASA Official Says

The agency has said it could select two of the five finalists for the latest of its Discovery-class planetary missions — including two Venus concepts and three asteroid concepts — next year for full-scale development.

Venus, Asteroid Proposals Advance in NASA Discovery Competition

Five robotic mission concepts — two for Venus, three for asteroids — will duke it out to become NASA's next Discovery-class small planetary science mission. The winner would launch in 2021.

Ohio Senators Call for Plutonium Power Report with New Bill

Ohio’s U.S. Senate delegation ordered up an extensive report on the federal infrastructure required to produce both the nuclear batteries that power NASA missions to dark and distant corners of the solar system, and the plutonium isotope that fuels those batteries.

Icy Pluto Reignites Debate about NASA Planetary Funding

Two weeks after New Horizons’ Pluto flyby, NASA planetary science funding took center stage during a July 28 House Science Committee hearing.

Extended Timetable for Decision on New Horizons Extended Mission

A final decision on an extended mission for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, one that would take it past a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO), won’t come for more than a year, although the project will be taking steps in the coming months to prepare for such a flyby.

Airbus To Build ESA’s Jupiter-bound Juice Orbiter

The European Space Agency on July 16 selected Airbus Defence and Space to build Europe’s Juice orbiter, to be launched in 2022 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket and to arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030.

SpaceGeeks Ep. 2: There Is No ‘Dwarf Planetary Science’

In this episode of the SpaceGeeks podcast, Dan Leone catches up with New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern days ahead of the historic Pluto flyby. The former NASA science boss explains what it's like to fill in one of the last blank spaces on the map: the never-before-seen-up-close planet/dwarf planet/ice dwarf at the edge of the mysterious and enormous Kuiper belt.