9th International Planetary Probe Workshop Repository
We are happy to announce that the repository website for IPPW-9 is online. You will have access to most of the presentations, papers and also to a podcast of the Short Course.

How to Hunt a Space Rock
Recently, meteorite hunters tracked down cosmic debris in order to test a "lab on a chip" destined for future spacecraft.

Curiosity Begins Driving at Bradbury Landing
August 22, 2012: NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced today they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.

Curiosity, the Stunt Double
En route to the Red Planet, Mars rover Curiosity has experienced the strongest solar radiation storm since 2005. Researchers say this is part of Curiosity's job as a 'stunt double' for human astronauts.

Mission to Land on a Comet
Europe's Rosetta spacecraft is en route to intercept a comet­--and to make history. In 2014, Rosetta will enter orbit around 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and land a probe on it for a front row seat as the comet heads toward the heat of the sun.

Mars Rover Well-Equipped for Studies
The Mars Science Laboratory is taking a toolbox to Mars that any researcher would be proud of. A drill, metallic brush and even a laser are part of the gear set the Mars Science Laboratory called Curiosity is taking to the red planet.

LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon
The science team that oversees the imaging system on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created.

Launch Team Focuses on Unique Needs of Curiosity
NASA is fueling the Curiosity rover with a plutonium-powered battery of sorts called a multi-mission radioisotope thermal generator, or MMRTG.

Stories of Missions Past: Early Explorers
On September 29, 2011, NASA announced the short list for five potential new "Explorer class" spacecraft. These missions are by definition small and relatively inexpensive, designed to be led by a small team.

Juno Resources
Multimedia resources that will help us better understand NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter.

Basics of the Analysis Procedure
The instruments employed at UCLA, UCSD, and Open University differ in many respects, but each has a method to free the solar oxygen atoms from the collection material, and each uses a mass spectrometer to separate and count the isotopes.

NASA's Robotic Lander Performs Second Free-Flight Test
On Thursday, June 16, NASA's Robotic Lander Development Project at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. conducted the second free-flight test of a robotic lander prototype.

Flight Testing for Mars: Dryden F-18 Flying MSL Radar
Southern California's high desert has been a stand-in for Mars for NASA technology testing many times over the years. So it was again as NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight-tested the next Mars rover's landing radar.

Keeping Cool With Heat Pipes on the Space Station
What happens when electronics overheat? The short answer is: nothing good! In microgravity, natural convection does not occur, which makes cooling equipment a challenge. So how do you keep electronic and computer components from overheating in space?

Palomar Observatory
The Palomar Observatory is located in north San Diego County, California. It is a world-class center of astronomical research that is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology.

Voyager, The Love Story
NASA's Voyager probes are at the edge of the solar system carrying a message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations. Highlights include greetings from humans and whales, some of Earth's greatest music, and the brainwaves of a young woman in love.

NASA Technology Looks Inside Japan's Nuclear Reactor
Design techniques honed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for Mars rovers were used to create the rover currently examining the inside of Japan's nuclear reactors, in areas not yet deemed safe for human crews.

NASA Light Technology Successfully Reduces Cancer Patients' Painful Side Effects from Radiation and Chemotherapy
A NASA technology originally developed for plant growth experiments on space shuttle missions has successfully reduced the painful side effects resulting from chemotherapy and radiation treatment in bone marrow and stem cell transplant patients.

National Inventors Hall of Fame Taps Former JPL Engineer
The National Inventors Hall of Fame is honoring a former JPL physicist/engineer for a sensor chip used in cell phone and other digital cameras, and medical imaging.

Researchers Crack the Mystery of the Spotless Sun
In 2008-2009, sunspots almost completely disappeared for two years. It was a big event, and solar physicists openly wondered, where have all the sunspots gone? Now they know.

What's Hitting Earth?
Have you ever seen a fireball streak through the night sky and gone to bed wondering, "What was that?" NASA is deploying a network of smart cameras that could have an answer waiting for you when you wake up.

The Camera That Saved Hubble ... Twice
Read the storied history of an amazing cameras - Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Galileoscope: Celebrating Telescopes and Space Probes
Galileo would be amazed to learn how our view of our place in the universe has changed dramatically in the past 400 years.

The Two Galileos
Man and Machine: The spacecraft named in honor of Galileo Galilei continued his tradition of groundbreaking discovery.

Where Are They Now?
Here is a partial list of the missions tracked by the DSN. Where are they in their journeys of exploration?

Visions From Space
Ever wonder how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) brings us unforgettable images of space, planets, galaxies, and faraway stars?

Calling All Spacecraft! Tracking and Unveiling the Solar System through the Deep Space Network (DSN)
When it comes to making a long-distance call, it's hard to top NASA's Deep Space Network.

NASA's Deep Space Network: 40 Years of Service
For 40 years, NASA's Deep Space Network has been Earth's link with the robotic explorers probing the mysteries of our solar system.

How to Make Your Own Eye-Popping 3-D Pictures
The realistic pictures of the rocky martian terrain may seem magical, but the concept behind the illusion is in fact quite simple.

Brief History of Gyroscopes
Modern gyroscopes have much in common with the simplest toy tops that children have played with for centuries.

Where the Sun and Ice Worlds Meet
The New Horizons SWAP instrument will study how distant Pluto and Charon interact with our Sun.

The Heartbeat of the Mars Exploration Rovers
Spirit gets it juice for an extended tour of Mars from special batteries.

Genesis Discovery Mission: Science Canister Processing at JSC.
Genesis addresses questions about materials and processes involved in the origins of the solar system by providing precise knowledge of solar isotopic and elemental compositions.

ICESat -- Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite
The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (IceSat) will measure the elevation of Earth's land surface with unprecedented accuracy and global coverage.

The Genesis Mission: An Overview
Scientists are attempting to understand what happened back at the formation of the solar system from pieces of evidence including meteorites and interstellar dust grains.

GRACE -- Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
Gravity! What is it? You can't see it! You can't smell it! You can't touch it! But it's there. In fact, it's everywhere.

Can People Go to Mars?
NASA has a mystery to solve: Can people go to Mars, or not?

Greenhouses for Mars
When humans go to the moon or Mars, they'll probably take plants with them. NASA-supported researchers are learning how greenhouses are going to work on other planets.

Membranes on Mars
New membranes developed by NASA-funded researchers could help people go to Mars--and clean the air here on Earth.

Alice to Analyze Pluto's Atmosphere
Want a perspective on Pluto that we can't see here on Earth? Just ask Alice.

Ralph Aims to Put Pluto in Focus
How do get sharp images and make maps above a world with sunlight 1,000 times dimmer than what we see on Earth? Send Ralph.

Going for Maximum Impact
Deep Impact's unique impactor is designed to blast a hole in a comet - possibly opening a window into our solar system's mysterious past.

Expanding Frontiers with Radioisotope Power Systems
The purpose of this report is to identify the range of mission concepts and applications that could be enabled by the newest generation of standard multi-mission radioisotope power systems.

Wheels in the Sky
Mars-bound wheels give new meaning to the term custom built.

Lending an Improved Ear
Updated antenna will help out NASA during busiest of times.

Art Meets Aerogel
Science and art become one as one artist's high-tech vision takes shape.