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Web sources for some current and recent planetary space missions.


MARS EXPRESS: The European Space Agency in December of 2003 inserted a spacecraft in orbit around Mars.  Just before reaching Mars, it dropped a small British lander called the Beagle 2, which was never heard from again.  Meanwhile, the orbiter is completely functional and returning much useful data.

Mars Express home page:
http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html


STARDUST: On Jan. 2 of 2004 the Stardust spacecraft flew through the cloud of dust and gas surrounding comet Wild 2, collecting particles which were returned to Earth in January, 2006.  As planned, only tiny bits of material were returned, but that's all we need to learn a lot about what comets are made of.  Stardust was the first space mission to retieve extraterrestrial material from a planetary body since 1976, when a russian lander brought back soil from the moon.

Stardust home page:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/


DEEP IMPACT:  It sounds like a movie, but actually the hollywood folks stole this name from a real NASA mission.   On July 4, 2005, part of the DI probe rammed at high velocity into comet Tempel 1, while the other part flew by to observe and analyze the pyrotechnics.   This mission provided a good experiment to try to understand what comets are made of.  In case you are wondering, the July 4 impact date had everything to do with the holiday of the nation that funded this mission.

Deep Impact home page:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html


MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS: Not to be outdone by comets, in January of 2004, twin rovers touched down at separate equatorial locations on Mars to search for signs of liquid water activity in Mars' distant past.  They are still going strong, three Earth years and one-and-one-half martian years later.

Main page:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Raw image postings (there are some gems here, but you have to sift through tens of thousands of images to find them):
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/


MARS ODYSSEY: This NASA orbiter reached Mars in October, 2001.  It has finished its primary mission, but is continuing to chemically map the surface and finding lots of subsurface water ice.  The MO orbiter has also served as the main communication relay to the MER rovers.

Mars Odyssey homepage:
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/

Images can be viewed at:
http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html


CASSINI: After nearly seven years of interplanetary travel, the Cassini spacecraft went into orbit around Saturn for a multi-year mission on July 1 of 2004. Seven months later it dropped the Huygens probe built by the European Space Agency, which made the first-ever landing on the big mystery moon Titan.  Cassini has been studying the planet, its rings and its moons, and recently detected ongoing volcanic activity on the small moon Enceladus.  The large moon Titan, which appears to have an active methane hydrology, will be a continuing focus of the orbiter.

Cassini homepage:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

Raw images:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/index.cfm


MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER:  This latest of a series of NASA missions to Mars arrived at the Red Planet in 2006.   It has the highest-resolution imager ever sent into Mars' orbit, sufficient to discern boulders on the surface and to directly characterize the roughness of potential landing sites.

MRO homepage:
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/

On-line image viewer for high-resolution images:
http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/hirise_images/


VENUS EXPRESS:  Following in the footsteps of Mars Express, this European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft went into orbit around Venus in 2006.   It has instruments for measuring the magnetic field and plasma environment around Venus, spectrometers for measuring the temperature and composition of the atmosphere, and a multispectral camera for studying cloud structures.

Venus Express homepage:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html

Venus Express images:
http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?mission=Venus+Express&type=I


NEW HORIZONS:  This mission to Pluto and one or more Kuiper belt objects was launched in January of 2006.  Although it will take many years to reach its destinations, it flew by Jupiter in March 2006 to gain speed, getting some bonus science results.

New Horizons homepage:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php
 


PHOENIX:  This mission to the martian arctic plains featured the first soft landing on Mars since 1976, when Vikings 1 and 2 landed successfully. The main goal is to analyze subsurface materials.

Phoenix NASA mission homepage:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html

Phoenix University of Arizona homepage
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
 

Page last updated May 25, 2008