In this artist’s illustration, an orbiter works together with blimps and rovers to explore an unfamiliar landscape. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory photo Wolfgang Fink has a dream straight out of science fiction: Instead of sending a paltry robot or two to distant planets, scientists should send multiple expendable robots. Robots that can talk to one another and adapt to unexpected events. Robots that can think. Creepy as that might sound to some,...

Three days ago, Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds wrote his first in what will be a series of blogs about meteorites and meteorite collecting . While we talked with Mike about that first piece, we learned that he was going to attend the Ares I-X launch . In this entry, he shares what it was like to witness Wednesday’s successful test flight. Mike also took photos of the event, and we'll post those with this entry soon. Ares I-X lifted off from...

Stewart David Nozette, later arrested by the FBI for attempted espionage, worked on the LRO’s Mini-RF hardware. NASA Phot o We here at Astronomy magazine try to stay out of politics as much as we can because, after all, astronomy can be plenty controversial on its own — Pluto , anyone?. But sometimes, we just can’t help it. Take, for instance, the case of Stewart David Nozette (pictured at right), the former NASA scientist who was arrested October...

STS-125 astronauts Mike Massimino (lower left) and Mike Good (right, on arm) rehearse Hubble Space Telescope repairs in NASA’s NBL in this IMAX footage from Hubble 3D . NASA photo Toni Myers is my kind of big-time Hollywood director. She’s worked on such famous space-themed IMAX movies as Space Station 3D , Destiny in Space , and 1985’s The Dream is Alive . I remember seeing Dream is Alive when I was just a kid, and it played no small role in my fascination...

Special guest blog from Contributing Editor Martin Ratcliffe President Barack Obama and his family joined 150 school children, dozens of amateur astronomers, professional scientists, and education and public outreach professionals Wednesday night during the Star Party at the White House. And how cool was this? “Cool” doesn’t even come close. I was lucky to be a part of the exciting events running one of the planetarium domes set up on the South Lawn...

Thursday was a short day at the conference. I had to check out of the hotel in the late morning, so I had time only to jump between two sessions (another exoplanet one, and one about near-Earth asteroids [NEAs]). E ditor's note: Liz is posting updates regularly from DPS09 to Twitter.com/AstronomyMag . The exoplanet session focused on what I’ve noticed to be an extremely popular topic here at the conference — modeling exoplanet atmospheres. That...

One thing I’ve noticed at thisi year’s Division of Planetary Sciences meeting is how well members of the planetary science community support each other. Often when asking a question regarding a talk, the questioner starts out with “great talk.” It’s refreshing to see. There’s a lot of competition in the sciences (so much of a career rides on how many papers one publishes), but clearly there’s a lot of collaboration as well. E ditor's note: Liz...

Last Friday, NASA and Disney Parks officially welcomed space ranger Buzz Lightyear back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) with a ticker-tape parade at Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando (and, no, I’m not joking). The 12-inch action figure spent more than 15 months aboard the ISS, returning to Earth September 11. In addition to that celebration, NASA and Disney Parks are collaborating again to launch new efforts to help young students...

Monday was my first day at the 2009 Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, I was off to a late start because of one of the worst migraines of my life. But I did get to the afternoon science sessions. E ditor's note: Liz is posting updates regularly from DPS09 to Twitter.com/AstronomyMag . I spent the early afternoon at the Titan science session. Nine scientists talked about the saturnian satellite’s atmosphere and...

NASA’s Desert RATS — or Research and Technology Studies — has concluded two weeks of technology development tests on two of the agency's prototype lunar rovers from the Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona. The studies allow NASA to analyze and refine technologies and procedures in extreme environments on Earth. The annual studies featured a simulated 14-day mission. Two crew members, an astronaut and a geologist, lived for more than 300 hours inside...