Space.com
• Andrew Jones
Earth’s small, temporary natural satellites may offer accessible targets for future missions. The Rubin telescope is expected to help find more of these objects, potentially expanding the set of nearby asteroids available for exploration.
Space Exploration & Science Missions
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Earth’s small, temporary natural satellites may offer accessible targets for future missions. The Rubin telescope is expected to help find more of these objects, potentially expanding the set of nearby asteroids available for exploration.
NASA is changing how it selects and develops science missions, aiming to reduce costs, simplify competition and speed missions’ path to space. The overhaul is intended to increase mission cadence, though the available report does not specify the revised process, schedule or programs affected.
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Japan’s space agency has selected ispace to design a solar power tower intended to support sustained exploration near the Moon’s south pole. The project focuses on energy infrastructure for lunar activity, though the available announcement provides no schedule, funding or technical specifications.
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NASA’s revised Artemis sequence moves the Orion docking test with SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers to an Earth-orbit mission in summer 2027. A crewed lunar landing would follow on Artemis IV in 2028, with NASA adding test milestones as it addresses challenges to the schedule.
The article frames a shift in Donald Trump’s attitude toward space science, describing him as having come to appreciate its value. The provided summary offers no further detail on what changed or what policy, funding or program decisions may follow.
Most meteorites originate from asteroids, but lunar meteorites offer researchers material beyond the Apollo sample collection. Decades after Apollo, scientists continue analyzing these scarce fragments to investigate the Moon’s history and its unusually large size, addressing gaps in what returned samples alone can reveal.
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NASA has ended science operations for the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has descended to less than 171 miles (275 kilometers) above Earth. Atmospheric drag at that altitude prevents its telescopes from steadily observing targets, following a failed commercial-spacecraft attempt to raise the observatory’s orbit.
A new model suggests that a cloud stretching roughly 1,000 miles across Mars could expose ice-forming processes not directly observed before. The finding points to a potential new way to study how clouds develop in the planet’s atmosphere, though the proposed physics remains a model-based interpretation.
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