NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft launched in July 2022 to explore the fuel-saving lunar orbit that the Gateway space station will use later this decade. China's Chang'e-5 returned lunar samples to Earth in 2020, and is on an extended mission testing an advanced lunar orbit.

Jan 30, 2025 · The Planetary Society’s science and technology program continues to this day to fund innovative projects that will no doubt help shape the future of space science and exploration. In 2022, The Planetary Society launched the STEP (Science and Technology Empowered by the Public) grant program. These grants are funding the development of a new ...

Dec 20, 2024 · March 14: Total lunar eclipse. This lunar eclipse will be visible in its entirety from almost all of North America, including the contiguous United States and Central America, as well as from most of South America. March 20: March equinox; March 29: Partial solar eclipse.

Jan 3, 2025 · Once the dust clears from its lunar landing, LEXI will power on, warm up, and direct its focus back toward Earth. For six days, it will collect images of the X-rays emanating from the edges of our planet’s vast magnetosphere. This comprehensive view could illustrate how this protective boundary responds to space weather and other cosmic ...

May 20, 2015 · The Planetary Society’s LightSail satellite is a technology demonstration for using solar propulsion on CubeSats, a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. Using the momentum transferred from solar photons as they strike a large, thin, reflective sail would allow a spacecraft to accelerate continuously using only the sun’s energy.

Earth seen from Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander, which also partially appears in the foreground. ... The Planetary Society Our Vision. Know the cosmos and our place within it. Our Mission. Empowering the world's citizens to advance …

17 hours ago · A lunar eclipse, which causes the moon to look dark or dimmed, occurs when Earth is between the sun and moon and the three celestial objects line up in a row so that the moon passes into our ...

Oct 16, 2024 · We suggest an advanced algorithm for semi-analytical calculation of orbital perturbations of Earth artificial satellites caused by the gravity attraction of the “3rd-bodies” (the Moon, the Sun, major planets). A new accurate analytical series for the relevant perturbation function is developed.

Feb 5, 2025 · A planetary alignment can also refer to apparent lineups in our sky with other planets, the Moon, or bright stars. The planets of our solar system always appear along a line on the sky. This line, referred to as the ecliptic, represents the plane in which the planets orbit, seen from our position within the plane itself.

LightSail is a project to demonstrate controlled solar sailing within low Earth orbit using a CubeSat. The project was developed by The Planetary Society, a global non-profit organization devoted to space exploration. [5] . It consists of two spacecraft — LightSail 1 and LightSail 2.