This tiny CubeSat will be a big achievement. A team of students at the University of Maryland is building their own spacecraft to join the missions observing asteroid Apophis as it passes close to Earth on April 13, 2029. Members of the team joined this week’s Planetary Radio to talk about how a class project turned into a real mission. Pictured: A rendering of the TERP RAPTOR CubeSat spacecraft. Image credit: TERP RAPTOR/University of Maryland.
NASA may send an engineering test of the Perseverance rover to the Moon, but at what price? Planetary Society Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier has analyzed historical analogs, public data, and current NASA procedural requirements to determine just what the mission would cost, and what it might deliver.
Next in the Book Club: “Alien Oceans.” On Aug. 5, JPL researcher and explorer Kevin Hand will join Planetary Society members in a virtual book club meeting to discuss his book, “Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space.” Join us with your questions and thoughts about whether we may finally discover extraterrestrial life in the warm, salty oceans of other worlds. Not yet a member? Join today.