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Analysis

Deep dives and explainers

Mission breakdowns, science context, and the bigger picture behind the headlines. Written for curious minds, not aerospace engineers.

Artist concept of a hot rocky exoplanet, partially molten and orbiting close to its star.
jwstexoplanets

Webb takes the first close look at a rocky exoplanet's surface

JWST mid-infrared spectroscopy of LHS 3844 b, 48.5 light-years away, points to a dark basalt-like crust and no detectable atmosphere.
A Mars rover on the rust-colored surface of the planet
marsperseverance

The tubes on Mars: why bringing them home is quietly falling apart

Perseverance has been quietly filling little titanium tubes with Martian rock since 2021. The plan to fetch them back to Earth was supposed to be the most scientifically valuable robotic mission ever flown. It is now over budget by billions, behind schedule by a decade, and possibly about to lose a race to China.
The Milky Way galaxy arcing across a dark night sky
voyagerinterstellar

Voyager 1 is 24 billion kilometers away and still talking

Voyager 1 launched in 1977 with computers less powerful than a modern thermostat. It is now in interstellar space, more than a light-day from Earth, and last year NASA engineers patched a corrupted memory chip remotely from across that distance. The probe still works.
Earth seen from orbit, blue oceans and white clouds visible
roundupweekly

Space roundup: what happened this week

Europa Clipper crosses the asteroid belt. Axiom Space prepares for its fourth ISS mission. The Dragonfly Titan drone passes its critical design review. China announces a second crewed lunar mission. What you need to know.
Europa, Jupiter's ice moon, showing its fractured icy surface from space
europaastrobiology

Why Europa is our best bet for finding life in the solar system

Jupiter's ice moon Europa has a subsurface ocean, a rocky seafloor, and an energy source that has kept water liquid for billions of years. This is a serious scientific argument, not wishful thinking.
Rocket on a launch pad preparing for launch
launchcommercial-space

The New Space Race Isn't US vs. China. It's Everyone vs. the Launch Cost Curve.

Launch costs have fallen by roughly 90 percent in the last decade. That change is democratizing access to orbit in ways that are reshaping every other space industry, from Earth observation to communications to scientific missions.
The Milky Way galaxy arching across a clear night sky
carl-saganastrobiology

What Sagan Got Right and Wrong About the Search for Life

Carl Sagan died in 1996. In the thirty years since, we have discovered thousands of exoplanets, found water ice on the Moon and Mars, confirmed subsurface oceans on multiple moons, and built telescopes he never imagined. How do his ideas hold up?