Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program

Mini NASA Robot Takes a SWIM

A 16.5-inch-long prototype of a robot designed to explore subsurface oceans of icy moons is reflected in the water’s surface during a test in a competition swimming pool in September 2024.

Posted November 25, 2024

Europa Clipper

Europa

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Europa Clipper: Millions of Miles Down, Instruments Deploying

Headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa, the spacecraft is operating without a hitch and will reach Mars in just three months for a gravity assist. NASA’s Europa Clipper, which launched Oct. 14 on a journey to Jupiter’s moon Europa, is already 13 million miles (20 million kilometers) from Earth. Two science instruments have deployed hardware that […]

Posted November 25, 2024

Europa

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program

Ocean Worlds

Robotics

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Technology

NASA Ocean World Explorers Have to Swim Before They Can Fly

In a competition swimming pool, engineers tested prototypes for a futuristic mission concept: a swarm of underwater robots that could look for signs of life on ocean worlds.

Posted November 20, 2024

Curiosity (Rover)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Takes a Last Look at Mysterious Sulfur

The rover captured a 360-degree panorama before leaving Gediz Vallis channel, a feature it’s been exploring for the past year. NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing for the next leg of its journey, a monthslong trek to a formation called the boxwork, a set of weblike patterns on Mars’ surface that stretches for miles. It will […]

Posted November 18, 2024

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)

Flight Opportunities Program

Game Changing Development Program

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Psyche Mission

Small Business Innovation Research / Small Business

Space Communications & Navigation Program

Technology

Technology Demonstration Missions Program

Precision Pointing Goes the Distance on NASA Experiment

One year ago today, the future of space communications arrived at Earth as a beam of light from a NASA spacecraft nearly 10 million miles away. That’s 40 times farther than our Moon. That’s like using a laser pointer to track a moving dime from a mile away. That’s pretty precise. That laser — transmitted […]

Posted November 14, 2024

EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation)

Earth

Earth Science

Earth Science Division

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s EMIT Will Explore Diverse Science Questions on Extended Mission

The imaging spectrometer measures the colors of light reflected from Earth’s surface to study fields such as agriculture, hydrology, and climate science. Observing our planet from the International Space Station since July 2022, NASA’s EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) mission is beginning its next act.

Posted November 14, 2024

Oceans

Climate Change

Earth

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Natural Disasters

NASA Data Helps International Community Prepare for Sea Level Rise

The information will help people who live in coastal areas prepare for impacts caused by rising sea levels. Earth’s ocean is rising, disrupting livelihoods and infrastructure in coastal communities around the world.

Posted November 13, 2024

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JPL Workforce Update

Workforce statement and memo to employees JPL statement issued on Nov. 12, 2024: While we have taken various measures to meet our current FY’25 budget allocation, we have reached the difficult decision to reduce the JPL workforce through layoffs. This reduction affects approximately 325 of our colleagues, an impact of about 5% of our workforce. […]

Posted November 13, 2024

Voyager 2

Heliophysics

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Magnetosphere

Solar Wind

Uranus

Uranus Moons

Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries

NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers. When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first — and, so far, only — close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet.

Posted November 11, 2024

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar)

Earth Science

Earthquakes

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Natural Disasters

Volcanoes

Powerful New US-Indian Satellite Will Track Earth’s Changing Surface

Data from NISAR will improve our understanding of such phenomena as earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides, as well as damage to infrastructure. We don’t always notice it, but much of Earth’s surface is in constant motion.

Posted November 8, 2024