Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program

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

SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography)

Earth

Earth Science

Earth Science Division

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

International SWOT Satellite Spots Planet-Rumbling Greenland Tsunami

Data from space shows water tilting up toward the north side of the Dickson Fjord as it sloshed from south to north and back every 90 seconds for nine days after a 2023 rockslide. The international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission, a collaboration between NASA and France’s CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), […]

Posted November 1, 2024

SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe and Ices Explorer)

Astrophysics

Galaxies

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Search for Life

The Universe

Why NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Make ‘Most Colorful’ Cosmic Map Ever

The space telescope will detect over 100 colors from hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies. Here’s what astronomers will do with all that color. NASA’s SPHEREx mission won’t be the first space telescope to observe hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies when it launches no later than April 2025, but it will be […]

Posted October 31, 2024