Astronaut Recovering a Satellite in 1984Space Exploration and Development

We're in a golden age of robotic space exploration.   Mars Odyssey, SOHO, ACE,  Mars Global Surveyor, Cassini, Stardust,  and even Voyager are probing our Sun and our solar system as never before.  A number of exiting new mission are either on their way to their destinations or will be launched soon. 

If you rely on TV for your information about space missions, it won't be very deep, and you'll only hear about the important events shortly before they occur. It's better to go to the source.

I hope the following links are useful to those interested in learning more about Space Exploration. Beyond exploration, and hopefully more and more following right on its heels, is Space Development. This is just beginning, and I hope I can help you learn more. Visit Frontier Files Online if you're interested in discussing Space Development, and exploring what you can do.

Just remember that all the sites you visit, everyone is trying to put their best foot forward. Keep your brain in active mode and don't swallow anything whole.

If you have suggestions about how I can improve this page, please e-mail.

Last Updated: 16 November 2003

Articles | News | Missions | Companies | Organizations

Current Articles of Interest

Space News Sites

These are the sites I regularly visit to glean the most important current space news. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I'd put all three in my bookmarks.

Space Daily
The best written of the space news sites, but the least frequently updated.
Spaceflight Now
This site mostly just parrots press releases, but does a good job staying curent, even over the weekend.
Space.com
The flashiest site,  and to their credit, they have toned down their advertising.
Space-Ref
spacetoday.net

Missions

NASA's OSS Missions Page
This page gives you links to a large number of official sites for NASA space missions, including those in developement and proposal stages.

MarsCurrently Operational Missions

Earth Orbiters

SORCE
The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment

Lunar Missions

Lunar-A
A Japanese (ISAS) Mission, but they have provided an English-language version of their site.

Deep Space Missions

Beagle 2
The British-led misison to Mars - soon to launch. An interesting story.
Genesis
A solar wind sample return mission.
Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Odyssey
The Stardust Mission.
A new Discovery mission to return a sample of comet dust. Read all about it.
Deep Space 1
A lesser known mission at JPL. This is part of NASA's New Millennium program. Be the first on your block to know about it.
Voyager


The Cassini Mission
This should return some of the coolest images and data from deep space ever. I had better, given how much it costs.
The Mars Missions
A common page for JPL Mars Missions. Or, if you just want the latest, go to JPL's Mars News page.

MercuryProposed Missions & Missions in Development

SELENE
A Japanese lunar mission
DAWN
A mission to Ceres and Vesta
Solar STEREO
MESSENGER
A Mission to orbit Mercury and study the planet up close
Deep Impact
A mission to blow a crater in a comet, then to fly by it a short time later with a spectrograph. Pretty creative, I must say.
The Europa Orbiter
New Horizons
So far, this mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt has been funded, and is looking forward to a January 2006 launch with a backup opportunity in 2007.
Rosetta
An ESA mission to explore comets and asteroids.

Retired Missions

The Galileo Home Page -
Many beautiful and intriguing images, and much other information about the mission to Jupiter. Especially check out those wild Europa images.
CONTOUR
COmet Nucleus TOUR. A Mission to fly by diverse comet nuclei at low altitudes. The spacecraft was launced in July of 2002, operated flawlessly for several weeks, and then disintegrated when its solid rocket motor was fired. It is considered a total loss.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous -
The official page about NEAR, which will made rendezvous with 433 Eros in early 2000. NEAR was designed, built and operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory near Columbia, Maryland.
Lunar Prospector
Pioneer

Private Companies

Starchaser
A British builder of small rockets.
HighLift Systems
Space Elevators. This approach is promising if the materials technology pans out.
The Orbital Recovery Coroporation
They are marketing the Spacecraft Life Extension System, and idea whose time may well have come.
JP Aerospace
This is a volunteer-based organization that bills themselves as America's Other Space Program.
Spacedev
A serious commercial space company, and the designers/builders of CHIPSat, which launched in January 2003.
Lunacorp
These folks are planning to build a lunar rover.
Transorbital landerTransOrbital, Inc.
Malin Space Science Systems
The brains behind the Mars Global Surveyor camera. New Pictures from MGSO are posted here.
Microcosm.
Autonomous navigation.
Princeton Satellite Systems
A small spacecraft control company founded by Mike Paluszek. They really are from around Princeton.
Spectrum Astro
An Arizona company making small spacecraft.

Space-Related Organizations

The Planetary Society.
Advocates of planetary exploration and education about planetary science
The National Space Society
Advocating advancement of a human precence in space.
The Moon Society
Return to the Moon
The Space Frontier Foundation.
The Artemis Society
A private return-to-the-moon initiative.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab Space Department.
The Lunar Rover Initiative.

General Space Sites

Planetary Science Research Discoveries.
An educational site about the latest work in planetary science.
Jonathan's Space Home Page.
This Harvard astrophysicist follows everything that happens in space very closely. You can get on his free e-mail list and get semi-regular reports on what's happening with the Space Shuttle, Mir, and other missions.
Today @ NASA
The official latest news from NASA.
NASA Home Page.

Other Space Related Sites

Space Jobs
Lists jobs available in the space industry. you can register for free e-mail updates.
Yahoo's Space Category.

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