In the Acta Astronautica issue for Nov (vol. 236): Acciarini, G. Izzo, D. Biscani, F. EclipseNETs: Learning irregular small celestial body silhouettes p. 514 .2025.06.002Chen, Z. Shen, S. Cui, H. et al. Robust adaptive guidance for autonomous asteroid landing via… Read More »Note, Paper: Potato Exploration Papers
Still time to apply for the Schweickart Prize. For early-career workers in planetary defense, there’s a nice award, with money: UPCOMING SCHWEICKART PRIZE STUDENT WEBINARS ON OCTOBER 15 & 16 “The winner will receive a $10,000 USD cash award, a… Read More »Schweickart Prize Online Guide Next Week
Geochemical Perspectives Letters is giving MAPS/GeCoA competition. In vol. 37: Siciliano Rego, E. Dauphas, N. Hopp, T. Consolidating the isotope trichotomy of planetary materials with new evidence P. 7 geochemlet.2538 What did the early Solar System look like? We can look… Read More »Note, Paper: Old-Time Nuclide Signs
USA Today is hardly cutting-edge as journalism goes, but publicity is publicity: www.usatoday.com/story/studiog/life/2025/10/07/asteroid-mining-brings-private-companies-into-the-space-race/85710633007/Hope Hodge Seck Oct 7 Asteroid Mining, a Gold Rush in Space Note that the URL ‘title’ is horrendous. Private companies defy traditional notions of a “Space Race”.… Read More »“Asteroid Mining” Lines
Not news, but ESA’s Hera mission to Didymos/Dimorphos after the DART impact has launched and is on track. Based on good performances from all propulsion systems, mission managers expect to encounter the target asteroids earlier than first planned. Arrival is… Read More »Hera Update, Oct 2025
Going on right now: the EU-ESA Workshop on Astrometric and Radar Observations of NEOshttps://indico.esa.int/event/590/Oct 6–8, Frascati, Italy: European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) Asteroids are distinguished from stars because they move; near-Earth asteroids are distinguished from Main Belters because they move… Read More »EU-ESA Astrometry/Radar Workshop
The characterization continues. With the trajectory well-determined over a long arc, we check and recheck spectral bands and lines (therefore, compositions): Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arxiv.org/abs/2510.02817[Submitted on 7 Oct 2025]Coulson, I. M. Kuan, Y-J. Charnley, S. B. JCMT… Read More »3I Cyanide Multi-Time Described
The journal Vacuum takes us from pure science towards engineering for Dec (vol. 242): Wang, J. Zhang, R. Li, W. Study of sealing effect about the Shape Memory Alloy-based Knife-edge Seal System in extraterrestrial soil sample return mission 114731 .2025.114731… Read More »Note, Paper: Sample Capsule Trap Caps
In the latest Science Advances issue (1 Oct 2025, vol. 11, #40): Grewal, D. S. Zhang, Z. Manilal, V. Protracted core formation and impact disruptions shaped the earliest outer Solar System planetesimals adw1668 Most asteroids never melted; they then preserve the materials… Read More »Note, Paper: Cold Core Lore
This week: a seminar/conference on the returned samples from Ryugu and Bennu, and their implications: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/bennuryugu2025/ Bennu and Ryugu: Samples from the Early Solar System WorkshopOctober 7–9, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston On the (very rich) agenda (www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/bennuryugu2025/technical_program/): Tuesday, October… Read More »Bennu and Ryugu Samples Workshop