Watch DART launch live here: November 24th, 2021 1:20 AM EST (5:20 UTC) Planetary defense has been neglected for a while but finally, there is an awesome NASA mission called DART or Double Asteroid Redirection Test. The main purpose is to practice deflecting asteroids and the way we’re deflecting asteroids is by changing their orbit. DART is unique in a lot of ways and it’s the first major planetary defense mission. It will fly to the asteroid Didymos first, which was discovered in the 90s and identified as a safe target. Then DART will crash a spacecraft into Didymos’ moon called Dimorphus and change its orbit by 1%. And I’m not only excited about this mission but also the fact this asteroid has a moon adds a sci-fi flavor as if we’re in a Star Trek episode. You also don’t have to wait long! It’s launching on November 24th, 2021 aboard...

We’re going to Venus! NASA has confirmed two amazing missions to go visit our evil twin planet, Venus. As a reminder Venus has temperatures of 900 F (melting lead), 93 bars of crushing pressure, corroding clouds of carbon dioxide laced with sulphuric acid! The missions destined to take this planet on are called DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy). This is very exciting because of the scarcity of missions that go to Venus. The last time NASA was in 1994 with the spacecraft called Magellan, which mapped the gravitational field of Venus. However, these two missions not only will get up-close again with Venus but will actually land on Venus as well! Both missions are aimed to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe. It’ll be some time unfortunately for...

If there’s one planet that will define the next milestone in human civilization, it’s Mars. You probably have heard from the likes of Elon Musk to NASA to even China on getting humans to Mars. Thus far, we’ve seen the amazing world of Mars through the eyes of our rovers. and orbiters. Now, NASA is launching their latest mission called Mars 2020 on July 30th. This is not any ordinary mission either. It has a ton of firsts and will even answer questions like “was there life on Mars in the past?” It will also be the one to deliver the first Mars helicopter/drone called Ingenuity. That’s amazing for a number of reasons. However, let’s take a look at the objectives for the mission. Mars 2020 Mission Objectives Sunset on MarsCredit: NASA The mission has a ton of fantastic goals that not only help progress us in understanding things like the origin of...

Mars is getting another visitor very soon and its name is InSight. It’ll be landing on Mars on November 26th, 2018. Maybe you’ve heard a little about this mission or maybe you’re new to it. Let’s take a look at what this mission is and everything you need to know for the landing. What is InSight’s Main Mission?This new lander’s mission stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations (InSight). It will help us answer what is under that hood of Mars or more specifically what’s going on in the core of Mars. It’ll give more insight (no pun intended) on what early formation of Mars looked like 4.5 billion years ago. The lander will not only investigate Mars but also have the first CubeSats trailing right behind. These little cute cubes will answer the question is it possible for miniaturized satellites survive the trip in space to...

It’s been two amazing decades with Cassini-Huygens spacecraft. The first mission to orbit Saturn and the first mission to land on an exo-moon. The photos that Cassini brought back alone are priceless. I put together a presentation for a lunch n learn for Cassini’s Grande Finale. We will go over what the mission was, why it was important as well as what did we learn from it. I hope you enjoy this 45-minute presentation. I apologize for any inconvenience on the audio quality near the end but it does capture my entire presentation. Here are the slides if you’re interested.