Planetary Society

Congratulations to our Chief of Space Policy, Casey Dreier, and Chief of Advocacy, @JackKiraly, on receiving the Division for Planetary Sciences’ Harold Masursky Award for Meritorious Service to Planetary Science, honoring their exceptional advocacy for planetary science and space exploration!

The Masursky Award was first given in 1991 to Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan for his contributions to planetary science and the public understanding of space exploration. Thirty-five years later, the same award recognizes two staff members carrying that work forward.

📸: AAS DPS

Congratulations to @JAXA_en and partners @NASA, @esa, @CNES, and @DLR_en on the launch of MMX! 🚀

MMX is currently headed to Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two moons. It’ll be the first mission to land on a moon of Mars and the first to bring back samples from Phobos. The spacecraft will collect at least 10 grams of surface material and bring it home in 2031. It’s also dropping off a rover named Idefix to explore.

And Planetary Society members helped make one of its sample collectors possible!

Our supporters funded PlanetVac’s first full prototype and its rocket test flight. It’s a Honeybee Robotics sampler that blasts the surface with nitrogen gas and catches what flies up. A version called P-Sampler is now mounted on one of the spacecraft’s landing legs, ready to grab a piece of Phobos.

Good luck on your journey MMX! 🔴

The 2026 Orionid meteor shower peaks on the night between October 21 and October 22! Here's how to watch ☄️
planetary.org/articles/your-…

Very cool! @USAToday special space edition is out, and it’s all about Artemis II and the lunar program. Check out the digital version here⬇️
usatodayspecial-va.newsmemory.com/?special=NASA&…

Planetary Society members helped fund space technology that’s about to launch on the first mission to land on a moon of Mars!

JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than Oct. 19.

On board is P-sampler, a version of the PlanetVac sample collection system developed by Honeybee Robotics. Our members funded PlanetVac’s first full prototype in 2013 and its rocket flight test in 2018, helping move it from concept to flight-ready hardware.

If all goes well, MMX will land on Phobos, collect samples, and return them to Earth in 2031.

Learn more about MMX and how citizen support helped make P-sampler possible ⬇️
planetary.org/articles/mars-…