On the basis of documents received on September 23, 2026, in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request, it is now clear that the numbers used in the earlier investigative report to calculate the funding level of NASA planetary research and analysis programs (R&A) in FY2025 were budgeted numbers and that costs incurred against...

It seems like a fair idea: an European organisation to explore space subsidised with tax money from its members states. In return for their investment the industries from each state are to receive a level of contracts proportional to the investment of each state in relation to the total budget of the programme run by...

Right after seeing that the Planetary Research journal began publishing its first papers, I checked the articles and letters, and especially the letter by Christian Renggli and others titled “The SiO2 abundance on the surfaces of the Moon and Mercury” piqued my interest immediately. Only some of the intriguing parts of the letter for me:...

Detailed budget information obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, Presidential Budget Requests and other sources within the government reveals that NASA has systematically failed to implement decades of recommendations by the National Academies as well as directives by Congress to grow the funding of planetary research and analysis programs (R&A) and meet specific funding...

If you were to ask authors what they don't like about the peer review process, a common complaint would be the time it takes to get a decision from the journal. If it only takes a day or so for someone to read a manuscript and give feedback, then why does it sometimes take months...

It is my (James Green, former Planetary Science Division Director) understanding that continued New Horizons heliophysics measurements are threatened unless NASA finds a way for the Heliophysics Divis...

Scientific research publishing is a particularly lucrative industry. The most recent estimates suggest that it generates around 19 billion US dollars (or 16.67 billion euros) in annual turnover, with margins of around 40 per cent. These staggering figures largely reflect the fact that the “Big Five” commercial publishers, such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor...

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/29/2026-10817/regulation-for-federal-financial-assistance The following is my personal opinion and does not represent the view of the Planetary Science Institute and does not make any representations of behalf of the Planetary Science Institute. I have been an active planetary scientist for 45 years, funded by federal awards primarily from NASA. I have served on numerous NASA advisory [...]

A new job announcements platform for planetary science Planetary Research Jobs is a new online platform that centralizes job announcements in the field of planetary science. Any person can browse the website for free, and any person with an ORCID iD (which is almost everyone) can post an announcement at no cost. Job announcements can [...]

The exploration of icy moons in the outer Solar System is entering a transformative era, building on the legacy of the Galileo mission at Jupiter and Cassini at Saturn, and driven by upcoming missions such as ESA’s JUICE, NASA’s Europa Clipper, and Dragonfly, as well as future mission concepts targeting Enceladus. These efforts offer unprecedented [...]

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What lies beneath the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon? This question is central to the upcoming Dragonfly mission, which will deploy a drone equipped with scientific instruments on Titan’s surface in the coming years. Among them is a seismometer designed to record ground vibrations. But does Titan shake enough…

Planetary Research is the first and only diamond open-access journal that is devoted exclusively to the field of planetary science. The journal is community-led, all articles are free to access, and authors pay no fees to publish with us. The journal will publish manuscripts on all topics in planetary science…

We will not review manuscripts for closed-access journals Scientific research in the field of planetary science is often, if not exclusively, undertaken using public funds, and the output of most research is published in scientific journals so that others may use and build upon the results. When scientific research is…

Mark V. Sykes Planetary Science Institute January 2, 2026 2025 has been a difficult year for all science in the United States. Science agencies, including NASA and NSF, are being threatened with wildly reduced funding levels in the President's Budget Request for 2026 with implementation underway at different levels in…

The first week of January should mean writing and editing abstracts for LPSC - but this year, these abstracts are subject to potential censorship and rejection (and with a non-refundable submission fee at that). The Planetary Workforce Integration, Development, and Empowerment Community Alliance (PWIDE) has penned an open letter regarding…

There are a large number of academic journals to choose from as a planetary scientist when publishing one's work. Most of our work today is published in a handful of well-respected journals, many of which have served our community well for decades. However, over the last decade or so, the…

The Europlanet Winter School on Planetary Mapping has crossed the half-decade mark, continuing to ensure availability of content - including ad-free and tracking-free videos - on solarsystem.video. For the past couple of years, the school has operated without a Research Infrastructure, supported instead by Europlanet itself. Consequently, a (very affordable)…

Going to AGU? Put these Planetary-specific events on your schedule! On Monday, we have our named lectures. All Lectures are in room La Nouvelle C. The Whipple starts at 8:30, Shoemaker at 14:15, and Sagan at 16:15. On Tuesday evening from 18:00 to 19:30 all section receptions will occur together in the "Science Connects Us Reception". Look for Planetary in the dark…

Have you ever needed to collect signatures to support a white paper, a mission concept or a proposal? Or have you ever organized some kind a petition that needed community support? If so, you probably realized that there are no good solutions. Many people use forms or shared spreadsheets, but…

Supporting the dissemination of scientific research in planetary science