By This Hour Science Desk

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is using its 90th anniversary to frame a future that ranges from aircraft intended for Mars to drones proposed for the lunar south pole, alongside missions aimed at the Sun, potentially hazardous asteroids and Earth’s changing surface. The laboratory’s account presents the plans as the next chapter in an institutional history that began with small-scale rocket experiments in Southern California and grew into a major center for robotic exploration and space communications.

The anniversary carries a practical as well as commemorative purpose. JPL’s record, as described by NASA, includes landmark spacecraft and instruments that shaped the laboratory’s role in planetary science, astrophysics and Earth observation. Its prospective work points toward a wider mix of problems: looking for ice on Mars, studying solar activity, assessing objects that could threaten Earth and measuring environmental conditions closer to home.

Much of that agenda is still prospective. NASA has set out intended launch years and broad objectives for several missions, but the available account does not provide a full account of their budgets, final schedules, technical readiness or the decisions that will determine whether each proceeds as outlined. The anniversary narrative is therefore both a review of accomplishments and a statement of institutional ambition.

From Arroyo Seco tests to a NASA laboratory

NASA traces JPL’s beginning to Oct. 31, 1936, when Caltech graduate students and other enthusiasts conducted rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco. The laboratory did not start as a NASA organization. It initially worked as a contractor for the U.S. Army, before joining the newly formed space agency in 1958. It is now managed by Caltech for NASA, an arrangement that places a university-linked research institution at the center of a federal space program.

That transition year also produced Explorer 1, which NASA describes as the first U.S. satellite. The agency says the spacecraft was more than an object placed in orbit: an onboard Geiger counter detected radiation belts around Earth. In NASA’s telling, the result established a pattern for JPL missions in which engineering systems were built to return scientific observations, rather than only demonstrate that a vehicle could reach space.

The agency credits JPL with a succession of other milestones. These include the first U.S. mission to the Moon, a first planetary flyby, a probe that visited all four gas giants, the first infrared telescope, the first rovers on Mars and the first rotorcraft flight on the red planet. The claims span distinct eras and mission types, but together they explain why NASA has presented the laboratory’s anniversary as a platform for discussing future exploration rather than as a purely historical observance.

JPL Director Dave Gallagher has characterized the laboratory’s earlier missions as work that expanded understanding of the universe and said future missions would build from that record. The statement gives the anniversary a clear institutional message: prior achievements are being invoked as a foundation for projects still to come, not as proof that each new project is assured of success.

Mars and Moon concepts set out a busy late-decade agenda

Among the plans described by NASA is SkyFall, a JPL-managed Mars mission targeting a 2028 launch. The concept calls for three helicopters to be released during descent. Their proposed tasks are to map hidden ice deposits and examine weather patterns. If carried out, it would extend aerial exploration of Mars beyond a single rotorcraft and use multiple vehicles to gather observations across the descent and flight campaign.

NASA also says JPL is developing MoonFall for a 2028 mission to the lunar south pole. The proposal calls for a group of large propulsive drones to land there and is presented as supporting NASA’s Moon Base effort. The source does not establish the mission’s final configuration, landing timetable or operational plan, so the description should be read as an announced direction rather than a completed capability.

Another mission, SunRISE, is described as aiming for launch in 2027. NASA says it would use six small satellites flying in formation to create the effect of a much larger radio antenna. The objective is to study solar activity, research that NASA says could help improve the safety of human space exploration. Formation flying is central to the stated concept: rather than relying on one large instrument, the mission would coordinate several smaller spacecraft to make measurements together.

JPL also manages NEO Surveyor, an asteroid-hunting mission intended to search for potentially hazardous objects that other telescopes may miss. NASA’s stated purpose is detection followed by an assessment of any threat and planning based on what is found. The distinction matters. A survey mission is meant to improve knowledge of the object population; it does not itself resolve every potential hazard. Its value would lie in finding objects and providing the information needed for subsequent judgments.

Earth observation broadens the laboratory’s remit

The laboratory’s future-facing portfolio is not limited to distant destinations. NASA says JPL is working on Earth-science missions that would monitor water movement through subtle shifts in gravity, investigate the formation of powerful tropical convective storms and examine how types of air pollution affect human health. Those themes connect spacecraft and instruments to questions with direct terrestrial consequences, while still requiring the remote sensing and data systems associated with space science.

NISAR, the NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, is among the Earth-observation work cited in the anniversary account. NASA describes it as a joint mission with India’s space agency that can identify changes in Earth’s surface associated with natural disasters. The stated capability is significant because surface changes may provide a way to examine the effects of destructive events over broad areas. The source, however, does not specify how observations would be used by emergency agencies or what limits might apply in particular conditions.

NASA also points to the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, or AVIRIS, a series of instruments flown on aircraft. The agency says these JPL-developed sensors can detect rare Earth elements, materials important to modern technology. Unlike an orbital platform, an aircraft-based instrument can be deployed for targeted observations, though the available material does not detail the range, frequency or operational constraints of those flights.

The same account links the laboratory’s Microdevices Laboratory to camera-on-a-chip technology used in mobile phones. It says the facility is also developing detectors for PRIMA, a newly announced far-infrared astrophysics mission. PRIMA is intended to study radiant energy observable only in the far-infrared, according to NASA. Taken together, the examples portray JPL’s role as extending from full spacecraft and planetary missions to smaller components, detectors and sensing technologies with both scientific and everyday applications.

Voyager provides the longest view of JPL’s legacy

The anniversary comes shortly before a milestone NASA assigns to Voyager 1. The agency says the spacecraft is expected to reach a distance of one light-day from Earth on Nov. 18, a measure it gives as about 16 billion miles, or 26 billion kilometers. A light-day refers to the distance light travels in 24 hours, making the projected mark a vivid way to convey how remote the spacecraft has become.

NASA says both Voyager spacecraft are continuing through interstellar space and rely on the Deep Space Network for commands and scientific data. JPL developed that network during the Apollo era, according to the agency. The pairing illustrates the laboratory’s long-term role: a mission can continue producing or transmitting scientific information many years after launch only if a ground-based communications system can sustain contact over extraordinary distances.

Voyager’s continuing journey also provides a useful counterweight to the anniversary’s optimistic timetable of new missions. The laboratory’s historical influence is not confined to launches or headline firsts. It includes the long maintenance of technologies, communications and scientific operations needed to keep spacecraft useful over decades. At the same time, longevity does not make future outcomes predictable; planned Mars, lunar, solar and asteroid missions each face their own engineering and programmatic tests.

A celebration built around promises still to be tested

NASA’s account depicts JPL as an institution moving simultaneously in several directions: outward to Mars, the Moon and interstellar space; upward toward the Sun; and back toward Earth’s water, atmosphere, surface and natural hazards. That breadth is the central significance of the laboratory’s 90-year message. The organization is presenting exploration and Earth science not as competing missions but as connected expressions of its scientific and engineering remit.

There are clear limits to what can be concluded from the material available. The account is a NASA publication about a NASA laboratory and relies on the agency’s own presentation of historical priority, current capabilities and future plans. It gives no external assessment of the projects, no detailed schedule analysis and no independent evaluation of the stated milestones. The report has not been independently corroborated.

For now, the firmest point is NASA’s own intent: JPL is marking nine decades by tying its early rocket tests and past spacecraft accomplishments to a pipeline of proposed missions and instruments. Whether the forthcoming work reaches its stated launch windows and achieves its scientific goals will depend on developments not addressed in the source material.

For further context on this subject, see NASA moves SR-1 Freedom nuclear power module toward planned Mars mission.

Reporting notes

What is confirmed: NASA says SkyFall and MoonFall target 2028, while SunRISE targets 2027. Voyager spacecraft remain in contact through the Deep Space Network.

Why this matters: The plans show how a laboratory known for robotic exploration is positioning its capabilities for both space missions and Earth monitoring.

What remains unclear: The supplied material does not detail final schedules, funding, technical readiness or independent assessments of the planned missions. This report is based on one source and has not been independently corroborated.

Sources