Keck Institute for Space Studies

Grateful for an incredible panel at Ascend 2026 with Evgenya Shkolnik, Jim Green, Charles Norton & Jon Arenberg.

A key takeaway? Interdisciplinary collaboration makes ideas stronger, and the space sector needs more of these conversations. 🚀

The latest KISS newsletter is available, including updates on:
📆 Upcoming KISS Events - panels and lecture
🪐 2026 KISS study programs
👩‍🚀 KISS Impact - papers and presentations
🚀 Recent KISS activities - Yuri’s Night, recent talks, annual report

Read it in full:

KISS Quarterly Newsletter - Q2 2026 👩‍🚀 KISS Impact - KISS continues to make significant impact in many different areas of space exploration, science, and engineering

The Keck Institute for Space Studies is leading a panel on interdisciplinary collaboration for advancing space science, exploration, and technology at ASCEND 2026 (AIAA - The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics).

Join us from 1:30 -2:15pm on Wed May 20 at the International Ballroom to hear from our invited panelists and Executive Director!

Learn more about the Red Planet at "Mars through the Ages", a talk presented by invited speakers Bonnie Teece (Cornell University) and Brandi Carrier (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)!

Location: Sharp Lecture Hall, Caltech
Time: Refreshments 4:30pm, Lecture 5:00pm

To register: https://bit.ly/2026_Mars

🚀 Curious about the future of space science?
KISS hosts public lectures throughout the year including recent talks by John Mather on hybrid space-ground observatories, and Zac Manchester on building a tiny open-course space program.
View past recordings: https://youtube.com/user/KISSCaltech/videos/videos

The lecture recording from Zac Manchester's () talk is available on our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-KVa5O73XQ

Watch the video to learn more about the future of low-cost missions and open-source programming.

To view past lectures, visit:
https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/lectures.html

Building a Tiny Open-Source Space Program: From ChipSats to Autonomous Swarms Presented by the Keck Institute for Space StudiesAbstract:The aerospace industry has experienced a dramatic shift over the last decade: Flying a spacecraft h...

We were excited to hear Dr. Nicky Fox talk about potential mission concepts that could move the cutting edge significantly during the NASA Ignition event - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYH6W9iCs2E, many of which KISS has convened in-depth technical studies on, including low-cost standardized space telescopes, rapid response missions to near earth objects and comets, rendezvousing with Apophis, and the science of Uranus. All our reports are published online: https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/final_reports.html

Great launch party here at KISS with our wonderful affiliates as the crew of Artemis II begins their journey to the moon!

Congratulations on a successful launch and we look forward to their return after the mission is complete! 🚀🌕

Join us on Wed 4/8 for a talk from Zac Manchester of MIT as he highlights the exciting capabilities of low-cost missions in the era of open-source programming, computation, networking, and autonomy.

Register here: https://bit.ly/2026_Manchester
Read more: https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/lectures/2026_Manchester.html

This topic was the subject of a recent KISS study where world-leading scientists and technologists convened at Caltech for in-depth technical discussions to develop these ideas further. Read more on the KISS website and stay tuned for the final report: https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/workshops/hybrid/hybrid.html

Congrats to Keck Institute for Space Studies study leads, Ahmed Soliman & Stuart Shaklan of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, & John Mather of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, & team, whose work on hybrid space-ground observatories made the Nature Astronomy cover! Thanks to Keith Miller of SELab Caltech IPAC for visualizing!
Read here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02787-9