These are notes from a presentation by Bill Higgins and Henry Spencer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not the speakers’. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:

Bill and Henry fill you in on recent developments in space, starting with a look at the latest interstellar comet, Comet 3I/ATLAS (as seen mostly by spacecraft).

• 2017: 1I/ʻOumuamua
• 2019: 2I/Borisov
• 2025: 3I/Atlas

All travelling faster than solar escape velocity, hence interstellar. Observed by multiple spacecraft

Some discussion about landers. Blue Ghost lunar lander. Short and squat, like the Apollo lander, works. Solar eclipse from lunar surface. The Mars Polar Lander, also shot and squat, failed. The Phoenix lander, similarly shaped, succeeded in its Martian mission.

Kepler’s Somnium. Novel. Has description about how Earth might looked when viewed from the moon.

The SpaceX Starship will require refueling in space, with other Starships as tankers. Will not be easy.

2024 YR₄. Near Earth asteroid. Current calculations say it will not hit Earth in 2032, but that possibility had been considered earlier. Really should have been discussed in Killer Asteroids, but Henry’s time there was limited.

NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission has been cancelled.