PRAXIS: a NASA mission to graze planet rings
NASA has selected the PRAXIS mission concept for phase I funding, which aims to explore planetary rings using an AI-driven robotic explorer. The spacecraft will perform touch-and-go sampling of ring particles using a deployable boom to avoid collision hazards.
Why it matters
This mission represents a pioneering approach to planetary science, potentially unlocking new data on the formation and composition of ring systems in our solar system.
PRAXIS is an acronym of ‘Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling’. NASA has just selected a mission concept called ‘PRAXIS’ for its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) 2026 phase I funding.
The mission will consist of a bio-inspired robotic explorer driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) model. It will be capable of directly sampling particles from planetary ring systems — something no mission has ever attempted before. The mission’s selection for NIAC was guided by open questions in the science of planets’ rings that NASA’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey has flagged as important.
These questions include how planetary rings form, how they evolve, and what ring particles are made of.
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