I don't have an updates on ARTEMIS since August. There has been some news on Chang'e 3: the lander survived the four-hour duration of the lunar eclipse in September, using the opportunity to perform observations with its one remaining functional instrument, its ultraviolet telescope. Meanwhile, I don't know whether Yutu is alive or not, and I haven't had any information on the status of Chang'e 5 T1 for a long time.

OSIRIS-REx has successfully checked out all its science instruments and is now in its Outbound Cruise phase. Today it is 12.38 million kilometers from Earth. Its next major event is an Earth flyby on September 23, 2017. Keep up with the mission via Twitter.

Near-Earth Asteroids

Hayabusa2 is now 135 million kilometers from Earth and 53 million kilometers from Ryugu. It's on track for a July 2018 arrival at the asteroid.

Mars

It's now nearly summer solstice in the southern hemisphere landing sites of the two Mars rovers, the hottest part of the year, when warmer nighttime temperatures mean less motor preheating and more active days for the rovers. Mars will be at perihelion on October 29, and the solstice is on November 28. Perihelion is also when we can start expecting dust storms, and indeed the skies are getting more opaque now.

This is the month of ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter's Mars arrival. Schiaparelli will separate from the orbiter on October 16 at 14:42 UT. Entry into Mars' atmosphere is expected exactly 3 days later. For the orbiter, the Mars orbit insertion burn will begin on October 19 at 13:09 UTC and will last about 134 minutes. Confirmation of a successful orbit entry will come from radio tracking of the spacecraft's changing velocity by ESA and NASA ground stations at 15:23 UTC. Here's more detail about what to expect on arrival day. I had to choose between covering Rosetta and ExoMars from Germany, so I'll be watching this one from home. I've asked Irish space blogger Ruth McAvinia to be The Planetary Society's on-the-ground reporter for this event, so look forward to her posts!

Mars Express Mars Webcam recent images and Mars Odyssey THEMIS image releases continue to include enjoyable views of the defrosting south polar ice cap, nearly at solstice. I thought this one from Odyssey was particularly nice: