{
  "id": 5576271,
  "title": "PESTO Directed Funding",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/04/pesto-directed-funding",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-04T14:52:14.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "NASA Science",
    "slug": "nasa-science",
    "url": "https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/programs/pesto/directed-funding/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Planetary Exploration Science Technology Office (PESTO) has announced directed funding for the Entry Systems Modeling (ESM) project, which develops mission-focused models and simulation tools to improve planetary entry, descent, and landing (EDL) performance, reduce risk, and enable new capabilities. The ESM project's products have been incorporated into various NASA spaceflight missions, including Orion/Artemis, Mars 2020, Mars Sample Return Earth Entry System (MSR-EES), and Sample Retrieval Lander (MSR-SRL), as well as Dragonfly and DAVINCI. Additionally, the Global Reference Atmospheric Model (GRAM) project, funded by SMD, is developing advanced planetary atmosphere models used by numerous Entry, Descent, and Landing proposals and active flight/development projects such as MAVEN, OSIRIS, Mars Sample Return Campaign, MSL, Earth Entry System (EES), and Sample Retrieval Lander.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}