NASA’s James Webb telescope mirror undergoing cryogenic testing.
Ball Aerospace/Flickr
India may land on the Moon this coming year, while Nasa will launch its new, powerful rocket farther into space than any other human rated spacecraft.
NASA
We’ve already sent probes to land on Mars. The challenge now is to get people there and bring them home again.
Starship prototype test fight.
SpaceX/EPA
Starship’s groundbreaking design will help it land safely on Mars one day.
Scientists have discovered that the gray mouse lemur has the ability to hibernate.
(Shutterstock)
Gray mouse lemurs are more closely related to humans than mice. They also have the ability to hibernate, and researchers are hoping to learn how to transfer that ability to humans.
Artist’s concept of astronauts and human habitats on Mars.
NASA
It is becoming increasingly clear that there is plenty of brine on Mars.
Mars 2020 Perseverance space mission launches from Kennedy Space Center.
CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA-EE
With a new president in the White House and NASA’s chief administrator resigning we can expect changes to space policy.
ESA / DLR / FU Berlin
Three newly discovered bodies of liquid water deep beneath the south polar ice cap on Mars have planetary scientists intrigued.
There seems to be a network of underground bodies of liquid water at Mars’ south pole.
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
New findings boost chances of finding life on Mars, but there are better candidates in the solar system.
Purple microbial mats offer clues to how ancient life functioned.
Pieter Visscher
How ancient microbes survived in a world without oxygen has been a mystery. Scientists discovered a living microbial mat that uses arsenic instead of oxygen for photosynthesis and respiration.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover takes a selfie on Mars in June, 2018.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The clouds of Venus may harbour alien life. But where else?
Illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Perseverance rover onboard Mars
2020 is our best bet for finding life on the red planet.
The Perseverance Rover (Mars 2020) installed within the upper stage of the United Launch Alliance rocket that will send it to Mars from Florida this week.
Australian scientists have been working on NASA’s latest Mars mission for years.
In a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., engineers observed the first driving test for the Mars rover, Perseverance. Perseverance will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize Mars’ climate and geology, and collect samples for a future return to Earth.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
This summer, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is taking the next giant leap in our search for signs of life beyond Earth.
Rocket carrying the Hope probe.
MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES HAND/EPA
In just a few years, the Hope mission has boosted UAE’s economy and science capacity.
Star trails in the desert.
TARIQ_M_1 / Getty Images
A new country launches a mission to Mars. A space expert explains what this means for the Middle East and the African continent.
It has been estimated that there will be one surgical emergency every 2.4 years on a mission to Mars.
T. Trapp/BJS Surgery
Space agencies are seeking new ways to be prepared for a surgical emergency on a mission to Mars.
Artist’s rendition of NASA’s 2020 Mars rover collecting rocks with its robotic arm.
NASA
Martian meteorites allow scientists here on Earth to decode that planet’s geology, more than a decade before the first missions are scheduled to bring rocks back home from Mars.
Over the last 50 years, a lot has changed in rocketry. The fuel that powers spaceflight might finally be changing too.
CSA-Printstock/DIgital Vision Vectors via Getty Images
An update of 50-year-old regulations has kickstarted research into the next generation of rockets. Powered by nuclear fission, these new systems could be the key to faster, safer exploration of space.
Who owns the Moon?
Henglein and Steets/Getty Images
US and international law conflicts about who would be in charge if a private company established a Moon base or colonized Mars.
A researcher in a spacesuit on “Mars” outside the Mars Society Desert Research Station in Utah.
David Howells/Corbis Historical via Getty Images
Understanding isolation’s effects on regular people, rather than those certified to have ‘the right stuff,’ will help prepare us for the future, whether another pandemic or interplanetary space travel.