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For decades, Mars has been the focus of intense interest and here are some of those updates that have recently transpired. NASA is preparing to launch its latest Mars probe, Curiosity (or the Mars Science […]

This trans-African colony could have rivalled Brazil for dominance of the Portuguese-speaking world.

Despite a dwindling budget, N.A.S.A. is planning ahead for missions to the moon, an asteroid or Mars by engineering a habitat suitable for astronauts on long-distance missions.

Martian soil could be very capable of supporting life, new data suggests. Previous analysis thought the surface was full of oxidizing compounds that would prevent its growth.

Our power to manipulate our brains and genes is increasing dramatically – and it raises serious ethical questions.

I’m not a big science fiction reader, but I admire how the genre has just enough of a toehold in reality that it feels plausibly weird. It stakes out the […]

N.A.S.A. is working with the private space exploration company, SpaceX, to plan a mission to Mars that would cost ‘millions, not billions’. The mission would search for signs of life. 

With the successful docking of its Tiangong space module and the Shenzhou-8 space craft this week – the so-called “Space Kiss” – China has shown the world that it is […]

In the last fifty years, a remarkable sea change has taken place in the field of astronomy: Life, once considered unfathomably rare, is now thought likely to exist elsewhere. 

The modern social science classic Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus will soon turn twenty. The book reinforces gender stereotypes that hurt society, says Niobe Way. 

A permanent robot presence on the Moon may be the most feasible option for future lunar exploration. Robonaut, the first humanoid robot in space, is taking baby steps in that direction. 

I enjoyed this recent article by Neal Stephenson in the World Policy Journal, but I think he and his editors may have buried their lede. Stephenson, a bestselling science fiction […]

The human exploration of Mars is not a task for some future generation. It is a task for ours, says aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin. In his new book, he details a feasible plan.

When Captain America was defrosted from a block of ice floating in the North Atlantic in Avengers #4 (1964), writer (and now national treasure) Stan Lee used an old idea […]

N.A.S.A.’s newest Mars rover, Curiosity, will be deployed to the planet to study rocks that may shed light on whether life existed there. But its cousin Opportunity may steal its thunder.

Long after the United States and the Soviet Union put their Cold War space race to bed, another cosmic competition is heating up. This one is taking place in the private sector.  

The recent controversy in Manila over local artist Mideo Cruz’s Kulo exhibition raises the question of how far an artist can go in terms of religious art in a religious […]

A European space telescope has found 10 previously unknown alien planets, all of which are gaseous like Saturn or Jupiter. They boost the count of extrasolar planets to 565.

Originally part of George W. Bush’s moon mission, a spaceship from N.A.S.A. based on an Orion space capsule is being re-purposed for missions to astroids and moons around Mars.

Just when we were starting to get over the shock that parts of the moon’s surface are wetter than the Sahara Desert, a new study reports that the lunar interior is sopping wet, too.

One of the most disappointing moments in an otherwise fairly encouraging Republican New Hampshire debate was that none of the seven candidates would continue federal funding for human space flight.  […]

His statue has stood outside the York Art Gallery for a century now, but most passersby don’t know the name of William Etty or the works that once made him […]

There are many reasons for us to visit Mars. A key motivation is that after Earth, it appears the most likely abode for life in our solar system. And there are some political factors.

Major scientific endeavors like space exploration require decades of planning and funding sources that can weather economic downturns. Will the results of the Google Lunar X Prize competition stand that assumption on its head?

Duke University neurologist Miguel Nicolelis has shown through experiments that the mind can be liberated from the body—in time, we will have out-of-body experiences that feel real, he says. 

Since Dennis Tito became the first space tourist at the beginning of the last decade, the commercial space industry has taken a great leap forward.

N.A.S.A. Administrator Charles Bolden recently spoke about private development of the American space program, getting help from the Russians and the future of deep space missions. 

Rather than hauling heavy atmospheric pumps from earth, the way to create a habitable atmosphere on Mars is to take advantage of its own topology, geography and nature.

This is the first of a few guests posts that will come up while I’m out in the field in the Sierras. Today’s post is my a longtime friend of […]

Rather than hauling heavy atmospheric pumps from earth, the way to create a habitable atmosphere on Mars is to take advantage of its own topology, geography and nature.