Space Exploration
NASA’s ‘Nuclear Option’ May Be Crucial for Getting Humans to Mars
After decades of false starts, a new push for nuclear-powered rocketry could make or break the space agency’s plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet
Stories by David W. Brown
Space & Physics
NASA’s Next Low-Cost Planetary Science Missions Will Visit Venus or the Outer Solar System
With its selection of four candidates for its coveted Discovery class of interplanetary missions, the space agency seeks to handle some unfinished business
Space & Physics
Mission to Europa Gets New Instrument to Look for Signs of Habitability
Amid technical and political hurdles, a veteran planetary scientist takes charge of a key part of Europa Clipper, a spacecraft targeted at the solar system’s most intriguing moon
Space & Physics
Getting the Dirt on Creation—inside OSIRIS-REx's First Close Look at Bennu
NASA’s first sample-return mission to an asteroid is a voyage into the genesis of our solar system—and, perhaps, the precursors to life’s origins on Earth
