Mars

In 2012, I asked LeVar Burton (who comandeered the Scientific American website as guest editor on Wednesday) if he would join me on a trip across time and space, to another star.

The release of a long-awaited National Academy of Sciences report on the state and future of the US space program has triggered wide-reaching commentary on what it means to be space-faring.

A prestigious panel of scientists recommends sending humans to the Red Planet as the space agency's wisest long-range goal

Planetary geologists are set to narrow down a list of landing sites for a mission set for 2020

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. Its primary goals were to gather geological and environmental data from the planet.

A medical trauma in microgravity presents a unique set of problems. A sealed dome could isolate a wound to prevent blood droplets from drifting into a victim’s eyes, nose and throat as well as allow an unobstructed view during medical treatment

A recently published study of a 30-pound martian meteorite found in Antarctica suggests the presence of indigenous carbon-rich material, ancient water erosion, and a number of tiny structures that resemble the sort of features that we see rock-eating microbes leaving in basaltic glasses here on Earth.

About a month ago an intriguing pair of images from NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars showed a curious rock that had seemingly appeared our of nowhere during the course of 12 days.

Concordia station offers the isolation and hardships explorers will face on the Red Planet. Here, where participants can’t be rescued from an unforgiving environment, the danger is real
 

Emily Rice, astrophysics researcher at the American Museum of Natural History, answers question submitted to Scientific American's Space Lab channel.

Now you don’t see it, now you do. Ten years into a mission that was originally going to only last a few months, NASA’s Opportunity rover continues to turn up surprises on Mars.