Signs from the Heavens: Ditch the Shuttle, Head for Mars
While the pock-marked shuttle is grounded by a hailstorm, left, the Rosetta spacecraft is photographing Mars, right, in three-dimensional glory (if you put on 3D glasses). (Photos: NASA, ESA) I...
View ArticleThe Wet Planet: Mars with Ocean
More than 2 billion years ago, Mars was a blue planet spinning on a different axis, according to a team of U.S. and Canadian researchers. In the image at left, the blue area shows the outline of the...
View ArticleHow Nigh Is the End? Predictions for Geysers, Marriages, Poker Streaks and...
Imagine you have just landed on another planet and entered Geyser Intergalactic Park. You know nothing about geysers except that they sometimes start shooting liquid and sometimes stop. You see two...
View ArticleMeanwhile, the Weather on Mars...
UPDATE (Monday, July 23, 3 p.m.): Mission controllers received telemetry from both rovers this morning that indicates the power situation has stabilized and that skies might be clearing a little....
View ArticleA Bad P.R. Day for NASA
UPDATE (Friday, July 27, 4 p.m.): For those hoping for juicy details on the drunk astronauts, there aren't any. The review panel was told of anecdotes of two astronauts who were intoxicated just prior...
View ArticleWould You Pay $5 for a Chance to Walk on Mars?
It's Mars Week here at the Lab. I want to consider arguments that it's too soon to go Mars and I'd like to debate how Mars should be colonized.
View ArticleIs the Moon Dull? Not to the Maker of "Doom" and "Quake"
I've never thought much of plans to return to the Moon, which I see as a distraction from the far more exciting trip to Mars. But after using my column to ask rich entrepeneurs to go to Mars, I'm glad...
View ArticleHot Springs - and Life? - on Mars
A rut in the surface of Mars, created by the stuck wheel of the rover Spirit, shows a white layer of 90-percent-pure silica - a welcome discovery to researchers looking for life on Mars....
View ArticleSpace Exploration Quiz
This won't be on the space exploration quiz: The newest explorer, NASA's Phoenix, in an artist's concept of its scheduled landing on Mars. (Credit: HO/AFP/Getty Images) In honor of the the Phoenix's...
View ArticleAnswers to Space Quiz
Spoiler alert: If you haven't taken the Space Exploration Quiz yet, go no further! Click here to take the 10-question quiz and get your answers scored immediately. But if you've already taken it, we...
View ArticleSpace Quiz Winner
After going through more than 200 entries from readers, the Lab judges have picked a winner in the Space Exploration Quiz. You can read about the quiz and see all the entries by clicking here. (You can...
View ArticleWho Cares if There's Ice on Mars?
Water water almost everywhere on Mars. Frozen water, anyway. But we knew that already. Does NASA overplay its "follow the water" mantra of Mars exploration?
View ArticleFor Sale: Moon and Mars
Would you like to buy some real estate on Mars or the Moon?Settlers on the Moon or Mars could legally claim and sell private plots of land, according to experts at the Space Settlement Institute. They...
View ArticleSo This Is Why We Sent Rovers to Mars
Are panoramic photographs really a spinoff of space exploration?
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