This week, NASA’s Curiosity rover stumbled across the best evidence yet that liquid water once covered much of Mars in the planet’s distant past: undulating rippled rock formations – now frozen in time – that were sculpted by the waves of an ancient shallow lake.

This discovery offers new insights into the water history of Mars and the possibility of ancient life on the Red Planet.

In July 1969, as the Apollo 11 astronauts prepared to trek to the moon, the Nixon Administration prepped some worst-case-scenario remarks in case this risky mission became deadly — a distinct possibility. Nixon's prepared statement, which was not widely publicized until 1999, was grim. It thanked the astronauts for their brave sacrifice, preceded by a clergyman who would've adopted the same procedure as a burial at sea: commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," and concluding with the Lord's Prayer.

The red planet? More like the dust planet.And the video here shows all the ways you can die on Mars.

Using hundreds of high-resolution photos of Mars surface taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Jan Fröjdman made this stunning video which depicts what a flyover of the planet might look like. (From 2017)

Once again, the idea that space is going to be Vegetarian, is making the rounds of social media. There is close to no chance of that happening. If people can live there, they can make a profit raising meat there, and will. Only violence against those that want to do it can prevent it. That level of violence is costly, has little chance of succeeding and would most likely see the project ended.

Since the 1990s, several architectures have been drafted for crewed missions to Mars, all of which have emphasized the need for keeping launch mass low. Suggestions for how this could be accomplished include inflatable modules. But as Dr. Jin emphasized in her proposal, the physical structures used to outfit the inflatable modules cannot be carried by a crewed spacecraft and generally require a second vehicle to launch them. This is a logistical challenge for missions and drastically increases launch costs.

NASA selected a nuclear propulsion concept for Phase I development as part of its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for 2023. The Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) concept is a new class of bimodal nuclear propulsion system that uses a "wave rotor topping cycle," as per a NASA blog post.

This futuristic dream-like scenario is being sold to us as a real scientific possibility, with billionaires planning to move humanity to Mars in the near future. For decades, children have grown up with the daring movie adventures of intergalactic explorers and the untold habitable worlds they find. Many of the highest-grossing films are set on fictional planets, with paid advisors keeping the science ‘realistic’. At the same time, narratives of humans trying to survive on a post-apocalyptic Earth have also become mainstream.

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has been on Mars for almost two years and the high-tech contraption is still in good enough shape to get airborne.

The surface of Mars gets somewhat warm during the summer, but on average, temperatures on the surface are around -81 degrees F. It’s too cold for human life, and in case you didn’t know, Mars has snow, frost, and even dry ice. NASA recently released a slew of images showing the “winter wonderland on Mars,” and the photos are wild. It’s not often that we get a look at winter on Mars, mainly because the red planet’s elliptical orbit takes a lot longer than Earth.

At its "Destination: Space 2050" event in October Lockheed Martin (one of the largest American aerospace, advanced technologies and defense companies) shared its vision of a vibrant space economy in the year 2050. Here Lockheed Martin envisions a future on Mars with "power beaming, laser communications and robotic in-situ construction for a sustainable living and economic environment". Note company's conceptual Mars lander on the landing pad.

Nasa’s InSight lander has delivered what could be its final message from Mars, where it has been on a history-making mission to reveal the secrets of the Red Planet’s interior. In November the space agency warned the lander’s time may becoming to an end as dust continued to thicken and choke out the InSight’s power.

NASA can now say what a dust devil sounds like on Mars. A NASA rover had its microphone on by chance when a whirling tower of red dust passed directly overhead, recording the racket. It is about 10 seconds of not only rumbling gusts of up to 40kph (25mph), but the pinging of hundreds of dust particles against the rover Perseverance. Scientists released the first-of-its-kind audio Tuesday.

What's a dust devil sound like on Mars? A NASA rover by chance had its microphone on when a whirling tower of red dust passed directly overhead, recording the racket. It's about 10 seconds of not only rumbling gusts of up to 25 mph, but the pinging of hundreds of dust particles against the rover Perseverance. Scientists released the first-of-its-kind audio Tuesday.

The Mars InSight lander included the first seismograph placed on the red planet, and it has picked up everything from marsquakes to impacts and provided lots of new information on Mars' interior. But perhaps its most striking finding has been that almost all of Mars' seismic activity appears to originate from a single location, a site called Elysium Planitia.

NASA's InSight lander detected an unusual quake on Mars. Then the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a fresh impact crater.

Caroline Smith, who works at the Natural History Museum, discusses a new discovery made by a NASA rover that may provide evidence of past life on Mars.

Mars has seen many missions over the years. But which are still ongoing? Here's a list of all active robots on Mars today.

A new study has revealed that the weird parallel grooves on the surface of Mars' largest moon Phobos could be a sign that the Red Planet's gravity is ripping the satellite apart.