Andy Weir, author of "The Martian", a realistic tale of survival in space, is about to release his second and highly anticipated novel, "Artemis"."Artemis" takes place on the moon in the 2080s at humanity's first and only lunar city of the same name. It's a riveting story about a high-stakes lunar heist featuring Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara, a Saudi-born woman and witty smuggler who has lived inside the aluminum bubbles of Artemis since she was a kid.

There’s been serious talk of late about sending people to Mars, the goal of which is to establish a permanent colony on the Red Planet, perhaps within the next decade. Assuming astronauts can survive the six-month-long journey in one piece, human life in the lethal Martian environment presents its own challenges. Sustainable habitation requires shelter, water, food and recreation, none of which exist on Mars in any usable form...

Lukas Pilkey was so excited last week he could have leaped over the moon. The Shiloh 6-year-old got to meet one of his heroes — retired Air Force Col. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. “It was really cool,” Lukas said with an ear-to-ear smile while donning a T-shirt with an astronaut on it. Lukas, his parents, Greg and Aerica Pilkey, and Aerica’s dad, Mike Dreps, stood in line for over three hours on Wednesday, Nov. 15 to get into the Center for Global Citizenship at St. Louis University to hear the famous astronaut speak.

These new findings indicate that present-day Mars may not have a significant volume of liquid water. The water-restricted conditions that exist on Mars would make it difficult for Earth-like life to exist near the surface of the planet.

The Mars Curiosity rover has been a big success, but NASA's modern tech couldn't save its tires from breaking down in the harsh conditions of Mars. For future missions, the agency has gone back to the age of knights. Based on the principals of chainmail armor, the "Superelastic" tires can withstand more deformation than any other non-pneumatic tire. At the same time, they could potentially withstand extraplanetary abuse and provide better traction for next-generation rovers.

The lone survivor of the first mission to Mars uses his last moments to pass the torch of inspiration.

SpaceX has raised nearly $500 million as part of the latest funding round valuing the company at $21.5 billion, according to Equidate.

So what does SpaceX CEO Elon Musk think of Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s claim that the first people to set foot on Mars will arrive on a Boeing rocket? “Do it,” Musk tweeted, in one of many two-word comebacks that might have come to mind. The latest round of media jousting started when CNBC’s Jim Cramer brought up Mars during an interview with Muilenburg. “Who’s going to get a man on Mars first, you or Elon Musk?” Cramer asked.

Despite the absence of a global Earth-like magnetic dipole, the Martian atmosphere is well protected from the effects of the solar wind on ion escape from the planet. New research shows this using measurements from the Swedish particle instrument ASPERA-3 on the Mars Express spacecraft. The results have recently been presented in a doctoral thesis by Robin Ramstad, Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Umeå University, Sweden.

As incredible as it is to believe, NASA’s Opportunity rover is still going strong on Mars, nearly fourteen years after landing in January 2004. And now once again, it has just passed the shortest daylight time of the Martian year, the worst part of the Martian winter, with pretty clean solar panels to boot. Unlike the newer Curiosity rover which uses nuclear power, Opportunity, and its now-dead twin Spirit, uses solar panels for energy. At the same time, the rover continues to study an ancient gully thought to have been carved by water in the distant past.

A handout photo released by the European Space Agency on Feb. 2, 2017, shows a perspective view of the Mars north polar ice cap and its distinctive dark troughs forming a spiral-like pattern.

When searching for life, scientists first look for an element key to sustaining it: fresh water. Although today’s Martian surface is barren, frozen and inhabitable, a trail of evidence points to a once warmer, wetter planet, where water flowed freely. The conundrum of what happened to this water is long standing and unsolved. However, new research published in Nature suggests that this water is now locked in the Martian rocks.

Scientists debate what could be causing annual cycles and occasional spikes

New NASA images show layers of ice peeking out of eroded cliffs—a potential boon for future humans on the red planet. Eroded banks throughout Mars's mid-latitudes reveal underground bands of bluish material. Spectra of these layers—which start three to six feet beneath the surface—strongly suggest that they are made of water ice.

College students at Villanova University found that hops, leafy greens, carrots and scallions all could grow in an approximation of Martian dirt.

As an eighteen-year-old immigrant to the U.S., Franklin Chang Díaz dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now, decades after tying the record for most spaceflights, he might be the best bet to get us to Mars.

Exploring today's weather on Mars and in your area with the Curiosity Rover.

People who live on Mars may need to be genetically altered to be resistant to radiation. And while it might seem a long way off, research is already underway to work out how this can be done.

Watch live: A heavy-duty rocket from Elon Musk’s private company launches for the first time and aims to make spaceflight cheaper and easier.

"Today SpaceX achieved a spectacular and historic success. Seven years ago, the Augustine commission said that NASA's Moon program had to be cancelled, because the development of the necessary heavy lift booster would take 12 years and 36 billion dollars. SpaceX has now done that, on its own dime, in half the time and a twentieth of the cost. And not only that, but the launch vehicle is three quarters reusable. This is a revolution. The naysayers have been completely refuted. The Moon is now within reach. Mars is now within reach.