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Imagining the everyday economy of the moon

Nov 28, 2017
Andy Weir, author of "The Martian" and now "Artemis," on what colonizing space might look like.
A plane flies past the moon at sunset on March 3, 2015, in London.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Weezer wants to be the first band on Mars

Oct 27, 2017
But in the meantime the rock band takes the Marketplace Quiz.
Rivers Cuomo (second from right) said the most surprising thing about being a musician is the amount of time spent in front of a computer.
Photo courtesy of Jeremy Cowart

The Source Code: Kim Stanley Robinson

Oct 24, 2017
Colonizing Mars won't be a moneymaker, according to sci fi author Kim Stanley Robinson.
Kim Stanley Robinson.
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

The economics of colonizing Mars

Oct 24, 2017
Would it be profitable? One science fiction writer isn't so sure.
An artist's conception of the Phoenix Mars lander on the red planet.
NASA/JPL via Getty Images

Should we fund the militarization of space?

Oct 3, 2017
Congress is debating whether the U.S. should create a Space Corps.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on June 2017 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images

NASA is testing supercomputers to send to Mars

Aug 14, 2017
And no, scientists won't be able to use them to peruse Facebook.
The NASA logo on a protective box for a camera near the space shuttle Endeavour April 28, 2011 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images

Reaching Mars is a hard sell, but not impossible

Mar 13, 2017
The U.S. lacks a long-term plan for traveling to the red planet.
Space exploration comes with a huge price, but it also comes with the benefit of adding jobs, says science journalist Rebecca Boyle.
S. MARTIN/AFP/Getty Images

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If NASA’s mission is refocused, what will that do to climate research?

Feb 17, 2017
NASA is the government’s space agency, but not all of what NASA does is linked to space. A good portion of its work is more inward looking and has to do with our own planet — things like weather and climate change. Some Republicans are talking about rebalancing NASA’s priorities and moving away from that […]

Why mud cracks on Mars matter

Jan 19, 2017
A scientist from the Curiosity team tells about the rover's latest find and what it's like to work on Martian time.
This view of a Martian rock slab called "Old Soaker," which has a network of cracks that may have originated in drying mud, comes from the mast camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
NASA

What Trump's presidency could mean for U.S. strategies in space

Dec 30, 2016
There are concerns about how he could influence NASA's climate change research.
An artist's impression of the planetary system around the red dwarf Gliese 581. 
ESO via Getty Images