For years, nuclear propulsion sat in the same category as so many ambitious space ideas, impressive on paper, always a few ...

A crewed expedition to Mars promises to push the absolute limits of human endurance. To grasp the sheer scale of the journey, ...

When your rover absolutely, positively must reach Mars on a budget, call SpaceX.

New study suggests a shortcut to Mars could reduce round-trip travel time to over five months, using a path inspired by a ...

A prototype ion engine that uses lithium vapor as a propellant has aced its first tests, achieving 25 times more power than ...

Inside a long vacuum chamber in Southern California, a spacecraft engine glowed white-hot as it pushed toward a level of ...

If you were to stand on the surface of Mars in two years and look up to the night sky, you might see a bright streak flying across the heavens, followed a few minutes later by another. Rather than ...

Electric propulsion is increasingly looking like the technology that will underlie a first attempt to walk on the Red Planet.

"I’d say that while an astronaut could make it to Mars they might need dialysis on the way back," researchers said.