This story appears in the November 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine. If there’s ever been life on Mars, she could be the one to find it. To discover the earliest signs of life on Earth ...

This story appears in the November 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine. In winter the temperature at the poles of Mars can reach 200° below zero Fahrenheit. But make no mistake: The red ...

This story appears in the August 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. Carl Sagan spent his childhood immersed in Mars. The future scientist, an avid reader of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s ...

Mars has been born afresh in the human mind with each exploratory thrust. Now it was happening again under the astonished gaze of Ken Edgett as he sat at his computer, tucked away in a leafy ...

Stevenson, a Scot, was exploring California in 1880 with his new bride. I’m one of a team of more than 500 travelers exploring Mars from California with the most sophisticated robot ever sent to ...

The red planet Mars, named for the Roman god of war, has long been an omen in the night sky. And in its own way, the planet’s rusty red surface tells a story of destruction. Billions of years ...

Emily Briere leads a student effort to deliver a “broad and full snapshot of Earth” to the red planet by satellite. 2 min read This story appears in the December 2016 issue of National ...

It's dustier than the road to death, drier than Dorothy Parker's martini, colder than the devil's kiss. Like much of Mars, the butterscotch plain is inhospitable, empty, ancient, and, when it ...

NASA aims to travel to the moon again—and beyond. Here’s a look at the 21st-century race to send humans into space. Private spaceflight is not a new concept. In the United States, commercial ...