Russian space officials proposed an ambitious project to send a six-person team to Mars by the year 2015, a trip that would mark a milestone in space travel and international space cooperation.
The discovery of potentially vast deposits of water ice close to the surface on Mars could breath new life into the notion of sending humans to explore the red planet.
A fleet of pint-size bulldozers may one day do the dirty work on Mars, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory report. Lightweight, solar-powered and intelligent, these robotic vehicles could aid in the search for life on the Red Planet or help support a human presence there.
Hungarian scientists claimed on Friday to have found evidence of living organisms on Mars after analyzing 60,000 photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor probe.
Several scientists have found compelling evidence that Viking Mars landers did indeed discover life on the red planet in 1976. A re-examination of findings relayed to Earth by the probes some 25 years ago, claim the experts, show the tell-tale signs of microbes lurking within the Martian soil.
A University of Southern California scientist argues that data collected from the 1975 Viking probes suggest the existence of Martian microbes.
Tom McNichol examines the risks inherent in a manned mission to Mars and argues for an incremental approach to exploring the Red Planet.
Sending humans to Mars with return tickets is technically and medically possible, but Russia cannot muster up the funds and resources necessary for such a costly program on its own, officials and experts said
Humans could venture to Mars in 20 years or less, NASA chief Daniel Goldin said, in comments that made orbital space flight sound positively last century.
Russia has overcome all main obstacles to manned interplanetary flight and should be ready to send humans to Mars ?in the second decade of this century?, the head of a once-secret space science institute has claimed.