Mars

Flying on Mars isn't just hard, it may be the hardest thing you can do in aerospace engineering – and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California has just broken through one of its biggest barriers yet.

The US space agency's latest breakthrough in experimental drives passed a major test in February, with experiments showing it was 25 times more powerful than the current king of ion drive technology, Psyche.

Northrop Grumman has successfully ground tested the motor that could be used for the historic first orbital rocket launch from another planet. The solid rocket booster is intended to help return the first geological samples from the planet Mars.

NWA 16788 was ejected from its own planet by a massive asteroid collision, wandered around in space for ages, before landing on Earth 140 million miles from where it started. And it could be yours (if your pockets are deep enough).

Next time you're driving around on Mars and need to get your tire replaced, chances are good it'll look something like a revolutionary new version made by NASA and Goodyear. The mesh cage design can take a beating and roll right on.

2024 has been a year in space that has seen successes, failures, a clutch of firsts, and some goodbyes – not to mention a long-distance probe rescue, spacesuits on the catwalk, and a couple of cosmic oddities. Let's have a look back.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that the first of his company's Starship spacecraft will set off for Mars in two years and the first crewed missions will follow in 2028. He sees this as part of his plan to make humanity an interplanetary species.

Elon Musk has given an update on Mars colonization plans, noting how the advances in SpaceX's Starship combined with plummeting launch costs could one day see thousands of ships heading for the Red Planet to support a colony of a million people.

The race is on to find viable materials for building on other planets, and one team has (thankfully) moved on from its last creation made of blood and urine to unveil a new biocomposite brick that's not only much stronger but a little more palatable.

New evidence has emerged in the debate about whether there’s liquid water on Mars. In a study led by the University of Cambridge, scientists examined the topology of Martian ice sheets and found signatures that match subglacial lakes here on Earth.

Sending materials into space is expensive, so the more astronauts can make on-site, the better. Engineers have now demonstrated how crushed Martian rock could be mixed with a titanium alloy to make 3D-printable building materials.

If we're going to colonize Mars, we'll need somewhere for astronauts to live. Hugh Broughton Architects is using its expertise sheltering humans in the harshest conditions on our planet to offer ideas on what shape future Mars habitats could take.