“Scientists are on the verge of figuring out how to put humans in a state of suspended animation. It could be the key to colonizing Mars.”
space travel
Posted inEditor's Pick
Finding My Father Among the Astronauts
“It took more than a decade for me to realize that I never really wanted to become a pilot so much as I wanted to become like my dad, to achieve what others deemed impossible.”
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story, Technology
We’re Not Ready for Mars
Elon Musk can’t wait to send humans to the Moon and Mars. But before we land ourselves on other worlds, we need to remember how we’ve treated our own.
Posted inCurrent Events
Does Luxembourg Have Any Business Entering the Space Race?
A nation skilled in exploiting tax loopholes aims to be the first to make money from asteroid mining.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
Welcome to Mars, Sorry About the Face-Melting!
The Red Planet presents scientists with kinks they’ll need to figure out before you can book a shuttle.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Everything About Mars Is the Worst
It may be the worst, but this jerk planet is still humanity’s best hope for another home in the cosmos.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Year and a Day in a Mars Simulator: Reflections at the Halfway Mark
Sheyna Gifford, mission physician for NASA’s sMars simulation, reflects on her year-and-a-day “off-planet,” six months in.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Astronauts and the ‘Nutella Incident’
Their persistently cheery e-mail updates [from the crew in the Hawaii-based simulation] raise a question: Does a happy crew tell NASA anything useful? Binsted argues that upbeat blog posts don’t always tell the whole story. Small gripes often emerge in the post-study interviews, when subjects know that their replies will be kept anonymous. It was […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What Would Happen If We Lived on Mars
Cabin fever might set in quickly on Mars, and it might be contagious. Quarters would be tight. Governments would be fragile. Reinforcements would be seven months away. Colonies might descend into civil war, anarchy or even cannibalism, given the potential for scarcity. US colonies from Roanoke to Jamestown suffered similar social breakdowns, in environments that were Edenic by comparison. Some individuals might be able to endure these conditions for decades, or longer, but Musk told me he would need a million people to form a sustainable, genetically diverse civilisation.