Mars has hosted a surprising number of robotic visitors, yet the question of where humans should touch down remains wide open. As engineers refine maps of potential Mars landing sites, one location ...

Back in 2007, I talked with Rob Manning, engineer extraordinaire at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he told me something shocking. Even though he had successfully led the entry, descent, and ...

For decades, the case for sending people to Mars has rested on a mix of romance, rivalry, and raw curiosity. Now a cluster of new findings and a sweeping scientific roadmap have turned that dream into ...