On the outskirts of Houston, four people have been living a version of the future that most of us only see in science fiction. For more than a year, they have been sealed inside a mock Martian base, cut off from real-time contact with Earth,

What everyone agrees on is that NASA needs a new spacecraft capable of relaying communications from Mars to Earth. This issue has become especially acute with the recent loss of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. NASA’s best communications relay remains the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has now been there for 20 years.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully completed its first drives on Mars entirely planned by artificial intelligence, navigating the rugged terrain of Jezero Crater without human route planners.

NASA's plans for Mars sample return are effectively cancelled as part of a bill approved by the U.S. Congress, ending efforts to collect Perseverance rover samples that could contain evidence of alien life.

Nasa has officially validated the first rover drives on Mars planned entirely by generative artificial intelligence. This milestone marks a shift toward autonomous space exploration.