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When Hollywood producers need to get the future right, they call a futurist

Sep 13, 2018
Hulu releases "The First" tomorrow, a series set in the 2030s about the first human mission to Mars.
Hulu's "The First" imagines what the first mission to Mars might be like.
Courtesy of Paul Schiraldi

Scott Kelly's new mission is on Earth

The astronaut talks about his life and work in science.
Astronaut Scott Kelly says he's proof that someone who is “far from a genius” can become a scientist.
Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images

Imagining the everyday economy of the moon

Nov 28, 2017
Andy Weir, author of "The Martian" and now "Artemis," on what colonizing space might look like.
A plane flies past the moon at sunset on March 3, 2015, in London.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Weezer wants to be the first band on Mars

Oct 27, 2017
But in the meantime the rock band takes the Marketplace Quiz.
Rivers Cuomo (second from right) said the most surprising thing about being a musician is the amount of time spent in front of a computer.
Photo courtesy of Jeremy Cowart

The economics of colonizing Mars

Oct 24, 2017
Would it be profitable? One science fiction writer isn't so sure.
An artist's conception of the Phoenix Mars lander on the red planet.
NASA/JPL via Getty Images

The Cassini mission has ended, but its legacy remains

Sep 15, 2017
After 20 years, the Cassini spacecraft has met its end — and NASA is already looking at the next horizon.
A computer-animated still showing the Cassini spacecraft in its final orbit. After 13 years, the spacecraft ended its mission and began a final descent into Saturn's atmosphere, where it burned up.  
Courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab

Reaching Mars is a hard sell, but not impossible

Mar 13, 2017
The U.S. lacks a long-term plan for traveling to the red planet.
Space exploration comes with a huge price, but it also comes with the benefit of adding jobs, says science journalist Rebecca Boyle.
S. MARTIN/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

The next frontier for the Next Frontier

Oct 11, 2016
Getting humans to Mars will take both government and private sector.
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site.
Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via Getty Images

Elon Musk told us about his Mars plan 5 years ago

Sep 27, 2016
He compared the transition to "multiplanetary species" to fundamental stages in evolution.
In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket makes a successful launch with the SES-9 communications satellite on March 4, 2016, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Photo by NASA via Getty Images