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 will launch two crewed missions in early February, sending astronauts to the ISS to prepare for Mars missions and another crew to orbit the moon.

A Mars spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, has been AWOL. But NASA hasn't given up hope of restoring contact with the MAVEN orbiter.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. This view of a region called Syrtis Major is from the 100,000th image captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera.

Getting astronauts to Mars is only half the mission — the real problem is bringing them back. NASA engineers are designing the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), a rocket that must launch from the surface of another planet and reach orbit without help from Earth.

Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket launches with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope onboard, Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021, from the ELA-3 Launch Zone of Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The James Webb Space Telescope ...

Nearly 14 years ago, NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars for a mission to explore the red planet and discover if it had an environment capable of supporting microbial life. Over the years, the rover has also been beaming back striking images of its surroundings,