President Donald Trump has nothing if not an active imagination. Since taking office, he has pitched multiple ostensibly revolutionary products and plans to the nation. Some are material planks of his America First agenda, while others are seemingly speculative flights of questionable feasibility. Whether touting settlements on Mars or “freedom cities” at home, Trump has never been at a loss for ideas about the next big thing.

Aliens

In February 2026, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had directed his administration to identify and release government files containing “any and all other information” about the “highly complex but extremely interesting and important” matter of aliens, UFOs and other extraterrestrial phenomena. Trump should “peel back the layers of that onion, let America decide if we can handle it,” Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said in a Fox News interview two months later. “I think we can handle it.”

Even with Trump’s “presidential intent,” federal bureaucracy and legal safeguards will determine “whether the files are ever fully revealed,” said CNN. Those hoping for immediate bombshells may want to “temper expectations a bit,” said Christopher Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, to the outlet. UFO hunters should expect, at minimum, a “fairly long, and probably a bit of a slow process.”

Golden Dome

As one of the first executive orders of his second term, Trump in January 2025 directed the implementation of a “next-generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation aerial attacks,” said The White House. Dubbed the “Iron Dome for America” at the time, there has been “little progress” made on the since-renamed Golden Dome system, with “internal misalignment on the administration’s plans for the architecture causing delays,” National Defense said.

At the “heart” of the networked satellite defense system would be “space-based interceptors” designed to “find and destroy enemy missiles and drones in the early stages,” said Gizmodo. That technology, however, “does not exist yet and is deemed theoretically ineffective and impractical.” Nevertheless, Golden Dome will demonstrate “operational capability by the summer” of 2028, said project director Gen. Michael Guetlein to lawmakers earlier this month, per The Washington Examiner. He also admitted that pace-based interceptors may not be part of the “final architecture as originally envisioned” if the tech is shown to be “prohibitively costly,” said Breaking Defense.

Boots on Mars

While speaking remotely with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2017, the president said he would like to see a manned mission to Mars “during my first term or at worst during my second term.” The United States will “lead the world in space and reach Mars before the end of my term,” Trump said in the closing days of his 2024 reelection campaign, reiterating the promise of historic planetary exploration alongside major donor, SpaceX CEO and future-DOGE chief Elon Musk. Under his leadership, Trump said at his second inaugural address in 2025, America will “pursue our Manifest Destiny” by sending astronauts to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,” a message he returned to in his address to Congress that year.

In a memo to NASA in late 2025, Trump “confirmed that he wants to send astronauts back to the moon” instead, thereby “putting eventual Mars missions on the back burner,” Le Monde said. A manned Mars mission would “likely cost hundreds of billions of dollars spread over a number of years,” said Nature. NASA, however, spends “$25 billion a year on all of its programs,” and faces further potential budget cuts from the administration.

Freedom Cities

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Trump campaigned on establishing “Freedom Cities,” tracts of federal land where businesses could “focus on technological innovation” and potential homeowners would revel in futuristic patriotism, said Politifact. At the time, Trump’s campaign advisers framed the proposal as comparable to “Abraham Lincoln’s campaign for the transcontinental railroad, Teddy Roosevelt’s vision for a national park service and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System,” said Politico. By March 2025, multiple interest groups had begun “drafting Congressional legislation” to advance the development of Freedom Cities “where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups and building construction can proceed without having to get prior approval” from the associated federal agencies, Wired said.

Concurrently, Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland have been met with interest from “some Silicon Valley tech investors” envisioning their own “libertarian utopia with minimal corporate regulation” on an American-controlled Island, Reuters said. The notion has been “taken seriously” by U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Ken Howery, although Greenland remains, for now, in Denmark’s control. Despite his utopian campaign promises, Trump “hasn’t lent any rhetorical weight to the idea recently,” Politifact said in February. It is possible that “preliminary work undertaken by outside groups will eventually be reflected in tangible developments.”

Medbed

In September 2025, the president shared a since-deleted video to Truth Social promoting “access to new medical technology” in the form of a “cure-all bed” with roots in “conspiratorial corners of the internet,” said CNN. “Every American” will have “their own medbed card” granting access to medbed hospitals, an AI-generated Trump said in footage “intended to resemble a Fox News segment” hosted by daughter-in-law Lara Trump. Why was the footage AI? Because “no one has an actual photo” of a medbed, said McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. “Let’s be clear, they don’t exist.”

Trump is “transparent,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when asked about why the president shared a doctored video of a nonexistent technology on Fox News. “He likes to share memes and videos,” she said, calling it “refreshing” that Trump is “so open and honest.”

Space programmes cost billions. By 2028, when the fourth mission in its current Artemis programme lands astronauts back on the Moon, Nasa will have spent $105 billion (£78 billion) – which is “a chunk of change”, said USA Today.

Spending so much seems puzzling “when we already did” the Moon thing: are “science, exploration and the possible value of moon materials” really worth it? Or would that all public money be better spent on ”healthcare or tax cuts”?

‘Futile pursuits of prestige’

“It’s absolutely self-evident to me that space exploration is pointless,” said Zoe Williams in The Guardian. And the more crises there are “besetting this planet we live on, the more pointless it becomes”. The US, “of all nations”, has got bigger issues right now, so “seriously, Nasa, can you not just knock it off”?

Ordinary Americans are tired of “these absurd expressions of vanity, these futile pursuits of prestige”, said space historian Gerard DeGroot on UnHerd. Even the Apollo missions in the late 1960s “were not as popular as Nasa pretended”: opinion polls showed “support was consistently below 50%”, with women, people of colour and the poor, in particular, questioning the “obscene cost”.

The current Artemis enterprise “reeks” of Elon Musk: his SpaceX Starship will have increasing involvement as the missions progress and, although the details of the deal are “shrouded in mystery”, it’s “safe to suspect that some quid pro quo is involved”. We know that SpaceX has received $17 billion (£12.6 billion) in government funding already.

Images to ‘catch the breath’

I've always thought the so-called “choice” between “advancing to the stars and solving problems back on earth” to be “a false one”, said Séamas O'Reilly in The New Statesman. Yes, the Artemis budget “may seem hard to justify” for what appears to be “a few rocket launches” and some “charming zero gravity footage of bulky astronauts surrounded by floating pens” but “this elides the truth” of the “titanic boost to science, technology and economies back home”.

Nasa’s Apollo programme “returned around $7 to the US economy for every $1 spent”. In all our homes, we can see “developments made at the bleeding edge of space”: if you have a laptop, a camera phone or a memory foam mattress, “you have Nasa to thank”. The same goes for advancements in water purification, landmine removal and artificial limbs – “not to mention the invention of ear thermometers and CAT scans”.

If those images beamed back from the Artemis II this week didn’t “catch the breath” in your throat, you can’t “be fully alive”, said Sam Leith in The Spectator. “The experience of seeing the Earth photographed from space” has “an effect on our collective imaginations”. The Apollo 8 “Earthrise” image, for example, is widely thought to have “kickstarted the modern environmental movement”.

Artemis II is “one small step towards living in deep space”, said evolutionary biologist Scott Solomon in The Washington Post. I see parallels between “establishing an enduring human presence” on the Moon (and, ultimately, Mars) and “the processes by which animals and plants” arrive on Earth’s islands and “evolve into new species”. Future generations living on other planets will “gradually become different from people on Earth”. And that will be “a giant leap for all humanity”.

What happened

NASA on Tuesday announced that in the next few years it will start building a permanent base on the moon and send three small helicopters to Mars aboard a pioneering nuclear-powered robotic spacecraft. “This is the moment where we should all start believing again,” NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, said at an international space conference in Houston. “NASA once changed everything, and we’re going to do it again.”

Who said what

NASA’s “years of talking about lunar outposts in vague terms for sometime in the indefinite future” appear to have ended with this new “road map” with “specific plans and timelines,” The New York Times said. Isaacman said that NASA has committed to return astronauts to the moon “before the end of President Trump’s term” and ahead of “real geopolitical rival” China’s planned 2030 crewed lunar landing.

As part of Isaacman’s revamp of NASA’s flagship Artemis lunar program, the Lunar Gateway orbiting station, which is “largely already built,” will be shelved, Reuters said. The new plan to repurpose its components to build the $20 billion moon base raises questions about the “future roles” of “key” Artemis partners Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. Experts also questioned the feasibility of launching a Mars-bound spacecraft powered by nuclear electric propulsion in 2028. The “dominant reaction” among spaceflight experts, cosmologist Katie Mack said, “is somewhere on the spectrum between mockery and dismay.”

What next?

Issacson said Artemis 3, now a mission to test the Orion space capsule’s integration with lunar landers, is scheduled for 2027, while Artemis 4 will send astronauts to the moon in 2028. Tuesday’s announcements came “one week before NASA’s targeted launch of Artemis 2,” the first crewed flight around the moon since 1972’s Apollo 17, space.com said.

Elon Musk has long had a passion for Mars. The moon? It's a diversion. But that plan has now shifted.

SpaceX will “prioritize going to the moon first,” said The Wall Street Journal. Just last year, the world’s richest man called the prospect of a moon landing a “distraction.” The company was aiming to go “straight to Mars,” with plans to send five Starship-class rockets to the red planet in 2026, he said. Now, SpaceX is focused instead on putting a lander on the moon by March 2027.

The company will be “hard-pressed” to meet that deadline, said the Journal. Two factors in the pivot: pressure from NASA and competition from Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin. The American space agency plans a “lunar fly-by” on Artemis II this spring, setting the stage for a “potential astronaut moon landing in 2028 with SpaceX or Blue Origin.”

Why did Musk want to go to Mars?

A Mars mission has been Musk’s “guiding goal” since SpaceX was founded in 2002, said CNN. The billionaire frequently argued that a “permanent human presence” on the planet was vital for “ensuring a colony of humans can survive a potential apocalypse” on Earth. That ambition sounded like a move out of a science fiction novel. Establishing a Mars colony would take “upwards of one million people and millions of tons of cargo” and up to 10 rocket launches a day, SpaceX said on its website. The objective is to make humanity “multiplanetary.”

Why switch to the moon?

“It’s all about speed,” said Space.com (a sister site of The Week). SpaceX is now focused on “building a self-growing city on the moon,” Musk said on X. That goal could be achieved in “less than 10 years,” whereas colonizing Mars would “take 20-plus years.”

The pivot may also “cover up” the plain truth that Musk “simply is not delivering on his Red Planet promises,” Ellyn Lapointe said at Gizmodo. The tech billionaire in 2020 claimed SpaceX might be able to land humans on Mars by 2026. With that goal now unreachable, it makes sense for the company to “align its strategic vision” with NASA’s aim of putting people back on the moon by 2030.

How does this affect Musk's businesses?

The decision to focus on the moon comes as SpaceX’s initial public offering “fast approaches,” said Yahoo Finance. Potential investors in the company will probably be more focused on “money-making ventures” like SpaceX’s rocket launching business, the Starlink internet service and the potential of putting AI data centers in orbit. Spending billions of dollars on Mars without the prospect of near-term profit could be “too far a stretch” for potential stockholders.

What next?

The moon pivot is a “bitter pill to swallow" for Mars hopefuls, said Eric Berger at Ars Technica. But it’s a realistic one. Landing on the moon “may be hard," but history has already proven it’s doable. Plus, the moon will be a “lot easier to develop than Mars.”

Small but mighty, the red planet — our celestial neighbor — has made Earth’s climate what it is today. Mars’ gravitational pull serves as a stabilizing force for our home’s orbit, tilt and position from the sun. Without it, life could potentially have been a lot different from what we know today.

How does Mars’ gravity impact Earth?

Despite being approximately half the size of Earth and one-tenth its mass, Mars’ gravity has had a sizable effect on Earth’s climate, according to a study published in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Specifically, the red planet is “quietly tugging on Earth’s orbit and shaping the cycles that drive long-term climate patterns here,” said a release about the study.

Earth’s climate is largely driven by Milankovitch cycles, which are “long-term variations in our planet’s orbit and tilt governed by the gravitational pull of other planets in the solar system,” said Space.com (a sister site of The Week). One cycle takes approximately 430,000 years and is largely affected by Venus and Jupiter. Mars has little to no effect on this cycle, originally leading scientists to believe that the planet did not have much pull on Earth’s climate. However, it turns out that Mars “punches above its weight,” said Stephen Kane, the study leader and a professor of planetary astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside, in the release. Subtracting Mars from the equation significantly affected two other climate cycles, one of them 10,000 years long and the other 2.3 million years long. “When you remove Mars, those cycles vanish,” Kane said. “And if you increase the mass of Mars, they get shorter and shorter because Mars is having a bigger effect.”

These cycles “affect how circular or stretched Earth’s orbit is (its eccentricity), the timing of Earth’s closest approach to the Sun, and the tilt of its rotational axis (its obliquity),” said the release. This determines “how much sunlight different parts of the Earth receive, which in turn affects glacial cycles and long-term climate patterns,” including ice ages.

Mars’ positioning is what gives the lighter planet such a strong pull. “The closer it is to the sun, the more a planet becomes dominated by the sun’s gravity. Because Mars is further from the sun, it has a larger gravitational effect on Earth than it would if it was closer,” Kane said.

What are the implications?

Earth’s obliquity can “vary between 21.5 and 24.5 degrees every 41,000 years,” said Space.com. This is considered to be quite stable compared to other planets. It was thought that the moon was responsible for the stability in Earth’s tilt, but “simulations show that Mars’ gravity also stabilizes Earth’s tilt,” which “potentially removes the necessity for a large moon to keep an Earth-like planet from wobbling.” This pattern could exist elsewhere, too, on other habitable exoplanets with similar properties to Earth. “When I look at other planetary systems and find an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone, the planets further out in the system could have an effect on that Earth-like planet’s climate,” Kane said.

Ice ages notably “changed Earth’s landscapes,” said Tech Explorist. They “shrank forests, spread grasslands and triggered major evolutionary changes, such as walking on two legs, making tools and working together.” It begs the question, said Kane: “What would humans and other animals even look like if Mars weren’t there?”

What happened

Blue Origin Thursday launched its massive New Glenn rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, carrying small twin spacecraft toward Mars as part of NASA’s Escapade mission. It was Blue Origin’s first NASA mission and only the second launch of the 321-foot New Glenn. Unlike the orbital rocket’s inaugural launch in January, its booster successfully touched down on Blue Origin’s landing barge, a feat previously accomplished only by Elon Musk’s rival aerospace company SpaceX.

Who said what

New Glenn’s flight “was a complete success,” The Associated Press said, and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos appeared “ecstatic” as the booster landed upright. That was a “major step forward” in the company’s “bid to rival SpaceX as a reliable provider of reusable rockets,” said Scientific American. Reusing boosters cuts costs and allows for more frequent launches.

Blue Origin, founded in 2000, “has long been seen as sluggish and disappointing when compared with SpaceX,” The New York Times said. But with a few more successes, that perception “could totally flip pretty quickly,” University of Central Florida space commercialization expert Greg Autry told the newspaper. SpaceX has never sent anything to Mars, and if Blue Origin can “land something on the moon successfully in the first half of next year, then they can even claim to be ahead of SpaceX in some ways.”

What next?

The Escapade mission’s satellites, named Blue and Gold, are scheduled to start orbiting Mars in 2027 to “study the Martian atmosphere and magnetic fields and take other readings” that “could help researchers understand why the planet lost its atmosphere and inform future crewed missions,” The Wall Street Journal said. Blue Origin’s ambitious launch schedule for next year includes sending a prototype lunar lander to the moon.

We often wonder whether there are aliens on other planets but what if we ourselves are aliens on the planet we call home?

Panspermia, the “controversial” theory that life “began elsewhere in space” and was “delivered to Earth on comets and asteroids”, is gaining new traction, said BBC Science Focus.

Building blocks of life

New analysis of asteroid rocks brought back to Earth by Japanese and Nasa-led space missions suggests a presence of some of the building blocks of life – which could mean that those “same building blocks”, and “perhaps even primitive microbial life”, could have been delivered to Earth on other asteroids or comets billions of years ago, said BBC Science Focus.

Scientists examining the rock samples have found carbon, ammonia, salts, 14 of the 20 amino acids needed to make proteins, and the “basic constituents of DNA and RNA”.

Of course, “just having the right conditions and ingredients” for life “doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily create life”, but the findings will still gladden the hearts of believers in panspermia.

The origin of those first life-delivering rocks could have been a nearby planet, like Mars, or somewhere light years away. And, if that was the case, the potential consequences are huge – because, if it happened here, it has probably happened on other planets, too.

'Wild' theories 

The theory of panspermia dates back many years and was “popularised in the 1970s” by the British astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, said BBC Science Focus.

Their suggestion that asteroids and comets could have been incubators for life wasn’t taken seriously at first, and the pair were regarded as “crazy”, said Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University.

But the theory gradually “became more alluring”, and “reached a fascinating peak” in 1996 when scientists believed they had discovered traces of microfossils of bacteria inside a meteorite from Mars that had landed in Antarctica. The discovery was later refuted.

Recently, in a “wild” new spin on the theory, known as directed panspermia, it’s been suggested that “aliens sent microbes or simple life forms” to Earth themselves, to “propel evolution”, said the Daily Mail.

Even if the panspermia (or directed panspermia) theory turns out to be true, it doesn’t answer the big question, said New Scientist, because it “simply relocates the problem of how life got going – we haven’t found evidence of life elsewhere”. Besides, we know that space is “hostile to life”, as shown in experiments where bacteria placed outside the International Space Station faced a “heavy toll”, so there are question marks over how life’s building blocks could survive the putative journey through space to Earth.

What happened

NASA announced Wednesday that a rock sample collected on Mars by its Perseverance rover last year contains what appear to be biosignatures, or signs of previous life, on the Red Planet. “This very well could be the clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars,” acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said at a press conference coinciding with the publication of a paper on the findings in the journal Nature.

Who said what

NASA scientists were “giddy” when Perseverance found the rock with telltale signs of microbial life in a former lakebed called the Jezero Crater, The New York Times said. After a year studying the sample from 140 million miles away, “we are at the point where we are actually saying in detail, ‘Here is what we have found,’” study lead author Joel Hurowitz told the Times. And the chances are “better than a coin flip” that the sample contained convincing evidence of life.

The rock, dubbed Cheyava Falls, is “composed of finely packed sediment and covered in specks resembling poppy seeds and leopard spots,” said The Washington Post. Those specks, the study found, are “minerals that — on Earth — have traditionally been created from microbial activity.” That’s the “closest we’ve actually come to discovering ancient life on Mars,” NASA science mission chief Nicky Fox told reporters, but it “certainly is not the final answer.”

What happened?

The “underlying elephant in the room” is that for the NASA scientists to confirm their theories, the rock samples “need to be returned to Earth,” said Space.com, and “NASA’s Mars Sample Return program remains in limbo due to budget constraints” and “priority shifts” in the Trump administration.

The mystery of how life on Earth originated , and whether it exists elsewhere in the universe, are "the raison d’être of space exploration", said Louis Friedman, co-founder of the Planetary Society.

The answer, he wrote in The Washington Post, "might be in one of the test tubes now sitting on Mars". But the samples, collected by Nasa's Perseverance rover, "seem doomed to endlessly wait for no answer" – because Donald Trump is cancelling the mission to bring them home.

'Crowning achievement' of Mars exploration

Since Perseverance touched down on the Red Planet in February 2021, the "car-sized, nuclear-powered robot" has been gathering samples for delivery to Earth, where "close-up inspection" might provide "the first compelling evidence of life beyond Earth", said Scientific American.

This programme, a collaboration between Nasa and the European Space Agency known as Mars Sample Return (MSR), is the "crowning achievement" of half a century of Mars exploration, the product of decades of planning and "many billions of dollars".

Unless, that is, "the Trump administration gets its way". The US president's recent "budgetary bombshell" proposed to cut Nasa's funding by a quarter and "entirely eliminate MSR", which the White House claimed was "grossly over-budget". The samples, it said, would be collected by "human missions to Mars". That is "nonsense on several levels", said Scott Hubbard, Stanford University scientist and Nasa's inaugural Mars program director. "I know of no credible 'humans to Mars' scenario that is earlier than 2039 or 2040."

It's true that "multiple independent reviews" of MSR have mentioned its "swelling price tag and slipping schedule", said Scientific American. One 2023 Nasa review estimated that the project would cost up to $11 billion (£8 billion), comparable with the James Webb Space Telescope – the most expensive astronomy project in history. But "any remotely realistic plan for a crewed Mars mission would be far more expensive".

Whether or not the European Space Agency can retrieve the MSR samples without Nasa is unclear, but a statement issued in response to Trump's proposed budget "carefully emphasises the importance of US-European cooperation in space activities".

'Strong indications' of life beyond Earth

Finding out whether the dozens of samples show evidence of life will require sophisticated equipment and "hundreds of chemical experiments", said Friedman. But these samples have been "carefully selected in potentially habitable regions"; at least one has "strong indications of past microbial life".

The answers to how life began could also "advance" fields like robotics, artificial intelligence, communications, synthetic biology, chemistry, and more. Which is why China and India are pursuing similar missions: China is planning to retrieve samples from Mars in 2028, which would make it "the first country to return potentially biologically active planetary material – including potential life forms – from beyond Earth", said Space.com.

"By abandoning return of Mars samples to other nations, the US abandons the preeminent role that JFK ascribed to the scientific exploration of space" in his 1962 Rice University speech, said the 2023 Nasa independent review of the project. In his speech, entitled "We Choose to go to the Moon", Kennedy said "We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people."

What happened

SpaceX's massive Starship rocket exploded late Wednesday in a fireball that could be seen for miles. It was the latest in a series of setbacks for founder Elon Musk's hopes to send a mission to Mars as soon as next year and NASA's plans to fly astronauts back to the moon in 2027. SpaceX said nobody was killed in the "major anomaly," which occurred as the company was test-firing the upper-stage spacecraft at the company's South Texas Starbase before a planned 10th test flight of the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

Who said what

Musk is "making an enormous bet on Starship," but it is running behind schedule and has "suffered several setbacks," The Wall Street Journal said. During the last test flight in May, the Starship rocket "spun out of control about halfway through a flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals," Reuters said, even while "flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course."

Boaters passing by Starbase on Thursday morning "shared video footage showing substantial damage to the test site," The New York Times said

What next?

Musk and NASA are "eager" to get Starship flying, but the spacecraft "still has a long way to go" before carrying humans into space, The Washington Post said. "In addition to being able to fly without blowing up," it "needs to be able to refuel in orbit, an exceedingly difficult endeavor that's never before been accomplished," and "land autonomously" on the lunar surface.

Elon Musk is retreating from Washington D.C., with his sights now set as far away as Mars.

After announcing his departure from the Trump administration this week, the South African-born tycoon is "ready to get obsessed with his companies again", said The Wall Street Journal. And just in time: when it comes to his business ventures, Musk has "a lot to contend with".

What did the commentators say?

A return to politics seems unlikely; in Trump's "rapidly evolving" second presidency, Musk's "monopoly" on the political news cycle "seems to have broken", said Politico, particularly as polling suggests that's he's "increasingly unpopular" – in fact, "far more so" than Trump.

Musk "met his political Waterloo" in Wisconsin's supreme court race, said David Smith in The Guardian, where despite his spending at least $3 million (£2.2 million) and making personal appearances on the campaign trail, the Republican candidate he backed lost by 10 percentage points. The writing was on the wall: Musk and his "chainsaw" task force have become a "political liability" for Republicans.

Politics has been "central to Musk's identity over much of the past year", said Trisha Thadani and Elizabeth Dwoskin in The Washington Post, but he's become "disillusioned" with the impact that his money can make in politics and would now prefer to "spend his time and fortune elsewhere".

That means a return to his businesses. At Tesla, the "backlash" over Musk's political activities has "sparked concerns" among investors, said Gregory Korte in Bloomberg. Vehicle sales fell to a nearly three-year low and the stock price "plummeted" as he became a key figure in Trump's regime. Tesla showrooms were picketed by protesters, while its vehicles and charging stations became targets for vandalism.

Musk sees autonomous technology as the future of Tesla, and the company is "counting on" that sector for a "new wave of growth", said The Wall Street Journal. It intends to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service next month, followed in the next few years by the rollout of Cybercab, a self-driving taxi that Musk describes as a $30,000 (£22,000) "lounge on wheels".

Musk "hasn't been shy" about how tough it will be to meet his "goals" at SpaceX, either, said The Wall Street Journal. The company is "racing" to develop Starship, the rocket that he wants to send on an un-crewed test mission to Mars next year, when Earth and the red planet will be closer to each other, but a series of technical "setbacks" is making this goal seem increasingly unlikely.

What next?

The future of his chainsaw department is less clear. He and Trump have declined to "lay out a succession plan" for Doge, said Korte, a project that was Musk's "brainchild". Doge is a "way of life, like Buddhism", he once quipped of its future continuation if he left. "Buddha isn't alive any more," he said. "You wouldn't ask the question: 'who would lead Buddhism?'"

The "aggressive cost-cutting efforts", led by a staff appointed by Musk, are expected to "continue" even after he formally leaves his role, said Politico. Musk wrote on X this week that the Doge "mission" will "only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government".

Mars may have hosted life billions of years ago, a possibility that has long intrigued scientists. Now, new evidence suggests the planet was habitable for even longer than previously thought, due to the presence of a global magnetic field. These findings change what was once believed about the history of Mars and could help uncover more about the planet and our solar system at large.

Disappearing dynamo

Like the Earth, Mars had a magnetic field surrounding it — the "dynamo." Mars' dynamo was "driven by convection within the planet's iron core much like Earth's," and "could shield the surface from harmful cosmic rays, crucial for maintaining a habitable environment," said Earth.com. While the Mars of today is dry and barren, it may have once been full of life before the dynamo vanished. A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that Mars' magnetic field may have been around longer than scientists were aware of, only disappearing approximately 3.9 billion years ago, compared to the previous estimates of 4.1 billion years.

Researchers formerly suspected that the dynamo was gone 4.1 billion years ago because "huge impact basins that were formed during a period of bombardment between 4.1 and 3.7 billion years ago do not retain any record of strong magnetism in their rock," said Space.com. They concluded that the craters only formed when there were no other strong magnetic fields present. However, the new study argues that those craters "formed while the dynamo of Mars was experiencing a polarity reversal — north and south poles switching places — which, through computer simulation, can explain why these large impact basins only have weak magnetic signals today," said The Harvard Gazette.

The search for the Martian

These findings are significant because 200 million years is a lot of time for life to potentially develop. The dynamo's extended timeline "overlaps into the era when the surface of the Red Planet became covered in water, evidence for which has been discovered by NASA Mars rovers," said Space.com. "With the magnetic field still in place to shield the surface, life may have had a chance to get started in a watery environment without being killed off by radiation from space."

Scientists have been actively looking into finding evidence of life on Mars. For example, a Caltech study found a potential habitable zone for underground microbes on Mars. The area would be "beneath a certain amount of ice," said New Atlas: "Too shallow and the strong ultraviolet radiation will cook them, but too deep and there won't be enough visible light filtering down for them to feed on." Bringing in this new data on the dynamo could provide insight into habitable zones as well.

"We are trying to answer primary, important questions about how everything got to be like it is, even why the entire solar system is the way that it is," said Sarah Steele, a student at the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a lead author of the study, in a statement. "Planetary magnetic fields are our best probe to answer a lot of those questions, and one of the only ways we have to learn about the deep interiors and early histories of planets."

David Bowie famously pondered whether there is life on Mars – and we might be one step closer to answering that question.

Enough water to cover the surface of Mars has been discovered within the crust, said The Sun, with profound implications for our understanding of the planet and potentially providing "proof of alien life".

What has been found?

"Once upon a time", said Space, Mars had "lots of liquid water" on its surface, with oceans, lakes and rivers, "but the water disappeared about 3 billion years ago". This means Mars rovers have explored "dried up lakebeds and empty river channels".

But the data from a NASA mission between 2018 and 2022 has found evidence of an underground reservoir of water. The space agency's lander carried a seismometer, which "recorded four years' of vibrations – Mars quakes – from deep inside the Red Planet", said the BBC.

The team used the same techniques used to search for water on Earth, or to look for oil and gas. They were excited to make their discovery but "there's a problem", said Forbes.

This water is "deep", explained Space – "very deep." It is between 11.5km and 20km deep (7.1 and 12.4 miles) and there is no water at all in the crust above 5km deep (3.1 miles).

Why does this matter?

Despite their inconvenient depths, if the aquifers are there, they may "provide new insights into the dynamics of Mars’s desiccation", said The Economist, and if Mars "ever was the abode of life", they "may be the habitat of its last survivors".

We "haven't found any evidence for life on Mars", said professor of planetary science Michael Manga of the University of California, Berkeley, but "at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life".

Have you ever wanted to live on Mars? This latest discovery might bring the possibility closer. Exploring on The Conversation "what it would take" to transform Mars' "barren landscape" into "a life-friendly world", Sven Bilén explained that humans would need "liquid water, food, shelter and an atmosphere with enough oxygen to breathe and thick enough to retain heat and protect against radiation from the Sun".

What next?

Don't put your house on the market just yet because to reach the water would "require drills far beyond anything that the current generation of Mars robots could carry", said The Economist, and "even on Earth it would be hard".

Despite this, space scientists are thrilled by the development. The exploration may be expanded. Further seismometers could be sent to Mars and other planets and moons within our solar system in the future, said CNN, and "spreading them out across Mars" would reveal variations within the planet’s interior and provide a greater window into its diverse and complex history.

What happened

Scientists have found evidence of liquid water deep below the arid surface of Mars, raising hope of discovering life on the Red Planet. A recent study, based on seismic measurements taken by NASA's InSight lander, suggests that vast quantities of water may still be trapped within rocks up to 12 miles below the Martian surface.

Who said what

Researchers said in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that analyzing the speed of the recorded Martian temblors pointed to underground water, likely the subterranean remnants of lakes, rivers and oceans that covered the Martian surface 3 millions years ago. "The ingredients for life as we know it exist in the Martian subsurface if these interpretations are correct," Vashan Wright, a lead scientist at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said to Reuters. 

What next?

The researchers said their findings and future analysis will help humans understand Mars' aquatic history and assess "in situ resource utilization for future missions." But the discovery of liquid water is only of limited utility for "billionaires with Mars colonization plans," the BBC said. "Drilling a hole 10 kilometers deep on Mars — even for [Elon] Musk — would be difficult," said Michael Manga, one of the study co-authors and a professor at UC Berkeley.

Nasa's Mars rover has made its "most unexpected" discovery since it landed on the red planet in 2012: rocks made of sulphur.

On 30 May, the Curiosity rover "happened to drive over a rock and crack it open, revealing yellow-ish green crystals", said CNN. Nasa used the robot's instruments to analyse the rock, receiving data that indicated it was pure sulphur. Scientists were "stunned", said Nasa when it revealed the discovery last week. 

"Finding a field of stones made of pure sulphur is like finding an oasis in the desert," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. It's the "strangest find" and "most unexpected" of Curiosity's 12 years on Mars. 

Previous research has suggested that pure sulphur "may have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth", said the Daily Mail. Now scientists are trying to establish what its presence can tell us about the red planet's past. But the discovery adds to the "growing evidence of other life-sustaining elements identified on Mars".

Curiosity's Mars mission

In November 2011, Nasa launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission from Florida with the Curiosity rover aboard – the fourth Nasa robot sent to Mars since 1996, and at the time the largest and most capable. Its main goal was to determine whether the planet could have once supported life.

Weighing almost a tonne and approximately the size of a car, Curiosity landed successfully on Mars's Gale Crater the following August. The six-wheeled scientist transmitted its first images on 6 August 2012, showing its shadow on the red planet's surface. 

Since 2014, Curiosity has been ascending Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high central peak in the crater. Each layer of the mountain "represents a different period of Martian history", said Nasa. 

Curiosity has already found organic deposits trapped in mudstone that once contained organic molecules. That suggests that life could have existed on ancient Mars – although it doesn't prove it. 

This year, the rover arrived at the Gediz Vallis channel, a winding groove carved into a steep side of the mountain and long observed from Earth. Scientists believe the channel was carved by liquid water and debris 3 billion years ago. It is "one of the primary reasons the science team wanted to visit this part of Mars", said Nasa. There's "much to learn from the dramatic landscape".

In February, the rover took photos of "waves" carved into "an ancient lakebed by Martian water millions of years ago", said LiveScience. And in May it found rocks containing manganese oxide – "the best evidence yet that the Red Planet once had an oxygen-rich, Earth-like atmosphere".

Pure sulphur 'shouldn't be there'

Curiosity has already found sulphur-based minerals – a mix of sulphur and other elements in compounds known as sulphates. But this newly discovered rock is made of elemental, or pure sulphur. "No one had pure sulphur on their bingo card," said Vasavada.

Pure sulphur rocks are typically found in hydrothermal vents on Earth. They form in a "narrow range" of conditions, such as volcanic activity or springs, said Nasa. 

"Think Yellowstone!" said Briony Horgan, co-investigator on the Perseverance rover mission and professor of planetary science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. That makes pure elemental sulphur a "very weird finding" on Mars, she told CNN. 

"My jaw dropped when I saw the image of the sulphur," she said. It's a "big mystery to me as to how this rock formed in Mount Sharp".

Curiosity also "found a lot of it", said Nasa: "an entire field of bright rocks that look similar to the one the rover crushed".  

Scientists aren't sure how it formed, or whether it has "any connection to other sulphur-based minerals previously discovered in the region", said Space.com.

Pure sulphur "shouldn't be there, so now we have to explain it", said Vasavada. "Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting."

Will Trump follow a conservative plan for a dystopian future? What is happening on the island of Diego Garcia? And how will humans fare on the red planet?

A podcast for curious, open-minded people, The Week Unwrapped delivers fresh perspectives on politics, culture, technology and business. 

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The sun is currently at solar maximum. This means that the celestial body is at its peak activity, releasing higher levels of radiation and solar particles. It was a strong solar storm that recently made the Northern Lights visible across the Northern Hemisphere. While Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect the planet from these solar events, Mars has no such protection. But the sun's solar particles could be a boon for studies of — and travel to — Mars.

How is NASA studying solar activity?

Solar activity is at its peak this year, which provides a unique opportunity for scientists to observe the effect of increased solar radiation on Mars. Specifically, the Sun is in solar maximum when "the Sun is especially prone to throwing fiery tantrums in a variety of forms, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections," NASA said. "These events launch radiation deep into space. When a series of these solar events erupt, it's called a solar storm." Solar maximum only occurs approximately every 11 years. 

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter and Curiosity rover are being used to study the solar particles and radiation of this activity as it streams toward Mars. MAVEN "observes radiation, solar particles and more from high above Mars," while Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detectors (RAD) help "scientists understand how radiation breaks down carbon-based molecules on the surface, a process that could affect whether signs of ancient microbial life are preserved there," said a NASA statement. Both the quantity and energy of solar particles can affect the atmosphere and surface of Mars. "You can have a million particles with low energy or 10 particles with extremely high energy," Don Hassle, RAD's principal investigator, said in the statement. "While MAVEN's instruments are more sensitive to lower-energy ones, RAD is the only instrument capable of seeing the high-energy ones that make it through the atmosphere to the surface."

How would solar activity affect Mars exploration?

Earth's magnetic field mostly protects the planet from the effects of solar radiation; Mars does not have the same luxury. "For humans and assets on the Martian surface, we don't have a solid handle on what the effect is from radiation during solar activity," Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics said in the NASA statement. Radiation can harm astronauts' health and cause radiation sickness, as well as disturb radio and electronic communications. That type of communication disruption could be a barrier to exploration. Scientists now have a chance to determine to what extent. 

Part of MAVEN's capabilities includes an "early warning system that lets other Mars spacecraft teams know when radiation levels begin to rise," the statement said. "This heads-up enables missions to turn off instruments that could be vulnerable to solar flares." The data collected will also help determine the level of radiation protection astronauts on Mars would need. 

Understanding solar storms and activity can also shed light on Mars' history and singular geology. While the Red Planet has limited water in the form of ice on its surface, water vapor exists in its atmosphere. The planet is "at a point in its orbit when it's closest to the Sun, which heats up the atmosphere." That proximity can "cause billowing dust storms to blanket the surface." This year's solar maximum coincides with the planet's dust storm peak, allowing scientists to test "whether global dust storms help to eject this water vapor, lofting it high above the planet, where the atmosphere gets stripped away during solar storms," the NASA statement said. Some experts posit that this process can explain how Mars transformed from having lakes and rivers to very little water today.

Nasa’s Perseverance rover has discovered organic molecules on the surface of Mars, suggesting that life may have once existed on the planet. The molecules are chemical compounds normally found in living systems, which can consist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. “They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists since they are often thought of as building blocks of life,” Joseph Razzell Hollis, told Newsweek.

Humans do not have to defecate every day

Human beings do not have to defecate every day, an expert has told CNN. Dr Folasade May, a gastroenterologist, said that “there’s really not a fixed or normal number of bowel movements” and “most people will have anywhere between a bowel movement up to three times a day to three times per week”. Dr Michael Camilleri, a consultant and professor in gastroenterology, said that “the stool form, appearance or consistency of the bowel movement is actually a much better criterion” for determining health.

Otter steals surfboard

A sea otter keeps pinching surfers’ boards in California, reported The Telegraph. Videos show the five-year-old otter, known as Otter 841, “jumping atop surfboards, nudging their owners out of the way and basking in the sunshine as it waits for the swell in Santa Barbara”, said the paper. However, while “most people have found the encounters charming”, officials are now attempting to return her to captivity, to prevent her biting someone.

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In 2023, NASA announced the crew of its upcoming Artemis II mission, which will be the first manned trip to the moon since 1972. The mission is expected to launch no earlier than September 2025, and will be the second flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). It has several goals, one of them being to take the first step toward the agency's ultimate goal: getting humans to Mars. However, there are still numerous hurdles involved, and it remains unclear when we might see people walking on the Red Planet.

How will NASA get to Mars?

The journey will start with the Artemis program, which has the goal of establishing the first long-term human outpost on the moon. From there, NASA "will use what we learn on and around the moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars," the agency said in a mission plan.

In 2022, NASA unveiled a rough outline for its first crewed Mars mission, identifying "50 points falling under four overarching categories of exploration, including transportation and habitation; moon and Mars infrastructure; operations; and science." These objectives "will inform our exploration plans at the moon and Mars for the next 20 years," said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

Many of these objectives involve aspects of sustaining long-term life on Mars. This includes the development of a "transportation system that can deliver large surface elements from Earth to the Martian surface," like human habitats. Beyond this, NASA must figure out a way to develop and build "entry, descent, and landing (EDL) systems capable of delivering crew and large cargo to the Martian surface." They must also create enough power for an initial crewed Mars mission.

There is still a lot of work to be done, as making a human trip to Mars "will be challenging," Space.com said. The distance itself will play a major factor. Earth and Mars are an average of 140 million miles away from each other, and it would take about 500 days round-trip to get between the two planets. A lack of gravity would also pose a significant problem, so crews may have to live in a pressurized cabin during the mission to help acclimatize to the change.

The initial mission would be made by four people, with two making the journey to the Martian surface. But since you can't live on a desolate planet by yourself, NASA estimates the crew would need at least 25 tons of supplies awaiting them on Mars, which will have been delivered by a prior rover mission. And for any extended missions, the sun's rays must also be considered; while Earth's magnetic field helps shield humans from radiation, Mars has no such protection, meaning that "astronauts will need special habitats, suits, and machines that will protect them from radiation, which otherwise could cause cancer," said the American Chemical Society.

How will Artemis II help accomplish this goal?

The mission is set to launch in September 2025 after initially being delayed from 2024. It will be the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, the vessel that has been tapped to send humans to Mars. Both the Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) associated with it "are critical to NASA's exploration plans at the moon and beyond," NASA said.

The Orion capsule is specifically designed to keep humans alive during months-long missions, and "will be equipped with advanced environmental control and life support systems designed for the demands of a deep space mission," said NASA. The first step in proving that these systems are viable will be a successful Artemis II mission, which will go beyond the moon and "potentially further than any human has traveled in history," CNN said.

The upcoming mission is only a flyby, and while humans will not land on the moon until Artemis III, operating on the lunar surface requires "systems that can reliably operate far from home, support the needs of human life, and still be light enough to launch," NASA said. This means that "exploration of the moon and Mars is intertwined," with the moon providing a platform to test "tools, instruments, and equipment that could be used on Mars."

When does NASA plan to go to Mars?

That could depend on how fast things develop. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed an order directing NASA to send humans to Mars by 2033, and former President Barack Obama had set a similar goal of a mission in the 2030s, CNET said.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson pushed that date back slightly, saying the agency's plan "is for humans to walk on Mars by 2040," per CNN. Nelson added that the goal was to apply "what we've learned living and operating on the moon and continue them out into the solar system."

Now, Donald Trump is getting ready to take office again, and he "may have no shortage of ideological detractors, but not a lot of them come from the space sector," said Time. This is one rare area where Trump and President Joe Biden seem to agree, and Trump will likely look to fast-track continued space exploration. Trump's upcoming term will "see NASA tending to uncrewed spacecraft that have already left the earthly nest, including the Perseverance Mars rover." But in order to make it to Mars by the 2030s, NASA's "budget is going to need to double or triple over time to be able to fund the things we're actually going to need to have," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said to Defense News. This could present a challenge for a president-elect who ran on a platform of shrinking the government.

Who will go?

That probably won't be decided for years to come. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in 2019 that "we could very well see the first person on Mars be a woman," said Space.com, but no specifics regarding an astronaut class were given. Artemis III is expected to land both the first woman and first person of color on the moon, so it won't come as much of a surprise if a similarly diverse group heads to the red planet. Elon Musk, who has worked alongside NASA via his spaceflight company SpaceX and is set to play a major role in the incoming Trump administration, has said he believes humans will be on Mars by 2029 at the latest, but he hasn't provided any names either.

For now, though, the question of who will be the first person to place their boots on the Martian surface remains a mystery.

Rolls-Royce has been awarded funding by the UK Space Agency to build a nuclear reactor to power a base on the Moon.

The idea “might sound like the setup of a James Bond film”, said Sky News, but is “part of a very real-world project that aims to see humans living and working on the lunar surface”.

Experts told The Guardian that nuclear power could “dramatically increase the length of lunar missions”, providing enough energy for communications, life-support and experiments.

Rolls-Royce plans to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029. The UK Space Agency has announced £2.9m of new funding for the project, which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor. The cash injection follows a £249,000 study funded by the UK Space Agency last year.

Dr Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “This innovative research by Rolls-Royce could lay the groundwork for powering continuous human presence on the moon, while enhancing the wider UK space sector, creating jobs and generating further investment.”

Work on the lunar base comes as humans prepare to return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. “As humanity begins to venture back into space”, said Gizmodo, the “technology that moves us throughout the solar system will be a pivotal part of that journey”.

With dozens of lunar missions due to launch over the next decade, the European Space Agency wants to give the Moon its own time zone and is collaborating with other space agencies including Nasa in a “joint international effort” to determine what a lunar time zone might look like, said Axios.

Across the Atlantic, Nasa recently announced funding for a nuclear-powered rocket that could “cut journey times to Mars from seven months to just 45 days”, the Independent reported.

Newlywed couples in the Philippines are posing with bouquets of onions as a severe shortage of the vegetable transforms them into a glamorous status symbol. Cartels tampering with supply chains are “turning the kitchen staple into a scarce commodity”, said The Telegraph, with prices more than doubling in a matter of months. At one wedding, the bride walked down the aisle with a bouquet that weighed about 11 pounds, while her bridesmaids walked down the aisle holding onion wreaths.

Turkey terrifies Minnesota neighbourhood

Locals in a Minnesota neighbourhood said they are terrified by an increasingly aggressive turkey. “This turkey attacks me every single day,” one resident told CBS News. “Follows me, goes up my stairs, tries to get into my house. When I leave in my car, it follows my car.” Although the turkey has attacked people and chased cars, wildlife teams are generally loathed to relocate antisocial turkeys, as they often go on to simply cause further problems elsewhere.

‘Bear’s face’ found on Mars

Astronomers have discovered a structure on Mars resembling a bear’s face. The formation consists of two craters that appear to make up the eyes of the ”bear,” and a V-shaped collapsed hill for its snout, according to the University of Arizona. The discovery marks “yet another instance in which rock formations on the Red Planet have triggered the human tendency to see familiar features in random objects”, said The Independent. Last year, Nasa’s Curiosity Mars rover spotted a rock formation that looked like an “alien doorway”.

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Ancient Mars may have had an environment capable of harbouring an underground world swarming with microscopic organisms, French scientists have concluded.

But according to the climate modelling study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, these simple life forms would have altered the atmosphere so immensely that they activated a Martian Ice Age and brought about their own demise. The theory is that the “early microbes started devouring the hydrogen and producing methane (which on Earth acts like a potent greenhouse gas)”, said Space.com, and that this “slowed down” the warming greenhouse effect, “making ancient Mars gradually so cold it became inhospitable”.

The study’s lead author, astrobiologist Boris Sauterey, said the findings – based on computer simulations of the ancient Martian crust and hydrogen-consuming microbes like those on ancient Earth – suggest that even simple life “might actually commonly cause its own demise”.

Associated Press described this verdict as a “bleak view of the ways of the cosmos”. But Sauterey argued that while “a bit gloomy”, the findings were are “also very stimulating” because they “challenge us to rethink the way a biosphere and its planet interact”.

For instance, he “believes the new work will be useful for future Mars missions”, reported Inverse, “as it could help identify ideal pockets of the surface where Mars’ primitive biosphere might have survived a possible ice age”.

Sauterey also “points to the team’s model as a tool to help understand if planets in our solar system and others might harbour life”, the science news site added. “Rather than early life being easily self-sustaining, biospheres could enter into feedback loops that lead to their own deterioration.”

However, the wider conclusions remain less rosy. The study “kind of points to the fact that potentially one of the limiting factors of the commonality of life in the universe is life itself”, said Sauterey.

“Hopefully, on Earth, that tendency did not exist and was compensated by other things,” he said, “but potentially it is a common fate of life in the universe to self-destruct.”

Nasa’s 50-year wait to send humans back to the Moon has been delayed after the US space agency was forced to call off the inaugural launch of the world’s most powerful rocket.

The first mission in the Artemis programme, which aims to get humans back on the Moon for the first time in more than half a century, was “scrubbed” at the last minute after “a fraught eight hours which saw weather delays, a suspected crack in the thermal casing, a hydrogen leak and, finally, a fatal engine cooling problem”, said The Telegraph.

“Just minutes after the lift-off window opened” on Monday morning, the decision was made to postpone the mission. Engineers are now working furiously to find a solution to the coolant issue, with hopes that the rescheduled launch can still go ahead this week.

What is the Artemis mission?

Named after the Greek goddess of the hunt, the Moon and chastity, the Artemis programme is Nasa’s attempt to return humans to the lunar surface – “but unlike Apollo, these missions are designed to keep us there”, said tech and science site Gizmodo.

To that end, Nasa and its international partners are planning to build a lunar space station called Gateway, to support activities both on and around the Moon. It is hoped this will eventually serve as a springboard to send humans to Mars.

Artemis 1 “represents a crucial turning point in NASA’s moon plans”, said CNBC. The 42-day mission involves the inaugural launch of the massive Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket, which will carry the unmanned Orion spacecraft beyond the Moon.

“The 98-metre Space Launch System is the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built,” said Sky News, “and in this crucial testing phase it will fly further than any spacecraft built for humans: 40,000 miles past the far side of the moon and 280,000 miles from Earth.”

According to Nasa, each of its two boosters generates more thrust than 14 four-engine commercial airliners combined.

“The purpose of Artemis 1 is to put vehicles and systems through their paces before putting astronauts aboard in 2024,” said The Times.

For Artemis 1, the Orion capsule, which can hold up to six astronauts, will carry just mannequins, including Commander Moonikin Campos, and a Snoopy soft toy to float around the cabin as a zero gravity indicator.

Provided this initial test flight is a success, Artemis 2 will carry four as-yet-unnamed astronauts on an eight-to-ten day mission that includes a fly-by of the Moon.

Artemis 3, planned for 2025, will finally land humans on the lunar surface, with Nasa saying the crew will include the first woman and person of colour. All 12 people to have landed on the Moon, between 1969 and 1972, have been white men from the US.

What is the timeline?

Nasa is not commenting publicly about the rescheduled Artemis 1 launch but it could be as soon as Friday or next Monday, weather permitting and provided engineers solve the engine cooling issue.

“Launch opportunities are limited by the stage of the moon and lighting conditions upon re-entry, among other considerations,” reported Space.com, so if Nasa misses this window then the next launch attempt is likely to be in October.

No firm timeline for the next stage of the project, which includes establishing a permanent base on the Moon followed by a manned mission to Mars, has been announced but it is not likely to get the go-ahead until the end of the decade or into the 2030s.

Is it worth it?

With the world in the midst of an energy and cost-of-living crisis, many are questioning the value of spending tens of billions of dollars on sending a handful of people into space.

It is estimated that US taxpayers will end up paying $93bn to fund the Artemis programme, with Florida Today arguing that the giant SLS “stands at risk of going down as one of the biggest boondoggles in spaceflight history if Nasa can’t find a way to control costs”.

The Observer said in an editorial: “It is a colossal investment and there are nagging doubts that it is justified at a time when private space companies, such as Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are developing giant reusable rockets that could slash deep-space mission cost.”

Others have suggested it would be more cost-efficient to send robots into space in place of humans, seeing as they require no life-support system and do not need to be brought home.

Yet for all the talk of cost-benefits, there are other factors to consider.

The first is political. “Despite the delays, and absorbing much of Nasa’s relatively small budget by federal agency standards, the Artemis programme has enjoyed strong bipartisan political support,” said CNBC, in part because the SLS development has engaged many different partners around the US and the world.

A map on Nasa’s website shows contributing contractors in every US state and more than 20 partners across Europe. “Keeping those aerospace industry jobs going became a yearly focus for many in the US Congress hoping to boost their political standing with constituents and district aerospace companies,” said Space.com, helping to give SLS and the Artemis programme “staying power”.

Russia and China threat

There is also concern that Russia and China could step in to fill a lunar void left by the US. Last year the two authoritarian regimes announced a joint plan to build a research station on the Moon, raising serious security concerns among Western analysts.

Then there is the argument that lunar travel “transformed our understanding of our place in the universe”, said The Observer.

Not only did the Apollo missions 50 years ago inspire a new generation, but observations, experiences and images such as Bill Anders’ iconic 1968 “Earthrise” photo “underlined the fragility of the Earth and played a key role in the birth of the environment movement in the late 1960s”, said the paper.

“From that perspective,” it added, “lunar travel can be seen to have provided value for money and suggests there is still something to be gained from continuing to put men and women into space.”

Scientists have been quick to dismiss a conspiracy theory that an image taken by Nasa’s Curiosity Rover shows an opening to a secret passageway on Mars. The Telegraph said the grainy image, taken last week by the mast-mounted camera on the rover, appears to show an opening with an arched lintel leading to a passageway with smooth walls. But Sanjeev Gupta, a professor of earth science at Imperial College London, said the hole was formed through “normal geological processes”.

Rare pink pigeon ‘spotted in Lancashire’

One of the rarest birds in the world may have been spotted by a mother in Lancashire, reported ITV. The “pink pigeon” which was sighted flying around a neighbourhood in Nelson could have been a Nesoenas mayeri – a bird native to Mautitius and one of only 500 left in the world. “I think everyone’s been really shocked,” said Kelly Lunney, who captured footage of the creature. “Sceptics believe the bird may have instead simply been dyed the colour pink,” said ITV.

Parents sue son for not producing grandchild

An Indian couple has sued their son, demanding that he and his wife produce a child within a year or pay them a compensation of 50 million rupees (£529,000). DW reported that Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad filed a petition at a court in the city of Haridwar, in the northern state of Uttarakhand. The filing said that their son and his wife, who live in separate cities due to work, have been married for six years “but they are still not planning a baby”. It added that “at least if we have a grandchild to spend time with, our pain will become bearable”.

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Martian mining

The uninspiringly named Mars Sample Return project is in fact a highly complex - and controversial - endeavour that involves firing several rockets containing Martian rock samples from the surface of the Red Planet to Earth. It will require the first rocket launch from anywhere other than Earth, and that’s the easy bit. The hard part comes when the samples hurtle back towards the surface of our own planet.

Cookie reform

One consequence of a European data-privacy law known as GDPR is the legally required “cookie warnings” that pop up on every website you visit. The intention was that these would encourage companies to be more transparent about how they track your behaviour on the web - and web users to be more selective about the permissions they grant. But in fact they have led to more confusion and irritation. That could soon be at an end.

Dachshund dilemma

This week, the Kennel Club - the organisation which oversees dog shows like Crufts - published new guidelines for dachshund breeders. The advice said the sausage dogs should no longer be bred with exaggerated features, like extra-long bodies and super-stubby legs, and instead should have "suitable ground clearance" to prevent them from experiencing back pain and other medical issues later in life. But how will these new guidelines help protect the wildly popular dog breed - and are dachshunds really as cute as they look?

Anti-vaccine protesters have stormed what they thought was a major BBC building, unaware the corporation moved out almost a decade ago. A handful of protesters gained access to Television Centre in west London, the circular building vacated by the BBC in 2013 which has since been converted into flats and a private members’ club. Activists at the demo described the media as “the virus” and criticised the BBC’s coverage of the Covid pandemic.

You can get paid to pretend to live on Mars

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on Mars? Then your time has finally come as NASA is recruiting four people to live in Mars Dune Alpha - a 1,700-square-foot facility created by 3-D printer meant to imitate the conditions on Mars - for a year. The paid role in the analog mission in Texas is designed to simulate conditions experienced in space, including physical, emotional and mental effects on the body.

Bear walks into LA supermarket

A bear has been tranquilised and relocated after it wandered into a Los Angeles supermarket packed with shoppers. The Los Angeles Police Department said officers responded on Saturday morning to reports of a bear in the Ralphs supermarket in the Porter Ranch neighbourhood. After fleeing the scene, the bear was eventually found hiding under a trailer. It was taken to Angeles National Forest for release into a suitable habitat.

A scientist predicted in 1948 that an “Elon” would lead humans to Mars. In a book titled The Mars Project, the German scientist Wernher von Braun wrote that the red planet would go on to be governed by an “Elon”. After the page was recently shared online, people suggested a connection with this Elon and Elon Musk, who is researching how humans can travel to Mars.

‘Terrible’ vending machine offers pizzas

A pizza vending machine has sparked differing reactions in Rome. Hungry Italians can use the Mr Go Pizza to choose from four different kinds of pizzas. The machine kneads and tops the dough and customers can watch the pizza cook behind a small glass window. One punter said the result was “acceptable” but another said it was “terrible”.

Teenager moves into retirement village

A teenager accidentally moved into a retirement village after signing her tenancy agreement without viewing the property. Madison Kohout, 19, noticed something amiss when all of her neighbours at her flat in Arkansas appeared to be over the age of 65. It was only a week later that she noticed the area’s sign that read: ‘Senior Citizens Apartments’.

Why do we explore Mars at all?

To search for life. Mars has long been considered the most hospitable place in the solar system beyond Earth, for both alien life and future human habitation. The second closest planet to ours after Venus, it is visible to the naked eye; its red-tinged terrain has been more closely observed via telescope since Galileo’s time. Over the centuries we’ve learnt that it is similar to Earth in many ways: it has clouds, winds, a roughly 24-hour day, seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes and canyons. In the 19th century, scientists thought there were oceans and vegetation on its surface, even canals. We know now that it is a frozen desert (temperatures range from -140ºC to +30ºC in the equatorial summer), but in the past it seems to have had a warmer, denser atmosphere, with rainstorms, rivers and lakes. Even today it has all the ingredients necessary for life: water, organic carbon and energy.

When did exploration first begin?

The first successful fly-by mission to Mars, the Mariner 4 probe, was made by Nasa in 1965. For centuries, humans had speculated about life on Mars, but the 21 grainy black and white images beamed back to Earth by Mariner 4 – the first photos humans had ever seen of another planet – showed a cratered, lifeless surface, much like the Moon’s. These pictures, along with measurements of Mars’s thin atmosphere – about 100 times thinner than Earth’s, therefore exposing it to the harshness of space – prompted The New York Times to declare it a “dead planet”. Since then, humans have launched some 50 missions, about half of which failed. There were many disappointments. The first human-built object to reach Mars, the Soviet lander Mars 2 in 1971, failed seconds after landing. In 1976, Nasa’s Viking 1 and Viking 2 landed safely, but found no evidence of biological activity.

So why did they carry on?

Later missions were more promising. Nasa’s rovers, starting with Spirit and Opportunity in 2004, have found evidence of ancient oceans and streams, and of ice beneath the surface. In 2018, the Curiosity rover found organic deposits trapped in mudstone formed 3.5 billion years ago. It gathered samples, heated them and analysed the results, proving they contained organic molecules: something like kerogen, the fossilised solid organic matter found in sedimentary rocks on Earth. This suggests that life could have existed in Mars’s ancient history, but it doesn’t prove it: the molecules could have been formed by geological activity or meteorites. In 2004, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter found the first evidence of methane on Mars – also perhaps a sign of former life.

What is happening now?

Last month, Nasa’s Perseverance became the fifth rover to land on Mars (all four of the others were built by Nasa; it and Curiosity remain operational). But two other high-profile missions have also reached Mars in recent weeks: China’s first independent mission, the Tianwen-1 (a spacecraft which is also due to land a rover this year); and the Emirates Mars Mission (the first Arab interplanetary space mission). Each of them set off in July last year, when Mars and Earth were aligned favourably.

What will Perseverance do?

Perseverance, an improved version of Curiosity, has landed in the Jezero crater, a former river delta. It will also look for signs of past life: seeking out biosignatures left by microbes. The rover is the first part of a “sample return” project: it will store rocks and samples which a later mission will return to Earth for further analysis, if all goes to plan, in 2031. Perseverance also aims to prepare for future human missions to Mars. It will attempt to synthesise a small amount of oxygen from the carbon dioxide that makes up 96% of the Martian atmosphere. In a few months it will fly a drone, the Ingenuity helicopter – the first time humans will have launched powered flight on another planet. The idea is that it will act as a scout, helping to plan routes for future missions.

When is a crewed mission likely?

Nasa aims to send astronauts to Mars by 2030, an objective it describes as “humanity’s next giant leap”. Elon Musk, founder of the space exploration company SpaceX is even more boosterish: he is “highly confident” SpaceX will send humans to Mars by 2026, and hopes to have sent a million people there by 2050. The obstacles are formidable. At its closest, Mars is 33.9 million miles from Earth; a journey that takes a spacecraft about seven months. The most difficult part of any mission is landing on its surface – a process known as the “seven minutes of terror”. Slowing a spacecraft down from about 12,000mph to landing speeds in Mars’s thin atmosphere is vastly complex: Perseverance used a heat shield, then a parachute, then a sky crane – an apparatus equipped with retro rockets which separates from the rover, and lowers it onto the planet floor. Landing one-tonne rovers is an amazing feat. Landing astronauts, plus their equipment and supplies, plus a spacecraft and fuel for return, is quite another question.

What about the longer term?

For Musk and others, the aim is to build colonies on Mars: we need to become a “multi-planet species”, he says, rather than “hanging out on Earth until some eventual calamity claims us”. Whether becoming a two‑planet species will do much for humanity’s survival is a moot point, when the second planet is as brutally hostile as Mars. But at the very least, many envisage small but viable colonies and a space tourism industry there in the coming decades. For most space scientists, though, the real objective remains the discovery of life. Finding a “second genesis of life” besides the one on Earth – and in our own backyard – would have profound scientific and philosophical implications: it would suggest that life exists throughout the universe.

Being one of the five planets visible to the naked eye, Mars has always fascinated humans – and since it is on occasion visibly red because of the iron oxide on its surface, it has long been associated with war and slaughter. The Babylonians called it Nergal for their god of death and pestilence, long before the Romans named it after their god of war. By the 17th century, astronomers were observing it by telescope and noting its polar caps. The first detailed maps of Mars were made in the late 19th century by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. He named its “seas” and “continents”, and noted “channels”, or canali, on its surface – which were actually an optical illusion.

Schiaparelli thought these were natural features, but as his assumptions were popularised, the “canals” of Mars were seen more literally, giving rise to waves of speculation and folklore about the possibility of intelligent life, and whole civilisations, on Mars. Nikola Tesla thought he had picked up signals from Mars. H.G. Wells published The War of the Worlds in 1898, in which Martians escape their dying planet to invade Earth. The astronomer Carl Sagan observed: “Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears.”

Mars is once again making headlines today after astronomers have found signs of liquid water trapped underneath vast ice sheets located at the southern most point of the planet.

Scientists at the Italian Space Agency have identified a lake, believed to be 12.5 miles in diameter, using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument (Marsis).

The discovery follows Nasa locating at least eight ice sheets on the planet’s surface in January, many of which could be easily accessible by future explorers.

What makes the lake and ice sheets so significant is that the hunt for water on Mars has been somewhat “elusive” for researchers around the world, according to Wired.

Not only do the findings suggest that Mars may have contained more water than previously believe, but it also raises the prospect of finding life on the planet.

Have signs of life been found on Mars?

That depends on what a sign of life is. Scientists have not yet found any life form on the red planet, whether that’s intelligent beings, animals or even bacteria.

This could be due to Mars’s atmosphere, which is predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2) and lacks the levels of Nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O2) needed to sustain life as we know it. The planet’s atmosphere also lacks the necessary protection against the Sun’s rays, exposing life forms to “dangerous” levels of radiation, says Business Insider.

While Mars’s surface seems hostile for most creatures found on Earth, there is a chance the red planet may have supported life millions of years ago, evidence of which could be found trapped in ice sheets.

In January, a Nasa satellite orbiting Mars discovered eight sites that appear to have “huge ice deposits”, The Independent reported at the time. These could be easily accessed if humans were to land on them.

While scientists were already aware of the presence of ice, Science Mag says the large sheets are located much closer to the surface than was previously thought.

Why are ice sheets so significant?

It’s widely believed that where there’s water, there’s life - even if the water is frozen.

Despite Mars’s hostile atmosphere ruling out any chance of finding life on the planet’s surface, there is hope that small organisms, fossils or even long-dead creates may be frozen in ice.

The most recent finding, however, goes on step further than the discovery of ice sheets in January.

This is because the lake contains running water “similar to lakes that are found beneath Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets on Earth”, CNN reports.

Arizona State University’s research director for space, Tanya Harrison, told The Verge: “Pretty much anywhere there is liquid water on Earth, you find something that’s managed to survive in it.”

Bacteria has been located on Earth in pools of water located under some of the planet’s massive glaciers, the tech site says, so an “underground reservoir” on Mars could offer a scientists a trove of extraterrestrial information.

However, Claire Cousins, an astrobiologist from the University of St Andrews, told the BBC that “it’s plausible that the water may be an extremely cold, concentrated brine, which would be pretty challenging for life.”

How long will it take to get to the lake?

It may be a long time before scientists get to see if anything lives in the subglacial lake on Mars’s south pole.

Speaking to The Guardian, lead researcher at the Italian Space Agency, Roberto Orosei, said: “Getting there and acquiring the final evidence that this is indeed a lake will not be an easy task.”

“It will require flying a robot there which is capable of drilling through 1.5km of ice and this will certainly require some technological developments that at the moment are not available”, he said.

In the meantime, The Guardian says researchers will continue to hunt for more signs of subglacial lakes on Earth’s neighbouring planet.

Could life on Earth originate from Mars?

Perhaps, but this is a hotly-debated topic.

Some scientists suggest that a meteorite from Mars may have impacted on Earth, or vice versa, billions of years ago, potentially contaminating the very early stages of life, says Space.com.

The theory, kick started by Steven Benner, a researcher at The Westheimer Institute for Science in the US.

He claims a very early basic from of DNA believed to be the “building block” of life could only have originated on planets with “highly oxidised molybdenum and boron”, such as Mars, says science news site ExtremeTech.

While the exchange of meteorites between the two planets isn’t entirely far fetched, Space.com says “debates rage over whether or not tiny organisms would be hardy enough to survive the voyage through a freezing, airless, radiation-filled vacuum and kick off life at its new home.”

Perhaps those answers lie frozen in one of the red planet’s growing number of water sources.

A Nasa probe on Mars has detected a seismological tremor on the red planet that is being dubbed a “marsquake”.

The US space agency has announced that on 6 April, its InSight lander detected a faint seismic signal that is believed to have emanated from beneath the surface of the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above such as wind, The Guardian reports. The breakthrough comes five months after the robotic probe touched down on Mars.

French space agency CNES, which built the seismometer, says it had been “waiting months for our first marsquake”.

“It’s so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active,” the agency said in a statement. “This first event officially kicks off a new field - Martian seismology.”

So what is a marsquake?

Mars does not have tectonic plates and does “not produce the kind of cataclysmic quakes that we sometimes experience on Earth”, explains Vice’s Motherboard.

Instead, quakes on Mars are caused by “faults or fractures in the crust” which in turn may be the result of meteorite impacts, “surface shrinkage due to planetary cooling, or the pressure of magma pushing up toward the surface”, says Live Science.

Humans have tried to measure Martian tremors with seismometers since the 1970s, but have not been successful until now.

How was it measured?

In November, Nasa’s InSight probe touched down on the red planet carrying an instrument dubbed the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), designed by CNES. The instrument was then deployed to the surface of Mars the following month.

Nasa’s website reports that on Earth, high-quality seismometers are “sealed in underground vaults to isolate them from changes in temperature and weather”. Because of the more extreme conditions on Mars, SEIS was fitted with “several ingenious insulating barriers, including a cover... called the Wind and Thermal Shield, to protect it from the planet’s extreme temperature changes and high winds”, the space agency says.

On the lander’s 128th Martian day, a faint rumble was detected by the instrument and recorded by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Professor Tom Pike, one of the SEIS designers, told the BBC that the quake was too small to calculate the source or the distance from the probe to the event.

“It’s probably only a Magnitude 1 to 2 event, perhaps within 100km [62 miles] or so,” he said.

Why is it significant?

The vibrations from marsquakes move through the interior of the red planet and “bump into and reflect off of different materials underground”, says Live Science.

The researchers believe that because different materials transmit and reflect these vibrations in various ways, they will be able to use SEIS data to recreate a 3D view of the Martian interior, giving us a good idea of how the planet was formed.

Unlike on Earth, where constant tectonic activity has erased much of the historical rock formations that might tell us about the origins of our planet, Mars’ lack of tectonic activity means that much of its history is still buried in its interior, untouched for millions of years.

Although the quake recorded was far too small to give scientists any concrete information about the interior of the planet, further tremors should provide more data over time.

Tanya Harrison, a Mars scientist at Arizona State University, told National Geographic that SEIS is “helping paint the picture that Mars is still an active place”.

Nasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another planet, has successfully landed on Mars.

The touchdown followed what the Daily Mirror calls “seven minutes of terror” as the six-wheeled rover carefully descended from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the planet’s surface.

Its heat shield had to endure temperatures as high as 2,100C (3,800F) to complete the successful landing, which marks a historic triumph for the space agency that has seen around 60% of its missions to Mars fail.

Engineers at Nasa’s mission control in California “erupted with joy when the confirmation of touchdown came through”, the BBC reports. “The good news is the spacecraft, I think, is in great shape,” said Matt Wallace, the mission’s deputy project manager.

Now it’s arrived, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will begin “search for signs of ancient microbial life, which will advance Nasa’s quest to explore the past habitability of Mars”, Nasa says. The rover will “drill to collect core samples of Martian rock” before “stor[ing] them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would ferry them back to Earth for detailed analysis”.

Although Mars is currently cold and dry, with a thin atmosphere, the planet appears to have been wetter billions of years ago, with a thicker atmosphere that would support life.

It is not likely that the rover will be able to confirm signs of life with 100% certainty. But Briony Horgan, associate professor of planetary science at Purdue University and part of the Perseverance team, told the New Scientist that “the hope is we’ll find very strong evidence – layers of organic material layered in with microbial mat textures on an ancient shoreline, something like that”.

The mission could also bring Nasa closer to sending humans to the planet, with the magazine adding that it may act as a “sort of dress rehearsal” for a crewed mission to Mars.

A six-wheeled exploration buggy called Perseverance is 24-hours into a seven-month voyage to Mars, where it will scour the surface for evidence of alien life.

It blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida yesterday aboard an Atlas V rocket.

“Nasa made this mission one of its absolute priorities when the coronavirus crisis struck, establishing special work practices to ensure Perseverance met its launch deadline,” the BBC reports.

Why is it so important?

When the rover lands on Mars in February next year, “it will use a sophisticated suite of science instruments including 23 cameras to examine the planet’s climate and geology”, says New Scientist. Although the mission is unmanned, Nasa says it will be the next best thing.

“Perseverance will bring all human senses to Mars,” astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen said at a recent press conference. “It will sense the air around it, see and scan the horizon, hear the planet with microphones on the surface for the first time, feel it as it picks up samples to cache.”

Its ability to carry out chemical analysis of the dust it finds on the surface will mean it can “even taste it, in a sense”, he added.

The rover will also carry an experimental space helicopter, which will make a 15-minute flight above the surface of the planet.

Where is it going?

After its 60-million mile journey, Perseverance is intended to “touch down in an ancient river delta and former lake on the Martian surface known as the Jezero Crater”, says Sky News.

Covered in rocks and strewn with “sand dunes and depressions”, it will not be the easiest landing site. But Nasa has good reason to take its chances.

“The deposits in the crater are rich in clay minerals which form in the presence of water, meaning life may have once existed there - and such sediments on Earth have been known to store microscopic fossils.”

Is there life on Mars?

The Victorians certainly thought so, but David Bowie seemed less sure.

Most scientists would put Bowie’s question into the past tense, asking not whether there’s life on Mars now, but whether there might have been in the distant past.

“Perseverance will hunt for ‘biosignatures’ of past microbial life,” explains the Daily Mail, seeking out promising rocks and drilling samples from their cores.

“We know that Mars has the ingredients for life,” says New Scientist, “and that long ago it was probably far warmer and wetter than today.”

It may yet be some time before we know for certain, however. Even if we find clues that there might have once been living organisms on Mars, we probably won’t be sure until we can bring those clues back to Earth and examine them in the lab, says Johnson.

“The rock samples will be picked up by another mission in 2026,” says the Daily Mail, and only then will scientists see definitive results.

Nasa has successfully trialled a robotic helicopter that is capable of flying in the harsh conditions of Mars’s atmosphere.

Until now, only ground-based rovers have been successfully deployed onto the surface of Mars, which relay images and data back to Earth. But Nasa hopes the 1.8kg helicopter will “reveal a new perspective” of the planet’s surface, Sky News reports.

Due to blast off to the red planet with the US space agency’s new rover in 2021, the helicopter will have to survive temperatures as low as -90C at night and maintain flight in an atmosphere that is significantly thinner than that of Earth’s, the broadcaster says.

As Nasa is unable to test the helicopter on the surface of Mars, the space agency replicated the planet’s conditions using the Space Simulator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, says Engadget.

Using the simulator’s 25-foot-wide vacuum chamber, the agency was able to launch the helicopter and maintain an altitude of two inches for one minute, the tech site adds. Had the chamber not been available, Nasa would have needed to have trialled the device at an altitude of 100,000 feet above Earth’s surface.

Despite the short flight time, Nasa deemed the test a success and will now begin preparing the helicopter for its first mission.

MiMi Aung, project manager for the space helicopter, told the London Evening Standard: “The next time we fly, we fly on Mars.

“The chamber hosted missions from the Ranger Moon probes to the Voyagers to Cassini, and every Mars rover ever flown”, said Aung. “To see our helicopter in there reminded me we are on our way to making a little chunk of space history as well.”

Nasa is due to send the vehicle, along with its new Mars rover, into space in July 2020. The two machines are due to touch down on the red planet in February 2021.

Herpes viruses reactivate during spaceflight and could pose a significant health risk on missions to Mars and beyond, researchers have discovered.

According to a new study for Nasa, more than half of the astronauts onboard Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) missions suffered reactivation of a latent herpes infection.

Herpes is a family of common viruses that includes the two types of herpes simplex virus (which cause genital and oral herpes) as well as the viruses behind mononucleosis, shingles and chickenpox.

The viruses are typically suppressed by body’s immune system, but can be triggered by stress and other factors.

“During spaceflight there is a rise in secretion of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which are known to suppress the immune system,” said the study’s author Satish Mehta.

“In keeping with this, we find that astronaut’s immune cells - particularly those that normally suppress and eliminate viruses - become less effective during spaceflight and sometimes for up to 60 days after.”

Scientists also found that the longer the duration of the spaceflight, the higher the rate of virus reactivation.

While only a small proportion of the astronauts develop symptoms as a result of the dormant virus awakening, it could spell danger for longer spaceflight missions, Sky News reports.

The herpes outbreaks were detected as part of a study on the physiological impact of spaceflight by researchers at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

They collected and analysed saliva, blood and urine samples from astronauts before, during and after their space missions.

A total of 47 out of 89 astronauts on short space shuttle flights, and 14 out of 23 on longer ISS missions shed herpes viruses in their saliva or urine samples, scientists found.

“These frequencies - as well as the quantity - of viral shedding are markedly higher than in samples from before or after flight, or from matched healthy controls,” they said.

Nasa is preparing to make one last attempt to contact Mars rover Opportunity, before officially declaring it dead.

The Mars rover team lost contact with Opportunity more than eight months ago, when a global dust storm enveloped the red planet for several months, blocking sunlight from the rover’s solar panels.

Scientists have sent more than 1,000 recovery commands to Opportunity, but they are yet to receive a response from the exploratory craft, The Daily Telegraph reports.

“It’s just like a loved one who’s gone missing, and you keep holding out hope that they will show up and that they're healthy,” project manager John Callas said. “But each passing day that diminishes, and at some point you have to say 'enough' and move on with your life.”

Engineers believe the rover’s internal clock “may have become scrambled during the prolonged outage”, disrupting its power cycle and draining its batteries, the ABC says.

Launched in 2003, Opportunity was initially sent to undertake a 90-day mission, however it lasted far beyond expectations, continuing to operate for more than 15 years.

The conditions for life on Earth were created when the planet crashed into another body the size of Mars about 4.4 billion years ago, a new study claims.

For life to emerge on an otherwise dead planet, “an assortment of chemical compounds, or volatile elements, are required, including carbon, nitrogen and sulfur”, says science news site Gizmodo. Conventional scientific thinking has always been that Earth’s volatile elements arrived through a steady bombardment of ancient meteorites.

But according to the “giant impact hypothesis”, outlined in a newly published paper in journal Science Advances, a single catastrophic cosmic crash delivered most of the volatile elements essential for life to the Earth.

Lab experiments and computer simulations by scientists at Rice University, in Texas, “suggested that debris from the destroyed planet deposited the life elements on Earth”, included most of the nitrogen and carbon found in all living things, reports The Independent.

The scientists believe the debris from the collision also created the Moon, while the so-called “donor planet” is thought to have been an embryonic world with a sulphur-rich core.

Lead scientist Rajdeep Dasgupta said: “From the study of primitive meteorites, scientists have long known that Earth and other rocky planets in the inner solar system are volatile-depleted.

“But the timing and mechanism of volatile delivery has been hotly debated. Ours is the first scenario that can explain the timing and delivery in a way that is consistent with all the geochemical evidence.”

He added that the study could boost scientists’ understanding of how the ingredients for life might form on other similarly rocky planets like our own.

“This study suggests that a rocky, Earth-like planet gets more chances to acquire life-essential elements if it forms and grows from giant impacts with planets that have sampled different building blocks, perhaps from different parts of a protoplanetary disk,” he said.

However, Dasgupta admitted to Gizmodo that the study was “based entirely on the geochemical behavior of elements” and didn’t look at the “dynamics or physical processes involved in planetary accretion and growth”.

The team now hope to integrate their new theoretical model with physical models.

“In other words, this ain’t over yet,” says the site.

US space agency Nasa has successfully landed a new probe on Mars, following a dramatic seven-minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere.

The InSight probe survived a seven-month journey through space, arriving safely on Mars in order to study seismic activity on the Red Planet, along with monitoring the “wobble” of Mars’ north pole, which will yield information about the planet’s iron-rich core.

“Today, we successfully landed on Mars for the eighth time in human history,” Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. “InSight will study the interior of Mars and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars.”

The BBC reports that InSight has landed on a “a vast, flat plain known as Elysium Planitia, close to the Red Planet’s equator” which Nasa scientists had dubbed the “biggest parking lot on Mars”.

Engineers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory broke into applause when the probe sent its initial signal back to Earth that it had landed safely and was functioning as intended.

CNBC describes landing on Mars as an “intense undertaking”, as only “about 40 per cent of all missions ever sent to Mars have been successful”.

Astronomers have found evidence of liquid water on Mars, trapped beneath the southern polar cap of the planet.

Researchers from the Italian Space Agency detected the small lake, believed to be just 12.5 miles across, using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument (Marsis).

A survey of the area around the southern polar cap revealed the presence of a body of water which looked “very similar to lakes that are found beneath Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets on Earth”, CNN reports.

It may not be the only Martian lake. “This is just one small study area,” said lead researcher Roberto Orosei. “It is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered.”

The presence of liquid water on Mars has raised the tantalising prospect of discovering past or present life on the planet, but the odds are still long.

“It’s plausible that the water may be an extremely cold, concentrated brine, which would be pretty challenging for life,” Claire Cousins, an astrobiologist from the University of St Andrews, told the BBC.

Nasa has lost contact with its Opportunity rover on Mars after an “unprecedented” dust storm engulfed the planet.

The little robot, which has been on Mars since the start of 2004, requires sunlight to charge its batteries, The Independent reports. But with the vast dust storm covering about a quarter of the planet for the past two weeks, the rover has run out of power.

Although the storm is only expected to last for a few days, it could be months until the machine’s solar panels absorb enough energy to begin transmitting data back to Earth, the news site adds.

“By no means are we out of the woods here,” Opportunity project manager John Callas said yesterday. “This storm is threatening and we don't know how long it will last, and we don't know what the environment will be like once it clears.”

Mission controllers at the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, lost contact with the rover on Tuesday evening, according to The Guardian.

The storm was first detected by Nasa on 30 May, but grew at an extraordinary rate and quickly engulfed the rover in thick clouds of dust.

Nasa’s far newer Mars rover, called Curiosity, is powered by a nuclear reactor and therefore does not need sunlight to stay powered up.

Despite its current power outage, the Opportunity rover has more than exceeded initial expectations during its 14-year stint on the red planet.

According to the BBC, the droid was only designed to work for 90 days yet is still going, although it can only move in reverse and its robotic arm, used to examine rocks, is “arthritic”.

Prior to the storm, Opportunity had been exploring the Perseverance Valley on the western rim of Mars, in a bid to work out whether the valley was formed by water or wind.

Nasa hopes to continue the mission when, or if, it regains contact with the robot.

Nasa has justified its decision to return to the moon before putting people on Mars, insisting that the two missions will be “supportive of each other”.

In December, Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing Nasa to send astronauts back to the moon. Last week the agency issued a statement asking the commercial space industry for help with the mission.

In one of his first major speeches as Nasa administrator, Jim Bridenstine said on Wednesday that those waiting enthusiastically for a Nasa-funded trip to the red planet shouldn’t be worried about the agency’s current plans.

“If some of you are concerned that our focus in the coming years is the moon, don’t be,” he told the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington DC. “The president’s vision has emphasised that our Exploration Campaign will establish American leadership in the human exploration of Mars. We are doing both the moon and Mars, in tandem, and the missions are supportive of each other.”

“In fact, our return to the surface of the moon will allow us to prove and advance technologies that will feed forward to Mars: precision landing systems, methane engines, orbital habitation, surface habitation, surface mobility, long duration life support operations, and much more, that will enable us to land the first Americans on the red planet.”

Although the focus is currently on the moon, Space.com writes that Nasa’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission is searching for potentially habitable environments on the Red Planet. The agency is keen to store samples with a view to returning them to Earth for further research.

Nasa is gearing up for the launch of its first Mars rover in six years, which will be sent into orbit tomorrow.

The new InSight rover will make the six-month journey aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, which is due to lift off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 12:05 BST, says Space.com.

InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is due to land just above the northern side of the Martian equator on 26 November, the website says.

Once the vehicle touches down, the rover will begin a two-year mission to gather information on earthquakes (also referred to as Mars-quakes) in order to understand why the red planet’s geography is different from the Earth’s, The Guardian reports.

Scientists claim that billions of years of earthquakes have wiped out most of the evidence of the Earth’s formation, the newspaper reports. This makes it difficult to establish how the planet went from a hostile environment to one that can support life.

Scientists believe that Mars’s seismic activity has been “relatively static” over the past three billion years, Reuters reports, making it a “geologic time machine” that could hold the answers to the Earth’s formation.

To measure the seismic activity on the red planet, InSight uses a seismometer developed by the French space agency Cnes. The news site says that the instrument is so sensitive it can detect Mars-quakes on the other side of the planet from where the reading is taking place.

Nasa hopes to gather information on 100 Mars-quakes over the two-year mission. Many of these will have a magnitude of 6.0.

To put it into perspective, an earthquake of that magnitude would be enough to cause “considerable damage” to buildings, the Los Angeles Times says. Earthquakes that cause major damage are rated between 7.0 and 8.0.

The InSight mission is Nasa’s first Mars rover launch since the Curiosity vehicle landed on the red planet in 2012. Curiosity continues to operate on Mars, where it studies the minerals that cover the plant’s surface.

The US space agency is giving fans the opportunity to watch tomorrow’s launch through livestream video. This kicks off at 11:30 BST on Nasa’s website.

Scientists have trialled a small nuclear reactor that could be used to sustain life on the uninhabitable surface of Mars, officials announced yesterday.

Nasa and the US Department of Energy have developed the nuclear fission reactor to power manned missions to the red planet or other potentially habitable worlds within the solar system, says Reuters.

Powering a small colony on another planet or moon is a huge challenge, the news site says, as the nuclear reactor’s design must be “strong enough to sustain a base but small and light enough to allow for transport through space”.

Speaking at the reactor’s launch event, Nasa‘s space technology mission directorate chief, Steve Jurczyk, said: “Mars is a very difficult environment for power systems, with less sunlight than Earth or the Moon, very cold nighttime temperatures, [and] very interesting dust storms that can last weeks and months that engulf the entire planet.”

The new reactor’s size and strength allows the agency to “deliver multiple units on a single lander to the surface that provides tens of kilowatts of power”, Jurczyk added.

The power supply is also reliable and uses less fuel than conventional generators, says Space.com. This makes it more efficient than solar power systems, which require consistent sunlight to work.

The two US government bodies began trialling the reactor late last year, the website says, with harsher tests for a flight-ready power generator due to commence in spring.

But it may be some time before the nuclear reactor is blasted off to Mars, as Nasa is not planning to send a manned mission to the red planet until the 2030s at the earliest.

“Shrinkflation” has struck the confectionary aisle once more, prompting fans of Jaffa Cakes to express their dismay at the downsizing of their favourite snack.

The number of cakes in a packet of Jaffa Cakes has been slashed from 12 to 10. But, while maker’s McVitie’s says it has also cut the recommended retail price to reflect the change, “that does not appear to have been recognised by supermarkets,” says Yahoo Finance.

“Ocado, for example, is selling a 10 box for £1.19, while Asda is selling twin pack box of 20 for £2.19,” says the website. Boxes of 12 were also typically sold for £1.19.

A McVitie’s spokesperson confirmed to website that Jaffa Cakes packets have been reduced but said: “Pricing ultimately remains at the sole discretion of retailers.”

Jaffa Cake lovers on Twitter called the move “sacrilege”, while one declared it a sad day for the UK population.

The decision has had an immediate impact, with Bedford builder Simon Akroyd, telling The Sun he faced a backlash from his workforce when he went to give them their “usual choccy perk” and there weren’t enough to go round.

He said: “They thought I was trying to dupe them, and weren’t happy.”

Describing it as a “Jaffa quake”, the BBC reports that McVitie’s is something of a serial offender, having this year “reduced the size of its dark chocolate digestive biscuits from 332g to 300g”.

The practice of “shrinkflation” as it's become known, first hit the headlines in November 2016 when Mondelez, the makers of Toblerone, said it had increased the spacing between the distinctive chunks and reduced the weight of the bar by almost 10% due to rising ingredient costs.

In the same month, Mars also pointed to rising costs for its decision to shrink the size of Maltesers packets by 15%.

In July, the Office for National Statistics said as many as 2,529 products had shrunk in size over the past five years, but were being sold for the same price. Many manufacturers have blamed the UK's vote to leave the EU, saying the poor value of sterling against the euro has hit the price of imported raw ingredients.

A previously undiscovered essay by former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill has revealed that the leader believed aliens might exist.

Written in 1939 and revised in the 1950s, Are We Alone in the Universe? discusses the wartime leader's deep fascination with the cosmic world around him.

Churchill wrote: "I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that we are the highest type of mental and physical development which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space and time."

In addition, the essay, which was donated to the Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri, in the 1980s, but then sat unnoticed until late last year, predicted man's journey into the solar system.

"One day, possibly even in the not very distant future, it may be possible to travel to the Moon, or even to Venus and Mars," the prime minister penned.

Churchill also wrote that the likelihood of other planets housing alternative life depended on the existence of water and that human beings would be severely limited to believe they were the only intelligent life in the universe.

These remarks have been met with praise by academic Mario Livio, who analysed the essay for scientific journal Nature.

"This chain of logic is astounding, in my opinion, for a politician," Livio said.

Churchill was the first prime minister to have a science adviser and regularly met with scientists such as radio astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell to talk about his discoveries.

Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) are waiting for a signal from the Schiaparelli space probe after losing contact less than a minute before it was due to hit the surface of Mars.

"Grim-faced mission controllers peered at their monitors as the moment they expected the probe to call home came and went in silence", The Guardian says.

"It's clear this is not a good sign," said said Paolo Ferri, the head of mission operations at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt.

Schiaparelli manager Thierry Blancquaert told AFP: "The lander touched down, that is certain.

"Whether it landed intact, whether it hit a rock or a crater or whether it simply cannot communicate, that I don't know."

Scientists have called in other satellites around the Red Planet to try and communicate with the craft, including a US satellite that "called out to Schiaparelli to try to get it to respond", says the BBC.

There was better news from the probe's "mothership", the trace gas orbiter, which was placed in an eccentric orbit around Mars and will spend the next few years testing gas levels, including methane, around the planet.

Methane holds a number of clues as to the state of Mars and "may even hint at the existence of life on the planet today", says the BBC.

ExoMars mission: Lander due to touch down on Mars

19 October

A probe is on course to become the first European spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, potentially opening the door to a future crewed mission.

The entry, descent and landing demonstrator module (EDM), also known as the Schiaparelli lander, is one of two spacecraft heading for the Red Planet as part of the ExoMars mission, a joint undertaking between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The second spacecraft involved in the mission, the trace gap orbiter (TGO) will not touch down but will attempt to enter the planet's orbit, where it will search for trace amounts of gas in the atmosphere.

This afternoon, scientists anxiously awaited a signal to confirm the Schiaparelli lander, which had entered a powered-down state to save energy, had awoken on schedule for its descent.

Finally, at 3pm BST, the ESA tweeted that the giant metrewave radio telescope, near Pune, in India, had picked up a signal from Schiaparelli.

It was on course to touch down at around 4pm BST, although confirmation of the mission's success is expected to take several hours, The Guardian reports.

Schiaparelli's complex landing procedure, which will be aided by a parachute to slow its fall, is the final phase of a journey which began seven months ago, when both spacecraft were launched on a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The TGO and Schiaparelli successfully parted ways three days ago to begin their separate missions, which could ultimately pave the way to humans landing on Mars.

Schiaparelli's mission is to assess hydrogen levels under the surface of the planet that "could help pinpoint deposits of ice that later crewed missions can use as a water source", TechCrunch reports.

Infographic by www.statista.com for TheWeek.co.uk.

US President Barack Obama has promised to land humans on Mars within the next 20 years.

Laying out his vision for future manned missions to the Red Planet for CNN, Obama said the US government would partner with private companies to send humans on an expedition to Mars and back by the 2030s.

"We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America's story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time," he said, using language evoking his predecessor John F Kennedy's Cold War pledge to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth.

"If we make our leadership in space even stronger in this century than it was in the last, we won't just benefit from related advances in energy, medicine, agriculture and artificial intelligence, we'll benefit from a better understanding of our environment and ourselves."

The President did not elaborate on how the US would fund these trips, "nor did he specify which commercial companies would be involved in the effort", says the Daily Mail.

However, the White House did confirm he is to convene a meeting of scientists, engineers and students this week "to dream up ways to build on our progress and find the next frontiers".

SpaceX, headed by entrepreneur Elon Musk, one of more than 1,000 private companies cited by Obama, hopes to send people to Mars in the next few years. However, the California-based company has run into problems after it was forced to write off more than $200m after a launch failure last month.

In addition, getting enough food and water into space to feed astronauts on a mission lasting months or even years is "a key logistical problem", says the Mail.

Obama "will be keen for such an achievement to form part of his legacy as he nears the end of his second term", says Sky News.

However, the President's last-minute conversion to space exploration has been met with cynicism in some quarters.

Politicians of both parties have criticised the administration for allowing the US to fall behind China in space exploration, with some accusing Obama of "diverting money from space exploration to climate change research", says the Washington Times.

Students and scientists at Imperial College London have found a way to modify the bacteria found in Kombucha tea to one day help humans to colonise Mars.

The new method gives researchers the ability to manufacture a "wonder material" called bacterial cellulose on demand, explains the Daily Telegraph.

Bacterial cellulose is currently harvested and used in a range of products, including materials for headphones, ingredients in cosmetics and occasionally as a leather substitute in clothes.

But scientists have now developed the DNA tools to control and shape a strain of the bacteria found in Kombucha tea.

The ability to grow and shape the cellulose means astronauts could potentially develop the material to start building components of human colonies on other planets once they arrive, rather than transporting ready-made materials with them, says the Telegraph.

The technique could also be used to develop fabric with in-built sensors that could change colour as it detects toxins, says the Imperial College team.

"Bacterial cellulose is a remarkable material that is malleable, safe and strong. We believe the tools developed by the students will take manufacturing of this product into the 21st century," said study co-author Dr Tom Ellis, who works at the department of bioengineering.

In the research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team says the next step would be to work with Nasa to understand how best to develop the material in large quantities.

"The real big achievement here is that this was a project from a team of undergraduates that has now become a major research paper," Dr Ellis added.

European and Russian space agencies have launched a joint mission to Mars to search for gases that could indicate the existence of life on the Red Planet.

At 3.31pm local time (9.31am GMT), a Proton rocket carrying the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter satellite blasted into the atmosphere from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is due to reach Mars in October and, after a year getting into the correct orbit, 250 miles above the planet, will spend five years observing the land below.

The probe's delicate scientific instruments will examine the composition of gases in the Martian atmosphere, in particular the methane that the US's Curiosity rover has found present in tiny amounts. On Earth, the vast majority of methane is produced by living organisms. Scientists hope to learn more about how it is apparently produced and replenished on Mars, including the possibility of past or present living organisms on the planet.

Meanwhile, three days after its arrival, the satellite will release a small module, called the Schiaparelli, to land on the planet and carry out scientific experiments.

The successful touchdown of the Schiaparelli is vital to the second stage of the project, which will see the agencies attempt to land a rover on the planet in 2018.

Executing a successful landing has proven the undoing of many previous Mars missions and the trial lander is designed to demonstrate that new technologies – including a descent radar and improved computers – mean a future rover mission would have a greater chance of success.

For Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, the success of this mission would represent an end to a disheartening run of failures, says the BBC. The country has launched 19 missions to Mars since 1960, all but a handful of them outright failures. Its last Mars mission to go according to plan was a flyby and capsule landing in 1973.

Nasa scientists say they have found evidence of flowing water on Mars. According to researchers, the discovery of liquid water running down canyons and crater walls raises the chances of the planet being home to some form of life.

The space agency has hailed the "strongest evidence yet" of intermittent flows of briny water on Mars after scientists pinpointed hydrated salts in dark streaks that ebb and flow down the planet's slopes.

"There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars," Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasa's Mars exploration programme, told The Guardian. "Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to have a habitable environment today."

The existence of liquid water is also significant for future astronauts travelling to the planet, as the identification of water supplies near the surface would make it easier for them to "live off the land", says the BBC.

Nasa has already said it wants to put men on Mars and John Grunsfeld, the agency's science mission chief, said he hoped it would be able to do so "in the near future". A Mars mission would cost tens of billions of dollars.

Commenting on the project, Joe Michalski, a researcher at London's Natural History Museum who was not involved in the research, told The Independent: "On Earth, wherever we find water, we find life. That is why the discovery of water on Mars over the last 20 years is so exciting."

Is Nasa about to reveal life on Mars or the presence of water?

28 September

Nasa is preparing to unveil a "major science finding" from its Mars exploration programme, fuelling speculation that liquid water may have been found on the planet.

The US space agency has invited reporters to a press conference at 11.30am ET (3.30pm GMT) on Monday, in which it promises a "Mars Mystery Solved". Though many will hope it is the discovery of alien life, the announcement is widely expected to be related to the presence of liquid water.

Speculation of the discovery was compounded by Nasa's disclosure that PhD candidate Lujendra Ojha, who discovered possible signs of water while an undergraduate in 2011, will be speaking as part of the announcement. Other speakers will include Jim Green, Nasa's director of planetary science, and Michael Meyer, the agency's lead scientist for the Mars exploration programme.

The presence of frozen water at the poles of Mars has been known, but scientists are yet to find it in liquid form. It is widely believed that such a discovery would raise the chances of sustaining life on the planet.

Doug McCuistion, the former head of Nasa's Mars programme, said a discovery of free-flowing water would be "game-changing". He told the Boston Herald: "If they're announcing that they've found easily accessible, freely flowing liquid water under the surface - which is one of the theories we've been hearing for years and years – that has massive implications both for the potential for life on that planet and sustainability of humans."

Nasa's Mars rover, Curiosity, has been exploring the Gale Crater on Mars since 2012 and found tantalising clues of possible life, according to The Telegraph. In December it discovered "burps" of methane, which Nasa scientists said could indicate "life or evidence of ancient methane trapped which could show ancient life".

People around the world will marvel at a spectacular "once in a lifetime experience" of a "double moon" in the night sky on 27 August, according to a message doing the rounds on Facebook.

The post, which has been debunked by astronomers everywhere, claims that Mars will be so bright and large that it will look as though there are two moons next to one another.

The astronomy site EarthSky.org, affiliated with the award-winning science radio show of the same name, said that the rumour has become so popular that the site's feature discrediting the double moon theory has been its most-read feature this week.

The hoax often includes a Photoshopped picture of what looks like two bright moons hovering over a domed building in the early evening.

But "the email and photo are perpetuating a hoax that rears its crazy head every summer," EarthSky explains. "The hoax has circulated every summer since 2003. Twelve years running! That's a long time for a hoax to run, in our world of information."

The site explains that viewed from the Earth, it is impossible for Mars ever to appear as large as a full moon. Editor-in-chief Deborah Byrd adds "Mars isn't even visible in July, 2015, and, although it might come into view in the east before dawn by August 27, 2015, it won't be anywhere near the July or August full moon.

"What's more, Mars is nowhere near its brightest or closest in July or August of 2015, or at any time in 2015. In 2015 so far, Mars has been relatively inconspicuous in our sky. It's on the far side of the sun from Earth. That'll continue to be the case throughout the rest of this year."

So how did the rumour begin?

In 2003, the Earth and Mars came as close as they have ever been to one another in 60,000 years, the BBC reports. At 56 million kilometres (35 million miles) apart, the two planets were "about the closest they can get." As the celestial event approached, some fantastical claims about how big Mars would appear began to circulate. Although the planet appeared very large and bright, it still looked significantly smaller than the moon.

A MYSTERY Martian rock that appeared from nowhere and looks like a jam doughnut has left Nasa baffled.

Scientists monitoring images taken by the Mars Opportunity rover's panoramic camera spotted the fist-sized rock and named it "Pinnacle Island".

Lead scientist Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, told Discovery News: "It's about the size of a jelly doughnut. It was a total surprise, we were like 'wait a second, that wasn't there before, it can't be right. Oh my god! It wasn't there before!' We were absolutely startled."

Squyres believes that the odd specimen may have been unearthed by the wheels of the Rover or the impact of a nearby meteorite.

Another theory is that the rock came from a smoking hole in the ground nearby, but Squyres says this is less likely.

"Mars keeps throwing new stuff at us," the scientist told Discovery, before explaining that, wherever it had come from, the mystery rock had somehow been flipped over. "[The rock] obligingly turned upside down, so we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate. It's just a stroke of luck."

Squyres said that the rock, which is being tested by the rover, is "like nothing we've ever seen before".

It is high in sulphur and very high in magnesium – with twice as much manganese as anything scientists have ever seen on Mars.

"I don't know what any of this means. We're completely confused," he said. "Everybody on the team is arguing and fighting. We're having a wonderful time!"

Squyres was speaking at an event held by the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory to mark the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the Opportunity rover on Mars.

Its twin rover, Spirit, succumbed to the Martian elements in 2009 when it became stuck in a sand trap and lost contact with Earth.