With SpaceX, NASA and China planning manned missions to the Martian surface and scientists working to revolutionize access to the Red Planet, it's now only a matter of time before humans step foot on Mars. Follow our species' progress to a new world with Live Science's specialist Mars coverage. Our expert writers and editors publish lists, fact pages, explainers and coverage of the biggest Martian research, from evidence of recent water on the Red Planet to how the "building blocks of life" were discovered on Mars to the first clear images of "sun rays" from Mars' surface, in the latest Mars news, features articles
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Mars looks blue and bruised in surreal new images from Psyche spacecraft — Space photo of the weekOn its way to a metal asteroid, NASA's Psyche probe tested its cameras as it got a gravity assist from the Red Planet.
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Watch NASA's Curiosity rover 'struggle' to remove a rock that got stuck on its robotic arm for nearly a weekNew footage shows NASA's Curiosity rover tilting, rotating and vibrating its robotic arm as mission scientists tried to remove a rock that became stuck on a drill for six days.
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'I was not looking for this': Scientist accidentally finds shortcut to Mars that could slash travel time in halfA new study suggests early asteroid trajectory data could help design faster Mars missions, potentially cutting round-trip travel time to under a year.
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NASA's Curiosity rover finds a surprising number of giant 'dragon scales' littered across MarsThe Curiosity rover snapped a series of peculiar polygons that look suspiciously like giant fossilized reptile scales. Although scientists have seen similar shapes on Mars before, they have never seen such a "dramatically abundant" concentration.
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A giant 'shadow' has been creeping across Mars for 50 years — and scientists aren't sure whyA dark patch in Mars' Utopia Planitia region has grown significantly since it was first photographed in 1976. Scientists have a loose understanding of what it is, but they can't properly explain its gradual growth.
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NASA rover discovers first ruby-like crystals on MarsAstronomers have detected small, ruby-like crystals embedded in Martian rocks, which may also hide sapphires created in the fury of meteorite impacts.
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An anomaly in Mars' mantle could trigger volcanoes to erupt — and may be causing the whole planet to spin fasterData from NASA's InSight mission suggests the Red Planet's Tharsis region is more active than previously thought and may be why Mars is spinning more quickly over time.
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Giant string of organic molecules on Mars may be one of the best signs of life yetA new NASA analysis concludes that it is "reasonable to hypothesize" that living things could have formed the odd organic molecules discovered on Mars.
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Giant 'spiderwebs' on Mars contain tiny egg-like structures that scientists 'can't quite explain,' NASA rover revealsNew photos captured by NASA's Curiosity rover show that Mars' giant, spiderweb-like "boxwork" features are covered in tiny, never-before-seen nodules that bear a striking resemblance to arachnid eggs. And researchers are struggling to explain them.
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