Long before any spacecraft can attempt a faster journey to Mars, scientists must first solve one of space exploration’s biggest challenges: propulsion. Chemical rockets, used to launch spacecraft into ...

A peer-reviewed study modeling Mars transit times for chemical propulsion rockets found that even optimized Starship-class trajectories would still require roughly three months to reach the Red Planet ...

The big picture: In deep-space travel, the race is no longer about who has the biggest rocket – it's about who can build the smartest plasma engine. As the competition to reach Mars intensifies, ...

Buckle up, kiddos, we're goin' to Mars! Okay, so no one is actually going to Mars anytime soon and SpaceX's Starship rocket keeps exploding. However, extra-long-distance space travel is inching closer ...