Last week, the Trump administration released a presidential budget request that would cancel almost all NASA science missions in order to focus on putting humans on Mars. It's mainly a showy, ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." If humans have any hope of establishing a long-term colony on Mars, we’ll likely need to alter the planet ...

Mars has become the ultimate blank canvas for human ambition, a place where science fiction promises forests under a salmon sky and oceans filling ancient basins. Yet the closer scientists look at the ...

The concept of terraforming Mars — transforming the planet's climate to support life as we know it — has long belonged to the realm of science fiction. But a new study argues that it's time to take ...

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers, As the prospect of human settlements on Mars draws closer to reality than we could have realistically imagined pre-SpaceX, so does the concept of ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

This story originally featured on the MIT Press Reader. Exploration, habitation, and resource extraction all carry a risk of inflicting environmental damage in space, just as they do here on Earth.