Mission
to Mars

Mars has gone from a point of red light in the night sky to the most tangible destination in human spaceflight. In the span of a single lifetime we have mapped its canyons and volcanoes from orbit, landed rovers that trundle across ancient lakebeds, flown the first aircraft in another world's atmosphere, and manufactured breathable oxygen from Martian air. The question is no longer whether humans will go, but when — and what kind of world we will build when we arrive. Let's go!

This site is a complete guide to that undertaking. On the science side, we cover how Mars formed, why it lost its water and atmosphere, what its geology reveals about a planet that died, and the chemistry that colonists will one day exploit to survive. On the human side, we trace the full arc of robotic exploration — from Mariner 4's first grainy flyby to Perseverance caching samples for return to Earth — and lay out the step-by-step roadmap to settlement, from landing site selection to growing food, managing radiation, and governing a society that no longer answers to Earth.

We also take seriously the parts of Mars that rarely make the mission briefings: what colonists will eat, wear, and believe; how they will fall in love, compete, mourn their dead, and invent new sports, slang, and cuisine in 38% gravity. Mars is not just an engineering problem. It is the next place human culture will take root. Explore the stories and ideas that shaped how we imagine it, and the facts that ground it in reality.