Mars and Lunar Missions

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

A web portal providing news items relating to Moon and Mars missions. The website has an image gallery, film clips, and useful links to other NASA topic areas. NASA is on a journey to Mars, with a goal of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. That journey is already well under way. For decades, the agency and its partners have sent orbiters, landers and rovers, dramatically increasing our knowledge about the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. The Curiosity rover has gathered radiation data to help us protect future astronauts, and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover will study the availability of Martian resources, including oxygen.

There is more to learn as we expand humanity's presence into the solar system: Was Mars once home to microbial life or is it today? Can it be a safe home for humans? What can the Red Planet teach us about our own planet's past, present and future? Building on the robotic legacy, the human exploration of Mars crosses three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move farther from Earth: Earth Reliant, the Proving Ground, and Earth Independent.

NASA's new Lunar Quest Program is a multi-element program consisting of flight missions, instruments for lunar missions of opportunity, as well as research and analysis efforts. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has program management responsibility for the Lunar Quest Program, providing overall mission management oversight.