A team of computational social scientists at George Mason University has found via simulations that 22 people is the minimum number needed to start a human colony on Mars. The group has posted a paper describing their simulation on the arXiv preprint server.

As humans around the globe ponder the possibility of one day sending people to Mars, and then at some later date, establishing a colony, scientists are exploring ways to overcome the hurdles standing in the way of achieving such goals. One factor that needs to be addressed, according to the team, is determining how many people could sustain a Mars colony, and what types of people are required.

To find possible answers, the team created a model simulating a Mars colony, focused specifically on how many people are required to create a viable colony as well as the characteristics that would most likely contribute to the success of such a colony. To that end, they used data from past endeavors, such as questionnaires filled out by groups aboard the International Space Station or those living in close quarters in the Arctic for months at a time.

This week, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had hoped to return to the moon after an absence of nearly 50 years. Instead, on Saturday it lost control of its Luna-25 lander. The agency explained the spacecraft "switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface."

Yet, in an interview aired on state television, the agency's chief, Yuri Borisov, pledged his nation's unwavering commitment to lunar exploration:

NASA's Parker Solar Probe zoomed past Venus on Aug. 21, using the planet's gravity to aim toward a record-setting series of flights around the sun that start next month.

At just before 8:03 a.m.

Just off a tree-covered side road past businesses selling boats and fishing gear sits a fenced-off building that's home to a $700 million satellite nearly ready for launch. Its mission: To study the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, which scientists suspect could mirror the inner core of Earth and other planets in the solar system.

The probe, which also is named Psyche, awaits an October trip to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. But after missing a chance to launch in 2022, NASA parked it at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility across the river where it has been sitting in the center of the stark, white clean room.

With its solar panels installed this month, teams are finally set to load it with the fuel needed to send it on its 2.5-billion-mile trip to the asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC's Launch Complex 39-A is targeting as soon as Oct. 5 with a window that stretches until Oct. 23. It's not slated to arrive at Psyche, which can range from 235 million to 309 million miles away from Earth until August 2029, and only then will it get down to the business of figuring out what's special about the distant asteroid.

India began exploring the moon's surface with a rover on Thursday, a day after it became the first nation to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole.

Pragyan—"Wisdom" in Sanskrit—rolled out of the lander hours after the latest milestone in India's ambitious but cut-price space program sparked huge celebrations across the country.

"Rover ramped down the lander and India took a walk on the moon!" the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.

The six-wheeled, solar-powered rover will amble around the relatively unmapped region and transmit images and scientific data over its two-week lifespan.

A lunar rover slid down a ramp from the lander of India's spacecraft within hours of its historic touch-down near the moon's south pole, Indian space officials said Thursday, as the country celebrated its new scientific accomplishment.

NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch a crew of four to the International Space Station on Friday.

Dubbed Crew-7, the mission will be commanded by American Jasmin Moghbeli and includes Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Konstantin Borisov of Russia.

Lift-off is targeted for 3:50am (0750 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a backup opportunity at 3:27 am on Saturday.

It will be the first space mission for both Moghbeli and Borisov.

"This is something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember," said Moghbeli, a Naval test pilot, during a media call last month.

"One of the things I'm most excited about is looking back at our beautiful planet," added the 40-year-old of Iranian heritage.

SBUDNIC, built by an academically diverse team of students, was confirmed to have successfully reentered Earth's atmosphere in August, demonstrating a practical, low-cost method to cut down on space debris.

When it comes to space satellites, getting the math wrong can be catastrophic for an object in orbit, potentially leading to its abrupt or fiery demise. In this case, however, the fiery end was cause for celebration.

About five years ahead of schedule, a small cube satellite designed and built by Brown University students to demonstrate a practical, low-cost method to cut down on space debris reentered Earth's atmosphere sometime on Tuesday, Aug.