A collapsed Mars lava chamber seen from space

Lava tubes and chambers attract a lot of attention as potential sites for bases on the moon and Mars. They provide protection from radiation, from temperature swings, and even from meteorites. They beg to be explored.

Chinese astronauts may build a base inside a lunar lava tube

Caves were some of humanity's first shelters. Who knows what our distant ancestors were thinking as they sought refuge there, huddling and cooking meat over a fire, maybe drawing animals on the walls. Caves protected our ...

How exploring Hawaiian caves helps NASA search for life on Mars

In August 2019, Chloe Fishman crawled into a cave beneath the largest active volcano on the planet. Along with scientists from NASA and other institutions, she had come to Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano to study the microscopic ...

Researchers develop AI method for mapping planets

Creating geological maps of planetary surfaces such as those on Mars is a complex process. From data collection and analysis to publication in different formats, the production of maps is based on a time-consuming, multi-step ...

Four-legged jumping robots to explore the moon

A four-legged robot trained through artificial intelligence has learned the same lesson as the Apollo astronauts—that jumping can be the best way to move around on the surface the moon. An update on LEAP (Legged Exploration ...

page 1 from 5