Mars One, the Dutch company that is looking for a few individuals with the "right stuff" (the "right stuff" being wanting to leave Earth and never, ever return), reports that more than 78,000 people have applied to be chosen for a trip to the red planet.

In the first three days of accepting applications, the Mars One project has received a whopping 20,000 applications, with more than 600 coming from China alone. The project plans to send a select group of colonists to the Red Planet for permanent settlement — with permanent being the key word.

According to the fresh news from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory there is a chance that four pieces of hardware from a spacecraft that the Soviet Union landed on Mars in 1971 appear in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

We were confronted with the idea of a 501-day mission to send two people on a flyby of Mars. There's only one way to make this work and it involves porn stars.

Remember Dennis Tito? He's the millionaire who became the first space tourist back in 2001, who bought himself a ticket on a Soyuz heading to the International Space Station. Now he's got some big new space plans: he wants to send two people on a Mars flyby mission in 2018. If he can pull it off, there's lots of…

Elon Musk wants to take people to Mars. He's made no bones about it. That's really cool.

Some people have cool jobs. And then there's Scott Maxwell, who has one of the best gigs on two planets. He's one of the people who drives the Curiosity Rover on Mars. How do you get that job? What's it like? And how does it compare to all the sci-fi and video game fantasies we've all had about this kind of thing?

I'm pretty sure we're going to have a Mars colony one day. In fact, my retirement plans kind of hinge on it. I'm not so deluded that I think I'll be able to ship my beloved Beetle and Scimitar over with me, so I'm going to have to pick up a new car when I get to Mars.

If there was the fun, cool uncle of government agencies, NASA would have to be it. Not only does he have an amazing job (landing robots on Mars), but Uncle Nasa also gives us cool gifts. Not like stupid Uncle Department of Agriculture, who's always trying to pawn off corn husk dolls and garden trowels. Uncle Nasa gives …

While Curiosity was still flying through space, way before it landed on Mars, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were busy working with a clone rover back on earth. In a simulation area called the Mars Yard, scientists put the duplicate Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) through a series of experiments to perfect…