NASA plans a 2028 nuclear-powered Mars mission using SR-1 Freedom and Skyfall helicopters, aiming to transform deep-space travel and future human exploration.

For decades, nuclear propulsion has been a fixture of aerospace engineering proposals and government studies, always promising, never quite leaving the laboratory. That changes in 2028.

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity seen flying during a fight. The Perseverance rover can be seen in the distance during the ...

Mars exploration is heating up. NASA eyes sample returns and crewed landings by the 2030s, but its current relay satellites — ...

The mission, called Space Reactor 1 Freedom, will test advanced nuclear electric propulsion. Upon reaching Mars, the spacecraft would deploy helicopters to explore the planet from the air. This ...

The U.S. space agency’s Skyfall project calls for sending robotic helicopters to Mars on a nuclear-powered spacecraft before ...

For nearly a month, NASA has been scrambling to make contact with a spacecraft in orbit around Mars that abruptly fell silent. The space agency lost communication with the MAVEN probe (short for Mars ...

Mars may look like a frozen desert today, but new evidence suggests its watery past didn’t simply fade away quietly—it may have been blasted into space by powerful dust storms. Scientists have ...