2026 may well go down as the year that kick-starts our dispersal off planet 🚀 With NASA’s Artemis II mission set to launch to the moon, SpaceX pushing forward with its plans to colonise Mars and the arrival of a new American space station - there is an exciting year ahead. But how soon will we realistically see boots on the lunar surface once more? Hear the full story on The world, the universe and us, a news podcast for the insatiably curious, hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet. Learn mo

On February 18, 2021, NASA successfully landed the Perseverance rover on Mars after traveling about 471 million kilometers from Earth. As it entered the Martian atmosphere at nearly 20,000 km/h, a powerful heat shield protected it from extreme heat. A supersonic parachute then deployed to slow it down. What followed was the intense “Seven Minutes of Terror.” Perseverance separated from the parachute, fired its rockets, and was carefully lowered to the surface using the sky crane system. Once the