We make plenty of jokes about how Musk might sound like a bit of a supervillain, but he just might have a point on this one.

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The "EM Drive," an engine that creates thrust by bouncing microwaves around inside a chamber, confounds physicists because it manages to produce thrust without expelling any propellant—seemingly defying the law of conservation of momentum—even in a vacuum. That ability was tested by NASA's "Eagleworks" at the Johnson Space Center, and the results have them optimistic about the drive's future in space travel.

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Sigh. If Bill Nye himself thinks there are legitimate scientific reasons for why I'm not eating an instant pizza and riding my hoverboard through the Mars colony right now, I guess I'll have to take his word for it.

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Interstellar makes pretend outer space look pretty neat, but why stop there? Why not just go to outer space for real and see it for yourself? Fandango is running a contest for you to win a round-trip ticket to the final frontier—and you don't even have to have the entire fate of humanity resting on your shoulders!

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Mars One is essentially a reality show posing as space mission to establish a human colony on Mars. It's kind of a joke, so it's only fitting that comedian Lauren Reeves' submission to join the mission has beat out thousands of others and is still in consideration.

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NASA wants to send a mission to Mars by 2030--but first they asked the Institute of Medicine to analyze the health risks and ensuing ethics of sending humans deeper into space than ever before. According to a new report today from a panel of medical experts, it looks like my Mars Colony fantasies may be compromised.

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Given the recent resurgence of interest in the cosmos, it's natural for us Earthlings to worry about the safety of the men and women bravely exploring the final frontier. But are we concerned enough about space farts? The risks posed by flatulence in a confined area are more than just hot air.

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We've been a bit obsessed with Gravity as of late, for several reasons: Space! A lady astronaut! Alfonso Cuarón! All those amazing, terrifying trailers! So, needless to say, we were very interested when an interview with Cady Coleman crossed our path. You see, Coleman is the NASA astronaut who taught Gravity star Sandra Bullock about living in space… from space.

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With humans continuing our long, slow journey into space, it's only a matter of time before children are conceived and born in space, whether it's on a space station like the ISS or a colony on Mars. But future generations of space babies -- and perhaps Martians, technically speaking -- could run into a number of problems. Humans are pretty good at having babies on Earth, because we've been doing it for quite some time, but other environments might not be so kind to developing fetuses, which couldn't be expected to recover from the stretched spines and swollen faces that astronauts return to Earth with so easily.

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An application went out two weeks ago from a Dutch non-profit organization called Mars One. They were looking for a few people who want to go to Mars. Forever. They had 78,000 people respond. 

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Do you want to be one of the first astronauts to go to Mars? Are you ready to give up on life here on Earth and do your duty helping mankind establish a place for itself among the stars? Well, tune in today at noon EDT where you can find out what it will take to get yourself a one-way ticket to the Red Planet. That's when the Mars One team will make the official announcement detailing their astronaut selection program, and you can watch it live with us right here

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Also, there is just no way you can measure Force sensitivity with a blood test. I refuse to accept that. George Lucas, you've tricked me for the last time. Physics students at the University of Leicester took it upon themselves to discover what the view from a spaceship traveling near the speed of light would actually look like. And… well, it's the right side of the image up above. Just a blurry circular gradient. Bummer.

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Space travel for the masses is something that's continuously moving toward becoming reality. That isn't to say it's here, or that we're even all that close, but it's something that's closer to happening than it is to not. For those that have already made it to space, the experience has had a profound effect. It's been described as this encompassing feeling of unity and enhanced perspective. It's an interesting phenomenon, to be sure, which is why PBS Idea Channel, with host Mike Rugnetta, asks the question: Will space travel save us all?

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It's one thing to see science and science-fiction collide in something like the real sonic screwdriver, but it's another when characters are involved. Star Trek's own Captain Kirk, William Shatner, was recently spotted tweeting at the Canadian Space Agency's Commander Chris Hadfield. About space. While Hadfield was actually in space headed for the International Space Station. It doesn't get much better than this, folks. (Why Evolution is True via Tipster Rebecca) Previously in Star Trek

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If you're anything like me, you still haven't given up on that dream of being an astronaut one day, breaking the surly bonds of Earth and experiencing the wonder and vastness of space firsthand. That's why I bring you the following story with a heavy heart -- according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, the list of dangers involved in space travel just got a little longer, with "alien attacks," "insane computer AIs," and "being sucked out of an airlock" joined by a new hazard to space flight -- an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

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Ladies and gentlemen, today we mourn the loss of a real hero. With a lump in our throats and a tear in our eye, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History announced that their resident space-traveling red-backed jumping spider, Nefertiti, passed away yesterday, five days after returning from a 100-day and 42-million-mile journey to the International Space Station. We promised ourselves we wouldn't cry, but here come the waterworks.

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Any sort of travel can stress out your immune system, expose you to unfamiliar bugs, and generally make you more likely to get sick. Take it from a guy on what is now officially on week two of a plane flight induced common cold. A study published in The FASEB Journal suggests that space travel could wreak even more havoc on the immune system, even changing the way the immune system develops in embryonic animals.

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