“Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.” Such is the opening to the description of Andy Weir’s book The Martian. A book that has come all the way from Weir posting chapters for free on his website in 2011, …

Did you know the Moon has an atmosphere? I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. Until just a few years ago nobody did. It’s not much. You can’t breathe it. We think it’s mostly dust. But we don’t know exactly what’s in it or how it works. How does an atmosphere operate when the days are 28 …