Elon Musk, who helped launch PayPal, Tesla Motors and most recently SpaceX, is pretty dang serious about getting our asses to Mars. Before Curiosity, colonies on Mars were knocked back to the 2030s — or beyond, even. Now? We may only have to wait "12 to 15 years."

Beyond the boundary of space, some 62 miles above the surface of the Earth, the wind is blowing like a hurricane. Too high for weather balloons and too low for satellites, we don't know much about this region, which is why NASA sent five sounding rockets up there in under five minutes this morning.

Making a rocket engine isn't that hard: you can do it at home with some Diet Coke and Mentos. It's getting the rocket to go where you want it to that's the tricky part. Private spaceflight companies are in the same boat, so they've asked the guys who came up with the guidance computer for the Apollo program for help.

You remember SpaceShipOne, right? It's the passenger-carrying rocket ship that's boosted a big chunk of the way to space by that crazy airplane that's really two airplanes stuck together. A company called Stratolaunch is going to take this concept and supersize it to launch cargo rockets (and eventually passengers) to orbit.