We are
biking
to Mars.
A weekly dispatch for the people who check Starship launch windows before checking the weather. Mission briefings, gear we'd actually pack, and zero corporate spin — delivered every Sunday from Earth.
Every week, the real story behind the launch.
Long-form video essays unpacking Starship, Mars geopolitics, and the weirdest corners of the second space race. Watch before the PR arrives.
Why Starship's heat shield keeps falling off (and why that's fine, maybe)
The 2026 launch window, decoded: what actually has to go right
NASA vs. SpaceX vs. China: a field guide to who's actually going
What 8 months in a Mars-sim habitat actually teaches you
The forgotten Soviet Mars program — and what it still teaches us
Why Mars dust is trying to kill every robot we send
Space coverage is broken. So we fixed it.
Biking to Mars is named after the absurdity of the thing — because getting a hundred humans to another planet, on a chemical rocket, in one lifetime, is about that plausible.
Mainstream space journalism is either corporate PR repackaged as news, or doomers convinced every launch is a billionaire's vanity project. Both are boring. Both miss the actual story.
We read the technical papers. We watch the launches at 3 a.m. We talk to the engineers who didn't sign the NDAs. Then we write it down clearly, once a week, for people who want signal instead of spectacle.
Whether the first Starship lands on Mars in 2026, 2028, or 2034 — we'll be here, tracking every delay, every breakthrough, every glorious fireball. Come along.
What we'd actually pack.
Tested, owned, and occasionally dropped. No sponsor-ware. If it's here, it earned the cargo space.
Celestron NexStar 8SE
The Case for Mars — Zubrin
Kerbal Space Program 2
Stellarium Plus
Join the manifest.
One email. Every Sunday. What mattered in space this week, explained clearly, in under five minutes of reading.
The questions we keep getting asked.
Is this actually about biking?
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No bikes involved. The name is a metaphor for the optimistic absurdity of crewed Mars missions — setting out on something that sounds impossible on paper, and making it work anyway. If you're here for gravel routes, we apologize for the confusion.
How technical does the newsletter get?
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We assume you're curious, not credentialed. If a topic requires jargon, we define it. If a paper has a finding worth reporting, we summarize it plainly. You don't need a degree in orbital mechanics — just a willingness to keep up.
Who writes this?
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A small team of space-obsessed writers and one former aerospace engineer. Full masthead lives on the About page. We don't do anonymous takes — every dispatch has a name on it.
Is the YouTube channel the same as the newsletter?
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Same beat, different depth. YouTube is the long-form video essay (15–30 min). The newsletter is the weekly roundup and the "here's what you missed this week" pulse-check. Most readers do both.
Are you actually going to Mars?
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Not personally. We leave that to SpaceX, the Chinese space agency, and whoever's writing the next chapter. Our job is to make sure you understand what's happening while they do.