Stranded on Mars by a duststorm that compromised his space suit and forced his crew to leave him behind, astronaut Mark Watney struggles to survive in spite of minimal supplies and harsh environmental challenges that test his ingenuity in unique ways.

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York's experience...

Emma Watson, a brilliant research physician, has been training for years for the mission of a lifetime: to study living beings in space. Jack McCallum, Emma's estranged husband, has shared her dream of space travel, but a medical condition has grounded and embittered him. He must watch from the sidelines as his wife prepares for her first mission to the international Space Station. Once aboard the space station, however, things start to go terribly...

When political divides, riots and sabotage compromise the Earth's response to the Meteor strike, Elma departs for a fledgling Mars colony before the challenges of interplanetary pioneer life are further complicated by her husband's presidential campaign.

When her friends tease her for dreaming of being an astronaut, a young African American girl uses discarded items to make a spaceship for her interstellar journey.

"A young astronaut is trying to find life on Mars, but he's made a very big oversight"--

"In 2059 two very different groups have their minds uploaded into a quantum computer in Waterloo, Ontario. One group consists of astronauts preparing for Earth's first interstellar voyage. The other? Convicted murderers, serving their sentences in a virtual-reality prison. But when disaster strikes, the astronauts and the prisoners must download back into physical reality and find a way to work together to save Earth from destruction"--

It is time to start the colonizing the solar system. Ex-astronaut, current space advisor, and all-out trouble shooter for the President, Jake Ross, is determined to make it happen. And what better way to return to America's glory than by returning to the moon and setting up a permanent moon-base which can then serve as the launching pad for Mars and beyond. But as usual, political intrigue and conflicting priorities are threatening the whole program....

In an alternate 1979, the United States and the Soviet Union have permanent Moon bases, crewed spy satellites, and frequent hostilities. Vivian Carter, commander of Apollo 32, is on a mission to explore a volcanic region of the Moon when she is caught in the crossfire of a Soviet attack. Barely escaping, she and her crew are redirected to land at Hadley Base, a NASA outpost. Hadley Base, though, soon comes under attack, and the unarmed astronauts...

Carbon dioxide is out of control on Earth, and the fate of humankind rests in the paws of four experimental, untested Animal Astronauts (AlphaWolf, SmartHawk, LaserShark, and StinkBug) who are seeking another habitable planet; first destination is the Plant Planet which at first looks perfect, except that the abundant plant life can think for itself--and it thinks that it really does not like the AstroNuts.