Space may be the final frontier, but a planet close to home is something we haven't yet explored. Yes, it's Mars, and in this update about all things out there in space, we find out why we haven't yet landed on the red planet. After all, we landed on the moon, so why not Mars?

The answer is a bit more serious than you might imagine. Cosmic rays, or beams from the cosmos, is what's keeping NASA back from exploring any other heavenly body out there with a manned spacecraft. Yes, laser beams from space. Who'd have thought? They're there, and they definitely are a thorn at the side of space exploration.

But why cosmic rays? The answer lies in radiation. Cosmic rays are naturally radioactive. And while the Earth is constantly bombarded with them, we're kept safe due to its atmosphere and the magnetic field surrounding our planet.

That's good news for us who don't suit up in bulky astronaut suits and get blasted into the cosmos on a regular basis. But that's equally bad news for those of us who do suit up in bulky astronaut suits and get blasted into the cosmos because it's a day job.

So astronauts in space are getting bombarded by cosmic rays. Why not just up the protection, bulk up the suits and ship? The problem is, even with very thick walls, cosmic ray exposure is still an inevitability. Retired space shuttle astronaut James van Hoften explains:

You can put on very thick walls and they just won't protect you from that. The younger you are the worse it is.

And that's not the entire extent of the problem. Although fully aware of the problem, NASA has yet to tackle the problem head-on, with the legendary space exploration organization's budget for such undertakings drastically cut. In fact, NASA is re-using old data for radiation research - data that dates as far back as World War Two. Ouch.

Well, it's definitely good that NASA at least knows what needs to be solved before we can get our knees deep in Martian soil - here's hoping that they figure out just what to do. Updates as we get them.