Matt Kaplan brings us inside the 2025 Mars Society Conference, this week on Planetary Radio.

I'm Sarah Al Ahmed of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

This week, we're headed to the University of Southern California, where the Mars Society's

2025 conference gathered scientists, engineers, advocates, and simply the Mars curious.

Our own Matt Kaplan, Senior Communications Advisor at the Planetary Society, was there, collecting

conversations with some of the most passionate voices in the Mars community.

You'll hear from Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin, who opened the conference with an urgent

call to protect NASA's science programs.

Then Humphrey Price, chief engineer for NASA's robotic Mars exploration program at JPL. He shares

the latest on Mars sample return and the challenges facing the Mars-assent vehicle.

You'll also hear from Dex Hunter Torik, former SpaceX and Metac Communications leader, on AI, humanity,

and our potential multi-planet future. We'll also hear some groundbreaking biological research with Tiffany Vora,

Vice President for Innovation Partnerships at Explore Mars,

and Erica D. Benedictus, founder of Pioneer Labs,

who's bioengineering hardy microbes that might one day help us survive on the red planet.

Steve Benner, chemist and founder

of the foundation of applied molecular evolution, revisits the Viking Lander experiments,

and makes a provocative case that we may have found Martian life nearly 50 years ago. Then architect

Melody Ishar, who's the CEO of Anara, and a pioneer in 3D printed habitat research,

shares progress in additive construction on Earth and Mars.

We'll also hear from James Burke, Executive Director of the Mars Society, and close with an inspiring

conversation with Sasha, a 13-year-old presenter who's already spent three years sharing his passion for

...