Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center

episode 55, Living Off the Land. I'm Gary Jordan and I'll be your host today. So in this podcast we bring in the

experts, NASA scientists, engineers, astronauts, all the coolest people we bring in the experts. Nessa scientists, astronauts, all the coolest people.

We bring them right here in the show

and talk about all the coolest information

that's going on right here at NASA.

So today we're talking about in situ resource utilization. Here we call it ISRU. This is the ability to find

and use natural resources beyond Earth. I'm especially excited for this episode because ISRU is how we're going to

terraform other planets and make them habitable for humans to live. Planet colonization

opens up a whole new world of space exploration. How will we derive the resources we need from the barren

landscape of the moon? How will the first Martian colony survive such an unforgiving environment?

And most importantly, will they miss Netflix?

So today we're talking to John Gruner and Steve Hoffman.

John Gruner has been at NASA since 1986 and currently works in astromaterials research and Exploration Science, this is the Ares Division, ARES.

He works on advanced mission planning for the future human and robotic exploration of the

Moon and Mars.

In the past, he's worked for mineral-

mineral-based substrate for the plant growth

and regenerative life support systems.

He also supported the Mars Exploration Rover missions of Spirit and Opportunity.

Gruner can be described as not only a rocket scientist, but also a systems engineer, a space

farmer, and a planetary scientist.

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