Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center Episode 280.

Suit up for Mars. I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host today. On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts,

all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight. We're continuing with a reboot of our series that outlines a human mission to and from the red planet.

The 10th episode explains what needs to be considered in the design and operation of a spacesuit that'll be used to explore the surface of the red planet.

This episode was recorded on January 20th, 2021. Let's get started.

There's a lot that Mars will throw at humans' experience surface, so we have to be prepared with the right spacesuit. Luckily, we have a lot of smart people already thinking about how to address some of these issues, things like those dust storms, mobility, and planetary protection.

One of those smart people is Natalie Mary, a systems engineer for the extra vehicular activity or EVA office. It's her job to perform analysis and integration for the exploration EVA system with suit engineers and stakeholders from programs such as Artemis, Gateway, and Mars.

So, let's get right into it, suiting up for Mars with Natalie Mary. Enjoy.

We're on a side like in the county. Mars is just starting to be there once we've applied for the red planet to go.

Is it? We have a lot of that.

Natalie Mary, thanks for coming on Houston. We have a podcast today.

Thanks for having me.

What an interesting topic, Martian spacesuits, suiting up for working on the surface of another planet. It's a huge deal.

Natalie, I want to start with just understanding what it takes to work in such an interesting field. How do you get to the point where you are, where you're thinking about how to live and work on Mars in a spacesuit?

Yeah, well, like most space nerds out there, I grew up looking at the sky and stars and imagining about exploration.

I mean, as a kid, I put to get it as little glow in the dark constellations on my ceiling in my room.

And I found I was deep in it, math and science, and decided to go into engineering, sort of engineering field.

And so I went to Texas A&M for bachelor's in aerospace engineering.

About the time I graduated in 2000, it was perfect. There's math that was hiring flight controllers.

So pretty much as the ISS assembly began.

So the flight controller for about eight years and was very privileged to be a part of that.

And then after that, I took on more of like systems engineering kind of role and began working with the extra vehicular activity office.

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