Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 153, Perseverance.

I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight.

NASA is paving the way towards a sustainable presence on the moon and on to Mars.

Though humans have never set foot on the red planet,

we've been there many times.

Most recently, the Mars Insight Lander

that went to the surface of Mars

to understand the planet's quote unquote vital signs, its

seismology and heat flow, and whether the planet's core is solid or liquid.

Before that, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars to explore the surface for chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars, searching for environments where microbes could have survived billions of years ago or these habitable environments.

I remember watching Curiosity's landing live and man what a thrill.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is sending a new rover to Mars.

It looks a lot like curiosity,

but with a whole new suite of incredible instruments,

many of which are in direct preparation

for human exploration on Mars.

We're talking instruments to test the production of oxygen

from the Martian atmosphere, identifying valuable resources

such as subsurface water, improving landing techniques, and characterizing Martian weather in a way that could

...