S8 Ep349: SEGMENT 4: MARS AVALANCHE AND SPACE EXPLORATION Guest: Bob Zimmerman Zimmerman examines stunning imagery of a Martian avalanche captured by orbiting spacecraft. Discussion explores what these geological events reveal about Mars surface dynamics, ongoing
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
SEGMENT 4: MARS AVALANCHE AND SPACE EXPLORATION Guest: Bob Zimmerman Zimmerman examines stunning imagery of a Martian avalanche captured by orbiting spacecraft. Discussion explores what these geological events reveal about Mars surface dynamics, ongoing robotic exploration missions, scientific discoveries from current probes, and how such observations inform planning for eventual human missions to the red planet.
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Transcript
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| 0:58.7 | I'm John Batchel with Bob Zimmerman. He keeps the website behind the black. We're going to Mars orbit. |
| 1:08.6 | Maven and Mars reconnaissance orbiter are separate probes, and both are considered at the edge. What edge, Bob? What's happened? |
| 1:12.6 | Well, we know Maven is likely lost. Something happened to it. |
| 1:18.5 | It became tumbling and lost communications. They were not able to reestablish communications prior to the present solar conjunction that has cut off all communications with Mars for the last few weeks |
| 1:24.8 | and will end in a few more days. And it's not likely they'll be able to recover it so they're trying. |
| 1:31.2 | Mars reconnaissance orbiter, however, is still operating and operating pretty well, |
| 1:35.8 | but it's beginning to show its age. |
| 1:38.0 | I get these cool images from its archive. |
| 1:41.5 | And so I go through the archive on a regular basis. |
| 1:43.5 | And I began to notice |
| 1:44.8 | that the most recent images were showing defects and problems that I had not seen before |
| 1:52.2 | and in greater numbers. And so I decided to contact Alfred McEwen of the Lunar Planetary Laboratory |
| 1:58.8 | in Arizona. He used to be the principal investigator of |
| 2:01.6 | the high-resolution camera on Mars reconnaissance orbiter. He's stepped down from that, but he knows |
| 2:07.9 | what's going on because he's involved with it still. And he explained that, as he says, |
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