The Sirens of Mars Call to Us
Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
The Planetary Society
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2020
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
Georgetown University planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson has written a beautiful book that chronicles our long quest for life on the Red Planet. That search may finally be reaching a climax with the new Perseverance rover and the beginnings of sample return. A copy of The Sirens of Mars will go to the winner of yet another What’s Up space trivia contest. In a nice coincidence, Bruce Betts will tell us where to find a brilliantly bright Mars in the night sky. Links and more are at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/0902-2020-sarah-stewart-johnson-sirens-of-mars
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Sirens of Mars called to us this week on planetary radio. |
| 0:09.0 | Welcome, I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society, |
| 0:12.0 | with more of the human adventure across our |
| 0:14.7 | solar system and beyond. Georgetown University professor and |
| 0:18.8 | planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson has written a beautiful book she calls the |
| 0:24.8 | Sirens of Mars searching for life on another world. We'll spend some time with |
| 0:29.7 | her in a few moments and we'll award the book to the winner of the new space trivia |
| 0:34.4 | contest Bruce has cooked up for you this week. It's a nice coincidence that Mars is |
| 0:39.7 | shining bright in the sky right now and Bruce will tell you where to find it. |
| 0:45.0 | Our sympathies and best wishes for a quick recovery go to everyone affected by last week's terrible storms in North America. Before Laura became a hurricane, it was a tropical |
| 0:56.0 | storm that our own light sail two snapped a picture of. That shot tops the August 28th edition of the |
| 1:03.3 | down link |
| 1:04.1 | the planetary society's weekly newsletter |
| 1:06.7 | that you'll find at planetary.org slash downlink |
| 1:10.6 | as spectacular or even more so is the shadow of Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft |
| 1:17.0 | against asteroid Ryugu. This was minutes after the probe collected the first of two samples that are now speeding earthward. |
| 1:26.0 | The James Webb Space Telescope passed a couple of important tests. |
| 1:29.9 | We're now just over a year from its planned launch. And China is looking for partners. |
| 1:35.3 | Russia and the European Space Agency have responded to calls for collaboration |
| 1:40.1 | on a lunar base that could be visited by humans in the early 2030s. |
| 1:45.0 | There's much, much more waiting for you in the down link with a new edition every Friday. |
| 1:50.0 | Here's the late programming note especially for all of you who are fans of the Space Policy |
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