Sifting Martian Soil and Dreaming of Future Expeditions
4:15 minutes
Soil collected last year by the Mars rover Curiosity may contain two percent water, researchers report. Laurie Leshin of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute describes what else the rover is finding in the soil, and what that information might mean for future expeditions to Mars.
Laurie Leshin is former deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and Dean of the School of Science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
As Science Friday’s director, Charles Bergquist channels the chaos of a live production studio into something sounding like a radio program. Favorite topics include planetary sciences, chemistry, materials, and shiny things with blinking lights.