In this episode Justin is joined by Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos, expert in fields of astrobiology, extreme environments, and more. Dr. Azua-Bustos has recently published a paper with the focus of using living organisms found in one of the most extreme environments on earth as an analogue for the search for life on Mars. The Atacama Desert of Chile is arid, hypersaline, and exposed to intense levels of UV radiation. It is considered one of the most hostile living environments found on Earth yet, Dr. Armando and his team found life living just 30 cm below the soil surface. What implications does this have for our understanding of life at extremes? What will this do for future exploration on Mars?