We've learned about the Mars Perseverance Rover, but how will the rover actually get to the surface of the red planet?  Guest Gregory Villar, EDL Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, walks us through the landing before we have a return visit from the red planet itself on this episode of REACH. 

Hosts: Brian Holden and Meredith Stepien 

Written by: Sandy Marshall with Nate DuFort, Meredith Stepien and Brian Holden. 

Co-Created, Produced by: Nate DuFort and Sandy Marshall 

Edited by: Nate DuFort

Music composed by: Jesse Case

Casting Consultant: Beth Kligerman 

Logo by: Steven Lyons

Special thanks to:

Gregory Villar, EDL Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Follow Gregory on Instagram @gregoryvillar.

Mars was voiced by the great Randy Havens, who you know as Mr. Clarke on Stranger Things, and can also be seen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Halt and Catch Fire. Follow Randy on Twitter @MrRandyHavens.

Thanks to our friends at NASA Space Place, and Kay Ferrari and Andrew Good at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

To learn more about NASA’s Mars 2020 mission and Perseverance rover, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020. 

For a description of the Mars 2020 landing, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/entry-descent-landing/

All about Mars: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview

Join the Mission to Mars Student Challenge with the Mars 2020 STEM Toolkit:

https://www.nasa.gov/stem/nextgenstem/moon_to_mars/mars2020stemtoolkit

Make a Paper Mars Helicopter:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/make-a-paper-mars-helicopter/

Mars-related games and activities via NASA Space Place: 

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/search/mars/

Play the Explore Mars game via NASA Space Place:

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/explore-mars/en/

Send your name to Mars on a future NASA mission:

https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/future

And as always, a big thank you to our REACH learning community . Thanks this week to Orin, Rosie,  Pepper,  Ocelia,  and Keira. 

Do you have a space related question that we didn’t get to? Well, you can submit that question for our bi-weekly “Reaching Out” episodes. Just get your parents permission and give us a call at 312-248-3402 (or an email at [email protected]) and leave us a message with your first name, where you're from and your question for a chance to be featured in an upcoming episode.

You can find REACH on Twitter and Instagram or at http://www.ReachThePodcast.com

REACH: A Space Podcast for Kids is a production of Soundsington Media committed to making quality programing for young audiences and the young at heart. To find out more go to http://www.soundsingtonmedia.com