Our good friend Jake Robins, host of WeMartians and my cohost on Off-Nominal, joins me to talk about the arrival and early operations of the 2021 Mars fleet—Hope, Tianwen-1, and Perseverance. Then we dig into what the future of Martian exploration looks like, including strategy, communications, sample return, and the upcoming decadal survey.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 39 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, Grant, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Frank, Julian and Lars from Agile Space, Tommy, Matt, The Astrogators at SEE, Chris, and seven anonymous—and 509 other supporters.

Topics

• WeMartians Podcast
• Jake Robins | Patreon
• WeMartians Podcast (@We_Martians) / Twitter
• Jake Robins (@JakeOnOrbit) / Twitter
• Home - Off-Nominal
• Episode 39 - Europe Saved Cassini’s Ass - Off-Nominal
• WeMartians - Episode 95 - Big Rocket Roundup (feat. Anthony Colangelo)
• Hope Mars Mission on Twitter: “The Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer captured these images of Mars from an altitude of 36,000 km above the Martian surface. Each colour represents light collected at a different ultraviolet wavelength and provides information about the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere.”
• WeMartians - Episode 81 – A Probe Called Hope (feat. the Mars Hope team)
• WeMartians - Episode 92 - Hope Arrives at Mars (feat. Sarah Al Amiri)
• China's Tianwen-1 enters orbit around Mars - SpaceNews
• WeMartians - Episode 94 - Guiding Perseverance to the Ground (feat. Swati Mohan)
• Mars 2020 Mastcam Z Sol 4 Horizon Panorama
• Report calls for revamped cost-conscious vision for Mars exploration - SpaceNews
• NASA Awards Mars Ascent Propulsion System Contract for Sample Return – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program
• NASA considering commercial Mars data relay satellites - SpaceNews

The Show

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• Music by Max Justus