Humans have been obsessed with Mars for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that we began to have actual breakthroughs in our journey to Mars. In July of 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 captured high-definition pictures of Mars. It was at this point that we began to better observe and explore the red planet. But there is a hidden and sinister history of how NASA got here.

Jordan Bimm, historian of science technology and medicine, joins us to talk about Mars jars, the Cold War space race, and the German scientists with Nazi ties who helped the United States in the early days of NASA’s space program.