Blue Dot teams with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to give you a taste of their new podcast series, On a Mission. Created by science journalist Leslie Mullen, the podcast chronicles the InSight lander mission to Mars, which lifted off from Vandenburg AFB in Southern California (the first planetary mission launched from California!) in May. The lander is going to probe the interior of Mars to try and learn more about how the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus Earth and Mars) evolved their differentiated interiors of cores, mantles and crusts. Sensitive seismometers aboard the lander will sense Marsquakes to learn how seismic waves travel through the interior.
We get to listen to the first episode of On a Mission titled "The Danger of Going to Mars." Dave also interviews the creator of the podcast to find out the challenges of covering a lander mission and making it accessible and interesting to the public. InSight is scheduled to land on the red planet on November 26.
