Blue Dot

Blue Dot 55: The Mars Generation

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The Mars Generation
techaeris.com

Dave talks to film makers Michael Barnett and Michael Mahaffie about their new Netflix documentary The Mars GenerationTheir film traces the past and future of the United States Space Program by following a group of young people attending Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Many of them have attended Space Camp numerous times and are using their experiences to try and set themselves up to be a part of future missions to Mars from astronauts to flight directors, engineers and software designers. How did the United States go from the most powerful space faring nation on Earth in the late 1960s to a country that can't even get its own astronauts to the International Space Station without hitching a ride with the Russians? The young Americans in this inspiring film want to change that equation.

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.