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Blue Dot

Blue Dot 216: Percy and Geny Exploring Jezero Crater: The Perseverance Rover Mission on Mars

By Dave Schlom,
Matt Fidler
Published May 21, 2021 at 10:35 AM PDT
Mack Crawford
/
NASA Space Flight

Blue Dot travels to the red dot to take the early pulse of the Perseverance Rover mission on Mars. Dave talks to NASA/JPL Surface Operations Manager Jessica Samuels about how the overall mission is going after landing successfully on February 18, 2021.

Then Deputy Project Scientist Kenneth Williford weighs in on how the search for ancient life is driving the mission in Jezero Crater. Finally, Ingenuity helicopter guidance and control engineer Johnny Lam joins us to talk about the first powered flights on another world!

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Blue Dot RoversMars
Dave Schlom
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.
See stories by Dave Schlom
Matt Fidler
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.
See stories by Matt Fidler