Blue Dot takes a trip to the Red Dot as Dave talks to British geologist/geophysicist and science fiction writer Simon Morden. In his new book, The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars, Morden lays out an interesting and accessible guide to what we know about the fourth planet from the Sun after half a century of robotic exploration.
Mars holds many of its secrets close, for example -- where did all its early water come from and where did it go? And of course, the raison d'etre for the Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions is the search for evidence of past or maybe even present microbial life.
Why does Mars have the largest volcanoes in the solar system and a chasm that dwarfs the Grand Canyon? Find out what we know, what we think we know, and what we plain do not understand in this fascinating look at the red planet.
