On Episode 130 of This Week In Area, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik speak with Dr. Jim Bell in regards to the Mars Pattern Return program and VIPER mission to the moon.
NASA’s planetary exploration program is in hassle. The Mars Pattern Return program is verging on cancellation, and the VIPER mission to the moon already has been. Each are vital precursors to human exploration of those locations, as Dr. Jim Bell of Arizona State College will inform us.
We have to know extra in regards to the floor of Mars — with direct, in-the-lab research of Mars rocks – -and we definitely want to know the place the volatiles — one other title for water and different sources of worth — are on the moon. And, in case you’re the US authorities, you’d love to do each earlier than China does — which is probably going not far off.
Does it matter who achieves these items first? And particular to the US, what function may non-public corporations and people play within the drama?
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Area information of the week
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About This Week In Area
This Week in Area covers the brand new area age. Each Friday we take a deep dive into a captivating subject. What’s occurring with the brand new race to the moon and different planets? When will SpaceX actually ship individuals to Mars?
Be a part of Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Area.com as they deal with these questions and extra every week on Friday afternoons. You’ll be able to subscribe at the moment in your favourite podcatcher.

Rod Pyle is an creator, journalist, tv producer and Editor-in-Chief of Advert Astra journal. He has written 18 books on area historical past, exploration, and growth, together with Area 2.0, Innovation the NASA Means, Interplanetary Robots, Blueprint for a Battlestar, Wonderful Tales of the Area Age, First On the Moon, and Vacation spot Mars
In a earlier life, Rod produced quite a few documentaries and brief movies for The Historical past Channel, Discovery Communications, and Disney. He additionally labored in visible results on Star Trek: Deep Area 9 and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, in addition to numerous sci-fi TV pilots. His most up-to-date TV credit score was with the NatGeo documentary on Tom Wolfe’s iconic guide The Proper Stuff.

Answerable for Area.com’s editorial imaginative and prescient, Tariq Malik has been the Editor-in-Chief of Area.com since 2019 and has lined area information and science for 18 years. He joined the Area.com crew in 2001, first as an intern and shortly after as a full-time spaceflight reporter protecting human spaceflight, exploration, astronomy and the evening sky. He turned Area.com’s managing editor in 2009. As on-air expertise has offered area tales on CNN, Fox Information, NPR and others.
Tariq is an Eagle Scout (sure, he earned the Area Exploration benefit badge), a Area Camp veteran (4 occasions as a child, as soon as as an grownup), and has taken the final word “vomit comet” experience whereas reporting on zero-gravity fires. Earlier than becoming a member of Area.com, he served as a employees reporter for The Los Angeles Instances protecting metropolis and training beats. He has journalism levels from the College of Southern California and New York College.
