Mar 17, 2013
On this special first year anniversary edition of The Star Spot, NASA's preeminent astrobiologist Dr. Chris McKay talks all things Mars: the possibility of past life, the hunt for current spots of habitability by the Curiosity rover, and the prospects for a human future on the Red Planet. In conversation with Justin Trottier the two discuss the ethics of terraforming and why Mars deserves a future rich with the biodiversity of life.
Plus a behind the scenes look at The Star Spot, highlights of our first year, and a conversation with a familiar voice.
About Dr. Chris McKay
Dr. Chris McKay is a planetary scientist, with a PhD
in Astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado. As a NASA
Research Scientist with the NASA Ames Research Centre since 1982,
he studies planetary atmospheres, the evolution of the solar
system, the origin of life, astrobiology and terraforming. He’s
been co-investigator for the Huygens probe to Saturday’s Moon
Titan, the Mars Phoenix lander and the Mars Science Laboratory
whose Curiosity rover is now on the red planet.
Dr. McKay conducts research on extremophiles in Mars-like
environments on Earth, including in the ice-covered lakes of
antarctica, Siberia, Death Valley, the Canadian Arctic. He
serves on the Board of Directors of the Planetary Society.
Current in Space
Confirmation of Marsian past habitability is one of two space-related headline news stories of the last few weeks. The other is the discovery by astronomer Mike Brown and colleague Kevin Hand that Europa's vast liquid water ocean deep below its icy crust might not be isolated from the surface after all. Mallory Warren and Julia Mazurchuk discuss this new discovery and its implications.