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When will humans be able to go to Mars?

The Mastcam-Z imager on the Perseverance rover captured this image of a hill on Mars named Santa Cruz in May. (
Photo courtesy of NASA
The Mastcam-Z imager on the Perseverance rover captured this image of a hill on Mars named Santa Cruz in May.

Right now, the two Mars Rovers, Perseverance and Curiosity, are exploring the surface of the Red Planet to help scientists learn more about its history, soil and atmosphere. This is an initial step in figuring out if humans can live – or even land - on Mars. Finding out more about Mars could help us learn how atmospheric changes there happened and better understand the potential impact of climate change on Earth.

On the debut episode of Curious Campus, we’ll talk to Jean Creighton, a professor of physics and director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium, and Darien Dixon, a UWM alum who is one of the lead camera operators on NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover, to learn more about the exploration of Mars.

Tom Luljak hosted UWM Today on WUWM for more than two decades and is the inaugural host of Curious Campus.