64 – The Dusty Plains of Arcadia Planitia (feat. Ali Bramson)

Play Episode (35:49)

SpaceX has been requesting HiRISE images from an area called Arcadia Planitia as potential landing sites for their Starship vehicle. Dr Ali Bramson, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab and expert on the region, joins Jake to talk about what’s going on there and why SpaceX might be interested.

We talk SpaceX, Starship, and Arcadia Planitia

• SpaceX requests landing site candidate images
• Some textures of Arcadia Planitia
• An example of “Brain Terrain”
• Polygonal terrain in Canada
• Planetary Society piece on Terraced Craters
• The SpaceX Landing Site Candidate HIRISE requests
• Interactive DTMs for Terraced Craters – explore them in your browser!
• PAPER: Widespread excess ice in Arcadia Planitia, Mars
• PAPER: Exposed subsurface ice sheets in the Martian mid-latitudes

Follow Ali Bramson

• Ali Bramson’s Twitter (@alibramson)
• Ali’s profile at LPL
• Ali’s profile at Purdue (starting Fall 2020)
• SWIM Project
• SWIM Project Twitter (@RedPlanetSWIM)
• Be a student at Purdue!

Follow Jake & WeMartians

• Website (www.wemartians.com)
• Patreon (www.patreon.com/wemartians)
• WeMartians Shop (shop.wemartians.com)
• Twitter (@we_martians)
• Jake’s Twitter (@JakeOnOrbit)
• Off-Nominal Podcast
  • Most Recent Episode: “What is the protocol for this?”

WeMartians Meetup in Washington DC!

On October 20th, we’ll be meeting up with Anthony Colangelo from The Main Engine Cut Off Podcast as we head to Washington DC to cover IAC 2019.

You can join us as we visit the Udvar Hazy museum and see Space Shuttle Discovery, then come have beers with us at Dacha Beer Garden in the city. We’d love to meet you – this is going to be a big event and we can’t wait to talk with all our listeners.

Check out the details at our events page.

The WeMartians Season 3 Mission Patch

This is the Season 3 (2018) commemorative WeMartians Mission Patch. We’ve partnered with space fan and talented graphic artist Beth Kerner to put together a custom, 4-inch, sew-on embroidered patch. It’s limited edition, with a print-run of just 100. And you can get one for yourself starting today! They’re just $17 USD, and shipping is free anywhere on Earth (Mars is extra, though). If you’re a Station-level or higher patron, your permanent store discount applies, too!

The patch captures the broad narratives of our third season of podcasts. It includes the Falcon Heavy inaugural flight, the InSight launch and landing, and the global dust storm that ended the Opportunity mission.

WeMartians theme music is “RetroFuture” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) and arranged by Jake Robins with Public Domain NASA audio and WeMartians interview samples. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/