For years, the NASA Curiosity Rover has been quietly sniffing the atmosphere in Gale Crater with its SAM instrument. Today, scientists are finally getting a handle on that vast dataset, and they’re turning up some crazy results, especially an unexplained oxygen spike! Dr. Melissa Trainer from NASA Goddard, lead author on a paper covering the results, joins Jake to talk about this peculiar behaviour.
We talk Oxygen, Curiosity, and Atmospheres

Melissa’s Paper on Atmospheric Composition (Open Access)
NASA press release on the paper

Follow Melissa Trainer

The Curiosity Rover Home Page
Melissa’s Wikipedia Entry
Melissa’s Profile on NASA Goddard’s site

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An Exciting Space Future
WeMartians is celebrating its fourth anniversary this month, and I couldn’t be more happy with the way this project has turned out. What began as a hobby has transformed in to a thriving community of thousands interested in Mars exploration.
I’ve got what feels like hundreds of ideas to make this show better, but I’ve always struggled balancing this hobby with my day job and the rest of my life. There’s not much else I can do without somehow getting more time! And so I’ve made some decisions to do just that.
I’ve left my day job. WeMartians is officially on the path of #GoingPro.
Learn more about the decision, what it means for the show, and how you can help at our blog post explainer!
Show your support with a monthly pledge on Patreon!
How you can help
You can help support me as I transition to a new career.

We’ve got some new Patreon goals for the next four patron milestones – all bonus content for YOU, including video tours of the new studio to audio documentaries.
A limited offer until January 3rd for new Patrons at the $5 level or higher – get a handwritten postcard and a pack of stickers!
A special sale in the WeMartians shop – free shipping on orders of two or more items!

Thanks to all the patrons who have come along so far, and to all the new ones ready to join the movement. Ad Ares!

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/