Trail Blazing Mars: NASA's Next Giant Leap

What grows best in Martian soil? How do you get oxygen out of thin air? Pat Duggins, author of Trailblazing Mars: NASA’s Next Giant Leap, talks about the questions NASA will face if it sends astronauts to the Red Planet and how to choose the right people for the job. Ira Flatow talks with Duggins about the future, [NPR].

Duggins spend most of the interview talking with Flatow about the recent passage of the NASA Authorization Act by Congress and what it means to the future of American spaceflight in this Science Friday program.

UPDATE: Dr. David Livingston interviewed Pat Diggins on The Space Show, Sunday, October 3, 2010 in a more lengthy and detailed interview. Diggins noted that John F. Kennedy had pushed for nuclear propulsion in the early 1960's. He notes that traditionally that Marshall Space Flight Center has been deeply involved in man-rating capsules and propulsion systems.