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The 48th Lunar and Planetary Science conference wrapped up last week in The Woodlands, Texas. The annual meeting connected specialists from all sorts of Earth and planetary fields like geology, astronomy and geochemistry to talk about what’s ahead for science exploration.

Future Mars missions was high on the priority list, and Jake Robins was there to report on the latest news on the red planet. Jake is the host and producer of the WeMartians podcast, a show dedicated to engaging the public on the exploration of Mars in a fun, simple, educational and inspiring way.

Jake says NASA’s Jim Green teased the idea of using CubeSats to explore Mars as secondary payloads. Green also weighed in on recent budget talks and the political struggle to fund Earth sciences.