NASA has the a long-term goal of sending humans to Mars. But when they get there, they’ll need a place to stay.
And since there are no houses or hotels on the red planet, scientists on Earth are scouting out locations.
It turns out caves may just be the right spot. But how do they pick one that’ll meet all of our needs?
That’s where Nicole Bardabelias comes in.
Bardabelias is an engineer at the University of Arizona where she works with the high-resolution imaging science experiment, which is a camera orbiting Mars.
She says researchers, including some in Flagstaff, have narrowed down the possible caves on Mars from around 1,000 to nine.
To do that, they’re looking for dark spots, shadowed areas and recessions — basically proof there might be a cave there. Then, they follow up with higher-resolution data when it’s available.
The Show spoke with Bardabelias about how much she knows about any one of the more than 1,000 candidate caves.
