Aspiring Martians

Christianity has spent two thousand years adapting to new cultures, continents, and ways of living. But what happens when the frontier is no longer Earth at all? In the finale of our Religion on Mars series, Joe Sweeney turns to Christianity — the world’s most practiced religion, with close to two billion followers and tens of thousands of denominations — to ask how faith might function on the Red...

What happens to Islam when Earth is no longer beneath your feet? This episode is the third installment in Aspiring Martians’ January series exploring Religion on Mars , following conversations on Buddhism and Hinduism, and leading into next week’s series finale on Christianity. Joe is joined by Dr. Reza Aslan , a globally recognized scholar of religion, bestselling author, and public intellectual...

This episode is the second installment in Aspiring Martians’ January series exploring Religion on Mars — and what happens to belief systems when Earth is no longer the center of human life. There are over 1.2 billion Hindus in the world today. To cover how such a prolific religion has lasted almost 4,000 years and what that future may hold on Mars, Joe is joined by Dr. Subhash Kak, a computer scie...

Season Two of Aspiring Martians begins with a month-long Everyday Mars series exploring religion on Mars — and what happens to faith, meaning, and spiritual life when humans leave Earth. This first episode focuses on Buddhism , a tradition practiced by hundreds of millions of people worldwide and rooted in teachings on suffering, impermanence, mindfulness, and compassion. Joe is joined by Vasu Ban...

This week, Joe closes the season with an Everyday Mars conversation focused on something every future Martian — and every remote worker — will face: workplace anxiety and occupational health . To tackle this subject, we're joined by Dr. Craig Jackson , a leading occupational health psychologist whose research examines how work affects human psychological wellbeing, particularly in extreme, rem...

Hope you're prepared for a conversation that is as honest as it is powerful. In this week's episode, Joe sits down with Lina Borozdina where she shares what brought her to space aboard Virgin Galactic, but this discussion goes far beyond the mechanics of spaceflight. Together, they explore the emotional reality of chasing a space dream in public and the resilience required to keep going in...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe sits down with Dr. Kshitij Mall, an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama and director of the BRAHMAND Lab whose work sits at the cutting edge of propulsion, plasma-assisted flows, and extreme-environment engineering. Kshitij is one of the minds behind Mission ShakthiSAT, a low-cost lunar transfer and micro-lander and program dedicated to empowe...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe sits down with Dr. Adriana Marais: theoretical physicist, astrobiologist, disruptor, explorer, and one of the most compelling voices shaping the future of human settlement beyond Earth. Adriana’s scientific background spans quantum effects in biology, the origins of life’s building blocks in space, and award-winning work in quantum biology. She’s a Director at t...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe sits down with Keisha Schahaff , a trailblazer whose journey has inspired millions across the Caribbean and beyond. Keisha made history as the first Caribbean woman in space, flying aboard Virgin Galactic’s Galactic 02 mission , where she and her daughter became the first mother-daughter duo to reach space together. Keisha talks about what her flight gave her: t...

This November — the month of elections here in the USA — we’re taking the spirit of civic engagement off-world. In this Everyday Mars special, Joe talks with Dr. Kelly Weinersmith , an author, researcher, and one of the sharpest, funniest minds thinking about the future of space settlement. Kelly and her husband Zach wrote A City on Mars, a book that takes a wildly entertaining, deeply researched...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe sits down with Dr. Shawna Pandya, the first named female commercial Canadian astronaut — and one of the most fascinating humans you’ll ever hear from. She’s an emergency and aeromedical transport physician, an aquanaut, a blackbelt, and the Director of the IIAS Space Medicine Group, where she leads research into how humans adapt to the most extreme environments...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Sahda Haroon — a space advocate, STEM communicator, and unstoppable force for representation and empowerment in science. Sahda’s story is one of courage, curiosity, and contagious passion. She’s been part of the Mars Generation, a leader in the STEAM Squad, and a voice reminding us that diversity in space exploration isn’t just nice to have — it’s ess...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe sits down with Ilia-Daniel Gashinbaki — a 17-year-old Nigerian space visionary and the Executive Director and Founder of the Africa Space Foundation. Daniel’s story started when he was just 11 years old, chosen by Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency as one of the nation’s Space Ambassadors. That experience sparked a lifelong mission: to brin...

Food keeps us alive — but it also keeps us human. In this Everyday Mars episode, Joe talks with Dr. Flávia Fayet-Moore, or Dr. Flav, a scientist, entrepreneur, and space nutritionist who’s making the future of food exciting again — on Earth and beyond it. Dr. Flav is the founder and CEO of FOODiQ Global, co-founder of Food is Cool, and an alum of the International Space University’s Space Studies...

This week on Aspiring Martians, we’re doing something special. Just before the government shutdown, NASA worked with us to make sure we could sit down with members of the CHAPEA 2 crew — and two days after the hatch sealed, those interviews are now here. The CHAPEA 2 mission officially began on October 19, 2025, when four volunteers — Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer —...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Dr. Dianne McGrath — explorer, sustainability expert, and one of the final 100 Mars One astronaut candidates. Dianne grew up in the wide open stretches of the Australian Outback, where curiosity was her first compass. That same spirit carried her from studying environmental engineering and food sustainability to applying for a one-way mission to Mars...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Alejandro Perez — a biomedical engineer turned space educator whose energy is strong enough to replace your morning espresso. Alejandro’s path started in Connecticut, where he grew up obsessed with how both nature and machines worked. He’s studied tissue engineering, led human stress experiments, worked on Martian regolith and plant genetics research...

In this Everyday Mars special, Joe explores a question that’s equal parts science and heart: which pets might one day travel with us to Mars? Last month we looked at dogs and cats, and why they’re unlikely to be early spacefarers. This month we turn to everything else — from goldfish that bred successfully in orbit to quail chicks hatched on Mir, from cockroaches conceived in space to tortoises th...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Rachel Lyons — aerospace engineer, leadership coach, and former Executive Director of Space for Humanity. Today, she runs EarthRise Leadership, where she fuses her background in aerospace and economics with a passion for helping people step into who they want to be — on Earth and beyond. Rachel’s work has been featured on CNN, NPR, and stages around t...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Sergii Iakymov — aerospace engineer, Mars One 100 finalist, and the Director of the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Born in Germany, raised in Ukraine, and now splitting his time between Utah and California, Sergii has spent over 15 years designing, testing, and leading in aerospace and exploration. He’s managed crews in the Utah desert, joined...

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe talks with Josh Richards — a physicist, former Australian Army and UK Royal Marine commando, cave diver, writer, and one of the most visible Mars One finalists. Josh’s background is extraordinary: growing up in a military family, serving in multiple branches of the armed forces, and even turning to comedy as a way of processing the scars of service. In our conve...

This week on Aspiring Martians, I talk with Olanrewaju Paul Oladunni — a pioneer in Africa’s space advocacy movement and the Founder and Regional President of Space Tourism Society Africa. Paul’s journey started with a simple dream: bringing people closer to the stars. From founding one of Nigeria’s first space clubs in the early 2000s to representing Africa at the global level with Space Renaissa...

Dogs have been humanity’s companions for thousands of years—guardians, workers, comforters, and beloved family members. But what about Mars? In this special Everyday Mars episode, released in honor of International Dog Day, I sat down with Dr. Clive Wynne , ethologist at Arizona State University and author of Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You. Dr. Wynne is one of the foremost experts on...

This week on Aspiring Martians, I spoke with Rahaf Adi , the first Syrian woman to graduate with a space engineering degree. Rahaf’s journey has taken her from childhood dreams of building rockets to designing real experiments bound for space, including work at Purdue’s legendary Zucrow Labs on thrust-vectored engines. She was even chosen as the Banner Bearer for Purdue’s College of Engineering, l...

Mohammed Sallam’s path to becoming one of the 100 finalists in the Mars One program started in Cairo in the 1980s, with a love of sci-fi films and the quiet wonder of staring at the night sky. Decades later, a news article calling for Mars settlers in the wake of the Arab Spring set him on a course that would change his life. In this episode, Mido shares what it’s like to grow up in Egypt dreaming...