Exploration doesn’t stop at Earth’s borders—it reaches into the stars. In this episode of Life’s Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, Dr. Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, takes us on a journey to Mars.

As part of the Curiosity Rover’s ChemCam team, Nina has spent years studying the Martian surface, searching for signs that the Red Planet may have once hosted life. She discusses some of the biggest discoveries from Mars exploration, including evidence of a long-standing lake in Gale Crater—an environment that, on Earth, would have been habitable.

But her adventures don’t stop there. From studying Mars-like landscapes in the Arctic to preparing for the challenges of future human missions, Nina shares what it takes to be an explorer—not just in space, but in the extreme environments of Earth.

🚀 Join us as we uncover the mysteries of Mars, the search for alien life, and what exploration means in the 21st century.

This is Life's Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, with your host, Richard Weiss. Scratch the surface of an explorer and you'll find an adventure and a great story. This show is about their tales.

This podcast is a proud supporter of the Explorers Club and the EC50 Initiative. 50 people changing the world that the world needs to know about. For more information, go to explorers.org.