# Episode 2: Steve Squyres, Blue Origin Chief Scientist Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascending-node-7854244/episode-2-steve-squyres-blue-origin-chief-scientist Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascending-node-7854244/episode-2-steve-squyres-blue-origin-chief-scientist.md Podcast: [Ascending Node](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascending-node-7854244) Published: 2026-06-18T13:55:00+00:00 Episode link: https://AscendingNode.podbean.com/e/the-title-of-ascendingnodeep2/ Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/6j7z7pkhxm5ibgfk/AscendingNodeEp2-hrpv6w-Optimized.mp4 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ascending-node-7854244/episodes/episode-2-steve-squyres-blue-origin-chief-scientist Duration seconds: 1595 ## Resource Steve Squyres joins the Ascending Node to talk about a career spent pushing the boundaries of Mars exploration, from serving as Principal Investigator for the scientific payloads on the iconic Spirit and Opportunity rovers to his early mentorship under Carl Sagan. He digs into how the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) will support science happening on the Martian surface, and how Blue Ring could help identify and characterize materials on asteroids. It's a conversation spanning decades of curiosity, discovery, and what's next for planetary exploration. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ascending-node-7854244/episodes/episode-2-steve-squyres-blue-origin-chief-scientist/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/ascending-node-7854244/episode-2-steve-squyres-blue-origin-chief-scientist.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.