Cassandra Klos, USA

From Mars simulations… to mission control.

This week on Aspiring Martians, Joe is joined by Cassandra Klos, a photographer, curator, and analog astronaut whose work lives at the intersection of art, science, and the future of human spaceflight.

Cassandra is the creator of Mars on Earth, a long-running project documenting space analog missions (you know, those carefully designed simulations where humans rehearse life on Mars right here on Earth). But she doesn’t just photograph these missions…she lives them. From serving as crew journalist to commanding analog missions, she’s experienced firsthand what it means to simulate life on another world.

More recently, her work has taken her even closer to the real thing. As a photo correspondent covering Artemis II, she’s been behind the scenes at Johnson Space Center, documenting mission control as humanity prepares to return to deep space.

This episode is about what happens when you blur the line between simulation and reality… and why the stories we tell about space might shape the future just as much as the missions themselves.

Featuring