Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

Morgan Cable and Hiro Ono from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory join Planetary Radio to discuss the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) robot concept.

This week, we learn more about Spaceport Nova Scotia, Canada’s first commercial launch site, with Steve Matier and Sasha Jacob, the CEO and Chairman of Maritime Launch Services.

Norm Augustine, the distinguished aerospace industry veteran behind numerous influential studies, joins the show to discuss NASA at a Crossroads, the new report that raises alarm bells for NASA’s workforce, infrastructure, and technology capabilities.

This week we discuss recent research on the origins of Pluto’s heart and what it can tell us about whether or not the dwarf planet has a subsurface ocean with Adeene Denton from the University of Arizona.

Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist, recounts the mission team's dramatic encounter with Hurricane Milton before their triumphant launch.

This week, Planetary Radio offers advice for students pursuing higher education in space-related fields. From internship insights to conference strategies and grad school survival tips, we've got you covered.

The Planetary Society and space advocates around the world fought to make Europa Clipper a reality. This week, we learn more about the tumultuous history of the mission with Casey Dreier, The Planetary Society’s chief of space policy.

Space expert Lori Garver joins the show to explore Kamala Harris’ space policy priorities, the major issues facing NASA in the next four years, and Garver’s thoughts on the evolution of Elon Musk and NASA’s increasing reliance on the commercial space industry.

We look forward to the Oct. 7 launch of the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft with Michael Küppers, project scientist for the mission.

We return to the 2024 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium for part two of our coverage as we explore an Artemis-enabled stellar imager and an add-on to large-scale water mining operations on Mars to screen for introduced and alien life.

Join us for part one of our journey to the 2024 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium. We'll hear from the teams behind two of this year's NIAC projects that could help us study distant planets and potentially reach them ourselves.

Vince Ledvina, also known as the Aurora Guy, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the science behind the northern and southern lights and what they can tell us about our Sun, our planet, and worlds across our galaxy.

Dr. Greg Autry, who served on Trump’s NASA transition team in 2016 and was nominated for the position of NASA CFO in 2020, joins the show to discuss the space policy issues facing a potential second Trump administration in 2025.

With less than two months to go until the highly anticipated launch of NASA's Europa Clipper mission, we take a look back at over twenty years of Planetary Radio episodes about Jupiter's most intriguing moon.

Get up to speed on the latest in commercial space news and look forward to the European Space Agency’s Ramses mission to Apophis with members of The Planetary Society team.

We hear from Team Insecta, a group of Canadian students exploring crickets as a viable source of space food.

Planetary Radio takes a melodic adventure to the Ravinia Festival in Illinois, USA, for the public premiere of the "Moons Symphony."

Caltech's Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin discuss their new paper, the latest evidence for Planet 9, and why they believe their hunt may soon be over.

Policy expert G. Ryan Faith argues for importance of communal engagement with our values and goals in space exploration. While easy answers may elude us, a careful and considered approach to this effort can help avoid common pitfalls and dead ends and ensure that future generations continue to explore space.

NASA's Perseverance rover has made a groundbreaking discovery on Mars: a sample that may hold evidence of ancient microbial life. We visit the Tenth International Conference on Mars to get the details.

Darby Dyar, the deputy principal investigator for NASA’s VERITAS mission to Venus, returns triumphantly to Planetary Radio to share the story of how space advocates helped save this mission.

We celebrate the second anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) science operations with Christine Chen, associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Newton Campbell Jr., the director of the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth (AROSE) Consortium, discusses his career journey, AI in space, and Australia's first lunar rover, the Roo-ver.

Every major NASA center built after the agency’s inception is located in the American South. Why? Dr. Brian Odom, NASA’s chief historian, joins the show to discuss the cultural, political, and historical implications of NASA’s expansion into the South.

We dive into the stunning variety of exoplanets beyond our Solar System with Jessie Christiansen, the project scientist for the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

We observe Asteroid Day with an update on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission with the Asteroid Foundation’s Markus Payer and JHUAPL’s Terik Daly.

We explore recent solar activity and discoveries from NASA's Parker Solar Probe with Nour Rawafi, the mission's project scientist.

RadioLab's Latif Nasser returns to Planetary Radio with a new public naming contest for a quasi-moon of Earth.

Holy texts and salvation ideology. Saints and martyrs. True believers and apostates. This isn’t a religion — this is human spaceflight, argues Roger Launius, the former Chief Historian of NASA.

We discuss the delightfully unpredictable nature of space discoveries with Chris Lintott, author of the upcoming book Accidental Astronomy.

We share a conversation from the Humans to Mars Summit about integrating NASA and its partners as humanity looks to build a permanent and sustainable human presence on Mars.

Kelly Biderman, the CEO of Havoc Robotics, joins Planetary Radio to share how the National Havoc Robot League helps to prepare the next generation of space engineers. Then we hear from Florence Pouya, the former captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team.

This week on Planetary Radio, we'll share what happened during this year's Day of Action and why it matters.

We explore how Doctor Who has influenced the scientific community with Russell T. Davies, the past and present showrunner of the iconic science fiction TV series.

Should policymakers spend more time looking - really looking - at the Moon? Chris Cokinos thinks so. He’s the author of a new book, Still As Bright, which explores the evolving role of the Moon in our culture, our history, and our dreams of spaceflight.

Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper's project scientist, visits The Planetary Society headquarters in Pasadena, CA, to share the story of the mission's vault plate, humanity's next collection of messages to another world.

This week on Planetary Radio we take a trip to The Planetary Society’s Eclipse-O-Rama festival in Fredericksburg, Texas, where hundreds gathered to witness the April 8 total solar eclipse.

We explore NASA's first tabletop role-playing game with senior multimedia specialist Christina Mitchell and a new way to find water worlds with Amaury Triaud from the University of Birmingham.

This week on Planetary Radio, Latif Nasser, co-host of Radiolab shares the story behind the naming of Zoozve, a quasi-moon of Venus.

Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin discusses his claim that there is a tension between the so-called Real reasons that motivate spaceflight and the prosaic, Acceptable reasons used to justify space exploration within the public sphere.

Planetary Radio marks its last show before the Apr. 8 total solar eclipse with a look back at discoveries made during totality.

Ron Benner, the President of the American Optometric Association, and astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy give helpful tips for safely observing the upcoming total solar eclipse in North America.

Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, joins Planetary Radio to share stories from his new book, The Asteroid Hunter.

Jim Bell, a professor from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and former president of The Planetary Society's Board of Directors, shares captivating tales from his global eclipse-chasing journeys.

A team co-led by the Southwest Research Institute has made a groundbreaking discovery, revealing evidence of hydrothermal or metamorphic activity on the icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake in the Kuiper Belt. The lead author of this research, Chris Glein, joins Planetary Radio to explain.

Science historian Dr. Matt Shindell joins the show to discuss the unique era of commercial lunar exploration, and how planetary exploration has evolved and can continue to evolve on and around the Moon.

Twenty years after a pioneering collaboration between The Planetary Society, NASA, and LEGO, Planetary Radio reflects on the Red Rover Goes to Mars program and the lives it impacted.

Scott Guzewich, deputy project scientist for NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX mission, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the next steps for the mission as we count down to asteroid Apophis’ flyby of Earth in 2029.

This week on Planetary Radio, we take a peak behind the scenes at National Geographic's new documentary, “The Space Race,” which celebrates the triumphs and struggles of the first African-American space pioneers and astronauts.

Ed Krupp, the director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, will share insights from the fascinating field of archaeoastronomy.

Space policy expert Laura Delgado López joins the show to break down the new paper, “Clearing the Fog: The Grey Zones of Space Governance” by Jessica West and Jordan Miller.

Matt Golombek, project scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, joins Planetary Radio to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.

We're celebrating lunar missions and the space advocacy that helps make them happen this week on Planetary Radio.

Sabine Stanley, author of the new book "What's Hidden Inside Planets?", discusses some of the amazing things that lie under the surfaces of the worlds in our Solar System.

Knicole Colón, the deputy project scientist for exoplanet science for JWST, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the detection of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18 b.

UK-based space writer Gurbir Singh, author of the book The Indian Space Programme: India’s Incredible Journey from the Third World towards the First, joins the show to help us understand India’s growing ambitions and capabilities in space.

Chris Glein, a lead scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, joins Planetary Radio to talk about the discovery of phosphorus in the oceans of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the implications for the search for life.

Members of The Planetary Society staff revisit some of 2023's most exhilarating moments and groundbreaking discoveries in space this week on Planetary Radio.

Mat Kaplan, Planetary Radio's creator and former host, takes us on an adventure with planetary geologist Kirby Runyon as they tour New Mexico, U.S.'s varied geology and compare it to other worlds.

Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Oxford, joins Planetary Radio this week to discuss the largest marsquake ever recorded and the international effort it took to pinpoint.

Though the Space Shuttle program lasted 30 years and built the ISS, it fell short of NASA's goals for cost, reusability, and reliability. Can a program be both a worldly success and a policy failure? In this Space Policy Edition, we dissect a classic space policy paper and debate its relevance today.

Hal Levison and Simone Marchi, the principal and deputy principal investigators for NASA’s Lucy mission, join Planetary Radio to discuss the spacecraft’s first asteroid flyby.

Nathaniel Kahn, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and the director of Deep Sky, joins Planetary Radio this week to discuss the film's decade-long creation process and the magic of JWST images on the big screen.

Steven Smith, an Education Specialist from NASA's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (or STEM) Program, joins Planetary Radio to share some of the unique opportunities available for students in the lead-up to humanity's return to the Moon.

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join Planetary Radio this week to discuss their new book, "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?"

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is both a top priority and seriously troubled. Independent review board chair Orlando Figueroa joins us to talk about the challenges and what must be done.

Jesse Tomlinson and Stephen Watkins from the Eclipse Company join Planetary Radio to talk about their partnership with The Planetary Society and the launch of their new eclipse map for the upcoming 2024 total solar eclipse in North America.

Simone Marchi, co-investigator for NASA’s Psyche mission, joins Planetary Radio to share the creative ways their mission team is working to understand cratering on metallic worlds.

The InSight RISE instrument's principal investigator, Sebastien Le Maistre, from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, joins Planetary Radio to discuss Mars' increased rotation speed

We celebrate NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission’s successful return of samples from asteroid Bennu to Earth on this week’s episode of Planetary Radio.

Join Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed on a trip to the 2023 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Houston, Texas. This episode is part two of two.

Join Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed on a trip to the 2023 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Houston, Texas. This episode is part one of two.

Louis Friedman, one of the three co-founders of The Planetary Society, joins Planetary Radio to discuss his new book, "Alone but Not Lonely: Exploring for Extraterrestrial Life."

Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd and Voyager project scientist Linda Spilker discuss reestablishing contact with Voyager 2 and Carver Bierson from Arizona State University tells the tale of how Io went from a water-rich moon into a world with lakes of lava.

Lujendra Ojha, assistant professor at Rutgers University, joins Planetary Radio to discuss how subsurface liquid water on exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars could increase the likelihood of finding habitable worlds beyond our Solar System.

Mario Jurić and Ari Heinze from the University of Washington join Planetary Radio to discuss their team’s next-generation asteroid discovery algorithm, HelioLinc3D.

Kevin Trinh from Arizona State University joins Planetary Radio to discuss his research into Europa's formation history and the consequences for the moon's habitability.

Giulia Perotti and Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy join Planetary Radio to discuss their team's detection of water vapor in the inner region of the protoplanetary disc that is already forming worlds.

Amy Williams, assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the proposed Mars Life Explorer mission and the search for extant life on Mars.

Scott Pace, the prior executive secretary of the National Space Council, discusses why Artemis is of strategic value to U.S. national interests — and why the Moon is unique as a destination to drive global space exploration.

Matt Siegler from the Planetary Science Institute shares his team's surprising findings about the granite formation that might lie beneath Compton-Belkovich, a thorium-rich hot spot on the far side of the Moon.

Chris Glein, a lead scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, joins Planetary Radio to talk about the discovery of phosphorus in the oceans of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the implications for the search for life.

Caltech and Brown University’s Jay Dickson joins Planetary Radio to discuss the mysterious formation of gullies on Mars.

Sam Birch, an assistant professor at Brown University, explores what we know about the alluvial rivers of Earth, Mars, and Saturn's moon Titan.

We check in on the congressional budget process for NASA, Mars Sample Return’s spiraling cost growth, and the impending end of the regulatory holiday for human commercial space launch companies.

Planetary Radio, Mat Kaplan, senior communications adviser at The Planetary Society, takes us to the 2023 Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. We'll share his conversation with three NASA Associate Administrators, Nicola Fox, James Free, and James Reuter about the international, commercial, and robotic collaboration it will take to put the first humans on the Red Planet.

James Drake from the University of Maryland joins Planetary Radio to talk about the latest results from NASA's Parker Solar Probe as it soars closer to our star than any spacecraft in history.

Richard Durisen and Paul Estrada join Planetary Radio to discuss their research on the surprisingly recent formation of Saturn's rings and why they are disappearing over time.

Justin Spilker joins Planetary Radio to talk about his team’s detection of the oldest organic molecules in the known Universe.

Sarafina El-Badry Nance joins Planetary Radio to discuss her new book, Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark.

Would meeting an extraterrestrial civilization be good or bad for humanity? Astronomer Dr. Jacob Haqq Misra argues that knowing the outcome in advance is fundamentally impossible. Should we camouflage Earth's technosignatures or pour money into perhaps the most transformative event in human history? Should we fear the dark or embrace the unknown?

The second round awardees in a Planetary Society grant program will explore extreme life in super-salty lakes, and study how future Martians will grow their own food.

Shubham Kanodia, the lead on a paper about a so-called forbidden planet, TOI 5202 b, joins us to talk about this strange world and why it's upending our understanding of planetary formation.

In this week's episode of Planetary Radio, we're honoring the educators who inspire young, curious minds to explore the marvels of the Cosmos.

Darby Dyar, Deputy Principal Investigator for NASA's VERITAS mission to Venus, joins Planetary Radio to share the human story behind the spacecraft and make a case for saving the mission.

Eric Roesch, an environmental policy expert, joins Planetary Radio to discuss SpaceX's Starship, environmental regulations' role in commercial space travel, and responsible space exploration.

Planetary Radio creator Mat Kaplan shares a look behind the scenes at the 2023 Planetary Defense Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Join us as we celebrate the successful launch of the European Space Agency's Juice mission with project scientist Olivier Witasse.