Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

By The Planetary Society

Technology

What's Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science about?

Space exploration, astronomy and planetary science. (Weekly)

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Touchdown! The Sights and S...

02.24.2021

The Mars 2020 rover is on Mars. We have collected the most thrilling moments from the landing and the revelations that followed, including the first sounds recorded on the Red Planet. Bill Nye congratulates the entire Perseverance team and explains ...

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science episodes:

02.24.2021 Touchdown! The Sights and Sounds of Perseverance on Mars The Mars 2020 rover is on Mars. We have collected the most thrilling moments from the landing and the revelations that followed, including the first sounds recorded on the Red Planet. Bill Nye congratulates the entire Perseverance team and explains ...
02.17.2021 Planetfest ’21: To Mars and Back Again The Planetary Society’s Planetfest ’21 celebrated Mars and the newest visitors to the Red Planet. Mat Kaplan shares some of his Planetfest conversation with Andy Weir, author of The Martian. We also sit down with the leader of the United ...
02.10.2021 The Big Book of Mars: Our Obsession with the Red Planet Mars has commanded our attention and stimulated our imaginations for millenia. Now, as 3 more spacecraft arrive, we talk with author Marc Hartzman about his new book that documents the fascination and fancy generated by the Red Planet. Planetary Society ...
02.05.2021 Space Policy Edition: The Big Picture on U.S. Science Funding Matt Hourihan is perhaps the world's most knowledgeable expert in how the U.S. government funds basic science and development activities. He joins the show to talk about the big picture of where the money goes, how the focus has changed ...
02.03.2021 A Cosmic Odyssey: Decades of Discovery at the Palomar Observatory How astronomers at California’s Palomar Observatory revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos.
01.27.2021 ‘Oumuamua: Avi Loeb says it may have been artificial Could the first object shown to have originated outside our solar system be a light sail built by an alien civilization? That’s the very controversial hypothesis put forward by distinguished Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb in his new book Extraterrestrial. The ...
01.20.2021 7 More Minutes of Terror: Perseverance Arrives at Mars The 2020 Mars Rover will reach the Red Planet on February 18th after many months in the relative quiet of space. It will then undergo a true trial by fire as it descends to the surface. Jet Propulsion Lab systems ...
01.15.2021 Space Policy Edition: A Mob at the U.S. Capitol This is not your normal episode of the Space Policy Edition, but these are not normal times. The centuries-old U.S. tradition of the peaceful transfer of power ended on 6 January 2021, as a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol ...
01.13.2021 A Symphony for 7 Moons Composer Amanda Lee Falkenberg has created The Moons Symphony. You’ll hear excerpts from each of its 7 movements. They are inspired by and evoke 7 of our solar system’s smaller, unique worlds. Joining Amanda are her advisors and friends, artist ...
01.06.2021 Solar Cruiser: A Giant Sail Prepares for Space It is many times larger than any previous solar sail, and it will pave the way for even bigger spacecraft propelled by light. Solar Cruiser principal investigator Les Johnson tells us about his latest project and looks to humanity crossing ...
12.30.2020 Planetary Society All-Stars Review 2020 Space Milestones Chief Scientist Bruce Betts, Editorial Director Jason Davis, Chief Advocate and Senior Space Policy Advisor Casey Dreier, and Communications Strategy and Canadian Space Policy Advisor Kate Howells join host Mat Kaplan for our annual look back at the closing year’s ...
12.23.2020 Astronaut Stephanie Wilson Might Walk on the Moon Engineer and astronaut Stephanie Wilson was a toddler when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin visited the Moon. She may someday almost literally walk in their footsteps. Stephanie is one of 18 astronauts--9 women and 9 men--chosen for the Artemis Team. ...
12.16.2020 What Do You Need to Make Martian Oxygen? MOXIE! Mike Hecht is in charge of the MOXIE experiment on NASA’s Perseverance rover, arriving on Mars in February. The tiny device will test our ability to turn the Red Planet’s plentiful carbon dioxide into oxygen. Someday a scaled-up version may ...
12.09.2020 Welcoming a New Leader, and China on the Final Frontier Carl Sagan was first in the job. Now it has been handed to Caltech planetary scientist Bethany Ehlmann. We’ll talk with the Planetary Society’s new president about her Moon mission and more. Society CEO Bill Nye and president emeritus Jim ...
12.04.2020 Space Policy Edition: Operation Moonglow and the Global Impact of Apollo Apollo was seen as a triumph of,not for, all mankind, argues Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony, author of the new book Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Apollo. She joins the show to talk about how this was not an accident, but ...
12.02.2020 Observatory Director Francisco Córdova on the Devastating Loss of Arecibo The 900-ton instrument platform suspended high above the giant Arecibo dish crashed downward in the early morning hours of December 1st. Host Mat Kaplan had recorded a conversation with the leader of the observatory just hours before the disaster. You’ll ...
11.25.2020 More Moon Water and an Update from Venus on Our 18th Anniversary! We celebrate 18 years of Planetary Radio with two great features and 10 personal questions for host Mat Kaplan from Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts. Astronomer Jane Greaves is back with an update on the phosphine gas detected above ...
11.18.2020 Revealing Mars From Above, and Crew Dragon is Go! Jeffrey Plaut and Richard Zurek are the project scientists for two of the most successful and long-lived Mars missions. Their orbiters, Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are still delivering great science, even after 19 years above the Red ...
11.13.2020 Space Policy Edition: NASA's Post-Election Landscape The United States' 2020 elections are over. What do the results mean for NASA in the years ahead? To help answer that question, we welcome back Brendan Curry, The Planetary Society's Chief of D.C. Operations. Join us as we review ...
11.11.2020 A Rogue World Wanders as PlanetVac Heads for the Moon and Mars In a jam-packed episode, we’ll talk to a discoverer of a distant, lonely planet that wanders the galaxy, and then turn to plans to send a radically-simple sample collection system to the Moon and Mars’ moon Phobos. Planetary Society CEO ...
11.04.2020 A Return to Asteroid Mining, and Digging Into Space Ethics with Joel Sercel At least two ambitious, smart asteroid mining companies have gone bust. Joel Sercel makes the case that his new effort comes at a much better time, and with a better approach. He’ll also share his audacious plan for mining water ...
10.28.2020 A Deep Dive into Asteroid Bennu With Dante Lauretta We are joined by the leader of the OSIRIS-REx mission that sampled an asteroid last week. Dante reveals just how brilliantly successful the encounter was, and describes preparations for the journey back to Earth. Space journalist Nancy Atkinson tells us ...
10.21.2020 We Have Sampled an Asteroid! And the Search for Life Above Venus OSIRIS-REx has done it! We have special coverage of the spacecraft’s successful collection of a sample from asteroid Bennu. Then we talk with Jane Greaves, leader of the team that found evidence of phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus. ...
10.14.2020 Beyond Earth’s Edge: A Celebrity Space Poetry Jam! Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight is the new and outstanding collection of poems edited by Julie Swarstad Johnson and Christopher Cokinos. They’ll join us to hear poems in the collection read by Bill Nye, Robert Picardo, Sasha Sagan, ...
10.07.2020 Protectors of Earth! (and Other Worlds) Protecting worlds like Earth and Mars from microscopic invaders carried by human and robot visitors was just one of the scores of topics covered at this year’s Humans to Mars summit. Mat Kaplan moderated a panel featuring planetary scientist and ...
10.02.2020 Space Policy Edition: Divining Biden's Space Policy with Jeff Foust A month before the U.S. election Joe Biden's campaign has yet to state its goals for space and NASA. We asked Jeff Foust, one of the best space reporters in the business, to help us piece together a working model ...
09.30.2020 Exploring the Cosmos With Heidi Hammel and AURA AURA, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, is the organization that oversees operation of many of our world’s most powerful telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Veteran astronomer and planetary scientist Heidi Hammel is its Vice President for ...
09.23.2020 A Fond Farewell: Solar System Specialist Emily Lakdawalla Emily Lakdawalla was on the very first episode of Planetary Radio, and has been heard on hundreds since then. The planetary evangelist returns for a conversation like no other. Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye shares his thoughts after we hear ...
09.16.2020 Have We Found Evidence of Life on Venus? An international team has detected phosphine gas in the clouds above Venus. Naturally-produced phosphine on Earth is created by anaerobic bacteria. We’ll listen to portions of the media briefing at which this result was announced. Then we’ll get perspective on ...
09.11.2020 Space Policy Edition: The Moon-to-Mars Strategy, with Dr. Scott Pace How spacefaring nations prioritize funding can be just as important, if not more so, than the capabilities of the commercial sector, says Dr. Mary Lynne Dittmar, President and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration. She joins the show ...
09.09.2020 A Planetary Mystery is Solved, and it’s Bill Nye’s Anniversary! JPL’s Marc Rayman, former Dawn mission director, reveals the secrets of those bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres. First though we celebrate Bill Nye’s 10th anniversary as CEO of The Planetary Society. Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Vaughn is followed by ...
09.02.2020 The Sirens of Mars Call to Us Georgetown University planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson has written a beautiful book that chronicles our long quest for life on the Red Planet. That search may finally be reaching a climax with the new Perseverance rover and the beginnings of ...
08.26.2020 Katie Mack and The End of Everything Known as Astrokatie to her 370 thousand Twitter followers, astrophysicist and cosmologist Katie Mack has written a funny, fantastic guide to the end of the universe. The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) explores five major scenarios for the big finish ...
08.19.2020 Make Room! Worlds May Crowd Some Habitable Zones Newly-published research led by Stephen Kane finds room for as many as 6 habitable zone planets around some stars. Why then is Earth on its own? The UC Riverside planetary scientist and astrobiologist will explain. Host Mat Kaplan is not ...
08.12.2020 Another Ray Gun Heads for Mars. We Hear It Working. First there was ChemCam on Mars rover Curiosity. Now, SuperCam is on its way to the Red Planet aboard Perseverance. We’ll talk with principal investigator Roger Wiens about the new and improved, laser-firing instrument that delivers rock spectra and other ...
08.07.2020 Space Policy Edition: Why the SLS is a National Asset, and Why That Matters How spacefaring nations prioritize funding can be just as important, if not more so, than the capabilities of the commercial sector, says Dr. Mary Lynne Dittmar, President and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration. She joins the show ...
08.05.2020 Crew Dragon Triumphant, and a Planetary Society Founder Remembers Astronaut and former SpaceX director of space operations Garrett Reisman returns to help us celebrate and appreciate the just-completed first crewed mission by a Crew Dragon capsule. Then we settle in with Planetary Society Emeritus Executive Director Lou Friedman for ...
07.29.2020 Hope Leads the Way to Mars An exclusive conversation with science lead Sarah Al Amiri and project director Omran Sharaf of the Emirates Mars Mission. Their Hope orbiter is now on its way to the red planet. NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen has praise for the ...
07.22.2020 A Mars Mission Begins, a Comet Exits, and the Future of Planetary Science The United Arab Emirates Hope spacecraft has begun its journey to Mars. We’ll join a virtual launch party attended by mission leaders, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, National Air and Space Museum director Ellen Stofan and others. Comet NEOWISE is still ...
07.15.2020 3 Billion Years Ago: Was Mars Alive? Perseverance, NASA’s 2020 rover, leaves for the Red Planet in just days. Deputy project scientist Ken Williford tells us how it will look for signs of past life where there was once a Martian lake. He’ll also take us through ...
07.08.2020 To Pluto and Beyond with Alan Stern It has been 5 years since the New Horizons probe revealed beautiful, surprising Pluto, and 18 months since it showed us the odd little body now known as Arrokoth. Principal Investigator Alan Stern shares the latest science, and tells us ...
07.03.2020 Space Policy Edition: A Trillion-Dollar Space Economy? Dr. Bhavya Lal joins the show to discuss the size of the space economy, where it's going, and how the term itself can mean many different things to many different people. In a world filled with breathless claims about trillion-dollar ...
07.01.2020 Jim Bell Sends New Eyes to Mars Mastcam-Z is the main camera system that will soon leave for Mars as part of the Perseverance rover. Mastcam-Z Principal Investigator Jim Bell is back to tell us about what the most powerful set of eyes to reach the surface ...
06.24.2020 China on the Final Frontier Low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, even Neptune and the edge of the solar system--China’s ambitious plans for space exploration and development are laid out by Planetary Society contributing editor and Chinese space program expert Andrew Jones. Jason Davis provides ...
06.17.2020 LightSail 2: A Year of Solar Sailing The LightSail 2 team and 50,000 supporters around the world will celebrate the little spacecraft’s first anniversary on orbit in a few days. Planetary Society Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Vaughn remembers the long road to this accomplishment. LightSail Program Manager ...
06.10.2020 Staying Alive in Space Keeping humans alive and well in space is hard enough. How will this be accomplished on a 3-year journey to Mars and back? Paragon President and CEO Grant Anderson shares the great progress we’ve made and the remaining challenges. Astronauts ...
06.05.2020 Space Policy Edition: NASA’s Gamble Pays Off SpaceX's Crew Dragon safely carried 2 astronauts to the ISS, nearly a decade after NASA made a huge bet on commercial partnerships to solve a problem of access to the space station. Casey and Mat explore how NASA gained the ...
06.03.2020 Crew Dragon Thrills While Mars Chills This episode opens with a special message about The Planetary Society’s response to recent news, followed by a period of silence that marks the unjust loss of George Floyd and other black men and women. In our regular coverage, we ...
05.27.2020 Celebrating 30 Years of Hubble with Astronaut John Grunsfeld Former astronaut and NASA Associate Administrator John Grunsfeld is often called the Hubble Repairman. He made three space shuttle trips to the space telescope to repair and upgrade it. Now he looks back over three decades of science, beautiful images, ...
05.20.2020 Crew Dragon Deep Dive with Astronaut Garrett Reisman Engineer and former astronaut Garrett Reisman spent four months on the International Space Station before moving to SpaceX. Ten years of work at the company are about to climax when a Crew Dragon capsule carries astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug ...

Older episodes

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

What's Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science episodes:

Touchdown! The Sights and Sounds of Perseverance on Mars

Planetfest ’21: To Mars and Back Again

The Big Book of Mars: Our Obsession with the Red Planet

Space Policy Edition: The Big Picture on U.S. Science Funding

A Cosmic Odyssey: Decades of Discovery at the Palomar Observatory

‘Oumuamua: Avi Loeb says it may have been artificial

7 More Minutes of Terror: Perseverance Arrives at Mars

Space Policy Edition: A Mob at the U.S. Capitol

A Symphony for 7 Moons

Solar Cruiser: A Giant Sail Prepares for Space

Planetary Society All-Stars Review 2020 Space Milestones

Astronaut Stephanie Wilson Might Walk on the Moon

What Do You Need to Make Martian Oxygen? MOXIE!

Welcoming a New Leader, and China on the Final Frontier

Space Policy Edition: Operation Moonglow and the Global Impact of Apollo

Observatory Director Francisco Córdova on the Devastating Loss of Arecibo

More Moon Water and an Update from Venus on Our 18th Anniversary!

Revealing Mars From Above, and Crew Dragon is Go!

Space Policy Edition: NASA's Post-Election Landscape

A Rogue World Wanders as PlanetVac Heads for the Moon and Mars

A Return to Asteroid Mining, and Digging Into Space Ethics with Joel Sercel

A Deep Dive into Asteroid Bennu With Dante Lauretta

We Have Sampled an Asteroid! And the Search for Life Above Venus

Beyond Earth’s Edge: A Celebrity Space Poetry Jam!

Protectors of Earth! (and Other Worlds)

Space Policy Edition: Divining Biden's Space Policy with Jeff Foust

Exploring the Cosmos With Heidi Hammel and AURA

A Fond Farewell: Solar System Specialist Emily Lakdawalla

Have We Found Evidence of Life on Venus?

Space Policy Edition: The Moon-to-Mars Strategy, with Dr. Scott Pace

A Planetary Mystery is Solved, and it’s Bill Nye’s Anniversary!

The Sirens of Mars Call to Us

Katie Mack and The End of Everything

Make Room! Worlds May Crowd Some Habitable Zones

Another Ray Gun Heads for Mars. We Hear It Working.

Space Policy Edition: Why the SLS is a National Asset, and Why That Matters

Crew Dragon Triumphant, and a Planetary Society Founder Remembers

Hope Leads the Way to Mars

A Mars Mission Begins, a Comet Exits, and the Future of Planetary Science

3 Billion Years Ago: Was Mars Alive?

To Pluto and Beyond with Alan Stern

Space Policy Edition: A Trillion-Dollar Space Economy?

Jim Bell Sends New Eyes to Mars

China on the Final Frontier

LightSail 2: A Year of Solar Sailing

Staying Alive in Space

Space Policy Edition: NASA’s Gamble Pays Off

Crew Dragon Thrills While Mars Chills

Celebrating 30 Years of Hubble with Astronaut John Grunsfeld

Crew Dragon Deep Dive with Astronaut Garrett Reisman

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