Are We There Yet?

A seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed New Shepard flight went for $28 million at auction. It marks the start of a new chapter of space tourism. So what’s the future of this burgeoning market?

A seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed New Shepard flight went for $28 million at auction. It marks the start of a new chapter of space tourism. So what’s the future of this burgeoning market?

NASA selected two missions to head to Venus by the end of the 2020s. VERITAS and DAVINCI+ will be the first U.S. mission to Venus in more than three decades.

So why study Venus? The surface of the planet is hell. It’s very hot and has a super dense atmosphere, but it once was similar to Earth. Scientists hope that understanding what happened to Venus’ atmosphere could shed light on how our planet formed and serve as a cautionary tale to what could happen to our own Planet.

To discuss the two missions, we’ll speak with two Venus experts. First, Paul Byrne, a planetary geologist and associate professor at NC State University about the intrigue and inquiry at our closest planetary neighbor, and what we might learn about this hellish place.

Then, we’ll speak with Darby Dyar, a professor of astronomy at Mount Holyoke College and deputy principal investigator for VERITAS about plans to map the surface of Venus and how these findings might help find planets much like our own outside our solar system.

 

NASA selected two missions to head to Venus by the end of the 2020s. VERITAS and DAVINCI+ will be the first U.S. mission to Venus in decades. So why study Venus?

NASA selected two missions to head to Venus by the end of the 2020s. VERITAS and DAVINCI+ will be the first U.S. mission to Venus in decades. So why study Venus?

NASA’s Perseverance rover is sending back some of the clearest and most dramatic images of the Martian surface ever. It landed earlier this year, and since then has been beaming back detailed panoramics, up close images, even sound and video of one of our closest celestial neighbors.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is sending back some of the clearest and most dramatic images of the Martian surface ever. It landed earlier this year, and since then has been beaming back detailed panoramics, up close images, even sound and video of one of our closest celestial neighbors.

Every 10 years, NASA tasks the science community to chart the course for the next decade of discovery and exploration. As NASA and other agencies push forward looking for signs of life in our universe, what’s the path ahead? We'll also talk with ERAU's Terry Oswalt about techniques to uncover the age of stars.

Every 10 years, NASA tasks the science community to chart the course for the next decade of discovery and exploration. As NASA and other agencies push forward looking for signs of life in our universe, what’s the path ahead? We'll also talk with ERAU's Terry Oswalt about techniques to uncover the age of stars.

The next space-based telescope is almost ready to head into orbit. The James Webb Space Telescope aims to look deeper into the history of the universe, piggy-backing off the incredible observations of the Hubble Space Telescope.

It’s undergoing final tests before getting packed away for shipment to French Guiana, ahead of a launch currently slated for Halloween.

The massive telescope made with 18 mirrors and a sun shield the size of a tennis court will peer deeper into space than ever before, capturing photons in the infrared from the dawn of our universe.

We’ll speak with NASA’s Lee Feinberg, Optical Telescope Element Manager, about the mirrors and this last leg of testing before launching later this year.

Then, we’ll speak with our panel of University of Central Florida physicists about this next step in space-based observations and what’s ahead for the science community once it launches.