Gravity Assist

By National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Science & Medicine

What's Gravity Assist about?

NASA’s interplanetary talk show, hosted by Chief Scientist Jim Green, introduces you to space professionals working to take exploration into the future.

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LAST EPISODE

Gravity Assist Finale: Than...

08.12.2022

On the Gravity Assist podcast we have interviewed dozens of scientists, engineers, and others dedicated to the mission of NASA space exploration. After five years, the show is coming to a close. Here are some final thoughts and episode highlights ...

Gravity Assist episodes:

08.12.2022 Gravity Assist Finale: Thanks for All the Gravity Assists On the Gravity Assist podcast we have interviewed dozens of scientists, engineers, and others dedicated to the mission of NASA space exploration. After five years, the show is coming to a close. Here are some final thoughts and episode highlights ...
07.29.2022 Gravity Assist: Meet a Webb Scientist Who Looks Back in Time The James Webb Space Telescope awed the world on July 12 with its first images and data. And it’s just getting started with its exploration of the cosmos. Dr. John Mather, the observatory’s senior project scientist, has been working toward ...
07.08.2022 Gravity Assist: How We Make Webb (and Hubble) Images The world will get a first glimpse of the universe as never before when the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope come out on July 12. And this is only the beginning — the telescope will deliver all ...
07.01.2022 Gravity Assist: It’s Raining Diamonds on These Planets Uranus and Neptune are two of the many exciting and mysterious objects in our universe that the James Webb Space Telescope will soon begin to explore. Learn more about these planets and the Webb telescope’s upcoming observations from astrophysicist Naomi ...
06.17.2022 Gravity Assist: This is What Mars Sounds Like, with Nina Lanza With two microphones aboard the Perseverance rover, we can listen to Mars from its surface like never before. In addition to hearing how wind sounds on Mars, we can also listen to Perseverance driving on the surface, the Ingenuity helicopter ...
05.20.2022 Gravity Assist: What Will We Eat on Mars? Astronauts on the International Space Station have been conducting experiments to grow food, including peppers and radishes. Christina Johnson, a NASA postdoc fellow at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, has been working on a variety of techniques to grow ...
05.13.2022 Gravity Assist: How to Grow Food on the Moon Space botanists are working on strategies to grow crops on the lunar surface, as NASA makes strides toward sending astronauts to the Moon through the Artemis program.
04.22.2022 Gravity Assist: Walking on Broken Ice, with Catherine Walker An ice shelf collapsed in East Antarctica in March 2022, concerning scientists who track melting glaciers, sea level rise, and other effects of climate change.
04.08.2022 Gravity Assist: Do Other Planets Make Pollution? With Ravi Kopparapu On a quest to find out if we are not alone in the universe, Ravi Kopparapu at NASA Goddard studies how we could use telescopes to detect signs of life beyond our solar system.
03.18.2022 Gravity Assist: These Space Rocks Have Seen It All, with Neyda Abreu How do we know if a rock came from the Moon, Mars, or an asteroid? Planetary scientist Neyda Abreu has looked inside all kinds of meteorites to understand where they came from and what’s inside them. She also traveled to ...
03.04.2022 Gravity Assist: Using Webb to Trace Galactic Histories, with Aaron Yung The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched Dec. 25, will allow us to see the farthest galaxies and better understand the origins of the Milky Way. Aaron Yung at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is preparing for these historic observations ...
02.18.2022 Gravity Assist: In Case of Space Station Emergency, with Sunny Panjwani In space, we have to expect the unexpected. Sunny Panjwani of NASA’s Johnson Space Center shares how he got thrown into an emergency situation on his first day as a flight controller. His team makes sure that astronauts have a ...
01.28.2022 Gravity Assist: Meet NASA’s New Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor, with Kate Calvin Climate change is one of the most important issues facing our planet, and NASA has lots of space missions and programs in the works to monitor and understand its drivers and effects. Kate Calvin, NASA’s new chief scientist, is also ...
12.03.2021 Gravity Assist: A New Set of X-Ray Eyes is Launching, with Martin Weisskopf NASA is about to launch a new spacecraft to look at the universe in X-ray light. The Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, IXPE, will look at extreme objects such as black holes, neutron stars, and supernovae, asking fundamental questions about how ...
11.19.2021 Gravity Assist: How to Move an Asteroid, with Nancy Chabot NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission, or DART, will deliberately impact a small asteroid called Dimorphos to deflect its orbit around a bigger object, Didymos. Nancy Chabot, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, has the details.
10.29.2021 Gravity Assist: Solar Power for the Moon, with Lyndsey McMillon-Brown As NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon through the Artemis program, engineers are working on technologies that will give these explorers power – solar power, that is. In space, the harsh radiation and huge temperature changes make for ...
10.22.2021 Gravity Assist: Meet a Space Weather Scientist, with Yaireska Collado-Vega Yaireska Collado-Vega leads a team at NASA’s Goddard Spacecraft Center that is studying the solar weather environment so that robots and people exploring space can be protected. In this episode of Gravity Assist, she describes the excitement and challenges of ...
10.08.2021 Gravity Assist: Lucy and the Space Fossils, with Hal Levison To get a more complete understanding of the full history of our solar system, NASA is sending a spacecraft called Lucy to investigate the Trojans, mysterious small objects that share an orbit of the Sun with Jupiter. Principal investigator Hal ...
08.27.2021 Gravity Assist: Goodbye Saturn, Hello Earth, with Janelle Wellons Janelle Wellons likes to say that she operates “fancy space cameras.” At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she creates commands that allow spacecraft to take valuable scientific data in our solar system and here at planet Earth.
08.06.2021 Gravity Assist: Freaky Physics on the Space Station, with Ethan Elliott The laws of physics get very, very weird in the realm of particles too small for the eye to see. Aboard the International Space Station, an experiment called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is exploring how the universe works .
07.30.2021 Gravity Assist: Diving Into NASA History, with NASA Intern Felicia Ragucci In honor of National Intern Day, Gravity Assist features Felicia Ragucci, an undergraduate at Dartmouth College who recently completed an internship with NASA’s History Office and the Office of the Chief Scientist. During her time at NASA, Felicia researched the ...
07.23.2021 Gravity Assist: Onward to Venus, with Lori Glaze NASA is sending two missions to Venus this decade and participating in a European Space Agency mission there, too. Lori Glaze, director of planetary science at NASA, discusses these missions and why she’s so excited about what we’re about to ...
07.09.2021 Gravity Assist: A Dream, a Team, a Chance to Fly on Mars, with MiMi Aung The idea for NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter began at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with a team of dedicated engineers who believed in something seemingly impossible. MiMi Aung served as the project manager on the helicopter, which has now achieved nine ...
07.02.2021 Gravity Assist: This Asteroid Is Metal, With Lindy Elkins-Tanton Scientists will soon have the opportunity to visit a unique object in the asteroid belt called Psyche, which may be the exposed metallic core of a planetary body that stopped growing before it became a big planet like Earth. Dr. ...
06.18.2021 Gravity Assist: Let’s Talk About Climate Change, with Gavin Schmidt What’s the difference between climate and weather? How does NASA monitor changing sea levels, melting glaciers, and other effects of climate change? Gavin Schmidt, NASA’s acting senior climate advisor, explains how rising temperatures lead to many complex changes both in ...
06.11.2021 Gravity Assist: From Space Camp to Mission Control, with Tara Ruttley How do astronauts exercise on the International Space Station? How do they train underwater? Tara Ruttley, associate chief scientist for microgravity research at NASA Headquarters, has worked on a lot of fascinating projects to support the human spaceflight program.
06.04.2021 Gravity Assist: Before You Launch: Practice, Practice, Practice When future astronauts explore the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, or beyond, they’ll have big challenges communicating with Mission Control back on Earth.
05.21.2021 Gravity Assist: Listening to the Universe, with Kim Arcand NASA spacecraft deliver stunning visual imagery of the cosmos, but we can also experience that data by turning it into sound.
05.14.2021 Gravity Assist: Always an Astronaut, with Ken Bowersox In some ways, spaceflight changes you forever,” says Ken Bowersox. Since he was 7 years old, Ken knew he wanted to become an astronaut. In his astronaut career, he participated in many exciting missions, including an extended stay on the ...
04.30.2021 Gravity Assist: Breaking Barriers, with Dana Bolles Dana Bolles has worked in many exciting areas of NASA including assuring the safety of experiments and spacecraft going to space, managing environmental programs, and thinking about the possibility of life beyond Earth.
04.23.2021 Gravity Assist: Talking to Ingenuity and Other Space Robots, with Nacer Chahat The Ingenuity helicopter made history on April 19, 2021, with the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. How do engineers talk to a helicopter all the way out on Mars? How about other spacecraft? We’ll hear ...
04.16.2021 Gravity Assist: Black Hole Mysteries, with Jeremy Schnittman What is a black hole? How do we study them when we can’t see them? Astrophysicist Jeremy Schnittman from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center joins NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green for a fascinating conversation about the latest black hole research.
04.09.2021 Gravity Assist: Season 5 Trailer – What’s Your Gravity Assist? Go behind the scenes at NASA with Chief Scientist Jim Green in the Gravity Assist podcast.
02.12.2021 Gravity Assist: Driving on Mars, with rover driver Sophia Mitchell What does it take to drive a rover that’s more than 100 million miles away? Sophia Mitchell at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been driving the Mars Curiosity rover since 2018.
12.23.2020 Gravity Assist: Your Questions About Life Out There and Down Here Why don’t we go live on Saturn’s moon Titan? What would it mean if we found life elsewhere? How did life get its start on Earth? NASA’s chief scientist Jim Green and astrobiologist Lindsay Hays discuss these and other audience ...
12.18.2020 Gravity Assist: The Bright Spot of the Asteroid Belt, with Britney Schmidt Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is a mysterious dwarf planet called Ceres. Its surface is dark and muddy, but has hundreds of patches of bright material.
12.04.2020 Gravity Assist: Set Sail for Europa, with Bob Pappalardo NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will give us the most detailed look yet at Jupiter’s extraordinary moon Europa.
11.13.2020 Gravity Assist: Mars Takes a Breath, with Jen Eigenbrode The Curiosity rover has been probing the secrets of Mars since its arrival in 2012. Its discoveries include chemical signatures that could be related to life – or, alternatively, to geological processes.
10.30.2020 Gravity Assist: The History of the Future, with Steven Dick Astronomer and historian Steven Dick tells us there are many approaches to consider and many questions we should ask ourselves to get ready, in case extraterrestrial life is found.
10.09.2020 Gravity Assist: Life in the Clouds, with David J. Smith While more research is needed, Smith and others are fascinated by the possibility that airborne microbes could also be found elsewhere in the solar system, and beyond.
09.25.2020 Gravity Assist: Why Icy Moons are So Juicy, with Athena Coustenis A great era of exploration of the icy moons is about to begin. Athena Coustenis of the Paris Observatory talks about missions to the icy moons of the outer solar system and international collaborations with NASA and ESA.
09.11.2020 Gravity Assist: Is Artificial Intelligence the Future of Life? With Susan Schneider If astrobiologists find life beyond Earth in the solar system, it will most likely be in the form of tiny organisms called microbes – nothing that would talk to us.
08.21.2020 Gravity Assist: Our Sun, Our Life, with Vladimir Airapetian Vladimir Airapetian, scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explains what researchers hope to find as they gaze beyond our solar system.
08.14.2020 Gravity Assist: Looking For Life in Ancient Lakes As the Perseverance Rover flies toward Jezero Crater on Mars, which once hosted water, astrobiologists are interested in places on Earth that are similar to the rover landing site.
08.07.2020 Gravity Assist: Gardens at the Bottom of the Sea, with Laurie Barge Laurie Barge, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, studies how plant-looking mineral structures called chimneys grow from chemicals found at the deepest depths of the ocean. In her lab she has glass vials and bulbs full of different chemical ...
07.17.2020 Gravity Assist: She Protects Other Planets from Our Germs As we explore Mars and other places in the solar system that might have life, scientists who work in Planetary Protection are busy making sure that we don’t contaminate them.
06.26.2020 Gravity Assist: If They Call, Will We Listen? The Search for Technosignatures Jason Wright, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, has been thinking about the different technosignatures we could pick up using the telescopes we already have, and the telescopes that we could develop in the future.
06.18.2020 Gravity Assist: Where are the Goldilocks Stars? With Giada Arney Giada Arney, astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is looking at the potential for K stars to host habitable worlds. Learn about how stars affect planetary environments and why complex life on early Earth was impossible.
06.12.2020 Gravity Assist: Puffy Planets, Powerful Telescopes, with Knicole Colon NASA astrophysicist Knicole Colon describes her work on the Kepler, Hubble, TESS and Webb missions, and takes us on a tour of some of her favorite planets.
06.05.2020 Gravity Assist: Is Our Solar System Weird? With Shawn Domagal-Goldman We now know there are more planets than stars in the galaxy. Many of them are very different from ours. How would we know if any of them had life? Shawn Domagal-Goldman, astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, discusses ...

Older episodes

Gravity Assist

What's Gravity Assist about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Gravity Assist episodes:

Gravity Assist Finale: Thanks for All the Gravity Assists

Gravity Assist: Meet a Webb Scientist Who Looks Back in Time

Gravity Assist: How We Make Webb (and Hubble) Images

Gravity Assist: It’s Raining Diamonds on These Planets

Gravity Assist: This is What Mars Sounds Like, with Nina Lanza

Gravity Assist: What Will We Eat on Mars?

Gravity Assist: How to Grow Food on the Moon

Gravity Assist: Walking on Broken Ice, with Catherine Walker

Gravity Assist: Do Other Planets Make Pollution? With Ravi Kopparapu

Gravity Assist: These Space Rocks Have Seen It All, with Neyda Abreu

Gravity Assist: Using Webb to Trace Galactic Histories, with Aaron Yung

Gravity Assist: In Case of Space Station Emergency, with Sunny Panjwani

Gravity Assist: Meet NASA’s New Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor, with Kate Calvin

Gravity Assist: A New Set of X-Ray Eyes is Launching, with Martin Weisskopf

Gravity Assist: How to Move an Asteroid, with Nancy Chabot

Gravity Assist: Solar Power for the Moon, with Lyndsey McMillon-Brown

Gravity Assist: Meet a Space Weather Scientist, with Yaireska Collado-Vega

Gravity Assist: Lucy and the Space Fossils, with Hal Levison

Gravity Assist: Goodbye Saturn, Hello Earth, with Janelle Wellons

Gravity Assist: Freaky Physics on the Space Station, with Ethan Elliott

Gravity Assist: Diving Into NASA History, with NASA Intern Felicia Ragucci

Gravity Assist: Onward to Venus, with Lori Glaze

Gravity Assist: A Dream, a Team, a Chance to Fly on Mars, with MiMi Aung

Gravity Assist: This Asteroid Is Metal, With Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Gravity Assist: Let’s Talk About Climate Change, with Gavin Schmidt

Gravity Assist: From Space Camp to Mission Control, with Tara Ruttley

Gravity Assist: Before You Launch: Practice, Practice, Practice

Gravity Assist: Listening to the Universe, with Kim Arcand

Gravity Assist: Always an Astronaut, with Ken Bowersox

Gravity Assist: Breaking Barriers, with Dana Bolles

Gravity Assist: Talking to Ingenuity and Other Space Robots, with Nacer Chahat

Gravity Assist: Black Hole Mysteries, with Jeremy Schnittman

Gravity Assist: Season 5 Trailer – What’s Your Gravity Assist?

Gravity Assist: Driving on Mars, with rover driver Sophia Mitchell

Gravity Assist: Your Questions About Life Out There and Down Here

Gravity Assist: The Bright Spot of the Asteroid Belt, with Britney Schmidt

Gravity Assist: Set Sail for Europa, with Bob Pappalardo

Gravity Assist: Mars Takes a Breath, with Jen Eigenbrode

Gravity Assist: The History of the Future, with Steven Dick

Gravity Assist: Life in the Clouds, with David J. Smith

Gravity Assist: Why Icy Moons are So Juicy, with Athena Coustenis

Gravity Assist: Is Artificial Intelligence the Future of Life? With Susan Schneider

Gravity Assist: Our Sun, Our Life, with Vladimir Airapetian

Gravity Assist: Looking For Life in Ancient Lakes

Gravity Assist: Gardens at the Bottom of the Sea, with Laurie Barge

Gravity Assist: She Protects Other Planets from Our Germs

Gravity Assist: If They Call, Will We Listen? The Search for Technosignatures

Gravity Assist: Where are the Goldilocks Stars? With Giada Arney

Gravity Assist: Puffy Planets, Powerful Telescopes, with Knicole Colon

Gravity Assist: Is Our Solar System Weird? With Shawn Domagal-Goldman