Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

By The Planetary Society

Technology

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

Planetary Radio brings you the human adventure across our Solar System and beyond. We visit each week with the scientists, engineers, leaders, advocates, and astronauts who are taking us across the final frontier. Regular features raise your space IQ while they put a smile on your face. Join host Sarah Al-Ahmed and Planetary Society colleagues including Bill Nye the Science Guy and Bruce Betts as they dive deep into space science and exploration. The monthly Space Policy Edition takes you inside the DC beltway where the future of the US space program hangs in the balance. Visit planetary.org/radio for an episode guide and much more.

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LAST EPISODE

Deep Sky: A JWST IMAX exper...

11.22.2023

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.

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science episodes:

11.22.2023 Deep Sky: A JWST IMAX experience 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.
11.15.2023 NASA’s STEM program looks to the Moon 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.
11.08.2023 A City on Mars 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?"
11.03.2023 Space Policy Edition: What went wrong with Mars Sample Return 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.
11.01.2023 Psyche and Eclipse Company blast off 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.
10.25.2023 Simulating Psyche: Modeling craters on a metallic world 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.
10.18.2023 InSight's revelation on Mars’ rotation 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
10.11.2023 Celebrating the OSIRIS-REx sample return 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.
10.04.2023 2023 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium: Part 2 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.
09.27.2023 2023 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium: Part 1 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.
09.20.2023 Alone but not lonely with Louis Friedman 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."
09.13.2023 Io and Voyager 2: Lost oceans and found signals 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 ...
09.06.2023 Subsurface oceans: The hidden potential of Earth-like exoplanets 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.
08.30.2023 A new algorithm finds its first potentially hazardous asteroid Mario Jurić and Ari Heinze from the University of Washington join Planetary Radio to discuss their team’s next-generation asteroid discovery algorithm, HelioLinc3D.
08.23.2023 The slow evolution of Europa 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.
08.16.2023 JWST detects water vapor in a planet-forming disk 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.
08.09.2023 Mars Life Explorer: The search for extant life on the red planet 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.
08.04.2023 Space Policy Edition: Why lunar exploration must be of enduring national interest 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.
08.02.2023 Subsurface granite on the Moon? The anatomy of a lunar hot spot 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.
07.26.2023 An essential ingredient for life in the oceans of Enceladus 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.
07.19.2023 Mars' Axial Tilt: A Key to Gully Formation Caltech and Brown University’s Jay Dickson joins Planetary Radio to discuss the mysterious formation of gullies on Mars.
07.12.2023 Comparing the rivers of Earth, Mars, and Titan Sam Birch, an assistant professor at Brown University, explores what we know about the alluvial rivers of Earth, Mars, and Saturn's moon Titan.
07.07.2023 Space Policy Edition: What’s Going on with: Congress, MSR, and ? 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.
07.05.2023 Humans to Mars by the 2030s? NASA Associate Administrators weigh in 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 ...
06.28.2023 2Fast 2Curious: Finding the source of the fast solar wind 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.
06.21.2023 The disappearing act of Saturn's young rings 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.
06.14.2023 The oldest organic molecules in the known Universe Justin Spilker joins Planetary Radio to talk about his team’s detection of the oldest organic molecules in the known Universe.
06.07.2023 Starstruck with Sarafina El-Badry Nance Sarafina El-Badry Nance joins Planetary Radio to discuss her new book, Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark.
06.02.2023 Space Policy Edition: The policy implications of active SETI 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 ...
05.31.2023 The Science You’ve Enabled 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.
05.24.2023 Exoplanet enigma: Unpacking the discovery of a "forbidden" planet 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.
05.17.2023 Inspiring the next generation through space education 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.
05.10.2023 The case for saving VERITAS 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.
05.05.2023 Space Policy Edition: SpaceX's Starship vs. the environment, with Eric Roesch 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.
05.03.2023 Adventures at the 2023 Planetary Defense Conference Planetary Radio creator Mat Kaplan shares a look behind the scenes at the 2023 Planetary Defense Conference in Vienna, Austria.
04.26.2023 Juice mission liftoff: A new era of icy moon exploration begins Join us as we celebrate the successful launch of the European Space Agency's Juice mission with project scientist Olivier Witasse.
04.19.2023 Under Alien Skies with Phil Plait Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, joins Planetary Radio to discuss his new book, “Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
04.12.2023 Yuri’s Night: For all SpaceKind Join us as we delve into the heart of LA's 2023 Yuri's Night party, a celebration commemorating Yuri Gagarin's pioneering 1961 voyage into space.
04.07.2023 Space Policy Edition: The motives behind NASA's billions — Jean Toal Eisen on how Congress funds the final frontier For over a decade, Jean Toal Eisen drafted legislation directing billions of dollars to NASA as senior staff on the Senate Appropriations Committee. She joins the show to unveil the crucial roles played by committee staff like herself, how decisions ...
04.05.2023 Two Years of Hope: Celebrating the Emirates Mars Mission Join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of a truly inspiring space mission - the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe, which has spent two amazing years orbiting Mars!
03.29.2023 Volcanic Venus? New insights from vintage data Robbie Herrick and Scott Hensley, the minds behind a new paper on recent potential volcanic activity on Venus, join Planetary Radio to discuss their discovery and what it means for the future of Venusian exploration.
03.22.2023 Getting psyched for Psyche Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the principal investigator for NASA’s Psyche mission to explore a metallic asteroid, joins Planetary Radio to share the mission’s status and look forward to the wonders that await when the spacecraft reaches its target.
03.15.2023 Universal Harmonies: Sonifying images for science and accessibility Kim Arcand from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory joins Planetary Radio to share her team’s new album “Universal Harmonies.”
03.08.2023 Looking back on Voyager’s 45th Anniversary Planetary Radio’s creator Mat Kaplan guest hosts for this look back at the Jet Propulsion Lab’s celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Voyager mission.
03.03.2023 Space Policy Edition: The Tricky Ethics of Space Settlement Dr. Erika Nesvold, astrophysicist and author of the new book “Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space” explores the ethical challenges facing our species as it dips its toe into living beyond our home planet.
03.01.2023 The Canadian Lunar Rover with Peter Visscher Director of Canadensys West Peter Visscher fills us in on the upcoming Canadian lunar rover. Visscher has been working on the rover for years.
02.22.2023 Martian rock collecting: From meteorites to Mars Sample Return Meenakshi Wadhwa, principal scientist for Mars Sample Return at NASA JPL, updates us on the missions that will bring bits of the red planet back to Earth.
02.15.2023 Are we alone? The search for alien technosignatures A new volunteer SETI science project to search for alien technosignatures has launched! Two of its creators tell you how to sign up.
02.08.2023 More on Mars’ Watery History Mars expert Tanya Harrison shares the details on some of the newest discoveries about Mars’ history, including potential megatsunamis and the discovery of opals in Gale Crater.
02.03.2023 Space Policy Edition: The White House's Matt Daniels on the U.S.'s New Cislunar Strategy Dr. Matt Daniels of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy joins the show to discuss the White House’s new cislunar space strategy, its ambitions, and implications for the future of lunar exploration and development.

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