How did the universe begin? Why do galaxies look the way the do? Can we see the vanishingly dim light of undiscovered worlds in the Kuiper Belt? These are some of the questions that drive Simons Observatory director Brian Keating. He also think

Space Policy Edition: NASA's 2022 Budget Request Says "Yes"

Jun 4th, 2021 50m 33s

President Joe Biden's new budget proposal for NASA is very good, supporting nearly every major Planetary Society priority. It would fund science at record levels, maintain Artemis' 2024 lunar landing date, and make major investments in technolo

Mighty Jupiter Revealed

Jun 2nd, 2021 1h 1m

Scott Bolton leads the Juno mission that has been orbiting and revealing Jupiter for five years. NASA has granted an extension that will keep the spacecraft exploring till 2025. Scott shares some of the most exciting recent science, and closes

The New Great Space Observatories

May 26th, 2021 54m 58s

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine will soon issue the Astro2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. It will rank four major proposals for exciting, expensive new space-based telescopes. Astrophysicist Grant Tre

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Project Manager MiMi Aung

May 19th, 2021 54m 6s

The tiny Mars Helicopter Ingenuity has flown into our hearts. Project manager MiMi Aung and her team may have made it look easy, but Aung explains why it was anything but. Bruce Betts has tips for viewing the upcoming total lunar eclipse. Plane

Defenders of Earth on Planetary Radio

May 12th, 2021 1h 13m

The 2021 Planetary Defense Conference brought together the leading scientists, policymakers and other experts who are working to protect our planet from near-Earth objects (NEOs). The Planetary Society welcomed six of these heroes to a special

Space Policy Edition: How Starship at the Moon Brings NASA Closer to Mars

May 7th, 2021 53m 33s

In a surprise move, NASA chose SpaceX's Starship as the sole winner of its 3 billion-dollar human lunar lander development contract. Within days, Blue Origin and Dynetics filed official protests, forcing NASA to delay the award. Casey and Mat d

Author Andy Weir and Project Hail Mary

May 5th, 2021 50m 35s

It is always such fun to welcome back Andy Weir. The author of The Martian and Artemis has just published his most entertaining and inventive novel yet. Project Hail Mary gives an unlikely protagonist the job of saving humanity. Andy also share

A Conversation with Kyoto Prize Recipient James Gunn

Apr 28th, 2021 1h 19m

There is no Nobel prize for astronomy, so the Kyoto Prize for Astronomy and Astrophysics may be the highest international recognition an astronomer can receive. Princeton University professor of astronomy Jim Gunn is the most recent recipient.

Is ‘Oumuamua a Piece of a Pluto-Like Planet? And Ingenuity’s First Flight on Mars

Apr 21st, 2021 1h 1m

We begin with a thrilling recap of the successful first flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. Then we meet two researchers who have come up with a fascinating explanation for the first interstellar object discovered as it passed throug

The High Frontier: A New Documentary About Gerard K. O’Neill

Apr 14th, 2021 55m 23s

Physicist and space pioneer Gerard K. O’Neil gathered a community of followers as he led planning for vast, magnificent human settlements in space. Guests Dylan Taylor, Will Henry and Ryan Stuit have produced an inspiring, feature-length tribut

The First Space Shuttle Pilot: Bob Crippen on the 40th Anniversary of STS-1

Apr 7th, 2021 1h 11m

Pilot Bob Crippen and Commander John Young became the first astronauts to fly a Space Shuttle into orbit on April 12, 1981. Crippen tells host Mat Kaplan about that mission and shares many more stories from his adventurous life. Mat was standin

Space Policy Edition: Biden Names His NASA Administrator

Apr 2nd, 2021 58m 40s

Bill Nelson, former Senator from Florida, congressional astronaut, and father of the Space Launch System, will likely be NASA's next administrator. Casey Dreier and Mat Kaplan also discuss The Planetary Society's global Day of Action, which saw

NASA’s TESS Exoplanet Mission Finds Over 2,000 Possible New Worlds

Mar 31st, 2021 55m 1s

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) team has just announced more than 2,200 new exoplanet candidates. Natalia Guerrero of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology manages these discoveries and still finds time to write plays, coll

The Perseverance Rover and a Great First Month on Mars

Mar 24th, 2021 1h

Deputy project scientists Katie Stack Morgan and Ken Williford are living on Mars time and living for Mars. We get an update from them on the work of the Mars 2020 rover. Perseverance is already accomplishing terrific science after just 5 weeks

Return From Ryugu: The Hayabusa2 Leader on His Mission’s Success

Mar 17th, 2021 51m 5s

Hayabusa2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda and his team learned a lot from Hayabusa1, Japan’s troubled-though-successful mission that returned a sample from asteroid Itokawa. Now they are celebrating the recovery of a much larger sample from a diff

InSight’s Mole: A Martian Science Odyssey

Mar 10th, 2021 55m 38s

Troy Hudson and a brilliant international team created a device that would hammer its way below the surface of Mars. Mars had other ideas. The Jet Propulsion Lab engineer and scientist returns to tell us the heroic tale of the InSight lander’s

Space Policy Edition: SpaceX's Early, Desperate Days (with Eric Berger)

Mar 5th, 2021 1h 1m

The SpaceX of today reuses rockets and launches people into space. But 15 years ago, the future of the company was in doubt as its Falcon 1 rocket repeatedly failed to reach orbit. Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica, joins the sho

Spinoffs: How NASA Technologies Benefit Life on Earth

Mar 3rd, 2021 51m 36s

Cleaning up water pollution, inventing inexpensive ventilators for hospitals, turning waste plastic into sidewalks, and making baby formula more nutritious—these and thousands of other innovations have come directly from research and developmen

Touchdown! The Sights and Sounds of Perseverance on Mars

Feb 24th, 2021 52m 46s

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 expl

Planetfest ’21: To Mars and Back Again

Feb 17th, 2021 43m 14s

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 Arab

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

Feb 10th, 2021 1h 1m

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. Planetar

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

Feb 5th, 2021 1h 18m

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 over ti

A Cosmic Odyssey: Decades of Discovery at the Palomar Observatory

Feb 3rd, 2021 51m 25s

Astronomer Linda Schweizer spent countless hours interviewing the explorers who revolutionized astronomy through observations made at California’s Palomar Observatory. She tells their fascinating stories and shares their science in her new book

‘Oumuamua: Avi Loeb says it may have been artificial

Jan 27th, 2021 55m 11s

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 Extra