Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

Space Policy Edition: SpaceX's Starship vs. the environment, with Eric Roesch

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prior to Starship's inaugural launch, environmental policy expert Eric Roesch was outspoken about the possibility of catastrophe. As the rocket launch...

Adventures at the 2023 Planetary Defense Conference

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Planetary Radio creator Mat Kaplan shares a look behind the scenes at the 2023 Planetary Defense Conference in Vienna, Austria. You’ll hear exclusiv...

Juice mission liftoff: A new era of icy moon exploration begins

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join us as we celebrate the successful launch of the European Space Agency's Juice mission! Our special guest, project scientist Olivier Witasse, shar...

Under Alien Skies with Phil Plait

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, joins Planetary Radio to discuss his new book, “Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The book ...

Yuri’s Night: For all SpaceKind

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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. We'l...

Space Policy Edition: The motives behind NASA's billions — Jean Toal Eisen on how Congress funds the final frontier

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For over a decade, Jean Toal Eisen drafted legislation directing billions of dollars to NASA as senior staff on the Senate Appropriations Committee. S...

Two Years of Hope: Celebrating the Emirates Mars Mission

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of a truly inspiring space mission - the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe, which has spent two amazing yea...

Volcanic Venus? New insights from vintage data

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is Venus hiding volcanic secrets beneath its shroud of clouds? Robbie Herrick and Scott Hensley, the minds behind a new paper on recent potential volc...

Getting psyched for Psyche

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

NASA’s Psyche mission to explore a metallic asteroid will launch later this year. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the principal investigator for Psyche, joins ...

Universal Harmonies: Sonifying images for science and accessibility

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kim Arcand from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory joins Planetary Radio to share her team’s new album “Universal Harmonies.” It’s a beautiful...

Looking back on Voyager’s 45th Anniversary

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Space Policy Edition: The Tricky Ethics of Space Settlement

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Humanity is on the cusp of attempting permanent settlement on other worlds. But who gets to go? How will we govern ourselves or enforce laws off Earth...

The Canadian Lunar Rover with Peter Visscher

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode, Director of Canadensys West Peter Visscher fills us in on the upcoming Canadian lunar rover. Visscher has been working on th...

Martian rock collecting: From meteorites to Mars Sample Return

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Exciting updates to the plans to return samples from Mars to Earth are underway. Meenakshi Wadhwa, principal scientist for Mars Sample Return at NASA ...

Are we alone? The search for alien technosignatures

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A new volunteer science project to search for alien technosignatures has launched! Jean-Luc Margot and Megan Li from UCLA join us to share the excitin...

More on Mars’ Watery History

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mars expert Tanya Harrison shares the details on some of the newest discoveries about Mars’ history, including the discovery of an impact crater tho...

Space Policy Edition: The White House's Matt Daniels on the U.S.'s New Cislunar Strategy

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the first time in history, the White House laid out a national policy for science and technology in the vast expanse of cislunar space. This polic...

JWST confirms its first exoplanet

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed the discovery of its first exoplanet. Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, one of the leads on the team that made the det...

Juno Journeys to Jupiter’s Moons

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dive into the latest discoveries about Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io with Scott Bolton, the principal investigator for NASA’s Juno miss...

Martian Mic Drop

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Achilles, a musician who partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help put one of the first microphones on Mars, shares his journey ...

Celebrating NASA’s Artemis I mission to the Moon

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Graeber, the assistant launch director at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, joins us to recount his experience on the night of Artemis I’s his...

Space Policy Edition: JPL Director wants "every brain" to have the chance to work in space exploration

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After the delay of the Psyche mission, an independent review board faulted management and workforce problems at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as on...

Planetary Radio stories with Mat Kaplan

04 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New host Sarah Al-Ahmed bids a fond farewell to Mat Kaplan, Planetary Radio’s former host, with a heartwarming compilation of messages from fans, fo...

Planetary Society All-Stars Review the Year in Space

28 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s Mat Kaplan’s last episode as host of Planetary Radio. He has gathered several of his colleagues to celebrate an outstanding year across the S...

Artemis 1 Orion capsule comes home, and the best of Planetary Radio

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Host Mat Kaplan returned to Naval Base San Diego to greet the return of the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft aboard the USS Portland. Stay with us for a col...

One Last Blast: Author of ‘The Martian’ Andy Weir with JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning

14 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A rollicking conversation with two of the most entertaining, most creative Planetary Radio guests across our 20-year history about the role of creativ...

Scientist and Hubble Repairman John Grunsfeld

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

John Grunsfeld didn’t just ride the Space Shuttle into orbit five times. He accumulated two-and-a-half days of spacewalk time as he worked on the Hu...

Space Policy Edition: NASA's Economic Impact with Alex MacDonald and Joshua Drucker

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

NASA supports nearly 340,000 jobs spread throughout every state in the union, generates billions of dollars of tax revenue, and invests in critical hi...

A Happy 20th Anniversary for Planetary Radio

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join our celebration with Planetary Society chief executive officer Bill Nye, Society co-founder Louis Friedman, and chief operating officer Jennifer ...

Giving the University of Arizona Mirror Lab a spin

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It has been on host Mat Kaplan’s bucket list for years. Join him for a tour of the cavernous Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizon...

Voyager Mission Project Scientist Linda Spilker

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

She has been heard on Planetary Radio more than any other guest. Linda Spilker returns in her new role as the Voyager project scientist, following the...

Space Policy Edition: What the Congressional Midterms Means for Space Science

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Next year a new class of elected officials will enter Congress and usher in changes to the political focus and leadership of key space and science com...

Ann Druyan wishes you a happy Sagan Day

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

November 9 would have been our co-founder Carl Sagan’s 88th birthday. His professional and life partner, Ann Druyan, returns with a love story — t...

Space Policy Edition Bonus: Q&A with Casey Dreier and Bill Nye

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While we wait for the result of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, enjoy this special bonus episode of Space Policy Edition featuring The Planetary ...

DART smacked an asteroid! So what’s next in planetary defense?

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The success of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test was just one more step toward protecting our world from wayward asteroids and comets. NASA Planeta...

Meet the new Planetary Radio host! (and enjoy a beer with a cosmologist)

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join host Mat Kaplan as he proudly introduces the person who will take on the show he created 20 years ago. Then we’ll join astrophysicist Brian Kea...

Eyes on the Sky: Spacewatch and the Catalina Sky Survey

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The University of Arizona in Tucson hosts two of the most successful asteroid searches on our planet. Together, they have discovered, tracked, and cha...

Innovate! NASA’s leading-edge fellows share their amazing projects

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mat Kaplan once again hosted the live webcast from the annual NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts or NIAC symposium. He presents a speed dating sample o...

Space Policy Edition: The Geopolitics of a Successful SETI Detection

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What would nation-states do in response to a signal from an alien intelligence? Would they compete for status and control of the message, or hope to g...

Grounded: The director of the SOFIA flying observatory looks back

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) made its last flight on Sept. 30, 2022. Astronomer Margaret Meixner was onboard as the hu...

Bull’s-eye! DART impacts Dimorphos, and we meet space image artist and processor Judy Schmidt

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

They did it! The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft scored a direct hit on Dimorphos. We’ve got the thrilling last moments before im...

Countdown to DART: Will We Move an Asteroid?

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are less than a week from the DART spacecraft’s impact on asteroid moonlet Dimorphos as this episode is published. Mission Coordination Lead Nanc...

It’s Not Just NASA: Space Agency Leaders at the Artemis 1 Launch Attempt

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

More than 100,000 came to the Kennedy Space Center hoping to see Artemis 1 head for the Moon on August 29. Among them were leaders of the European Spa...

Countdown to Artemis, The Return to the Moon

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Come with us to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for our special coverage of the first attempt to launch the giant Space Launch System rocket toward the ...

Space Policy Edition: Mike Gold on Crafting the Artemis Accords

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As we wait for the launch of Artemis 1, we explore the Artemis Accords: a shared set of principles for exploring space, signed now by more than twenty...

The Voyager Mission: A 45th Anniversary Celebration

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join us at the Jet Propulsion Lab for the celebration of the two Voyager spacecrafts’ 45-year journey across the solar system and beyond. Stick arou...

Pieces of Mars: How We’ll Get Them to Earth

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We now know the rough outline of how NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) expect to get the samples collected by Perseverance off Mars and into la...

A Venus Phosphine Scoop! The Return of Jane Greaves

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Astronomer Jane Greaves and her worldwide team have had quite a ride. It has been two years since the Cardiff University professor announced evidence ...

Comets Stink! The Chemical Zoo Found at Comet Chury

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists have used data collected by an exquisitely sensitive instrument on the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe to find a stunning collectio...

Space Policy Edition: Lori Garver on Bringing Change to NASA

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As NASA’s deputy administrator, Lori Garver fought to cancel the Constellation program and shift NASA to use commercial partnerships in spaceflight....

Citizen Science: Join the search for Martian clouds

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab scientists Armin Kleinboehl and Marek Slipski lead a new project that is recruiting thousands of citizen explorers. They expla...

New Jet Propulsion Lab Director Laurie Leshin

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

She is only the tenth director of JPL, and the first woman to hold the position. It’s a homecoming for Laurie Leshin who got her PhD at Caltech, the...

Science from the Moon, and former NASA chief scientist Jim Green looks back

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Host Mat Kaplan leads with a special announcement. Then we spend a fascinating hour with the former director of NASA’s Planetary Science division an...

The JWST: An Awesome New Window on the Universe Opens Wide

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you seen them? Five spectacular images have given us a taste of what’s ahead from the James Webb Space Telescope. Bill Nye will share his react...

A Hero of the New Space Age: Lori Garver and Escaping Gravity

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

No one deserves more credit for enabling the new era of commercial space development than former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver. That includes ...

Space Policy Edition: Pathfinder and the Birth of the Discovery Program

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the 25th anniversary of the Pathfinder Mars mission and Sojourner, the first rover on the Red Planet. Historian Michael Neufeld joins the show ...

Asteroid Day! Earth Plays Defense

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We Earthlings are making progress toward defending our planet from near-Earth objects, which is reason enough for the annual Asteroid Day celebration....

Sail on! Bill Nye and others celebrate LightSail 2’s three years in space

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 rocketed into orbit three years ago. Society CEO Bill Nye, chief operating officer Jennifer Vaughn, and LightSai...

Portrait of a Scientist: A Conversation with Psyche mission leader Lindy Elkins-Tanton

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lindy Elkins-Tanton’s wonderful new memoir is titled, “A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman.” Host Mat Kaplan talks with Lin...

Planetary Radio at the Humans to Mars Summit

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join host Mat Kaplan in Washington D.C. for conversations with outstanding presenters at the first in-person Humans to Mars Summit in three years. You...

Space Policy Edition: Inside the Planetary Science Decadal Survey Process with Bethany Ehlmann

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Caltech planetary scientist and Planetary Society president Bethany Ehlmann was a key player in the creation of the recently released recommendations ...

Planetary Radio Live in London: The Moons Symphony

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Host Mat Kaplan has returned from the UK and the recording of The Moons Symphony by the London Symphony Orchestra. You’ll hear excerpts from our...

Cassini’s Dramatic End: A Planetary Radio Reprise

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Mat Kaplan in London for Planetary Radio Live, we bring back one of the most moving events in the history of our show. The Cassini orbiter plunge...

Life, the Universe and Britney Schmidt

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our in-depth, fascinating conversation with Cornell University professor Britney Schmidt touches on how we’ll recognize life when we find it els...

Perseverance Perseveres: A Mars rover update from Ken Farley

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Perseverance, the Mars 2020 rover, has begun an exciting new phase of its mission. Project scientist Ken Farley tells us why the ancient river delta i...

Space Policy Edition: How Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Has Changed Space, with Mariel Borowitz

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's not just the ISS partnership — commercial satellites, international cooperation, and managing space debris may all be impacted by the war i...

Heavy Metal: An encounter with the Psyche spacecraft

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Psyche is a 279 kilometer-wide (173 mile-wide) hunk of metal in space. Psyche is also a magnificent spacecraft that will soon head toward its namesake...

The End of Astronauts?

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Do we need to send humans into space? Won't robots soon be smart enough and capable enough to do this dangerous work for us? These and other questions...

Yuri’s Night: Join the party!

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Host Mat Kaplan joined the Los Angeles celebration of humanity becoming a spacefaring species. He talked with the Yuri’s Night founders and othe...

Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“Never panic early” is both Fred Haise’s motto and the title of his new memoir. Join us for a wonderful hour of stories about the Mo...

Space Policy Edition: NASA's 2023 Budget Request

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Biden administration is proposing $26 billion for NASA next year, with significant increases benefiting the Artemis program, Mars Sample Return an...

Neptune Odyssey: why we need to visit an ice giant

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Recommendations made in the 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey will be revealed on April 19. One of the 11 design studies com...

X-raying the universe with Martin Weisskopf

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

He helped invent X-ray astronomy more than 50 years ago. Martin Weisskopf still leads the field as project scientist for the spectacular Chandra X-ray...

Legendary Space Physics Pioneer Margaret Kivelson

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At 93, Margaret Kivelson is still at the center of space science and policy. In this charming conversation she shares anecdotes about her early life, ...

Planetary Radio Special Edition: The Voyager Golden Record by Twenty Thousand Hertz

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are honored to offer you this outstanding episode of one of our favorite podcasts. Twenty Thousand Hertz reveals the stories behind the world's mos...

Meet the first STEP Grant awardees

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Citizen scientists will soon have another opportunity to become part of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and an innovative project will u...

Water, water everywhere with Bethany Ehlmann

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Planetary scientist Bethany Ehlmann has co-authored a paper presenting evidence that liquid surface water flowed on Mars as much as a billion years mo...

Space Policy Edition: Why are outer planets missions so expensive?

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's the 50th anniversary of Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to the outer planets. Pioneers 10 and 11 were scrappy, low-cost endeavors that blazed th...

5,000 worlds and counting: the success of TESS

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michelle Kunimoto was one of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in science. Now she leads the most successful search for exoplanets that relies on da...

Astrobiologist David Grinspoon on life, the universe and everything

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Astrobiologist, planetary scientist, author and science communicator David Grinspoon has just been named a lifetime fellow of the American Association...

Saving the world one telescope at a time: The Shoemaker NEO grant winne

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Planetary Society has awarded another eight Gene Shoemaker near-Earth object grants to outstanding amateur astronomers and observatories around th...

The weather on brown dwarfs, and worlds on the eve of destruction

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Astrophysicists Sam Grunblatt and Johanna Vos are colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Sam’s team has discovered gi...

Space Policy Edition: JWST and the politics of mega-science (with Robert Smith)

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Smith shares the story of how the astronomical community decided upon the JWST as the follow-up to the Hubble Space Telescope, the coalition po...

Nobel laureate John Mather: The promise of the James Webb Space Telescope

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The JWST’s instruments have been turned on. Now begins the months-long preparation for observations that will reveal our universe as never befor...

Worlds of snow and ice

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From Venus to Pluto, our solar system contains a myriad of planets, moons and other bodies whose surfaces are covered in snow and ice made of water an...

Curiosity rolls on: Mars Science Laboratory project scientist Ashwin Vasavada

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of Curiosity’s arrival in the Red Planet’s Gale crater. The rolling laboratory is still making pro...

We have touched the Sun: The Parker Solar Probe’s triumph

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Parker Solar Probe dipped within the corona on its eighth encounter with our star. It found phenomena that have surprised and delighted heliophysi...

Space Policy Edition: What We're Watching in 2022

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

New rockets, new legislation, and a new direction for planetary exploration are just some of the major events happening in space in the coming year. D...

Return to the Moon: Spacesuits and preparing for splashdown in the Pacific

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

NASA’s Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972. We visit Naval Base San Diego to board the USS John P. M...

A good year for space: Planetary Society all-stars review 2021

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mat Kaplan and six Planetary Society colleagues review a year full of accomplishments, firsts and exciting discoveries. Society CEO Bill Nye opens the...

Discovering Mars with Jim Bell and William Sheehan

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Space historian William Sheehan and planetary scientist Jim Bell have written a fascinating history of humankind’s at least 5,000-year relations...

JWST is ready for launch and amazing science

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The James Webb Space Telescope will begin its mission of discovery as soon as Dec. 24. René Doyon, Heidi Hammel and Mike McElwain join us for a...

A conversation with the director of “Don’t Look Up”

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The plot of the great new movie “Don’t Look Up” is driven by a giant comet speeding toward Earth and the scientists who want to dive...

Space Policy Edition: Astronomy Goes Big, with Heidi Hammel

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The search for biosignatures on hundreds of exoplanets is the top goal for U.S. astronomers. That's the conclusion from the new, once-per-decade repor...

Discovering life elsewhere: How can we be sure?

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is it life? NASA chief scientist Jim Green and Mary Voytek, leader of the agency’s astrobiology program, are two authors of a paper that calls f...

Into the anthropocosmos with Ariel Ekblaw

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ariel Ekblaw and her Space Exploration Initiative colleagues believe we are at the cusp of interplanetary civilization. They are building the tools, e...

The DART asteroid impact mission begins, with Nancy Chabot

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

DART coordination lead Nancy Chabot and the rest of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test team will see their spacecraft rocket toward asteroids Didymo...

Spacecraft communications and navigation with Badri Younes

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Badri Younes says that a spacecraft that can’t communicate or find its way is worthless. He leads SCaN, NASA’s Space Communications and Na...

Space Policy Edition: We're entering a new era of planetary defense (with Lindley Johnson)

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The first in-space test of asteroid deflection technology, DART, launches this month. Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense coordination officer, ...

Sarah Al Amiri and the new UAE mission to the asteroid belt

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The chair of the United Arab Emirates space agency returns with news of an ambitious mission to explore seven asteroids. Sarah also shares the latest ...