Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
Episodes
Ann Druyan and the Breakthrough SETI Initiatives
04 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Breakthrough Initiatives will pump $100 million into the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the next 10 years, vastly expanding humanity’...
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the Quest for Longitude
28 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Come with us on a visit to the home of the prime meridian for a conversation with the curator of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich about the race to cr...
Planetary Radio Live at the New Horizons Pluto Encounter
21 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Join our live audience for highlights of an amazing evening, featuring Jim Bell, Bruce Betts, Mike Brown, Emily Lakdawalla, Linda Spilker, and Bill Ny...
A Small, Distant World: Kepler 138b
14 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
SETI Institute scientist Jason Rowe returns to tell us about the smallest exoplanet so far that has had its size and mass determined. Jason also talks...
Emily Lakdawalla’s Pluto Preview
07 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Two visits with the Planetary Society Senior Editor this week, as Emily first provides an update on the Rosetta comet mission and then returns with an...
Saving the Planet: Voices From the Planetary Defense Conference
30 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve already brought you Planetary Radio Live from the 2015 PDC near Rome, Italy. Now you’ll hear a small sampling of the scientists, engineers, ...
Exploring the Seas of Earth and Other Worlds
23 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We return to the beautiful Aquarium of the Pacific in southern California for a fascinating conversation about ocean science. What we learn down here ...
LightSail Triumphant! A Mission Press Conference
16 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
After a roller coaster ride that included a maddening eight-day silence, the LightSail test mission finally achieved all of its major goals. Leaders o...
Cassini Update AND LightSail Spreads its Wings!
09 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker, returns with another update on the magnificent mission at Saturn. You’ll also hear Bill Nye and the moment ...
Chris Carberry and Getting Humans to Mars
02 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Explore Mars revealed the 2015 Humans to Mars Report at a recent conference in Washington. CEO Chris Carberry gives us a quick tour of this inspiring ...
The Launch of LightSail
26 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
This special edition takes you behind the scenes on May 20, 2015 as LightSail is lifted into orbit. You’ll hear the thrilling launch, meet key team ...
Spiraling Closer to Ceres With the Dawn Mission’s Marc Rayman
19 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the biggest dwarf planet between here and Pluto, and it has a new permanent resident. The Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Ceres in the asteroid bel...
Alan Stern and the Rise of Pluto
12 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Humankind’s arrival at Pluto is barely two months away. The science and images have already started to flow from New Horizons, according to the miss...
Sean Solomon on the Climactic End of the MESSENGER Mission to Mercury
05 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We open with the countdown to destruction—the MESSENGER spacecraft’s impact on Mercury ended its spectacularly successful mission. Principal Inves...
Countdown to LightSail: An Update
28 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The road to space has been a rocky one for most spacecraft, and LightSail is no different. Challenges remain even with the May 20th launch of a test m...
Saving the Planet at the Planetary Defense Conference
21 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Planetary Radio Live was the only public event at the just-completed Planetary Defense Conference in Italy. Join us for excerpts from an all-star cele...
Rob Manning and Landing on Mars
14 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Landing on Mars is hard, and the bigger you are, the harder it gets. Rob Manning returns to tell us about one of NASA’s best hopes for getting much ...
Humans Orbiting Mars: Report on the Workshop
07 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A human mission to orbit Mars might be possible by 2033, and it might be accomplished at reasonable cost and with existing or nearly-ready technology....
Robert Bigelow and His Expandable Space Habs
31 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Bigelow Aerospace’s BEAM expandable/inflatable space module will be attached to the International Space Station later this year. Mat travels to the ...
Big News From Little Worlds
24 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Senior Editor Emily Lakdawalla has returned from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas with the latest revelations about our solar syste...
Leaving Behind a Life on Mars—Former Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger
17 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Mars Science Laboratory rover has accomplished its primary goals on the Red Planet, and John Grotzinger has left his central role to become Chair ...
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides on LauncherOne and the Return of SpaceShipTwo
10 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
6,000 job-seekers came to the new Long Beach, California home of Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne rocket on a recent morning. We sit down with CEO Geor...
Jim Bell Welcomes “The Interstellar Age”
03 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Planetary scientist and author Jim Bell has just written “The Interstellar Age—Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission.” He talks with Mat Kaplan ...
Jonathan Goff Says Let’s Redirect an Asteroid
24 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
ARM is the Asteroid Redirect Mission, and sometimes it seems that it doesn’t have a friend in the world. But it does, and Jonathan Goff of Altius Sp...
Found! Beagle 2 on Mars
17 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Beagle 2 Mars lander disappeared after it separated from the Mars Express orbiter on Christmas Day, 2003. Eleven years later, it has been found, p...
Year of the Icy Worlds
10 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We’ll visit the Jet Propulsion Lab on its Icy Worlds Day to learn more about spacecraft exploring Ceres, Enceladus and Europa from leaders of these ...
Planetary Radio Extra: A Deep Dive into the New NASA Budget—A New Mission to Europa, But the End of Opportunity?
10 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The just-released budget for the US space agency has much that fans of planetary science can be grateful for, though the news is not all pos.Learn mor...
Tales From a 4 Billion Year Old Piece of Mars...On Earth
03 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Robina Shaheen and Mark Thiemens tell us how an ancient Mars meteorite has revealed much about the red planet. Mat holds a tiny fragment of the rock i...
LightSail Prepares to Take Flight
27 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Planetary Society has just announced that LightSail will be launched into orbit on its first test flight in May. We’ll talk with Project Manager...
A Recipe for a Small Planet
20 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomer and planetary scientist Courtney Dressing is the lead author of research that may have found the formula for the mass and composition of Ea...
Dr. J and the World’s Biggest Telescope
13 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Liske, host of Hubblecast, is also the top scientist on the European Southern Observatory’s European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), now unde...
The Exciting Year Ahead on the Final Frontier
06 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Planetary Society’s experts look forward to a great year of firsts in the solar system and beyond.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...
2014: The Year in Space
30 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Our annual review of the greatest events and accomplishments over the last year features analysis and commentary by Bill Nye the Science Guy, Emily La...
Where Did The Air Go? Bruce Jakosky on the MAVEN Mars Mission
23 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Not just the air. Where is the water that was plentiful on the red planet billions of years ago? MAVEN may help answer these questions. Principal Inve...
Sara Seager and the Search for Earth’s Twin
16 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
MIT planetary scientist and astrophysicist Sara Seager is on a quest. She wants to find a warm, wet exoplanet with signs of life. It could be Earth 2....
Orion Launches Into History
09 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
NASA’s Orion spacecraft has taken its first step toward Mars and an asteroid mission. The Planetary Society’s Jason Davis was at the Kennedy Space...
Kip Thorne and the Science of Interstellar
02 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Spoiler alert. Famed physicist Kip Thorne says you might be able to survive a plunge into a black hole after all! That’s just one molecule of the fa...
2014: The Year We Landed on a Comet
25 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Not just landed. Orbited, too. European Space Agency Senior Science Advisor Mark McCaughrean helps us celebrate the Rosetta orbiter and the Philae lan...
Cassini Mission Update From Project Scientist Linda Spilker
18 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Cassini is safe! Project scientist Linda Spilker returns with a regular update on Saturn, its moons and rings not long after learning that the mission...
Digging Deep With Kris Zacny and the Planetary Deep Drill
11 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
If there’s life on Mars, it’s probably deep beneath the surface. That’s just one reason we need a tool like Planetary Deep Drill on the red plan...
The SpaceShipTwo and Antares Disasters: Special Coverage With John Logsdon
04 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It was a terrible, tragic week for commercial space development. Historian and space policy analyst John Logsdon helps up understand the greater meani...
A MESSENGER From Mercury—Principal Investigator Sean Solomon Returns
28 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
MESSENGER has been orbiting the innermost planet for more than three-and-half-years. Principal Investigator Sean Solomon returns with a status report ...
Ancient Water Was Here Before the Sun
21 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Ilse Cleeves is lead author of a paper that concludes up to half of our solar system’s water is older than the solar system itself. The implications...
Yale’s Debra Fischer and the Ever More Precise Search for New Worlds
14 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It’s terribly hard to find exoplanets that look like our homeworld. The search requires development of astoundingly powerful and precise instruments...
Planetary Radio Live! We See Thee Rise: The Canadian Space Program
07 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
We welcomed 1,600 Canadian space enthusiasts to the University of Toronto for our October 1st celebration of Canada in space! Join Mat Kaplan and Bill...
A Conversation With Congressman Lamar Smith
30 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The Chairman of the powerful Science, Space and Technology Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives joins us for a talk about planetary science,...
Planetary Radio Live: MAVEN Arrives at Mars!
23 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The latest guest of the Red Planet arrived in orbit on the evening of September 22, 2014. Planetary Radio Live was watching with fingers crossed in Pa...
Dr. Bell Goes to Washington
16 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Planetary Scientist Jim Bell of Arizona State University joined other experts in front of the US House of Representatives Space Committee on September...
Miguel Alcubierre, Inventor of Warp Drive?
09 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by Star Trek, distinguished physicist Miguel Alcubierre developed the general relativity-based model for warp drive 20 years ago. Hear why he...
Smashing Holes in Mars to Look for Life
02 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Explore Mars wants to look for life on the Red Planet. Not past life. Life thriving under the Martian surface right now. Chris Carberry will tell us h...
Alan Stern and a Big Milestone on the Way to Pluto
26 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
New Horizons passed through the orbit of Neptune on August 25th. By cosmic coincidence, this was the 25th anniversary of Voyager 2’s flyby of that b...
Journey to the Center of Jupiter: Creating Fantastic Pressure With the World’s Largest Lasers
19 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Physicist Gilbert "Rip" Collins of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab will tell us about recent use of the world’s most powerful lasers to recreate...
The Search for Extraterrestrial Polluters?
12 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard’s Henry Lin led work that determined the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope may be able to detect an alien civilization by analy...
A Death-Defying Climax for Venus Express
05 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Venus Express Project Scientist Håkan Svedhem tells us about the spacecraft’s harrowing descent into the Venusian atmosphere, what it is currently ...
Jay Barbree on “Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight”
29 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In his 55 years as NBC’s space correspondent, Jay Barbree has won the respect and friendship of many astronauts. Neil Armstrong stands above them al...
Keith Cowing and the ISEE-3 Rebooters
22 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
They have generated excitement, enthusiasm and support throughout the world. The ISEE-3 Reboot Project has succeeded in gaining control over the 36-ye...
Planetary Radio Live: The LightSail Countdown Begins!
15 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
LightSail, the Planetary Society’s innovative solar sail cubesat, will ride into space on the huge SpaceX Falcon Heavy, now in development. Bill Nye...
Discovered: Titan's Magic Island
08 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Cornell grad student Jason Hofgartner reports on the discovery of what appears (and disappears!) to be an island on one of Titan’s frigid lakes.Lear...
Was a Natural Fuel Cell Key to the Origin of Life on Earth?
01 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
There’s so much we don’t know about the origin of life here or anywhere else in the universe. But there must have been an energy source. Researche...
Elisa Quintana on the Discovery of Earth 2.0
24 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Kepler-186f is the very first exoplanet that is both the size of our own world and in the habitable zone surrounding its star. SETI Institute scientis...
Pathways To Exploration: John Logsdon Analyzes the Human Spaceflight Report
17 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The National Research Council released its long-awaited report June 4th. Distinguished space policy analyst John Logsdon returns to Planetary Radio wi...
Astronomers Without Borders: Spreading the Wonder Worldwide
10 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers Without Borders Founder and President Mike Simmons and his colleagues share the passion, beauty and joy of the night sky from Argentina to...
A Starlight Festival Cassini Mission Update
03 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker joins us at the first Starlight Festival in Big Bear Lake, California, and festival MC Andre Bormanis makes a ...
At Spacefest VI With Apollo Astronaut Gene Cernan and a Host of Proud Space Geeks
27 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Planetary Radio visited Spacefest in Pasadena to talk with planetary scientist and space artist Dan Durda, Marc Rayman of the Dawn asteroid mission, a...
Living and Working on Mars—A Conversation at the International Space Development Conference
20 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Planetary Radio visits the 33rd ISDC to talk with three explorers who’ve set their sights on the Red Planet: MD and space medicine researcher Susan ...
Spinoff 2013: Bringing Space Technology Home
13 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
NASA has just published "Spinoff 2013," the latest of its annual reports on outstanding innovations developed for space that are solving problems and ...
Special Planetary Radio Advocacy Report From Casey Dreier: A Good Week in Washington
13 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan learns why Director of Advocacy Casey Dreier is cautiously optimistic about the budget outlook for planetary science a...
Neil deGrasse Tyson
06 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The host of COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey, returns to our show with a behind the scenes look at the spectacular television series.Learn more about your ...
Planetary Radio Live at the USA Science and Engineering Festival with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs
29 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Join us at the world’s biggest public science event in Washington DC, where we talk about dirty jobs in space with television’s terrific Mike Rowe...
A Second Earth, and OSIRIS REx is Go for Asteroid Bennu
22 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Finally found: an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone. You’ll hear lead scientist Elisa Quintana make the announcement. Then OSIRIS REx mission...
Planetary Radio Live at Yuri’s Night—Under Space Shuttle Endeavour
15 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Join the party as we celebrate the 53rd anniversary of humanity’s transition to spacefaring species with Yuri’s Night Executive Director Loretta H...
Microbes in Orbit: Cheryl Nickerson’s Revealing Biomedical Research
08 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard that the sometimes deadly Salmonella bacterium becomes stronger in microgravity. Cheryl Nickerson tell us about this and other resu...
Rocketing Into the Aurora With Neal Brown
01 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It’s back to Alaska, this time to the Poker Flat Research Range, where former Director Neal Brown and his staff launched sounding rockets into the h...
Emily Lakdawalla At Her Favorite Conference While Alan Stern Stirs Up the Solar System
25 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Emily shares highlights from last week’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, and Alan Stern provides updates on the Rosetta comet mission and hi...
Alaskan Aurora Adventure!
18 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Join Mat Kaplan and other Aurora “virgins” as they seek the Northern Lights in Fairbanks, Alaska, and meet retired rocketeer and Director of the P...
Exploring Black Holes and Supernovae With NuSTAR
11 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Principal Investigator Fiona Harrison provides an X-ray tour of some of the universe's most fascinating objects, Casey Dreier has analysis of NASA's 2...
A Planetary Radio Special Feature: NASA Unveils Its Proposed FY2015 Budget
05 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
NASA unveiled its 2015 budget plans in a March 4 media briefing. Minutes later, Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan got an enlightening and engaging analy...
Verified: More Than 700 New Worlds
04 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
SETI Institute researcher and member of the Kepler team Jason Rowe helps us dig into the latest big announcement about hundreds of planets in solar sy...
Talking with JPL's Blaine Baggett and Ed Stone About "The Stuff of Dreams"
25 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
JPL’s Blaine Baggett and former JPL director Ed Stone talk “The Stuff of Dreams,” a documentary about an era in planetary exploration that was b...
Getting Humans to Mars Without Breaking the Bank
18 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
NASA scientist Harley Thronson tells us about a new initiative that is figuring out how we will get men and women to the red planet at a reasonable pr...
Surprising Budget News for Planetary Exploration
11 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Good news, for a change! Congress decided to provide $127 million more for planetary science than was requested by the President. Bill Adkins of Adkin...
Back to Planetary Radio Live With the Mars Rovers
04 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Our celebration of the Mars rovers continues from Southern California Public Radio’s Crawford Family Forum, this week featuring planetary scientist ...
Planetary Radio Live Celebrates the Mars Rovers
28 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Opportunity has been rolling across Mars for 10 years! We celebrate the Mars Exploration Rovers and their sisters on the red planet at Planetary Radio...
From Earth to the Edge of the Universe: A New Edition of “The Cosmos”
21 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers Jay Pasachoff and Alex Filippenko join us for a conversation about their newest version of their monumental textbook, "The Cosmos." Emily ...
The Gemini Planet Imager: Worlds Made Visible
13 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Principal Investigator and physicist Bruce Macintosh joins astronomer Franck Marchis to celebrate first light from the most powerful instrument for im...
A 2014 Preview From Emily Lakdawalla
06 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
24 spacecraft are either busy exploring the solar system or speeding toward an exciting destination. The Planetary Society's Senior Editor takes us on...
Amy Mainzer Is Hunting Asteroids With NEOWISE
30 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Take a spacecraft that can no longer survey the realm of galaxies and repurpose it to discover thousands of much nearer asteroids and comets. Put it t...
10 Years A Roving: A.J.S. Rayl on the Mars Exploration Rovers
23 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What a long, wonderful trip it has been for Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rovers. Planetary Society reporter A.J.S. Rayl has been writi...
A Big Week for Space Science at the AGU and Beyond
16 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union revealed lots of science, some of it astounding. Emily Lakdawalla was there with Advocacy an...
Comet ISON: Much More Than a Memory
09 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe it wasn’t “the comet of the century,” but ISON has left a scientific legacy that is beyond compare. That’s according to Karl Battams of ...
Celebrating the Admiral of the Solar System
02 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The life of explorer and teacher Dr. Bruce Murray was celebrated last November 10th at Caltech. This week we present a few excerpts from the tributes ...
Alyssa Rhoden and the Rise of the Europa Underground
25 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Alyssa Rhoden studies Jupiter’s moon Europa…from a distance. She, many other scientists and millions of space exploration fans around the globe wa...
Planetary Radio Live Celebrates the Launch of MAVEN
18 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The successful launch of MAVEN was covered by Mat Kaplan, Bruce Betts and Emily Lakdawalla, with special, launch site reports from Jim Bell and Bill N...
SpaceUp LA: What would you do with $13 Billion?
11 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What would YOU do with an extra $10 Billion for space exploration and development? That’s what Mat Kaplan asked the passionate space enthusiasts at ...
All-Sky Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
04 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
A burst of laser light could let humanity know it is not alone in the universe. Harvard’s Paul Horowitz and Curtis Mead will give us an update on th...
It's Hot! Plutonium 238 is Back
28 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Casey Dreier tells the winding tale of Plutonium 238, the radioactive isotope that is vital for exploration of the solar system. The US came dangerous...
Juno's Brief Home Visit on the Road to Jupiter
21 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton reviews the spacecraft's Earth flyby and previews its long stay at our solar system's king of planets.Learn m...
Emily Lakawalla's DPS Report
14 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Planetary Society’s Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist recaps this year’s revealing meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). ...
The New Horizons Initiative
07 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Carl Sagan’s longtime artistic collaborator, Jon Lomberg, designed the cover for the Voyager Interstellar Record. Now he wants to upload another mes...
Gregory and James Benford on the "Starship Century"
30 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
“Starship Century—Toward the Grandest Horizon” is the new collection of fact and fiction assembled by Gregory and James Benford. The brothers ar...