Since 2002, Planetary Radio has visited with a scientist, engineer, project manager, advocate, or writer who provides a unique perspective on the quest for knowledge about our Solar System and beyond. The full show archive is available for free.

Search Planetary Radio

10 Years A Roving: A.J.S. Rayl on the Mars Exploration Rovers

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 writing about their adventure every month for ten years. She looks back on this week’s show.

Tim Spahr of the Minor Planet Center

There’s a place to go when you find a space rock headed our way, or headed any which way. Tim Spahr directs the Minor Planet Center, the global clearinghouse for all information about asteroids, comets and other relatively small bodies like moons.

Saving Earth: Asteroid Emergency Tabletop Exercise at the 2013 PDC

The last installment of our Planetary Defense Conference coverage makes a deep impact as hundreds of attendees participate in an asteroid mitigation exercise. You’ll hear from astronauts Ed Lu and Rusty Schweikart, Near Earth Object expert Don Yeomans, Cathy Plesko of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and many more.

Kindred Spirits: Alison Gibbings and Carolyn Shoemaker at the Planetary Defense Conference

Our special coverage of the PDC continues with two planetary scientists separated by almost 60 years in age, but with similar dedication and enthusiasm for saving the planet.

Live at the Planetary Defense Conference!

Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan joined Bill Nye and four passionate planetary explorers on stage at the Planetary Defense Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Chris Lewicki of Planetary Resources: Mining Asteroids For Fun and Profit

Chris Lewicki is the passionate President of Planetary Resources. He leads the company's mission to find, capture and deliver asteroids to its space-resource hungry clients.

2012 DA14--Coming Soon to a Planet Near You!

The 45-meter Near Earth Asteroid flies by on February 15. NASA brought together asteroid experts to discuss it and others of its threatening kind.

An Imminent Asteroid Encounter

Spain’s La Sagra Observatory discovered Asteroid 2012 DA14 just a year ago. Now it’s nearing Earth once again. Jaime Nomen of La Sagra is back to prepare us for this very close flyby.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Beginning a New Year In Space

Planetary Society experts review the challenges and triumphs of 2012 and look forward to a new and exciting year. You’ll hear Bill Nye the Science Guy, Emily Lakdawalla on new missions, Casey Dreier on “Saving our Science,” and Bruce Betts’ review of great projects, as well as a musical rendition of “Random Space Fact.”

Live at PATS With OSIRIS REx!

We're live at the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show, with JPL astrodynamicist Steve Chesley and Planetary Society Director of Projects Bruce Betts. Steve and Bruce reveal the exciting OSIRIS REx mission to an asteroid and then back to Earth with a precious soil sample. Enter the contest to name the asteroid! Bill Nye and Emily Lakdawalla check in, and one listener will win a Celestron FirstScope telescope.

Discovery of a New and Neighborly Asteroid

With Planetary Society help, La Sagra Observatory discovered big near-Earth object 2012 DA14. Guest: Jaime Nomen.

Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas

John Callas reports on Spirit and Opportunity, Bill Nye debates the future of humans on the Moon, and Bruce Betts looks to the Perseid meteor shower in his What's Up review of the night sky.

A Mars Exploration Rover Update with Project Scientist Bruce Banerdt

Bruce Banerdt provides a status report on Spirit and Opportunity. Bill Nye has something old and something new to talk about, and Bruce Betts returns from the Planetary Defense Conference in Spain with news of Near Earth Objects and other things in the night sky.

< 1 2 3