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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.
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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.
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 the international, commercial, and robotic collaboration it will take to put the first humans on the Red Planet.
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.
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.
Justin Spilker joins Planetary Radio to talk about his team’s detection of the oldest organic molecules in the known Universe.
Sarafina El-Badry Nance joins Planetary Radio to discuss her new book, Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark.
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.
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.
Join us as we celebrate the successful launch of the European Space Agency's Juice mission with project scientist Olivier Witasse.
Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, joins Planetary Radio to discuss his new book, Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Galaxy.
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!
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.
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.
Kim Arcand from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory joins Planetary Radio to share her team’s new album Universal Harmonies.
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.
Director of Canadensys West Peter Visscher fills us in on the upcoming Canadian lunar rover. Visscher has been working on the rover for years.
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.
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.
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.
We celebrate the James Webb Space Telescope's first confirmed exoplanet discovery this week on Planetary Radio. Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, one of the leads on the team that made the detection, joins us to discuss the details.