Explore Worlds
Find Life
Defend Earth
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
NASA’s Jim Green and Mary Voytek want the science community to develop tools that will help us evaluate potential evidence of life beyond Earth.
Into the Anthropocosmos is MIT Space Exploration Initiative director Ariel Ekblaw’s collection of innovations that will improve life in space and on Earth.
Spacecraft need a navigation and communication infrastructure to carry out their missions. Learn how NASA does it and what’s in store for the future.
The head of NASA’s planetary defense program discusses how the DART mission represents a new era for defending our planet from dangerous asteroids.
A first-ever encore of our wonderful conversation with the first American woman in space.
Here’s our sampling of the leading edge research presented by NIAC Fellows at NASA’s 2021 virtual gathering.
Highlights of the annual gathering of leaders and experts who are building toward humans walking on the Red Planet.
NASA has approved development of the NEO Surveyor space telescope. Project lead Amy Mainzer shares her hopes for this vital planetary defense tool.
The Pentagon has released its assessment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Casey Dreier and science journalist Sarah Scoles talk about what’s behind the renewed interest in UFOs and Sarah’s book, They Are Already Here.
University of Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin believes he and his collaborators have found a way to recognize life as we know it and as we don’t know it.
Atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon discusses the beautiful clouds on Mars imaged by NASA's Curiosity rover.
Planetary Society grants have enabled amateur astronomers to discover and track asteroids that cross Earth’s path. We’ll meet two of them.
Astrophysicist Grant Tremblay describes how four proposed space telescopes could reveal our solar system and the universe as never before.
Six planetary defense leaders report on progress toward protecting Earth from near-Earth objects.
NASA chose SpaceX’s Starship as the sole winner of its human lunar lander development contract in a move that may also take us closer to Mars.
Gerard K. O’Neill envisioned vast, magnificent human settlements in space. His followers, including Jeff Bezos, are working to turn his vision into reality.
Robert Crippen and John Young became the first humans to fly a space shuttle into orbit when Columbia launched on April 12, 1981.
NASA engineer and scientist Troy Hudson shares the sad but ultimately inspiring story of a two-year attempt to dig deep beneath the surface of Mars.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX nearly failed 15 years ago as it struggled to launch its first rocket. Eric Berger has written about this challenging early era and how it helped create today’s successful, innovative company.
We examine a few of the thousands of technologies and innovations developed by NASA that are making lives better around our planet.