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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The case for saving VERITAS

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.

Two Years of Hope: Celebrating the Emirates Mars Mission

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!

Volcanic Venus? New insights from vintage data

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.

Ann Druyan wishes you a happy Sagan Day

Celebrate Carl Sagan’s birthday with his longtime collaborator and life partner Ann Druyan.

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

Seven Planetary Society experts and enthusiasts celebrate 2021’s many space science and exploration milestones.

We’re Going Back to Venus

Leaders of the DAVINCI and VERITAS missions tell us what their spacecraft will reveal about the planet that is so much like Earth and yet so terribly different.

NASA’s TESS Exoplanet Mission Finds Over 2,000 Possible New Worlds

Exoplanet hunter and artist Natalia Guerrero of MIT reveals the discovery of many more possible new worlds by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

Exploring Venus, Earth's Mysterious Sister Planet

Astrophysicist Javier Peralta, a team member on Japan's Akatsuki mission, takes us deep into Venus's thick, fast-moving clouds.

Return to Fiery Mercury With BepiColombo

Elsa Montagnon is Spacecraft Operations Manager for the European/Japanese mission leaving for our solar system’s innermost planet very soon. She joins us to talk about the long journey ahead.

Chasing New Horizons to Pluto with Alan Stern and David Grinspoon

The New Horizons mission was a triumph, revealing Pluto as an utterly unique and beautiful world. But the mission first had to survive challenge after challenge, fighting to be developed, meeting a nearly impossible launch deadline, and then narrowly avoiding disaster when it was barely a week from its destination.

A Big Test for LightSail 2

The Planetary Society’s solar sail spacecraft was in the middle of a critical test as we spoke with the Society’s Bruce Betts and Jason Davis.

Dream Chaser: The Return of the Spaceplane

We’re back at Space Symposium for a conversation with SNC’s Mark Sirangelo, leader of that company’s effort to build the Dream Chaser. We’ll also hear a few moments of Bill Nye’s session at the annual gathering as he hosted Bernard Foing and Amy Mainzer.

Celebrating Yuri's Night 2016 with Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti

Happy Yuri’s Night! We’re partying under Space Shuttle Endeavour in the first of two shows featuring interviews from the worldwide celebration of space. Star Trek’s Robert Picardo will talk about his new video newsletter, the Planetary Post, and we’ll visit with Samantha Cristoforetti, who returned last June from 200 days aboard the International Space Station.

Planetary Radio Extra: Planetary Society Experts 2015 Review

Bruce Betts, Jason Davis, Casey Dreier and Emily Lakdawalla gather with Mat Kaplan for a fascinating and informative Planetary Radio Extra year-in-review roundtable discussion.

Field Test: Planetary Deep Drill

Drilling through many meters of ice to Europa’s ocean or to the pristine sub-surface layers of Mars will be hard. The Planetary Deep Drill prototype has shown that it may be a practical approach. Join Mat Kaplan and Planetary Society colleagues at the field test site deep in California’s desert.

A Journey to Space

Journey to Space is both a new and spectacular IMAX movie and an exciting, hands-on exhibition at the California Science Center. We learn about both this week.

Chris Carberry and Getting Humans to Mars

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 assessment of what it will take to get more than robots to the Red Planet.

Sean Solomon on the Climactic End of the MESSENGER Mission to Mercury

We open with the countdown to destruction—the MESSENGER spacecraft’s impact on Mercury ended its spectacularly successful mission. Principal Investigator Sean Solomon joins us immediately after this big finish.

Robert Bigelow and His Expandable Space Habs

Bigelow Aerospace’s BEAM expandable/inflatable space module will be attached to the International Space Station later this year. Mat travels to the company’s headquarters for a conversation with founder and CEO Robert Bigelow.

Dr. J and the World’s Biggest Telescope

Joe Liske, host of Hubblecast, is also the top scientist on the European Southern Observatory’s European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), now under construction on a Chilean mountaintop. “Dr. J” tells us what this largest ever telescope will help us discover.

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