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Here’s our sampling of the leading edge research presented by NIAC Fellows at NASA’s 2021 virtual gathering.
Principal investigator Hal Levison and colleagues prepare us for the launch of NASA’s Lucy spacecraft in an exclusive interview.
The ion engine-powered Dawn spacecraft will orbit Ceres for many years. Could it have touched down on the surface of the dwarf planet?
Brendan Curry, The Planetary Society’s chief of Washington operations, helps us untangle the fast-changing and complex machinations underway in the US capitol. What does it mean for NASA?
Highlights of the annual gathering of leaders and experts who are building toward humans walking on the Red Planet.
Director Clare Lewins and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman discuss the new documentary "The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station."
Flying a spacecraft through geysers spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus might reveal the building blocks of life or even life itself.
Can NASA send robotic explorers to Mars for a tiny fraction of what most missions cost?
Space outreach expert and social scientist Linda Billings talks with host Casey Dreier about the language space advocates use to share their message.
New research indicates that what appeared to be liquid water hiding under Mars’ polar ice may actually be a form of clay.
Mission system manager Al Cangahuala says the robotic explorer of Jupiter’s ocean moon is making steady progress toward a 2024 launch.
Cassini mission project scientist Linda Spilker returns with new science from ocean moon Enceladus and anniversaries to celebrate with the Voyager mission.
The Perseverance rover’s chief robotics engineer takes us for a spin across Mars.
NASA’s Bhavya Lal returns to explain the challenges and big advantages of nuclear propulsion in space.
Planetary scientist and New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern says great science will ride on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s New Shepard.
Space historian and author of A Man on the Moon Andy Chaikin returns as we celebrate Apollo 15’s 50th anniversary.
NASA has approved development of the NEO Surveyor space telescope. Project lead Amy Mainzer shares her hopes for this vital planetary defense tool.
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.
Host Mat Kaplan visits the James Webb Space Telescope in California to see the observatory before it launches and speak with project leaders.
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.