An extinction-level event for NASA science

Astronomer and astrophysicist Michel Mayor has just been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for physics. Listen to Mat’s 2016 conversation with this revered scientist, the first to discover an exoplanet. Th...

9 Okt 201947min

Planetary scientist Vishnu Reddy studies space objects ranging from satellite debris to planet-killing asteroids. He shares the status of our effort to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs in a conversatio...

2 Okt 201945min

Brad Pitt sets out across the solar system to save Earth in the new space epic. Host Mat Kaplan enjoys a far-reaching conversation with the co-screenwriter of Ad Astra that touches on the film’s meani...

25 Sep 201951min

The biannual Starship Congress attracts starry-eyed believers in humankind’s destiny among the stars. We talk with several of them about their ideas for technologies and science that may help pave the...

18 Sep 20191h 7min

This US research center has been part of more than 200 space missions, but it’s not a NASA facility! The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico gave the Voyager spacecraft their power sources, i...

11 Sep 201949min

As NASA struggles to return humans to the Moon by 2024, it's worth asking: why did it stop in the first place? Space historian John Logsdon joins the show to discuss the politics behind the decision t...

6 Sep 20191h 49min

First we return to JPL for an update on the Mars Helicopter that has just been attached to the belly of the 2020 Mars Rover. Then it’s across the pond for a review of the amazing science coming from t...

4 Sep 20191h 1min

Astrobotic is one of several companies that are building small, robotic landers to take commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon. With a new contract from NASA to support his company’s work, CEO...

28 Aug 201944min