Discovering Mars with Jim Bell and William Sheehan
Space historian William Sheehan and planetary scientist Jim Bell have written a fascinating history of humankind’s at least 5,000-year relationship with the Red Planet. “Discovering Mars” is filled wi...
22 Dec 202155min
JWST is ready for launch and amazing science
The James Webb Space Telescope will begin its mission of discovery as soon as Dec. 24. René Doyon, Heidi Hammel and Mike McElwain join us for a conversation about what it may reveal from our solar sys...
15 Dec 20211h 2min
A conversation with the director of “Don’t Look Up”
The plot of the great new movie “Don’t Look Up” is driven by a giant comet speeding toward Earth and the scientists who want to divert it. Adam McKay directed this dark comedy. He and real-life planet...
8 Dec 202152min
Space Policy Edition: Astronomy Goes Big, with Heidi Hammel
The search for biosignatures on hundreds of exoplanets is the top goal for U.S. astronomers. That's the conclusion from the new, once-per-decade report from the National Academy of Sciences: Pathways ...
3 Dec 20211h 17min
Discovering life elsewhere: How can we be sure?
Is it life? NASA chief scientist Jim Green and Mary Voytek, leader of the agency’s astrobiology program, are two authors of a paper that calls for a system or scale that will allow scientists and othe...
1 Dec 20211h 10min
Into the anthropocosmos with Ariel Ekblaw
Ariel Ekblaw and her Space Exploration Initiative colleagues believe we are at the cusp of interplanetary civilization. They are building the tools, environments and knowledge that will speed the tran...
24 Nov 202158min
The DART asteroid impact mission begins, with Nancy Chabot
DART coordination lead Nancy Chabot and the rest of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test team will see their spacecraft rocket toward asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos in a few days. She returns to Plan...
17 Nov 202152min
Spacecraft communications and navigation with Badri Younes
Badri Younes says that a spacecraft that can’t communicate or find its way is worthless. He leads SCaN, NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program, which manages resources like the agency’s De...
10 Nov 202159min
