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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Dragonfly soars to final design phase

NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon Titan has been authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and fabrication. This week on Planetary Radio, we get an update on the mission's progress and new timeline.

An astrogeologic experience with Kirby Runyon

Mat Kaplan, Planetary Radio's creator and former host, takes us on an adventure with planetary geologist Kirby Runyon as they tour New Mexico, U.S.'s varied geology and compare it to other worlds.

The mystery of the largest marsquake ever recorded

Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Oxford, joins Planetary Radio this week to discuss the largest marsquake ever recorded and the international effort it took to pinpoint.

Lucy's first asteroid flyby reveals a surprise moon

Hal Levison and Simone Marchi, the principal and deputy principal investigators for NASA’s Lucy mission, join Planetary Radio to discuss the spacecraft’s first asteroid flyby.

Deep Sky: A JWST IMAX experience

Nathaniel Kahn, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and the director of Deep Sky, joins Planetary Radio this week to discuss the film's decade-long creation process and the magic of JWST images on the big screen.

NASA’s STEM program looks to the Moon

Steven Smith, an Education Specialist from NASA's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (or STEM) Program, joins Planetary Radio to share some of the unique opportunities available for students in the lead-up to humanity's return to the Moon.

A City on Mars

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join Planetary Radio this week to discuss their new book, A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?

Space Policy Edition: What went wrong with Mars Sample Return

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is both a top priority and seriously troubled. Independent review board chair Orlando Figueroa joins us to talk about the challenges and what must be done.

Psyche and Eclipse Company blast off

Jesse Tomlinson and Stephen Watkins from The Eclipse Company join Planetary Radio to talk about their partnership with The Planetary Society and the launch of their new eclipse map for the upcoming 2024 total solar eclipse in North America.

Simulating Psyche: Modeling craters on a metallic world

Simone Marchi, co-investigator for NASA’s Psyche mission, joins Planetary Radio to share the creative ways their mission team is working to understand cratering on metallic worlds.

InSight's revelation on Mars’ rotation

The InSight RISE instrument's principal investigator, Sebastien Le Maistre, from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, joins Planetary Radio to discuss Mars' increased rotation speed.

Celebrating the OSIRIS-REx sample return

We celebrate NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission’s successful return of samples from asteroid Bennu to Earth on this week’s episode of Planetary Radio.

2023 NASA Innovative Advance Concepts Symposium: Part 2

Join Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed on a trip to the 2023 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Houston, Texas. This episode is part two of two.

2023 NASA Innovative Advance Concepts Symposium: Part 1

Join Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed on a trip to the 2023 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Houston, Texas. This episode is part one of two.

Io and Voyager 2: Lost oceans and found signals

Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd and Voyager project scientist Linda Spilker discuss reestablishing contact with Voyager 2 and Carver Bierson from Arizona State University tells the tale of how Io went from a water-rich moon into a world with lakes of lava.

Subsurface oceans: The hidden potential of Earth-like exoplanets

Lujendra Ojha, assistant professor at Rutgers University, joins Planetary Radio to discuss how subsurface liquid water on exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars could increase the likelihood of finding habitable worlds beyond our Solar System.

A new algorithm finds its first potentially hazardous asteroid

Mario Jurić and Ari Heinze from the University of Washington join Planetary Radio to discuss their team’s next-generation asteroid discovery algorithm, HelioLinc3D.

The slow evolution of Europa

Kevin Trinh from Arizona State University joins Planetary Radio to discuss his research into Europa's formation history and the consequences for the moon's habitability.

Mars Life Explorer: The search for extant life on the red planet

Amy Williams, assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida, joins Planetary Radio to discuss the proposed Mars Life Explorer mission and the search for extant life on Mars.

Subsurface granite on the Moon? The anatomy of a lunar hot spot

Matt Siegler from the Planetary Science Institute shares his team's surprising findings about the granite formation that might lie beneath Compton-Belkovich, a thorium-rich hot spot on the far side of the Moon.

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