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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Mars Beckons: The 2021 Humans to Mars Summit

Highlights of the annual gathering of leaders and experts who are building toward humans walking on the Red Planet.

The Wonderful: A new documentary about the International Space Station

Director Clare Lewins and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman discuss the new documentary "The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station."

The Case for a Return to Enceladus

Flying a spacecraft through geysers spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus might reveal the building blocks of life or even life itself.

An ESCAPADE to Mars, on the cheap

Can NASA send robotic explorers to Mars for a tiny fraction of what most missions cost?

Space Policy Edition: The cultural rituals of space advocacy, with Linda Billings

Space outreach expert and social scientist Linda Billings talks with host Casey Dreier about the language space advocates use to share their message.

Liquid water under the Martian polar ice? Maybe not

New research indicates that what appeared to be liquid water hiding under Mars’ polar ice may actually be a form of clay.

Europa Clipper sails toward launch

Mission system manager Al Cangahuala says the robotic explorer of Jupiter’s ocean moon is making steady progress toward a 2024 launch.

Cassini, Voyager and beyond with Linda Spilker

Cassini mission project scientist Linda Spilker returns with new science from ocean moon Enceladus and anniversaries to celebrate with the Voyager mission.

How Perseverance drives itself around Mars

The Perseverance rover’s chief robotics engineer takes us for a spin across Mars.

Space Policy Edition: Mars via the Nuclear Option

NASA’s Bhavya Lal returns to explain the challenges and big advantages of nuclear propulsion in space.

Alan Stern says it's time for suborbital science

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.

Andy Chaikin on Apollo 15 and the lessons of Apollo

Space historian and author of A Man on the Moon Andy Chaikin returns as we celebrate Apollo 15’s 50th anniversary.

Amy Mainzer and a New Asteroid-Hunting Space Telescope

NASA has approved development of the NEO Surveyor space telescope. Project lead Amy Mainzer shares her hopes for this vital planetary defense tool.

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.

Visiting the James Webb Space Telescope

Host Mat Kaplan visits the James Webb Space Telescope in California to see the observatory before it launches and speak with project leaders.

Space Policy Edition: The Pentagon's UFO Report, Featuring Sarah Scoles

The Pentagon has released its assessment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Casey Dreier and science journalist Sarah Scoles talk about what’s behind the renewed interest in UFOs and Sarah’s book, They Are Already Here.

Finding Life by Looking for Complexity

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.

The Pearly Clouds of Mars

Atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon discusses the beautiful clouds on Mars imaged by NASA's Curiosity rover.

Experimental Cosmologist Brian Keating

A fascinating, wide-ranging conversation with Brian Keating, director of the Simons Observatory that will search for our cosmic origins from a mountaintop in Chile’s Atacama region.

Space Policy Edition: NASA's 2022 Budget Request Says "Yes"

The White House’s proposed 2022 NASA budget is almost entirely great news, as is the announcement that two complementary orbiters will explore Venus.

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