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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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The Double Asteroid Redirection Test was a brilliant success. The leaders of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office tell us what’s next in the quest to protect Earth.
20 years after its creation, Mat Kaplan is ready to introduce the great new host of Planetary Radio. We also join an assembly of astrophysicists as they toast each other and the cosmos.
Meet leaders of two of the most successful Earth-based searches for asteroids, including many that could threaten Earth.
Join us at the 2022 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium for a taste of projects that just might change the world.
Director of SOFIA Science Mission Operations Margaret Meixner joins us to lament the end of the giant flying observatory and to celebrate its tremendous successes.
Listen as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft closes in on asteroid Dimorphos, followed by a triumphant conversation with DART Coordination Lead Nancy Chabot, and a visit with space image processor Judy Schmidt.
The DART spacecraft’s impact on asteroid moonlet Dimorphos is days away, so we’ll check in with Mission Coordination Lead Nancy Chabot as well as Simone Pirrotta, program manager for the LICIACube probe that will be watching the smackdown.
Leaders of several major, international space agencies talked with host Mat Kaplan during the first attempt to launch the Artemis 1 Moon mission.
Join Mat Kaplan and Planetary Society colleagues in Florida for the first attempt to launch the Space Launch System rocket on a mission to the Moon.
Former NASA Associate Administrator Mike Gold shepherded the Artemis Accords, a set of bilateral agreements for collaboration in human space exploration. Casey Dreier spoke with him in Florida as we awaited the launch of Artemis 1.
It’s a party for Voyager and the team of scientists, engineers and others who have followed it across our Solar System. Then we’ll visit with Ann Druyan, creative director for the Voyager Golden Record.
Getting precious Mars rocks into Earthbound labs is an unprecedented challenge. We'll learn how a lander, a rocket, a big solar-powered transfer vehicle and two helicopters will take on this task.
Delightful astronomer Jane Greaves is back with the latest evidence for phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus.
Scientists have found a menagerie of complex organic compounds on the comet visited by the Rosetta spacecraft that connect it with the birth of our solar system.
Scientists need your help identifying clouds high above the surface of the red planet. The goal is to figure out where Mars’ water went.
Laurie Leshin has just become the tenth director of JPL and the first woman to run the fabled center for space science and robotic exploration.
The former director of NASA’s Planetary Science division, Jim Green, retired as the agency’s chief scientist in January. This episode opens with a special announcement from host Mat Kaplan.
NASA and its partners have revealed the first stunning images from the new space telescope. We’ll talk about them with Bill Nye and members of the JWST team.
Lori Garver went up against powerful forces inside and outside NASA to create the hugely successful commercial cargo and crew programs.
Space exploration historian Michael Neufeld traces the fascinating history of one of NASA’s most successful programs of planetary exploration.