Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

This is part two of our Star Trek 60th anniversary series. Robert Picardo, the Emergency Medical Hologram on Star Trek: Voyager and a member of The Planetary Society's board of directors, reads a vintage letter from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry asking fans to join a brand new organization called The Planetary Society. Tim Russ, who played Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, Lower Decks, and Picard, joins us to talk about what the Vulcans can teach us about the discipline we'll need to survive in deep space, and shares his own experience as an amateur astronomer who contributed data to NASA's Lucy mission. Karim Diané, Jay-Den Kraag on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, talks about playing a Klingon who defies everyone's expectations of what it means to be strong. And Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, is here with What's Up, discussing Star Trek technologies. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-star-trek-at-60-part-2 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Star Trek turned 60 on Sept. 8, 2026, and to celebrate, we're kicking off a special two-part series exploring the franchise's deep and lasting connection to real-world space exploration. In Part 1, Robert Picardo, the Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek: Voyager, now starring in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and a member of The Planetary Society's Board of Directors, joins Sarah Al-Ahmed to trace the relationship between Star Trek and The Planetary Society all the way back to a 1980 letter from Gene Roddenberry himself. Bob talks about how playing a holographic doctor for 30 years led him to become a real-world space advocate, and what Star Trek's non-human characters can teach us about what it means to be human. Then, Bruce Betts, Planetary Society Chief Scientist, joins for What's Up and a discussion of solar sails in the franchise. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-star-trek-at-60-part-1 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We tend to think of private space exploration as a recent phenomenon. But as Alex MacDonald, former Chief Economist at NASA, argues in his book "The Long Space Age," privately funded space exploration has deep roots in American history, stretching back more than two centuries. In this 2017 conversation with The Planetary Society's Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier, originally aired on the Space Policy Edition of Planetary Radio, MacDonald traces the economic history of American space exploration from the 1769 transit of Venus all the way to the present day, and makes the case that the government-dominated model we grew up with may actually be the historical anomaly. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/long-space-age See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dennis Stone, president and co-founder of the World Space Week Association, takes us behind the scenes of the largest annual space event on Earth. From its origins as a volunteer effort in Houston to a UN-declared celebration reaching 50,000 events in over 100 countries, Dennis shares how World Space Week inspires the next generation, and how you can get involved this Oct. 4 through 10. Then, Science Editor Asa Stahl breaks down the end of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the 21-year-old space telescope that's falling out of orbit after a bold rescue mission fell short. Plus, Chief Scientist Bruce Betts looks back at a milestone centennial in this week's What's Up, 100 years since Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-world-space-week-and-swift See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After decades of development, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is preparing to launch. Once in orbit, Roman will conduct the widest surveys of the universe ever attempted, probing the nature of dark energy, discovering thousands of new exoplanets, and capturing images of billions of galaxies. In this episode, we sit down with Julie McEnery, senior project scientist for Roman at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and Jason Rhodes, project scientist for Roman at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to explore what the telescope will reveal and how scientists around the world will be able to access and work with its data. Plus, in What's Up, we look at Roman's coronagraph and what it will take for the Habitable Worlds Observatory to push that technology far enough to image Earth-like worlds around Sun-like stars. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-nancy-grace-roman See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will we change or terraform Mars to better suit humans? Or are we more likely to change ourselves to better fit the red planet? How far can evolution take us in these new and exotic environments? These and many other fascinating questions are at the heart of Rice University professor Scott Solomon’s great book, “Becoming Martian”. He joins host Mat Kaplan for a far-ranging conversation in this month’s installment of Planetary Radio’s book club edition. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/book-club-scott-solomon See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage slammed into the moon on August 5 after spending over a year and a half drifting through the Earth-Moon system. Jared Head, museum facilitator at Columbia Memorial Space Center, producer at TMRO, and co-host of All Space Considered at Griffith Observatory, walks us through how a rocket launched in January 2025 ended up crashing into the lunar surface. Kate Howells, the Planetary Society's public education specialist, shares her experience witnessing Europe's first total solar eclipse in 27 years from a canyon in Spain on her honeymoon. Plus, Jack Kiraly, the Planetary Society's chief of advocacy, gives us an update on the campaign to save NASA science and the proposed changes to OMB's federal grant-making rules. We close with Bruce Betts, our chief scientist, who joins for What's Up, to discuss Point Nemo, the spacecraft graveyard in the South Pacific. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-falcon-9-moon-crash See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On August 12th, 2026, the Moon’s shadow will sweep across Iceland, Greenland, and Spain, bringing the first total solar eclipse visible from Europe since 1999. And because this eclipse happens near sunset, it promises to be one of the most visually stunning in living memory. Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, founder of Cosmic Background Photography, joins the show to talk about his extraordinary 2024 eclipse image, his collaboration with the Artemis II crew to capture the Moon in unprecedented detail, and what he's planning for this unique low-horizon eclipse. Then, bioacoustics researcher David Mann, founder of Haikubox and Loggerhead Instruments, shares the results of the Eclipse Echoes study, which used a network of hundreds of AI-powered bird monitors to reveal how birds across North America responded to the 2024 eclipse. The answer is far more complicated than simply going quiet. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-total-solar-eclipse See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy recently released "Science: A New Golden Age", a sweeping report that calls for a fundamental reimagining of how the United States funds and conducts science. Explicitly modeled on Vannevar Bush's landmark 1945 report "Science, the Endless Frontier," it challenges the traditional linear model of innovation, advocates for empowering individual scientists over institutions, proposes faster grants with less bureaucracy, and envisions a greater role for AI in the scientific process. But this ambitious vision arrives in a deeply contradictory context: the same administration has proposed slashing science agency budgets, cutting new NSF funding awards by over 50%, and imposing new bureaucratic controls on scientific grants. Casey Dreier is joined by Zach Pirtle, deputy director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University, and the Planetary Society's Chief of Advocacy Jack Kiraly to unpack the report's proposals, tensions, and implications. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/space-policy-edition-science-a-new-golden-age See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the first time, scientists have confirmed an atmosphere on a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of another star. Sarah Al-Ahmed is joined by Collin Cherubim, NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Chicago, to discuss his team's detection of helium escaping from the super-Earth LHS 1140b, and what it reveals about how rocky worlds build, transform, and lose their atmospheres over time. His team's paper, published in the journal Science, marks a milestone decades in the making. Then Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, joins for What's Up, where we dig into the very first exoplanet atmosphere ever detected and its surprising connection to this week's guest. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-lhs-1140b See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday, April 13, 2029, asteroid Apophis will pass closer to Earth than our geostationary satellites. While NASA, ESA, and JAXA are all sending missions, a team of students at the University of Maryland is building their own spacecraft to join the fleet. TERP RAPTOR is a CubeSat-based mission roughly the size of a microwave that aims to fly past the asteroid and snap images of its surface as it approaches Earth. Four members of the team join Planetary Radio: Adrienne Rudolph, the Student Principal Investigator; Elena Wu, the Lead Project Manager; Tyler Autrey, the Mechanical, Structure, and Materials Lead; and Alexander Williams, the Propulsion Lead. Together, they talk about how a graduate class project turned into a real mission, what they hope to learn about this potentially hazardous asteroid, and why they're not letting anyone tell them it can't be done. Then, Bruce Betts joins us for What's Up, where we mark the deployment anniversary of The Planetary Society's own CubeSat-based solar sail mission, LightSail 2. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-terp-raptor See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two hot Jupiters presented at the 248th American Astronomical Society meeting push our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres to the extreme. Research Scientist Tiffany Kataria from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shares new JWST observations of HD80606 b, the "Roasted Planet,”a gas giant on one of the most eccentric orbits ever discovered. Assistant Professor Lisa Dang of the University of Waterloo joins to discuss CoRoT-2 b, a young, inflated hot Jupiter whose hottest point shows up in an unexpected location on the exoplanet, possibly because the planet hasn't fully tidally locked with its star yet. Then Chief Scientist Bruce Betts joins for What's Up to explore atmospheric super-rotation, winds that outrun the worlds they ride on. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-hot-jupiters See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It may be the best book subtitle we’ve encountered in the Planetary Society book club: “Particles, Poetry and the Cosmic Dream Boogie.” Theoretical physicist and black feminist science theorist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has followed her acclaimed first book, “The Disordered Cosmos,” with this new, equally celebrated, deeply personal romp across the Universe, “The Edge of Space-Time”. Swinging from quantum mechanics to hip-hop, and from galaxies to Alice in Wonderland, she guides us through the looking glass to what we know and would love to know about the Universe. It all but guaranteed a mind-bending conversation with host Mat Kaplan that begins with Chanda’s concern for the state of scientific research in the United States, and ends among the stars. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/book-club-chandra-prescod-weinstein See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Baby's Guide to the Night Sky” introduces the youngest kids — down to newborns — to constellations and the wonders of the Cosmos. It comes from two people who've spent their lives chasing that same wonder in very different ways. This week, we are joined by authors Sian Proctor and John Read. Sian Proctor is a geoscientist, artist, poet, and commercial space astronaut who served as pilot of Inspiration4 in 2021, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a mission pilot in space. John Read is an astronomer and science communicator who left a career in corporate finance after a single look through a telescope changed his life. He now hosts the YouTube channel LearnToStargaze and has authored several astronomy books, including “A Kid's Guide to the Night Sky.” We'll talk about how the two of them met, how they turned a lifetime of expertise into something a baby can enjoy, and why it's never too early to start looking up. Stick around after the interview for What’s Up with Bruce Betts, our chief scientist, to review the book and walk through some of the night sky objects it features. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-babys-guide-to-the-night-sky See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Green Bank, West Virginia is home to the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. It's also the only town in the U.S. where cell phones and Wi-Fi are banned, so the telescope can listen for faint signals from across the Universe undisturbed. This week, we bring you a special conversation recorded after The Planetary Society's virtual screening of Small Town Universe , the documentary that follows the people whose lives are shaped by that place. Mat Kaplan, Planetary Society senior communications advisor, talks with filmmaker Katie Dellamaggiore and physicist Ellie White about making the film, the beauty and stakes of life at Green Bank, and the ongoing fight to keep the observatory funded. Before that, Kate Howells, public communications specialist, previews the total solar eclipse crossing parts of the Northern Hemisphere on August 12th, the first visible from Western Europe since 1999. And Bruce Betts, chief scientist, joins for What's Up, breaking down Hayabusa2's July 5th flyby of asteroid Torifune. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-small-town-universe See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NASA's plan for what comes after the International Space Station (ISS) has been anything but stable. Since 2019, the agency's commercial space station strategy has shifted from free-flying vendor-operated stations to a government-owned module attached to the ISS, and back again, all while the clock ticks toward the ISS's expected retirement around 2030. Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins Planetary Society Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier to unpack this saga and weigh whether NASA can realistically select and fund a commercial successor to the ISS in time. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/commercial-space-stations See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After more than two decades, the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover finally has a path to the launchpad. This week, ExoMars Project Scientist Jorge Vago joins Planetary Radio to talk about what makes this mission like nothing we've sent to Mars before: a drill capable of reaching 2 meters beneath the surface, where organic molecules may have been shielded from radiation for billions of years. We dig into how the rover will scout its drilling sites, how its onboard laboratory will analyze samples for signs of life, and why the chirality of any organic molecules it finds could be one of the most telling clues of all. Then stick around for What's Up with Bruce Betts, our chief scientist, where we talk about the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, the spacecraft already at Mars that will serve as Rosalind Franklin's lifeline back to Earth. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-rosalind-franklin See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft has successfully arrived at Kamoʻoalewa—a tiny, enigmatic "quasi-satellite" that dances along with Earth on its trek around the Sun. A fascinating scientific debate is heating up over this object's true identity: is it a standard, heavily space-weathered asteroid, or is it a long-lost chunk of our own Moon, violently blasted into space by an ancient impact? Tianwen-2 is on a mission to solve this cosmic identity crisis, and it is happening right now. This week, we sit down with Andrew Jones, a contributing editor for The Planetary Society and a freelance space journalist covering China's rapidly accelerating lunar and planetary exploration programs. He takes us inside the mission to reveal how Tianwen-2 will attempt to hover and snatch samples from this mysterious world, what those pieces could teach us about our Solar System's history, and where China’s planetary ambitions are targeting next. Then, Chief Scientist Bruce Betts joins us for What’s Up to look ahead at asteroid missions and moments on the horizon through the end of this decade, from a Hayabusa2 flyby of asteroid Torifune next month to the 2029 close approach of asteroid Apophis. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-tianwen-2 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This outstanding novella, “To Be Taught, If Fortunate” by award-winning science fiction author Becky Chambers, is a passionate argument for the human exploration of space and the wonders we will find there. Kirkus Reviews calls it, “An extraordinary picture of humanity among the stars.” Join host Mat Kaplan for a conversation with Becky in which her personal enthusiasm for space science matches that of her four wandering explorers. The very alien lifeforms they discover amplify their own, very human failings and triumphs. Questions submitted by The Planetary Society’s members were a valuable contribution to this live event presented in our member community. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/book-club-becky-chambers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Saturn's moon Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds in our Solar System, with a dense nitrogen atmosphere, weather cycles, methane rivers, and vast organic dune fields. It also happens to be the perfect place to fly a drone. NASA's Dragonfly mission is doing exactly that, sending a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft to explore Titan's surface starting in 2034. With just two years until launch, the team is deep in the work of making it happen. This week, we're joined by two members of the Dragonfly team from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Felipe Ruiz is the mission's lead rotor engineer and mechanical implementation lead, responsible for designing the eight-rotor system that will carry Dragonfly across Titan's skies. Zibi Turtle is the mission's principal investigator, a planetary scientist whose career has spanned missions from Galileo to Cassini to Europa Clipper. Together, they walk us through the engineering challenges of flying a thousand-kilogram rotorcraft in an alien atmosphere, how the team is testing and validating the design here on Earth, and what the spacecraft's instruments will look for on Titan's surface. Then Bruce Betts, our chief scientist, joins us for What's Up, where we pay tribute to the Ingenuity Mars helicopter and the legacy of the first powered, controlled flight on another world. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-engineering-of-dragonfly See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.