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Space Policy Edition: Should a (potential) biosignature revive Mars Sample Return?
In 1996, a controversial claim of fossilized life in a Martian meteorite ignited a golden age of Mars exploration. Nearly 30 years later, a potential biosignature detected by the Perseverance rover a…
Published on 12 hours ago
Do Aliens Speak Physics?
If we ever meet intelligent extraterrestrials, will we even be able to talk about physics? Physicist Daniel Whiteson of UC Irvine and cartoonist Andy Warner join Sarah Al-Ahmed to explore one of scie…
Published on 2 days, 12 hours ago
Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean
What happens in space doesn’t stay in space. Historian Dagomar Degroot joins Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed to explore how shifting solar cycles, volcanic eruptions on Venus, Martian dust storms…
Published on 1 week, 2 days ago
2025 NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium: Part 2 — Hopping robots and the search for exoplanet magnetospheres
In this second installment of Planetary Radio’s coverage from the 2025 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, host Sarah Al-Ahmed highlights more of the technologi…
Published on 2 weeks, 2 days ago
Book Club Edition: Space Craze by Margaret Weitekamp
The American fascination with spaceflight and what we might find out there began long before any human left Earth. It’s Dr. Margaret Weitekamp’s job to collect, document, and preserve the cultural ar…
Published on 3 weeks ago
2025 NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium: Part 1 — Lunar glass and starshades
Each year, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) funds visionary ideas that could shape the future of space exploration. In this first of two episodes from the 2025 NIAC Symposium in Phi…
Published on 3 weeks, 2 days ago
A Day of Action to save NASA science
On October 6, 2025, hundreds of space advocates from across the United States joined The Planetary Society and 20 partner organizations on Capitol Hill to deliver one clear message: protect NASA’s sc…
Published on 4 weeks, 2 days ago
Space Policy Edition: China’s growing space science ambitions
If the United States is indeed in a space race with China, then we cannot abandon space science. That’s the claim made by Maxwell Zhu and The Planetary Society’s chief of space policy, Casey Dreier, …
Published on 1 month ago
Perseverance finds potential biosignatures in Jezero Crater
NASA’s Perseverance rover has made one of its most intriguing discoveries yet in Jezero Crater. A rock sample called Sapphire Canyon, drilled from the Bright Angel formation, contains unusual chemica…
Published on 1 month ago
Bill Nye: A star in Hollywood, a voice for NASA
Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, has officially joined the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In this episode, we speak with Bill about what this rare honor means to him and to science communication. The…
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago