Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I explain why Starship probably won't contribute to human carbon emissions, if there's a galactic Prime Directive, and if SpaceX has finally perfected the single-stage to orbit.

Featuring Tony Darnell from Deep Astronomy and the Space Junk Podcast

After decades of research, including multiple landers and orbiters, science can definitively say: Venus sucks. Seriously, that place is the worst, with its boiling temperature, intense pressure, sulfuric acid rain, and more.

But was it always this bad? According to new research from NASA and various universities in Sweden and the US, Venus might have actually been the first habitable world in the Solar System. And it might have maintained a reasonable climate for billions of years, finally rolling over into a runaway greenhouse effect just a few hundred million years ago.

This week I was joined by astronaut Ron Garan to talk about his new book "Floating in Darkness". Ron is an accomplished F-16 pilot, flying combat missions during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

He flew to space twice, first aboard STS-124, and then a six-month stay on board the International Space Station as part of Expedition 27.

On Saturday, September 28th, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stood in front of an audience in Boca Chica, Texas, and presented the fully assembled SpaceX Starship, 50 meters tall and made from shiny stainless steel.

As part of his presentation, Musk showed off the history of the company’s developments so far and gave us an updated view of what Starship and its first stage Superheavy booster will look like when they’re fully operational.

It was actually a pretty short presentation, and there weren’t a lot of details. But he stuck around to answer questions from many space journalists, and we’ve got a much better idea about Starship and what happens next.

In 2017, Elon Musk laid out his grand sweeping plans for the future of SpaceX, the company that would take humanity to Mars. Over decades, tens of thousands of Starship flights would carry a million human beings to the surface of the Red Planet, the minimum Musk expects it’ll take to create a self-sustaining civilization.

The number of details in an effort like this is mind-boggling. What about the reduced gravity, radiation exposure, and space madness? What about return flights? Replacement parts? Building materials?

What’s everyone going to eat?

My guest this week was Professor Sean Carroll from Caltech. Sean's a theoretical physicist, author of many books, and podcaster. His newest book, "Something Deeply Hidden" has just been released, presenting his ideas about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

One of my most requested guests is Dr. Robert Zubrin, engineer and founder of the Mars Society. It was Dr. Zubrin's "Case for Mars" that helped inspire me to get into space journalism in the first place. We had a wide-ranging interview that updated the Case for Mars, looked at what comes next, and how current efforts are stumbling in their efforts to return humans to the Moon, and then on to Mars.

In this week's questions show, I explain how scientists know that meteorites came from Mars, is it dangerous to look for alien civilizations, what citizen science projects to get involved in, and more. Featuring Professor Nick Cowan from McGill University.

This week I was joined in a live stream with Dr. David Kipping from Columbia University. We had a great interview about his research into exomoons, what new observatories will do for this field. We also talked about his idea of the Terrascope, using the Earth's atmosphere as a lens to study the Universe. And we talked about how scientists can better use the internet to communicate directly with the public about their research.

I’ve said many times in the past that the Earth is the best planet in the Universe. No matter where we go, we’ll never find a planet that’s a better home to Earth life than Earth. Of course, that’s because we, and all other Earth life evolved in this environment. Evolution adapted us to this planet, and it’s unlikely we could ever find another planet this good for us.

However, is it the best planet? Are there places in the Universe which might have the conditions for more diversity of life?

In this week's questions show, I explain that life on Earth has less time than you think, if there could be multiple supermassive black holes inside the Milky Way, and what would we see if Mars replaced the Moon. Featuring Anton Petrov from WhatDaMath.

This was an interview with me on the Russian podcast "The Big Beard Theory" with Anton Pozdyakov. We spent an hour talking about my career in space journalism, how I run Universe Today, how I choose stories and how we cover various topics. We also talk about the larger changes I've seen over the course of 20 years of space journalism. The first minute and a half is in Russian, and then it switches to English.

https://beardycast.com/podcast/tbbt/the-big-beard-theory-235/

This week I was joined by Dylan O'Donnell, an incredible astrophotographer and amateur astronomer from Australia. Dylan's photography has been featured in exhibits and websites around the world, and he's the organizer of the Starstuff Conference in Byron Bay (https://starstuff.com.au/) and has a website featuring all his astrophotography (https://deography.com/)

Humans to Mars. That’s the plan right? The problem is that sending humans down to the surface of Mars is one of the most complicated and ambitious goals that we can attempt. It’s a huge step to go from low Earth orbit, then lunar landings, and then all the way to Mars, a journey of hundreds of millions of kilometers and 2 years at the least.

But there are two places humans can go which are a stepping stone between Earth and Mars. Base camps that would let us gather our resources in relative safety before dropping down into that gravity well.

I’m talking about the moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos.

We’re learning more and more about extrasolar planets, and for the first time, astronomers have discovered water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. The planet is located in the habitable zone of its star, so this might even be rain.

Of course, it’s not all good news, it’s much more massive than Earth, with higher gravity, and is probably bathed in radiation from its red dwarf star. But, it’s a good start in the search for habitable places in the Universe, places where there might be life.

In this week's questions show, I talk about searching for life on Venus, trying to get to orbit with a jet, and why NASA probably shouldn't hire me. This episode features special guest SciManDan.