Universe Today Podcast

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.

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.

Welcome back to Season 2 of my weekly live QA. Your chance to ask me your questions about space and astronomy... live. Sometimes I'll have guests, and sometimes I won't. This week... I didn't.

You wanted to know about recent news about astronauts mixing concrete in space, the formation of craters on Titan, and what might be the difficulties of people going to the Moon or Mars?

We’ve reached the third part of our series on Lagrange Points, those stable spots in the Solar System, where you can sort of hover with the minimum amount of fuel.

This episode we’re going to look at the L4 and L5 points which share the orbit with a more massive object.

In this week's questions show, I explain what I think the best uses of the Moon might be, why I'm qualified to answer questions about space, and if you could use a black hole as mirror that lets you look back in time.

Lagrange Points. Stable spots in space that you just can’t stop thinking about. What spacecraft work best in which places? What are some amazing ideas that could utilize these regions across the Solar System?

In the last episode, I gave an overview of the Lagrange points, and then went into the details of spacecraft missions sent to L1, the perfect place to constantly observe the Sun, the Earth, or to block radiation coming from the Sun. The best place for a lunar elevator, or a spot to put a space station at the Moon.

This week, we’re going to talk about L2 and L3, the other meta-unstable spots that you can park a spacecraft at.

Thanks to gravity, there are places across the Solar System which are nicely balanced. They’re called Lagrange Points and they give us the perfect vantage points for a range of spacecraft missions, from observing the Sun to studying asteroids, and more.

Various spacecraft have already visited Lagrange Points, used them for some or all of their missions, and there are fascinating plans in the works that could put new missions and even space colonies into these balanced places in the Solar System.

Let’s explore the Lagrange Points.