Universe Today Podcast

How will a human Mars mission play out? Where exactly should it go? What unexpected challenges will we face? We're discussing all these aspects with Rick Davis. He is the Assistant Director for Science and Exploration, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Can you maintain a stable orbit with just a solar sail? Will a Dyson sphere or swarm kill all life inside of it? Can you protect yourself from a solar flare? What's the oldest ice in the Universe? All this and more in this week's Q&A!

Starship completes its wet-dress rehearsal, another problem for Webb, a nuclear rocket test is coming, and more cool NIAC grants.

What if two black holes with opposing spin merge? Can we use the Moon's L2 Lagrange point? How habitable are Mars's lava tubes? Can Starships compensate for satellite light pollution? All this and more in this week's episode Q&A with Fraser Cain.

The Titan Dragonfly is coming together, NASA is considering a new kind of nuclear rocket, getting more warning for solar flares, and pinpointing carbon emissions from space.

Should we change "Dark Matter" to "Dark Curvature"? How do you navigate through dense asteroid fields? What's the future of space toilets? Do aliens block their outgoing signals? All these and more in this week's Q&A with Fraser Cain.

Keep your eyes on the sky for a comet, another Mars rover has died, the leaky Soyuz is going to be replaced, JWST dominates the American Astronomical Society meeting, and is Starship just around the corner.

Mapping out all the space objects and understanding their orbits is the key to avoiding problems in orbit. What are the technical challenges and what's the current state of affairs? We're discussing it with Dr. Moriba Jah.

How do we determine the velocities of objects in distant space? Can we use a laser a space engine on a spaceship? Can we find stars with rings? Is it possible to see the same star at different stages of its life? All this and more in this week's Q&A.

NASA is looking for dangerous asteroids, Io is blasting lava into space, the solar wind could be creating water on the Moon, space power is finally getting a test.

This is part 2 of an interview I did with John Michael Godier on his show called Event Horizon. We talked about the Fermi Paradox and possible solutions to it.

We can build space habitats from asteroids by spinning them fast enough. That's what Professor Adam Frank suggests in a recent paper he co-wrote. In this interview, we discussed the idea, how realistic it is and what technology will be needed to achieve it, what applications it can have and when we can expect something like that.

2022 has definitely been one of the best space years ever. James Webb, SLS, DART and many other major successes. So, let's turn around and remember what did 2022 bring us.

How can we know whether the Universe is infinite or not? Can something hide behind the Sun in Earth's L3 Lagrange point? Should we start with terraforming the Moon before Mars? Will humans ever visit a lander on Mars?

Interstellar travel can be real. And you don't need to break the laws of Physics to do it. In this interview, I discuss a realistic way we can send missions to nearby stars in our lifetimes.

It’s official, InSight is gone. Perseverance is putting samples onto the surface of Mars. More scientific results from James Webb, and using gravitational wave observatories to detect warp drives.