Spacepod

Dr. Heather Kaluna talks about space weathering, which changes the surfaces of the moon, asteroids, and Mercury. She studies space weathering in a laboratory, where she can reproduce hundreds of millions of years of weathering in just forty minutes.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest astronomy project in the world right now. It’s an amazingly complex robot, and some of its sensors need to be kept cool. Dr Kris Stone talks about the cooling system, and how it will be tested during the longest continuous test ever conducted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Dr. Lauren White talks about designing and building instruments for the International Space Station (ISS). She shares a secret about designing instruments for the outside of the space station, and also talks about being the first American to command a laser on the ISS.

Dr Morgan Cable comes back on the podcast to tell us about how she and a team of scientists searched a fresh lava field in Iceland to look for signs of life. They pretended to see the landscape like a rover would, so that the lessons they learned in Icela

Dr. James "Gerbs" Bauer talks about comets, the icy dirtballs (or dirty iceballs) that orbit the Sun. We talk about the ancient Egyptian term for comets, why you probably shouldn't eat a comet, and an exciting new discovery made by the NEOWISE team.

The New Horizons mission revealed Pluto's jaw-dropping vistas and geophysical mysteries. One listener wanted to know why the spacecraft didn't go into orbit around Pluto. Tom Spilker, interplanetary travel expert, tells us the answer.

In part 2, engineers who worked on the Galileo probe discuss what it was like when the probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere. This episode includes a bonus story about Pioneer Venus.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the successful deployment of a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, this episode is a series of interviews with the engineers who worked on this challenging, historic mission.

Dr. George Privon talks about what galaxies are and what happens when two galaxies merge.

Dr. Dan Petrizzo explains what isotopes are, and what isotopes in water can tell scientists about ancient climates. He also explains how he made Mars rocks in the lab.

Professor Amy Lovell talks about listening in on radio waves coming from comets, as well as the particular challenges of using the world's biggest radio telescopes.

Professor Bethany Ehlmann discusses how to pick a landing site for NASA's next Mars rover, Mars 2020. Over a particularly good beer, we also cover looking for life on Mars, and she answers the thorny question: why look for life on Mars, which has little

Dr Bonnie Buratti talks about Pluto's big mystery: What is the source of energy that is causing all the active geology seen by New Horizons?

Dr. Jessica Watkins talks about enormous landslides on Mars that are millions of years old.

Dr. Michael Busch talks about the strange, low gravity surfaces of asteroids, and the challenges a visiting astronaut might face.

Dr. Britney Schmidt tells us about how she can learn about they icy, watery moon Europa by exploring giant Antarctic ice shelves with submarines.

Dr Jeff Rich talks about where elements come from, and the famous phrase, "We are all made of star stuff".

Dr. Linda Spilker discusses the Cassini Spacecraft; what it looks like, what it has discovered, and plans for the conclusion of the mission.

Emily Lakdawalla talks about UnmannedSpaceflight.com, a place where everyday people explore the solar system by processing images from robotic spacecraft.

Dr. Amy Mainzer discusses how she and her team calculated how many asteroids are out in space, waiting to be discovered.