In the olden days, NASA developed its missions using a variety of in-house engineers and external suppliers. As more commercial companies are targeting the Moon, NASA is working with partners to deliver its payloads to the lunar surface.
Our Hosts
Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
Production by
- Richard Drumm, Audio Engineer
- Ally Pelphrey, Video Engineer
18 Seasons
700+ Episodes
2018 Winner Parsec Award
Ep. 709: Space Weapons
Last week we learned that Russia might be planning nuclear weapons to take out satellites in space. What is the current and future possibility of weapons in space and what are the treaties designed to prevent them?
Ep. 708: What Goes Into Sample Return Missions from Asteroids and Comets?
Last week we talked about sample return missions from the Moon and Mars, but scientists have retrieved samples from other objects in the Solar System, including comets and asteroids. What does it take to return a piece of rock from space, and what have we learned so far?
Ep. 707: What Goes Into Sample Return Missions for the Moon and Mars?
We’ve sent robots to other worlds, but the amount of science we can deploy to another planet can’t compare with the vast science labs we have on Earth. That’s why more and more missions are for a sample return, bringing pieces of alien worlds back to Earth, were we study them with proper equipment.
Recent Episodes
Ep. 567: When Satellites Need a House Call
https://youtu.be/Xj6x1AK6BOE Space is really far away, so when you send a satellite out into the void, that's pretty much the last you're going to be able to work on it. And if anything goes wrong, too bad, you're out a satellite. But a new test has shown that it's...
Ep. 566: When Comets Fall Apart
https://youtu.be/-dQtA9h1tUc As everyone knows, the Universe owes us a bright comet. There have been a lot of promising candidates, but in the end, they always fail to live up to our expectations. Comets keep on breaking up with us. Download MP3| Download Raw Show...
Ep. 565: When Worlds Collide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idra0yV3QvU So much of our Solar System has been shaped by enormous collisions early on in our history. Seriously, the nature of every planet in the Solar System has some evidence of massive impacts during some point in its history....
Ep. 564: Mini Moons
Last month astronomers announced that they had detected a tiny asteroid that had been captured by the Earth's gravity well and had been sharing our orbit for a few years. Today, let's talk about the smallest moons in the Solar System. Download MP3| Download Raw Show...
Ep. 563: White Dwarf Mergers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUiGEfdJsK4 White dwarfs are usually about 60% the mass of the Sun, so it was a bit of a surprise when astronomers found one that was almost exactly twice that. What happens when white dwarfs merge? Download MP3| Download Raw Show with...
Ep. 562: Dealing with COVID-19 and the Changes it will Bring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2WFmyfrEdE&feature=youtu.be Pamela and Fraser discuss the implications of COVID-19 and it's changes on the world, and what we all can do during this time. Download MP3| Download Raw Show with Q&A| Show Notes | Transcript Show...
Ep. 561: Remembering Katherine Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sen2rMwYPnY We lost a bright star here on planet Earth last week. NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson passed away at the age of 101, after an incredible career of helping humans land on the Moon. If you saw the movie Hidden Figures,...
Ep. 560: Betelgeuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tw-Xe_AxJM You might be surprised to hear that we've never done an episode of Astronomy Cast featuring Betelgeuse. Well, good news, this is that episode. Let's talk about the star, why it might be dimming, and what could happen if it...
Ep. 559: The Surface of the Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jSRhDKtpFg A brand new telescope has completed on Maui's Haleakala, and it has just one job: to watch the Sun in unprecedented detail. It's called the Daniel K. Inouye telescope, and the engineering involved to get this telescope...
Ep. 558: Supernova SN 2006gy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJQFrgxlmus We've been following this story for more than a decade, so it's great to finally have an answer to the question, why was supernova 2006gy so insanely bright? Astronomers originally thought it was an example of a supermassive...
Ep. 557: Red Dwarfs: Friend or Foe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh1Ocfgmptc On the one hand, red dwarfs are the longest lived stars in the Universe, the perfect place for life to hang out for trillions of years. On the other hand, they're tempestuous little balls of plasma, hurling out catastrophic...
Ep. 556: Multi Messenger Astronomy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8kJy-_90Y&feature=youtu.be For the longest time astronomers could only study the skies with telescopes. But then new techniques and technologies were developed to help us see in different wavelengths. Now astronomers can study...
Ep. 555: Satellite Constellations and the Future of Astronomy
https://youtu.be/ltohpTiKKhs The other big issue at the AAS was the challenge that astronomy is going to face from all the new satellite constellations coming shortly. There are already 180 Starlinks in orbit, and thousands more are coming, not to mention the other...
Ep. 554: Big Telescope Controversy in Hawai’i
https://youtu.be/pe9Wyi6WnME This episode recorded on Wednesday, January 8 This week we're live at the American Astronomical Society's 235th meeting in Honolulu, Hawai'i. We learned about new planets, black holes and star formation, but the big issue hanging over the...
Ep. 553: What To Look Forward To In 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPWMUUBwjA It's hard to believe it, but we survived another trip around the Sun. Now it's time to take the whole journey all over again, but with new news. Let's take a look at some of the space and astronomy stories we're looking...
Ep. 552: Boyajian’s star (and other strange stars)
Huge surveys of the sky are finding more and more planets, stars and galaxies. But they're also turning up strange objects astronomers have never seen before, like Boyajian's star. Today we're going to talk about some unusual objects astronomers have discovered, and...
Ep. 551: Missing Epochs – Observing before the CMBR
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is the earliest moment in the Universe that we can see with our telescopes, just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang itself. What will it take for us to be able to fill in the missing gap? To see closer to the...
Ep. 550: Missing Epochs – Observing the Cosmic Dark Ages
Powerful observatories like Hubble and the Very Large Telescope have pushed our vision billions of light-years into the Universe, allowing us to see further and further back in time. But there are regions which we still haven't seen: the Cosmic Dark Ages. What's it...
Ep. 549: Stellar nucleosynthesis revisited: In and on and around dead stars
Last week we gave you an update on the formation of elements from the Big Bang and in main sequence stars like the Sun. This week, we wrap up with a bang, talking about the death of the most massive stars and how they seed the Universe with heavier elements. In this...
Ep. 548: Stellar nucleosynthesis revisited: In stellar cores & atmospheres
The Universe started out with hydrogen and helium and a few other elements, but all around us, there are other, more proton-rich elements. We believe these heavier elements formed in stars, but which stars? And at what points in their lives? Today we'll update our...