33 – Camping at Mars (feat. Danielle Richey & Steve Jolly)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:03 — 80.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Mission designs for human trips to Mars are common, but Lockheed Martin’s “Mars Base Camp” is something fresh. That’s because it’s a collaborative, orbit-first, science-focused approach, so it means the plan is a realistic path…

32 – The Four Winds of Mars (feat. Lori Fenton)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:21 — 67.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

The plains of Meridiani Planum, where the Opportunity Rover is currently exploring, is home to many surface features, but none are as stunning and the wind-formed dunes and ripples. How do these features form, and…

31 – The Interplanetary Business Case (feat. Chantelle Dubois)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:27 — 36.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

On Friday, September 29th in Adelaide, Australia, Elon Musk presented SpaceX’s new update to the Interplanetary Transport System. The update to last year’s presentation focused on how to make this concept more real and specifically…

30 – Keeping Track of Curiosity (feat. Fred Calef)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:56 — 45.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Without GPS, keeping track of our Martian explorers is no easy task. Data management for the thousands of photos, especially their locations, is in fact a full time job. Fred Calef, JPL’s “Keeper of the…

29 – A Teenage Rover (feat. Mike Seibert)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (49.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

For over 13 years, NASA’s Opportunity Rover has been exploring Meridiani Planum on Mars. The determined spacecraft has faced a lot of challenges through its mission, not least of which is continuing to operate in…

28 – Five Years of Being Curious (feat. Emily Lakdawalla)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:07 — 43.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

It’s been five years since NASA’s Curiosity Rover touched down on the surface of Mars, and it’s been doing all kinds of science as it climbs the slopes of Mt. Sharp ever since. Taking a…

27 – The Policy of Mars (feat. Casey Dreier)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:36 — 63.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Despite a growing influence of private organizations in the space industry, government still holds a lot of power in the direction of exploration. Space policy is a messy, complicated and mysterious affair. The Planetary Society’s…

26 – Remembering Pathfinder

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:26 — 41.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

On July 4th, 1997, NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission touched down on Mars, ending a 15 years period where no spacecraft operated in the Red Planet. Twenty years later, the mission’s impact on our understand of…

25 – Building a Rover (feat. Abbie Hutty)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Europe’s ExoMars program has already kicked off with the Trace Gas Orbiter, currently manoeuvring downward to its final science orbit. But ExoMars is not limited to a single mission. By 2020, ESA hopes to launch…

24 – Risks and Rewards (feat. Leonard David)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:39 — 46.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

All the obstacles in spaceflight can theoretically be broken down in to subsets of risk. Whether personal risk, programmatic risk, financial risk or professional risk, these are the things holding back individuals and organizations from…