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A journey to the stars doesn’t just begin at the launchpad. Discover new worlds through epic stories told by scientists on missions to outer space.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ NASA/JPL mission stories • Mars rovers and helicopter operations • landing and cruise engineering • rover power, driving, drilling, sampling • InSight Mars geophysics • asteroids, impacts, deflection • Voyager perspective • Earth science, climate, oceans, ice, volcanoesThis podcast uses narrative storytelling and interviews with scientists and engineers to explain how robotic space exploration works and what it reveals about our solar system and home planet. Across its seasons, it traces missions from concept and construction through launch, cruise, and high-stakes arrival, emphasizing the technical constraints and creative problem-solving that go into operating spacecraft far from Earth. Listeners hear about uncertainty, risk, and occasional failures as normal parts of exploration, along with the iterative design changes that make later missions more capable.
A major focus is Mars exploration, especially the long arc of rover development. The show describes how rovers are delivered safely to the Martian surface, how they are driven remotely, and how they are powered to survive and keep working. It also highlights the science rovers do once they arrive: drilling, scooping, and analyzing rocks and soil to reconstruct Mars’ history, look for signs of past life, and prepare for future sample return and eventual human exploration. Related stories branch into other Mars technologies, such as rotorcraft flight in the thin Martian atmosphere, and stationary landers that probe Mars’ interior using seismology and heat flow.
Other seasons broaden to small bodies and planetary defense, covering how astronomers find and track near-Earth objects, what impacts can do to Earth, and the strategies being developed to prevent or mitigate a hazardous asteroid. There are also episodes centered on bringing asteroid material back to Earth and on missions that investigate the composition and origins of these objects, including metal-rich targets and meteorites collected in extreme environments.
The podcast also turns its lens back on Earth as seen from space, pairing astronaut perspectives with Earth science fieldwork and remote sensing. Themes include volcanoes, earthquakes and surface change, oceans and ice, air pollution and clouds, hurricanes and wildfire, and how climate change influences extreme weather. Throughout, the emphasis is on connecting mission tools and measurements to the broader story of planetary processes—on Mars, in deep space, and on Earth.
