| BROADCAST DATE |
SUBJECT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| January 6 | Summer Science Fact-ion | Two science stories, one factual and the other fiction. |
| January 13 | Summer Science Fact-ion | Two science stories, one factual and the other fiction. |
| January 20 | Summer Science Fact-ion | One fictional science story, developed from a factual event. |
| January 20 | Another One Leaves The Crust | This evening's launch of a satellite from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsular by RocketLab's Electron rocket.
Listen or download (17 min 26 s - 16.7 MB) |
| January 27 | Summer Science Fact-ion | Two fictional science stories, developed from factual events. |
| February 3 | Summer Science Fact-ion | Two fictional science stories, developed from factual events. |
| February 10 | Brian O'Brien Physicist Perth | His career from 1958, when he worked with van Allen; the Injun satellites; nuclear explosions in space; move to Rice University; launching sounding rockets from Churchill; deciding the science instruments to be sent to the Moon; design of the dust detector and lack of interest by NASA officials; incorrect Apollo 11 Science Report; the Catch-22 in trying to get dust findings published; return to Australia in 1968; commuting to the U.S.A. for the Apollo landing missions; Apollo 13; the current status of his lunar dust findings. (Interview by Peter Aylward)
Listen or download (24 min 27 s - 23.5 MB) Photo of Brian O'Brien with data tapes and dust detector instruments |
| February 10 | Apollo 14 | To mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission: a description of the mission; Alan Shepard's recollection of the moon landing and playing golf; and a poem about Ed Mitchell. (Insert courtesy JSC Oral History)
Listen or download (15 min 17 s - 14.7 MB) |
| February 10 | Mars 1: Hope Arrives at Mars | This morning's arrival of the UAE Hope mission into orbit around Mars. (Inserts courtesy UAE Space Agency)
Listen or download (12 min 6 s - 11.6 MB) |
| February 17 | Mars 2: Hope, Tianwen 1 and Sagan | More about Hope; the arrival of Tianwen 1; the planned entry, descent and landing of Perseverance; poem about Curiosity's first drive; and Carl Sagan on our developing understanding of Mars and its impact on our culture. (Inserts courtesy UAE Space Agency, JPL, CGTN, Planetary Society)
Listen or download (57 min 25 s - 55.1 MB) |
| February 24 | Mars 3: Perseverance and Sagan | The entry, descent and landing of Perseverance; poem about Curiosity; Carl Sagan on the history of the space age and how the USA and USSR could combine efforts to mount a manned mission to Mars. Also related music. (Inserts courtesy JPL)
Listen or download (57 min 20 s - 55.0 MB) |
| March 3 | Rocket Lab Announced Neutron Rocket while Electron is poised to loft three Australian Satellites | The USA/NZ company Rocket Lab has announced it will develop a new rocket called Neutron able to loft a mass of 8 tonnes into low earth orbit. Meanwhile an Electron rocket is being prepared to launch the Australian M2, Centauri 2 and Myriota 7 satellites from New Zealand. This feature starts with an extract from Sandra Spencer's Tech Load programme.
Listen or download (57 min 20 s - 55.0 MB) |
| March 3 | Mars 4: Karen Andrews, Abigail Allwood, Carl Sagan, poetry and song. | Space and the 'giggle factor' in the Federal Parliament; the PIXL instrument on the Perseverance rover and its Principal Investigator; a poem about the Curiosity rover; and Carl Sagan answers questions about his case for Mars. (Inserts courtesy CH7Brisbane, Parliament) Listen or download (46 min 4 s - 44.2 MB) |
| March 10 | Mars 5: Zubrin | Perseverance makes its first drive; a poem about the Curiosity rover; an anthem for Mars; Robert Zubrin (President, Pioneer Astronautics, Lakewood, Colorado) and his Mars Direct plan; and music. (Insert courtesy GSFC, talk recorded at RMIT) Listen or download full programme. (52 min 16 s - 50.2 MB) Listen or download Robert Zubrin 1 (11 min 10 s - 10.5 MB) Listen or download Robert Zubrin 2 (13 min 8 s - 12.3 MB) |
| March 17 | Mars 6: Zubrin | Tianwen 1 news; Robert Zubrin (President, Pioneer Astronautics, Lakewood, Colorado) and his Mars Direct plan; poems and music. (Recorded at RMIT) Listen or download full programme. (38 min 48 s - 37.3 MB) Listen or download Robert Zubrin 3 (11 min 36 s - 11.1 MB) Listen or download Robert Zubrin 4 (10 min 6 s - 9.7 MB) |
| March 24 | Electron Launches Three Australian Satellites | Yesterday's launch of the M2, Centauri 3 and Myriota 7 satellites from New Zealand by an Electron rocket. Also details of the Photon and Capstone Pathfinder, the Neutron rocket, and an interview with Peter Beck (CEO, Rocket Lab). (Inserts courtesy Rocket Lab)
Listen or download (21 min 20 s - 20.5 MB) |
| March 24 | Mars 7: Zubrin | Robert Zubrin (President, Pioneer Astronautics, Lakewood, Colorado) and his Mars Direct plan; an extract from Robert Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land and music. (Recorded at RMIT)
Listen or download full programme. (24 min 43 s - 23.7 MB) Listen or download Robert Zubrin 5 (11 min 49 s - 11.4 MB) |
| March 31 | Yuri's Night 2021 | To mark the 60th anniversary of the flight of Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, the Space Association of Australia is hosing an event at The Sun cinema in Yarraville. Peter Ayward (President, Space Assciation of Australia) describes to films "Apollo 11" and "Searching For Skylab" that will be screened during an event starting at 4 pm.
Listen or download full programme. (11 min 12 s - 10.8 MB) |
| March 31 | Luna 10 | The story of the first satellite to orbit the Moon, and the trick played on the Communist Party Congress. Also the failure of OAO 1 and the selection of a group of 19 NASA astronauts.
Listen or download full programme. (10 min 14 s - 9.8 MB) |
| March 31 | Mars 8: Zubrin | Preprations to fly the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, and Robert Zubrin (President, Pioneer Astronautics, Lakewood, Colorado) answers audience questions at RMIT University. (Recorded at RMIT)
Listen or download full programme. (27 min 12 s - 26.2 MB) Listen or download Robert Zubrin Q&A (27 min 48 s - 11.4 MB) |
| April 7 | The Space Show's 30th Anniversary | We briefly noted that this was our 30th anniversary programme. Included a surprise congratulatory message from Southern FM's management.
Listen or download. (4 min 24 s - 4.2 MB) |
| April 7 | Mars 9 : Comedic Music From Mars | As preparations were being made for the first flight of the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, we noted the Melbourne International Comedy festival with a comedic set of songs from Mars. |
| April 14 | Mars 10 : Ingenuity and Rock Opera | The story of the genesis of the Mars 2020 helicopter Ingenuity, plans for its first flight, and why it didn't fly on Monday. Then a rock opera about the settlement and terraforming of Mars. (Inserts courtesy JPL) |
| April 21 | Angelo Di Grazia Committee Member Space Association Of Australia | The decision by NASA to award the contract for the Lunar Human Landing System of the Artemis Project to SpaceX for its Starship design. The merits and demerits of the three competing designs.
Listen or download. (27 min 43 s - 26.6 MB) |
| April 21 | Mars 11 : Ingenuity's first flight. | The first flight of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity in Jezero crater. Also comments by Angelo Di Grazia (Committee Member, Space Association of Australia) and a song. (Inserts courtesy JPL)
Listen or download. (26 min 40 s - 25.6 MB) |
| April28 | Mars 12 : Ingenuity's second and third flight. | The second and third flight of ingenuity, as well as further details of the first flight and plans for more flights. (Inserts courtesy JPL)
Listen or download. (31 min 46 s - 30.5 MB) |
| April 28 | David Willson Vice President Mars Society Australia Research and Development Engineer | Ice Breaker - the Mars Life Search Mission. A proposed mission based on the Insight lander that would scoop up icy soil and analyse it for life. (Recorded at joint Mars Society Australia and Space Association of Australia event, Melbourne)
Listen or download. (22 min 40 s - 21.8 MB) David Willson at Ames David Willson with early mock-up of Ice Breaker David Willson with Ice Breaker scoop David Willson with Ice Breaker Scoops (Images courtesy Jon Clarke, President, Mars Society Australia) |
| May 5 | Shannon Walker Astronaut Houston Texas | Marking the completion of her 168 day mission aboard the international Space Station. (Insert courtesy JSC) |
| May 5 | Michael Collins | Celebrating the life of Mike Collins. (Inserts courtesy JSC Oral History, NASA)
Listen or download. (26 min 18 s - 25.3 MB) |
| May 5 | Mars 13 : Ingenuity's Mission Extension | A mission extension for the Ingenuity helicopter and the plans for Perseverance's scientific investigations. (Inserts courtesy JPL)
Listen or download. (24 min 19 s - 23.4 MB) |
| May 12 | Federal Budget 2021 | The space and astronomy allocations in the 2021 Federal Budget.
Listen or download. (7 min 46 s - 7.5 MB) |
| May 12 | ADF Space Division | The logic behind the formation of a Space Division within the Australian Defence Force. Extracts from The Australian Financial Review, The Conversation and The Australian Strategic Policy Institute were read, and comments by the soon-to-be Head of Space Division Air Vice Marshall Catherine Roberts were included, as well as a feature on the M2-A satellite. (Audio inserts courtesy ADF)
* Listen or download. (25 min 25 s - 24.4 MB) * View image Russell Boyce and Catherine Roberts |
| May 12 | Mark Skidmore Air Vice Marshall (Retired) Royal Australian Air Force Active Reserve | The Defence Use Of Space. The 2016 White Paper; the 2018 Capability Plan; how Defence sees space; blend of projects; space situational awareness; satellite communications; intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, positioning, navigation and timing; new capabilities investment; training; and collaboration with the Australian Space Agency. (Recorded at SIAA, Melbourne Exhibition Centre)
Listen or download. (15 min 42 s - 15.1 MB) |
| May 12 | Mars 14: Tianwen 1 | The aims of the Tianwen 1 orbiter and Zhurong rover. (Insert courtesy CGTN) |
| May 19 | Rocket Lab Success and Failure | Rocket Lab failed to place two satellites into orbit, but succeded in recovering the first stage of the 20th Electron rocket. (Inserts courtesy Rocket Lab) Listen or download. (5 min 18 s - 5.1 MB) |
| May 19 | Private Astronauts | The plans to launch private astronauts on Soyuz MS-19 (Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko), Soyuz MS-20 (Yusaku Maezama and Yozo Hirano), Ax-1 (Michael Lopez-Alegria and three others) and dearMoon (Yusaku Maezama and others). (Inserts courtesy NASA, France 24, Maezama) Listen or download. (21 min 20 s - 20.5 MB) |
| May 19 | OSIRIS-REx Departs Bennu | The departure of the asteroid sampling mission from Bennu. Some of the findings by the spacecraft. (Inserts courtesy GSFC) |
| May 19 | Mars 15 : Ingenuity and Tianwen 1 | The fifth flight of the Ingenuity helicopter and the landing of Tianwen 1 on Utopia Planitia. (Inserts courtesy JPL, CGTN) |
| May 26 | OSIRIS-REx On Way Home | A summary report on the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu, including its discovery of a black hole. (Inserts courtesy GSFC) |
| May 26 | Lunar Eclipse | Times for this evening's total lunar eclipse. |
| May 26 | Mars 16 : Ingenuity, Mars 3, music, poetry, Mars analogues in education (Danielle Shean, Victoria Space Science Education Centre, Strathmore) and subsurface water on Mars (Eriita Jones, University of South Australia). | Listen or download. (33 min 12 s - 31.9 MB) |
| May 26 | Danielle Shean Victorian Space Science Education Centre Strathmore | Created Mars Analogues As Effective Tools For Learning. Curent neuroscience research; why analogues work; learning is dynamic not passive; mission to Mars. (Recorded at 16th Australian Space Research Conference, Story Hall, RMIT University, Melbourne) Listen or download. (4 min 46 s - 4.6 MB) |
| May 26 | Eriita Jones Lecturer Division of IT, Engineering and the Environment University of South Australia Adelaide | Inferring the presence of subsurface water on Mars from surface ejecta grain size. (Recorded at 16th Australian Space Research Conference, Story Hall, RMIT University, Melbourne) Listen or download. (10 min 49 s - 10.4 MB) |
| June 2 | Mars 17 : Ingenuity's Crazy Flight | An explanation of the problem Ingenuity experienced in its sixth flight. |
| June 2 | Earth 8 | Return of our planet Earth series. Brian Schmidt (Vice Chancellor, Australian National University), Chris Hadfield (former astronaut) and Karen St, Germain (Director, Earth System Science, NASA HQ). Also music. (Inserts courtesy ANU, NHK and JPL) Listen or download. (51 min 30 s - 49.4 MB) |
| June 9 | Space Show In New Zealand 1 | The Space Show highlights some of the space activity in New Zealand. Rocket Lab analyses flight 20 failure of Electron; NZ signs Artemis Accords; Project Tawhake; NASA announces two Venus missions and Peter Beck discusses his Venus proposal; and Episode 8 of our Planet Earth series, which this week is about MethaneSAT. (Inserts courtesy TVNZ, EDF, Ceraweek, MethaneSAT, JHAT, TED, NASA) Listen or download. (56 min 47 s - 54.5 MB) |
| June 9 | Rocket Lab Recovers | The efforts to resume Electron launches. (Extract from Space Show In New Zealand above.)
Listen or download. (5 min 15 s - 5.1 MB) |
| June 9 | Venus | Announcement of Veritas and DaVinci+ missions, and Peter Beck's Venus mission proposal. (Extract from Space Show In New Zealand above.)(Inserts courtesy NASA, RocketLab)
Listen or download. (12 min 23 s - 11.9 MB) |
| June 9 | Earth 9 | MethaneSAT and New Zealand (Extract from Space Show In New Zealand above.) (Inserts courtesy EDF, Ceraweek, JHAT)
Listen or download. (30 min 21 s - 29.1 MB) |
| June 16 | The Auction | The bidding for a seat on Blue Origin's New Shepard first passenger suborbital mission. (Inserts coutesy BO) |
| June 16 | Earth 10 | MethaneSAT and New Zealand (Inserts courtesy RNZ, NZSA, EDF)
Listen or download. (48 min 26 s - 46.5 MB) |
| June 23 | Earth 11 | Sentinel 6. (Inserts coutesy ESA)
Listen or download. (10 min 2 s - 9.6 MB) |
| June 23 | Shenzhou 12 | The preparation and launch of the Shenzhou 12 spacecxraft to the Tianhe space station. Also details of the International Lunar Research Station. (Inserts courtesy CNSA and GGTN) |
| June 23 | New Shepard | The promotion of the first passenger-carrying suborbital mission; the distinction between suborbital and orbital spaceflight; the significance of the von Karman line; and the difference between New Shepard and Spaceship Two. |
| June 30 | Film Review: Dinosaurs of Antarctica | Comments about the IMAX documentary Dinosaurs of Antactica, and a preview of the forthcoming documentary Asteroid Hunters.
Listen or download. (6 min 36 s - 6.3 MB) |
| June 30 | Earth 12 | The abortive attempt this morning to launch the Australian nanosatellite Centauri 4 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral; plans to build and launch a South Australian satellite tentatively called SASAT-1; Craig Donlan (Mission Scientist, ESA) describes the Sentinal 6 satellite objectives; the Libera instrument to fly on the third Joint Polar Satellite; NASA Administrator Bill Nelson explains what it is like to view planet Earth from space. (Inserts courtesy SpaceX, Fleet Space, Premier's Office South Australia, NASA)
Listen or download. (42 min 42 s - 41.0 MB) |
| July 7 | Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin Passengers | As we approach the 60th anniversary of the second Mercury Redstone suborbital spaceflights, two billionaires prepare to follow suit, taking others with them. Programme featured a profile of Mercury 13 astronaut aspirant Wally Funk. (Inserts courtesy VG and BO) |
| July 7 | Mars: Ingenuity and Zodiacal Light | The ninth flight by Ingenuity and the discovery by Juno that dust from Mars causes the Zodiacal Light. |
| July 7 | Earth 13 | The Earth System Observatory; the Lightning Imaging Sensor, SAGE 3 and GPM; Suomi-NPP tracks volvanic ash; Earth Science at the Goddard Space Flight Center; and comedic music. (Inserts coutesy NASA, GSFC)
Listen or download. (32 min 59 s - 31.7 MB) |
| July 14 | Virgin Galactic, Trump and the metal foil hat brigade | The VSS Unity 22 flight to the upper atmosphere, comments by Donald Trump, and the silly views of the naysayers. (Inserts courtesy VG, Fox, SciCry) |
| July 14 | Pam Melroy Deputy Administrator NASA Washington D.C. | Comments by NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, and a self profile recorded in Adelaide. (Inserts courtesy NASA, South Australian Museum) |
| July 14 | Enrico Palermo Head Australian Space Agency Adelaide | Celebrating the 3rd anniversary of the Australian Space Agency. (Insert courtesy ASA) |
| July 21 | New Shepard 16, Gus Grissom and Human Factors | Last night's manned suborbital flight by Blue Origin's New Shepard; Gus Grisson and Mercury Redstone 4; and factors considered in manned spacecraft design. (Inserts courtesy BO, VOA and NASA)
Listen or download. (39 min 40 s - 38.1 MB) |
| July 21 | Adam Gilmour CEO and Founder Gilmour Space Technologies Pty Ltd Helensvale Queensland | Reaction to news that his company is to receive financial support from the Queensland Government. |
| July 21 | Earth 14 | Australian satellites CSIROSat 1 and NovaSAR-1. (Inserts courtesy CSIRO)
Listen or download. (9 min 34 s - 9.2 MB) |
