June 30, 2016 8:28 pm

Friday: Revisit “Cosmic Queries: Space Probes with Dr. Amy Mainzer”, extended with a Venusian Update from Dr. FunkySpoon

Happy Fourth of July weekend!

Or maybe we should say, “Happy Juno-Arrives-At-Jupiter” weekend?

That’s right. After a nearly 5-year mission, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will finally arrive at Jupiter on the 4th of July.

So for this week’s podcast, we’re revisiting our classic episode, Cosmic Queries: Space Probes with Dr. Amy Mainzer.

If you haven’t heard the original show, here’s what’s waiting for you: Dr. Mainzer, who is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Deputy Project Scientist on the WISE mission, the Principal Investigator for both the NEO-WISE mission and the proposed NEOCam missions, as well as having worked on the Spitzer Space Telescope, answers fan submitted questions chosen by co-host Chuck Nice about space probes. You’ll hear about New Horizons, WISE, Cassini, Curiosity, Hayabusa, and OSIRIS-REx, the sample return mission to asteroid Bennu scheduled to launch this September. You’ll learn all about ion drives and slingshotting and what happens to our spacecraft after their missions are over.

But, because this is an extended classic, we’ve also added new content.

In this case, 13 minutes of Dr. David Grinspoon and Chuck Nice talking about how studying the climate on other planets, like Venus and Mars, is improving our understanding of climate change on Earth. And David should know: he’s an astrobiologist, an Interdisciplinary Scientist on the ESA’s Venus Express, and a Co-Investigator on the Mars Science Laboratory, the mission name for the exploration of Mars that includes the Curiosity Rover.

Please join us for our Extended Classic: Cosmic Queries: Space Probes with Dr. Amy Mainzer this Friday at 7pm EDT, on our website, or on iTunes Podcasts, SoundCloud, Google Play Music, Stitcher and TuneIn.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons