This Week in Space (Video)

Climate change has become a top priority for all of us, including NASA. Space solar power—beaming energy from space 24 hours per day—has become a real possibility and is being studied internationally by the US, Europe, Japan, and China. It promises to provide a zero-emissions, zero-carbon source of energy worldwide—but it will take significant investment, development, and commitment. A recent NASA-backed study was positive but careful with its conclusions, and John Mankins, one of the first

2024 looks to be another exciting year in spaceflight! Despite the delay of the Artemis crewed lunar program, a number of exciting missions are queued up this year, among them the launch of Europa Clipper, ESA's HERA mission to Didymos, the first flight of Blue Origin's mammoth New Glenn rocket, and the first crewed flight of India's new spacecraft, the Gagaanyan capsule. We'll dive into these and more on this episode of This Week in Space!Headlines: Japan became the 5th country to successfully

America's heading back to the Moon, but what does the public really think? This week, we talk with former NASA Chief Historian and Smithsonian Curator Dr. Roger Launius, who has studied, among many other things, public perceptions of NASA and spaceflight. Some spoilers: no, there was no "Golden Age" in the 1960s when the public was hugely behind the Apollo Moon landings; being a space historian is a lot of fun; and it probably doesn't really matter if China lands people on the Moon before the US

Spend some time in a dark location and you'll see the night sky in all its glory. If you pick a night with no moon, the effect triples. Steve Fentress, recently retired director of the Strasenburgh Planetarium in New York, is our guide to the night sky this week. He'll enlighten us about the lore of the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, one of the more remarkable constellations in the sky, as well as a general tour of other notable constellations and their stories across the ages. And..

Happy holidays! Rod and Tariq are taking the next two weeks off but will be back with our regularly scheduled programming on January 5th. Host: Rod Pyle Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

This holiday special episode of This Week in Space covers a wide range of space topics from 2023, including asteroid sample return, China's space achievements, commercial lunar landers, Mars sample return challenges, UFO disclosure, and more. Headlines: The asteroid Bennu sample return mission delivers intriguing early findings, including organic molecules and "cauliflower" textured particles that may provide insights into the early solar system. Speculative ideas on "dark life" forming from