Space Nuts Podcast

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MAVEN's Final Hour: Mars Orbiter Crisis + Historic ISS Evacuation Update & Lunar Timekeeping

NASA attempts to contact the silent MAVEN Mars orbiter after 40 days—but prospects look grim. Plus: the first-ever ISS medical evacuation su

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Companies like SpaceX want electromagnetic catapults on the moon. Could they be used as weapons?

Companies like SpaceX want electromagnetic catapults on the moon. Could they be used as weapons?

"While mass drivers can bootstrap an off-world economy, they carry an equally potent and unsettling military capability: the ability to operate as an unassailable, undetectable first-strike platform."

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Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explodes in massive fireball during prelaunch test

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explodes in massive fireball during prelaunch test

It could be a big setback for the company, and for NASA's moon plans.

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JWST Studies a Dark and Airless Super-Earth

JWST Studies a Dark and Airless Super-Earth

There's a planet out there called LHS 3844 b, orbiting a star about 48 light-years away. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) found it in 2018 when the planet transited across the face of its star. The James Webb Space Telescope zxeroed in on the planet and found it to be a barren, rocky place with no atmosphere.

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Blue Origin rocket explodes on the launch pad during an engine-firing test

Blue Origin rocket explodes on the launch pad during an engine-firing test

A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin exploded during a test at the launch pad Thursday night, shaking nearby homes and briefly painting the sky orange.

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How to catch the perfect full moonrise — just in time for the Blue Moon show on May 30

A rare second full moon arrives this week — and if you get the timing wrong, you'll miss its magic. Here's how to plan it precisely.

A rare second full moon arrives this week — and if you get the timing wrong, you'll miss its magic. Here's how to plan it precisely.

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What's next for SpaceX's Starship V3 megarocket after its historic debut flight?

SpaceX's "V3" Starship megarocket did pretty well on its debut flight last week. What's next for the powerful next-gen vehicle?

SpaceX's "V3" Starship megarocket did pretty well on its debut flight last week. What's next for the powerful next-gen vehicle?

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Supermassive black holes can render exoplanets uninhabitable at great distances

Supermassive black holes can render exoplanets uninhabitable at great distances

The thinking around exoplanet habitability is mostly concerned with a planet's distance from its star. Too close, and any surface water is boiled away into space. Too far, and surface water is frozen. ...

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Nothing beats a beautiful sunset (from space) | Space photo of the day for May 26, 2026

Nothing beats a beautiful sunset (from space) | Space photo of the day for May 25, 2026

This photograph shows a sunset view on Earth from space on May 4, 2026.

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This Soviet Rover Was Thought Lost on the Moon, Then It Started Sending Signals Again Nearly 40 Years Later

This Soviet Rover Was Thought Lost on the Moon, Then It Started Sending Signals Again Nearly 40 Years Later

Lost on the Moon for nearly 40 years, this Soviet rover seemed destined to remain a relic of the space race until scientists made an unexpected discovery.

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Launch Preview: Starlink and Amazon Leo missions fill manifest -

Launch Preview: Starlink and Amazon Leo missions fill manifest - NASASpaceFlight.com

Six orbital launches are expected worldwide this week, headlined by four Falcon 9 Starlink missions…

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Mars Fungi Could Make Red Planet Regolith Fertile for Crops

Mars Fungi Could Make Red Planet Regolith Fertile for Crops

You’re on the fourth human mission to Mars, and you’ve been tasked with establishing the first self-sustaining food crop on a Martian settlement. You’re nervous because you’re using a new type of fungi called beneficial fungi, which you’re told will help enhance Martian regolith, enabling it to be used for growing crops. You were privately told that doing this will not only get a high school named after you, but you will successfully feed future settlers without the need to bring food from Earth. But you really only care about having your name on a high school.

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Shenzhou-23 crew arrives at Tiangong as China maps path to 2030 lunar landing

Shenzhou-23 crew arrives at Tiangong as China maps path to 2030 lunar landing

Shenzhou-23 crew arrives at Tiangong as China maps path to 2030 lunar landing Three Chinese astronauts arrived at Tiangong space station Sunday, with one crewmember expected to become China’s first to stay in orbit for an entire year.

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Vehicle arrivals, science experiments, and maintenance keep Expedition 74 busy through April -

Vehicle arrivals, science experiments, and maintenance keep Expedition 74 busy through April - NASASpaceFlight.com

Recent weeks aboard the International Space Station have been busy, with the Expedition 74 crew…

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Physicists believe that warp drive could exist in the next 100 years

Physicists believe that warp drive could exist in the next 100 years

Warp drive remains speculative, but physicists are still testing whether spacetime itself could one day carry us to the stars.

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The most common type of planet in the galaxy may not look anything like Earth on the inside

The most common type of planet in the galaxy may not look anything like Earth on the inside

The familiar concept of a planetary core, a small, dense metallic heart we take for granted, may be the exception rather than the rule for exoplanets.