Cosmic Queries: The Space Race

Do we need new math to explain dark matter? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Paul Mecurio explore unsolved problems in math, simulation theory, base systems and more with mathematician Terence Tao.NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: htt ... Show More

How did we go from digital computers to AI seemingly everywhere? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, & Gary O’Reilly dive into the mechanics of thinking, how AI got its start, and what deep learning really means with cognitive and computer scientist, Nobel Laureate, and one of the a ... Show More

What’s more terrifying: finding alien life or finding out we are alone in the universe? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice dive into fan questions about optics, religion, communicating with entanglement, and life on Earth after humans. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can li ... Show More

The space race officially began on October 4, 1957, at 7:28 PM Moscow Time. That was when Sputnik was launched into orbit as the first artificial satellite, and from that moment, it was on. But when did the space race end? That is a much trickier question and there is no formal a ... Show More

Neil Maher talks about the social forces that shaped NASA in the 1960s and 70s, connecting the space race with the radical upheavals of the counterculture. Maher is a professor of history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Newark. He is the author o ... Show More

During the summer of 1969, the Apollo 10 lunar mission orbited the dark side of the moon encountered unfamiliar signals coming from the moon's surface. After the famed Apollo 11 moon landing later that summer, word began to spread that the astronauts had encountered something ali ... Show More

The South Pole of the Moon is the coolest place to be. And nearly every country with a space program is vying for a spot there - for a chance to explore the shadowy, polar craters in hopes of finding usable quantities of water ice.On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisat ... Show More

Dr Kevin Fong convenes a panel of astronautical minds to discuss the next decade or two of space exploration.2021 was an eventful year in space. Captain James Kirk a.k.a William Shatner popped into space for real for a couple of minutes, transported by space company Blue Origin's ... Show More

What physical processes have shaped the Moon? In this lecture, I describe the surface features of the Moon (the Maria and Highlands), how crater density tells us the relative ages of terrains, and what we have learned about Moon rocks returned by astronauts and robotic probes. I ... Show More

<p>Fifty years ago, America’s space program achieved its greatest triumph, when Apollo Eleven put the first men on the moon.</p><p>The Apollo program was a remarkable success story. But as NASA was sending men to the moon, they were engaged in another, less celebrated project — o ... Show More