Mission: Interplanetary

Mission: Interplanetary premiered in March 2021 and released on a weekly schedule. As of May 2021, the podcast has a total of eight episodes.[1] Mission: Interplanetary is an interview style podcast that is usually between thirty and thirty-five minutes in length. The podcast is co-hosted by Cady Coleman and Andrew Maynard, both are Arizona State University faculty members and educators. Cady Coleman is a former astronaut and Air Force Colonel; she is currently a faculty member at the School of Earth and Space Exploration.[2] The other co-host, Andrew Maynard, is a scientist and author; he is also a faculty member at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society.[3]

In their eight episodes Mission: Interplanetary have covered topics including Space Debris, bringing humanity closer to Space, the end of the universe, extraterrestrial law, and women in Space.[1] In an article written by The State Press, Maynard says, "The big goal is to explore the questions regarding space exploration. We want people to think about this."[4] Co-Host Cady Coleman also gave her thoughts of the podcast saying, "I want people to think about the bigger questions regarding space and interplanetary life."[4]

Mission: Interplanetary interviews professionals and educators that have or currently work in the Space Industry. Guests have included NASA astronaut Mark Brown and Theoretical Astrophysicist Katie Mack.[4]

• Mark Brown, a former NASA astronaut and retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, joined Mission: Interplanetary on their 7th episode. The episode, "Trash at 17,000 Miles Per Hour", went over the hazards of Orbital Debris also known as Space Debris and what options we should consider in this new space age and exploration. During his interview, Brown went over the risks associated with Space Debris and space travel. During his interview, Brown said, "You were talking about two satellites with a combined mass of over six thousand pounds. And when these things collide, or if they had collided there close, your speed was going to be over thirty thousand miles per hour."[5]
• Katie Mack, an Assistant Professor of Physics at North Caroline State University and theoretical astrophysicist,[6] joined Mission: Interplanetary on their 5th episode. The episode, "Closing Time", went over the different ways the universe could end, the importance of physics, and cosmology. During the interview, Mack said, "Probably not next year. It depends on it depends on how we think it’s going to go. So in my book, I talk about five different possibilities, and each of those have sort of different timescales associated with them. None of them is even remotely likely for trillions and trillions of years."[7]