About This Episode
How important is space exploration? What’s next? Mars? Europa? Find out when Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews NASA Administrator Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden, who also piloted or commanded four Space Shuttle flights, including the mission to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. Neil is joined in studio by astrophysicist Dr. Michael Shara and, in his first time in the co-host chair, Bill Nye. Find out why stars twinkle when seen from Earth and why the Hubble is the most productive scientific instrument ever made. Explore the unexpected troubles with Hubble’s deployment, and how a single washer led to a “spherical aberration” design flaw that nearly rendered it a piece of space junk. Learn why NASA says we’ll have humans on Mars by the 2030s, and why Bill Nye thinks it matters if we find life on Mars or Europa. You’ll also hear about the Mars Rovers – Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity; international cooperation on Mars and the ISS; and why we need to make funding space exploration a priority.
NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: NASA’s Vision for Space with Charles Bolden.