Best Andrew Prestage Podcasts (2025)

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#80 Plants on the Moon. An Australian team of biologists and engineers are really sending a mini greenhouse to the Moon. 8:10

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5d ago8:10

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Send us a text An Australian team of botanists and engineers are working on a project that might make or break the future of long term, long distance space occupation. They're growing plants. Not that unusual, but they're trying to grow them on the Moon. Plants produce oxygen and they are food, essential elements of living away from Earth. Let's ch…

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#79 Launched in 1972 for Venus, Kosmos 482 failed to escape Earth orbit — and finally returned in May 2025, after 53 years in space 11:30

1M ago11:30

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Send us a text Kosmos 482, was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a mission to Venus, but a technical glitch meant it never made it past Earth orbit. Designed to withstand the hellish surface of Venus, its lander remained in space for over 50 years, but this relic of Cold War space exploration has finally returned, re-entering Earth’s atmosphe…

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#78 The Andromeda Galaxy is a cosmic neighbour that’s going to collide with our Milky Way Galaxy. Should we panic? 8:55

2M ago8:55

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Send us a text No need to panic. Yet! We’ll be fine for the next 4 or 5 billion years, but Andromeda is heading our way. The Andromeda Galaxy was the first object to be identified as being outside our own galaxy, and it introduced us to extragalactic astronomy. And that’s not all. It can teach us more about dark matter and it could be home to billi…

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#77 The stranded astronauts are finally home after 9 months in space. Let’s see how Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got home 6:09

3M ago6:09

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Send us a text Their planned 8 day visit to the International Space Station was turned on its head when NASA announced their Boeing Starliner capsule was unsafe to use. What did Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore do for those 9 months? And we check out the plan that was put together to get them home safely. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on X for some spec…

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#76 The Apollo program was the high point of the space age. From test flights, to lunar landings and the moon buggies 10:45

4M ago10:45

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Send us a text After everything learned through Mercury and Gemini culminated in the seventeen Apollo missions. The first ten were all testing and rehearsals, but the whole program, and a whole era was characterised by Apollo 11, the first time humans set foot on the moon. Along with the triumph, there was tragedy and a very near miss, and one of t…

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#75 NASA's Project Gemini was a spectacular program that bridged the gap from Project Mercury to Apollo. Gemini developed the incredible technology and techniques needed for the lunar program 10:59

5M ago10:59

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Send us a text Nasa had accomplished spaceflight with Project Mercury but the gap to Apollo was still huge. How do you dock two spacecraft in flight and how do crews live in a tiny spacecraft for lunar length flights. These are just a couple of the questions that NASA needed to answer. Gemini was just the project to resolve all of these issues. It …

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#74 At the beginning of the space race, Project Mercury was NASA’s first human crewed spaceflight program, and it was a significant step on the road to the moon. Let’s dive into the vault and check it ... 11:28

6M ago11:28

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Send us a text Back in the late 1950s, NASA was formed. Its first job was to put together a human crewed spaceflight program and put an astronaut into orbit - safely. This was Project Mercury. There were some uncrewed developmental flights and then six crewed flights between 1961 and 1963, this was an enormously significant step toward the Apollo m…

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#73 NASA’s Project Mercury Monument has turned 60! It’s a tribute to America's first attempt at human space flight. The monument has a time capsule that is scheduled to stay sealed for 500 years! Let’s ... 6:02

7M ago6:02

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Send us a text Project Mercury was NASA’s first attempt at human crewed space flight. It sent Alan Shepard into space, and John Glenn into orbit, among four other landmark flights over 5 years. By 1963 it was done, and NASA was ready to launch Gemini, its next project. But being such a groundbreaking project, in 1964 NASA paid tribute to Mercury wi…

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#72 The space pioneers from Earth weren’t humans, what? That’s right, long before humans launched into space, there were a whole team of dogs, monkeys, chimps, insects and more, who rode rockets to space ... 9:21

8M ago9:21

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Send us a text When Yuri Gagarin blasted into orbit in 1961 to become the first human in space, he was already 14 years behind the first animals from Earth. The fruit flies that were flew to space in 1947 were just the first of many different animals in the decade and a half before Gagarin’s orbital flight that were used to test equipment and livin…

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#71 Earth has a new moon! For about the next 8 weeks... Asteroid 2024 PT5 will be captured by Earth's gravity before returning to its normal solar orbit. 6:21

9M ago6:21

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Send us a text Earth has a new moon! well, for about 8 weeks anyway. Asteroid 2024 PT5 has been captured by Earth’s gravity and will be in orbit until late November 2024. This is really unusual and there have only been a few confirmed mini moons in the past. Our new temporary neighbour is only about 11 metres across and won’t be visible to anyone w…

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#70 The Boeing Starliner capsule's first crewed test flight has left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. What went wrong, and how are they going to get home? 7:05

10M ago7:05

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Send us a text Boeing’s Starliner space capsule blasted off for its first crewed test flight in early June. Great news right? Turns out, no. After arriving at the International Space Station, some technical problems meant that it couldn’t be used to take its crew of Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth. The two astronauts were left…

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#69 NASA's Curiosity rover has just made the most incredible discovery of its 12 years on Mars. By running over a rock! 7:42

11M ago7:42

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Send us a text NASA's Curiosity rover touched down on Mars in August 2012, and it's been exploring the Red Planet all that time. There have been some amazing discoveries and it's travelled over 30km but it has just made the most scientifically significant discovery of its 12 year career, and did it simply by running over a rock! One of Curiosity's …

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#68 A piece of space history was written this month, a sample from the far side of the moon! Let's check out the Chang'e 6 lunar lander and it's history-making mission. 7:14

1y ago7:14

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Send us a text As I write this, just a couple of days have passed since the Chang'e 6 sample return capsule touched down with its historic payload. The first sample of rock and soil from the far side of the moon touched down on Earth. This has the potential to unlock some of the secrets from the side of the moon that we never see from Earth, why is…

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#67 OSIRIS-REx NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka brings us up to date on the incredible early findings from the Bennu asteroid sample. 18:05

1y ago18:05

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Send us a text In September 2023, Greg Brennecka stopped by to preview the return to Earth of the OSIRI-REx asteroid Bennu sample return capsule. The sample landed safely and the mission scientists like Greg Brennecka have started their analysis. Some of our toughest questions are being answered by the data already. How old is Bennu? Is there organ…

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#66 Saturn’s largest moon Titan is an incredible place, but could anything live there? Canadian Astrobiologist Dr Catherine Neish led a study on Titan’s habitability. She joins us for a fascinating chat ... 23:46

1y ago23:46

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Send us a text Titan. The largest moon in the Saturnian system has been a candidate as a habitable world ever since NASA’s Cassini mission sent back the first radar images of its surface in 2004. Astrobiologist Dr. Catherine Neish of Western University in Canada has spent years studying Titan, and has just published a study on the habitability of T…

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#65 Spaghettification? This really is a thing. It happens if you get too close to a black hole, but what is it? And how did it get that name? 6:46

1+ y ago6:46

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Send us a text Space and cosmology throws up some strange effects sometimes, none stranger than spaghettification. Stephen Hawking coined the term for the stretching out that happens when you get close to a black hole. Let's take a look at what it really is, how it works, and if we should have anything to fear from spaghettification... Follow Cosmi…

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#64 The Odysseus Moon Lander. The first private moon lander has touched down, but is it still ok? 6:19

1+ y ago6:19

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Send us a text Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines produced the first private mission to land on the moon. The Odysseus lander is just 300 km from the lunar south pole, investigating water ice and demonstrating the capabilities of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS). But space is difficult and not many projects go…

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#63 Space Ethics. How do we navigate the ethical challenges of our journey beyond Earth? 5:56

1+ y ago5:56

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Send us a text So we pollute the upper atmosphere with rocket exhaust, is it worth the benefits of communications satellites and GPS? What about space junk? the garbage of earth orbit. Or mining asteroids? who owns the asteroids, can should they be able to sell the minerals asteroids provide? These are questions that would never have been asked bef…

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#62 The iconic Earthrise photograph. Is this the most influential picture from the Apollo era? 5:55

1+ y ago5:55

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Send us a text Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in December 1968, seven months before the first moon landing. Even though Apollo 8 never landed on the Moon, it did produce one of the most iconic photographs of the Apollo program, the Earthrise photograph. Astronaut Bill Anders snapped a colour picture of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon as the caps…

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#61 Will Saturn’s rings really disappear from view in 2025? What’s going on with that? 5:55

1+ y ago5:55

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Send us a text In the news lately, you might have seen reports that the rings of Saturn are going to disappear from view. What could make that happen? And will they come back? Let’s check out what’s going on with the most spectacular feature in our solar system. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on X for some special content x.com/CosmicCoffTime You can re…

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#60 Astrophotography. It's photography with a completely different technique. How do the pros do it, and what can I do with my smartphone? 6:17

1+ y ago6:17

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Send us a text Photographing the night sky is a completely different technique to photographing almost anything else. There's hardly any light, the objects are tiny and they move! It's really difficult. We've all given it a go and been disappointed, but how do they get the incredible pictures we see on the internet and on TV, and how can normal spa…

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#59 India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to land in the south polar region of the moon. Let's see why the this incredible spacecraft and rover could be instrumental for the future ... 6:54

2y ago6:54

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Send us a text India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover have landed in the south polar region of the moon. Some craters in this region are permanently shaded from the blazing sun and can have water ice at the base of these lunar craters. India became only the fourth nation to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on …

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#58 Resident space rock expert Greg Brennecka is back to preview the return to Earth of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with a sample of asteroid Bennu. 18:52

2y ago18:52

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Send us a text Cosmic Coffee Time’s resident space rock expert and NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka is back again to preview the return to Earth of NASA’s incredible OSIRIS-REx mission. OSIRIS-REx is coming to the end of an epic seven year journey to collect a rock and soil sample from asteroid Bennu. Greg is a mission scientist on OSIRIS-REx …

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#57 Space junk! Most of the human made objects orbiting Earth aren’t functional. Some of them are incredible objects that have outlasted their mission durations by years. How will these fascinating relics ... 8:07

2y ago8:07

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Send us a text Around 80% of the human made objects in orbit are mission left overs. Some of it is real junk, but some of it has an incredible story to tell. What relics from the early space age are held in safe storage in orbit? How does the accumulation of space junk affect mission planning, and how are we going to keep space safer from impacts i…

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#56 The June solstice, it defines the Arctic circle, the Tropic of Cancer and the Antarctic circle. It has the longest daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, shortest in the southern. But why do those ... 6:35

2y ago6:35

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Send us a text Around the 21st of June every year is the June solstice. We might know that it’s the longest or shortest day of the year – depending on which hemisphere you’re in, but why does that happen? And we know of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, but how does the solstice define them? Same with the Arctic and Antarctic circle…

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#55 The spectacular Aurora Borealis and its southern partner Aurora Australis. The astronomical light show is such a cool thing to see, but its science was a mystery until the 20th century. 5:55

2y ago5:55

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Send us a text Ask an eastern Australian about the Southern Aurora, and they might think you’re talking about the old overnight express train between Sydney and Melbourne. But! The train was named after the spectacular light show in the southern sky. The Aurora Australis to use the phenomenon’s correct name, and its northern equivalent the Aurora B…

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#54 NASA’s VERITAS mission to Venus. There’s some good news, there’s some bad news and there’s one incredible discovery hidden for thirty years. 6:57

2y ago6:57

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Send us a text In 2021, NASA announced the VERITAS mission to Venus, NASA’s first voyage to Earth’s twin planet since the early 90’s. Things haven’t gone completely to plan for this project, but one thing VERITAS has already accomplished, it got scientists reviewing data from previous missions, and what they found was truly incredible. And all with…

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#53 The Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu sample return mission. Space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us for an incredible up-close look at real life asteroid material. 16:03

2+ y ago16:03

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Send us a text Our favourite space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us to talk about the amazing Hayabusa2 mission, the sample return mission to asteroid Ryugu by Japanese space agency JAXA. Greg and his colleagues have been analysing the sample and some of the findings are incredible. What does Ryugu tell us about the early solar system? What do w…

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#52 Hundreds of years before GPS there was celestial navigation. Let's see how astronomy and some basic equipment kept old time mariners on course. 6:08

2+ y ago6:08

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Send us a text Recently, we took a look at GPS and the space science that makes it work. This time, we're going back to an era when navigators had nothing but their equipment and the stars to tell them where they were, even on the open ocean. Celestial navigation combined the sextant, almanac and chronometer to make a reliable navigation system tha…

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#51 NASA's astronaut class of 1978. We have a compelling chat with Meredith Bagby about this ground breaking group of space shuttle astronauts, and her fascinating book The New Guys 51:05

2+ y ago51:05

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Send us a text In 1978, NASA changed the rules around who could be selected as an astronaut. Civilian engineers, doctors and scientists could be selected to fly on the then brand new space shuttle. Meredith Bagby joins us to talk about this group, whose social backgrounds were as diverse as their professions. For the first time, the group included …

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#50 We all love GPS, but what space science makes it work? 7:05

2+ y ago7:05

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Send us a text We all love GPS. The Global Positioning System helps us navigate across country and across town, and it also shows us where our rideshare car is, or how far away our food delivery driver is. Take a look at what space science makes it work, and why it can still provide your coordinates even if you're miles away from any phone or data …

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#49 The new Mars meteorite impact. NASA Insight has detected a new meteorite impact on Mars! Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to talk about this breathtaking new discovery. 10:21

2+ y ago10:21

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Send us a text Friend of Cosmic Coffee Time and expert meteoriticist Greg Brennecka returns to talk about the breathtaking detection of a new meteorite impact on Mars. Greg tells us how the impact was detected, and then confirmed with detailed imagery from Mars orbit. What does this tell us about the subsurface geology of Mars, and what does it mea…

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#48 Caroline Herschel - So much more than just the sister of the guy who discovered Uranus 6:32

2+ y ago6:32

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Send us a text Caroline Herschel is probably best known as the sister of William Herschel, the person credited with the discovery of planet Uranus, but there's a lot more to her than this. Caroline was a great astronomer in her own right, having made numerous discoveries using telescopes she helped make herself. She was also an outstanding musician…

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#47 Have you ever heard of moonquakes? Let's take a look at how different they are from earthquakes. 6:16

3y ago6:16

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Send us a text For a long time we speculated that there might have been earthquakes on the moon, we call them moonquakes. How did we eventually detect them, and what makes them so different from earthquakes? Let's take a look and figure out what's going on there. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitter.com/CosmicCoffTi…

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#46 Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to the podcast to talk about the Nadir crater. An exciting new discovery that could be a 66 million year old meteorite impact. 7:46

3y ago7:46

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Send us a text Expert meteoriticist and friend of Cosmic Coffee Time Greg Brennecka returns to talk about an exciting development in the meteorite impact scene, the Nadir crater. This newly discovered undersea structure off the coast of Guinea in western Africa is a proposed meteorite impact site. How was this discovered? when did the impact happen…

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#45 NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon, Titan. A drone is going to fly in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Incredible! 6:22

3y ago6:22

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Send us a text NASA is planning to fly a drone in the atmosphere of the second largest natural satellite in the solar system, Saturn's Titan. What is that drone going to look like, how is it going to get there and what sort of science is it going to do when it gets there? It's an audacious project, and we take a look here. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time…

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#44 About that black hole at the centre of our galaxy... Now we've got a picture! Sagittarius A* 7:02

3y ago7:02

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Send us a text Scientists have long held a theory that there was a black hole in the centre of our milky way galaxy. This was proved some years ago but we've finally got an image of it from real observational data. It's a fascinating story. Let's take a closer look. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitter.com/CosmicCof…

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#43 Let's take a look at Sunspots. What are those darker spots on the surface of the sun? 5:33

3y ago5:33

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Send us a text Sunspots are darker and cooler areas on the surface of the sun. What causes them? How long do they last? And how do they fit into the 11 year cycle of solar activity? Let's take a look. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitter.com/CosmicCoffTime You can request a topic for the show! Or even just say hi! W…

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#42 Pulsars. What are these incredible objects and what makes them pulse? 7:13

3y ago7:13

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Send us a text You might have heard of pulsars. They're objects that emit regular pulses of radiation. But what are they, how do they form, and what makes them pulse? Let's take a look. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitter.com/CosmicCoffTime You can request a topic for the show! Or even just say hi! We'd love to hea…

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#41 Galileo. His observations in 1610 changed a lot of what we knew about astronomy. Let's see what he found. 6:34

3+ y ago6:34

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Send us a text Galileo Galilei Made some incredible observations of the moon and was a real pioneer in calculating the height of some of the moon's geological features. In 1610 he turned the world of planetary astronomy on its head. He described the phases of Venus, came agonisingly close to discovering the true nature of Saturn's rings, and studie…

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#40 Binary stars. Would you believe that most of the stars we see aren't just single stars? Incredible I know! 6:08

3+ y ago6:08

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Send us a text As many as 80% of the stars we see in the night sky could be part of a binary system, two or more stars orbiting each other. So what it a binary system and how can we observe them? We know single stars like our own sun can have a system of planets, but what does that look like for stars in a binary system. Let's take a look. Follow C…

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#39 Meteorites! We meet with noted meteoriticist Greg Brennecka to talk meteorites, the origins of life on Earth, and his new book 'Impact' 30:51

3+ y ago30:51

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Send us a text Until the Apollo moon landings, our only samples of material from space were in the form of meteorites. These meteorites gave us an insight into the origins of our solar system, and might even have provided the complex organic molecules that allowed life to develop on our planet. In this episode we have an awesome chat with noted met…

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#38 The amazing Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Let's take a look at the Mars 2020 project 7:16

3+ y ago7:16

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Send us a text From Mars rovers that were the size of a microwave oven back in the 90s, we now have the Perseverance rover that's the size of a car. And a helicopter. We take a look at the amazing Mars 2020 project that is taking Mars exploration to the next level. It's collecting samples for future return to Earth and the Ingenuity helicopter is f…

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#37 What's in that unexpected gap between Mars and Jupiter? Let's take a look at the asteroid belt - a fascinating element of our solar system 6:47

3+ y ago6:47

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Send us a text There's a strange gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a gap where Bode's law says we would expect the fifth planet to be. There's no planet there, but there's something else that's just as amazing, it's the asteroid belt. Let's take a look at the four main asteroids and see what makes up the other million identified objects. …

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#36 The Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the furthest travelled objects ever made by humans. What did they find on the grand tour of the solar system? And where are they now? 8:09

3+ y ago8:09

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Send us a text Voyager 1 took the famous photograph the Pale Blue Dot. It's the furthest travelled machine ever made by people. At 23 billion km, it takes nearly a full day for its radio signals to reach us. Voyager 2 toured all of the gas planets in our solar system and remains the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. But it gets ev…

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#35 Planet Neptune. The most distant major planet in our solar system and the first to be located by mathematical calculations. Let's take a look. 6:18

4y ago6:18

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Send us a text Neptune. Something was perturbing Uranus' orbit, turns out it was the eighth planet, Neptune. Neptune was the first planet to have its existence and position calculated before it was discovered. Let's take a look at Neptune and its major moon Triton. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitter.com/CosmicCoff…

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#34 Planet Uranus. Is that how you say it? The ice giant that was the first planet that needed to be 'discovered'. 6:10

4y ago6:10

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Send us a text Uranus. Stop giggling, is the first planet to be discovered by telescope. The inner planets have always been known about, but Uranus need to wait until the telescope was invented. Let's take a closer look. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitter.com/CosmicCoffTime You can request a topic for the show! Or…

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#33 Planet Jupiter. It's more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined and it's a gas giant. What makes Jupiter different from the rocky terrestrial planets, and does it really have planetary ... 6:03

4y ago6:03

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Send us a text Jupiter is the first of the gas giant planets. Let's take a look at what makes these planets different from the inner planets. It has a fascinating set of moons that help make up the Jovian system, and we find out how it subtle set of planetary rings were discovered. Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content twitt…

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#32 Kate the Chemist special. We meet with Dr. Kate Biberdorf to talk STEM, TV's Ice Road Truckers, and her new book It's Elemental 20:22

4y ago20:22

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Send us a text How do you keep a chemistry class's attention in the age of smart phones? Explosions, loud noises and passion! That's how Kate the Chemist does it. Dr. Kate Biberdorf is a professor of chemistry at the University of Texas and she's a science entertainer. She amazed Stephen Colbert with the elephant's toothpaste experiment on Late Nig…

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#31 A conversation with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book - Across the Airless Wilds 21:30

4y ago21:30

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Send us a text We have a great chat with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book Across the Airless Wilds. It's a fascinating dive into the last three moon landings and what could be regarded as the pinnacle of human exploration. Earl recounts his time with astronauts Charlie Duke and Dave Scott, and Laszlo Kestay from the United Stat…