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AstrotalkUK

Not for Profit podcast – Astronomy, Deep Space Exploration and International Collaboration

Episodes

Episode 135: Pulsars, Politics and Faith – Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell

July 30, 2026 • 33 mins
Just between you and me, one of the best parts of this podcast is the opportunity it gives me to meet some very unique and special people, like today's guest, Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell. Last summer I met and recorded this interview in Oxford. We covered a range of topics, including Pulsars (of course), women in science, her many awards and her faith. As part of her PhD in Cambridge in the late 1960s, she helped build an instrume...
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Episode 134: The European Solar Telescope project with Dr Hector Socas-Navarro

June 25, 2026 • 72 mins
The European Solar Telescope is a project to build ever laregr telescope on Earth but this time for a solar telescope. This interview was recorded in Tenerife but the EST will be built on the negighboring Island of Las Palmas.
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Episode 133: The Toliman Space Telescope – an update

May 15, 2026 • 33 mins
The Toliman Space Telescope. A small, novel spacecraft looking for Earth-like planets in our nearest neighbour star system, Alpha Centauri.
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Episode 132: Space Elevator

March 12, 2026 • 72 mins
Imagine a giant vertical railway stretching 100,000 km from the equator, somewhere in the Pacific, straight up into space. Instead of expensive, polluting rockets, the space elevator offers a smooth, slow electric ascent to Earth orbit. This "bridge to the stars" connects a floating Earth platform at 36,000 km to a massive counterweight located 64,000 km farther out. It is held taut by the Earth's rotation.
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Episode 131: Space Weather and the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad in India

January 26, 2026 • 50 mins
We are increasingly aware of the impact of space weather on spacecraft in space and, occasionally, on electrical power transmission on Earth, but what about its impact on the Earth's atmosphere? That is exactly the research interest of Professor Pallam Raju, Dean of the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India. Founded in 1947, the PRL is one of India's most prestigious scientific institutions, not least because it was fo...
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Episode 130: Mobile solar powerbank for satellites in orbit

January 8, 2026 • 37 mins
Space Power Ltd, founded in 2019, is developing a novel solution for contactless power delivery using high-intensity lasers to extend the lifespans of ageing satellites in space. I spoke with its founder, Keval Dattani, in Nicosia during Cospar2025.org.
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Episode 129: Space Law

December 18, 2025 • 33 mins
Professor Kai-Uwe Schrogl is a space law expert with experience in many roles, including working with the European Space Agency ESA, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and as the Director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna. In this interview, recorded in Nicosia during cospar2025.org in November 2025, he discusses concerns about increasing commercialisation of space and the lunar su...
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Episode 128: George Danos: Cyprus in Space

December 4, 2025 • 48 mins
Cyprus is a small country with a small population and a small economy. But it has big ambitions in space. In this episode, recorded at Cospar 2025 in Nicosia, George Danos, who has been championing this case for Cyprus for years and can be considered Cyprus's Carl Sagan, explains the rise of Cyprus's space activities in communication services, small satellites, and collaboration with ESA and more.
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Episode 127: Weaving with Graphene. Vivek Koncherry

November 21, 2025 • 38 mins
From centruries of weaving in the state of Kerala in India to automated AI controlled machines weaving Graphene coated fibres in Manchester. A modern day Cottonopolis.
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Episode 126: Graphene: From scientific discovery to commercial application

October 31, 2025 • 71 mins
rofessor James Baker, CEO of Graphene@Manchester, describes Manchester’s journey to commercialise the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of Graphene.
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Episode 125: Britian’s Greatest Pilot Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown

September 4, 2025 • 68 mins
You may have seen the BBC documentary Britain's Greatest Pilot. Yes, he was an outstanding pilot, but there was much more to him than just that. I published extracts from an interview with Captain Eric Brown in April 2011. Much of that interview was not published .. until now.
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Episode 124: Exploring the Stellar Neighbourhood. The Toliman Space Telescope

June 25, 2025 • 67 mins
Just as the Moon was the first stepping stone for our interplanetary exploration, our nearest star, the Alpha Centauri System will inevitably become our stepping stone for our Interstellar Journey. That is in the distance. A new mission, The Toliman Space Telescope, is launching soon will target the Alpha-Centauri System from Earth orbit.
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Episode 123: Soaring over the surface of Titan: NASA’s Dragonfly Mission

May 29, 2025 • 46 mins
It is December 2034. A spacecraft launched from Earth in July 2028, enters Titan's atmosphere at 5km/s. Around 2 hours later, it softly lands on the surface at less than 1m /s. Over the next three years, NASA's Dragonfly mission, a rotorcraft the size of a small car, will chemically analyse the Titan's atmosphere, ground and a little of its subsurface. It's called Dragonfly
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Episode 122: Are we alone and the Breakthrough Initiatives

April 29, 2025 • 71 mins
A two-day Breakthrough Discuss conference held on 23rd and 24th April 2025 in Oxford England, took stock of the latest developments through three main sessions: "Forms of Non-Terrestrial Life", "The Nature of Consciousness and Intelligence", and "Detecting Life As We Do Not Know It". Breakthough Discuss was overseen by the Chairman of the Breakthrough Foundation, in this interview Dr Pete Worden. A former Brigadier. General, astro...
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Episode 121: Failed stars or successful planets?

April 17, 2025 • 66 mins
The story of Teide-1 (the first brown dwarf to be observed) is the story at the other end of a star's life cycle. That early stage is when stars transition from a huge cloud of dust and gas (billions of km across). to the size of a large planet (150,000 km). This is way smaller than the size of the sun and only a little larger than Jupiter.
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Episode 120: Prof. Gengxin Xie. A Greenhouse on the Moon

April 8, 2025 • 41 mins
On Thursday, 3rd January 2019, some water was added to some seeds in a tiny greenhouse. The seeds, cotton, potato, Rape and Arabidopsis sprouted. This was an experiment fonducted on the lunar surface
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Episode 119: Professor Ivan Almar and Astronomy in Hungary during the Soviet Era 

January 9, 2025 • 46 mins
A brief but fascinating life and work of Professor Ivan Almar. he and his wife's contributions to asttronautics in Hungary during and after the Soviet era.
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Episode 118: Galactic Magnetic Fields

September 26, 2024 • 43 mins
Did you know our galaxy (the Milky Way) has a magnetic field? News to me! Dr Vasu Shaw explains how astronomers go about understanding such phenomena. We also speak her fascinating international journey to becoming an astrophysicist.
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Episode 117: Early Aviation in Manchester

September 8, 2024 • 48 mins
Its not just cotton, trains and computers that Manchester is known for its innovation but aviation too. Frank Pleszak shares his insights in to the role Manchester played in aviation more than 100 years ago.
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Episode 116: Exploring Cosmic Events with Professor Rene Breton at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

June 27, 2024 • 73 mins
In this episode, Professor Rene Breton, originally from Quebec, has been working at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics for over a decade. We discuss only a small part of his current research, including how Pulsars may one day be used as a GPS for interstellar travel.
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