2025 NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium: Part 2 — Hopping robots and the search for exoplanet magnetospheres

In this second installment of Planetary Radio’s coverage from the 2025 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, host Sarah Al-Ahmed highlights more of the technologies presented by the NIAC fellows.

Mary Knapp of MIT Haystack Observatory shares her team’s Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths project, a space-based radio array designed to detect magnetic fields around distant exoplanets. Michael Hecht, also from MIT Haystack Observatory and principal investigator for the MOXIE experiment on NASA’s Perseverance rover, discusses Exploring Venus with Electrolysis, a concept that could turn Venus’s dense atmosphere into fuel for long-duration flight and exploration. Benjamin Hockman from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory introduces two projects: Gravity Poppers, tiny hopping probes that could map the interiors of asteroids and comets, and his team’s concept for a Venus balloon observatory. Finally, Justin Yim from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents LEAP, a legged robot designed to hop through the icy plumes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in search of clues to its hidden ocean.

Then stay tuned for What’s Up with Dr. Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2025-niac-symposium-part-2

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