Astronauts. Do we need them?

It’s a brave question to put to three astronauts live on stage but it’s a risk we are prepared to take. Recorded in front of a live audience at the UK Space Conference in Manchester, European Space Agency astronauts Tim Peake, Meganne Christian and John McFall discuss the future of human space exploration. Could robots or AI take their place? Will a trip to the Moon be as common as flying across the Atlantic? And can humans be trusted to not mess with Mars? Host Izzie Clarke asks the big questions, producer Richard Hollingham threatens the audience, and (soft sceptic) Dr Robert Massey is prepared to be unpopular as they contemplate the role of astronauts in the 21st century. Join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening and share your questions, images and more. Or email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or on Instagram @SupermassivePod. The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Astronauts. Do we need them? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Astronauts. Do we need them? is an episode from The Supermassive Podcast by Izzie Clarke.

This episode is 50:04 long.

This episode was published on Jul 29, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Supermassive Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.