This Week In Space podcast: Episode 224 — The Science of Artemis

In Episode 224 of *This Week In Space*, Rod Pyle and guest co-host Rick Jenet sit down with lunar scientist Dr. David Kring to map the Artemis Program's return to the Moon—not just where the landers touch down, but the deeper geological why behind every crater and shadow. Dr. Kring breaks down the mission architecture, landing site selection, and the scientific payoff waiting in the lunar south pole's ancient, frozen dark. It's a reminder that Artemis is more than a flag-and-footprints sequel; it's a field campaign for answering questions about the solar system's earliest chapters. Tune in before we kick up the regolith. There's a particular thrill in hearing a planetary scientist talk about the Moon like a library that's been waiting forty years for someone to reopen its doors. In this episode, Dr. David Kring does exactly that, guiding Rod Pyle and Rick Jenet through the Artemis Program's layered logic: why the south pole, why specific craters, why the timing feels different from Apollo. The conversation is less about "going back" and more about "going for the first time" with modern tools to a region no human has ever touched. That shift in mindset is exactly the kind of speculative tension Starfall Weekly loves—the known world ending where the shadowed craters begin. What makes the episode a standout is its insistence on the *where* and *why* as inseparable questions. Landing site selection isn't a matter of convenience or playing it safe; it's about access to water ice, to ancient impact melts, to strata that may hold a record of late heavy bombardment and even the delivery of organics. Dr. Kring's expertise reminds us that every Artemis landing site is a hypothesis written in the language of impact basins and volatile traps. The Moon isn't just a destination—it's a witness, and Artemis is the first real attempt to take its testimony seriously. Of course, any serious look at Artemis also has to confront the immense engineering and human-systems hurdles—the podcast doesn't shy away from those, either. The science is the plot, but the launch vehicle, the Orion capsule, the landers, and the suits are all part of the same spacecraft-and-dream assembly line. That interplay between hard engineering and even harder physics is the terrain where speculative fiction and real spaceflight overlap. Our job, as storytellers of the future, is to honor both the math and the myth. If you're mapping the path to a permanent lunar presence, Episode 224 is an essential waypoint. Let the long shadows of the south pole be your guide—but bring Dr. Kring's geology along for the ride. Source: [This Week In Space podcast: Episode 224 — The Science of Artemis](https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/this-week-in-space-podcast-episode-224-the-science-of-artemis)