If you could send a robot somewhere in the solar system, where are you choosing?

You would not be able to lose Thai fighters in the solar system's asteroid belt.

The excitement around that mission was so infectious.

We could actually study material formed in another star system.

Hello, welcome to the supermassive podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society,

with me, science journalist Izzy Clark and with astrophysicist Dr. Becky Smethyst.

This month we're exploring our solar system.

Where exactly have we sent probes and rovers?

Plus, we're speaking with Professor Jane Greaves about that Venus discovery that we're all very excited about.

Oh, yeah, I can't wait.

So with us is Robert Massey, the deputy director of the Royal Astronomical Society.

And I'm so jealous because you're actually in Burlington House.

Yeah, I'm actually in Burlington House for the first time since March, and I suspect it might be the last time this year, but we'll see. It's a strange feeling. I mean, the buildings much as you remember it, but it's just very, very quieter. As were the streets of London getting here and the train getting here as well, I think there were about four people in my peak time carriage all the way from Bristol. So very, very quiet. I'm sure everyone

is very glad to hear, though, that Burlington House at least is still standing. Our favourite

building is still okay. On the topic of this month, when did we actually first send a probe to space?

It depends how you define it, but you could argue that even Sputnik won, the very first satellite,

was a probe of space. You know, as soon as you put something in Earl, Thilbert, you were sending something into an

environment that we hadn't done before. And of course, very quickly, the Russians and the Americans

were then doing things like exploring the Van Allen belts around the earth. Within two years,

a year and a half of Sputnik launching, the Russians had sent a probe

towards the moon, and within three years, that actually crashed something into the moon and then

taken pictures of the far side. So it accelerated really quickly, I guess because scientists are

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