From ice-saving glass spheres to printed concrete, explained firsthand.
Frontier Space is a conversation show hosted by Kole Lutz, in which a guest, or sometimes a pair, explains the work they are doing. Subjects run from glass microspheres meant to keep ice from melting to reflective pavement coatings, sunlight and vitamin D, and concrete beams printed on site.
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Frontier Space is an interview podcast hosted by Kole Lutz, and its name is only part of the story. The show introduces itself in two ways across these episodes. Some open by calling it a dialogue about how space technology and exploration are transforming the solar system. Others describe a series about the environment, engineering and health of Earth, space and beyond. The second description fits the range better. Dr. Leslie Field talks about hollow glass microspheres intended to help preserve ice, and she is careful with terms: they are not nanoparticles, she explains, but deliberately larger than 10 microns to avoid inhalation concerns. She also notes that silica is among the most abundant materials on the planet, present in rocks, oceans and rivers. Mike and Dave describe a company that has spent about 40 years making products to help asphalt roads last longer, and how client needs tied to urban heat led it toward reflective coatings. Their conversation turns practical. Wet, heavily trafficked climates wear coatings faster, while in places like Phoenix, Arizona, UV light is the bigger threat to bare asphalt. Dr. Michael Holick brings in health, laying out how time of day, season, latitude, skin pigmentation and altitude all affect vitamin D production. He describes vitamin D as doing two jobs: keeping blood calcium normal for healthy bones and, his field believes, acting locally on the immune system and cell growth. Andy, speaking for a team in Copenhagen, explains the difficulty of printing concrete that holds its shape layer after layer, and why printing with real aggregate at the half-inch scale matters. The payoff he points to is flat structures, floors people can walk on, rather than domes. Lazlo's episode deals with a material that can convert gamma rays into photoelectrons, with possible uses in energy conversion, detection and security. The AIAA SciTech 2023 interview with Taylor Fazzini is the odd one out, recorded live at the conference. It touches on the event's turnout and a closing theme about science fiction becoming reality, including the point that Jules Verne wrote about sending people to the moon by rocket a century before it happened. Across these conversations Lutz's approach holds steady. He often starts by asking about the aha moment or what inspired the research, sometimes after a little small talk about rain in Boston or the end of a Copenhagen winter. Then he steps back and lets the guest explain. The sign-offs are friendly and now and then playful. One ends with a wish that the force be with the guest's team. What a listener gets is researchers and practitioners explaining their own work in their own terms, with enough technical detail to come away knowing something concrete. For a first listen, the ice and pavement episodes show the show's climate-materials side, while the SciTech interview is its most aerospace-facing conversation.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants applied science explained by the people doing it, and who is happy to move from climate materials to vitamin D to an aerospace conference from one episode to the next.
What sets it apart: Despite its space-first name, it ranges into Earth-bound engineering such as reflective road coatings, printed concrete and ice preservation, and it lets the people behind each project do most of the explaining.
Frontier Space is a research organisation and podcast listened to in 80+ countries with entrepreneurs and researchers advancing engineering, climate action, materials science, biotechnology, and space systems. Our Podcast host Kole Lutz is the cofounder of startups such as Magneto Space. The Podcast helps push the envelope of science and development of life on Earth and beyond.
A Phoenix roadway and a possible floor on Mars belong in your particular curiosity spiral.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured climate conversation on ice preservation, hollow glass microspheres, and the questions raised when materials enter marine environments.
Reflective materials for preserving ice give this Frontier Space conversation a grounded environmental-engineering focus. Cole Lutz asks Dr. Leslie Field what first pushed her toward the work, and her answer begins with responsibility: when harm to marine life, coral,…
A road coating becomes a measured case study in asphalt durability, urban heat, and practical climate adaptation.
Cool Seal reflective coatings treats pavement as a practical climate and maintenance problem: if asphalt can be protected while running cooler, streets become part of a broader adaptation toolkit.
A clear account of how sunlight's angle and skin exposure shape vitamin D production.
Vitamin D starts with something easy to overlook: the angle of the sun. Dr. Michael Holick explains how time of day, season, latitude, skin pigmentation, and altitude shape whether ultraviolet B reaches the skin in amounts that matter.
A grounded look at printed concrete beams and why their materials matter for future construction on Earth and beyond.
Frontier Space follows Andy, a structural engineering design consultant, as he explains how 3D printing could reshape concrete construction. The strongest thread is practical rather than futuristic: buildings should be designed around the way they are made.
Space sustainability beyond the launchpad.
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
Leslie Field says granular hollow glass microspheres worked better than sheets for preserving ice.
Frontier Space Episode 42 with host Cole Lutz and guests Mike and Dave centers on CoolSeal, a reflective asphalt coating built for roadway maintenance and urban heat mitigation.
Dr. Michael Holick says Boston winter sun above Atlanta, Georgia cannot make vitamin D because UVB is absorbed by ozone.
Frontier Space talks with Andy about Minimass, a startup he began in October 2021 after 16 years in structural engineering.
Methyl-lead perovskites can convert gamma rays, X-rays, and neutrons into measurable electrons for detection and energy conversion.
Sumitra describes MHD simulations of the star HD128793 in which a moving planet produces radio transit modulation of almost 50% that correlates with the planet's magnetic field.
Vasco, a plasma physicist, describes using plasma to split the CO2 that makes up about 96% of Mars's atmosphere so that oxygen can be extracted for breathing and rocket propellant.
The host discusses space technology and colonization, inspired by a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
This episode discusses space technology and biological challenges of spaceflight, featuring an interview with Dr.
This episode discusses nanodiamond batteries, carbon-foam spacecraft, and an interview with Bill Stone about space exploration.
Host Coleman Lutz discusses space science and technology with entrepreneur Fatima Hamdani, who develops zero-emission UAS aircraft.