JPL's director this week on planetary radio. Radio.

Hi everyone and welcome back to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Ad Kaplan.

Kucini Huygens is headed for Saturn's mysterious moon, Titan.

As the huge probes builders at the Jet Propulsion Lab prepare for this close

encounter, their boss, Charles Alach Alachi takes a few minutes to visit with

us.

Later on what's up, join Bruce Betts and me as we give away our new and stunning planetary

radio t-shirt now executed in blue.

We'll start with a quick look at space headlines.

NASA investigators think they've figured out why the perifoil never opened as the Genesis

spacecraft plummeted back to Earth.

Recovery of solar wind samples from that decidedly hard landing continues in Houston.

The hills may not be alive on Mars, but there sure are some steep ones. Nevertheless elderly

rover's spirit and opportunity continue to carefully pick their way up and down

snapping an ongoing series of stunning images including new panoramas.

Meanwhile Earth's other planetary neighbor edges closer to hosting a new visitor,

assembly of the European Space Agency's Venus Express has been completed in Italy.

The probe now goes to France for final testing, with launch scheduled for about a year from now. You can learn more about these and other stories at our

website planetary.org. I'll be back with Charles Elachi right after Emily explains why

it isn't just your bathtub that has a dirty ring. Hi, I'm Emily Lochuwala with questions and answers.

A listener asked, why were scientists so excited to find dirt in Saturn's rings?

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