The dawn of a new age of interplanetary exploration this week on planetary Radio. Radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier and this week into the asteroid belt I'm Matt Kaplan.

By the time some of you hear this the Dawn Discovery Mission may be on its way to Vesta

and series the two largest denizens of that ring of flotsam and

jetsam between Mars and Jupiter. It really is a revolutionary mission in many ways as

we'll hear from Mark Raymond

Don's Project System Engineer.

Emily Lachto-Wala takes us back

to the biggest volcano in the solar system

for this week's Q&A segment.

Is it just a long dead monument or could mighty Mount Olympus be

ticking down to another eruption?

And we'll finish with a look at the night sky from Bruce Betts, along with the random space fact that may make you think twice

about living on the moon or a space station.

The top news story in this corner of the Milky Way also takes us to the red planet,

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has begun what may be its most perilous adventure since it bounced down more than three years ago.

The little explorer has begun its descent into Victoria

Crater where tantalizing rocky outcrops await. The complete story,

including an update from Spirit on the other side of Mars is at planetary.org.

Nighty night new horizons. The Pluto probe has gone to slumberland.

It will spend much of the next eight years in hibernation.

Actually this first snooze is more of a nap. The spacecraft will wake up in just two

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