Gen Y on the lookout for extraterrestrials this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm at Kaplan. Where do young space scientists and

engineers come from? They come from the same places they always have, of course,

though a few of them may be pleasantly surprised by the path they find themselves on.

We'll meet 27-year-old Curtis Mead.

Curtis is the primary research assistant on the All Sky Optical SETI project at Harvard.

He never would have suspected that he could one day be looking for evidence that we are not alone.

Bruce Betts will also be along shortly, bringing more the news about the night sky. In fact, we've got an

exciting announcement to share during this week's edition of What's Up, and it's not just

another space trivia contest. Space Shuttle Atlantis tops our headlines this week.

She'll be spending the holidays on the ground. NASA scrubbed a planned December 9

launch when it got a false reading from one of four engine cutoff or eco-censors

inside the liquid hydrogen section of the external fuel tank. The agency is hoping to get the problem taken care of in time for another attempt on January 2, 2008.

May I also suggest you check out Emily Lachtowallala's blog at planetary.org. She'll wish you a

happy Iranian equinox, but you can also read her fascinating and somewhat disturbing

tale of Chinese lunar orbiter Changye's first image of the moon.

Emily is in the thick of a bit of controversy over this picture.

And since she is a bit under the weather, here's a Q&A classic from Emily, I'll be right back

with Curtis Mead of the All Sky SETI Project. Hi, I'm Emily Loch Duwala with questions and answers. A listener asked,

Mars Global Surveyor was an orbit for almost 10 years.

It's sad that it's lost, but there are three other newer orbiters at Mars.

Are we really missing anything now that Mars Global Surveyor is gone?

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