Cassini at the Yin Yin Yang Moon, this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone,

welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. What a week for space exploration. On September 10th,

the Cassini spacecraft flew within about 1,600 kilometers or 1,000 miles of one of the weirdest places in the solar system.

What do you call a moon that is white as snow on one side and black as coal on the other?

Call it Iapetus.

We'll talk with Tillman Denk, a member of the imaging team that is

now puzzling over some of the strangest pictures ever returned by a probe. The Phoenix

Lander is still on its way to Mars as Emily locked a probe. The Phoenix lander is still on its way to Mars as Emily

Lachto-walla prepares us for the frigid end of that mission and as for

what's up? Hey did somebody get the license number of that Mars rover?

Bruce Betts and I become willing victims of a hit and run at Wired magazine's Next Fest show,

but we'll still give away a t-shirt.

Like I said, what a week! Mars Rover

opportunity took her first dip into Big Victoria Crater. It was just enough to

find out how slippery a slope it will have to deal with when it begins its descent in earnest.

Japan's Kaguia mission got off to a flawless start kicking off the international lunar decade.

The spacecraft will go into polar orbit around the moon on

October 3rd. Emily provided great coverage of the launch on her blog at

planetary.org. Speaking of the moon, who'd like to win $30 million by putting a rover on it?

Today we're challenging private teams from around the world to design and build robotic explorers

and race them to the surface of the moon.

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