Chris McKay on the Phoenix Mission's big surprise this week on planetary radio. I'm at Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society. Why is the discovery of

rather nasty chlorine compounds in the sands of Mars a good thing?

Famed planetary scientist and astrobiologist Chris McKay will give us the exciting answer.

Bill Nye is just as excited about proof of a way to discover worlds with oceans like

our own. And Bruce Betts brings his

teddy bear along for our weekly What's Up tour of the Night Sky. Think fast. How

many people live on the International Space Station?

The answer for the first time is six.

And what do they drink?

Well, and this is another first, they drink water that has been recycled from everything they do up there.

It's really a pretty big milestone since the near 100% reuse of resources will be essential

on a trip to, say, Mars. of the

resources will be essential on a trip to, say, Mars.

And speaking of the red planet, take out your red and blue 3D glasses

and check out the images from the CTX or context camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Sure, the ultra-sharp high-rise camera gets most of the press, but its field of view is so narrow

that it sometimes misses the forest for the trees.

An odd metaphor, considering its Mars we're talking about.

Some great context camera images are available in a recent planetary society blog entry from Ken Edgett.

It's at planetary.org, of course.

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