Digging for dollars on the 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.

Today we'll take you to the Lunar Regolith Challenge

on the Central Coast of California. That's where four amateur teams put their ingenious excavation

robots to work, each hoping to win a quarter their ingenious

to work,

to win a quarter of a million dollars.

We're preempting Q&A for this special coverage.

Emily Lachdwalah will return with a new installment next week.

But you'll still get your night sky fix

from Bruce Betts as we look at what's up and give away another planetary radio t-shirt.

We've got just enough time for a few space headlines. STS 117 is go for

liftoff on Friday, June 8. Shuttle Atlantis is on the pad ready for another visit

to the International Space Station,

it's possible that shuttle workers at the Kennedy Space Center

will go on strike just days after the planned launch.

By the time you hear this, NASA's Messenger spacecraft may have made a swing

past Venus. Scientists are looking to coordinate collection of data with Europe's Venus

Express orbiter before Messenger continues its long inward journey to Mercury.

Got an insatiable craving for more space news?

Me too. You'll find it on the web at planetary.org.

May 12, 2007.

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