Slow, steady and smart, makes it to the moon this week on planetary radio. Radio.

Hello again everyone and welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan.

The European Space Agency is celebrating.

After more than a year of gentle spaceflight, pushed along by a state-of-the-art ion

engine, Smart One has arrived in lunar orbit. We'll talk with Bernard Foying,

the ESA's chief scientist and project scientist for this

mission.

this mission.

and Bruce Betts gives you a chance to serve NASA in this week's trivia contest that

well isn't a trivia contest. All that begins right

after this review of the top space headlines. The case for methane on Mars grows

stronger as two teams present more evidence.

Not all the results agree with one group finding a higher incidence of natural gas where there

is also water vapor. Both teams acknowledge that so-called methanogenic

bacteria under the surface could be the source, but no one is anywhere near a

conclusive statement about life on the red planet. All the details are at

planetary.org on the web. They are the biggest explosions in the universe making a

supernova look like no more than a wet firecracker.

Scientists now hope to learn much more about gamma ray bursts

with the successful launch of Swift from Cape Canaveral.

The 20-foot spacecraft will conduct its search from Earth

...