An international lunar decade and water skiing on Titan this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm Ad Kaplan.

Cassini has finally discovered the Titan Lake District.

No, not water. Bodies of liquid methane or ethane as much as 75 kilometers wide on Saturn's big moon.

We'll talk about them with JPL's Rosalie Lopez.

First though, a quick debriefing with the Planetary Society's executive director Lou Friedman.

Lou and Bill Nye, the Science Guy have just returned from China.

You'll hear about their trip and the Society's proposal for a decade of international

study of our own moon.

And eventually we'll pay another visit to Bruce Betts for this week's What's Up, including

a new space trivia contest.

As the first of you here this week's show, Space Shuttle Atlantis may be slowly rolling out to the

pad.

The launch window opens August 27 for a mission to, where else, the International Space Station. This will be the first

flight for Atlantis in nearly four years. Attention amateur astronomers want to save the

world then you'll want to get a Shoemaker near-Earth Object grant application.

Past recipients have been awarded more than $150,000 by the Planetary Society.

The funds have enabled Sky Watchers to upgrade their equipment,

the better to find those asteroids and comets whose orbits take them uncomfortably close to

Earth. The deadline is October 18. Details are on the web at planetary.org.

This is the time each week when I introduce Q&A with Emily Lock Duwala, and that's just what

...