Blue Friedman on the International Lunar Decade 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. It's not a race this time at least not yet, but

the target is the same as back in the 60s. And everyone is getting in on the action. China,

Europe, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States

are all planning robotic missions to the moon, with the Americans and others also talking about

men and surely women this time in 10 years or so.

Kinda seems like the decade of the moon doesn't it?

That's exactly what Planetary Society Executive Director Lou Friedman will join us to talk about in a couple of minutes.

Later we'll check in with Bruce Betts for this week's What's Up.

And Bruce will get some help from someone who will still be a teenager when people start leaving new

footprints in the lunar dust, his son.

We've got Emily Lockawala's Q&A coming up too.

Wow, what a week for news of our solar system beginning with word

from the Martian South Pole Europe's Mars Express Orbiter used its ground

penetrating radar to peak more than two miles or nearly four

kilometers beneath the red planet's frozen bottom. What it found has got to be

good news for future colonists enough water to cover the entire

surface of the planet to a depth of 36 feet or more than 10 meters, and it's mostly

pure H2O.

Could it really have been just a few years ago that we were wondering if there was more than

a trace of wet stuff up there?

Hey there may just be canals on Mars someday.

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