Mars Rover Project Manager John Callis, 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. Take your pick. You can celebrate two Martian years

or almost four Earth ones. Either way, Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rovers, have to be among the greatest successes in the history of space exploration.

John Callis of JPL is at the heart of this success story.

He'll share a progress report with us in just a couple of minutes.

Emily Lachtowala and Bruce Betts both make time to talk about Comet Holmes,

still lighting up a corner of the night sky.

Bruce and I will also offer your last chance to get in on Planetary Radio's fifth

anniversary celebration when we talk about the new space trivia contest. Someone is going

to win that little piece of Mars next week.

A snapshot of our pale blue dot tops the space headlines.

Kaguya, the Japanese Lunar Orbiter, has an HD TV camera on board. That camera caught a candid shot of

you, me, and everyone else on Earth as our lovely planet rose over the cratered moon. You can see it at planetary.org.

We've also got a pretty picture of next-door neighbor Venus on the site.

This one came to us in a riot of false color from Venus Express, the European orbiter that just celebrated two years

in space, the infrared image cuts through the clouds to reveal the hot surface below. Hey and while you're poking around planetary.org you might want to check out the article

Executive Director Lou Friedman penned for Professional Pilot magazine.

Asked to write about the future of flight, Lou looked past our atmosphere to the solar

sails that may someday lay courses between the stars.

Here's Emily.

I'll be right back with John Callis of JPL.

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