Do humans have a place in space this week on planetary radio.

Welcome to the travel show that takes you to the Final Frontier. I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society,

the National Research Council here in the United States

has had its say. Pathways to exploration is the long-awaited report that looks at the role

of men and women in space. It is not a walk in the park.

Neither is it a ringing endorsement of NASA's current plans. We'll talk with distinguished

space historian and policy expert John Logston about this document and its fallout.

A galaxy named after a hat?

That's the space trivia contest that has generated more entries than any we've had in a long time.

The answer is coming up on this week's edition of What's Up with Bruce Betts.

First though our usual opening salvo from Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who has good news for the New Horizons

mission to Pluto and beyond, and from the Planetary Society Senior Editor Emily Lachdawala.

Emily, I've just read your updates on three missions that are getting pretty close to their targets.

Which of these would you like to start with?

Well, let's start with the two Mars Bound missions.

You know, it's kind of funny how these things can be real quiet for a real long time and all of a

sudden, a whole bunch of mission updates pop into the news all at once.

We have two spacecraft on their way to Mars.

One is the NASA spacecraft named Maven, which is on its way to study the upper

atmosphere of Mars, and the other is India's Mars Orbiter mission, which is their first spacecraft

to ever leave Earth's environment.

So that one's really exciting.

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