Scattered clouds and fog today on Mars and on planetary radio.

Welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society. It still seems so weird to talk about very

earth-like weather conditions on that drier than a bone planetary

neighbor known as the Red Planet. But the data makes it sound more like home

all the time. Mark Lemon's camera on the Phoenix Lander gave us some of the best Martian

weather data yet. He'll join us shortly.

Bill Nye is also talking about the weather, specifically the wild weather some parts of the United

States have suffered through over the last few months. Bruce Betts hopes your sky will be cloud-free

so that you can enjoy the sites he'll share on this week's What's Up segment.

As promised, the Space Trivia Contest also returns.

You can test your knowledge and your luck.

See if you can win a coveted planetary radio t-shirt.

I hope the weather is treating Emily Lochu Lachwaala well. She's on a family vacation but the Planetary Society's

science and technology coordinator still took time to talk with us about her

blog. Emily thanks so much for joining us from the road. Too bad we have to do this by phone, but the content is well worthwhile.

We of course need to talk about spirit.

Poor spirit.

As you've said in your blog, it's all over now but the crying.

That's certainly how I feel.

A couple of people have admonished me for being somewhat emotional about the end of what's

after all, just a robot that survived so much longer than it was originally

...