Space elevator games in Utah and planetary scientists compare notes 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. Our show is packed denser than a neutron star

this week. We'll start off with a preview of the Space Word games from Space Word Foundation

founder Ben Shelf.

Then we'll take a quick look at last week's annual gathering

of the American Astronomical Union's Division of Planetary Sciences.

Our Emily Lochualla was there for two wildly busy days. She'll tease us with

highlights from the detailed coverage in her blog. Did Saturn's rings start out as

a moon? We'll hear from Emily about that in this week's

Q&A segment. And Bruce Betts will be along for a what's up report on the current

night sky. A tip of the planetary radio space helmet to the SETI Institute and

UC Berkeley. They have just turned on the first section of the Allen Radio

Telescope Array. The 42 dishes are just over a tenth of what is

eventually planned for the Northern California Project funded by Microsoft

co-founder Paul Allen. Details are at planetary.org where you can also read in

Emily's blog about milestones reached by Cassini at Saturn and Mars Exploration

Rover Spirit on Mars. Hard to believe that Cassini was

launched 10 years ago this week. Time sure flies when you're doing great science.

And Spirit has been on the Red Planet for two whole years.

Two whole Martian years, that is, each of which takes 687 Earth days.

Space elevator going up.

We're just a minute or so away from Ben Shelf and a preview of the

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