Star Dust is returning to Earth and wouldn't Hogi Carmichael be proud.

This is planetary radio. Radio.

Welcome to our show, I'm Matt Kaplan. The magic continues on the Red Planet with two, count them, two rovers, making daily discoveries.

But we're taking a brief break from Mars on this week's show, except for hearing from

two Mars student astronauts.

Stay with us for an update on the Stardust mission

from Principal investigator Don Brownley.

And Bruce Betts is out of protective quarantine.

Back in a minute. quarantine. Hi, I'm David Torsi. I'm just 16 years old. I'm from Hungary. I'm now on the final day of my student

astronaut program and it's been very nice wonderful to be here fun and the most interesting

were to be meetings where we had the chance to see how decisions about the March

Exration Rovers are being made and I could talk to a lot of scientists and

they were all nice and they answered when we asked.

When I go back I guess I'll have to keep on with the interviews.

I had quite a few of them before I left so I think I will have them after I arrive back. I think my friends

will be very interested in my stories. I collected many of them just for fun. I hope I can keep in touch with the people

I got to know here because it would be very nice to continue this whole program. Astronomer Don Brownley is the principal investigator for the Stardust commentary sample return mission.

In a nearly cosmic coincidence, Stardust had its dangerous encounter with Vilt 2, within hours of Mars Exploration Rover's spirits landing

on Mars.

Now, a month and a half later, and with Stardust on its way back to Earth, we knew

it was time to get a status report. Don is usually

at the University of Washington, but he was enjoying a very different academic climate

...