Astronauts become aquanauts this week on planetary radio. Radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. Move over, Sponge Bob. Off the coast of Florida, 60 feet below

the surface sits the Aquarius Undersea Habitat. Even a space shuttle endeavor circles overhead, three astronauts and a NASA engineer have become

aquanauts, spending nine days on a simulated moon mission.

What a treater was to talk with them during a break from their busy schedule?

You're about to hear part of that conversation.

We've also got a brand new Q&A from Emily Lockwala coming up,

while Bruce Betts and I will introduce a new verb during today's what's up look at the night sky.

We want to save as much time as possible for our aquanauts, so we'll limit the news to STS 118.

Endever is indeed in the midst of its mission to the International Space Station.

Inspection of damaged tiles has been completed,

and NASA was still deciding whether a spacewalk would be needed to make repairs.

Emily's on fire with this Q&A. We'll visit the Nemo 13 crew in a minute.

Practice holding your breath. Hi, I'm Emily Lochuwala with questions and answers.

A listener asked,

if Titan's atmosphere is made of methane and explosive gas, why didn't

the atmosphere burn when Huygens entered it?

Titan's atmosphere is mostly made of nitrogen, but it does contain a few percent methane.

And it's true that when the Huygen's atmospheric probe descended toward Titan,

the friction of its fall generated temperatures rising to thousands of degrees

producing a white-hot flare. But these temperatures could not burn the methane

...