For powerful new space telescopes, which of them will win this week on Planetary Radio?

Welcome. I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

Which of them will win? There's a teased line if there ever was one, and it's the wrong question.

It's not that one of these magnificent instruments will win in the soon-to-be-issued Astro 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.

But they will be ranked, and it's likely that not all of them will be funded by NASA.

Astrophysicist Grant Tremblay hopes all will be recognized as the complementary tools that could work together to answer those greatest of questions.

Where do we come from, and are we alone?

Grant will join us for a conversation about the new great observatories right after we take a look at the downlink, and just before we welcome back Bruce Betz for another edition of What's Up.

We can congratulate China yet again. It's Zerong Rover has rolled down onto the surface of Mars.

So there are now three mobile robots exploring the surface of the red planet with the inside lander continuing to peer beneath that surface.

You can check out our coverage at planetary.org slash downlink.

Want to ride into space? Last I checked the current bid for a seat on Blue Origins' new shepherd was up to $2.8 million.

All those dollars will eventually go to the company's club for the future of foundation that encourages young people to enter STEM careers.

Can't quite compete at that level. Well, you could try out for who wants to be an astronaut.

The new reality TV show that promises to put its winner on the International Space Station.

I guess this is progress, right?

Nearly 300 white papers were submitted to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as part of the astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey.

There are proposals for research and instruments ranging from the relatively inexpensive to what used to be called flagships, projects that will cost billions and take many years to fulfill.

There are four of these major projects and Grant Trembley loves all of them.

Grant works at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is most closely associated with the proposal for links, an amazing X-ray telescope that would be orders of magnitude more powerful than the Chandra instrument that has been in space since 1999.

But Grant is also part of a grand coalition that unites all four proposals and teams. He joined me a few days ago.

Grant, welcome to Planetary Radio. I'm very happy to have you on the show and you come highly recommended, including a recommendation from the great Heidi Hamill, who has been heard many times on the show, who said you got to talk to Grant Trembley about the new great observatories, and here you are. Welcome.

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