Learning to farm on Mars and looking for life in the saltiest of waters this week on planetary radio

Hi, everyone. I'm Matt Kaplan senior communications advisor at the Planetary Society

It's great to be back at the plan red microphone while Sarah is on vacation

She'll be back next week with more of this human adventure across our solar system and beyond

The planetary society has just announced the two projects that have been awarded our latest step grants

That's science and technology enabled by the public in other words by you if you're one of our members or donors

Stick around as we meet the principal investigators for these exciting efforts

The society's chief scientist Bruce Vetz will provide a brief overview of the program in moments

I wonder if he'll remember me. I mean it was more than two decades

That we brought you what's up, and we'll continue that tradition today

It all begins with selected headlines from the down lake are free weekly newsletter

The May 26 edition is taught by a stunning image of what may be sand dunes on Pluto

That's if you can call tiny particles of frozen methane sand

Check out the close-up captured by New Horizons when it whizzed by in 2015

Drop down a bit closer to the sun and you'll find a polar storm on Uranus

The data were collected over several years by the giant dishes of the very large array in New Mexico

Which is an awfully impressive piece of radio astronomy in anyone's book

This discovery puts Uranus right in step with our solar systems other big planets that host polar cyclones

Move over space X NASA has picked the team led by blue origin as the second provider of a lander

That will put humans back on the moon the blue moon lander is expected to be part of the Artemis 5 mission

We link to the NASA release and a very cool artist concept at planetary dot org slash downlink

There's something else I have to mention scroll a bit farther down in the May 26 newsletter

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