The dangers of space junk this week on planetary radio. Radio.

Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the Final Frontier. I'm Mad Kaplan.

As if there isn't already enough trash in Earth orbit, now there is growing

concern about satellite destroying debris that could result from use of anti-satellite weapons.

We'll talk about the problem with Michael Krapin,

head of the Stimson Center's space security project,

along with a possible solution.

Here's the news from around the solar system this week. Space Shuttle Discovery

is still in the giant vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.

It should by now have been mated to its replacement external tank, making it almost ready

to roll back out to the launch pad.

NASA has given the go-ahead for the Phoenix mission to Mars.

The long-armed Lander will lift off in 2007, headed for the far north of the planet.

As Mars Exploration Rover Spirit finds more and more evidence of past water in Gusev Crater, opportunity is making

excruciatingly slow progress getting itself out of the sand dune it has been

stuck in.

Principal investigator Steve Squires is confident the rover will be back rolling across

the plains of Mars in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, scientists think they've solved a 150-year-old mystery about the Red Planet's off-center South Pole ice cap.

You can read about both of these stories at planetary.org. Coming up a status report on Cosmos 1, the Solar Sale, from Project Head Lou Friedman.

Please, please also stay tuned for one of the silliest what-up segments yet from Bruce Betts

and yours truly.

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