MAVEN Mars Mission's Bruce Jakosky

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) orbiter leaves for the red planet in November of 2013. Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado Boulder is its Principal Investigator. Mat Kaplan sat down with Bruce at a recent MAVEN workshop to talk about this fascinating mission. Emily Lakdawalla points us to two wonderful ways to explore the surface of asteroid Vesta.  Bruce Betts reports from a celebration of 50 years of planetary science at Caltech.  Bill Nye is off so that he can get ready for the season premiere of Dancing With the Stars!

Related Links

• BLOG: MAVEN Assembly and Test Videos
• MAVEN Website
• Planetary Sciences at Caltech-50 Year Celebration
• BLOG and VIDEO: Bruce Betts on Whether Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System

Trivia Contest

This week's prize is the NEW and stylish Planetary Radio T-shirt! 

This week's question:
What happened to Mariner 3?  (What went wrong with Mariner 3 that had to be corrected for Mariner 4?

To submit your answer:
Complete the contest entry form at http:planetary.org/radiocontest or write to us at [email protected] no later than Monday, September 23rd, at 2pm Pacific Time.  Be sure to include your name, mailing address and shirt size.

Last week's question:
Give us an analogy for the surface area of the moon!  Amuse or enlighten us.  Example: X football fields.

Answer:
The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:
What is Dr. Bruce Murray's middle name?

Answer:
Dr. Bruce Murray's middle name was Churchill