Smashing Holes in Mars to Look for Life

Explore Mars wants to look for life on the Red Planet. Not past life. Life thriving under the Martian surface right now. Chris Carberry will tell us how the ExoLance project might find it. Emily Lakdawalla shows us the proposed landing sites on Rosetta’s comet. Bill Nye says NASA is about to choose the commercial contractor that will take astronauts to the International Space Station. Bruce Betts sends us searching for interplanetary leprechauns in the What’s Up space trivia contest.

Related Links:

• Explore Mars
• ExoLance Indiegogo Campaign
• Rosetta Identifies Five Possible Landing Sites For Philae
• Hayabusa2 is Complete
• Messages to Bennu Deadline is September 30

This week's prize is a Planetary Radio v2.1 T-shirt.

This week's question:

Where in the solar system is Leprechaun Valles?

To submit your answer:

Complete the contest entry form at http://planetary.org/radiocontest or write to us at [email protected] no later than Tuesday, September 9, at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

In Earth years, how long is a Pluto year?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

What were the names of the five pocket mice flown on Apollo 17?

Answer:

The five pocket mice aboard Apollo 17 were informally named Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum and Fooey. (RIP Fooey.)