Guest: Emily Lakdawalla. Topics: We discussed planetary science missions, the outer and inner planets, Ceres, icy moons, and more. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed back Emily Lakdawalla for a far ranging planetary science and mission discussion. During the first segment of our 90 minute program, Emily was asked questions about the Planetary Society's solar sail mission, LightSail. Look forward to a special Space Show program about this project in the near future. I asked her about her Cassini Icy Moons article on her Planetary Society blog which can be found at http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla. We talked about the photo mosaics and Emily told us about the software and how any of could easily do similar mosaics. As you will hear, we talked about icy moons throughout our program. The Dawn mission with its approach to Ceres was an important discussion topic as was New Horizons on the way to Pluto. As all of you have heard before, this is the year of the Dwarf Planet! Dan called with questions about Mars 2020 and the sample return mission. We touched on human spaceflight and addressed the NASA planetary budget. Roy called to ask about the Thursday press conference about Ganymede, then before the break we got a question about the Rosetta mission and the Ceres bright spot. In the second segment, Emily had more to say about New Horizons, how photos and data would be sent back to Earth, and the upcoming cliff hanging moments with New Horizons and why they are considered cliff hanging. Don't miss our New Horizons discussion. Callers and questions came in about Europa, the overall cost of planetary missions for the American taxpayer, the Dawn orbit around Ceres and limitations due to hydrazine. One listener even asked if there would be public events around New Horizons arriving at Pluto. Near the end of the segment, Doug sent in several emails asking about Uranus and Neptune and here Emily had much to say in support of such missions. I asked our guest about her preference between inner and outer planets. We also talked about returning to the Moon. Near the end of the program, Carl wanted to know what was going to happen with planetary science after New Horizons. A series of lunar questions came in with one asking about a lunar sample return. I asked Emily if a lunar sample return was needed given the quantity of Moon Rocks that we have from the Apollo era. Don't miss her most interesting reply with a focus on possible contamination from the lunar Imbrium event. As our program was ending, Barry wanted to know why we were using radio communications from the outer planets rather than light. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. Emily Lakdawalla can be reached through her blog or me.
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