Author Kim Stanley Robinson Takes Us to 2312

In his new novel, 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson share his vision of a brave new solar system that is chock full of humanity.  He tells us about it in a special, extended podcast conversation. Emily Lakdawalla enjoys the new guest blogger contributions at planetary.org.  Bill Nye is back to share congratulations for SpaceX, with its Dragon capsule now a full-fledged transportation system.  And Bruce Betts will tell us about the sky wonders still in store over the next couple of weeks.

Related Links

• Read an excerpt from 2312
• Build an asteroid "terrarium!"
• Saturn set to the Moonlight Sonata
• SpaceX Dragon

Trivia Contest

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

This week's question:
What is the name of the simple scale commonly used to rate the appearance and brightness of the moon during total lunar eclipses?

To submit your answer:
Send an email no later than Monday, June 4, at 2 pm Pacific time to [email protected] containing:

Last week's question:
Who performed the first known observation of a Venus transit, and in what year?

Answer:
Coming soon in next week's show!

Question from the week before:
What is the current approximate value of the Hubble Constant?

Answer:
72 kilometers per second per megaparsec is a pretty good approximation.