Author David Brin Considers and Writes "Existence"

Award-winning science fiction author, physicist, engineer, inventor and futurist David Brin returns to Planetary Radio for a conversation about his monumental and very entertaining new novel.  Emily Lakdawalla previews a very busy month of great planetary science, while Bill Nye invites listeners to learn about a campaign to restore funding for the exploration of our solar system. Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan give away another space pen in this week’s What’s Up look at the night sky, and take a look back at this week in space history.

Related Links

• David Brin and "Existence"
• David Brin Talks About Ray Bradbury
• Save Our Science! September 10 Deadline to Become a Space Advocate
• Emily's September 2012 "What's Up in the Solar System"
• LEGO Curiosity!

Trivia Contest

This week's prize is an engraved Fisher Space Pen.

This week's question:
What was the first spacecraft to successfully fly by a planet, and what happened to its identical sister spacecraft?

To submit your answer:
Send an email no later than Monday, September 10, at 2 pm Pacific time to [email protected] containing:

Last week's question:
What was the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn?

Answer:
The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:
How long is the reach of the MSL Curiosity arm, measuring from the front of the rover body?

Answer:
About 7 feet, or 2.1 meters