Rocket Road Trip!

Planetary Society Digital Editor Jason Davis returns with the story of the ten-day trek across the South he just completed with two Society colleagues. Emily Lakdawalla has the announcement of new evidence for water plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Bill Nye reports from the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Those cosmic cut-ups, Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan, have a new What’s Up space trivia contest and much more.

Related Links:

• Five Things We Learned From Our #RocketRoadTrip
• Promise, Transition and Transformation—Reflections on a Rocket Road Trip
• Rocket Road Trip Flickr Album
• Hubble Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Europa
• Europa is Crying Out for Exploration
• 67^th International Astronautical Congress
• Random Space Fact at the California Science Center with Gemini 11

This week's prizes are a gorgeous Planetary Society rubber asteroid and a 200-point iTelescope.net astronomy account.

This week's question:

What is the surface gravity on Jupiter’s moon Europa in Gs?

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, October 4th at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

Where are the three Deep Space Network facilities?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

For spacecraft not headed to or near the Moon, what human mission had the highest apogee (traveled the farthest from Earth)?

Answer:

At 1,369 kilometers or 850 miles, Gemini 11 in 1966 had the highest apoapsis of any human spacecraft that didn’t go to the moon.