A South African Teen Joins the Student Astronauts

The sixteen Student Astronauts will soon be arriving at JPL from around the world. One of them is 15-year-old Nomathemba Kontyo of South Africa. She and the other teens will join the Mars Exploration Rover teams receiving images and other data from the red planet. We'll hear part of Nomathemba's application essay. We'll also meet Hal and Bettye Walker, founders of the A-Man International Science Discovery & Learning Center, whose international work with young people is partly responsible for creating this amazing opportunity for a young township girl.

Emily Lakdawalla has the long and short of longitude and latitude on heavenly bodies, and Bruce Betts has news of a total lunar eclipse, along with a new trivia contest.