Hurricane Dean hit Mexico twice this week, first moving across the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday as a powerful Category 5 storm with 165 mph winds, then making landfall again on Wednesday in Veracruz as a lesser Category 2 storm with mere 100 mph winds. The storm was one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall in recorded history, featuring strong wind sand heavy rainfall, but, thankfully, less damage and fewer injuries than initially expected. In this hour, Ira and guests talk about how Dean fits into the record books -- and whether it's business as usual, or indications of the effects of global climate change.

We'll also wish a happy anniversary to the Voyager spacecraft, still returning data after 30 years of flight. In 1977, NASA launched the twin spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, on an ambitious tour through our solar system and beyond. The spacecraft returned data and images of our planetary neighbors, and are still moving outward.

On board, in addition to the cameras and scientific sensors, was a message to the stars -- a golden record containing images, sounds, music, and messages intended to relate the story of Earth to any intelligent beings that might come across it in space. We'll talk with some of the people in charge of the Voyager mission, and talk about the history of the robotic exploration of space.

Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (2-3 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Chris Mooney
Author, "Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming" (2007, Harcourt)
Washington Correspondent
Seed Magazine
Washington, DC

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Ed Massey
Voyager Project Manager
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California

John Casani
Former Project Manager, Voyager
Manager of Export Compliance
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California

Howard McCurdy
Co-author, “Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel” (forthcoming, Johns Hopkins University Press)
Professor, School of Public Affairs
The American University
Washington, DC

Books/Articles Discussed:

"Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming" by Chris Mooney. Harcourt, 2007.

“Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel” by Howard McCurdy and Roger Launius. Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming.

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)

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This segment produced by Karin Vergoth