'What's in Space?', the program I curate and present with K.McCarron for 2RPH, had its first anniversary last week. That is 26 episodes, one each fortnight, over the course of the last 12 months. It's a bit of an achievement because you have to keep at it, the initial enthusiasm does wear off and then the considerable slog begins. But I think we turn out a good program and we are now heard Australia-wide.

This was just the beginning for Keith and me, because, in addition to the space show, we both went on to host 'The New Statesman.' Later, I surrendered the latter to create a brand new program, 'Writers from the Vault', which being original, takes up a lot of time. I am always on the look out for material for future episodes. But I feel at home with a literary show, more than anything else.

I often think about how far the radio waves from our programs might have travelled. Notwithstanding the fact that such waves degrade over distance, a gigantic and supersensitive receiver might just be able to hear our first space show somewhere between the Kuyper Belt and the Oort Cloud - about one light year away. That means that the waves have passed Pluto, all the known objects in the Kuyper Belt and are being 'received' in that mysterious icy cloud that is thought to exist between 2,000 and 5,000 AUs from the Sun.

I find that very humbling, no matter that no-one is listening. Here is a simple chart courtesy of NASA that shows some of these distances, beyond the first light year. Next stop Proxima Centauri!