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Unmanned Spaceflight.com > All posts by a member| Posted on: Jul 9 2013, 01:14 AM | |
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Junior Member  Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411 
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| Forum: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission · Post Preview: #201467 · Replies: 95 · Views: 639583 |
| Posted on: Jan 31 2013, 02:41 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (Floyd @ Dec 21 2012, 11:00 AM)  I hope all of you followed the link. It is fascinating how NASA projects are put together. The link above is a request for qualified people to send in a two page letter of application to be part of a 12-15 person Science Definition Team for the 2020 Mars Science Rover Mission (Mars - 2020). NASA will pick 12-15 people and a chairman. The committee will come up the Science Objectives (that several of you were prematurely complaining were missing) that will go into the Announcement of Opportunity---request for mission proposals. More specifically from the link: The members of the Mars-2020 SDT will provide NASA with scientific assistance and direction during preliminary concept definition (Pre-Phase A) activities. Near-term activities of the SDT will include the establishment of baseline mission science objectives and a realistic scientific concept of surface operations; development of a strawman payload/instrument suite as proof of concept; and suggestions for threshold science objectives/measurements for a preferred mission viable within resource constraints provided by NASA Headquarters. The products developed by the SDT will be used to develop the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Announcement of Opportunity (AO) that will outline the primary science objectives of the baseline mission and the character of the payload-based investigations solicited under open competition via the AO. The SDT will be formed in January 2013, and disbanded after the work is complete approximately four months later. All reports and output materials of the Mars-2020 SDT will be publicly available, and the SDT will be disbanded prior to any future Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for participation in the Mars-2020 mission, including provision of instrumentation and investigation support. Participation in the Mars-2020 SDT is open to all qualified and interested individuals. And so they've announced the SDT for the 2020 mission: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/m2020/mission/missionteam/sdt/ - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Perseverance- Mars 2020 Rover · Post Preview: #197451 · Replies: 343 · Views: 431493 |
| Posted on: Jan 4 2013, 11:27 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Great lists all, folks, thanks! And we'll now have to add to Paolo's list the MSL / Curiosity 2 (or whatever it'll be called) to be launched to Mars in 2020. - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Exploration Strategy · Post Preview: #196470 · Replies: 37 · Views: 53946 |
| Posted on: Dec 20 2012, 06:36 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Does anyone have possible launch and arrival dates for the 2020 window? - John in Cambridge |
| Forum: Perseverance- Mars 2020 Rover · Post Preview: #196032 · Replies: 343 · Views: 431493 |
| Posted on: Oct 2 2011, 11:46 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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How does finding all these volatiles on the surface of Mercury square with the "Late Heavy Bombardment" hypothesis? It would seem that, if there was such an event and it included Mercury, these volatiles on its surface would have been destroyed. Is LHB in trouble? - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Messenger · Post Preview: #178943 · Replies: 23 · Views: 143242 |
| Posted on: Jul 22 2011, 12:43 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jul 21 2011, 07:37 PM) The answer to that question is in the paper that tfisher linked to: http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/people/co...wg/icarus97.pdf Thanks, Emily ... |
| Forum: Dawn · Post Preview: #175956 · Replies: 422 · Views: 369671 |
| Posted on: Jul 21 2011, 10:53 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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I have a question about Vesta's reference grid. A few days ago an image release specified as "The original image was map-projected, centered at 55 degrees southern latitude and 210 degrees eastern longitude." OK, the latitude is determined by Vesta's spin axis, of course, but how is the system of longitude determined? What feature on Vesta defines 0° (or some other standard) longitude? |
| Forum: Dawn · Post Preview: #175950 · Replies: 422 · Views: 369671 |
| Posted on: Jun 6 2011, 05:28 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Maybe part of the problem is that, after MER and Cassini, we talked ourselves into believing that there was a paradigm shift in how images would be handled in the future. In fact, though, there has been no change in NASA's policy of how mission imagery is handled. It's up to the PI's. The real problem is that there seems to be no Steve Squires or Carolyn Porco on the Dawn team. - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Dawn · Post Preview: #173977 · Replies: 424 · Views: 339507 |
| Posted on: Jun 4 2011, 01:03 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Actually, the Flight Operations Team has been very good about keeping the public informed, with the periodic Dawn Journals. And they seem to appreciate the importance of these first blurry images. Here's Marc Rayman from the latest Dawn Journal: "So far, the images reveal little more than the desired important information of where Vesta appears against the background of stars. And yet, in a sense they show much more. After its long and lonely voyage through the vast emptiness of interplanetary space, most of the time far from anything but bits of dust and the occasional insignificant rock, an alien world is finally coming into view. Although too far now to do more than illuminate a handful of pixels in the camera, the small disc of Vesta stands out as the brightest and largest object visible to the explorer except the master of the solar system, the sun. The pictures are visible proof of Dawn's progress from an intriguing concept not so many years ago to a distant spaceship about to orbit an uncharted protoplanet, the second most massive body between Mars and Jupiter." So, yes, more, please! - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Dawn · Post Preview: #173880 · Replies: 424 · Views: 339507 |
| Posted on: Jun 3 2011, 11:53 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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I totally share the desire to see as many images as possible, even the uneventful opnav images. Not being in the loop as far as the thinking inside the mission goes, it's hard to say what's going on. It occurs to me that from the viewpoint of the mission investigators, it would be easy to see the public in a monolithic way; there's us and there's them. I'm not saying they are antagonistic to us - not at all. It's just that, from their point of view, they may not be troubled to make the distinction between, say, UMSF members and Joe the Plumber. In other words, they may not know enough about us or appreciate what we can do. What they may not realize is that , as someone else pointed out, they don't have to sell US on how cool the mission is. We KNOW how cool the mission is. |
| Forum: Dawn · Post Preview: #173876 · Replies: 424 · Views: 339507 |
| Posted on: Nov 21 2010, 10:54 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Paolo, I can't find the article at that website; only the home page comes up when I go to the link. Can you be more specific? - John Sheff |
| Forum: Mercury · Post Preview: #166916 · Replies: 10 · Views: 44389 |
| Posted on: Jun 29 2009, 09:44 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Apparently the CNES will receive soil samples from Phobos: Phobos Grunty Accord Reached According to this, the launch is still set for October... |
| Forum: Past and Future · Post Preview: #142624 · Replies: 664 · Views: 543099 |
| Posted on: Jun 24 2009, 11:04 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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It looks like they're serious about NASA/ESA cooperation, and are thinking about a joint launch of ExoMars and the Mars Science Orbiter in early 2016 on an Atlas 5: NASA poised to join Europe's Mars Rover Mission - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: ExoMars Program · Post Preview: #142399 · Replies: 589 · Views: 581325 |
| Posted on: Feb 18 2009, 02:53 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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There's a bit of a write-up on Space.com, but not much news yet ... Asteroid-Bound Probe Zooms Past Mars - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Cometary and Asteroid Missions · Post Preview: #136311 · Replies: 18 · Views: 13214 |
| Posted on: Feb 7 2009, 01:50 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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Can you give us any highlights? Any Iapetus flybys? |
| Forum: Cassini general discussion and science results · Post Preview: #135605 · Replies: 120 · Views: 127717 |
| Posted on: Dec 4 2008, 06:51 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Dec 4 2008, 01:34 PM) OK, and here's one more question that I wouldn't have gotten a straight answer to anyway. Can anybody here think of what planetary missions there are that would have big budgets in 2010 and 2011 for MSL to raid? The only one I can think of is Juno. --Emily Outer Planets Flagship? James Webb Space Telescope? (I don't know what the funding profiles are like for either one.) - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: MSL · Post Preview: #132212 · Replies: 87 · Views: 81070 |
| Posted on: Sep 20 2008, 05:15 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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For me, Project Longshot would carry a lot more scientific credibility if they hadn't made the amateurish error of designating as Beta Centauri the star that should properly be referred to as Alpha Centauri B. The destination star system is composed of Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Alpha Centauri C (or Proxima Centauri), all revolving around their common center of gravity. Beta Centauri is a different star system entirely - hundreds of light-years beyond Alpha Centauri and unrelated to it aside from being by chance located in roughly the same part of the sky as seen from Earth, and hence designated by us - arbitrarily - to be in the same constellation. That's an elementary error that seems to carry right through the Project Longshot report. I hope they're not as sloppy in designing the fusion engines.  - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Voyager and Pioneer · Post Preview: #126288 · Replies: 54 · Views: 81172 |
| Posted on: Sep 6 2008, 05:04 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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It reminds me of nothing as much as views of Atlas and Pan, Saturn's "flying saucer" moons: They're embedded in the rings, though, and their shape is a result of ring material accumulation over time. That wouldn't work in the case of Steins, of course. BTW, have they determined the spin axis for Steins, yet? - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Rosetta · Post Preview: #125329 · Replies: 309 · Views: 321751 |
| Posted on: Aug 13 2008, 01:59 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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My congratulations also to the Cassini team; this is as real as exploration gets! And thanks, Emily, for helping to put it all in context! BTW, it's striking how there are no impact craters here, at any resolution. This is a young surface, everywhere. - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Cassini's ongoing mission and raw images · Post Preview: #123491 · Replies: 262 · Views: 183299 |
| Posted on: Mar 19 2008, 01:41 AM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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His "Profiles of the Future" probably did more than anything to get me interested in science and space. A true visionary has passed. I like to think his last thought might have been, "My God, it's full of stars!". - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Chit Chat · Post Preview: #110972 · Replies: 52 · Views: 41235 |
| Posted on: Jan 31 2008, 09:19 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 31 2008, 03:46 PM) Cough ahem  That was me reporting from Europlanet The potential for this stuff are amazing - some of the idea that Kevin Hussey and his team have in the pipeline are just brilliant. Doug Hi, Doug, I'd like to alert the yahoo Cassini discussion group (of which I'm the moderator) about it, but I'm not sure how to give you due credit to have pointed it out. Suggestions? - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Cassini general discussion and science results · Post Preview: #108750 · Replies: 9 · Views: 10179 |
| Posted on: Jan 16 2008, 09:51 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (JRehling @ Jan 16 2008, 03:38 PM) I think a really beautiful final image product will be an albedo map of Mercury laid on top of a shaded bump map so the albedo and terrain are both apparent simultaneously (the two seem never to co-occur in any real images of Mercury). An even more compelling ingredient for such a map might turn up when we see what kind of spectral variety exists. Quite so. When you consider the history of Mars observation, we've had centuries of Earth-based mapping of albedo features. When up-close imaging became available, it turned out there was almost no correlation between albedo features and the geological ground truth. (Thaty's not to imply the albedo maps were useless, though!) It will be interesting to see if the same will hold for Mercury ... - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Messenger · Post Preview: #107732 · Replies: 591 · Views: 607978 |
| Posted on: Jan 15 2008, 08:01 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 15 2008, 12:16 PM) But such small objects would be inherently unstable as light pressure and various effects related to it would destabilize the orbits quickly, no? I wouldn't be so quick to rule it out just on orbital stability grounds. Nature has a way of surprising us with all kinds of orbital resonance tricks up its sleeve. It was within my lifetime that everyone was convinced that one side of Mercury always faced the Sun. More to the point, wasn't it at one of the M10 flybys that the UV instrument folks thought (and maybe even announced!) that they had seen a satellite around Mercury? I mention this just to show that the Mercury satellite idea, while unlikely, is not totally out of the question. - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Messenger · Post Preview: #107602 · Replies: 591 · Views: 607978 |
| Posted on: Jan 14 2008, 07:43 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (ustrax @ Jan 14 2008, 02:37 PM) Thanks John! Not that I know of, and you're right...but this team is really making all efforts to make MESSENGER's message pass...  And thank Hermes for this forum and everyone on it! It's the next best thing to being there! - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Messenger · Post Preview: #107475 · Replies: 591 · Views: 607978 |
| Posted on: Jan 14 2008, 07:35 PM | |
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411
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QUOTE (ustrax @ Jan 14 2008, 04:15 AM) That's a nice site, Rui. Is there any live TV or web coverage of the scenes in the control room at Johns Hopkins? There doesn't seem to be anything on NASA TV; what a wasted opportunity! - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
| Forum: Messenger · Post Preview: #107473 · Replies: 591 · Views: 607978 |
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