Oh - we all know that ESA is just utterly utterly crap out outreach. Just look at the efforts of people like Alan Stern, Steve Squyres, Marc Rayman, the HiBlog guys. Taking the time to fill us in - giving the tax payer a true sense of what these missions are about, what they're doing, why they're doing it etc etc. Now show me a single European PI or Co-I or infact just about anyone doing an ounce of that.

Yes - the Cassini team, outside of Ciclops and perhaps Radar is lacking, MSSS are dragging their feet with MARCI and CTX - does MCS even work, - but those are blots on an otherwise very good and indeed improving record. ESA's record is just a big blot from top to bottom.

Difficulty is that because ESA is the managerial equiv. of distributed computing - there being no answerable central outreach or educational body involved, no obligation (and absolutely NO money) for each instrument team to do any of this...and worse still there isn't actually anywhere to go to complain about it. There isn't a PAO to moan at, or even a Politician to go to. I have emailed every single email address relating to HRSC that I can find regarding the release of DEM's ( I know as a fact that they are generated in near real time on the ground after data reception ) or even just map projected versions of all HRSC channels, which again, I know are sat on servers within the HRSC team's infrastructure. Not a single damn reply from anyone (and these are email addresses I know to be valid). When was the last time you heard anything from SPICAM or MARSIS or, indeed, anything on Venus Express apart from what, a small handfull of images. Where's the 'image of the week' or 'PI Perspective' - Where's Smart 1's images - it's just mind blowing that this stuff is not getting shown to the public. I have to stress to people when showing them HRSC pictures in the UK that they were taken by a European spacecraft...."really - I thought only the Americans did that". That...is unforgiveable.


Doug

The thing is - it's almost impossible to think of a space related story that we won't have discussed to death and referenced to death within a day of it coming out anyway. Emily does openly admits that a lot of storys come FROM here, but even if they didn't - there would be huge overlap.

Doug

A PR failure - but not a failed mission by any stretch of the imagination and I'm dissapointed to see people HERE who can't see beyond poor PR.

Doug

Camera noise - I spotted that with MMB when images came down earlier today and it's a classic spec of odd camera noise, not unusual.

Doug

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/tekton/crater_c.html

Could be usefull

I've got a segment of the B2 failure report that suggests, if it just splatted in without chute etc - total feature about 5 - 6m across. A crater approx 1.5 metres across, with a rim of about 7cm - think Genesis impact sort of scale.

Doug

Aaannnd.... a new PI Perspective, but not on the NH website yet -

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/New_Hori...n_2007_999.html

Thanks for the Press Con. heads up Alan.


Doug

Well - consider the Atlas-Mercury flights. That was very very nearly SSTO

And that was a long time ago.

Doug

After all the extensions - it's more like $900m I think.

Doug

I just wanted to change the logo to something that wasn't a direct rip off of the Pioneer Plaque, and something that I could reproduce easily ( using 3ds Max and Final toon ) as big as I needed for Cafe Press etc.. and animate if I wanted to. Really not much of a change, I actually had it ready to go AGES ago but hadn't properly sorted the banner. I did a favicon.ico to match this time around as well, last time I forgot.

We have the week of Google logos that Scott Adams did up on our wall in the office

http://www.google.com/dilbert.html

Doug

http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/release_007.html

No Ares Vallis yet (booooooo)

Lots of more varied northern plains in this one.

Doug

MPL will have to wait until Southern Summer I presume - we should know where it is FAIRLY well from tracking etc. and we know we should be able to find a parachute VERY easily, as well as Backshell and Heatshield. As for the lander itself - slightly smaller than the viking spacecraft if memory serves me right - and likely to be a lot 'shorter' (i.e. crushed landing legs etc ) - and if there were any 'splat' mark from leaked fuel etc - i would have thought that 3 winters would have eliminated much if not all evidence of that.

Beagle 2, well that supposed MOC target would be an interesting starting point. How far B2 got through its landing sequence before failing will dictate how much 'stuff' is on the ground. The Chute - if 'entry' worked - deflated airbags should be visible as well, if it got further than that. The heatshield, backshell and indeed the lander itself - I would say no - going on the sim I managed which seems to be something roughly indicative going on MER experience...
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ost&id=8409

As for pieces of the historic Russian landers - I would be doubtfull. They were comparatively small, and their Parachutes and indeed any other hardware- if anything like V1 and V2's chutes - will almost certainly be dust-covered and hard to identify.

Doug

Cafepress is based in the USA - and despite the fact that it would be very easy to do - sadly they've not set up a virtual 'depot' in the EU anywhere.

http://help.cafepress.com/hc/s-74058960/cm...amp;action=view

All the items are made 'on the fly' and then shipped straight out.

Doug

Flickr really does have some great tools - nice work HHW.

No berries suggests either higher in the stratigraphy, or from somewhere more distant.

Doug

Working? Mars Odyssey (2001), Mars Express (2003) and Mars Recon. Orbiter (2005)

Sweet - problem solved

Doug

The blue dye used on the sundial is very very vivid in the near IR (i.e. L2 ) - I imagine it's the same dye used on that nasa logo. If you look at the L257 empty-nest pans, you can see it a lot there as well, on 'pink' foam that wraps around some wires and other logo's etc - all of which are actually blue.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-B009R1_br2.jpg

Doug

Such is the joy of L257

Doug

http://www.cafepress.com/unmannedspace.97765608



CafePress don't do licence plate holders as far as I know.

Doug

Given the way the first martian year and beginning of the second martian year of Tau figures match so well - this big jump was expected....and ouch - it's going to hurt.

Doug

Crickey - they seemed to set fire to most of central London with that firework display - astonishing.

Happy New Year - I have a feeling that 2007 will be a good one.

Cheers to all

Doug

Bloody foreigners celebrating an hour ahead of GMT

Back up at Cafe Press

The Unmannedspaceflight.com Store

I've re-done the products with the new logo after being a little disapointed with the way the previous logo came out, particularly on the clothing - fortunately I had an excellent beta-tester in Lakdawalla Jnr that showed the more vivid colours come out great! A few of you have been bugging me about this - so here it is, just in time for 2007

Just for 'full disclosure' - I've added about 20-25% on top of the base price, that is how much will come through to me and thus the UMSF coffers - you can always plough through cafe press and find the normal price of each product if you want to compare.

Enjoy!

Doug

Hard to make out - but you can just see the 70 mph winds in George Square, and rain that goes THAT way > not THAT way V

Doug

Needs a slight tweak, but it's almost there.

Doug

I'll fwd those comments onto the ad company ( it's their PHP code that does the ads )

Cheers

Doug