I heard from the ESA Ops guys on Monday that the OSIRIS team isn't planning on releasing any more images.

That's unfortunate, and seems to contradict what is said on the ESA Rosetta website: "All images received so far from OSIRIS team are now available in the ESA website. More updates to follow in the coming days."
I suppose they will eventually release all the images? Will they wait until scientific papers based on the data are published?

Entirely unsurprising, but still disappointing.

Given that they've not dumped any of the data taken since launch to the PSA, those holding their breath for more imagery will probably have to do so for quite a few years.

Is there a data archive plan for Rosetta on the Web somewhere? I suspect that it says they don't have to submit data for archiving until some period of time after Churyumov-Gerasimenko arrival, but I don't know for sure.

There was one at the PSA I think, but as it turns out it's a sad joke - was 2008 for some OSIRIS data IIRC. I rarely even bother checking anymore.

Part of me thinks it'll be similar to the 1st Cassini PDS release, but what does really prevent DLR from sitting on the old OSIRIS data even longer?

I've never found one. Alice has delivered very up to date data - as has MIRO and IES

http://pdssbn.astro.umd.edu/missions/rosetta/index.html

It might be worth it for some European person to send a polite email inquiry to Gerhard Schwehm and/or Rita Schultz asking about plans for public data release.

...as usual.
I really think ESA just posted those few "live" images to make us happy for the moment, and that's all. Just like for Steins, the're not going to release any more pictures: ESA is very jelaous of its own scientific data.

I would have thought that once, too, but not any more. There are still serious problems with ESA's data release, and individual scientists do seem to want to horde their data and images like Smaug sitting on top of his pile of jewels and gold, but I really do think there's been a change within ESA re the importance of public outreach and making missions, and their image data at least, more accessible. The Lutetia images were released very quickly compared to previous missions; ESA is now blogging, and Twittering, like crazy, really informally and entertainingly in some cases, which is a phase change from years gone by.

This is VERY frustrating, I agree - and not just for us armchair explorers; I know through personal contact and correspondence with them, that there ARE people within ESA who absolutely get how vital it is for ESA to share its images and data more openly, and who really want to follow NASA's examples, and ESA's media people are much more on the ball now. But, as has been pointed out before, the trouble lies with the Beakers whose instruments collect the data. It appears that they're either unaware of the thirst for images and data "out here" beyond the confines of their labs, or they're aware but simply don't give a ****. If that's the case, we'll have to unwrap their clenched, skeletal fingers from around their images and data to get at them.

This may, or may not, be anecdotal evidence on the interest Rosetta @ Lutetia generated. The ESA blog linked to my realtime simulation site, and that generated heaps (for me, at least) of traffic which I can analyse: 4,500 visits from 2,200 visitors during the 48 hours around C/A. The geographic distribution:

1. United States 1,033
2. Japan 799
3. United Kingdom 515
4. France 380
5. Germany 255
Then in declining number of visits:
Australia - Canada - Czech Republic - Belgium - Italy - Netherlands - Sweden
And a whole set of other European nations, New Zealand and Colombia in the top 25

Could it be a matter of money?!? Do they release data only upon payment, to cover expenses for missions?!? UE is not as rich as USA...

Money might be a part of it, but at the end of the day I guess it all comes down to the scientists involved actually WANTING to release their images to the public because, like their NASA counterparts, they "get" that it's the right thing to do. Why? Because, contrary to what they might believe - or want to believe - the "little people" outside the scientists' shiny little Big Bang Theory labs are actually interested in what's "Out there" and would love to feel involved in the missions, if only by being able to see, and comment on, the pictures taken. Trust me: some people - a growing number of people, I think - within ESA DO "get it"... but the data horders have barricaded themselves in.

But this is getting a bit "woe is me", and threatening to overshadow the great achievement of this encounter. We should just celebrate the images we have for now

Discussion of groove formation has been moved to its own topic.

Small Body Grooves,
Theories for the formation of grooves on Lutetia and Phobos

This question might have been brought up before, sorry if I missed it. I'm wondering how the instrumentation package on Rosetta compares to other asteroid encounters we have had in the last 20 years. Clearly the NEAR flyby of Mathilda was very limited (I seem to recall that only the camera was powered up), and I don't think we got much from flying past Anne Frank at such a long distance. But what about the Galileo flybys of Gaspra and Ida?

What I'm wondering is, will the final dataset on Lutetia be comparable to Gaspra and Ida, or is this more like comparing a Mariner 4 flyby of Mars to a Voyager flyby of Jupiter?

I think, that this question wasn´t here (but I´m not sure).
Some informations about operating instruments are in this status report
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=47448

On Philae Lander three instruments were operating - ROMAP (Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor) and two gas analysers (MODULUS PTOLEMY, COSAC).