Is Europa really the "highest priority" of the community?, Cleave said it was at LPSC? Options

[mcaplinger]

From Emily's LPSC blog: "Bob Pappalardo would not sit down until he got Cleave to acknowledge that Europa is the consensus highest priority of the planetary science community."

Cleave was obviously poorly prepared for this session, but I don't see that this acknowledgement is either meaningful or particularly accurate. If Europa were the "highest priority" of the PS community as a whole, then one might wonder why we were spending all this money on Mars. I could easily imagine that Europa is the highest priority of the outer planets community, but frankly I was surprised when Europa Orbiter appeared in the '07 budget (presumably the result of some serious lobbying on someone's part.) It was pretty obvious to me then that there would be no money for it, especially in the aftermath of JPL running the old EO project into the ground with cost overruns and engineering upscopes. (And JIMO is best forgotten.)

Don't get me wrong, I would love to be involved with a Europa mission (we did what I think was a good proposal design for EO) but I don't see either the money or the political support being there in the near term. I know it's frustrating, but one has to be realistic, and it might help to avoid the aura of entitlement that I perceive is building in some parts of the community (not referring to you, Bob). Of course, I am just a lowly engineer.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Yeah, before we start sniffling too much about our cruel mistreatment, we really should keep in mind that the situation right now is not even remotely comparable to the genuine desert of the 1980s. We are now in the Second Golden Age of Solar System Exploration -- just a brief look at what's happened or is scheduled to happen this year alone makes that clear. We could, however, be doing even better.

[Bob Shaw]

We are now in the Second Golden Age of Solar System Exploration...

Damn right, Bruce.

Active interplanetary spacecraft currently returning science data, not counting those in orbital storage or science spacecraft in solar orbit:

1. Messenger
2. Venus Express
3. SMART-1
4. Ulysses
5. MGS
6. Mars Odyssey
7. MRO
8. Mars Express
9. Spirit
10. Opportunity
11. New Horizons
12. Cassini
13. Voyager 1
14. Voyager 2
(15. Hayabusa)

Bob Shaw

[Bob Shaw]

An improved version of the list:


Active interplanetary spacecraft currently returning science data:

1. Messenger
2. Venus Express
3. SMART-1
4. Ulysses
5. MGS
6. Mars Odyssey
7. MRO
8. Mars Express
9. Spirit
10. Opportunity
11. New Horizons
12. Rosetta
13. Cassini
14. Voyager 1
15. Voyager 2

Semi-active interplanetary spacecraft:
16. Hayabusa

Spacecraft in orbital storage, with potential for extended missions:
17. Deep Impact
18. Stardust

Spacecraft in orbital storage, with no planned extended mission:
19. Genesis

The list does not include science spacecraft in Solar orbit; those included have all had, or are planned to have, at least one encounter with a body other than the Earth.

Bob Shaw