My not-so-educated-guess:

Large lobe has a jagged appearance (pencils) - maybe with a single "spike", small lobe is "lumpy" (pencil shavings) and the middle is regolith-like fine material.

Hi everyone, two questions please:

1. At what point will Dawn begin snapping pictures of Vesta?

2. At what point will the resolution of those pictures exceed the best Hubble images?

Thanks,

Kelly

Re-launching NEAR off of Eros was briefly considered!

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missi...nch_010212.html

Also, if memory serves, an attempt at re-contact was made some months later with no success.

Yep, a big party of new discoveries!



I believe that region is in the direction of the galactic core, which is difficult to observe.

Aw, c'mon ustrax, don't sell yourself short...

On to Ma'adim Vallis!

Kelly

I noticed from a recent Twitter entry that...

"During October in this annual checkout, New Horizons will use its LORRI imager observe Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto"

I am curious as to what resolution we will see? I recall that shortly after Jupiter LORRI observed Pluto as a lone pixel. While I'm sure October's observations will not resolve Pluto as a disc, is it expected that Uranus and/or Neptune will be?

Kelly

Hi all, I am a frequent lurker here at UMSF and rarely post. I came across the following link today and I found it a fascinating read. I thought I would share for any interested persons who had not read this before.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1989007533.pdf

Cheers!

Kelly

I'm certainly not the expert around here, but I think that Alan said in a past posting that NH would be able to alter it's trajectory by up to 1 degree or so.

edit: ah... here it is! (post #2)

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2328

From nasaspaceflight.com,

"Atlantis remains in the midst of processing for the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which is classed as an October 6 NET (No Earlier Than) launch target as a best case scenario "

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5403

That, and don't forget that dense SOUP either!

Regarding milestones with which to follow NH's progress, I found myself wondering if there are any minor objects that orbit between Jupiter and Saturn's orbits. I came across the following abstract:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t74010qg40q4745l/

The abstract seems to indicate that there are 5 known objects between Jupiter and Saturn's orbit. I'm trying to search for more info. We could use these object's orbits as a sort of milestone.

edit: This plot suggests that there are many more: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/OuterPlot.html

Just as an excercise, I wonder what magnitude of deltaVs would be required to (a) place NH on a course for a close flyby of JV26 and (b) restore the Jovian aimpoint after the flyby.

best,

Kelly

Hey Doug. Launch window times are here:

http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av010/051129windows.html

Cool! Thanks for checking on it. Visually, it looked like they would pass closer. Then, I remember that the two crafts are in differently inclined orbits about the sun!

Thanks,

Kelly

I just browsed the MRO and Stardust websites. Looking at their respective "Where is <spacecraft name> now?" pages, I notice that both are currently midway between Earth and Mars.

I'm thinking that having one of them photograph the other is pure crazy talk. But it did beg the question of how close will they pass each other? Anyone know?

Thanks,

Kelly

Nice.

From Vapor Trails:

"...endlessly rocking... endlessly rocking..."

Wow! If it is accurate, it looks like we have 3 ridges to climb shortly after leaving V & V - just to reach Albert. Then between Albert and Victoria - even more.

I think the biggest selling point is that we will get to study the Uranus system at it's equinox. The atmosphere will be much more active and interesting. Also would have the potential to create global maps of the moons. Voyager 2 caught the system in Southern summer - and only caught (at best) the southern hemisphere of the moons. Recent ground-based Uranus oservations are already showing a more active Uranian atmosphere than in 1986.

I hope NH2 will get the go-ahead!

haha!

In spite of this idea containing no science whatsoever, I have to say the idea ranks very high on my "coolness" scale.

Send the Mars Microphone and we'll be able to actually listen to them through martian air! Another useless idea with a high coolness factor.

Regarding the patchyness of the ice mantle, they should either:

a. figure a way to mount some small wheels on the lander's legs, or...

b. scrap the lander itself, and move the scientific payload onto a MER chassis.

The thing doesn't lanch until 2007 - there's plenty of time.

Anyone know what the dark spot is, near the horizon, on the right side of this image?

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...FWP2359R1M1.JPG

I remember a recent article that said they were considering doubling up on the MSL rovers. I really hope this is done, considering the brand new EDL sequence.

However, I truely hope the committee has not decided to completely abandon the MER design.

Bruce, when will we know the "inside scoop" on this?

Yes, it is! It is very interesting. I'll bet that the centerpiece to the argument for sending more MERs is the fact that each one built will cost less than the previous. Think about it: A good chuck of the $800million that went into MER were research, development and testing.

Well, all of that is done. All that's needed is to crank up a factory floor, plop those babies on some Delta-II rockets and light the candle.

Yes, still expensive - but not as expensive as the Spirit/Oppy pair.

I stand by my guns. Launch two on every Earth->Mars launch window. The way Spirit and Oppy are going like the energizer bunny, this could lead to continual rover presence on the red planet!

Excluding the cost of building the rover, how much does the Delta II cost to launch it to Mars?

Couldn't some sort of business model be constructed whereby a company would build (remember, each one built is cheaper than the prior one - mass production) and launch MERs, and then we the amateur community and/or the scientists could "subscribe to" (ie, pay for) the results?

I've brought up this suggestion a couple times here, Pioneer. It would be really great to augment the ongoing Mars Exploration with more MER pairs on each launch opportunity. Like Doug says, the main reason for not doing so is money.

However, my counter to that is that the cost of the MERs would drop with each production run of them. If some company picked up the design, they could probably find ways to reduce the cost.

Just think of the potential of a generalized MER design, where you could literally plug-n-play the instrumentation.

Further, I realize that the science performed by MER will not hold a torch, much less a candle, to the since done by MSL. However, I think MER is sufficient to at least survey many different locales on Mars.

Perhaps they could even "get jiggy with it" and land in some more difficult places. MER's EDL has proven itself. Based on the two landings to date - how the atmosphere behaved, etc, they could pin down the landing ellipse I think.

Too bad there's no way for us to make this idea known. NASA/JPL is probably so focused on MRO, Pheonix and MSL that the thought of future MERs may not have even occured to them.