First Phoebe Images! Options

[remcook]

VolcanoPele: about T0... are you going to do the ISS images again? Do you expect to see some features or just an orange haze? Or are you going to make use of the methane band (1.4 micron?). I know VIMS can do these kind of things, but ISS...

[xflare]

volcanopele:

Oustanding mosaic!

If you have a moment, I just had a question regarding the release of Cassini images. The MER project is constantly releasing their raw images to the public. As a space-exploration-loving-person, I can say that it is a dream come true! In a way, it reminds me of the late Dr. Carl Sagan's cosmos episode "Blues for the Red Planet" where he describes eventual Mars rover missions. He says something along the lines of "...imagine everyone tuning in to see the latest pictures..." I remember as a child having to wait for the latest issue of Astronomy magazine or the National Geographic to follow the Voyager missions.

I just wonder why nothing similar has been done with the Cassini project. I mean, it's nice to see an image every day, or several in the case of the Phoebe flyby. But why is there no (near) real time uploading of the raw images as there is with MER?

Thanks for reading,

Kelly

There is near real-time loading of images for me.. Seriously, I don't really know. This was the way it was done with Galileo, to have a proprietary period with the data before releasing them, but I agree, I don't understand why they just don't release the JPEG versions like MER with the caveat posted that these are not for scientific usages. However, newer missions, like MER and MRO (with HiRISE) will start using the model of releasing data almost as soon as the scientists see them in order to help maintain interest.

You get to see all the images? lucky you.

What's the point in spending $3.3 Billion on a spacecraft that is only going to satisfy the curiosity of a few dozen very lucky scientists on the imaging team? I want to see all of the images - certainly many more than what they're currently releasing anyway.

Sure there's the PDS archive, but data isn't available there for quite some time, and that site is hardly geared to the non-scientist.

Browsing the internet and forums, i've certainly noticed a lot of frustration and grumbling at the lack of images, and its getting louder. I hope NASA are listening.

[SFJCody]

I blame the MERs. I think the frequent 'raw' image releases gave the interested public unrealistic expectations. This may have been a mistake.

Now we can never be satiated!

[YesRushGen]

I blame the MERs. I think the frequent 'raw' image releases gave the interested public unrealistic expectations. This may have been a mistake.

Now we can never be satiated!

Haha...

You may be right, in the short term at least... In the long term though, the MER project is a fine example of how all missions should release their data/images.

[volcanopele]

VolcanoPele: about T0... are you going to do the ISS images again? Do you expect to see some features or just an orange haze? Or are you going to make use of the methane band (1.4 micron?). I know VIMS can do these kind of things, but ISS...

That's the hope. We are seeing the surface at 46 km/pixel but the question come down to at what point does the haze scattering become an issue where effectively you can't see any smaller features. we still haven't reached that point but is it somewhere between 92 and 4 km? We will find out next Friday. The images I have been working with are through a continuum band filter at 940 nm and a polarized filter. 940 nm cooresponds to a methane window.

[volcanopele]

oh, and I will be preparing a mosaic from the T0 images along with a map of Titan at 35-88 km/pixel.