[X] My Assistant

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

...that is, the Nov. 2-4 meeting of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Lunar and Planetary Exploration which advises NASA on mission selection, to do a print article on it for "Astronomy" magazine.

The meeting's agenda is at http://www4.nas.edu/webcr.nsf/MeetingDispl...-D?OpenDocument ; it looks extremely interesting. Anyone have anything they'd especially like me to ask about while I'm there?

[djellison]

I think they should be some discussion of the Falcon lauch vehicle. IF...IF it works, it would undercut the EELV's by a factor of 4. Are they being considered a serious prospect for future beyond-leo-missions if found to be a reliable platform. What impact might this have for Lo-Mart and Boeing.

Phoenix, MSL and MRO outreach efforts. Are they intending to exercise a similar system to that of MER, and with MRO, is the infrastructure in place to allow the promised online access to images very rapidly - what sort of turn-around-time will be expected for MRO images to get online?

Any end-of-life-predictions for MGS, MODY and MEX w.r.t. acting as a backup relay for MSL. I think the loss of MTO as you say Bruce - WILL impact MSL -without doubt. Some of the largest data products such as HDTV res des-movie, 5fps movies on the ground etc, will surely be lost.

Comments on the demo-transition of MER-A to UHF operations only - does this impact planning in any way? Are there savings to be had w.r.t. DSN requirements by doing this?

Has the recent JPL lay-offs impacted MSL development in any way?

To be honest, you're a harsh bastard, so I cant think of anything scathing that I know you wont have thought of already

Doug

[mcaplinger]

I think the loss of MTO as you say Bruce - WILL impact MSL -without doubt.  Some of the largest data products such as HDTV res des-movie, 5fps movies on the ground etc, will surely be lost.

We have no intention of losing the descent movie. It'll just take somewhat longer to send back. Assuming that the total downlink time was even being limited by orbiter downlink rate -- it could just as easily been limited by rover uplink rate or rover power constraints. (Just because it has an RTG doesn't mean it can't be power-limited in some situations.)

It's not obvious what 5 fps movies would be worth taking on the ground and what their data volume will be -- this is still a subject of ongoing analysis within the Mastcam team -- but again, we have a lot of buffer space so it's just a question of somewhat extending the downlink time.

For what it's worth, I remain of the opinion that MTO was not an appropriate way to spend the large amount of money it would have cost at this stage of martian exploration.

And with all due respect to the COMPLEX membership, I doubt they have deep insight into the details of ongoing mission development.