2 Intriguing Article Titles In Today's "aerospace Daily"... Options

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

...which, unfortunately, I don't have a subscription to. Does anyone else?

(1) "NASA to release next Mars Scout announcement of opportunity in April"

(2) "NASA studying new hybrid Mars orbiter for 2013 launch"

[The Messenger]

...which, unfortunately, I don't have a subscription to. Does anyone else?

(1) "NASA to release next Mars Scout announcement of opportunity in April"

(2) "NASA studying new hybrid Mars orbiter for 2013 launch"

The first article just says that there will be a press release/conference Tuesday. I'm sorry, but I did not notice the second article, and I don't have access from this server.

[Phil Stooke]

Bruce - when I looked at this issue through our library electronic subscription, the second article did not show up. I'll look for it in the next few issues.

Phil

[Stephen]

The first article just says that there will be a press release/conference Tuesday. I'm sorry, but I did not notice the second article, and I don't have access from this server.

The link for the second article is further down. I don't have access either. However, I did some checking on the WWW and it seems to me the latter (especially given the word "hybrid") may be referring to the "2011/2013 Mars Science and Telecommunications Orbiter". A report from the "MEPAG Science Analysis Group focusing on defining key investigations" is on the agenda for a MEPAG meeting this coming April (according to the following press release):

http://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/Mars_Community/index.html

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Stephen

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Thanks for the tip. I pretty much assumed that that was what Aerospace Daily was talking about (although I wasn't and still am not entirely sure what they meant by "hybrid"). I was hoping they'd provide a bit more technical detail as to what the satellite may be like (and, indeed, just what its science goals will be -- the assumption at this point seems to be that they'll be atmosphere-oriented, but it's not certain).

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The link for the second article is further down. I don't have access either. However, I did some checking on the WWW and it seems to me the latter (especially given the word "hybrid") may be referring to the "2011/2013 Mars Science and Telecommunications Orbiter".

Yes, JPL is in the process of developing the MSTO concept. In fact, I've been communicating with one of the key mission designers, who also worked on the now-defunct MTO.