[X] My Assistant

[YesRushGen]

I was just browsing, and here they are!

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=183

Although still distant, they are already better than the Voayager 2 views from 1981.

[djellison]

Half the reason that HiRise will get dumped out to the public so rapidly is that there are not enough scientists on the planet to analize the sheer volume of data it's going to create

Seriously though...

MER and HiRise have and will set the right example. Whack out the quick-and-dirty imagery on a frame by frame basis and push it out to the public on an almost realtime basis - it's of little real scientific value as it's not properly calibrated, etc etc.

Then - after the usual embargo (6 months for MER) release correct data sets via the PDS to the scientific community and the very-keen public.

It's probably far FAR too late for Cassini to impliment anything like that, but the sheer quantity of imagery that we'll be getting from Cassini over the next half-decade or so warrants the effort to allow the public to generate some interesting eye-candy (as has been done time and time again with MER, and I did with NEAR some years ago ) and the public interest that results from that can only help in the search for more funds at Capital HIll

It would be an excellent move for Nasa to stipulate some sort of similar methadology on all missions. Look at MODIS on Terra and Aqua - daily data pushed out usually within 6 - 12 hrs. Ditto with SOHO.

It's almost as if the BIG missions ( Galileo, Cassini ) are 'too important' to allow the public to see the raw imagery as it comes down Then again, at 120bps, Galileo was hardly a waterfall of pretty pictures

Doug