[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The mission description is now online (1.0 Mb PDF).

[ugordan]

I see the "Playback timeline/flyby geometry is not available for Titan-XY" is becoming something of a norm. I can already see the mission description for Titan 33:

"Mission Description is not available for Titan-33"

[Juramike]

I see the "Playback timeline/flyby geometry is not available for Titan-XY" is becoming something of a norm. I can already see the mission description for Titan 33:

"Mission Description is not available for Titan-33"

It also seems that the mission descriptions for the flybys are being released later and later. At some point there will be:

"BTW, we flew past one of the moons the other day. It was the bigger one...."


But seriously, it's very important that a much stronger effort be made to engage the public by providing as much media and content as possible. This is a huge achievement and should be used to proactively re-engage the paying public into funding furthe exploration. Imagine if every day the CNN anchor (I'm thinking Miles O'Brien would be a likely vehicle) started the daily broadcast with "Dude, we have a probe in Saturn orbit...how cool is that?"

[ugordan]

In all fairness I don't think they are releasing the descriptions later and later. The release date just oscillates, sometimes it's a week before the flyby, sometimes only a day.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

In all fairness I don't think they are releasing the descriptions later and later. The release date just oscillates, sometimes it's a week before the flyby, sometimes only a day.

Since we're being fair, Gordan, one might also note that in this phase of the tour, the interval between Titan flybys (especially the more recent ones) has been compressed. I'm all for more public disclosure, but the science and operations teams really have to scramble to fine tune for a given flyby. While broad science objectives (and the sequence development) for a given flyby are planned far in advance, there are some things that just can't be pushed out the door too quickly for public consumption.

[Juramike]

While broad science objectives (and the sequence development) for a given flyby are planned far in advance, there are some things that just can't be pushed out the door too quickly for public consumption.

I totally agree, science objectives and mission planning is foremost. But it would be a really good idea to have a stronger public outreach program in place. Maybe this would be an opportunity for additional journalistic internships (webslingers, bloggers, spin-doctors, and future science reporters) to be added to mission staff?