[X] My Assistant

[slinted]

This was posted in the Dec 1st Mars Express Status report
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=36181

The go/no go decision for MARSIS deployment is expected in January 2005. If the decision to deploy is made, the earliest date for deployment is 17 March 2005.

Has anyone heard if this decision has been reached yet?

[Phil Stooke]

Like everybody else, I love the instant release we are getting now... but it is the exception, not the rule. Most scientists or their institutions basically own their data - like the old glass plates in an observatory archive, or say medical or geological research data.

NASA was created with a mandate to distribute its data as widely as possible, and serves as a model for doing this which others are now following - like, say, the Human Genome Project which I think is freely available or will be.

But even so, NASA long held to the policy that the poor schmucks who spend hours in committees designing instruments and planning observations should get first crack at the data. The public release via NSSDC came after 6 or 12 months. That's frustrating but not unreasonable. The anomaly is the instant release of data from MER and Cassini (and even more frustrating is the nincompoo - I mean misinfomed persons on certain other sites - who STILL think NASA is withholding if the images are two days late being released!)

ESA will release the data, in fact they have started - I've just recently learned how to get MEX images from their archive. So I know it's frustrating but I wouldn't be storming the Bastille right away. Doug is right about JAXA but to be honest they've never had much to release before. PDS's Small Bodies Node is getting set to receive the Hayabusa data by the look of it, so I think it will be available through PDS eventually. And that's where the Stardust and Deep Impact data will be too - Stardust is in it now for evaluation purposes.

Phil