Dawn approaches Vesta, Approach phase, 3 May to 16 July 2011 Options

[Decepticon]

Now that I understand whats going on it makes me upset also.

I guess some emails can't hurt.

[Greg Hullender]

I just read Emily's article on this: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003054/

I especially liked her idea of showing support by "liking" the Facebook page for the Imager. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dawn-Framing...=ts&sk=wall

No need to post anything there, I don't think--especially not things like "THE PEOPLE WANT THE REGIME TO POST PICS!" But I agree that if we want to argue that there's a large community following DAWN, the number of people who "like" the page ought to be bigger than 100.

--Greg

[Hungry4info]

Well, it's 103 last I checked.

[bagelverse]

And the consensus discussion and frustration is about the same as here. But maybe being more "public" or directly coupled to the team might help.
My comparison to earlier planetary projects did not include the fact that while over the last decade JPL projects had the track record of real time release, ESA ones appear to generally not (Mars Express, Venus Express). Even though Huygens was an ESA probe the DISR camera was run by a UAriz group.

On the Dawn the probe is from JPL but the framing camera is run from Germany, I think that same institute as Venus Express, but not the same for Mars Express.

Anyways, we are probably are experiencing our collective frustration as a result of protocol, inter-agency politics ( or whatever choice adjective you want to insert). From our side it does't seem fair, from their side its just business as usual. Some day it will all be illuminated in some article on Sky and Tele or Discover Magazine.

I will just keep my fingers crossed for the approach movie mentioned yesterday by the end of the week. I can understand how all the great image processing experts here at UMSF are chomping at the bit to get a crack at some from images from a new solar system body.

[bagelverse]

Duh!!! I read Emily's planetary.org post (http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003054/) after I wrote the above.

I'll go back under my lurker rock.

[jsheff]

Maybe part of the problem is that, after MER and Cassini, we talked ourselves into believing that there was a paradigm shift in how images would be handled in the future. In fact, though, there has been no change in NASA's policy of how mission imagery is handled. It's up to the PI's. The real problem is that there seems to be no Steve Squires or Carolyn Porco on the Dawn team.

- John Sheff
Cambridge, MA

[ugordan]

The real problem is that there seems to be no Steve Squires or Carolyn Porco on the Dawn team.

Not everyone on the Cassini imaging team was willing to release raw images. That's all I'm going to say.

Let's not forget New Horizons as another positive example of sharing the Jupiter experience on the fly (with images even having some calibration steps applied to them!).

[CAP-Team]

I don't know what the field views are for the Narrow Angle Camera, but if it's anything like Cassini (21') Dawn should now be able to make some stunning images of Vesta by now at a distance of 350.000 kilometers

[ugordan]

but if it's anything like Cassini (21')

It's not. Dawn carries more modest imagers.

[Floyd]

Not everyone on the Cassini imaging team was willing to release raw images. That's all I'm going to say.

Yes, Cassini started with real conflict about "amateurs" posting mosaics before Cassini scientists. It seems to have taken both direct advocating of people's right to work with released images, and I'm sure some behind the scenes interventions (UMSF and amateurs have many friends among influential scientists—Stern, Squires and many others). I'm guessing the Dawn Spring Uprising is due in no small part to the eventual success of the effort with the Cassini team.

[nprev]

Just a note/reminder: Let's be very careful & respectful when discussing this issue. None of us--despite any influential acquaintances--has 100% understanding of all the dynamics at work here, since obviously we're not part of the organization.

It is proper for us to decry the lack of openness that is the end result of whatever's going on in hopes that our shared opposition to the policy will be heard & understood. It is improper to speculate about cause--or, much worse, assign blame--absent detailed knowledge as descibed with respect to the cause.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

[charborob]

I don't know what the field views are for the Narrow Angle Camera, but if it's anything like Cassini (21') Dawn should now be able to make some stunning images of Vesta by now at a distance of 350.000 kilometers

Dawn carries two identical cameras, described here. At a distance of 350 000 km, Vesta is still only about 17 pixels wide. Patience. Patience.

[Greg Hullender]

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

Dude, you're old!

--Greg :-)

[nprev]

Gee, thanks, Greg! Must point out that at 48 I'm still damn young for a robot!

[djellison]

Why doesn't UMF feature a proper set of rss feeds? This frustrates me. How hard can it be to simply activate the feeds up in here?

How hard? Not very. No one's mentioned such a thing in years and years.

Because you asked so very nicely - here's an RSS feed of the 10 threads most recently posted in
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...rssout&id=2

I also learned that the founder of this forum now works at JPL.

Marc was indeed a superb presenter - his talk is here at about 32 minutes : http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15208876