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

[Juramike]

I wrote to a member of the Dawn E/PO Team and received this very promising message:

"We look forward to you and others like you participating in Dawn. We have been waiting nearly four years to get to Vesta and we, too, can't wait to see what this world looks like when we finally get there. Dawn certainly plans to release more images. During the early phase (on approach), the plan is to release them in sets. A high-volume stream of imagery will begin at the heart of the mission, when science gathering begins in the survey orbit, in early August. Currently, the images are only being used for navigation."

[djellison]

Currently, the images are only being used for navigation."

I don't believe for one second that they are only taking starfield like Nav imagery, now their resolving power at Vesta is matching and hereafter exceed Hubble.

[ElkGroveDan]

It's really just a case of them wanting to have a big press event and unveil the first pictures to the world with a flourish; "Behold! a new world -- Vesta!." It's unfortunate when egos and theatrics come ahead of science and discovery, especially when we the American taxpayers bought and paid for that craft and its images. I'll be making that point several times when I'm in Washington next month meeting with the staff of Mr. Palazzo and others.

[tanjent]

Marc Rayman provides great commentary, and I appreciate the humor even as I cringe. But Marc is on the engineering side, so I doubt he feels any personal stake in how and when the images are released. I won't expect any clarification from him about that policy; even if he does know what's going on, he wouldn't be the science team's chosen spokesman. I badly want to see those approach images in real time, and the marketing speculations expressed above are just my best attempt to frame the recent lack of images in an optimistic way.

The trouble with the taxpayer argument is that the enthusiasts on this site only paid for a tiny fraction of the mission's cost - most of it came from people for whom the mission doesn't rate nearly so high a priority. "Outreach" to me is a longer-term strategy addressed mainly to the next generation. It's harder to take a jaded adult and re-awaken that sense of discovery, but they are the ones who do most of the paying. Any "marketing" strategy that will make today's hard-pressed taxpayers sit up and take a little pride that they have paid for something truly wonderful - that would be a sacrifice I'd happily make if it really seemed that a sudden dramatic unveiling was the best way to go.

Does Vesta have that potential to accomplish a marketing breakthrough? Unfortunately, the scale of rocky asteroids is hard to gauge when they are just hanging out all by themselves in empty space. For somebody who has not been paying close attention, I wonder if Vesta will have any features that clearly make it more spectacular than Rosetta, or even Eros or Itokawa. Ceres, with its ice, will be something entirely new - like finding Greenland or Antarctica up there in the sky. Whatever happens here, the Ceres visit will probably offer the best public showcase for robotic space travel since Voyager. The current encounter may prove scientifically very rich, but in terms of publicity, perhaps a dress rehearsal.

(Oh, and great news from Mike while I was responding to the earlier stuff! )

[djellison]

Whatever happens here, the Ceres visit will probably offer the best public showcase for robotic space travel since Voyager.

It's impossible to draw comparisons between missions in that way. One could argue MER is the best showcase for robotic space exploration. Or Cassini. Or any number of missions.

The crime here is that there are ever increasingly great images of this unexplored world being taken but not being shared with the public - it is an exquisit opportunity to engage and inspire the public....and for whatever reason they're forgoing that opportunity and revert to old-school media policy.

[ElkGroveDan]

The trouble with the taxpayer argument is that the enthusiasts on this site only paid for a tiny fraction of the mission's cost - most of it came from people for whom the mission doesn't rate nearly so high a priority.

I don't want to get into a political debate here (or I'll have to delete my own comments and suspend myself), suffice it to say that you are incorrect in assuming that a small community of citizen advocates cannot engage in effective advocacy. This is in fact precisely what the Planetary Society was created for, and we'll leave any further discussion on that topic for the TPS site.

ADMIN: and that's the last word on the lobbying aspect of the discussion.

[Bunker9603]

I sent several emails to members of the DAWN team. So far this is the only response received:

Dear Rick,

Thanks for your interest in Dawn. We're glad you and many others are excited about Dawn and hope you'll stay with us through the entire mission. Right now, Dawn is still in its approach phase, so the heart of the Vesta rendezvous has not yet begun. We will have a high volume of imagery available starting around the time Dawn gets into "survey orbit," its first science orbit, at the beginning of August. The mission is committed to making images public. As you know, Dawn is a modestly sized project and the mission folks are focused right now on making sure everything is ready for our Vesta visit.


Best,
Jia-Rui


Jia-Rui C. Cook
Media Relations Specialist
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109-8099

[nprev]

Hmm. So minimal manpower is the possible reason for the slow release rate? If so, I wonder if they'd be amenible to asking for volunteers to help them do it.

(I would, however, expect that they'd ask any volunteers to enter into some sort of non-disclosure agreement in order to assure that the investigators themselves get first crack at the findings.)

[Decepticon]

Then get worried - that's right about now.

Not according to Marc Rayman. He states 2nd week of June.

Its only June 4.

[djellison]

The second week in June starts in <48hrs

Vesta is about 13 pixels across right about now.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Hmm. So minimal manpower is the possible reason for the slow release rate? If so, I wonder if they'd be amenible to asking for volunteers to help them do it.

(I would, however, expect that they'd ask any volunteers to enter into some sort of non-disclosure agreement in order to assure that the investigators themselves get first crack at the findings.)

Thats what I proposed here, something like NASA Solar System Ambassadors.

[Stu]

The moment - the very moment - DAWN's optics can resolve Vesta better than Hubble, the team, and NASA, should be shouting it from the rooftops, because that will be a genuine point in history, one of those every-magazine-and-book-ever-written-is-now-wrong heartbeats where we suddenly saw a solar system body better than ever before. They should release the first "Better Than Hubble" image as soon after it is taken as possible, celebrating their success and setting the stage for the great reveals to come.

Nuts if they don't do that. Seriously, seriously nuts.

[ugordan]

As much as I'd also like to see new images and realize people want to vent their frustration, talking about it here won't really change anything.

[Stu]

Hmmm. Maybe, maybe not. You never know who's reading, who comes here via a link from another site. Our requests/pleas/head-against-brick-wall bangings may be being read by newspaper and TV people right now, wondering themselves where the pictures are.

And it always feels better to moan in company, doesn't it?

[ugordan]

FWIW, one poster from BAUT forum said "dawn coinvestigator tom prettyman says will release video of footage in one week "