Astronomy/cosmology questions...

[Unorthodox]

Looks like Ralph's IR imager is running for a lot of the flyby, but it's only got a couple opportunities to take the HD pics.  I suspect they'll use those snapshots more as a color check to process the IR data, so we might eventually get some nifty pics. 

Today's conference looks like it was a 3d glasses version from Lorri.   

[Lorizael]

Yeah, was disappointed by that presser. Yesterday they said we should get composition data today, but instead they mostly just talked about what they didn't find and then showed off the 3d stuff. Not sure what that means, exactly.

But on the neat side, the younger woman on that panel, Silvia, is a former colleague of mine. Among other things, we were both involved with archiving the Pluto flyby data. But then around this time last year she got a job at SwRI as a scientist on the New Horizons team.

[Rusty Edge]

Yeah, was disappointed by that presser. Yesterday they said we should get composition data today, but instead they mostly just talked about what they didn't find and then showed off the 3d stuff. Not sure what that means, exactly.

But on the neat side, the younger woman on that panel, Silvia, is a former colleague of mine. Among other things, we were both involved with archiving the Pluto flyby data. But then around this time last year she got a job at SwRI as a scientist on the New Horizons team.

So, are you going to call her and congratulate her?

[Lorizael]

Heh, that's not really my thing.

[Rusty Edge]

Heh, that's not really my thing.

I thought that using that excuse would be an opening for asking a couple of interesting questions. Or, you could wait for the shutdown to be over to get your answers. [Sleezebag]'s rambling on about how he's willing to let it continue for years.


Regardless, I hope that 2019 is your best year ever.

[Lorizael]

...to get your answers.

Well, as I said, my group is involved with the archival effort for New Horizons data. So I do have some contacts. But, well...

Regardless, I hope that 2019 is your best year ever.

Thanks! I got a promotion and retroactive raise at the end of the year, so I'm hoping to move into my own apartment (rather than living with stranger roommates) some time this spring.

[Geo]

...to get your answers.

Well, as I said, my group is involved with the archival effort for New Horizons data. So I do have some contacts. But, well...

Piffle, if press leaks in DC are tolerated, why wouldn't a mere bureau leak be overlooked.

A more serious question. If your group is solely responsible for the archival of one probe, does that mean that each and every NASA probe outthere winds up with its own group of people classifying its data?
And how does that work with flight crews? Does every probe has its own crew looking at telemetry as it comes in, or did for example (mostly) the same people deal with Deep Horizons during its Pluto flyby and with Dawn during its Ceres orbital program? Not to mention for instance the Juno probe?

[Lorizael]

So, a little less vaguely, NASA's planetary science missions are archived by the Planetary Data System. The PDS is divided up into separate nodes that specialize in particular disciplines of planetary science. I work for the Small Bodies Node, which is operated out of the University of Maryland. (All the nodes are semi-independent groups that are sometimes only loosely affiliated with NASA itself.) Small Bodies includes comets, asteroids, and interplanetary dust. So that's New Horizons but also stuff like Dawn. Cassini, which just ended its Saturn mission, is archived at the Ring-Moon Systems node. And so on.

Every individual mission has its own personnel, because the way these missions get funded is that some researcher (or group of scientists) gets awarded a grant through some part of NASA (or the NSF, or whatever), and then a team is assembled with that grant money to work on that mission. How deeply involved NASA is in the mission itself varies widely depending on the scope of the mission. It gets complicated very quickly. But team members are usually working on other projects at the same time, because to make a living they're probably securing funds from multiple different grants simultaneously.

[Rusty Edge]

Thanks! I got a promotion and retroactive raise at the end of the year, so I'm hoping to move into my own apartment (rather than living with stranger roommates) some time this spring.

That's great news. Maybe someday you can get a Space Force Commission and double dip.

[Geo]

Thanks! I got a promotion and retroactive raise at the end of the year, so I'm hoping to move into my own apartment (rather than living with stranger roommates) some time this spring.

That's great news. Maybe someday you can get a Space Force Commission and double dip.

Good for you. :b
Does that mean you'll have space for a balcony telescope then?
And thanks for the response. In a sense I suppose its good you don't work for NASA directly because of the current government shutdown.

[Unorthodox]

https://www.space.com/42903-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-data-intermission.html
https://www.space.com/42903-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-data-intermission.html

All told, it will take about 20 months for all the data currently trapped on the probe to be sent back down to Earth. That data includes "literally hundreds of images and spectra and other data types," Stern promised.

Gonna be a while before we get the high res pics.  Kinda makes me wonder if they shouldn't have held onto the news for a while so they had a more steady stream of info. 

[Geo]

https://www.space.com/42903-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-data-intermission.html
https://www.space.com/42903-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-data-intermission.html

All told, it will take about 20 months for all the data currently trapped on the probe to be sent back down to Earth. That data includes "literally hundreds of images and spectra and other data types," Stern promised.

Gonna be a while before we get the high res pics.  Kinda makes me wonder if they shouldn't have held onto the news for a while so they had a more steady stream of info.

Instant gratification, UnO, instant gratification.

[Buster's Uncle]

Am I the only one who had good seeing for the eclipse?

[Geo]

Am I the only one who had good seeing for the eclipse?

't Was too frosty this mornin' to have time lookin' at it.
Needed to clean the windscreen and be on the road to work. Only saw the last phase through the canteen windows during mornin' break.

In any case, it must've been pretty dark during full eclipse. Didn't notice the Moon at all during my commute.

[Unorthodox]

I had a good view up till about 3/4.  But between the pollution and the thin clouds could barely see the actual eclipse. Too bad, was trying to get Clarence a workout.