[extropy-chat] Huygens: First visitor to Titan

[Amara Graps]

Mike Lorrey:
>One does need to ask what the value of a data minute
>of particle and field data is worth versus photography of planets and
>moons, radar mapping, etc.

Since 99% of the universe is in a plasma state, I think that the
particle and fields data is quite valuable. Those of us, on top
of rocks such as this, live in special conditions.

>As for Huygens, maybe it is because of the age of the probes, but
>after seeing the pictures from the Mars Rovers, the miniscule low
>resolution pictures sent back by Huygens are a little
>disappointing.

Sorry, you are so disappointed in Huygens. My view is that it was
an engineering and scientific achievment like no other in the
planetary sciences (you might look at your favorite Mars
missions, and note the failures). It  also looks like you have
made your judgement based on zero of the data from the 
other five instruments.

Re: Image data. 

1) You are judging alot from 3/350 of the visible data you have
seen at the web sites.

2) I wonder why you are so focused on electromagnetic wave data
only from the visible part of the spectrum. Do you realize how
tiny is that part of the spectrum?

Yes, I do know that people in general like pretty pictures, but
visible light is a very small part of the electromagnetic
spectrum, and remote sensing by electromagnetic waves is one 
part of the measurement techniques available to scientists.

[Remote sensing -- which is used by most of the fields in
astronomy, with the exception of planetary science -- is also
one-step removed from the object  that one is measuring. Planetary
science is the almost the only astronomy field where one can
collect astronomy data in-situ.]


>Okay, then my previous calculation makes Cassini's average cost per
>data minute on a par with the Mars Rovers. If so, such a valuation
>demolishes the idea of "Better, Faster, Cheaper" that Sean O'Keefe
>promoted for many years: The Mars Rovers are no cheaper, in data
>dollars, than Cassini, which is arguably the most 'expensive' space
>probe in history. 

Cassini was never part of the 'smaller-faster-cheaper' missions,
that initiative came ten years after Cassini's conception.

Cassini emerged from a combination of the cancelled NASA CRAF
mission and an ESA mission from the early-mid 1980s.

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/crafcassini88.html
http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/1994/fyi94.014.txt

The NASA 'smaller-cheapter-faster' was Dan Goldin's initiative,
started in 1994.

http://ipp.nasa.gov/innovation/Innovation51/wel2ati.htm

Amara