First entry as a glogger.

And an excellent glog! Keep it up, Doug!

-the other Doug

It's a little early for glogging in the Northern Hemisphere, dont' you think?

Great entry Doug, though I selfishly worry if our quiet little corner here at UMSF will be overrun by the blogging masses now.

Second one is sent in to Jen ( first half of the heads of agencies plenary ) but she's going to wait for that first one to settle before putting up the second.

Tonight - I hope to write up the rest of that first session, plus what I went to this afternoon ( Mars Comms stuff + ESA Delta DOR ranging )

But first...FOOOOOOD - I'm bloody starving - didn't have time to stop all day

Doug

I recommend the tapas bar at Bodega casa Montaña.

Entry #2 is now up.

Very nice. Keep up the good work chief...

Nico

edit: great in-situ pan!

Oh I thought it said CLOGGER!

Doug, I am very glad that you are starting to participate como un periodista de prensa acreditada. Si, esto por su puesto totalmente!. Also I am very glad to know that you mentioned in a phrase that I was very overhelm glad that the USMF community members have transcribed the audios.

Congratulations for your new blog!

Rodolfo

Entry #3.

Great reading Doug!

Entry 4. For the four IACs I attended in the past, the engineering and technical sessions for interplanetary probes were the most informative. Indeed, as Doug alluded to yesterday, the plenary session for the space agency heads is, for the most part, nothing more than talking heads.

Entry 5.

Very good so far. I particularly liked this one from the 'glog':

"...there are enough lunatics like myself who enjoy nothing more than a new PDS data release and a night of image processing."

Nice knowing I'm not the only one whose idea of fun includes having 200,000+ PDS images on my computer . I suspect there isn't a huge number of people in the world like this although there are lots of them here at UMSF.

Yes, UMSF is like a Betty Ford Center for PDS-a-holics and Exploratorium Addicts.

Here's Doug's MRO entry, with a nice CRISM scoop as well.

From Doug's glog installment on Venus Express:

>Schwelm explained that when you do this "copy" of a spacecraft design, you have to do it rapidly without
>a gap. It's been a year since they finished working on VEX and thus the heritage is essentially lost --
>the teams have changed and it would not be as cost effective to do the same thing again ....

Now that's interesting. The topic of how much money can be saved by reusing spacecraft design comes up all the time, but I had not realized that the deadline was so short. It increases my admiration for ESA's ability to put together support for the two Express missions.

TTT

Interesting things got a bit thin on the ground today - so you'll have to make do with a Whale and OSETI....I hope some of you find it interesting, and if nothing else, it's a bit of a laugh.

Doug

Check out Doug's final entries (here and here).

Nice work, Doug!

Doug, I have enjoyed reading your blogs. Congratulations for your superb reports!

Rodolfo

It was great fun - not sure if every post was for everyone, but that's the same with conference sessions

Doug

Welcome back from the front, Doug! Very enjoyable and informative reports, very different to others and all the better for it.

I fear you've left a very sad and lonely Whaley behind tho, depressed after his 15mins of fame...

a quick 6 x 2

Doug

Thanks Doug,
I truly enjoyed your way of reporting : humour, informative and personal. What else can we ask for? Well, yes, pictures. Must be inspiring to be in a Congres related to Space in such a place.

Doug, that building complex is gorgeous. If I ever win the lottery I'll build a copy and donate it to UMSF!

Brian

Looks like Calatrava's work...

You don't know how funny that is to me as a HiRISE person... Before I joined the HiRISE team, I think it was about MOI time, a local paper actually published MRO as the Mars Renaissance Orbiter. Several of the team members came dressed up as if it were the Renaissance over the next week, as I've heard... Craziness...

Also, Doug, where did you get the MCS picture of MRO? And how did you know about our plans to take pictures of Victoria Crater before it was done? I'm quite curious...

The MCS image was from Jim Graf's paper presented at the conference and I asked him if I could reproduce it.

As for Vic crater.....meh...just guessing. (Actually - I honestly guessed that they would try and get it before conjunction a couple of months back ). Yes - Phoenix targetting is important, but I would consider planning traverses for a current spacecraft to be more so and thus I was always fairly sure that Vic would be in that transition phase. When Jim suggested that Friday's conference should be interesting, I put 1+1 together and made 3.

Doug

Very impressive. Originally Transition imaging was only going to be 1 day, so... That would have barely left time for anything...

Thanks tuvas
BTW (I can read anaglyph but tell me which one is left eye)

I've been sitting on that image for..umm...about four months now...sorry...I hope to have more on that image posted on the MCS website before long. It's the first thing on my list of things to do when I'm officially back on duty beginning Monday. I just didn't manage to get the text okayed and posting organized before I left.

--Emily

It is so good to read back Emily!
How are you dealing with your new life?
How is your baby dealing with a whole new world ahead?

Best wishes to the three of you.

Rui.

Ah ah, good to hear superior conjunction is nearly over

Thanks everyone -- I've missed you too! Anahita is beginning to think that it's not so bad being alive. She'll be keeping me company while I work. I've passed along your wishes to her.

--Emily

I know what you mean!

Nice to see you back in here indeed Emily, all the best at getting back to work!

Nico

I'll bet her first words will be "Mom, why do most of the tributaries of martian ancient valley networks have alcove-like terminations?"

Just a wierd follow up. The McLaren F1 team have taken over almost the entire complex where the conference was last October...

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/190214/0/c...lonso/valencia/

to unveil their new F1 car later today - and they're going to drive two of last years cars around the roads nearby - including straight under the windows of the hotel we stayed at

Doug

That happens to downtown Long Beach, CA every April. Almost bought a condo there in 2005...then I had a sudden moment of sanity (US$512,000 for 1200 sq ft???) , plus dealing with a week-plus of hordes of racing fans every year...

Ahh - you see what you do then is rent your place out for the week and earn back two months mortgage payments in 5 days

It's what happens in Monaco - hardly any locals stay for the f1 weekend...they take their holidays then and get the hell out

...yeah, I thought of that, but the soon-to-be-ex wasn't keen on the idea. Oh, well; at least I don't have to sell it & split the proceeds (or debts...market's turning south here) now!