If you noticed there was no MOC Picture of the Day today, here's why. It's too bad but understandable. Kudos to MSSS for all of the captioned releases over the years.

MGS is a fantastic mission which has been integral to the MER missions as well with relay, CPROTO's, and global weather images. It was also the first to demonstrate aerobraking successfully at Mars. It's still going strong so lets hope they keep funding it. Perhaps Malin's team are now too wrapped up in the MRO campaign but it would be a shame to let a lack of funding stop such a productive platform for the study of Mars. There's an endless amount of terrain to be imaged at 1 metre so why not keep it going in some sort of autonomous picture snapping mode where it sends to DSN during off peak times and gradually works toward global coverage?

Hats off to them for some great photos and commentary which went way beyond the typical government-funded outreach program.

Thanks to MSSS for some great public outreach - I will miss it!
The Grand Index
It seems that it's only the daily release that has been cut by the funding, I see no mention of operational cuts in the paragraph.

Mark, as I understand it, MGS will still be used as much as it has been in the past. They're just ending the practice of releasing a cool image every day from MGS -- it's more of a money/personnel limitation of people here on the ground to select an image, write a caption and upload it to the website.

The linked article from MSSS does say that MGS has received funding for yet another operational extension, so it will continue to operate...

-the other Doug

That's the way I interpreted it as well. I'll just note that some of the captioned releases were very informative. My favorites were those relating to Mars' moons, gullies, and landing sites. Strangely enough, my all-time favorite was this one.

Just a quick observation: I've seen comments elsewhere lamenting that MSSS is totally ending the MOC POD effort. However, as their note indicates: "...the MOC team has returned to its prior practice of releasing captioned materials on a less regular basis, typically on the order of 4 per month."

In other words, MOC POD will continue, just not every day. Indeed, there was a release this morning.

Maybe they should have dropped it to POW.

As I mentioned in my Glog-spot, it's a real pitty that the efforts to highlight the work of MOC seem to be dropping just as the instruments achievments and legacy are likely to be overshadowed ( perhaps a little unfairly ) by HiRISE.

Doug

While I do feel sad that dependable ol' MGS is moving to the back seat, I think that this is just a natural progression of technology. One can say that MPF overshadowed the Vikings, and the MERs overshadowed MPF, but each mission has made its own valuable contribution to our understanding of Mars. I'm sure that MGS and the people who worked on the mission will be revered and honored in the same way the Mars Mariners and Vikings are

Well, my official auto mail from "Ron Baalke - Mars Exploration Program" <info@jpl.nasa.gov> is now titled:



So there you go...

I'm looking for a higher-res (> 1 MEG) version of the recent MGS North Pole mosaic (MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1607, 7 November 2006). The released version is the modern-Mars-exploration equivalent of a thumbnail !! Anyone seen a bigger file anywhere?

It is full size already.