Planetary Scientist Selected to Lead Mission Directorate
RELEASE: 07-38
February 12, 2007

Congratulations, Alan!

LOL! I was just about to ask what AA for SMD meant...

Good to hear, Alan!

So does our favorite PI step down from NH duties?

Doug

A more important question for UMSF is whether our friend Alan will still have time to post here.

(Doug, I hope you didn't make Steve Squyres jealous with your last comment! )

--Emily

As long as Steve and Alan don't see one another, they shouldn't find out I'm two-timing them

Doug

I wondered about that, too. One will note that Charles Elachi is both the Director of JPL and Team Leader for Cassini RADAR. However, being AA SMD and wearing multiple hats (e.g., PI New Horizons, PI for Rosetta ALICE, PI LRO LAMP, PI The Great Escape, etc.) may be (indeed, probably is) an entirely different kettle of fish.

I'm sure you meant our favorite posting PI.

Both Steve and Alan are fantastic in their own ways. Steve's two interviews
with you were very generous and much more informative than any of the other
interviews/presentations I have seen him give in other venues. Alan's many
posts here have been equally as generous, informative, and important to
those following the NH mission.

Speaking from bitter experience, you might want to come clean early...

Congrats to Alan for sure...but I do also wonder if it's yet another set of hats for him. PIs seem to multitask more than anybody else I've ever seen...can't imagine where they find the time & energy! (Well, maybe truly, deeply, madly loving your work helps a bit...)

Nice tidbit at the bottom:



-Borek

They also missed that he was once an Ascan.

Doug

I guess his days are 48 hours long or something. What is an Ascan?

Analyst

AStronaut CANdidate.

Wow, I didn't realize that so many PIs were around here... Has anyone stopped to take an inventory of everyone involved in a UMSF mission that is on these boards? Just curious...

There are a few engineers and scientists who I know lurk and/or post under a pseudonym because they wish to retain their privacy and obviously, we should all respect that.

Doug

They don't just lurk, they also contact forum-members

We can find some more ....

Yesterday, 08:16 PM
In: Fire possible only on plane...
By: helvick

?
Not sure what you meant to say there Climber. I'm certainly neither a "Friend in a High Place" or an undercover staffer from any space mission. Looking at Alan Stern's CV I think I'd have some trouble meeting the standard.

Ooooooops : I did a copy intended to paste in : "Planetary scientist says: Focus on Europa"...
So, I re-paste it there now so, you'll get the point then! Sorry.

If I can drag this thread back on topic: Phil Plait aka The Bad Astronomer has a nice encomium on Alan's "promotion."

Congratuliere Alan

We probably should extend him sympathies as well!

:-P

This is fantastic news!

Congratulations Alan !!!!

And hopefully great news for Pluto too

He should now have the authority to set the NASA New Horizons banner straight again to read

New Horizons : First Mission to the Last Planet !

ken