European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2007
August 19–24, 2007
Potsdam, Germany

Which, hopefully, I'll be attending.

The abstracts are now available. Just access any Programme Group and click on "Accepted Contributions."

I saw your abstract.

I was asked if I would contribute to the Outreach session by Alice - so I'm combining that with my unique style of conference coverage for TPS

(PS - I don't get active links on 'Accepted Contributions' for any programme group)

I know the links were working yesterday. I guess UMSF has a very broad readership

Try this link, Doug.

changing the last number in that link will get you to other sessions, though it is a bit fiddely

There's actually an easier way but I'll leave it at that. The Europlanets-2 folks probably didn't intend to release the abstracts (or at least have us hawk-eyed UMSFers notice them) so quickly.

It's a little like keeping the bible under lock and key...old traditions die hard. It is good to see Doug (in his abstract) is emphasizing the positive aspects of the early release of to-die-for planetary probe data.

For those who haven't noticed, the links to the Accepted Contributions are visible again.

Doug,

That's a pretty concise abstract. Will you make the entire paper available at some point?

TTT

There isn't one -it's an oral thing.

Doug

Best of luck, Doug

http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EPSC2007/00...007-A-00277.pdf

I will tell ya, from the perspective of a guy who grew up way pre-internet, who had to wait for bad science reporting from popular news media to even SEE an image from the Mariners, Vikings, Voyagers, and then waited weeks to months to years for the good science reporting from Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Star and Sky, Science, Science News, Nature, and then trekked to university libraries for Icarus, JGR-Planets, etc., this internet age of raw image posting.... is heaven.

There are still niches.... and we all have filters...... but this really helps introduce the wonders of space exploration to a much wider audience, and for my part, just providing a link to click on, has left many friends awe struck, for they had no idea of the beauty and the grandeur all around them overhead.

Craig

For any of you not following Doug's reports on Emily's Blog he has just linked to his own very excellent presentation on public outreach efforts along with his own report on how the presentation was received. Sounds like it was time very well spent.

Good work there Boss!

I've been following them, helvick, and I was particularly waiting to hear Doug's report on his presentation. Like many of us, I am an avid space exploration enthusiast and I do my small part as I can to advance the cause of our global, on-line community. But Doug had an unbelievable opportunity here, as an ambassador representing our diverse community to some important people who don't always understand our desire to participate in space exploration missions as they unfold.

Doug: Thanks for making your slide show available. I wish I could have been there to hear all the questions and answers after the talk. Those are certainly a sign that your presentation was a major success. I don't know how much you will feel comfortable sharing with us, but I would very much like to hear more about the discussions precipitated by your presentation, and the other presentations in that session.

I liked the demonstration too, but its not complete without the dialog that went with it. For example what did you say Doug when the "Duck" Bay image popped up/ I want to hear the whole thing. You need to remix it with audio.

Sadly - you're not allowed to record talks, so I couldn't then re-mix my talk back down with the slides.

When the duck bay image came up - people laughed (as I hoped they would - taking it in the way it was intended) , and I explained that yes, this was just a bit of fun, but the principle of putting some humanly tangible reference within a panorama actually can give it a sense of scale that a simulated rover image can't.

I've said about as much about the Q'n'A as I can unfortunately - it happens so quickly and so suddenly that it's something of a blur I couldn't BELIEVE how long the questions had been going on until I looked at my keynote screen and it had ticked over to more than 40 minutes.

What plays in Potsdam, stays in Potsdam...... or something.

From my seat in the audience I thought Doug did a great job - the quick response
of amateurs to the Huygens DISR release is well-known, but the history of some of
the neat MER work, including the very valuable efforts in organizing metadata, was new
to me and I think to most of the people in the room.

I was too busy grilling Doug in the question period to pay attention to the other questions,
not all of which were questions - overall a lot of discussion was stimulated and Jean-Pierre,
chairing, did the right thing and let it run on...

I hope Doug or other ambassadors of the forum community can make similar showcases at
other meetings.

Ralph

Law of the Stag...for conferences.

Now get out of your seat in THIS audience and go give your talk

Doug
(a the opposite end of the third row in the main conference hall)

Brilliant job on the presentation, Doug. One of the reasons I wrote MMB was to demo the kind of things that can be done when the right data is placed online, so I'm delighted to see it used in your presentation.

I'll second that. Nice work, Doug.

Come on, Doug. Surely you can tell us a little bit more. It might have been Potsdam, but it wasn't Las Vegas.

You did a terrific job presenting the diversity of topics on the Planetary Blog, but how about a bit more detail from the second half of your 40 minutes.

Doug, Emily, and TPS,

From 1989, when I started to belong to TPS, the "voice" of the TPS was the Planetary report... which was (and is still) issued 4 times a year. Now, for me, the new voice is Emily's blog. When I read your reports from Valencia & Postdam, Doug, I feel I'm listening the same voice, a voice that speak to us, space enthousiasts, as never before. We leave in a great period of Exploration, 500 years after the overeseas Earth exploration began. At that time, only the Kings where sponsoring vessels and they needed sometimes years to get any feed-back. We're lucky here to have better communication means and on top of that exceptionals reporters.
Thanks.
Climber

A big thank to Doug from a European citizen who always dreamed of telling Prof. Foing exactly what Doug told him. These days, public outreach is as important for a publicly funded mission as the science and technology. Taxpayers should be included in the paylod from the design stage.


Paolo Amoroso

Climber, you're very welcome! And we're very grateful to Doug for his hard work last week. We paid his way, but not his time; I know he had fun, but it's exhausting work that he had to take time off from his day job for -- I expect he now needs a vacation from his 'vacation.'

--Emily

P.S. The Planetary Report comes out six times a year...

Oups! Sorry!
BTW, I received 3 weeks ago my copy including the excellent article from Tim53 regarding past landers localisations.

No apology needed -- just wanted to make sure that potential members here had the facts straight

For those of you who can never get enough Doug, tune in to Planetary Radio tomorrow!

--Emily

Thanks, Doug, for letting the world know we want to help, and reducing the volumes and volumes of mission science that wide band communication makes possible is a good way to help.

Notice that even though mission scientists might be scooped from time-to-time when others get their hands on the data, ultimately much of the credit will still go to the mission scientists who must validate the interpretations of others.

Nice plug of the blog via one of the links on APOD today

Doug