May 24, 2007 o-------------------TABLE OF CONTENTS---------------------------------o 1. Announcing the Planetary Exploration Newsletter 2. NASA (April 27, 2007) - New policy for NASA Science Mission Directorate 3. NASA (May 3, 2007) - Meet SARA (sara@nasa.gov) 4. Clementine NIR Full-Resolution Lunar Mosaic (Version 0.1) Available o---------------------------------------------------------------------o 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 ANNOUNCING THE PLANETARY EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER The Planetary Exploration Newsletter (PEN) is a weekly electronic mailing that is intended to be an open conduit of news and announcements across the entire planetary science community. This includes astronomers, planetary scientists, astrobiologists, geologists, atmospheric scientists and others doing planetary research. The desire is to cut across the boundaries of existing electronic newsletters to increase interdisciplinary awareness and distribute information of broad professional interest. PEN will contain messages from NASA and other officials, meeting announcements from professional societies, job announcements, and your submissions of news regarding or impacting solar system exploration, upcoming mission events, awards, Congressional deliberations on the NASA budget, policy issues, and assessments of program performance. There will be times when volume or events will require more frequent PEN distributions. An editorial board has been established that is open to representatives of professional societies, research organizations, and academic departments engaged in planetary science. This is to ensure the broadest possible participation, set policy and offer guidance to the editor. 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 NASA (April 27, 2007) - NEW POLICY FOR NASA SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE The Science Mission Directorate has adopted a new policy concerning debriefings for proposers to Announcements of Opportunity (AO). Effective immediately, SMD will provide a written debriefing report to the proposer at the time of each proposal oral debriefing to the proposal team. This policy applies to all future debriefs. Questions about this policy may be directed to Dr. Paul Hertz, Science Policy Process and Ethics Chief, Science Mission Directorate, NASA, Washington, DC, 20546; Phone 202-358-0986; Email paul.hertz@nasa.gov. 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 NASA (May 3, 2007) - MEET SARA (sara@nasa.gov) Dr. Alan Stern, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, has created an entirely new position within the Science Mission Directorate designed specifically to advise, adjust, and streamline NASA's Science Research and Analysis Programs to maximize the scientific return on NASA's investment. Dr. Yvonne Pendleton, an infrared astrophysicist formerly at NASA Ames Research Center, is the person tasked with this responsibility. She comes to the position with the experience of many years as an active researcher within NASA, and with the experience of serving as Chief of the Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA's Ames Research Center for the past two years. Her new title is Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis (SARA). The position is advisory directly to the Associate Administrator and has oversight of the R&A activities across the directorate. In order to improve communication between the science community and the Science Mission Directorate, you can now send email to Yvonne at sara@nasa.gov. If you have an issue, complaint, concern (or praise!) specific to a NASA Science R&A program, please contact the appropriate NASA program officer first. However, if your issue is of a more general nature, if you have not received a response within 24 hours, or the response requires elevation to a higher level, please contact Yvonne through the sara@nasa.gov address. The mail and your identity will be kept confidential. Information provided will be used in a discrete manner to illuminate issues that can be fixed and to rectify communication problems if they exist. A web page devoted to R&A issues will be up shortly, and you will be notified through NSPIRES when this has occurred. After the web page is up and running, we will not use the NSPIRES system to further update the community. We will ask you to sign up on the web site for updates and thereby preserve the NSPIRES email list for its current purpose. There will be SARA presentations at many of the upcoming scientific conferences, including the AAS in May, Bioastronomy in July, the DPS in October, and the AGU in December. Look for updates from Yvonne Pendleton at these meetings through the NASA night or town hall presentations. Comments or questions regarding this informational notice should be addressed to Dr. Yvonne Pendleton, Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis, Science Mission Directorate, NASA, Washington, DC, 20546; Email: sara@nasa.gov. 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 CLEMENTINE NIR FULL-RESOLUTION LUNAR MOSAIC (VERSION 0.1) AVAILABLE The Astrogeology Program of the U.S. Geological Survey is pleased to announce the availability of a full-resolution version of the Clementine near-infrared (NIR) lunar mosaic. Processed to 100 m/pixel spatial resolution, a PDS-compliant image cube version (with detached ISIS labels) of this 6-band (1100 to 2780 nm) multispectral mosaic can be downloaded via FTP on the USGS Astrogeology Research Program web site. This Preliminary Release (V 0.1) of the full-resolution mosaic marks the beginning of the review process by PDS peer reviewers. Users of these data should keep in mind that this version remains subject to revision pending the outcome of this review process. Web Site: http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/ClementineNIR/ These full-resolution data are compatible with the previous PDS Clementine UVVIS 'Full Resolution Digital Image Model' available through PDS Map-a-Planet (http://www.mapaplanet.org/explorer/moon.html) and the PDS Planetary Image Atlas (http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/Admin/resources/cd_clementine.html#clmBASE). Once finalized, these multispectral data will also be available through these Web sites. Citation: Gaddis, Lisa, Chris Isbell, Matt Staid, Eric Eliason, Ella Mae Lee, Lynn Weller, Tracie Sucharski, Paul Lucey, Dave Blewett, John Hinrichs, and Donovan Steutel, 2007, The Clementine NIR Global Lunar Mosaic, PDS Volumes USA_NASA_PDS_CL_5001 through 5078, produced by the U.S. Geological Survey and distributed online and on DVD media by the Planetary Data System. 5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5 DAWN LAUNCH SYMPOSIUM, JUNE 28-30, 2007 A conference devoted to the earliest epoch of the solar system, planetary formation and our current understanding of Vesta and Ceres will be held at the Hilton Hotel, Cocoa Beach Florida, in conjunction with the planned launch of the Dawn spacecraft on June 30. Registration is $180 and those registered and cleared in sufficient time will be invited to view the launch with the Dawn team. Both contributed oral and posters are welcome. For further information, please contact margie@igpp.ucla.edu or go to http://www.dawn-mission.org/science/science_team.asp ************************************************************************** * * The Planetary Exploration Newsletter is issued approximately weekly. * Current and back issues are available at * * http://planetarynews.org * * To subscribe, go to http://planetarynews.org/pen_subscribe.html * * To unsubscribe, go to http://planetarynews.org/pen_unsubscribe.html * * Please send all replies and submissions to Mark V. Sykes (Editor) or Matt * Balme (Co-Editor) at: pen_editor at psi.edu. Announcements and other * messages should be brief with links to URLs for extended information, * including detailed descriptions for job announcements. Go to the PEN * website for further submission directions. * **************************************************************************