Our cycle of twittering (”HiTwycle“) is now over – the last image is on the ground, validated, processed, and will soon be released. (We release data in 100-orbit increments, which don’t necessarily fall along cycle boundaries, so the first half of cycle 89 will be released in May and the second half in June.)

It was fun to share some of the behind-the-scenes details with our followers! I thought it was pretty funny when Nick or I were too lazy to walk over to each others’ offices to ask a question, and asked each other over twitter instead. ha! I guess those questions probably give you a feel for the nitty-gritty of planning a cycle, anyway. I hope it was interesting! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

If you missed it and want to read through the saga, I made an archive of tweets with the #hitwycle hashtag. (I didn’t start this until part-way through, though, so unfortunately the first few days of tweets are missing. Soon you can check the Library of Congress for them! ) You can see the whole archive here:

http://www.twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/hitwycle

Some of my favorites are below.
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Despite being several years into our mission, we’re still seeing fresh faces on the HiRISE team. Recently we’ve added some new hires: student validators, researchers, and Targeting Specialists (with whom I work the most). We also continue to involve new scientists in operations – Participating Scientists or post-docs who haven’t gone through the planning process before. They come to HiROC to train during their first cycle, so we have a conveyor belt of visiting scientists as well.

The first Monday in June when they all started was krazy – lots of new people wandering around, office chaos and computer confusion…. By now they’re settling in and things are cooling down somewhat, although at least for the Targeting Specialists, we consider it about a 6-month process to get fully up to speed. In the first few weeks, their eyes are usually glazed over with information overload. At this point, they probably feel like they’ve been dropped in the hot oil of confusion (it’s also 106F in Tucson, which doesn’t help), then dipped in sticky, overly detailed procedures. Sweet procedures….

While we go through this training, the new kids are keeping us veterans on our toes – I keep finding places where the procedures we told them to follow are unclear, there’s a hole in the middle where steps are missing, outdated, or just plain wrong! So it’s really a shared learning experience. Besides, it’s always good to have some fresh, hot ideas and different perspectives to keep us from getting jaded. or dangerously skinny.

I’m excited for them – the sugary thrill when their first commands execute on the spacecraft, the pride when their first beautiful images come down, the feeling of fullness and mastery when they finally become fluent in the foreign language of acronyms…. Other firsts I’m sure they’re not looking forward to are their first mistake, their first late night, their first bad image…. So not everything is warm with honeyed nostalgia.

I’m sure they’ll all do a wonderful job, though, and be valuable additions to the team. In the meantime, though, I could really use some donuts…. Welcome, newbies!