Weekly Recap

Wow, last week was insane. We had more visitors last week than we have ever had in a month, almost 1,000. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and I hope I can keep some of you around to learn a thing or two about Io. It was also a busy week in terms of posts thanks to the selection of the Europa/Jupiter System Mission as the next Outer Planet flagship mission. So let's take a look at last week in review:

• As I just said, the big news of the week was the Outer Planet Flagship mission downselection announcement. With the Europa/Jupiter System Mission selected, we can now look forward to the next 10 years of mission development and Io observations in the mid-2020s. Last week, we touched on the potential for Io science from ESA's contribution to the mission, the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter. We also looked at an example of science the Jupiter Europa Orbiter would obtain while in orbit around Europa. This could include constraining the thickness of Europa's water ice shell (though some of these results, such as of Europa's tides with the Laser Altimeter, maybe limited by our knowledge of the satellite's deep interior).
• We also looked at press coverage of the EJSM selection.
  
• With EJSM approved, we took at look at how the downselection would effect the Io Volcano Observer proposal as well as the Io science questions that still remain.

This week should be a bit quieter than last week, obviously, as I really don't see any external news coming that will generate posts. However, I plan to post summaries of two papers posted on the Icarus website yesterday, including one covering HST observations of Io's atmosphere that I will be posting later today. The Gish Bar Times also turns one year old on Wednesday, so we might do something special for that :)