It’s really a shame they didn’t put better imaging equipment on Juno. The argument being that little science would be gained from it. I’d argue secondary effects would have made it worth the weight.
You have to be careful what you ask for - I certainly like pretty pictures myself, but one of the reasons that Juno is so successful as a scientific mission is because it was kept to the barebones and managed scope so aggressively. With Juno ($1B for an outer planets mission) we got Flagship mission-quality science for a New Frontiers price. There's a good interview with Mark Wolverton on Planetary Radio that discusses how this happened.
I don’t know. I hear you and do agree but part of me wonders whether the science learned from Juno is boring and pretty pictures would have been more exciting. Potentially leading to more science missions from newly excited public opinions. I am not qualified to make such judgments so I am hoping the did the right thing.
