On Aug 14, 2008, at 5:46 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
Horace Heffner wrote:
Apparently there have been no Spirit FEM photos because none have
been taken:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/release.php?ArticleID=1827
Not being able to take photos all this time using the most
powerful microscope on Mars must have made some scientist anxious,
to say the least!
But that's really strange -- do you have any guess or info as to
why they didn't use it earlier?
The article linked doesn't say, as far as I could see.
I don't know, so I'm left to speculate. I'm not big on conspiracy
theories because they are not constructive and usually are wrong.
There has been plenty of this already, which apparently has been
shown to be wrong:
google (mars phoenix president briefing life)
However, behind every such thing there are often various true stories
of interest, and this happens to be so in my case. The Aug. 14
article in the above link does say: "'After this first success, we're
now working on building up a portrait gallery of the dust on Mars,'
Pike added."
The actual sample was delivered to the stage July 2nd:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/AFM-rev3.html
"The image on the upper left is from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's
Optical Microscope after a sample informally called "Sorceress" was
delivered to its silicon substrate on the 38th Martian day, or sol,
of the mission (July 2, 2008). "
That leaves a gap in time from July 2 to August 14 that should have
had someone at NASA who might be impatient like me very anxious to
get some data. I can speculate the real problem was keeping
transmission busy getting around the problems of dumping soil samples
into the chemical test compartments etc.
Now, for my part of the story.
When I made the vortex postings regarding a Foraminid in the Phoenix
micrographs, for example see:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg26278.html
I noticed micrographs weren't showing up in the other Spirit images at:
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/imageCategories_lander.php
This was not characteristic of prior missions. So, I wrote to the
guy in charge on Mars, Steve the Cat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] For
info on Steve see:
Here is my email:
On Jun 27, 2008, at 11:23 PM, Horace Heffner wrote [to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
Steve,
Can you help by seeing to it the microscope photos are posted
daily as they have been for other missions? That would be a big help.
Thanks,
Horace Heffner
Soon, micrographs started showing up, so I figured that Steve the Cat
is a very responsive astronaut, or at least he has a very responsive
support team! However, I had to wonder if Steve dropped the ball on
the FEM photos. So, eventually, Aug 13 I wrote again:
On Aug 13, 2008, at 1:59 PM, Horace Heffner wrote [to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
Steve,
Can you help by seeing to it all the field effect microscope (FEM)
photos are posted regularly? That would be a big help. I don't
think any have been released since the FEM tested beautifully.
Thanks,
Horace Heffner
The next day, bingo! Steve got on the job right away! I look
forward to seeing what develops at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/index.html
which hopefully will continue to have nice 3D renderings of the FEM
data, and will take a look at the material on the stage that moves
around between photos (see "Motion in Mars Micrograph" posting here
by me on August 12th. at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg26756.html
It should be a most interesting "portrait gallery". Hmmmm... does
one take a "portrait" of rocks?
Given all the above, you can see why I hesitate to add to conspiracy
theories. Sometimes they are so coincidental or synchronistic, and
bizarre. But ... fun is fun. 8^)
The odd thing is the above story, my part at least, is all true.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Steve may possibly neither
confirm nor deny ... 8^)
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
