[meteorite-list] ET phone Nome...

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:16:05 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <60335.71.226.60.25.1217715365.squirrel_at_timber.lpl.arizona.edu>

Hi Sterling:

Short of there being images of a bug crossing in from of the lander, any
observation is likely to be open to interpretation. Life has been
"detected" twice on Mars, Viking and ALH84001. Knowing Peter Smith (I do
not know the MECA team), I would assume that they would want to be a
little on the cautious side before saying that they found signs of life,
like doing the experiment a second time and hoping for a duplicate result.

Larry

On Sat, August 2, 2008 3:01 pm, Sterling K. Webb wrote:
> Hi, All,
>
>
> The interesting part is not a potential discovery
> of... something. These is the parts I find fascinating:
>
>> ...avoiding any questions... They have also made
>> the decision to discuss the results with the Bush Administration's
>> Presidential Science Advisor's
>> office before a press conference...
>
> Is the question what sort of "spin" should we put
> on Martian permafrost? What are the political implications of Martian soil?
> Should we hold up the announcement
> until after the elections? What is the President's position on "dirt,"
> anyway?
>
> Well, Galileo had to run his findings by the Inquisition.
> In the old Soviet Union, scientists had to have the approval
> of branches of the Central Committee to publish or speak. This is not like
> that, of course; this is completely different.
>
> It just looks exactly the same.
>
>
>
>> I just hope we're not getting excited over
>> something benign.
>
> Hmm, you don't want the news to be "benign,"
> meaning "good, helpful"? Does this mean you'd prefer the news be something
> its opposite, namely "malign" (evil, harmful)? I'm trying to figure out
> what a "malign" Martian soil component would be.
>
>
>
>> it is hard to guess as to what the MECA's second soil test has
>> discovered. What ever it is, it sounds pretty significant... [with]
>> extraordinary steps to avoid any more details being leaked to the
>> outside world.
>
> It's a fine guessing game. Here a description of the MECA
> package and what it does and how it does it:
> http://planetary.chem.tufts.edu/Phoenix/MECA.html
> The Wet Chemistry Lab has "sensors... for the determination
> of a wide variety of inorganic anions, cations, selected heavy metals (via
> ASV), and electrochemical parameters."
> There's a list of test targets in that URL. None of them
> look that exciting to me, but chemistry always was my worst subject.
>
> Ideas?
>
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Darren Garrison" <cynapse at charter.net>
> To: "meteorite list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 11:56 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] ET phone Nome...
>
>
>
> ... as in Alaska. Because, see, the Phoenix lander is at the cold polar
> outskirts of Mars, and Nome is at the-- ah, forget it.
>
> http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08/02/the-white-house-is-briefed-phoeni
> x-about-to-announce-potential-for-life-on-mars/
>
> It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
> scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than the
> discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news comes just as
> the Thermal and Evolved
> Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed experimental evidence for the existence of
> water in the Mars regolith on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not
> claiming that life once existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data
> appears to indicate the "potential for life" more conclusively than the
> TEGA water results.
> Apparently
> these new results are being kept under wraps until further, more detailed
> analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that this announcement
> will be huge.
>
> So why is there all this secrecy? According to scientists in
> communication with Aviation Week & Space Technology, the next big discovery
> will need to be mulled over for a while before it is announced to the
> world. In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory science team for the MECA
> wet-chemistry instrument that made these undisclosed findings were kept out
> of the July 31st news conference (confirming water) so additional analysis
> could be carried out, avoiding any questions that may have revealed their
> preliminary results. They have also made the decision to discuss the
> results with the Bush Administration's Presidential
> Science Advisor's office before a press conference between mid-August and
> early September.
>
>
> Although good news, Thursday's announcement of the discovery of water on
> Mars
> comes as no surprise to mission scientists and some are amused by the
> media's reaction to the TEGA results. "They have discovered water on Mars
> for the third or fourth time," one senior Mars scientist joked. These new
> MECA results
> are, according to the Phoenix team, a little more complex than the water
> "discovery."
> Scientists are keen to point out however, that this secretive news will in
> no way indicate the existence of life (past or present) on Mars; Phoenix
> simply is not equipped make this discovery. What it can do is test the Mars
> soil for compounds suitable to support life. The MECA instrument does have
> microscopes capable of resolving bacterial-scale life forms however, but
> this is not the focus of the forthcoming announcement, sources say.
>
> This new MECA discovery, combined with TEGA data will probably expose
> something more compelling, completing another piece of the puzzle in the
> search for the correct conditions for life as we know it to survive on
> Mars. Critical to
> this search is to understand how the recently confirmed water and Mars
> regolith behave together under the Phoenix lander in the cold Martian
> arctic.
>
> The MECA instrument had already made the landmark discovery that Mars
> "soil"
> was much like the soil more familiar on Earth. This finding prompted
> scientists to indicate that the minerals and pH levels in the regolith
> could support some terrestrial plants, indicating this would be useful for
> future Mars settlers.
>
> What with the discovery of water, and the discovery that Mars soil is
> very much like the stuff we find on Earth, it is hard to guess as to what
> the MECA's second soil test has discovered. What ever it is, it sounds
> pretty significant, especially as NASA and the University of Arizona are
> taking extraordinary steps to avoid any more details being leaked to the
> outside world. I just hope were not getting excited over something benign.
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Received on Sat 02 Aug 2008 06:16:05 PM PDT