lifeform1

February 21, 2004

I lost my 'Spirit' when I lost my 'Opportunuty' for equal access to
the spectroscopic data.

NASA has clearly demonstrated to US that America is no longer the land
of 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity'.

Thank-you NASA.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net

joe rat

Are you a specialist in spectroscopy?

I had a look at your site, but I am not sure what you
are researching

Regards

Joe Rat

lifeform1

February 21, 2004

Specialization is for insects.

Well, I can tell you what I won't be researching for the next six
months at least. Localized Mars surface spectra.

NASA, dumb, and not getting it.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net

tom mcdonald

Thomas,

What would you look for if the spectra were available today?

Tom McDonald

gherbert

The wisdom of data proprietary periods has been
debated a lot, however, that is the way it has been
for all space science other than PR related imaging
data since roughly day one of NASA, and you have no
more grounds for complaint than anyone else in the
planetary science community.

If this was really important you could have joined
the instrument science team and gotten early access,
but that takes credentials and money (yours, or convincing
someone else to pay for your work and suport overhead
on the project) and connections.


-george william herbert
gherbert@retro.com

dlp_79

If you knew anything about publicly funded research, you will find
this is usually the case. NSF, NASA, etc... Generally give exclusive
rights of the data to the investigators for six months to a year. It's
up to the investigators to decide if they want to release data in that
time period. The MER team has released an enormous amount of data to
the public and I wouldn't be surprised if you see the spectra in a
week or two once they understand it better and can explain what it
means. Don't worry, if they find something exciting, scientists have
big mouths and you'll hear about it.

By the way, most Hubble photos have this same sort of embargo placed
on them. It is believed that the people that put all the work into
making the proposals deserve first access to the pictures.

george

This brings up another matter - right of discovery. Should the researchers
who are doing the work be required to immediately release data that could
contain important discoveries just so that someone else can take credit in
finding them first? Where is the fairness to these hard-working researchers
in doing that?

Imagine putting together a team of the best scientists and engineers
available to build a new widget that might revolutionize the way we take a
piss in the morning. After taking the project from concept to reality, some
local yocal thinks he has a right to the data before they discover what that
widget is, even though it was their work that made the data available in the
first place. What incentive would there be for anyone to conduct such
research if they don't get credit for the work and the resulting
discoveries. In gold mining, I believe they call people who make such
demands "squatters". Some call them soon-to-be dead men!

j. taylor

Very convincing arguments, for getting the public to drop funding your
very own private expeditions, since it seems you can get all the money
you want from data mining.

JT

thomas lee elifritz

February 21, 2004

Compositional differences from point to point, obviously.

I am looking for evidence of water, although the already the imagery has
clinched it. There is evidence that wind erosion is a minimal player,
evidence of seepage from the crater wall, subsidence in the crater wall,
evidence of non-uniformly layered substrata, evidence of concretions,
evidence of desiccated mud puddles, indeed there is already very good
evidence of biogenic precipitation and alteration, just in the imagery
obtained thus far.

And you wonder why they are withholding spectra and giving everyone the
runaround at the news conferences? The ocean of Mars, such as it was,
the Mars Molar Ocean, the great northern Avogadro Sea, has been
converted into mud and ash indurated ice sheets. Mars is glaciated.

You need to start preparing yourself for a brand new Mars.

There is no reason to withhold anything from anybody.

And if not, then I shall post my retraction here. :-)

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net

thomas lee elifritz

February 22, 2004

Thank-you for pointing out to us the corruption, perversion and failure
of the scientific method.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net