October 2, 2003

George William Herbert wrote:

Thomas Lee Elifritz wrote:
George William Herbert wrote:
Thomas Lee Elifritz wrote:
Since we now definitely know that Mars is basically a frozen muddy glacial
ice ball just a few meters below the surface (to a depth of several
kilometers), and that Mars is only dry and desiccated in the top few meters
of soil, then the whole in situ fuel manufacturing scenario suddenly becomes
considerably more plausible.

We do not 'definitely know' that.

Sure we do. It's easily recognized via photo interpretation.
[...]

Then you are setting your photo interpretation skills and
analysis above that of, oh, for example all the professional
planetary science photo interpreters who have been working
for their entire careers on this problem.

You mean the same Malin and Edgett who first claimed that there was no water on the
surface of Mars, then "urged caution" about the possibility of water on Mars, a
position that has since been rendered completely untenable by Mars Odyssey
spectroscopic results?

Pardon me if I fail to agree with your self-aggrandizement
in this matter. Somehow, Mike Malin strikes me as having
better education, experience, and judgement than you do in
regards to the MGS imagery. You are free to hold and
espouse your own opinion, of course.

Well, lets consider Malin's opinion.

"Malin added, "I have not previously been a vocal advocate of the theory that Mars
was wet and
warm in its early history. But my earlier view of Mars was really shaken when I saw
our first
high-resolution pictures of Candor Chasma. The nearly identically thick layers would
be almost
impossible to create without water." As an alternative to lakes, Malin and Edgett
suggest that a
denser atmosphere on early Mars could have allowed greater amounts of windborne dust
to settle
out on the surface in ways that would have created the sedimentary rock."

Wow, what a confident guy. All of those outflow channels created by windborne dust.
That is truly amazing.

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