Curoisity for Organics

Since this article is 524 characters above the limit for this forum, I have posted it in two parts. The second part is a follow up to this article in this same thread. This is part I.

On the 10th of June I posted an article with the title “Curiosity for Organics” to the Google (former Usenet) forum sci.astro.amateur, protesting against the hurried planned route of Curiosity as announced in the Teleconference of June 5th. Without my knowledge but to my delight, I then found out that my article had been cross posted to this forum; to my delight because there is far more traffic here than in sci.astro.amateur. But then, on June 15, I was surprised to find out that this article had suddenly been deleted from this forum.

The administrator did not answer to my inquiry with regard to this occurrence, but I am sure that it wasn´t him - unless by some strange coincidence he is an affiliate of the Curiosity team. Thus, I can only imagine one group of people, who could possibly have an interest in deleting my article from this forum. And I have no doubt, that at JPL they have plenty of people capable of doing this.

And now, on sol 324, Curiosity has moved north from Shaler. And the Navcam images since June 10th which are showing the horizon demonstrate clearly, that the eastern direction is what they are least interested in.

For this reason I will post below an updated and improved version of my article of June 10th. As of right now, the original version of this article can still be seen on sci.astro.amateur at https://groups.google.com/forum/?fro...ur/R7s49-qEyUE :

On August 6th of last year Curiosity put her wheels on Mars, and at first prudence made things happen very slowly. Half a year later, on February 8 of this year, it finally came to the first drilling at a place called Yellowknife Bay, which to all appearance has been a bay of an ancient lake which was fed by the waters running down Peace Vallis. But then, on February 28th, came the computer glitch. And then came a solar storm. And then came conjunction. In other words, the circumstances and bad luck made the inicial slow pace become almost excruciatingly slow. And all the time Mount Sharp was beckoning in the background, promising rich geology and spectacular sights.

So at first I was disappointed when Curiosity headed off towards Yellowknife Bay instead of towards the point at the base of Mount Sharp from which she was supposed to start climbing. But then I believed to understand the reason behind this apparent strategy:

There exists consent among paleontologists that life appeared on Earth very soon after its crust started to solidify. And there also exists consent about if there ever existed life on the surface of Mars, then it must have become extinct billions of years ago (it´s better to be pessimistic in this case). So if what happened on Earth is any indication about what might have happened on Mars, then on Mars one must look for organics in geological strata as old as possible.

And the ancient lake bed which Yellowknife Bay appears to be a part of must have formed before Gale Crater was filled with the sediments from which Mt. Sharp was formed by eolic erosion, and therefore must predate the geological strata of Mt. Sharp. It therefore ought to be considered as the most likely place in close proximity to Curiosity where one might be able to find organics. Besides, if you look at Mt. Sharp as a geological history book, then you should try to start reading it as closely as possible to page one. That´s what I believed were the reasons of the Curiosity team for sending her to Yellowknife Bay.

So if Curiosity cannot find organics at or near the bottom of that lake bed, then in the light of terrestrial paleontology it is unlikely that she will find them further up on the slopes of Mount Gale. Thus, if there will be no detection of organics in the Cumberland sample, and the John Klein results indicate that this might well be, then it ought to be logical that one must search for organics in geological strata which predate that of John Klein and Cumberland. In other words, in order to search for ancient organics one has to go down instead of up. And personally, if I had the choice between unraveling the geological history of Mars up on the slopes of Mt. Sharp or possibly finding organics close to where I am, then I would certainly choose the latter. Because Mount Sharp won´t run away.

But then the Curiosity team decided to leave the lake bed area and head up to the mountain, EVEN BEFORE THEY KNOW THE RESULTS FROM THE CUMBERLAND DRILLING (*). There is nothing similar to the Yellowknife Bay area on the way to the point at the base of Mt. Sharp where they want to start climbing. Everywhere south of that lake bed and closer to Mt. Sharp the ground is rising. So now I wonder why they sent her to that lake bed in the first hand. How high on their priority list are organics?

So even though to a certain degree I can understand the impatience of the Curiosity team to go to the mountain, as mentioned by Joy Crisp in the teleconference of June 5th, I do not consider this to be a rational decision. Bad luck and a solar conjunction are no reasons for leaving that lake bed, and impatience is neither. That once there was plenty of liquid water on the surface of Mars I knew before Curiosity landed, even though it is of course nice to know exactly how benign the Martian environment could be in certain places. And curiously, shortly after Curiosity her sister Opportunity found similarly benign conditions. So wasn´t Curiosity supposed to look for something more?


*: Concerning the strange fact that they apparently still don´t have the results from the Cumberland sample, I plan to post an article with the title “Curiosity: Still no results from the Cumberland sample”.

Since this article is 524 characters above the limit for this forum, I have posted it in two parts. This is part II and a follow up to part one above:

Now as it turns out, not far to the east from Shaler there exists a depression in the lake bed. It ought to represent the deepest terrain at close reach to Curiosity. And on the northern rim of this depression there is a steep ledge with a little hill on top, which must contain geological strata which predate the stratum of John Klein and Cumberland. This ledge is much higher than what we have seen at Yellowknife Bay. And in front of that ledge the ground seems to have the same smooth fractured surface as in Yellowknife Bay. It´s approximate coordinates are 137.456E and 4.585S. From the last (until sol 323) position of Curiosity at Shaler, this ledge is at a linear distance of about 580 meters and at an azimuth bearing of about 62 degrees. You can see this ledge and Curiosity in the sol 323 position on the HiRISE image at http://curiosityrover.com/tracking/d...hp?drivenum=54 .

If you wish to identify the aforementioned depression in the lake bed in the billion pixel panorama from Rocknest at http://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/inte...16918&view=cyl , find John Klein in the right hand index column and cklick on it to go there. Then identify the John Klein area on the left hand side of the image at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/msl/2...ia16453-43.jpg , shot from the same spot. In the right foreground near the top right border of the latter image you can see a low hill. Identify this hill in the billion pixel panorama. Behind this hill on its right hand side the southern part of this depression is visible, with its shore line extending eastward towards the northern slopes of Mt. Sharp (zoom in).

This is the place to which I very much hoped that Curiosity would go. Since finding organics is at the top of my personal list of priorities for Curiosity, I can see no good in that unholy haste of getting to the mountain. So now that they have back tracked to Point Lake and Shaler as announced on June 6th, I wish they would turn around again and go east in search for organics. This ledge should also give Curiosity the opportunity to do some horizontal drilling. Rock strata which are incorporated into a ledge are more protected from radiation and other environmental influences than are rock strata which are exposed on the surface, as are John Klein and Cumberland.

The best place to enter the depression from Shaler ought to be on its south west corner at the approximate coordinates of 137.4513E and 4.5925S. Here water seems to have flown into the depression. This place is at a linear distance of about 245 meters and an azimuth bearing of about 84 degrees from the sol 323 position of Curiosity. In order for the ledge to become visible for Curiosity one would have to enter the depression just a little further.

And the best place to leave that depression going southward from the ledge would be a smooth rise at the approximate coordinates of 137.4570E and 4.5925S, at an approximate linear distance of 560 meters and an approximate azimuth bearing of 88 degrees from the sol 323 position of Curiosity.

For the above reasons I had written a kind letter of protest to the Curiosity team via the page http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/sendmessage/ on June 6th. But I doubted that my protest could do much against the will of a team which is all gung ho for getting to the mountain. So I posted my article of June 10th, which was an extended version of my letter of June 6th, to sci.astro.amateur in hopes that if there is anybody here who thinks like me, he or she would please join my protest and write to the team via that page.

And this is still my request here. Please feel free to copy and paste anything from this article if you wish to write to them. I know that this is nothing but a last ditch attempt to keep the Curiosity team from comitting what I consider to be a grave mistake caused by impatience. But should Curiosity not be lucky enough to find organics up on the slopes of Mt. Sharp, then I could never forgive myself for not having made this last attempt. And I would be gratefull if somebody here could save this article and notify me by private message about it in the case that it diappears again. In this case I would at least have some witnesses in the not unlikely case that Iknowho will delete it again.

And anyhow, wouldn´t it be much more productive if someone of the team would justify on this forum their decision to go to the mountain right now, instead of just deleting this article? Or perhaps, after their phantastic landing of last year they now think that they are infallible?

On August 6th of last year I cried tears of joy, but what is happening now seems like a premature anti climax to me. Please help me, even though it might be too late.

Thank you
Peter Holm

El viernes, 5 de julio de 2013 19:55:19 UTC+1, Peter_H escribió:
Since this article is 524 characters above the limit for this forum, I

have posted it in two parts.
(...)

Oops, now I recognize that this automatic cross posting between sci.astro.amateur and Space Banter works both ways! Only that when cross posting from Space Banter to sci.astro.amateur the articles become mutilated. And in this case only half of my article was cross posted. So please see the original article in Space Banter at http://www.spacebanter.com/showthread.php?t=197348 .

Sorry
Peter Holm

Peter H.:

So please see the
original article in Space Banter at
http://www.spacebanter.com/showthread.php?t=197348 .

I'm afraid that the point of this article went right over my head. It
seems like stuff you should be conveying to NASA/JPL, rather than to
powerless and clueless people like me.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

http://curiosityrover.com/tracking/d...hp?drivenum=56 :

There they go. They obviously want to take the freeway -smooth terrain- towards the south west.

Good-bye Peace Lacus (as I have come to call it), you will never have this or any other name.

This is a very sad day for me.
Peter

On Fri, 5 Jul 2013 20:31:39 -0700 (PDT), "Peter H."
wrote, in part:

Oops, now I recognize that this automatic cross posting between sci.astro.a=
mateur and Space Banter works both ways! Only that when cross posting from =
Space Banter to sci.astro.amateur the articles become mutilated.

Don't tell me that Oriel is using the Space Banter site!

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html

As the days go by, my dismay and anger about the debacle which happened at Peace Lacus(*) becomes greater rather than smaller. I am exasperated by the incompetence of the people in whose hands Curiosity has fallen. Such a phantastic landing, and now this. I wish somebody of them would come here and try to defend that decision they made some time prior to June 5th, which was to leave Peace Lacus as soon as possible.

But instead of continuing with this unsolicited fit of ranting, I´d better just post the last Navcam shot of Peace Lacus below, which Curiosity took on sol 329. It will be many months before she will end up again in a landscape as intriguing as this one, even though by then with a possibly reduced chance of finding organics.


*: The palyndrome “Glenelg” basically means “we don´t really want to go there”. It was coined before Curiosity touched down, and much before they ended up on mudstone. But single- mindedness is very bad investigation tactics. So for me, “Glenelg” stands for “Stupidity”. And this name sounds too bitter for me to ever use it.

Peter_H wrote:

...my dismay and anger about the debacle which happened
at Peace Lacus(*) becomes greater...

And another one escapes from the loony bin. Fortunately, consigning him
to the kill-file is equivalent to slamming the loony bin door on him.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

"Peter_H" wrote in message ...


Since this article is 524 characters above the limit for this forum, I
have posted it in two parts. The second part is a follow up to this
article in this same thread. This is part I.

On the 10th of June I posted an article with the title “Curiosity for
Organics� to the Google (former Usenet) forum sci.astro.amateur,
================================================== ======
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sci.astro.amateur is a usenet forum, not a Google forum.

-- Lord Androcles, Zeroth Earl of Medway