The MECA story, A place for speculation |
The MECA story, A place for speculation |
Jul 31 2008, 10:22 PM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Seriously, hasn't anyone else got any thoughts (dismissive or otherwise) on the "Have you briefed the President's Science Advisor?" (re MECA) question by C Covault? I am NOT going all woo-woo here, don't worry, I just thought it was an odd thing to ask... To my ears it sounded like C C was suggesting, subtly, to the panel that he had heard "something" about the MECA analysis and wanted them to comment. The question was brushed aside - rather uncomfortably I thought - and the discussion quickly moved on, but it seemed like a bit of a Moment to me. He actually began, if I remember correctly, by asking where the "MECA guys" were, asking if they had "been hidden under the table"... cue uncomfortable laughs from the panel...
Again, I have to stress, in case anyone thinks I'm 'suggesting' anything, I'm not getting all Muldur here, I was just struck by how out of the blue the question was, and wondered if anyone has any thoughts on it... -------------------- |
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Jul 31 2008, 10:34 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 30 Joined: 12-June 07 Member No.: 2392 |
A) My take on Craig Covault's question about MECA, and informing the President's Science advisor was that there may have been rumors of a major find in the MECA data that warranted notification to the top, but that the science team was playing very cool about it. This means that either i) there was no such find and the rumors were just that; or ii) there might have been a major find, but they are doing many checks, tests, and consideration of alternative explanations, and they weren't going to talk about it TODAY. I will be curious to see what CC puts in print in the next week or so. It was certainly a provocative question.
What I didn't hear asked or answered very well was what steps they plan to take to deal with the problem of soils with a high ice content (up to near pure ice) not wanting to exit the scoop. Among the many subquestions of this would be what kind of testing in near-martian environmental conditions (not counting 1/3g) was run in the development of the spacecraft. And, what kinds of approaches are they testing now both on Earth and on Mars to try to allow delivery of ice-rich soils to TEGA. Perhaps those with contacts in the program can find out more about these issues?? |
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