Member Questions to Administrators, Matters related to the Forum Options

[Astro0]

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[Art Martin]

One other thing that I think should be addressed in the Perseverance area is the way certain more traditionally broad topics are turning in highly detailed technical ones. Take the Route Map topic for instance. In the MSL area, when we see a new post there it generally means Phil Stooke has added a new map showing a rover movement. In the Perseverance area, that topic now has post after post going over the way cartography works on Mars even getting into the definition of a meter and how it can change. All wonderful information if you plan to do Martian cartography which the majority of us will never tackle but it's getting hard to find just the simple information of "has the rover moved and to where?". Phil's maps are easy to read, generally black and white with clear lines showing the route, no animations or complex explanations as to how the path was computed. I think there's a place for that very technical talk but it shouldn't be in the more broad categories. The same thing goes for the topics that deal with basic daily operations. That page after page of extra info is valuable such as how to debayer images. I've learned a great deal from that discussion but sometimes those tech talks stray into areas that should be more about mission updates or sharing images.

We have some wonderful new posters that are clearly brilliant and love to share their very detailed expertise. I think it would be smart to create or define clearly some very specific topics that those discussions can be herded into and have some general information ones where we can all see the broad events that happen each Sol.

[HSchirmer]

We have some wonderful new posters that are clearly brilliant and love to share their very detailed expertise. I think it would be smart to create or define clearly some very specific topics that those discussions can be herded into and have some general information ones where we can all see the broad events that happen each Sol.

Well said. One of the great things about "organic chemistry" is that it is determined by eons of thermodynamics instead of local kinematics. It doesn't matter what the HCNOSP source is, if you cook it long enough, in a wet sedimentary delta that collects and concentrates a diverse array of tiny catalytic mineral crystals, but is not diffusion limited, that huge catalytic surface area basically guarantees you eventually get the same end-result - tholins- aka "star tar" and a corresponding amount of complex chemicals.

Archimedes- “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”

Me- “Give me inorganic carbon, a cubic mile of wet minerals to catalyze it, and long enough time, and I can make every organic molecule you can imagine..."

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