Why I Left NASA: A Curiosity of Spirit

reply to post by Mr Mask


You do come across as overzealous in your effort to discredit the OP, Mr. Mask.

I am sorry if my written tone comes off as rude...I was raised by horribly honest and blunt people. It is my flaw and I live with it daily.

The admission of your social ineptitude was tainted by the attempt to blame others for your lack of social grace. Honesty and being blunt is not a flaw by any means, however, neither has anything to do with being aggressive, demeaning and trying to actively belittle any who take the opposing side of you, Sir.
Take the previous sentences I've written here for example. My honest attempt to point out what I perceive is the truth about you. Very blunt, you'll agree. But, I'm not calling you names, not typing double spaced, or in bold print, or using any other inflammatory tone or language in my writing.

I am sorry if my written tone comes off as rude...I was raised by horribly honest and blunt people. It is my flaw and I live with it daily.

I'll admit, your phraseology above is impeccable. In one sentence you offer an apology, and an excuse for being rude - hinting at years of being subjected to an unbearable upbringing. Then in the next a thinly concealed plea of pity as you are struggling on a daily basis with this character flaw years in the making.
Please remind me once again? .... Who is the one vying for attention here? In a thread not his own?

Enough about you ...
How about where John (Astro, as some call him) is going with this story.
You've stated you read 40+ pages and no hint of disclosure ...
Did you bother to read the post he referred to in the second paragraph of his post?
I'll admit the OP did not provide the link but a very alert member named Kandinsky found it and posted it on the first page of this thread.
For your consideration, Mr Mask, here is that link:
Posted by AstroEngineer, on March 20, 2010 at 16:57 GMT

Nothing alien about it, but conspiratorial, none the less.
And that is exactly what ATS is all about.
I know, you'll say, "Where's the proof?"
It is what it is, Sir.
Maybe fiction, maybe truth. Either way you seem to be investing an inordinate amount of time and energy in an effort to support your 'early call of bs', don't you think?
I have been lurking the ATS boards since '07 and a finally joined in '09 - not ever having seen actual proof of anything claimed by anyone.
So, I don't give a dam how early or late you call bs, that call is statistically bound to be correct.
Again, I must make this observation ...
Who is the one attempting to garnish the attention here?

Very interesting post by the OP. FTL? Really? Do you mean to imply that someone is sending communications by quantum entanglement to our little rover?
This statement already makes the whole narrative suspicious. This may end up like that other piece of work of that Isaac guy that was supposedly from this project called CARET. Remember that?:

CARET Program

These two sound very similar....



Regardless, if this story has no merit, it will simply go away or just simply ignore it.

OP, an interesting thread to say the least. i hope you finish it.



to the rest of you, three pages of back and forth about how credible the guy is before he's even finished posting the whole thing? stop already. you're derailing the thread. whether or not he's hoaxing us will have to be decided once he's finished. he deserves his chance to speak what he wants to speak without three pages of " he's a darn liar i say!".

Originally posted by AstroEngineer

Spirit has three kinds of memory: 3 MB EEPROM (like a bootable thumb drive, where the VxWorks OS lives)...

the 3mb EEPROM (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) is nothing like a "bootable thumb drive". thumb drives use FLASH MEMORY which is based on EEPROM, but unlike EEPROM can be rewritten and reprogrammed an unlimited number of times.

For something to be written on an EEPROM, any data existent has to be erased, it also has to be written bit by bit.
again this differs from a FLASH MEMORY where data is written block by block and existent data does not need to be erased.

...and 256 MB flash memory (like your hard drive)

unless we use SSD drives as our hard drives, which i guess most of us don't, then the 256 mb FLASH MEMORY on the rover is, again, nothing like our hard drives, except in the sense that it stores data...

for a senior engineer that worked 24 years at NASA you sure make very vague comparisons between existing technology.

You would all do well listening to Mr Mask..

again incredulous information posted with no claims or evidence.

I you really had information that was ground breaking and dangerous to possess you should not be having 'a little fun' with it as you profess that you may be in danger.

He/She is having a lot of fun with all of you , and if your gullible enough to give this guy even a modicum of credence .. then more fool you!!!

It is not our place to prove he is wrong . it is his place to prove himself correct after amazing claims with NO information to back it up except fantastical stories and empty promises.

Believers i used to be like you .. but after three years of membership you get hardened to these kids trying to play the ATS membership like a well tuned fiddle.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!! OR GET LOST !

His technology comparisons aren't too bad.


Quit bitching and wait for him to respond. Only then can we start screaming hoax.

And loudly so, if it is. But again, give it time.

Ok the topic of this thread is ..... Why I Left NASA: A Curiosity of Spirit

Can i please remind you all to focus on the topic and hand and at least give the NEW member a chance to post his findings,

Now lets keep to the topic and less of the bickering, any such posts from this point on will be classed as off topic and will be removed.


Asala.

reply to post by bladebosq


You do realize that your post (and subsequent posts from others to the same effect) ignores these two relevant points:
FYI
1. We're talking about NASA. Not exactly able to purchase contemporary state of the art technology when it becomes available due to budget constraints. They usually use what they can reclaim from abandon projects and make work-arounds - Yes, it's a matter of money.

And ....

2. Spirit, (the mission designation is MER-A; Mars Exploration Rover-A) was launched in the summer of 2003 and landed on Mars the first week of '04. Currently existing technology would not be aboard her, even if they could afford it.

Unless the rover time travels, of course.

reply to post by asala


i respect the moderators greatly but what are you saying? i need to create a thread entitled "why Asto-engineer is full of @@@@" are we not entitled to our opinions also?

where else would we post such objections? i am to take the thread title as verbatim? without questioning his previous thread in introductions and the information he has presented here?

In My Opinion everything he has done and said screams Hoax i gave him the benefit of the doubt after the first post in introductions and now this post is more of the same?

How many posts is ok before i post my opinions on Astro-engineer? 1? 2? or 100?

Every opinion is valid and should be embraced.. i have not once personally attacked astro-engineer i only attack the information he presents and the manner in which he presents it.

i hope u don't take this post the wrong way , i am only trying to establish when people with an opposing view are allowed to post here?

Perhaps you could clarify when it is appropriate to disagree?

Fact or fiction, it was a good read

From my understanding you're pretty much saying a device has been hooked up to the rover during that downtime, with the rover even sending function calls to that device? Maybe the martians were checking whether it had some nice MP3s on it...

it simply sounds as if someone accessed the craft, and nobody has a clue as to who it was. and he uncovered the variance by one's and zero's, (which make up machine code) by their unique signature.

sounds like something i read long ago in a TTL manual

[edit on 28-3-2010 by jimmyx]

It's a good story so far, who cares.
At least he's polite and well spoken, unlike some of you here.

Try listen to the whole story first before all going mental.

I don't know why some of you take this so personally.

reply to post by AstroEngineer


For the sake of those of us actually interested in the OP,can those of you who think his credibility (and your opinion of it) is of more importance please refrain from posting further distractions, we get the message,you don't believe him.
Fine.Thanks for sharing.Now please stop disrupting the thread.

Back on topic;

I found this article linked randomly by wordpress at the bottom of his blog page;

Until Oct. 24, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover had gone more than six months without an episode of amnesia-like symptoms like those that appeared on four occasions earlier this year.In these amnesia events, Spirit fails to record data from the day’s activities onto the type of computer memory — non-volatile “flash” memory — that can retain the data when the rover powers down for its energy-conserving periods of “sleep.” The reappearance of this behavior in recent days might delay the start of planned drives by Spirit geared toward extricating the rover from a patch of soft soil where its wheels have been embedded since April. Spirit sent data Oct. 24 through Oct. 27 indicating that the rover was not using its flash memory. The rover also has alternate memory (volatile, random-access memory) where data can be saved for communicating to Earth if the communication session comes before the next sleep period. Spirit remains in communication with Earth, maintaining good power and temperatures. “We still don’t have information about what causes these amnesia events,” said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “If they are intermittent and infrequent, they are a nuisance that would set us back a day or two when they occur. If the condition becomes persistent or frequent, we will need to go to an alternate strategy that avoids depending on flash memory. We would only get data collected the same day and any unsent data from an earlier day would be lost. The total volume of data returned by the rover is expected to be about the same.”

Amnesia-Like Behavior Returns on Spirit

note the date of the article; November 4, 2009
Interesting.
So while we await the posters return, we can see that ;
1) there have been several such glitches since.
2) the event that the OP is describing did indeed happen.

I wonder has "Rich" continued his decyphering, and where the story goes next.
Anyone else interested in gathering to the pool of knowledge on the matter at ATS while we wait?
Might as well be constructing a base for analysis for ourselves n'est-ce pas?

reply to post by asIam


The blue face in the stones scared the crap out of me >

reply to post by T0by


lol
I find it very peaceful myself, though I am looking forward to the day all the other stones remove their facades and are awake and wondering also.

reply to post by AstroEngineer


Thank you AstroEngineer, I am also looking foward to more, what you have posted so far has certainly tweaked my interest.

reply to post by asIam


i dont understand your reply? i am interested in this thread or i would not have posted in the first place ..

I get it! you believe him... or at least give him some credibility... i am ready to take your views on board.. are you ready to take mine?

why is my opinion any less valid than yours?

Surely a discussion requires opposing viewpoints ? otherwise it would be one person spouting facts and everyone else nodding in agreement .. or am i only allowed to participate in this discussion if i agree?

If you view this at an attempt to derail the thread i am sorry, i view it as balancing opinion to the OP. that in my opinion you would be wise to at least consider.

reply to post by asIam


ahhh so that's what it means

reply to post by LatentElement


i never said he was wrong about the parts used on Spirit.
everything he said can be easily verified, i found out in about 30 min....
no arguments there.

i stated that he compared the electronics used, to other electronics (which were all available at that time...) that aren't really comparable, which in my opinion no engineer and/or scientist should be doing.

once again i never stated in my post that he's wrong about the rover electronics.

Just a reminder. Here is a snip from Intro Thread for context/motive.

The process of researching and documenting my memories may lead to a book or perhaps just a blog.

Also to add agreement with Quantum Squirrel that AE seems to be coddled.

Just sayin'