NASA Headquarters

300 E Street SW

Room 8M78

Washington, DC 20546

 

August 21, 2000

 

To Whom It May Concern:

This document is a Freedom Of Information Act request for the educational purposes as outlined in Sec.1206.701 subpara (b).  It is also requested that this inquiry be granted a waiver or reduction of fees as stated in Sec 1206.702 sub (a) para's (1) and (2).  The requester believes evidence and arguments presented herein will satisfy completely the requirements of Sec 1206.702 sub (c) para's (1-4).  The requester hereby categorically denies any commercial interests in this request as outlined in Sec 1206.702 sub (d) para (1).  In the spirit of Sec 1206.703 and expediency , several requests which could be considered valid searches and items within their own right, are hereby combined in this request and for the sake of satisfaction of Sec 1206.702 sub (c) paras (1-4).  It is the requester's viewpoint that all the requests made herein are connected together to constitute a 'snapshot' of government in action over these issues.

 

Request numbers:

R1.       I hereby request any documents, images, memos or other items that NASA has received or sent, from or to, any source, internal or external, which deals with the subject matter of the classification of non-Earth images or data, of any type, in any manner that would preclude, bar, hinder or prevent, in any way, the general public from viewing the images or data within a one year period from data acquisition by the spacecraft. for the spacecraft in current operation known as the Mars Global Surveyor.

 

R2.       I hereby request any documents, images, memos or other items that NASA has received or sent, from or to, any source, internal or external, which deals with the data from the MGSC1013 volume, and specifically the following image numbers, m0102236 m0102256 m0102296 m0102302 m0102318 m0102340 m0102428 m0102448 m0102459 m0102461 m0102464 m0102467 m0102468 m0102469 m0102471 m0102473 m0102475 m0102477 m0102480 m0102482 m0102483 m0102486 m0102488 m0102489 m0102490 m0102492 m0102494 m0102496 m0102498 m0102500 m0102502 m0102506 m0102510 m0102532 m0102534 m0102536 m0102586 m0102587, from the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera.

 

R3.       I hereby request any documents, images, memos or other items that NASA has received or sent, from or to, any source, internal or external, which deals with the Martian Cydonia landform feature known as the 'Cydonia Face on Mars'. 

           

R4.       I hereby request any documents, images, memos or other items that NASA has received or sent, from or to, any source, internal or external, at any time, which deals with the subject matter of the classification of non-Earth images or data, of any type, in any manner that would preclude, bar, hinder or prevent, in any way, the general public from viewing the images or data from any spacecraft.

 

R5.       I hereby request that any documents, images, memos or other items that NASA has received or sent, from or to, any source, internal or external, at any time, which deals with the subject matter of the classification of non-Earth images or data, of any type, in any manner that would preclude, bar, hinder or prevent, in any way, the general public from viewing the images or data, requested in R1 through R4 of this request that are ruled to be exempt under Sec 1206.300; be so noted in the reply and which sub-part and paragraphs are used to justify the exemption from disclosure be set forth in the reply to this request.

 

R6.       I hereby request a complete list of any documents, images, memos or other items that NASA has received or sent, from or to, any source, internal or external, at any time that have ever been excluded from disclosure under Sec 1206.300 sub (b) para (1) or para (9) that deal with non-Earth data, of any type or source, and the dates and reasons such exclusions were made.

 

            The requestor knows that the images set forth in R2 were acquired by the MGS MOC but are not included in the on-line repository at the USGS.  The requestor also believes that more than 1 image of the landform feature known as the 'Cydonia Face' has been acquired by the MGS MOC to date, but only the 1 image from April 1998 has been  released for public view.  It is the requestor's position that since it took 122 images from the MGS MOC to conclude that liquid water exists near the surface of Mars; that to only acquire one image of the Cydonia Face is bad science on NASA's part to not image the feature in a full and complete manner.  Dr. Carl Sagan is famous for his quote on this feature that "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  The requestor has been consistently saying that extraordinary evidence requires an extraordinary investigation.  To the requestor, this lack of investigation into the Cydonia Face is a mismanagement of America's limited space assets in the investigation of Mars.  The requestor feels this is especially true in light of the recent 2 major spacecraft loses at the end of 1999.  Therefore the requestor feels that disclosure of the documents requested will satisfy Sec. 1206.702 sub (a) para (1) and sub (c) paras (1-4).

            I thank you in advance for your time, work and effort in complying with this FOIA request in a timely manner.  Copies of this FOIA have been sent to other interested parties, including requestor's representatives, agents or assigns.

            Sincerely,

 

            Robert Hubert Williams

            Faculty

            Clinton Community College

            136 Clinton Point Drive

            Plattsburgh, NY 12901

            518-562-4200