Dr. Daniel McCleese, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, had substantial involvement in
developing and managing NASA’s successful Mars Exploration Rover program. I happened upon articles published in 2006 based on interviews with him, in which he discussed his interest in and early work on
Mars. In particular, he discussed with
the reporters (A.J.S. Rayle and Bruce Lieberman) a Mars project that he and I
collaborated on. (1,4) Called the Martian Environmental Simulator System (MESS),
we worked on it during our last two years in high school. McCleese credited the
project with starting his career focused on the planet Mars.
The account of MESS that McCleese presented, though,
was erroneous. He significantly
exaggerated the project’s accomplishments, some to the point of fabrication,
and took undeserved credit for originating MESS. The result was the inflation
of both the project’s successes and his contribution to the project.
My efforts to get Dan McCleese’s erroneous account of
the MESS project corrected included:
- Sending a letter to McCleese in 2006 complaining about inaccuracies in his MESS story published in Rayle and Lieberman’s articles. (Note that McCleese and I had seldom communicated with each other after his marriage to Rose Marie Perfect in the early 1970s.) After receiving the letter, he called me and acknowledged errors in his account, but was unapologetic and dismissive. As I hung up the telephone, I had the distinct impression that if I pursued the matter it would be my word against his – and his would be given more weight because of his position in the national space program. Colleagues suggested that I “let it go and move on” since people sometimes exaggerate their accomplishments. But MESS was a major part of my high school experience and had a large impact at a critical stage in my academic career, helping to support admission to a reputable university, as well as scholarships. I felt that McCleese’s distorted public account was just plain wrong, and by not taking further action his version of our shared history would, by default, stand.
- Contacting the journalists. Lieberman ignored my email to him. Rayle got back to me and was interested in documents that supported my concerns (some are included here). She altered the online version of her article (the print version could not be changed because it had already been released), telling me that McCleese acceded to her changes (he had also reviewed the original article prior to publication). The pertinent “before” and “after” parts of her article are included here.
- Submitting a complaint about McCleese to JPL leadership. Even though JPL and its parent institution, CalTech, have published rules on ethical conduct, my complaint was neither investigated nor acted upon.
- Deciding that, as a last resort, it was necessary to post a documented account of the MESS project on the Web. In 2007, McCleese was informed of my plan in writing and invited to collaborate on the account. He did not personally respond, but requested that I have no further communication with him through an intermediary. I have obliged him. I went ahead with an account of MESS, focusing on correcting the inaccuracies in Rayle and Lieberman’s published articles.
Below is a detailed correction of McCleese’s account
and an attempt to set the record straight.
I have documented key parts of the account.
GENESIS OF THE MESS
PROJECT
In the first published version of "Next, the
weather from Mars — with Dan McCleese," A.J.S. Rayl, after interviewing
him, wrote, "McCleese was into robots and Mars... so he and his schoolmate
created the Mars Environmental Simulator System [sic]..." (1)
McCleese's recollection is not correct. First,
there was no relationship between robotics and MESS. Indeed, as his schoolmate
for several years – and close friend for two of them – I recall McCleese's
interests in music, politics, and spectroscopy, but nothing about robotics. Second, and more importantly, McCleese did
not originate the project. On the contrary, he asked to join me after I
discussed the MESS idea with him – an idea that had its genesis in my
research. Prior to that discussion, I don’t
recall McCleese mentioning “Mars” except in the context of the mythological
figure in our Roman history/Latin language class.
Specifically, the MESS project’s goal of adapting
terrestrial microorganisms to Mars-like conditions was derived from my 1965 award-winning
work on slime mold (Myxomycetes). (2) In carrying
out experiments to induce differentiation in the organism, I developed an
unusual water-based incubation chamber that provided controlled temperatures
for growing it.
The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars in the summer of 1965
stimulated my thinking about extending the incubation chamber concept. My
thought was to build a chamber that could duplicate Martian environmental
conditions, and then use it to determine whether a terrestrial life form could
be induced to partially or completely adapt (mutate) to these conditions. I shared my ideas with McCleese and he asked
to collaborate on the project. I accepted, but considered him the junior member
of the team.
WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED
– AND DIDN’T
The Rayl article continues with a quote from McCleese,
“We put together a system that simulated all of the environmental conditions of
Mars in that box – lighting, temperature, pressure, and as much as we knew
about the soil…” This is partly true. In late 1965, we set out to construct a chamber
(a so-called “Mars in a box”) that could simulate several Martian conditions
that included, also, atmospheric composition.
But not Mars-like soil, since what we “knew about the soil” was, in
fact, practically nothing.
McCleese concludes, “… and we attempted to grow slime
mold” (presumably on Mars-like soil media). This is untrue. First, we did not use MESS to experiment with
any test organism. Second, it is
embarrassing that he claimed we used slime mold. It was unsuitable for
our planned experiments because it needs oxygen, likes moist habitats, such as
temperate rainforests, and reproduces slowly — hardly an ideal test organism
for the kind of conditions expected on the surface of Mars. Furthermore,
it is odd that McCleese claimed to have worked on something that I had worked
on independently prior to the project.
Even though I identified an anaerobic variety of
bacteria that we intended to use for our experiments (it doesn't require oxygen
— which is pretty scarce in the Martian atmosphere — for survival), we didn’t
reach the point where we could grow it in MESS. We encountered engineering
problems that prevented us from reaching the stage where we could conduct
any biological experimentation with MESS.
Had we conducted microbiological experiments, our
project would have been entered in the biology division of the Greater San
Diego Science and Engineering Fair for the two years we exhibited. However,
because we accomplished only part of what we originally set out to do, MESS was
considered an engineering project and entered in the engineering division of
the 1966 and 1967 fairs. MESS won several awards in both years, including first
place for team projects in the division in 1966.(3) I believe it won the 1967
fair's senior group sweepstakes award (best across all divisions) as well, but
have not located associated documentation.
In “Mars chief scientist at JPL credits his entry in
1966 S.D. competition,” based on an interview with McCleese, Bruce Lieberman wrote,
“They scrounged for parts in surplus stores, borrowed hardware from a chemistry
professor at UC San Diego and built their project with a handful of dollars.”(4)
McCleese is correct that we had a shoestring budget and had to improvise. For example, we found and used a small
surplus aircraft hydraulic pod for the simulation chamber in the project’s
first year. But we had to jettison the pod at the end of that year due to its
tendency to leak.
There was no “chemistry professor at UC San Diego”
from whom we “borrowed hardware.” The proper credit belongs to my father,
a retired U.S. Navy officer who, in the second year of the project, enlisted
off-duty Navy submarine repair facility personnel in San Diego to fabricate an advanced chamber
built with submarine grade steel. This
chamber accounted for much of the project’s success, but, unfortunately, was
not ready in time for microbiological experimentation. (5) We concluded the collaboration upon completing
high school and going to different universities. It was not until many years later that other
researchers pursued our unrealized goal of adapting terrestrial microorganisms
to Martian conditions.
TO CONCLUDE
Clearly, MESS was an important part of Dan McCleese’s
life. It is gratifying to know the
project was the spark that ignited a former schoolmate’s interest in the
exploration of Mars, which he pursued with great success. It is my hope that his
account of the MESS project becomes more accurate and gracious to a former
colleague.
ENDNOTES
For pdf documentation including copies of original
documents go to: http://mars-simulation.com/
(1) A.J.S. Rayl,
"Next, the weather from Mars...," Planetary News, 3/10/06.
There were two versions published, though they have the same published date.
The first, a fragment of which is posted here, contains the original interview
with Dan McCleese. I am grateful that the author revised the article based on
my concerns about the accuracy of the MESS story. That version (the second) was
still online at this writing.
(2) Paul van Nostrand, “Chula Vista sophomore wins award for slime
mold test,” San Diego Evening Tribune, 2/26/65. This was my second
consecutive well-received biology project, and I became one of my school's
representatives to the regional science fair. At the same time, Dan McCleese
was working on spectroscopy projects, and this was his second. For the second
year, I recall, his project received a second place award at the school fair.
(3) __________, “Science fair:
Brilliance on parade,” San Diego Evening Tribune, 4/14/66.
(4) Bruce Lieberman, "Science fairs spur careers...," San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/31/06.
(4) Bruce Lieberman, "Science fairs spur careers...," San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/31/06.
(5) See advanced MESS (1967) project photo. Note "capabilities" in
the title which indicates it to be an engineering project: “Life Support
Capabilities of Advanced Martian Environmental Simulator System”; while a
system for experimentation was mentioned, biological experiments were not
conducted.
Copyright © 2007 - 2015 by Michael Hulfactor,
Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
