Buck,

Thank you for your e-mail. That is the nicest letter I have received. The samples were sent yesterday and you should have them today.

As far as a list of specialist, I want to help you in any way that I can. But I want you to understand that the reason I have not taken this project to the news organizations is because I want to do this right. I don't want to hurt anyone or have anyone look bad because of the unique features of my rock. If this rock is what I believe, then it represents a tremendous rallying point for all of NASA and the public. I want this rock to be an ambassador of good will and I don't want to have its first announcements associated with hard feelings or trouble. I'm sorry that I told you about the threat that Kring offered me and I hope that you will not let it go past your own self. I understand why many people in academia have doubted me and the meteorite, but my concerns are for the future, not just the present. I have watched and loved NASA my entire life. The only time I ever skipped school as a child was to watch a manned space flight. So I am on the side of NASA and I especially like the comment you made yesterday to me that one of the jobs of NASA is to stimulate the public and keep them interested. I think my meteorite represents a tremendous opportunity to rally the public to support the exploration of Mars. The one thing we had during the moon shots was a focus and a special unity between NASA and the public. Maybe my rock can rekindle some of those dreams, because if life did evolve on Mars to the point that it made macroscopic life forms, then we need to go there and study it. I have much more to say, but I will wait until the appropriate time.

So to your question of who I have contacted. Here is a partial list:

The first people I contacted were Dr. Joseph Cepeda and Dr. Shultz at West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. These were the people who would not look at the rock, who declared it was from the Raton-Clayton field and who would not help me in any way. I don't have an address or e-mail for them because they are nearby and I visited with them in person. Dr. Shultz has recently gone on the radio and declared that they determined my rock was from NM even though they never looked at it and have not done any experiments to prove their hypothesis. Also, recently I have met with Russell Long, the president of WTA&M and I have presented some of my evidence to him. He would not make any promises and will not answer my calls.

Next I took the rock to Texas Tech. This would have been more than a year ago. Dr. Christopher Romanek, one of the principles on the ALH84001 life studies report, was giving a speech on Martian rocks and I met him at Tech and he listened about 20 minutes and did take a sample from me. Dr Hal Karlsson was present from Tech, but he would not even look at the rock. Dr. Romanek promised me a oxygen isotope ratio test by the middle of last summer. The last time I contacted him, he still promised to do the test but he told me that he had not been able to get his machine running yet and that he would do it as soon as he could. That was last fall, I believe. Hal Karlsson can be contacted at 806 742-2011 or 742-3130. Dr Romanek's e-mail address is romanek@srel.edu.

The first sample that I sent out went to Ron Balke at baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov. He has quite a large piece of the rock. He also immediately told me that my rock couldn't be a meteorite and that he would shortly tell me where on Earth it came from. He never has. He turned the rock over to a friend that is a geologist and his report is on my web site as geology report. Even though I have asked more than once, Ron will not give the address of his friend, so I have never talked to the geologist who wrote the report. Some of his information was bad and I have never had a chance to tell him these things, nor to talk with him about his conclusions. If you read the report, you will see that he doesn't make any claims for facts, only opinions. His conclusion that the rock was pulled from a creek bed are just not possible since they don't meet the facts. There were no animal tracks nearby and there was plenty of water at the well so that animals wouldn't need to dig up a rock for water. And besides, there is no dirt on the rock now or then.

Also, early on, I sent several samples to Houston. One was to Michael Zolensky and he did the first test of the chemical composition but he didn't think it was a meteorite so he wasn't interested. Later on, somehow I met Alan Treiman on the internet. He has been very nice to me and said that he would get me any test done that I wanted. Later I met David Kring and found out that these three people are all friends. I thought my troubles were over since these three seemed to represent some of the best of NASA at meteorites. Alan has never seen the rock or samples and has stopped answering my e-mail, as has David and Michael has apparently moved. During the second trip to Arizona, I met Jamie Gleason. He also has been very nice to me and he did look for about 15 seconds at the fusion crust and exclaimed that he could see changes in the rock. But apparently everyone is so afraid of being associated with some kind of fraud that they just don't pursue this. As you know, I have sent Jamie a copy of the new reports that I have sent you and that no one else has yet seen. David can be contacted at kring@lpl.arizona.edu and Jamie can be contacted at jgleason@gamma1.lpl.arizona.edu.

And then there was Robert Haag, the meteorite man. I saw him on TV and he said the greatest experience of his life would come when one day he would pick up a meteorite and find living things from another world in it. My question to him was, "How would you recognize it if you saw it?" I sent him a sample of the rock (one of the samples that David Kring has now) and it had good fusion crust on it and one of the little things that I think might be alive. He sent it back and said he didn't think it was a meteorite either. He can be contacted at PO Box 27527, Tucson, Arizona 85726. His web site is www.meteoriteman.com. I have affectionately started calling him meteorite boy, but that is another story.

And then there is the whole Pathfinder team. I have contacted everyone from Hap McSween on down. I have taped all of the Pathfinder news conferences and I wrote to virtually everyone that spoke at any of them. None of them have answered back, accept Hap McSween. He did send me to the Smithsonian meteorite specialist, Tim McCoy. Tim was able to determine the planet of origin by looking at my web site, a remarkable accomplishment, I think. He concluded that the rock was from Earth. Hap can be contacted at mcsween@utk.edu and Tim can be contacted at MCCOY.TIM@NMNH.SI.EDU.

These are the principle players although there are others I have contacted. I don't know how much help any of these people can be, since none of them have done any testing and none of them believe that this rock is a meteorite. One thing that I have learned in life is that most of us set our own limits. You mentioned yesterday how improbable it was for this rock to get here from Mars. I agree. Every step of the way, it seems that what happened was very improbable. But nature knows nothing of probabilities, only what actually happened. I will agree that this rock is a miracle, but I believe in miracles and if I hadn't believed it was a meteorite and saved the rock, then nobody would ever know. All I am asking is to determine the truth in an open and scientific manner. Science is about tests, not opinions. Unfortunately, when people believe something can't happen, then that is usually the way they perceive it. My mind is open to what can happen and I have spent my life looking at physical systems and trying to understand what happened. If the facts represented by my rock are improbable, then so be it. But it came from somewhere and it has very interesting things within it and I believe there is good evidence that the rock was created on a side vent of a larger volcano, somewhere on Mars. If so, then we will begin to write new chapters in the book of life and where it came from and how prevalent it might actually be in the cosmos. All I ask of you is to keep your mind open and search for the truth, no matter how improbable it might seem.

Again, I want to thank you for your kind response. I will help you in any way that I can, but let us please try to build up the people of NASA who have been mistaken about this rock and not tear them down. If the rock does prove Martian, then my greatest goal will be to help other people understand that miracles do still happen in this world. My intention, is to give a small piece of this rock to each person that has turned me away. This small gesture will, I hope, help bring all mankind together to search the cosmos and to look for the truth wherever it might be. I hope that you play an important role in this process. By the way, since this rock represents a miracle to me, I will never sell any of it to anyone for any reasons. My goal is to license this rock to NASA so that all that want to be a part of it, can be. I also want to make sure that it is studied properly as I have spent over a years thinking of things that need to be done to study the rock properly. When we know for sure that this rock is from Mars, we can discuss those things. If I can be of further help to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. I very much appreciate your interest in this matter.

Your friend,

micromike