Posted on 11/20/2012 1:45:34 PM PST by Red Badger
Science isn't something that just happens overnight. It takes many measurements, oodles of analysis, re-testing and re-analysis before any groundbreaking announcement can be made.
So, on the surface of Mars, inside Gale Crater on a plain called Aeolis Palus, our tenacious six-wheeled Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is doing cutting-edge laboratory work on an alien world and mission scientists are itching to announce a "historic" discovery.
"This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," John Grotzinger, lead scientist of the MSL mission, said in an interview with NPR.
But what is he referring to and why all the secrecy?
For the past few weeks, rover Curiosity has been busily scooping dirt from a sandy ridge in a geologically interesting location called "Rocknest." Using a little scooper attached to its instrument-laden robotic arm, Curiosity has been carefully digging, shaking and dumping the fine soil grains into its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments.
Recently, NASA announced some results from SAM after analyzing samples of Mars air. Interestingly, clues as to Martian atmospheric history were uncovered. Also, mission scientists announced an apparent dearth of methane in the air -- a result that undoubtedly frustrated many hoping for the detection of the gas that may, ultimately, reveal the presence of sub-surface microbial life.
It appears that SAM has made yet another profound discovery... but mission scientists are keeping quiet for the time being.
One of the prime mission objectives is for Curiosity is to understand the past and current habitability for life on the Red Planet. Curiosity can not directly detect the presence of Mars life, but it has been kitted-out with miniature laboratories capable of not only establishing what materials soil samples contain, but also whether the Mars soil contains carbon-laden organic molecules.
Should Curiosity detect these organics, the mission will have confirmed the presence of the building blocks of life on the surface of Mars. This does not, however, preclude the genesis of life on Mars, it just means that some of the ingredients are there.
According to this NPR article, Grotzinger refers to the SAM data as being the source of the excitement. Indeed, one of the instrument's objectives is to address "carbon chemistry through a search for organic compounds, the chemical state of light elements other than carbon, and isotopic tracers of planetary change," according to the JPL mission site.
Might these data indicate the detection of organic chemistry? This would certainly be "historic" news. Also, this would back up the Viking landers' likely discovery of organics in the 1970s -- a result that could only be confirmed after Mars lander Phoenix made the groundbreaking 2008 discovery that the Martian surface is laced with perchorates.
Although the focus appears to be on organics, this is pure speculation for now. Science isn't about announcing the first result, no matter how profound, historic or earth-shattering it appears to be. As an example, the initial SAM results for Martian air analysis hinted at the presence of methane, only for that result to be proven false during follow-up tests -- air from Earth (which does contain methane) was trapped in the instrument and needed to be flushed out before pure Mars air could be properly analyzed.
NASA JPL mission scientists have, again, rightly decided that nothing needs to be announced until further work is done -- even though they've communicated their excitement for a big discovery. They are, after all, human.
So now we wait...
Translation: We are requesting more money.
It would be nice if it is big news, but NASA has a history of hyping things, only to be disproved later. They are very good at PR.
Got it.
There's plenty of other threads going on that address your concern, no sense in trying to hijack this one.........
The NASA Curiosity Mission is funded for two more years so they don’t get more money from studying the results for a few more weeks.
If you hate science and scientists, you can twist them rushing to an announcement, waiting to do an announcement, or them just getting out of bed in the morning into something nefarious.
Fun!
I’ll take any news from Mars. I am a big space fan.
I was more ripping on Trump than NASA.
I’ll take any news from Mars. I am a big space fan.
I was more ripping on Trump than NASA.
Yeah I love space stuff too.
Its where our future is supposed to be.
I’d rather have my tax money go toward a rover on Mars than some welfare queen in Baltimore.
There’s more cool photos at http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/ .
WE HAVEN’T FIGURED OUT WHAT’S GOING ON ON EARTH YET>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thats a fact, but its good entertainment, unlike the Obama Matrix driven discourse. LOL.
http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/index.htm
We paid for this remote controlled Tonka toy so I think they should be publishing every damned thing.
The only information that should be kept from the public is security issues. Secrets like CIA agent’s true identity, the kenyan’s birth certificate and his latest boyfriend’s name.
I can't wait to try Bimbo Ho Hos
Boo!
Agreed! It means that it is feasible for men to land there, work for brief periods there, and build the first habitats for the eventual colonization, conquest, taming of a new world, and raping of the crust all the way down to the Moho! ;)
Who’s to say the ‘microbes’ aren’t from Earth? 65 million years ago, give or take a million or so, a huge something hit the Earth. It could have thrown up tons of dust and rock into space that drifted through space another million years or two or three or four, then finally came to rest on Mars, carrying ‘life’ from here...................
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