Curiosity has discovered something on Mars

[Gamdwelf]

Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says

From the OP,
They are taking that back and not announcing that.

[zorkuus]

Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says

From the OP,
They are taking that back and not announcing that.

That was an interview with one person, it was not the official stance of NASA.

[Gamdwelf]

That was an interview with one person, it was not the official stance of NASA.

well that is the guy talking at the nasa press conference right now so.

[Gheld]

Here's the problem. It's been all over the media for nearly 2 weeks. So if the media did misquote them, the fact is they should have known, and they had roughly 2 weeks to issue a correction. Instead they chose to throw ethics out the window and bolster their public interest by riding the news diarrhea wave for as long as possible.

And that kind of bullshit should not be tolerated from an institution that is heavily funded by public tax dollars.

[Reeve]

Here's the problem. It's been all over the media for nearly 2 weeks. So if the media did misquote them, the fact is they should have known, and they had roughly 2 weeks to issue a correction. Instead they chose to throw ethics out the window and bolster their public interest by riding the news diarrhea wave for as long as possible.

And that kind of bullshit should not be tolerated from an institution that is heavily funded by public tax dollars.

They stated several days ago they hadn't found organics on Mars.

[zorkuus]

well that is the guy talking at the nasa press conference right now so.

You're not getting the point. How can NASA take back something which they (not that one guy) never said?

[Gheld]

They stated several days ago they hadn't found organics on Mars.

I'd like to see this statement. I have a Siberian tiger in my pants and it poops gold.

[Gamdwelf]

They stated several days ago they hadn't found organics on Mars.

At the press conference I'm listening to right now they said they did find organics with the SAM instrument, but they are going to make sure they are of Martian origin and that we didn't bring them with us by accident.


Hes talking now about how they are going to determine if it is from mars or not.

[Gheld]

At the press conference I'm listening to right now they said they did find organics with the SAM instrument, but they are going to make sure they are of Martian origin and that we didn't bring them with us by accident.


Hes talking now about how they are going to determine if it is from mars or not.

So then what's up with the retraction published by the NY Times? I think the news media needs to shut the hell up and disappear.

[Dezerte]

Here's the problem. It's been all over the media for nearly 2 weeks. So if the media did misquote them, the fact is they should have known, and they had roughly 2 weeks to issue a correction. Instead they chose to throw ethics out the window and bolster their public interest by riding the news diarrhea wave for as long as possible.

And that kind of bullshit should not be tolerated from an institution that is heavily funded by public tax dollars.

Conspiracy theories ftw, also I don't think you have any idea how small their funding is.

Valuable read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA

[Wælcyrie]

Well that was disappointing.

[Reeve]

I'd like to see this statement. I have a Siberian tiger in my pants and it poops gold.

I posted it on page 15. It's even quoted on this page, though they removed the link.

[Gheld]

Conspiracy theories ftw, also I don't think you have any idea how small their funding is.

That's not a conspiracy theory. The news fucks everything up, and people take that to their advantage.

And heavily funded refers to the fact that almost all of its budget is allocated from federal tax revenues.

And "it's only 0.5% of the federal budget" is a ridiculous statement. The estimated 2012 NASA Budget is over 17 billion dollars, and they should thus be accountable to the public.

[Vayshan]

No matter what it has found... we won't be told anything other it was a glitch or it was something insignificant afterall. Nothing groundbreaking since that would be kept secret for the next 3 centuries.

(I'll just quote myself here...)

Wow, who knew!? /sarcasm

---------- Post added 2012-12-03 at 06:57 PM ----------

Or sending people to Mars so that humans could mine it for Oil/Iron/Who knows what else. You don't think that the US would like to be in control of the oil for once? I know it's not going to happen even remotely in my lifetime but I always think about a what if of us getting off this planet and travelling around out there...

Plenty of iron there, but NO oil. You do know how oil is 'made' right? Even if there was oil up there... don't think it would drop the oil price, transportation costs from Mars to Earth would be through the roof.

[Tinykong]

This does seem pretty game changing to me.
We've already known that these elements are abundant, but proof that the building blocks of life are abundant on a planet other than our own in the galaxy?

Not understanding the significance of a discovery doesn't make it meaningless.

[Vayshan]

This does seem pretty game changing to me.
We've already known that these elements are abundant, but proof that the building blocks of life are abundant on a planet other than our own in the galaxy?

Not understanding the significance of a discovery doesn't make it meaningless.

I can imagine a lot of people are pissing their pants out of hapiness, but there is nothing magical about our little world OR the materials found here. The universe is full of those building blocks, it's nothing supernatural :S

EDIT:
Maybe all it ever needed to blossom was plenty of water and time (and a protective atmosphere/magnetic field).

[Adam Jensen]

I can imagine a lot of people are pissing their pants out of hapiness, but there is nothing magical about our little world OR the materials found here. The universe is full of those building blocks, it's nothing supernatural :S

Well there are people who think our world IS magical . . . but such a discussion is forbidden here.

I do not believe the Earth is the anomaly some people think it is, neither do I think life is. Earth and life both formed through organic and natural processes, there's no reason why it can't, or wouldn't, happen elsewhere in the universe given the same conditions. Granted, it would be exceedingly rare for a habitable planet to be able to sustain life AND to form life, given that so many things have to go right, but given the vast, uncountable number of stars (100 billion stars in our galaxy, and 100 billion known galaxies, think about that for a moment) it's not so rare that it'll only happen once.

[Vayshan]

Well there are people who think our world IS magical . . . but such a discussion is forbidden here.

I do not believe the Earth is the anomaly some people think it is, neither do I think life is. Earth and life both formed through organic and natural processes, there's no reason why it can't, or wouldn't, happen elsewhere in the universe given the same conditions. Granted, it would be exceedingly rare for a habitable planet to be able to sustain life AND to form life, given that so many things have to go right, but given the vast, uncountable number of stars (100 billion stars in our galaxy, and 100 billion known galaxies, think about that for a moment) it's not so rare that it'll only happen once.

Exactly. Plus it doesn't even have to be intelligent life. Both Mars and Venus are in the habitable zone of our Solar system, except Mars has no magnetic field to speak of so it can't protect itself against the solar winds and Venus just ended up being a huge greenhouse. Had conditions for those 2 orbs been just a slightly different, they too could've been blue and green.

[Vayshan]

Dont really feel like reading 17 pages, can anyone fill me in on what they discovered and if its as amazing as they said it would be.

Something about NASA finding the building blocks of life on Mars.

[Mnevis]

The news release from today doesn't mention anything about any building blocks, or really anything we didn't know about already. Basically all it says is 'hey cool, our gizmos work'. I was promised something for the history books!

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-380