nasa’s media fail
There was a minor gossip swarm over the weekend to the effect that NASA had discovered life on Mars. It seems that the truth is somewhat the opposite, that they discovered a substance inimical to life. Or might have- nothing conclusive yet.
NASA Watch makes of habit of jabbing at NASA’s Public Affairs Office. If you’ve ever watched a launch, you know why. Apart from some minimal-compliance diversity, it looks and sounds like the 1950s. NASA’s live coverage always sounds like it’s trying to be exciting, but is just a little too tired.
Their PAO has been way behind the ball on this one. They’ve been trying to embargo the story until they have their ducks in a row, but that doesn’t fly anymore. In this case, the best news source is twittering scientists. That was the only statement over the weekend, and it’s how everyone got the news today. So, by way of Twitter, then a second-generation post on Slashdot, and finally reposted on an obscure post-discordian nerd blog, here’s the news from Mars:
“In an update to the little green men story of not-life-on-Mars, NASA has twittered: ‘The buzz this weekend was due to an interesting soil chemistry finding, still preliminary, but now avail here:’ where ‘here’ is NASA Spacecraft Analyzing Martian Soil Data. The exciting bit: ‘Within the last month, two samples have been analyzed by the Wet Chemistry Lab of the spacecraft’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suggesting one of the soil constituents may be perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance.’ Also, ‘NASA will hold a media teleconference on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss these recent science activities.’”
And I find it maddening that no one yet has mentioned that the whole business of searching for life is enormously earth-centric. Geocentric? I bet Kim Stanley Robinson has a word for it. We keep looking for life as we know it on Earth, but finding that Terran life doesn’t exist on Mars is probably a lot easier than finding what Martian life might look like.
