Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Team Reportedly Will Reveal Major Discovery In December

[sofa king]

92. Could be.

Ever since the Viking Labeled Release sent back a positive result, NASA has scrupulously avoided saying that they are testing for life on Mars.

I think it's because NASA fears losing its funding if the knuckledraggers in Congress find out their goat-herding manual was wrong about the creation of the universe.

The instrument in question here, SAM, explicitly cannot prove the existence of life--according to NASA's press releases. But what do you know? It can measure the gas content of a sample and determine what organic chemicals, if any, are found. It can measure the percentage of carbon-14 isotopes found in those chemicals, and we know that life selects against carbon-14. I think it can detect the chirality of molecules, and if a predominance of one "handedness" of those molecules is observed that too may suggest that life has been busy selecting those.

My father helped build the Labeled Release experiment and for over thirty years now he has been saying, "we found evidence of life on Mars, we just couldn't figure out what it was."

Now, perhaps, we can. But because our country's science is funded by a bunch of idiots who reject the findings of science because it conflicts with their own magical thinking, NASA isn't going to say so until it's screwed down so tight it cannot be undone.