Life?.... White House Alerted on a Major Finding by Phoenix lander Team

[Ichingcarpenter]

The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing or past life on Mars. Rather the data relate to habitability--the "potential" for Mars to support life--at the Phoenix arctic landing site, sources say.

The data are much more complex than results related NASA's July 31 announcement that Phoenix has confirmed the presence of water ice at the site.

The other data not discussed openly yet are far more "provocative," Phoenix officials say.

In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory science team for the MECA wet-chemistry instrument that made the findings was kept out of a July 31 news conference at the University of Arizona Phoenix control center. The goal was to prevent them from being asked any questions that could reveal information before NASA is ready to make an announcement, sources say.

The Bush Administration's Presidential Science Advisor's office, however, has been briefed on the new information that NASA hopes to release as early as mid August. It is possible an announcement would not come until September, to allow for additional analysis. That will depend upon the latest results still being analyzed from the spacecraft's organic oven and soil chemistry laboratories.


http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/WH08018.xml&headline=White%20House%20Briefed%20On%20Potential%20For%20Mars%20Life&channel=space

[tridim]

1. Thanks for posting, but what does this have to do with the WH?

BushCo is completely anti-science. Fuck em.

[elehhhhna]

2. Nothing, unless they found oil on mars.

[Lithos]

9. Yep

Briefly thought the same thing.

My guess is that they found complex amino acids or something akin to complex building blocks which are far more than those they've been able to artificially recreate.

L-

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. The White House needs to consult their Religion Department?

Anyway, it seems that NASA found something else
that is more significant than water.

[nradisic]

3. They found oil on Mars!

Holy Cow!

[villager]

5. "Uh, gentlemen, it turns out that really *is* a face statue up there..."

"What do we do?"

Perhaps they have to wait until the Cheney fundie-gullibilizing task force can destroy whatever "evidence"they have...?

;-)

[Adsos Letter]

6. they found the "missing" White House e-mails...

and Dick Cheney's "undisclosed location"...

[enlightenment]

7. A sad commentary that NASA feels they have to inform

the WH before they release information that is in no way a threat to the balance of the universe.

If they had found evidence of existing life or that life had existed, I can see where they might want to give the WH a head's up - just because all the loonies would come out of the woodwork with that announcement . . . but simply to say that the planet could potentially support life?

That's fantastic news, but in the larger scheme of things it ranks with "water is wet" as far as being a political concern.

[Posteritatis]

8. Seeing as we've got water, and they explicitly rule out life..

... I'm left wondering what they could've found that would warrant briefing the president (or any president) several weeks ahead of time.

Any ideas? Aside from the standard flood of cynical oil comments everyone always spams these articles up with, that is?

[tinrobot]

10. Didn't they brief Clinton on the Antarctic Mars rocks?

The ones with the possible microbial fossils? That was for suspicion of life on ancient Mars.

I'd suspect the Phoenix lander found enough organic compounds to strongly suggest the possibility of life on modern Mars.

Until they do a full-up test with a highly sterilized lander, however, I don't think they'd risk claiming that life is actually there.

[Orsino]

11. Sad that the Bush Administration has been inserted into the process.

They're pretty good at keeping "provocative" secrets.