Showing posts with label Mars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mars. Show all posts

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Still the Best Selling Show! - Life on Mars…

This week, it seems that NASA’s Curiosity Rover has discovered water (along with a complex mix of chemicals) in a scoop of sandy soil. This sample of the Martian landscape seems to have finally confirmed once and for all that water does indeed exist on the (ahem!) “Red” planet.
 
In the past, “Never a Straight Answer” (NASA) has gone out of its way to convince us that the odds of finding any significant proof of abundant water on Mars was as likely as getting (prepare for a skin crawling mental image!) a lap dance from The Queen! Never the less, if this week’s announcement is legit then it seems the old H2O does exist in the Martian soil. How likely is it that this is this only example? I would suggest that there is almost certainly a fair amount more.
 
With this in mind, I can’t help but recall the amount of occasions when I have heard luminaries of academia state with absolute conviction – “where you find water, you usually find evidence of life.” Even if the evidence was merely bacteriological, the implications would be (to coin a phrase) “Mars shattering.”
 
It shouldn’t surprise us then that NASA has stated that the sample contains no complex carbon-based molecules considered (by academia) essential for life. Additionally, as if to close the book on this question, one of the mission scientists, Paul Mahaffy, has stated that prolonged exposure of the landscape to radiation from space can destroy any and all carbon evidence. This is obviously to preclude any further “evidence of life” speculation regarding Mars. It is a bit like saying, "yes, we've found water, but it doesn't prove that it is wet!"
 
You do have to wonder why these people even bother putting out public statements about so called “scientific discoveries” within our solar system, especially if the information given for mass consumption is always going to be so deliberately opaque. It would be great if we could start getting some disclosure about the true state of affairs “up there”. If nothing else, at least we can still glean a lot from what these folk are “not saying”.
 
In this case, to paraphrase David Bowie, “Mars… still the best selling show!”
 
The Truth Seeker’s Guide.