Originally posted by havanaja
At a recent NASA meeting, I asked if the Mars explorers had analyzed the subsurface Mars ice slush for "clathrate structures that might contain
entrapped organics". My simple, and I thought rational question was met with not just a "No" or "good idea, thanks", or "Yes, we analyzed and
fouind nothing",...but instead there was an abrupt change of subject. Absolutely no response of any kind to the question. As a materials
technologist, this made me immediately suspect something was up. After more time to think, I seriously feel there are technical discoveries, perhaps
more, that NASA is not releasing.
May I ask your connection to NASA that gave you reason to be at that meeting?
Problem with NASA is that you get different stories from different official sources
NASA also published this a while back... and it also went mostly unnoticed here at ATS
Martian Methane Reveals the Red Planet is not a Dead Planet
New research reveals there is hope for Mars yet. The first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars indicates the planet is still
alive, in either a biologic or geologic sense, according to a team of NASA and university scientists.
www.nasa.gov...
Last I checked Methane is a 'carbon-based “organic” chemical'
Methane -- four atoms of hydrogen bound to a carbon atom -- is the main component of natural gas on Earth. It's of interest to astrobiologists
because organisms release much of Earth's methane as they digest nutrients. However, other purely geological processes, like oxidation of iron, also
release methane. "Right now, we don’t have enough information to tell if biology or geology -- or both -- is producing the methane on Mars," said
Mumma. "But it does tell us that the planet is still alive, at least in a geologic sense. It's as if Mars is challenging us, saying, hey, find out
what this means." Mumma is lead author of a paper on this research appearing in Science Express Jan. 15.
Collected data on the Methane
www.thelivingmoon.com...
Then there is this... (also referenced in the OP article)
Mars robots may have destroyed evidence of life
25 May 2009 by David Shiga
www.newscientist.com...
What caught my eye is this part...
Mystery of the missing salt
Organic chemicals are not the only substance that we may have missed on the Red Planet (see above). We should have seen carbonate salts littering the
surface.
Weathering breaks down basalt, the dominant rock in the planet's crust, into a clay plus positive ions. These ions should react with carbon dioxide
in the Martian atmosphere to form carbonate salts, explains Ralph Milliken at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Orbiters have spotted clay on Mars but few carbonates or other salts. We shouldn't assume that they aren't there, however, Milliken says.
SAY WHAT??? Missing Salts? Breaking down from Basalt? The Rovers didn't find any?
Spirit Sol 732 LOTS of Vesicular Basalt, v. Scoria
Spirit Sol 728 Close up of Scoria
Zorgon's Collection Vesicular Basalt Nevada Desert (for comparison)
Now in that same area... Spirit has been dragging its broken wheel (yup one wheel is broken and has been dragging) The result of this drag is A)
Spirit can't move fast and B) it digs furrows in the loose soil..
No Salt???
Deep Tracks In Colorful Salt Spirit Sol 784
www.thelivingmoon.com...
Sulphur-rich soil on Mars puzzles scientists Spirit Sol 790
www.thelivingmoon.com...
Scoria and Basalt on Salty Dried Lake Bed Sol 721
Still More Salts Sol 723 - Sol 725 - Sol 728 - Sol 788 it wasn't moving far
www.thelivingmoon.com...
So it seems the left hand says one thing and the right han something else... no wonder everyone is so confuddled
from your link... 
You think the Times or the BBC work for free?
