Curiosity finds organics on Mars, but possibly not of Mars

Curiosity finds organics on Mars, but possibly not of Mars

www.theregister.co.uk

NASA says that no, it hasn't found definite proof that Mars has its own organic compounds, but that it has found some very interesting indications that need to be checked.


Everyone just hold your horses (click to enlarge)
At a press conference on Monday morning at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, NASA said that so far Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) tool has taken five scoops from the Rocksnest sand dune and analyzed them using the rover's...

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, there's our answer. Something was found, but we don't know if it's contamination, an error in analysis or native to the planet. Time will tell, I suppose, but once the threat of contamination falls in, all bets are off.

I do like the subhead:

Mission director vows to hold his tongue in future

Yeah, we'd all appreciate that, lol

www.theregister.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Pfft, Mars-shmars, Mercury is where it's at

It's good to see some things never change. At the very least, NASA is consistent.

reply to post by Klassified

Yeah same old "it needs to be checked" which translates give us more funds, we will spend it on nothing.

They could find a 5 legged donkey drinking at a waterhole and they'd still say - Its not proof, might have been contaminated.
They'll NEVER tell us the truth.

reply to post by zilebeliveunknown

The Curiosity mission is funded for two years. It will be conducting many more experiments as part of that funding, including further testing for organic compounds.

I'm confused at the cynicism surrounded this release...

It's pretty significant to find any organic compound beyond Earth. Every little bit helps in building a view of the universe that can be backed up with experimental data.

Things are changing, and NASA is not doing "nothing."

If such a compound has been found from an exploration of such a small percentage of the Martian surface, we can safely say that it is worth further exploring.

Originally posted by VoidHawk
They could find a 5 legged donkey drinking at a waterhole and they'd still say - Its not proof, might have been contaminated.
They'll NEVER tell us the truth.

Oh yeah? Well, you just prove that 5 legged donkey wasn't strapped onto the side of the rocket

Seriously, though, the contamination issue is big, because a lot of the interest, if potentially organic material is found, is how much it has in common with terrestrial material. That's why stuff like this is pretty disheartening:

But if by chance the rover Curiosity does find water, a controversy that has simmered at NASA for nearly a year will burst into the open. Curiosity’s drill bits may be contaminated with Earth microbes. If they are, and if those bits touch water, the organisms could survive.

The possible contamination of the drill bits occurred six months before the rover’s launch last Nov. 26. The bits had been sterilized inside a box to be opened only after Curiosity landed on Mars.

But that changed after engineers grew concerned that a rough landing could damage the rover and the drill mechanism. They decided to open the box and mount one bit in the drill as a hedge to ensure success of one of the most promising scientific tools aboard Curiosity. The drill is to bore into rocks looking for clues that life could have existed on the planet. Even if a damaged mechanism couldn’t load a drill bit, at least the roverwould have one ready to go.

Under the agency’s procedures, the box should not have been opened without knowledge of a NASA scientist who is responsible for guarding Mars against contamination from Earth. But Planetary Protection Officer Catharine Conley wasn’t consulted. (Source)

No matter how careful they were, the damage may already have been done.

Even Mars is getting into the organic market now?

N..........Never
A......... A
S..........Straight
A..........Answer

I don't pay taxes to buy lies!www.space.com...

The ole "it could be" or "it might be" or "there's a possibility, but not sure at the moment" one. Should have just shut up and said nothing....

BORING !!

OH? great! You mean we have already started the pollution of the martian ecology?
WOW!
how underwhelming.................

reply to post by olaru12


If you pay taxes then you do buy lies, The taxes fund the government and they lie all the time.

As Phage said they have funding for two years, lets wait and see if they find more organics that can be proven to be from mars.

A lot of people here just don't understand science. NASA / Scientists want to be 100% sure, they don't want to be 90% sure, and that takes time. You have to do multiple tests, and rule out every possibility, and even when that is done it is still 99.99% because of that .01% chance that it is something we didn't consider, or rule out with tests.

The article makes a good point, "We're doing science at the speed of science and the world's moving at the speed of an Instagram.". That point is plainly obvious when you read some of the replies on this topic thus far. Some of you want it now, not now, right now. You don't care about accuracy, you only care about knowing instantly, right now. When you don't get what you want, when you want it, you cry and complain...

Society has become too impatient these days.

Originally posted by lonegurkha
reply to post by olaru12

 

If you pay taxes then you do buy lies, The taxes fund the government and they lie all the time.

As Phage said they have funding for two years, lets wait and see if they find more organics that can be proven to be from mars.

Of course, I know all that and I don't like it one bit. And I also don't trust Phage all that much as he seems to be the official NASA spokesman here on ATS. Perhaps I'm just paranoid and wary of anything coming from "authority figures" because they usually have a hidden agenda and plan; kept from the rabble, uneducated, citizens that pay their salary.

Anyone that thinks that NASA isn't part of the military industrial complex is very naive and the MIC doesn't have a very good record of being truthful, now do they?

Originally posted by olaru12

Anyone that thinks that NASA isn't part of the military industrial complex is very naive and the MIC doesn't have a very good record of being truthful, now do they?

Are you aware that NASA is run mostly by civilians? Every day civilians like you and I.

Originally posted by illuminated0ne

Originally posted by olaru12

Anyone that thinks that NASA isn't part of the military industrial complex is very naive and the MIC doesn't have a very good record of being truthful, now do they?

Are you aware that NASA is run mostly by civilians? Every day civilians like you and I.

Yeah, like most of the people doing war research and administration at LANL and Sandia are civilians. You are aware of that aren't you? Everyday civilians like you and I.....

*snip* illuminatedOne....

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
It's pretty significant to find any organic compound beyond Earth.

I don't know. Quite a few meteorites have been found with organic compounds in them, and they've also been detected in comets and a variety of moons. There are certain compounds that naturally form given a certain combinations of elements, and some of them are organic. Looks like space is full of organic compounds.

But people get all worked up when "organic" compounds are mentioned, because it's easy to make the verbal/mental jump from "organic" to "organism." But all organic really means is that it's a compound that includes carbon. I'm no chemical engineer, but I know that there's a huge jump from finding some chemicals with a little carbon in them to finding a Martian jackrabbit or Venusian brain bat.

Some people need to relax, and yes, I'm sure the folks at NASA get tired of having to watch out how they phrase things just to avoid having that small core of sensitive people (you know the type) go nuts.

Originally posted by Socrato
Even Mars is getting into the organic market now?

Some more well-off people are willing to pay $2.99 a pound for organic Martian apples, even though the regular old apples grown on Jupiter with chemical fertilizer and sprayed with insecticide are just as nutritious, look better, and only cost 99 cents a pound. Buncha rich hippies!