NASA comments on accusations of manipulating Mars images!

The following is a translation of an article in the swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" (DN.se), dated June 12th:

WHITE SPOT ON MARS IMAGE CREATES DEBATE

Already the first day on Mars the Phoenix lander took an image which has made conspiracy theorists and ET-buffs suspicious. The image shows that NASA in reality is trying to hide the real discoveries, according to a well known website.

The last couple of weeks images from Mars have been sent to earth. NASA's Mars lander Phoenix is photographing it's surroundings at the landing site at the planet's north pole. On one of the images a white spot can be seen near the horizon. A spot that now creates debate on the Internet. Already after a couple of days the first speculations began that NASA is manipulating the images from Mars.

One of the web sites which is dedicated to prove that NASA is hiding the "fact" that Mars is or has been populated by a high level civilization, is Joseph Skipper's "Mars Anomaly Research".

Skipper writes on his website that the white spot is a sign that NASA has airbrushed and removed something from the original image. Skipper also says that he doesn't belive NASA has told the truth about the Phoenix project, and that NASA has a secret agenda.

"I doubt that anything we are going to see of what is made public is real. The thing that worries me, is what the Phoenix lander really is doing, where it really is located and why it is surrounded by so much secrecy," he writes.

Skipper has enlarged the Phoenix image 500 times, which give very strange effects. But to enlarge an image so many times, only creates digital effects which don't show any real objects. In the end only the pixels are visible.

Accusations about hiding the truth from the public have made Peter Smith, leader of the scientific work during the Phoenix project, react. DN sent a mail and asked him to comment on the images and the white spot, and he answers:

"The image you have seen is the only available at the moment. We are planning to take images with higher resolution, but that has not been done yet. It is an interesting white object, but not very unusual."

When we ask if NASA is misleading the public, Smith gets agitated:

"To those who choose to believe that a group of professional scientists are spending their time manipulating data and that they are making up conspiracies to mislead stupid people, who we have never met and are not the least interested in, to those I want to say that the research we are doing is a thousand times more real and interesting than the paranoid fantasies which are being discussed on the web site you sent me a link to."

The discussion about what is happening on Mars reminds of the plot in the movie "Capricorn One", where a future manned mission to Mars is faked by NASA, who in stead keeps the whole world in the dark. That was a movie, but now many are taking those accusations seriously.

The last time a similar discussion took plase, was about an object which resembled a face was seen on images from the american Viking sond in 1976. Later, when another sond took better images from the area, it turned out that the "face" was a usual formation without any human characteristics.

Link to article with the image in question:
www.dn.se...

Link to Joseph Skipper's website:
www.marsanomalyresearch.com...

""To those who choose to believe that a group of professional scientists are spending their time manipulating data and that they are making up conspiracies to mislead stupid people,........."

Ok guys.....

Everyone on ATS is now stupid for believing in conspiracies.....

The only one here that is stupid, is the person that made that comment!

Besides, there wouldn't be scientists working on photos, they would be graphic designers and professional photo editors......

What a load of crap!

Thanks for the thread

reply to post by IMAdamnALIEN


Well, I guess the scientists's reaction and answer isn't very surprising. But as far as I know, this is the first time ever that someone from NASA actually has commented on these kind of accusations, so I was very surprised when I read the article!

That website is one of the worst on the Internet. Pure crap. Purposefully manipulated photo's to make them look like what they are not. An obvious attempt to alter the evidence to fit the theory. I doubt there are many on ATS that are fooled by that site. Some, I think, are pretending it has any value to support their own nonsense.

Everyone should be pissed about sites like that which make us look like fools.

Typical. And it's that type of attitude that will eventually cause them great sorrow. They are discrediting themselves.

The fact is, we KNOW of many, many instances where scientists and suits plot against the masses with disinformation and more. Who is this NASA person kidding and who is allowing that type of dismissive and degrading rhetoric be the entered into the public disclourse with NASA's name on it?

I know several highly educated, though non-NASA researchers who have expressed amusement or disappointment in the overall NASA attitude. At least since around 2001.

I wonder what the same scientist would say if we showed him the photoshopped moon images?

reply to post by Blaine91555


Just to let you know, I am not promoting the mentioned website in any way. I don't know anything at all about Joseph Skipper or his site, so I don't have an opinion about either.

The reason I translated and posted the article, is that this is the first time NASA has commented the accusations about them manipulating images and hiding the truth about Phoenix and the Mars mission. As far as I know anyway. Correct me if I am wrong.

[edit on 14-6-2008 by ziggystar60]

I see that the "stupid people" quote comes from Peter Smith.
I don't know much about Smith specifically, but I think that most of the researchers on the Phoenix team are NASA newbies or outside academics.
Maybe not completely in-the-know, if you know what I mean.

reply to post by djerwulfe


Yes, this Peter Smith must be a newbie. He doesn't seem to know that the correct answer to the mail from the swedish newpaper would have been NASA's usual response - total silence.

reply to post by ziggystar60


I understand that and it is very odd someone from NASA would respond that way. That is just a site that gets under my skin. I don't care for confidence-men who turn these topics into jokes with sites like that.

People at NASA are human, just like us. They can get fed up with nonesense and say dumb things, just like us.

reply to post by Blaine91555



Not to mention its not very professional!

NASA would be considered a professional organization...

Their responses should reflect intelligence, courteousness, and fairness. However, their responses sound more like a confused teenager.

Not very professional, IMO!

Another interesting thing about the article is that this is the first time I have seen main stream media writing about these conspiracy theories - at least in my part of the world. And "Dagens Nyheter" is a big and respected newspaper in Sweden. The article has also been picked up by a newspaper called "Nettavisen" in Norway.

That reaction does not surprise me, I know many people that would react in the same way if someone was suspecting their intentions behind a work of many years.

The only time I "talked" (by e-mail) with someone from NASA the first thing I noticed was that he was delighted that someone like me would be interested in their work and wanted to clear some doubts.

Also, MarsAnomalyResearch is one of the worst sites I have seen, extremely biased (they ignore new data when it proves them wrong) and with many technical flaws (if they are analysing images they should at least know something about photography and digital imaging).

reply to post by ArMaP


ArMaP --

I agree...Even on ATS, when a member is accused of hoaxing a photograph, he/she usually reacts in a similar manner. It's human nature to vehemently defend oneself when accused of lying. I would probably do the same.

I also agree about the poor and uninformed job MarsAnomalyResearch has done over the years. Their logic and their research is so bad, it makes you think that they are deliberately spreading misinformation. Also, I sometimes wonder why the images they post are such poor resolution, when the source images (the original NASA images) are of a much better resolution.

[edit on 6/14/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

I listened to a SETI disinformant on the radio the other night and I wondered at the time why he was also going to bat for NASA, I figured he was put up to it and was just doing his job...

It is an insult to some of my favorites here on ATS and a few of the best most juicy threads created to dis all of the information which looks at the data with the eye of truth.

Nah, NASA probably accidentally got a hold of some really good and telling photographs recently and need to pre-cover their bases before they get slipped out. IMHO.

There is no way that the last time this was brought up was the face on Mars. Anyone here knows that to be a completely false statement. I really doubt that even NASA employees are that ignorant of public opinion.

Clearly if the poor quality photos which NASA has graced us are the best they have, then they need to replaced by a competent organization.

Their claims to have Lost so much of the data regarding what is supposed to be the greatest achievment in human history qualifys them for obsolescence.

When we ask if NASA is misleading the public, Smith gets agitated:

"To those who choose to believe that a group of professional scientists are spending their time manipulating data and that they are making up conspiracies to mislead stupid people, who we have never met and are not the least interested in"

This doesn't sound right. Professionals rarely resort to childish name calling. Something's not right with that 'interview'

reply to post by sos37


I agree that it is surprising that a NASA scientist would say something like that, it sounds rather childish. But I can assure you that the translation I have done is correct. These are the words quoted in the swedish and norwegian newspaper, both respected newssources, and I have no reason to believe that either of them would make this up.

reply to post by ziggystar60


This guy does not sound very seasoned or proffesional when it come to handling public scrutiny. Of course there will be questions, and to call those who have them stupid is , well, stupid.

Good stuff. It is screwy. There's a large-scale turnover in process in US institutions at high (or low/deep/) levels.

NASA may have already screwed the pooch and are gearing up for a massive overhaul. People have suggested a dismantling of some of these ambiguous public/private organizations. Total house cleaning.

They have failed us, for whatever reason, and they are ultimately answerable to us. A negative view of NASA is very common.