NASA says Mars discovery isn't 'earthshaking' after all

NASA says Mars discovery isn't 'earthshaking' after all

www.techradar.com

After telling the world that the Mars Curiosity rover made a discovery "for the history books," NASA is now downplaying the importance of what was found.

NASA spokesperson Guy Webster elaborated some on the discovery, hoping to realign people's expectations.

"It won't be earthshaking but it will be interesting," Webster told Time. "As for history books, the whole mission is for the history books."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, here we go. NASA is either covering up something that an overzealous scientist accidentally shared, or is playing legitimate damage control to set the expectations for the public.

Thought 1: There is something earthshaking discovered but NASA wasn't suppose to tell the public. So now they're backtracking after TPTB got hold of them.

Thought 2: There is something interesting, as stated, but only for scientists and a very curious public. The layperson won't care much what is found, so NASA is lowering expectations as a responsible agency.

What does ATS think - is NASA being responsible with its information expectations, or is NASA backtracking on something world changing to be safe?

I tend to agree with thought 2, but who knows anymore.

www.techradar.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It just got sanitized and no leak allowed apparently. How kind and what a very thoughtful gift to humanity.

#$%!#%


The space agency that cried wolf.

Man..... NASA.......

To be fair I don't think it was them that was up playing it, seemed to be the news sites to me.

... I called it.

I thought that, in the past, NASA has been known to conceal information from us. Why would this be out of the question?

reply to post by Jason88


Hmmm yeah I wouldn't be surprised if some geek/scientist got REALLY excited about something most of us will feel is no big deal... I think even if they found microbial life most people wouldn't really care all too much. They would be interested if it was some weird and wonderful animal or alien but barring that probably wouldn't care less... I am one of those to be honest... Don't get me wrong I would find it interesting and it would prove life is possible on other planets but I know that already anyway... Billions of planets, there is a very very high chance of life surely...

I bet you it will be some form of marker to show there could of been life there at some time, which to me would = super boring...

I guess we will all just have to wait a little while longer...

reply to post by SLAYER69

Um. That would be the MSM which cried wolf. Here's the quote that got turned into "earthshaking" and it wasn't from "NASA", it was a single comment from a NASA scientist.

Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.

Here's what he said before that:

"We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.

Once again, leave it to consumer media to screw up.
www.npr.org...

The broadcast:
www.npr.org...

reply to post by Philosophile

NASA has been known to conceal information from us.

For example?

reply to post by SpearMint


"This data is gonna be one for the history books," Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena, told NPR. "It's looking really good."

Well they did kind of had people involved in the program elude to it being BIG

reply to post by Jason88


I'd guess that it's something along the lines of finding a chemical in the soil there -- the initial reaction was something like "holy carp, evidence of life," but when they shopped it around, it was pointed out that it wasn't necessarily evidence of that. The fact that there was a "pre-announcement" followed by a period of silence meant that it was still being vetted, and that likely resulted in this downplay.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Philosophile

 

I thought that, in the past, NASA has been known to conceal information from us.

For example?

I'd just start out with my personal belief in existence of extraterrestrial life and UFOs (that are controlled by a sentient being.)

Originally posted by Philosophile

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Philosophile

 

I thought that, in the past, NASA has been known to conceal information from us.

For example?

I'd just start out with my personal belief in existence of extraterrestrial life and UFOs (that are controlled by a sentient being.)

Oh you believe in extraterrestrial life? Well that proves NASA have concealed information from us then. Well done.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

Um. That would be the MSM which cried wolf. Here's the quote that got turned into "earthshaking" and it wasn't from "NASA", it was a single comment from a NASA scientist.

Did I originally post a quote saying it was "earthshaking" ?

Bad form as usual

nasa hasn't done anything relevant since they filled the sky's with satellites, all down hill after that.

reply to post by SLAYER69

No. But the title of the thread says that.

All you said was:

The space agency that cried wolf.

The scientist said that they had some interesting results which needed to be verified but looked very interesting at the time. Where's the wolf?

reply to post by SLAYER69


I don't see it as phage quoting you but backing up his case that it was the MSM's fault by using THEIR quote...

You say it's nasa to blame, phage is saying it was the MSM to blame... I say they are both to blame to some extent...

You are both right.

Hm. Given how 'they' love to hide things from the rest of us not in the in-crowd (read: the 99% of the World), I'd pretty much say "Figures" and I think it's something HUGE and yes, TPTB immediately told them to downgrade the news. "Tell them it's nothing big. Just (insert stupid thing here), and they'll soon forget."

I still wanna know why things have to be kept secret. Like we're the underprivelidged and aren't allowed to know anything ever. Like we're the 3 year olds who don't have to know that Mom and Dad have zero income and about to lose the house. "Just act like everything is fine, fine, fine. Little Judy/Jimmy doesn't need to know the bad stuff that will impact us greatly."

I'm so sick of being left to guess and be in the dark about everything. I'm just as much alive and cognizant as TPTB. I may not be rich, but I still breathe the same H20 that they do.

Well, we only have to wait for December 3rd for the announcement from NASA.

Here's a past experience where NASA had found egg on its face:

They made that correction, and the sensational data evaporated. And even if few members of the Curiosity team were around in 1996, when NASA convened a sudden, almost unheard of midday press conference to announce that they had found bacterial fossils in a Martian meteorite — only to have to walk back from the finding in the months that followed — there is enough institutional PTSD left over from that experience that nobody wants to make the same mistake again

Here's a less sensationalist headline from TIME:

A Mars Announcement ‘for the History Books’? Not So Fast

Source: science.time.com...

reply to post by Phage


Now come on phage they did also say this...

"This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,"

And to think I just stood up for you! DOH!