What "Earth-Shaking" Discovery Has Curiosity Made on Mars? 544
Randym writes "NASA scientists have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument. The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. 'We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,' says John Grotzinger. He's the principal investigator for the rover mission. SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) is a suite of instruments onboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something Earth-shaking. 'This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,' he says."
Obviously they are trying to build hype (Score:5, Insightful)
I predict that the results are accurate, but not nearly as exciting as NASA is trying to get us to believe.
Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Insightful)
Unsuprisingly cautious (Score:5, Insightful)
Wasn't the last "earth-shaking" announcement that of bacteria using arsenic instead of phosphorus in their molecular construction?
They'll want to be very sure about whatever it is before going public.
So much for checking the data first (Score:4, Insightful)
Way to go, Grotzinger. You've just totally undermined NASA's effort to keep their mouths shut until they've carefully checked the data.
Ocean mineral (Score:5, Insightful)
Lightspeed (Score:4, Insightful)
I really hope this isn't going to be like the faster-than-lightspeed-discovery that was an intrument error!
So feel free to double check the instruments!
Either it's life or overeager techies (Score:5, Insightful)
"One for the history books" means life. Remember how important it was that one of the two earlier rovers found surface water by getting a wheel stuck in the mud? Remember how big a story that was? That is not getting into the history books. The most likely alternate possibility is that the techies are overblowing the importance of this because it is a big thing in their world.
Given the description of the instrument [nasa.gov], it is likely that they got a successful result from a Viking-style experiment [wikipedia.org] which they are taking as evidence for life.
For the results to truly be Earth-shaking, they have to have found Marvin the Martian's Illudium Q-36 space modulator.
Re:I really hope... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's nothing, I could tell you what the Milky Way is made of.
Here's the list of ingredients [xkcd.com].
I dunno (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Primitive DNA (Score:2, Insightful)
And then watch how fast and quickly they boost NASA's budget.
Only if they discovered oil there, and terrorrorrorrists to shoot at.
What's exciting to Grotz may not be ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with evidence of life is that it's usually something along the lines of "POSSIBLE evidence of life, *maybe* (or possibly not)" And that's the kind of thing that will produce sensationalist "Life Found on Mars!" headlines in the press, but which will likely be followed by the inevitable "Turns out what they found probably wasn't jackshit" disappointment--which will only turn the public even more skeptical of the usefulness of these sorts of missions in the future.
Now Roman helmets, on the other hand...
Re:Obviously they are trying to build hype (Score:5, Insightful)
Totally this.
It's probably going to be along the lines of evidence that there might have been some specific trace element at one point which may indicate the existence of water or microbacterial life at one point. In other words, something that is both a major discovery and extremely boring to the large majority of the population (including geeks) at the same time.
Not Exciting to the General Public (Score:4, Insightful)
He did break down and tell his family. "I remember at the dinner table with great excitement explaining to my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Bethany, what it was we were doing," says Zare. And then he experienced something many parents can relate to when talking to their kids.
"Bethany looked at me and said, 'pass the ketchup.' So, not everybody was as excited as I was," he says.
He told his family what he can't yet tell the world, and his daughter's reaction was, "pass the ketchup." So the discovery must be pretty bland.
Re:I really hope... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually coal, or any carbon source, wouldn't be a usable energy source, since there's very little free oxygen on Mars.
Discovering free oxygen would be a very big deal, but extremely unlikely. The only reason there is free oxygen on Earth is because early life started some sort of photosynthesis and starting giving off oxygen as a waste product that had the side effect of poisoning all their bacterial competitors. That event is known as the "Oxygen Catastrophe".
Hi, my name is iron oxide, I'm all over mars (in fact I give the planet its characteristic red color) and make a great accelerator for thermite and other high-energy thermal reactions.
Free oxygen is everywhere. You just gotta get it from me, first.