Are they going to announce life on mars?

Just got this in my email...


Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington March 1, 2004


Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.


NOTE TO EDITORS: N04-038

NASA HEADQUARTERS MARS-ROVER OPPORTUNITY PRESS BRIEFING MARCH 2

Significant findings from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, now exploring Meridiani Planum on Mars,
will be announced at a press briefing at 2 p.m. EST, Tuesday, March 2, 2004, at NASA Headquarters,
Washington.

The briefing will originate from the James E. Webb Auditorium, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, and will be carried
live on NASA TV with two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the event from
participating NASA centers.

Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator, Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, will make opening
remarks. The panelists include:

--Professor Steve Squyres, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Principal Investigator, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
--Professor John Grotzinger, MER science team geologist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
Mass.
--Dr. Benton C. Clark III, MER science team member and Chief Scientist of Space Exploration, Lockheed Martin
Space Systems Astronautics Operations, Denver
--Dr. Joy Crisp, MER Project Scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
--Dr. Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon, NASA Headquarters

NASA Television is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude. The
frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. Audio of the broadcast
will be available on voice circuit at the Kennedy Space Center on 321/867-1220.

For a live webcast of the briefing and information about NASA TV on the Internet, visit:

www.nasa.gov...



Maybe they found Osamma?



[Edited on 1-3-2004 by energy_wave]

Significant to an astronomer might mean nothing to us.

I's ain't no astronomer, but I think it would help me quited a bit.

Significant to an astronomer might mean nothing to us.

Bingo...to them, anything new is "significant"

Just good evidence that Mars has or had water of signifigant amounts would be HUGE news by NASA standards.

The twin rovers can't even identify life if they ran across it so I doubt you'll see any claims of discovering life from these missions. Short of a macroscopic complex animal or plant life identifiable by only visual image data, the rover wouldn't even see life.

Thier spectrometer is made for mineral analysis (and probably would iradiate and kill any life it was used on) and the microscopic imager isn't high enough resolution to see single celled organizms.

Oh, and unless you intent is to agrevate Guy Webster and Donald Savage I recomend you remove thier phone numbers from your post before ATSers with nothing better to do start calling them.

Check out Intelgurl's post on ATSNN....maybe you're right after all....

Originally posted by Quest
Oh, and unless you intent is to agrevate Guy Webster and Donald Savage I recomend you remove thier phone numbers from your post before ATSers with nothing better to do start calling them.

To late I called, told them that energy_wave said it was cool and all....
Just kidding,....they said hey though

Well, I kinda think water, as awsome a find that would be, would also be on a 'high likelyhood' list, compared to everything else in the project. I also think something bigger could be presented, as otherwise water would be considered another part of the project, and detection would 'only' deem it a successful mission. I am wondering of soil samples or rock observations have discovered something, the pellets?

(Although I am not going to turn down water only as a great discovery. )

NASA would never announce life on Mars based on pictures, short of a Mars Donkey or something wandering by when a picture was being taken.

Due to the lack of Mars Donkey hoof prints and vegetation type things so far, i bet its just water or even past water evidence.

NASA guys get excited about dust... it doesn't take much for them to have a "big" announcement.

Mars Donkey�

If anyone ever names something a Mars Donkey now, you owe me a buck.

If anything, it's probably water that used to be there. What if the little trench they dug with the rover whell filled up with water?