NASA being strangely hush-hush?

Does anyone else find it a bit odd that NASA's apparent enthusiasm over the exploration of Mars has dropped to almost zero, and did so very abruptly? I remember when we first got up there, they were releasing things like a list of the songs they were playing at HQ... but now, we hear barely anything at all.

So, is it just that public interest is waning, or have they stumbled upon something that they are trying (rather heavy-handedly) to keep under wraps for the time being? And, if the latter is the case, what was it?

Mmmmm... Not really. It is a long way into the rover mission (in overtime now I think.) Plus there is a "big" announcment coming from NASA on 0408.31 at 1pm. Maybe the don't wanna' rain on that. After a while average joes/janes will tire of pictures of sand and rocks. When the analysis gets rolling, we'll hear more, I'm sure.

i could be wrong about this but wasnt the mission only spose to last about 70 days on the surface.

thought i read that somewhere but it could be me dreaming

[edit on 30-8-2004 by madmartinez]

There are still daily updates on the website.

After the primary goals were reached, a lot of folks moved on to other projects.
So, I think a lot of the hush is due to less staffing...

Then, there is the digesting of ALL THAT DATA..an amazing amount of data.
To be sifted through, and understood. With more coming in every day..
I think they are just trying to put together a BIGGER picture, a BIGGER story
for upcoming Press Conferences..Instead of releasing one finding at a time..

Good points... I suppose my naturally distrustful mindset renders me a bit suspicious about NASA's relative silence, even though there probably isn't much to show beyond, as was said, rocks and sand.

I want rocks and sand, though, damn it... because, in their absence, all I can imagine is life and water.

EDIT: Thanks for the heads-up, Der Kapitan, I'll keep my eyes open for that.

[edit on 8/30/2004 by Odd]

They didn't release the list of songs as such, I happened to mention the song choices it in an email to Dr Adler and he was kind enough to send us the list of songs to date plated for Spirit. I'm fairly sure we were the first to run with that list, Space.com picked it up a week or so later.

Yes the original mission requirement was 90 martian days for each Rover, both have completely blown that out of the water (not entirely unexpectedly, 90Sols was the minimum).

They are still there, and still operational, some slight wear and tear is beginning to become apparent (ie Spirits front right wheel is only being used sparingly). But they are still mobile and continue to gather data. If you check out marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov... you will find the up to date information on the mission status. There are some great images that spirit has captured in its time climbing around the Columbia Hills. As well as Opportunitys adventures in the giant Endurance Crater.

Its more a matter that mainstream news has kind of lost interest in the Rovers due to other events like Olympics/Iraq/Elections taking priority. The Rover team is still operationg as per normal, and still releasing as much press information as usual. You just have to go and look.

As far as NASA in general, there is a press conference today I think covering some exciting new discoveries with regards to extrasolar planets.

Whats some times scary about thihs silence is that you will never now when they will lash out with news and such that will benefit them for years and years, ever read the book Deception Point by Dan Brown, its something like that. And another could be the rover. Just like Kano stated previously, its going through wear and tear. We are also not done building the ISS. Columiia could also bare an effect to this stand still.

Theres no silence, theres a press conference on right now about extrasolar planet discoveries.

Originally posted by madmartinez
i could be wrong about this but wasnt the mission only spose to last about 70 days on the surface.

thought i read that somewhere but it could be me dreaming

[edit on 30-8-2004 by madmartinez]

Actually its 90 sols, but its allready way past that, it even past 230 sols.

A Sol is a mars day. (Solar day)

24 hours, 39 minutes 35 seconds of Earth Time, is 1 mars day.

Originally posted by Odd
Does anyone else find it a bit odd that NASA's apparent enthusiasm over the exploration of Mars has dropped to almost zero, and did so very abruptly? I remember when we first got up there, they were releasing things like a list of the songs they were playing at HQ... but now, we hear barely anything at all.

So, is it just that public interest is waning, or have they stumbled upon something that they are trying (rather heavy-handedly) to keep under wraps for the time being? And, if the latter is the case, what was it?

Maybe it's the dissapointment they felt when they found out that the budget for the Moon/Mars project would come out of their existing budgets?

Wasnt that because of the "faster, better, cheaper" (which turned out to be slower, worse, more expensive) and also how nasa screws up so much?