This time Mars Odyssey allegedly went in „safe mode“. Again, no information from Phoenix on Mars..
Tucson, Arizon: For the second time in a row the stand-down of a NASA orbiter is causing a lack of information about what´s going on with the Phoenix mission on Mars.
Again, there is another delay in work with the robot arm of which Horst Uwe Keller from the German Max-Planck-Institute is in charge.
Now Mars Odyssey orbiter „inexplicably“ went into a „safe mode“ throwing the Mars Lander into a black hole of communication, after the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter did it on Mai 27. And before that Mr. Fuk Li, manager of the supposed „Mars Explanation Program“ told us:
„The biobarrier had relaxed more and allows more clearance, but it was not a major concern either way,“ and that´s why the robot arm wouldn´t move after Phoenix` landing on the planet.
And then there was this photograph, finally made by the camera on the robot arm…
And then there was Peter Smith (foto).
„We were expecting to find ice within two to six inches of the surface..The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice. It‘s not impossible that it‘s something else, but our leading interpretation is ice.“
Interestingly enough he had time to name marsian soil of highest scientific interest for human kind „Baby Bear“, „Mama Bear“ and „Papa Bear“, but when it´s about the most urgent scientific question in human history Mr.Smith tells us that we were completeley wrong about the whole mission all the time:
„We‘re just taking an exploratory step here..Our instruments are not designed to decode DNA molecules. … We‘re looking for the basic ingredients that would allow life to prosper in this environment.“
Well, it was back in 1969 when two scientists from the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. George C. Pimentel and Dr. Kenneth Herr, announced the discovery of methane and ammonia in the Martian atmosphere using Mariner 7 data.
Guess what: that report was withdrawn one month later due to „the possibililty of misinterpretation of the absorption of similar specral bands by frozen carbon dioxide“, blabla.
But on September 2004 the European Space Agency (ESA) announced:
„Recent analyses of ESA’s Mars Express data reveal that concentrations of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap. This result, from data obtained by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), gives a boost to understanding of geological and atmospheric processes on Mars, and provides important new hints to evaluate the hypothesis of present life on the Red Planet.“
And in February 2005 ESA´s Mars Express found „substantially more formaldehyde than anyone had reasonably expected“. Doesn´t that sound cool, „reasonably expected„?
Formaldehyde is a highly volatilely organic compound produced as a metabolic byproduct in most organisms, including humans.
But the „skeptics“ (that sounds reasonable, doesn´t it?) the sceptics from overseas told us, „well, there must have been a malfunction in the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on the European Space Agency‘s Mars Express Orbiter“.
That was years ago.
So, Mr.Smith, yes, we want to know if there is life on another planet, God damn it. So why don´t you just let away Baby Bear, Mama Bear and Papa Bear for a second and do your job?
At least you could find someone who can or just give science the opportunity to go beyond…