NASA Briefing on New Mars Finding This Afternoon

ipsender writes with a NASA announcement: "NASA will host a news briefing on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) about a significant new Mars science finding. The briefing will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The new finding is based on observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006." You can catch the briefing online at the NASA TV site.

Comments

An alien spacecraft

[wsxyz]

...mysteriously pinned to the bottom of a dust-filled crater.

Re:An alien spacecraft

[hellfire]

Nope, this time it's Slave One.

Re:An alien spacecraft

[Chrisq]

...mysteriously pinned to the bottom of a dust-filled crater.

Send Captain Scarlet

Re:An alien spacecraft

[DEmmons]

if it's crashed upside down you'd still only see the bottom of it from the orbiter ;)

Sugar Caves...

[Braintrust]

... lots and lots of sugar caves.

Re:Sugar Caves...

[Anonymous Coward]

And a bridge to Candy Mountain! Charlieeeeeeee!

Re:Sugar Caves...

[Gilmoure]

*golf clap*

In AD 2101, war was beginning...

[Penguinisto]

...okay, so we won't see a Zig.

On a more serious note though, I actually hope to Heaven they present something insanely fascinating to the general public - enough to kick the government in the ass and get Mars human exploration seriously going.

Sadly, I suspect it'll be something only of use to some niche of geologists.

Re:In AD 2101, war was beginning...

[geekoid]

You need to ask yourself: How are we finding out about the briefing? Is it from someone who watches every minutia from NASA? then don't hold your breath. If it's from someplace more accessible to the general public, then MAYBE i'ts a big deal the general public...whether or not the general public understands it's impact immediately is a different question.

Lisa Pratt is involved, so my hopes are high the found evidence of life.

http://geology.indiana.edu/pratt/
http://www.indiana.edu/~deeplife/homepg.html

Re:In AD 2101, war was beginning...

[Anonymous Coward]

They're assuming that because you're whining about spending "billions" on it, when the total money spent on the entire space program (from which we actually do get productive returns that improve the general quality of life on earth) is less than one percent the amount spent on military action. If it's the money you're upset about, you should be re-directing your complaints. If it's the "people having hope for the future being better than the shit-hole of a present that we live in" that you're angry about, you're a short-sighted idiot.

Frankly, by assuming you're a violence obsessed warhawk who wants to shoot and blow things up, they're giving you the benefit of the doubt, and regarding you as a better person than you probably actually are.

Re:In AD 2101, war was beginning...

[camperdave]

They have already shown that they can not cost-electively build, maintain, and resupply a relatively near-orbit space station nor build and evolve a fleet of taxis to and from space.

They never got the money or the free hand that they needed to try. NASA has had plans to replace the shuttle for at least 20 years. However, every budget was loaded down with caveats and conditions (eg. must use ATK solids, must use suppliers from every state, current contracts for shuttle parts must be maintained).

Is it: They got a better photo of that guy

[BetaDays]

Is it: They got a better photo of that guy sitting on a rock? http://youtu.be/MMtMHxT5orY

My guess -

[Anonymous Coward]

Methane. It's going to be something about methane. Look at all the geologists on the briefing panel;

The briefing panelists are:
-- Philip Christensen, geophysicist, Arizona State University, Tempe
-- Colin Dundas, research geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz.
-- Alfred McEwen, planetary geologist, University of Arizona, Tucson
-- Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist, NASA Headquarters
-- Lisa Pratt, biogeochemist, Indiana University, Bloomington

Re:My guess -

[SeNtM]

Interesting. Isn't the presence of methane indicative of life?

Re:My guess -

[cunniff]

I noticed that too. My guess: they've found a currently active or very recently active volcano

Re:My guess -

[pahles]

No, it is indicative of the presence of methane.

Re:My guess -

[HappyHead]

Methane, Large sources of easily available water, or Oil. One of those three are the most likely.

Considering the focus on geology, it's also possible they've found a surface deposit of some rare earths minerals (such as those which are currently exported only by China), though you're right, methane is probably the most likely, and while geologists studying Mars might find it interesting, it's not nearly as significant to the rest of the human race.

Re:My guess -

[squidflakes]

Humm... looking at the biographies of the scientists involved, I'm going to guess something about water, ice, and life.

Re:My guess -

[Darth Snowshoe]

They have certainly found methane on Mars, and so far can't conclusively explain where it's coming from, or its periodic nature;

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/marsmethane.html

Here's the good bit;

"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas," said Dr. Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center [...]

Take a look at Lisa Pratt, among today's panelists - her IU home page is kind of a big clue;

Lisa M. Pratt, Provost's Professor of Geological Sciences, Biogeochemistry

Research Interests:

Geomicrobiology of sulfate-reducing microorganisms
Biotic and abiotic fractionation of sulfur isotopes in modern and ancient oceans and lakes
Influence of wildfire on carbon isotopic excursions during the Cretaceous
Fate of complex organic molecules on the surface of Mars

      Ph.D., 1982, Geology, Princeton University
        M.S., 1978, Geology, University of North Carolina
        M.S., 1974, Botany, University of Illinois
        B.A., 1972, Botany, University of North Carolina

Re:My guess -

[WrongSizeGlass]

Look at all the geologists on the briefing panel

Hmm, let's see ...
Geologists -> Rocks
Rock -> Mountains
Mountains -> Beer
Beer -> Bad Commercials
So, it looks like Coors has officially sponsored the Mars expedition and will be using official NASA footage from the rovers for their next stupid commercial?

Re:My guess -

[MightyMartian]

I believe it could also be explained by other active geological processes. Maybe not as exciting as organisms, but still, considering the view right now is that Mars is a geologically dead planet, so it would be at least moderately interesting to find out that there are geological processes still ongoing. It also could provide yet another possible place for life to exist.

Re:My guess -

[Narcocide]

Only probably, and that's only based on what we currently know about necessary components for life. Remember that not so very long ago we didn't even know that chemosynthesis was possible.

Re:My guess -

[Splab]

I'm hoping oil then, that should get us to Mars in a hurry!

Re:My guess -

[SnarfQuest]

Then it must be about Global Warming caused by Man. Those two SUV's they've been running all over the place has destabilized the planet, and runaway greenhouse methane has caused devistating thermal effects. The only chance Mars has, is if George W Bush signes the Kyoto treaty. But republicans hate martians, as proved by the fact that they pay Slim Whitman records.

Re:My guess -

[gtall]

So you are saying cows are involved in this?

Re:My guess -

[pz]

Lisa Pratt studies sulfur and specifically biological sulfur with respect to the surface of Mars. Check out her lab's web page:

http://geology.indiana.edu/pratt/

Here's a list of her research interests from that site:

Geomicrobiology of sulfate-reducing microorganisms
Biotic and abiotic fractionation of sulfur isotopes in modern and ancient oceans and lakes
Influence of wildfire on carbon isotopic excursions during the Cretaceous
Fate of complex organic molecules on the surface of Mars

As far as I can tell from that list, Dr. Pratt is the only hard scientist. The others are more involved in managing the program (Meyer) or designing the instruments (Christensen, Dundas, McEwen). Interestingly, there are no post-docs or graduate students listed, and they would have been the lead investigators doing the actual work -- perhaps this is a reaction to the Felisa Wolfe-Simon snafu? I'm not familiar with the field, though, so much of this is speculation from 2 minutes' work with Google. Take it for what it's worth.

Re:My guess -

[IrquiM]

Oil!

Re:My guess -

[mbone]

I don't think MRO has anything on it to detect methane. Maybe they could do it with CRISM (IR spectrometer), but there is nobody from CRISM on the panel.

Someone who is on the panel is Lisa Pratt who is "specializing on the fate of complex organic molecules on the surface of Mars.," and also Alfred McEwen, the principal investigator of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). This says to me that they found something interesting on the surface, maybe something looking like tar or oil, or maybe something changing with time.

Re:My guess -

[sgt scrub]

No. It is indicative of he who smelt it dealt it.

Re:My guess -

[Anonymous Coward]

They have certainly found methane on Mars, and so far can't conclusively explain where it's coming from, or its periodic nature;

I read that part and clicked on your post expecting a fart joke.

I want my money back.

Re:My guess -

[HappyHead]

If Oil is only possible as an organic byproduct, then you have just discovered proof positive of life on Titan. Congratulations - you should call a press conference right away!

Re:My guess -

[geekoid]

Well, he who denied it, supplied it.

Re:My guess -

[geekoid]

well, it will help us once we get there. OTOH, if it is oil, then there was life on Mars.

And that's good, but I alway woder what it would be like if Mars hadn't 'shut down'.

Re:My guess -

[elrous0]

Titan doesn't have petroleum, it has simple liquid hydrocarbons. Big fucking difference.

Re:My guess -

[amn108]

> I want my money back.

Yeah, well so does NASA :/

Re:My guess -

[demonbug]

Methane, Large sources of easily available water, or Oil. One of those three are the most likely.

Considering the focus on geology, it's also possible they've found a surface deposit of some rare earths minerals (such as those which are currently exported only by China), though you're right, methane is probably the most likely, and while geologists studying Mars might find it interesting, it's not nearly as significant to the rest of the human race.

Focus on geology? What else would you expect study of a planet to be focused on? That's what geology is.

Oil? Obviously you must be joking.

Oh, and rare earths aren't; rare earth ores are somewhat more so, but that is more a function of economics than anything else (an ore is an economically recoverable mineral resource; there are ample rare earth mineral resources around Earth, just not generally economic to recover - but that depends entirely on the price). No amount of rare earths on Mars are going to mean anything to anybody in economic terms until long after people are living there, if ever.

Re:My guess -

[demonbug]

You could have just

Geologists -> Beer

As a geologist I second that.

Actually I prefer Beer -> Geologist, but it isn't quitting time yet.

Re:My guess -

[Grishnakh]

Oil isn't going to help anyone on Mars. The atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide, with only trace amounts of oxygen, so you can't burn it there. The only reason oil is so useful here is because of our abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Of course, you could build giant oil-tanker spaceships to transport it back to earth, but I imagine the costs of that would be far, far greater than simply 1) continuing to exploit the oil we have here and 2) developing space-based solar power or some other exotic power source.

Maybe they could start terraforming Mars; with all that CO2, maybe they could plant trees to start converting the CO2 to O2. But Mars' atmosphere is very, very thin compared to ours, so that probably wouldn't work either (Mars' atmosphere has a peak pressure, at the lowest elevations, of only 0.1675 psi, whereas on Earth, our average pressure is 14.69 psi). Unless we could figure out a way of beefing up the atmosphere, we'd probably have better success terraforming Venus. It's the same size and gravity as Earth, and has a very thick atmosphere. We just need to figure out how to thin it out some, stop the runaway greenhouse effect, and convert it to an Earth-like atmosphere. That's probably easier than trying to figure out how to get a tiny planet (about 1/3 the gravity of Earth, 1/10 the mass) to hang onto enough atmosphere to work with.

Re:My guess -

[DerekLyons]

As far as I can tell from that list, Dr. Pratt is the only hard scientist. The others are more involved in managing the program (Meyer) or designing the instruments (Christensen, Dundas, McEwen).

Translation: It's only important if you're getting the test tubes dirty. The rest of it isn't 'real' science. After all, having a Master's in oceanography and specializing in research on extremophiles (Meyer) is meaningless. Dr Christensen's 11 page CV (PDF link) showing 30 odd years of work involving Martian geology - beneath consideration! They're 'just' managers and instrument designers... Heck, anyone could do that.
 

Interestingly, there are no post-docs or graduate students listed, and they would have been the lead investigators doing the actual work -- perhaps this is a reaction to the Felisa Wolfe-Simon snafu?

Um, no. Post-docs and graduate students aren't listed precisely because post-docs and graduate students *aren't* lead investigators on a major project like this. (And what constitutes 'actual' work is largely a matter of bias rather than of fact anyhow.)
 
Seriously, you have a deeply flawed and juvenile vision of how large, complex, and long running scientific investigations like this are conducted. It's a team effort and the managers and instrument designers are just as important as the 'hard' scientists.

Re:My guess -

[Penguinisto]

Then it must be about Global Warming caused by Man. Those two SUV's they've been running all over the place has destabilized the planet, and runaway greenhouse methane has caused devistating thermal effects.

Laugh all you want, but that would actually be considered a *good* thing if you're looking to terraform Mars.

Re:My guess -

[clyde_cadiddlehopper]

CH4 + H2S = FaRt

Re:My guess -

[Artifakt]

Pipeline!
Uuhhm... Very flexible pipeline, with a bunch of joints like bendy straws... and when it passes close to the Sun, we'll only pump at night... look, if you really want this, you're gonna have to give me a grant...

Re:My guess -

[Mindcontrolled]

I am sorry that science can't provide you with the be-all end-all answers you desire. It is not designed that way. May I suggest taking up a religion instead?

Re:My guess -

[shugah]

Said the rhyme, did the crime.

Re:My guess -

[pz]

You're missing the point entirely and making baseless accusations.

The point was to try and divine the nature of the announcement. The list of speakers includes the head of the entire observation project, people who were leading the instrument design, and the head of a lab that does nothing but science. Chances are the announcement is going to involve the theme of the hard science lab.

(My lab does both instrument design and basic science. My dissertation had two major sections, the first labelled "Technology" that contained a description of a novel data collection method, and the second labelled "Science" that contained the results from applying said method. Given that I've spent my entire adult life in academia, have been part of large projects, and head my own lab now, I'm pretty certain I understand quite well what's involved, and the relative importance of instrument building and investigation.)

While lab heads are clearly important, and I say this in part with the vested interests of being the head of a lab, the bulk of the non-administrative work on any project is done by graduate students and post-docs. That's why their names come first on publications. Thus, often when there is a big collaborative announcement, the lab heads and lead investigators (read: post-docs or graduate students) all get to bask in the glory. Note that I am not confusing lead investigator with principle investigator (the person who has ultimate responsibility for the project, and is nominally the laboratory head), as you seem to be.

Re:My guess -

[nschubach]

The thing is... if it's not cat sized and cuddly, the public will likely not care anyway: "Ooh... there's a bug on that planet! So what?"

Re:My guess -

[SteveFoerster]

You could just claim you got your GMT offset wrong.

Re:My guess -

[synapse7]

With an atmosphere 95% carbon dioxide there will be no chance of an oil fire!

Re:My guess -

[jellomizer]

A positive water source seems like a good guess to me... Now if we only had a space craft to get there.

Re:My guess -

[black soap]

Accused it/diffused it.

Re:My guess -

[black soap]

They'll start caring when they realize the bugs have built ships.

Re:My guess -

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Interesting. Isn't the presence of methane indicative of life?

It will be after we ET find life in the presence of methane.

Re:My guess -

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

um, no. finding methane confirms the presence of methane, we hope it IS indicative of life

FTFY.

Re:My guess -

[black soap]

Focus on geology? What else would you expect study of a planet to be focused on? That's what geology is.

Doesn't geo- mean "earth?"

Re:My guess -

[elrous0]

Oh, you think NASA is about science? And you think *I'm* the deluded one? They're just a political organization that occasionally does some science as part of their larger PR effort.

Re:My guess -

[Teun]

Good guess :)

Re:My guess -

[rocket rancher]

If it's anything about life, it's going to be another one of those NASA bullshit PR announcements about how they've discovered something that may indicate the presence of or possibility of life. And, as always they'll conveniently forget to amend this with "...or it may mean fucking nothing."

Actually, the topic was about observations that imply the existence of a process that *could* be explained by the presence of liquid water (brine, actually) flowing across the surface of Mars. The existence or non-existence of life never came up in the press conference, though Dr. Pratt was at pains to point out that we now have more observational evidence that a key element of life as we know it is present on the surface of Mars. In science one can't confirm an hypothesis; one can only fail to refute it. Your crass "or it may mean fucking nothing" part is always implied, and doesn't really need to be asserted; scientists and other rational people know they live in a doubt-filled world. If this uncertainty bothers you, I suggest you stay away from science and stick to the comforting guarantees of religion, where you don't have to be troubled by rational processes like doubt...

Re:My guess -

[Mindcontrolled]

Naturally. They do it for the mythical FUNDING, or what is that PR effort supposed to effect? That's why everyone wanting to get filthy rich goes into science instead of picking a honest job like hedge fund manager. "Deluded" is a concept you brought up, by the way.

Re:My guess -

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Masterblaster says "NO MORE METHANE"

Hmm, Thunderdome quotes may be a bit old now... shrinks back to his movie geek hole.

Re:My guess -

[elrous0]

Your crass "or it may mean fucking nothing" part is always implied, and doesn't really need to be asserted

Actually, it does--because these press conferences are presumably aimed at non-scientists. Not that NASA would ever do that, of course. They're perfectly happy to have the press misconstrue their claims, as it ultimately benefits them politically.

If this uncertainty bothers you, I suggest you stay away from science and stick to the comforting guarantees of religion, where you don't have to be troubled by rational processes like doubt...

This has nothing to do with science. It's about NASA PR. If it was just about science, NASA would publish a paper, not hold a press conference announcing a mere hypothesis.

Jobtanium

[Nanosphere]

According to reading from the Mars reconnisance orbiter, they have detected sizable quantities of Jobtanium, a rare element currently found on Earth. NASA is proposing to congress and the Obama administration a manned mission to Mars to collect this Jobtanium

Re:Jobtanium

[gtall]

This just in, Congress has reconvened and decided to turn over the entire country's tax payments to some place in California, it might have Infinite in the address. Some are claiming that Congress is under the sway of a weird new kind of distortion field while others are claiming that Congress itself is a distortion field.

In totally unrelated news, a company in Redmond, Washington has just announced they intend to manufacture a Jobtanium mine here on earth. A large, sweaty monkey has been seen chanting "I'm going to f---ing kill Jobs." President Obama has released a statement declaring that anyone killing jobs will be considered a Republican. Republican leaders responded with the retort, "Jobtanium is new kind of tax and we're naturally against that".

President Assad of Syria declared he was for a multi-party system and Col. Q's son declared an alliance with Islamic terrorists. Dogs and cats have been seen moving in together. A twinkie the size of Manhattan composed of psycho-kinetic energy has also been spotted, but not by reliable witnesses.

Re:Jobtanium

[TheQuantumShift]

You jest, but one has to wonder how many jobs would be created by a "Get our ass to Mars" program. Use that as the whiz-bang kick start to a long term "fix our infrastructure" program.

Re:Jobtanium

[black soap]

How many people would we have to send to mars to significantly impact the unemployment rate here on Earth? Did exporting criminals to Australia work?

Deep Thought

[spacepimp]

Whether they ever find life there or not, I think Mars should be considered an enemy planet. --JH

Re:timezones, schmzones

[Nidi62]

Because how hard is it to add 6 hours to EDT to come up with GMT?

Damn it! Another bogus 'significant find'

[BubbaDave]

Looking at what happened with the past ferw 'significant finds', within the next couple the retractions/proof against the 'find' will be out before the press meeting concludes!

Dave

Trees

[DigiShaman]

They found trees. No?

Re:Trees

[nschubach]

They've been tracking a small shadow across the planet. It seems to only show up when the sun is behind the satellite.

Panel

[Dan East]

The panel giving the briefing includes:
Geophysicist, geologist, planetary geologist and a biogeochemist.

Well at least we know they didn't find traces of alien civilization, unnatural structures, etc.

Re:Panel

[squidflakes]

Simpsons Reference Ahoy!

This mission includes a mathematician, a statistician, and two other types of mathematician.

Re:Panel

[Baloroth]

"Geophysicist" et al is just NASA's equivalent of the Air Force's "Deep Space Radar Telemetry".

Re:Panel

[RivenAleem]

Clearly a Giant Diamond

Re:Panel

[TheRaven64]

Lucy is here, repeat, lucy is here!

Red Weed

[Gauthic]

The found red weed in the canals!

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife!

Real Time

[dylan_-]

That's at 18:00 GMT. I assume everyone on Slashdot knows their GMT offset.

Re:Real Time

[rubycodez]

not any more, all this daylight saving wankery has me all confused

Re:Real Time

[rasmusbr]

Yeah. The NASA TV schedule say there's going to be a 1 hour long "Video file" in about 30 minutes from when I post this, followed by "JUNO Tweet Up".

I'm not sure if the schedule is anything to go by, it could be outdated because of the press conference.

Re:Real Time

[mbone]

I would assume everyone on slashdot knows that GMT has been replaced by UTC.

Re:Real Time

[uigrad_2000]

I would assume everyone on slashdot knows that GMT has been replaced by UTC.

They're nearly the same thing. There's two things that everyone should know about GMT and UTC:

• * UTC is more specific than GMT. This makes it a better standard
• * UTC and GMT never differ by more than a second

So, UTC is better for system administration, because the standard is more exact. If you are giving a time for a press conference, and the margin of error is more than a second anyway, GMT is perfectly fine. Many people would say GMT is preferable in such situations, because the "G" is recognizable as Greenwich, and that translates to a real place.

tl;dr: UTC is for computers. GMT is for humans.

Re:Real Time

[geekoid]

The we should do away with GMT. having two references to the same thing confuses the issue.

Re:Real Time

[mbone]

It's been UTC for 50 years now (since 1961). GMT is an anachronism.

Re:Real Time

[rlseaman]

A third thing you should know is that a vote will be taken in January 2012 to decouple UTC from GMT: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/26.50.html#subj12

What Could it Be?

[Greyfox]

Shadow Space Ship? On the plus side, finding a ship on Mars would certainly get us there in a hurry. Every spacefaring nation on earth would be building a mars ship starting this afternoon if that were the case. Nevermind the first crew that gets there being enslaved by a Shadow space ship...

Re:What Could it Be?

[BetaDays]

What not to serve man? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)

Re:What Could it Be?

[wiggles]

Not quite. More like a bunch of NASA scientists disappearing or turning up dead, followed by a massive increase in the black ops budget and a mysterious tent built over half of New Mexico, guarded by some very serious men in suits. We'd hear about it in 10 years, maybe.

Re:What Could it Be?

[c6gunner]

Not quite. More like a bunch of NASA scientists disappearing or turning up dead, followed by a massive increase in the black ops budget and a mysterious tent built over half of New Mexico, guarded by some very serious men in suits. We'd hear about it in 10 years, maybe.

You're another one of those guys who think the X-Files was based on true stories, aren't ya?

If you think the government is competent enough to pull off any kind of serious conspiracy, you've obviously never worked with any government organization ...

Re:What Could it Be?

[geekoid]

Why? why would that happen? why would it need to be a secret?

Re:What Could it Be?

[c6gunner]

Every spacefaring nation on earth would be building a mars ship starting this afternoon if that were the case.

Unfortunately, every spacefairing nation on Earth would also be shooting down anything launched by another spacefairing nation. That kind of discovery would either lead to an international mission based on mutual cooperation, or WW3.

Re:What Could it Be?

[wiggles]

Nah, just realistic. The discovery of an alien spacecraft would have major national security implications. Governments around the world would love to get their hands on it to dissect it for military advantage. If NASA ever found anything there with military application, you bet your ass DOD would take over.

Re:What Could it Be?

[wiggles]

As I said elsewhere, a discovery of an alien spacecraft would have major national security implications. When that happens, DOD tends to march in, take over, plug all leaks and classify all information. Not a tinfoil hat kinda guy, but when it comes to national security, the DOD does not screw around.

Re:What Could it Be?

[jmorris42]

> If you think the government is competent enough to pull off any kind of serious
> conspiracy, you've obviously never worked with any government organization ...

Yea, that is my problem with conspiracy theories. The military can't stop the New York TImes from printing classified material on a regular basis. War secrets from a war that is still hot, that almost certainly get soldiers KIAed. Neither can the State Dept. keep it's secret cables secret from the nefarious NYT. The White House and the Congress leak like sieves to everyone. But the government has kept that dead alien and the ship he rode in on hidden away in Area 51 for decades. The Truthers all believe that President Bush was a retard and at the same time pulled off the most insanely bold black op in history and has managed to keep it a total secret... well except from the smart people who see right through it to the "Truth." Yea, the Truth is out there. Way out there.

Even though the government did keep the Manhattan Project off the pages of the NYT (only because they weren't OPENLY treasonous back then, it would have been both bad for business and life expectancy) it is now well known that the Soviets were deeply infiltrated and thus following progress in almost real time. I wouldn't bet much that the Germans weren't also aware of at least the existence of it and of the general progress. And while they weren't printing anything, anyone want to bet somebody at the Times didn't know about it?

And yes the NYT is treasonous. A moonbat could have at least argued the published leaks before Jan '09 were some misguided effort to thwart the Evil Bush the fact they continued with the practice after their preferred candidate won shows they are not simply misguided patriots but on the other f*cking side. Sorry, when you lend aid and comfort to an enemy during time of hostilities you are a traitor. Period. It is a sign of the loss of confidence in our own civilization that we don't have the moral clarity to put Pinch up against a wall. (After a fair trial of course.... exhibit A, a copy of the NYT, the prosecution rests. Verdict GUILTY. Sentence: Death. total time 1 hour.)

Re:What Could it Be?

[Penguinisto]

If you think the government is competent enough to pull off any kind of serious conspiracy, you've obviously never worked with any government organization ...

Yes and no. Let me explain...

The F-117 Stealth Fighter program was only hinted at here and there as early as 1985-86. Project Senior Trend was only officially admitted to in 1987-88, with very few details and a gawdawful fuzzy image. The original research project, Have Blue, never surfaced until after Desert Storm. The first time the public saw the things in any real detail was in 1990. The program itself OTOH began in the early 1970's, and the first aircraft flew in 1981.

We're talking at least 12 years before the thing was considered anything more than an easily-dismissed conspiracy theory, and at least 7 years of operational activity.

I'd say that if the government was dead serious about a project, they could certainly pull it off. All they'd really ahve to do is fold it into some distractive left-right issue and the public would happily not know for a very long time.

Re:What Could it Be?

[c6gunner]

We're talking at least 12 years before the thing was considered anything more than an easily-dismissed conspiracy theory, and at least 7 years of operational activity.

Well, no. It became operational in 1983 and was "revealed" to the world in 1988 - that's more like 5 years of operational activity before everyone knew about it. There were certainly hints about it's existence prior to that, though, and there's little doubt in my mind that foreign governments knew about it well before the general public did.

More importantly, though, there's a WEEEE bit of a difference between "let's make a plane and not tell anyone" and "let's murder NASA scientists and then create a secret program to recover an alien space ship from Mars". The former is doable, if quite difficult - the latter is impossible.

I'd say that if the government was dead serious about a project, they could certainly pull it off. All they'd really ahve to do is fold it into some distractive left-right issue and the public would happily not know for a very long time.

Heh. I can just see it now. Obama standing behind his podium, saying "Yeah, it's true, we executed a bunch of scientists. But they were Republican scientists, dammit!".

Not sure how you'd wrap something like that into a left-right issue :p Anyway, while it may be easy to fool the public, it's much harder to fool your political opponents, or foreign governments.

Re:What Could it Be?

[black soap]

No, the secret operations will all be run by the mob^w charitable mediterranean families association. We wouldn't leave anything that important up to the government.

"Xenu was here"

[RivenAleem]

And Scientologists will rejoice!

Re:timezones, schmzones

[dylan_-]

Because how hard is it to add 6 hours to EDT to come up with GMT?

Thanks for proving his point! :) Everyone knows their GMT offset, so why not give those times? (I suppose it should really be UTC since it's space stuff...)

Re:timezones, schmzones

[countertrolling]

Very... in fact extremely... Actually it's impossible.. but don't take my word for it

Re:timezones, schmzones

[eepok]

It's not. However, not everyone memorizes time zone differences.

Two weeks!

[cmdr_klarg]

Get ready for a surprise!!! *boom*

Science by press release

[Jazari]

This kind of science by press release is not something that should be encouraged. I respect NASA a lot, but their "we found traces of ancient life in a martian asteroid from Antarctica" a few years back dented their credibility.

Re:Science by press release

[geekoid]

"a few years back dented their credibility."

why? The meteorite had all three things that indicate life.

Or do you mean the media over hyping, misrepresenting, and lies about what happened?

Re:Science by press release

[Jazari]

why?

Because it was announced in a news conference, and even over hyped by NASA itself (and even the President held a news conference, IIRC). It should have been done in a peer reviewed journal.
The more shocking the news, the more sober and careful the announcement has to be, if you want to maintain your credibility later in case it doesn't pan out. And that meteorite, mostly, unfortunately, did not live up to NASA's hype (let alone the media's hype)

Inside scoop

[Anonymous Coward]

NASA discovered that Han really shot first.

Methane?

[toupsz]

I'm going with Element Zero.

Re:Methane?

[black soap]

You mean the one with a light nucleus with no protons, and no electron shell? We already have that.

Re:Methane?

[toupsz]

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Element_zero ;)

This better be good, NASA

[markdowling]

You made the front page of slashdot with a tease release - now you'd better produce. Nothing less than alien life or alternatively a new way to jailbreak iOS will do.

Re:This better be good, NASA

[markpg]

Well.... a previous poster mentioned something about methane.

So maybe it's alien farts.

Re:This better be good, NASA

[SleazyRidr]

That whole cyanide in the DNA thing made the front page of /. too. Don't get your hopes up.

Re:This better be good, NASA

[fred fleenblat]

just for the record, it was arsenic-based DNA, not cyanide.

Re:This better be good, NASA

[SleazyRidr]

Of course, yes, how would cyanide-based DNA even work? Thanks for correcting me.

Red Planet

[kehren77]

Perhaps they've found Val Kilmer's career.

Re:Red Planet

[geekoid]

Nice.

it's here, btw:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1756851/

find the trailer. Looks creepy awesome.

Cue Jeff Goldblum....

[madhatter256]

... that the aliens are using the Mars Orbiter against us for them to coordinate an attack on Mars...

Evidence found of honest politicians on Mars...

[gestalt_n_pepper]

Something previously thought impossible, since nothing like it exists on Earth.

They found life...

[KiwiCanuck]

in Uranus. They are sending in a probe for a closer look.

I refuse to watch it.

[sgt scrub]

I already know what they are going to say. Sgt Scrub get off our property bla bla bla. Sgt Scrub your trailer will not fit in the space shuttle bla bla bla. Those guys are always so rude to me.

whooptie shit

[Osgeld]

they find a flake of ice that contains a bubble of methane

5$ any takers?

Re:timezones, schmzones

[Alioth]

Adding 6 hours to EDT won't give you GMT (or UTC), it'll give you CEST (Central European Summer Time).

EDT is UTC-4, not UTC-6.

Best possible announcement?

[StefanJ]

Discount multi-species alien space brothel.

Nothing, nothing, could be better for NASA, budgetarily speaking.

Scientists will want to take advantage to examine a variety of intelligent species in once place.

Moralizing blowhard conservatives will want to mount an expedition to close the place down.

A large portion of the Internet geek community will lay out serious money for the chance to get them some alien tail.

Re:Best possible announcement?

[LeadSongDog]

...and organized crime will want to take over to forestall price competition.

Re:Come on, it's obvious (and obligatory)

[c6gunner]

They finally located the great stone ass of Mars!

Naw, we found that years ago. His name is Richard Hoagland.

It's:

[Charliemopps]

8/4/11 We've found evidence of something marginally important but are none-the-less very excited!!!!
8/10/11 We would like to address the reports from the scientific community at large that our findings are "nonsense"...
8/15/11 Ok, maybe we jumped the gun there a bit. We'll admit that perhaps we need more evidence than a single blurry image of a small squiggly looking thing to prove....
9/1/11 Finding in August? What? We don't know what you're talking about. Now, about our amazing finding in the Arizona desert...

Re:timezones, schmzones

[Grishnakh]

Everyone knows their GMT offset, so why not give those times?

Sorry, but I think if you did a poll of the general public to find out how many know their GMT offset, it'd be pathetically low. Even among Slashdotters I wouldn't have much hope, since that other poster thought that EST was GMT-6 (it's GMT-5).

Everyone should know their GMT offset, as it would help greatly when dealing with time zones, which is something pretty common now with anyone who's a professional and has to travel, or talk to colleagues in offices located in other time zones.

It'd also help if people understood what Daylight Saving Time is, and the difference between *DT and *ST, and the fact that not every place uses DST. I'm in Arizona, and colleagues in eastern states are constantly getting confused because my time (MST) is currently the same as PDT, even when there's a state right next-door to them (Indiana) which also had large portions that did not follow DST (up until 2006). Most people don't even seem to realize that they are not, for instance, following EST, but EDT, and if you ask them what their time zone is, they'll say "EST" even though I don't know any states in the US that are on EST anymore.

Re:timezones, schmzones

[NikeHerc]

Perhaps the folks at alpha centari would have something to say about having to add/subtract a couple thousand years to calculate the correct time for them to listen in to this announcement...

Actually, it's closer to 4 years...

Re:timezones, schmzones

[jimbolauski]

The press conference is in Washington so EDT seems more correct, so when interesting shit starts happening in London we'll use GMT.

No, No ...

[psergiu]

It's just an announcement from K'Breel, Speaker for the Council of Elders.

And after the mission is approved

[wiredog]

It will turn out that the ship has to be built from an alloy of Unobtanium and Muchtooexpensiveium.

Re:And after the mission is approved

[black soap]

I'm sure China can help us out with a loan of those materials. Unfortunately, I some physicists theorize that Chinese Unobtanium will directly prevent the observation of Jobtanium.

Re:timezones, schmzones

[Samantha Wright]

...or BST, British Summer Time, which is GMT+1. But... whatever.

Re:timezones, schmzones

[_0xd0ad]

Even crazier idea: you're an Anonymous Coward. Why don't you register so you can set the date/time format to whatever you want?

Mars needs Freman

[dasherjan]

I, for one, welcome our new martian overlords.

Re:timezones, schmzones

[Rob the Bold]

Crazy idea: slashdot is a worlwide-reaching site. Why don't you post date/hours in terms of GMT?

The announcement about the briefing came from JPL, which is on PDT and the briefing is being held in Washington, DC, which is on EDT. So TFA gives both those times. The summary quotes the times given in TFA. I just wish NASA would starting using decimal-based time instead.

Re:timezones, schmzones

[spook brat]

Crazy idea: slashdot is a worlwide-reaching site. Why don't you post date/hours in terms of GMT?

Because the only USians who can deduct 6 from times are those with degrees....

Be fair now, those of us involved in invading the rest of the world know how to change our watches for the jump as well. They even taught me to count to 24! Although I did complete my degree the year after I separated from the military, so maybe that time zone thing the Army taught me about really did do the trick =)

Re:timezones, schmzones

[_0xd0ad]

And for the second time in two days I feel really stupid for posting. Obviously the AC was complaining about the time given in the summary, which of course isn't customized to reflect the time zone I've set.

Re:My guess

[gumbi west]

And they found the second one just two blocks from it.

Cell Coverage

[willsmith82]

AT&T now has the best cell phone coverage on Mars.

Unobtanium

[luis_a_espinal]

Methane, Large sources of easily available water, or Oil. One of those three are the most likely.

Considering the focus on geology, it's also possible they've found a surface deposit of some rare earths minerals (such as those which are currently exported only by China), though you're right, methane is probably the most likely, and while geologists studying Mars might find it interesting, it's not nearly as significant to the rest of the human race.

Focus on geology? What else would you expect study of a planet to be focused on? That's what geology is.

Oil? Obviously you must be joking.

Oh, and rare earths aren't; rare earth ores are somewhat more so, but that is more a function of economics than anything else (an ore is an economically recoverable mineral resource; there are ample rare earth mineral resources around Earth, just not generally economic to recover - but that depends entirely on the price). No amount of rare earths on Mars are going to mean anything to anybody in economic terms until long after people are living there, if ever.

That would move people off their asses off to the nearest start, certainly to Mars as well.

Wow, 183 comments here...

[tekrat]

And not one of you has mentioned "Doom"?
You all remember that takes place on Mars?
Maybe I'm too old to be here anymore. Get off my lawn!

Re:Wow, 183 comments here...

[demonbug]

And not one of you has mentioned "Doom"?
You all remember that takes place on Mars?
Maybe I'm too old to be here anymore. Get off my lawn!

No it doesn't. Deimos and/or Phobos, I don't really remember which. Moon(s) of Mars, not on Mars itself.

Re:Wow, 183 comments here...

[Chris Burke]

Technically they take place on Deimos and Phobos -- alternate universe versions with a lot more gravity for some reason.

Doom 3 shifted the location to Mars itself, but I liked the shout-outs to the moons better myself, logic be damned. :)

Re:Wow, 183 comments here...

[Morty]

Doom 1 contained three "episodes", with the first episode released as the shareware version. Doom 1 episode 1 was on Phobos, episode 2 was on Deimos, and episode 3 was on Mars itself.

Re:Wow, 183 comments here...

[Chris Burke]

Episode 3 was Hell, not Mars.

possible flowing water

[demonbug]

I bet they will say there is evidence of possible flowing water during the warmest months.

Er, I mean, that's what they did say.

Re:possible flowing water

[LeadSongDog]

Yeah, flowing salty water, they think. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/aug/HQ_11-245_Mars_Water.html

Re:possible flowing water

[zerro]

"Blue Skies on Mars? That's a new one!!"

Re:Martian Burgers

[_0xd0ad]

I wonder if martians would be mostly light meat or dark meat.

They'd be red meat, of course.

Re:My guess

[Grizzley9]

They'll probably announce that they've spotted the first Starbucks on Mars.

Close! They *think* they found some highly briny water deposits and theorize it tastes something like Starbucks coffee.

A Princess of Mars

[RoccamOccam]

As part of its fund-raising strategy, NASA will be announcing a promotional tie-in with the new Disney movie "John Carter".

2 habitable worlds in one system

[ThorGod]

Thinking up the Drake equation, if Mars is remotely habitable - this might double the number of expected alien life forms. (I think Drake assumed 1 habitable planet per some number of stars. This all asumes our system is 'average' - while I don't think we know much about extra-solar planetary systems.)

What do you interwebies think?

Re:Yay

[ThorGod]

They'd better be triple breasted or I'm out of here.

Flowing water

[courteaudotbiz]

Seems like it's flowing water they've found. Nothing like the Nile river, but still promising...

Re:timezones, schmzones

[zevans]

When this was determined, the other option in the debate was the bloody French. So you got off lightly.

I know

[romainp]

.. They will revealed that some mars probes have put some teletubies figures on the ground and you have to find them use googlemars. This is a response from this challenge : http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/08/04/1420201/NASA-Sends-Lego-Figures-to-Jupiter

Strange headline

[AP31R0N]

The headline suggests that NASA found a new Mars.