Post by Marsrocks on Aug 10, 2015 11:46:02 GMT -5
I recently got an email from a fellow Mars researcher with some images of anomalies he has found, and with some questions for me.
One of his question is often asked, so I will give my opinion in answer to his question here as well.
This is his question:
"Is there an official statement from Nasa or Government about these things on Mars?"
My answer to him:
I do not expect any more official announcements from NASA about anything after the debacle they faced for making the official announcement that they had found fossilized nano-bacteria on meteorite ALH 84001. They were lambasted and sharply criticized for years by the scientific community for making that statement. To NASA's credit, they stood by their statement, and continued the investigation. But they did not release information to the general public that NASA-related researchers had been finding biological material in mars meteorites going back at least forty years prior to ALH 84001. The only difference in the prior ones, and ALH 84001 was that there was no argument that the latest one had been contaminated by earth bacteria. And of course, the idea it could have been contaminated by earth bacteria was ridiculous, because there simply have never been any nano-sized earth bacteria that matched what they were finding. The existence of bacteria so tiny on earth was not even thought to be theoretically possible. NASA, no doubt, spent a a huge part of its budget defending its official statement regarding the meteorite against all critics. They likely do not want to fight that battle again, and all explanations they give today and in the future, will always err on the side of geological possibilities. A mere photograph of anything is not, by their standards, extraordinary proof of anything. I can't and don't blame them for being neutral and silent regarding anomalies.
www.marsanomalies.com/alh-84001
The ALH 84001 debacle was not NASA's first time having to defend an anomaly. They also found themselves defending their own announcement of the Cydonia Face on Mars back in 1976. NASA had planned to land the Viking 2 Lander in the Cydonia region beginning in 1973. However, just prior to the landing in 1976, NASA's own scientists, Tobias Owen and Gerald Soffen announced excitedly in a press conference about the appearance of the face-like mound they discovered in Cydonia. Shortly afterward, they announced in a second press conference that the face-like object was just a trick of light and shadow. Subsequently, after discussions with Carl Sagan, (a noted anti-anomalist debater, who coined the phrase about "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"), among others, NASA also announced that after further study, the Cydonia area was just way too rocky, and was thought to be far too dangerous to attempt a landing there - scrubbing their plans to land in Cydonia going back at least three years.
Perhaps a similar theme transpired after that, at least arguably. NASA had been planning to land a project called the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander in either the Libya Montes region of Mars, or possibly in the Meridiani region. On June 22, 1999, the MOC camera (on board the Mars Global Surveyor) took a very interesting image of the Libya Montes region of Mars, which contained a peculiar face anomaly that somewhat stands out in comparison to the rest of the terrain. This anomaly is a multi-part face-like image that appears on the steep side of a winding ancient river bank in Libya Montes.
www.marsanomalies.com/crownfacemain
This image was supposed to be released to the general public no later than December 22, 1999, pursuant to an agreement between NASA and Malin Space Science Systems (which designed and was operating the MOC). The agreement allowed Malin to retain and study images which it obtained for up to six months after acquisition prior to any release to the general public.
However, instead of releasing it pursuant to their contract, Malin held the image away from the public until May 22, 2000, in direct violation of the agreement.
This is the image it released:
www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ab1_m04/images/M0203051.html
In the same month that the image was released to the public, in May of 2000, NASA also announced that the landing in Libya Montes would not take place, as planned. NASA explained to the general public that it was canceled as a result of two recent mission failures that had occurred in late 1999: the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander missions.
One wonders though whether NASA researchers discovered the face anomaly in the region, and canceled the mission as a result of that. The face anomaly in Libya Montes, now known as the "crown face" was discovered by Greg Orme, a member of the general public in July of 2000, not long after its public release. Tom Van Flandern, Ph.D., (student of mathematics and astronomy), Chief of the Research Branch of the U.S. Naval Observatory (but separated from them in 1983, as his research took him into fringe areas), made it very public with his announcement of it as being definitely artificial soon thereafter.
The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander itself, the piece of equipment that had previously been destined for Libya Montes, was later used in the Phoenix mission in 2008, and is currently in the north polar region of Mars, as if it had been banished to Siberia. NASA did get a look at the ground in Meridiani by way of the MER-B mission, also known as the Opportunity rover. However, no mission has ever been re-planned for a landing in Libya Montes, (or Cydonia, for that matter).
********************
Does anyone else have other opinions or answers to his question?
One of his question is often asked, so I will give my opinion in answer to his question here as well.
This is his question:
"Is there an official statement from Nasa or Government about these things on Mars?"
My answer to him:
I do not expect any more official announcements from NASA about anything after the debacle they faced for making the official announcement that they had found fossilized nano-bacteria on meteorite ALH 84001. They were lambasted and sharply criticized for years by the scientific community for making that statement. To NASA's credit, they stood by their statement, and continued the investigation. But they did not release information to the general public that NASA-related researchers had been finding biological material in mars meteorites going back at least forty years prior to ALH 84001. The only difference in the prior ones, and ALH 84001 was that there was no argument that the latest one had been contaminated by earth bacteria. And of course, the idea it could have been contaminated by earth bacteria was ridiculous, because there simply have never been any nano-sized earth bacteria that matched what they were finding. The existence of bacteria so tiny on earth was not even thought to be theoretically possible. NASA, no doubt, spent a a huge part of its budget defending its official statement regarding the meteorite against all critics. They likely do not want to fight that battle again, and all explanations they give today and in the future, will always err on the side of geological possibilities. A mere photograph of anything is not, by their standards, extraordinary proof of anything. I can't and don't blame them for being neutral and silent regarding anomalies.
www.marsanomalies.com/alh-84001
The ALH 84001 debacle was not NASA's first time having to defend an anomaly. They also found themselves defending their own announcement of the Cydonia Face on Mars back in 1976. NASA had planned to land the Viking 2 Lander in the Cydonia region beginning in 1973. However, just prior to the landing in 1976, NASA's own scientists, Tobias Owen and Gerald Soffen announced excitedly in a press conference about the appearance of the face-like mound they discovered in Cydonia. Shortly afterward, they announced in a second press conference that the face-like object was just a trick of light and shadow. Subsequently, after discussions with Carl Sagan, (a noted anti-anomalist debater, who coined the phrase about "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"), among others, NASA also announced that after further study, the Cydonia area was just way too rocky, and was thought to be far too dangerous to attempt a landing there - scrubbing their plans to land in Cydonia going back at least three years.
Perhaps a similar theme transpired after that, at least arguably. NASA had been planning to land a project called the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander in either the Libya Montes region of Mars, or possibly in the Meridiani region. On June 22, 1999, the MOC camera (on board the Mars Global Surveyor) took a very interesting image of the Libya Montes region of Mars, which contained a peculiar face anomaly that somewhat stands out in comparison to the rest of the terrain. This anomaly is a multi-part face-like image that appears on the steep side of a winding ancient river bank in Libya Montes.
www.marsanomalies.com/crownfacemain
This image was supposed to be released to the general public no later than December 22, 1999, pursuant to an agreement between NASA and Malin Space Science Systems (which designed and was operating the MOC). The agreement allowed Malin to retain and study images which it obtained for up to six months after acquisition prior to any release to the general public.
However, instead of releasing it pursuant to their contract, Malin held the image away from the public until May 22, 2000, in direct violation of the agreement.
This is the image it released:
www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ab1_m04/images/M0203051.html
In the same month that the image was released to the public, in May of 2000, NASA also announced that the landing in Libya Montes would not take place, as planned. NASA explained to the general public that it was canceled as a result of two recent mission failures that had occurred in late 1999: the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander missions.
One wonders though whether NASA researchers discovered the face anomaly in the region, and canceled the mission as a result of that. The face anomaly in Libya Montes, now known as the "crown face" was discovered by Greg Orme, a member of the general public in July of 2000, not long after its public release. Tom Van Flandern, Ph.D., (student of mathematics and astronomy), Chief of the Research Branch of the U.S. Naval Observatory (but separated from them in 1983, as his research took him into fringe areas), made it very public with his announcement of it as being definitely artificial soon thereafter.
The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander itself, the piece of equipment that had previously been destined for Libya Montes, was later used in the Phoenix mission in 2008, and is currently in the north polar region of Mars, as if it had been banished to Siberia. NASA did get a look at the ground in Meridiani by way of the MER-B mission, also known as the Opportunity rover. However, no mission has ever been re-planned for a landing in Libya Montes, (or Cydonia, for that matter).
********************
Does anyone else have other opinions or answers to his question?
