Rumblings
in the media suggest some intriguing findings from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander
mission that relate to the question of life, specifically whether it could have
survived on Mars in the past.
The issue
bubbled up when it was reported Friday that some interesting results from Phoenix's wet
chemistry laboratory, part of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and
Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) suite of instruments, were mentioned in a White
House briefing.
Not so,
says Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona, who denied that any details of the MECA findings had been shared and called the
reports "bogus and damaging information."
The Aviation
Week & Space Technology report came on the heels of the Thursday NASA
announcement that Phoenix had confirmed the presence
of water ice at its landing site in Mars' arctic regions, first detected in
2002 by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. MECA team members were not present at the
press briefing at which the water-ice announcement was made.
"The
goal [of having no MECA team members present] was to prevent them from being
asked any questions that could reveal information before NASA is ready to make
an announcement, sources say," the Aviation Week article said,
adding that, "The Bush Administration's Presidential Science Advisor's
office, however, has been briefed on the new information that NASA hopes to
release as early as mid August."
But Smith
told SPACE.com that this was "not true, MECA results have not been
discussed at the White House."
"There
is no one who knows either on the [Phoenix] project in Tucson or at [NASA] HQ
who knows where this information came from," Smith said in a subsequent
email.
Smith also
said that the MECA team was not present at the Thursday briefing because
"they had nothing new to report, the story was about water ice."
When the
writer of the Aviation Week story, Craig Covault, was contacted by SPACE.com,
he attributed much of the confusion and media hubbub to other news outlets
picking up his story and mistakenly reporting that his article said that NASA
had discovered life on Mars.
"Note
the [Aviation Week] story said very, very clearly three times or so, NO
life on Mars detected and Phoenix can NOT [detect life] in the first
place," Covault wrote in an email.
Smith added
that the results from the analysis of the second soil sample in MECA's wet
chemistry lab didn't have any bearing on the question of Mars'
past habitability "in any direct way."
"We
are attempting to assess the chemicals and minerals that make up the soil
composition," he explained. "We are now about half way through the
process and there are several conflicting points of view. This is not a good
time to go public with half the story."
Covault
said that he stands by his story and noted that his piece mentioned the ongoing
review of MECA data.
The wet
chemistry laboratory has four teacup-sized beakers, each used only once.
Samples of the Martian dirt are place in a beaker and mixed with water brought
from Earth.
Sensors on
the inner surface of the beakers act like electronic tongues and
"taste" the dirt to detect salts that can dissolve in water. The
sensors can also detect the pH of the surface.
All of this
information gives scientists a picture of what the surface layer of dirt looks
like now and whether or not it might have been a habitable area at some point
in the planet's past.
MECA's first
analysis showed that the Martian regolith contained several soluble
minerals necessary for life, including potassium, magnesium and chloride. The
surface also had an alkaline pH, which on Earth is suitable for growing some
plants, such as asparagus. The second sample, currently being analyzed, was
delivered to the instrument on July 7.
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