NASA's Curiosity Rover Didn't Find 'One for the History Books' After All

[Buster's Uncle]

NASA's Curiosity Rover Didn't Find 'One for the History Books' After All
By Connor Simpson | The Atlantic Wire – 16 hrs ago.. .


Well, this is pretty disappointing. Exactly one week ago, NASA got us really excited about a potential discovery on Mars that was going to be "one for the history books." Turns out, that NASA employee from the Curiosity rover team was just really excited about the mission — and not one specific, universe-altering discovery.
 
RELATED: Five Things We Learned From the Curiosity Rover Team's Reddit AMA

Mashable's Amanda Wills got NASA Social Media Manager Veronica McGregor to explain that the whole thing was really just a really big misunderstanding. "What Grotzinger was actually trying to convey is that Curiosity’s data over her entire two-year mission will further our knowledge of Mars more than ever before, making it a historical mission," Wills writes. "It’s always difficult to quell rumors like this one," McGregor told Mashable. Apparently McGregor tried to clear things up using Curiosity's Twitter account the following day:
 

What did I discover on Mars? That rumors spread fast online. My team considers this whole mission "one for the history books"
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) November 21, 2012
The Rover's fake-but-real account is normally pretty silly, so it's not exactly surprising no one took it seriously, and that they had to clarify it further.
 
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To refresh your memory, John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the Curiosity mission, spoke with NPR and caused a serious commotion because of this quote:
 

Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.
 
He also cautioned that it would take a few weeks for them to examine everything and be sure the big discovery was real. Grotzinger even told a cautionary tale about an old discovery that got the team excited but ended up being a disappointment.
 
RELATED: NASA's 'Curiosity' Rover Lands on Mars Intact

Why they waited a whole week to clarify this one is beyond our telekinetic powers. Especially if they knew from the get go that everyone, The Atlantic Wire included, was getting excited over a misunderstanding. Something seems rotten in Pasadena.
 

http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-didnt-one-history-books-220131379.html

[Unorthodox]

I give up on this mission. 

It's hard to imagine a way they could have messed it up worse. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I dunno; this is such obvious bullcrap that it makes me think they have something...

[Unorthodox]

Sure, it's all a conspiracy. 


The only thing they could have potentially found from the SAM is a confirmation of the Viking scans that indicated microbial life (which were later ruled incorrect, thus the current belief mars is a dead planet).  But if I understand the process correctly, they would need to duplicate the findings 4 times before able to officially announce.  They took, what, 2 samples?  Maybe the second one failed to show the evidence.  Excitement in interview after first findings, now misunderstanding with second? 

 What's baffling to me is the decision to drive off if you potentially had that discovery where you were.  I would have thought they would test a third and fourth right there.  Maybe they found a calibration was off for the first one or some other boring tech crap.  No matter how you cut it, they've bungled this crap beyond repair.