Cumbrian Sky

In an earlier post I described how the internet had approached meltdown over the weekend, after a journalist from AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY wrote a report claiming the Phoenix team had briefed the White House's science advisor after the probe's MECA laboratory had analysed a sample of martian dirt, and found unexpected and interesting results. That story inevitably threw a huge stone into the space enthusiast community pond, and the ensuing ripples spread out like cyber-tsunamis, eventually spilling over the edge of the pond and sloshing out into the wide world beyond after being picked up by a number of news sites and science blogs. Soon there were conspiracy theories breeding everywhere, with people suggesting or insisting that NASA was covering up the fact that Phoenix had found evidence of past life - or even life itself - on Mars. Posters on forums and bulletin boards suggested that Phoenix's instruments had detected everything from micro-fossils or live bacteria to Elvis, and by Sunday evening the international media were running with the story, with a Russian news agency insisting that NASA had found life on Mars but were keeping it secret..

One can only imagine the wailing, teeth-gnashing and door-slamming that was going on at NASA HQ and at Phoenix operations over the weekend.

For a while, no-one in any position of authority said anything, and it was left to more level-headed bulletin board and forum members to try and calm everyone down. But still the story bubbled away, like a volcano biding its time, and even the most cynical and realistic space enthusiasts couldn't help but feel excited by the rumours, and wonder what was actually behind them...

Finally, through Phoenix's spectacularly successful (31,000 followers plus, and counting!) Twitter page, NASA put out a brief statement, insisting that there was no cover-up, no story, no life found of any kind. And no, the White House hadn't been briefed either...

But of course, as is always the case with the internet and our conspiracy theory obsessed modern age, the rumours refused to go away, and while many people were satisfied that that was it, there was no story, others remained unconvinced, and scoffed "Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?" And so it went on, and on, and on, simmering and bubbling, becoming what Emily Lakdawalla from The Planetary Society has memorably christened "The Phoenix Flap"...

No-one really expected much more to happen on the Monday. I know I personally thought NASA would ride out the media storm for another few days, but obviously they felt they had to something quickly to dampen down the rumours, especially as they had started to go global, and so, on the Monday evening, somewhat out of the blue, NASA announced there would be a media teleconference on Tuesday evening, and put out a detailed press release too, giving their side of the story and The Facts. Here it is in full (I'll try to translate it later, just read it for now, ok?)

NASA SPACECRAFT ANALYZING MARTIAN SOIL DATA

WASHINGTON -- Scientists are analyzing results from soil samples
delivered several weeks ago to science instruments on NASA's Phoenix
Mars Lander to understand the landing site's soil chemistry and
mineralogy.

Within the last month, two samples have been analyzed by the Wet
Chemistry Lab of the spacecraft's Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and
Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suggesting one of the soil
constituents may be perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance. The
Phoenix team has been waiting for complementary results from the
Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, which also is capable of
detecting perchlorate. TEGA is a series of ovens and analyzers that
"sniff" vapors released from substances in a sample.

NASA will hold a media teleconference on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 2 p.m.
EDT, to discuss these recent science activities. Participants will be
introduced at the start of the briefing. To participate in the
teleconference, reporters should contact Steve Cole on 202-358-0918
for dial-in and passcode information.

Confirmation of the presence of perchlorate and supporting data is
important prior to scientific peer review and subsequent public
announcements. The results from Sunday's TEGA experiment, which
analyzed a sample taken directly above the ice layer, found no
evidence of this compound.

"This is surprising since an earlier TEGA measurement of surface
materials was consistent with but not conclusive of the presence of
perchlorate," said Peter Smith, Phoenix's principal investigator at
the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Scientists at the Phoenix Science Operations Center at the University
of Arizona, Tucson, are specifically looking at the data from these
instruments to provide information on the composition of Martian
soil.

"We are committed to following a rigorous scientific process. While we
have not completed our process on these soil samples, we have very
interesting intermediate results," said Smith, "Initial MECA analyses
suggested Earth-like soil. Further analysis has revealed un-Earthlike
aspects of the soil chemistry."

The team also is working to totally exonerate any possibility of the
perchlorate readings being influenced by terrestrial sources which
may have migrated from the spacecraft, either into samples or into
the instrumentation.

"When surprising results are found, we want to review and assure our
extensive pre-launch contamination control processes covered this
potential," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix has been studying Martian soil with
MECA's wet chemistry lab, two microscopes and a conductivity probe,
TEGA's ovens and two cameras.

MECA's robotic wet chemistry lab studies soluble chemicals in the soil
by mixing a soil sample with a water-based solution with several
reagents brought from Earth. The inner surface of each cell's beaker
has 26 sensors that give information about the acidity or alkalinity
and concentrations of elements such as chloride or perchlorate. The
beaker also can detect concentrations of magnesium, calcium and
potassium, which form salts that are soluble in water.

With continuing results and the spacecraft in good condition, the
mission has been extended through Sept. 30. The original prime
mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension
adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

Ok, what does that technobabble actually mean?

Well, it means that the team weren't hiding anything, they had simply gotten some unusual readings from a test and weren't prepared to say anything about it in public until they'd had achance to repeat the tests and look very, very carefully at the results. It also means that they have NOT found life, or evidence of life, past or present, on Mars. So what have theyactually found that is so fascinating to them?

In short, they've found interesting CHEMISTRY on Mars, that's all. No fossils, no bacteria, not even traces of farts from martian bacteria.

From what I can gather these perchlorates they've found are pretty nasty here on Earth, generally speaking, but at last night's media teleconference Peter Smith, the mission head, went to great pains to point out that the discovery of these perchlorates does NOT preclude the existence of life on Mars, even though they have been painted in the media as being just about lethal to any martian bacteria, especially over a long time period. In fact, Peter stressed, they could even be a potential energy source FOR martian microbes, so this discovery - if it's confirmed by subsequent analyses of dirt samples - doesn't sound the death knell for hopes of finding life on Mars at all, and might even make the existence of martian microbes more likely. But it's far, far too early to say anything more definitive yet. It's simply one more piece of the puzzle slotting quietly into space, not really deserving of all the fanfare and shouting at all.

( One interesting part of this story is the possibility that these perchlorates could actually be contamination of some sort, i.e traces of rocket fuel. Not from the lander's own braking rockets - they use a totally different type of fuel - but perhaps from one of the rocket stages of the Delta rocket that launched the probe. That's pretty far-fetched; it would mean that waste products from the rockets managed to creep into the payload fairing where Phoenix was stowed, and then sneaked into the lander's instruments too. They don't seem very worried about this as it is so unlikely but they're going to examne the possibility. )

After the teleconference had finished, to be perfectly honest I was absolutely no nearer to having any idea what perchlorates are or why they're so important, but what I did pick up was this, and these are really the bare bones of the story:

* They're going to repeat the experiments, and see what results they get.

* If they confirm the presence of perchlorates that will be fascinating andexciting scientifically, but it will not, in itself, answer the question Is there - or was there ever - life on Mars.

* However, when asked directly if the discovery of perchlorates makes the existence of life on Mars today more or less likely he replied that it would come down on the positive side, i.e. would be an encouraging development.

So, there you have it. No bacteria, no fossils, no paradigm-shifting discovery. But a great example of how modern science works, i.e. reserchers slave and toil away behind the scenes in private, taking their time, checking and double checking, preparing to let people Out Here in the real world know what is going on only when they've got something concrete to announce... and then someone on the internet gets hold of the story and BOOM! Can... open... worms EVERYWHERE...!

But really, this shouldn't have been a surprise, not with the way the internet has now infiltrated the public's consciousness and the media's output today. Essentially the AWST reporter was correct in saying that a detection hadn't been announced when it was made, but he should have known, and should have said, that the Phoenix team had a very good reason for that - to do so would have been jumping the gun, shortcutting the established scientific process and risking getting a huge amount of egg on their faces along the way if their results turned out to be wrong. But I have some sympathy with him because, as a professional journalist what was he supposed to do when handed a possible world-class scoop on a silver plate? Ignore it and let another journalist break the story? Obviously he couldn't do that. His "White House Briefing" part was totally wrong, though, and that will be very embarrassing to him and annoying for NASA. Having said that, the first question asked at the Phoenix teleconference last night was by Craig Covault himself, which I thought was a great display of "No hard feelings" on NASA's part, as it would have been easy to just not let him ask it. I fully expected Covault's phone line to mysteriously go down when he introduced himself...!

There's a more serious side to this, too, of course. Has it damaged the Phoenix team and NASA? After all, they were basically forced to go public with a "discovery" before they felt readyto. Well, many people have expressed concern that The Flap (love that name! Well done, Emily!) has damaged the reputation of the Phoenix team, the scientific process, and everyone involved, but I have to disagree. Okay, so it muddied the waters for a while, and NASA found itself having to go public with a story earlier than it had wanted or planned to, and lots of people got VERY carried away here and there and are now feeling pretty silly, but in my opinion this is a huge pile of martian lemons (or chocolate-covered strawberries... in joke for the UMSF crowd there, sorry!) that we can use to make great lemonade from.

How? Well, The Flap has shown what a hunger there is Out There for news about Mars and Mars exploration. Clearly Mars still has a vice-like grip on the public and media's hearts and minds, and the Flap has shown that the question of life on Mars still absolutely fascinates people everywhere, even if that life is only microbial or bacterial, and even if Mars hasn't had any of that life for mega-millennia.

And after all, missions like this cost a fortune, many, many millions of dollars, and many of the people who spent the weekend avidly hunting for, commenting on and getting carried away by the "MECA rumours" or the "Covault Story" or whatever you want to call it are the very same people who actually paid for Phoenix to be designed, built, launched and land on Mars through their taxes. They have a right to be excited by the mission, and have their say about it, even if they are hopelessly wrong about the actual science, surely?

No, really, I think that many good things will come out of this. They have already. The Phoenix team have been shown to be unbelievably diligent and hard working, determined to get the science right and learn as much as they can about Mars from their mission; the media have shown that they're still drawn to Mars, and behind the search for life; the public have had a chance to peer "under the curtain" at NASA and see how the system works; and NASA has been shown to be - albeit perhaps a little bit grudgingly - sensitive to the needs of the media and the public to be kept informed about the missions they fly.

So come on, chill out everyone! The world isn't going to end because of this! There might still be life on Mars! And even if this discovery of perchlorates turns out to be nothing more than a tiny footnote in the Phoenix mission's final report it will still have shown just how energised the public can become whenever a "Mars story" hits the news, and how they're not all content to sit in their underpants slumped in front of their TVs, drinking beer and watching "Pets Do The Funniest Things" or "American Idol" on their widescreen TVs...

There'll be lots more to come from Phoenix, I'm sure, discoveries small and huge, but for now I invite you all to have a wander over to my Phoenix Pictures gallery to take a look at my latest imaging efforts, and see with your own eyes what's really happening on the surface of Mars, up in the land of the martian midnight sun...

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