Water on Mars Conspiracy?

R

Rex

Registered Member
For the last couple of weeks NASA's funding has looked a bit dubious, with alot of public and goverment criticism of the Mars Exploration Program, especially with the lost of another Marsian Probe that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Suddenly scientists discover pictures that COULD prove the existance of surface water and broadcast this fact to the world... funding is secured and there is alot more interest in the Red planet.
Is this an actual scientific discovery or just a media stunt they have put together to get more taxpayers money?
 
I think a bit of both...
Nasa scientists have to live also you know.
We 'll see what the future verification of the new findings will bring.
 
NASA is very conscious of public perception, and it certainly knows how to put on a good show for the media.

At the same time, all NASA scientists are not so unethical that they will lie for money. There is no question that this discovery is legitimate. Even if NASA were corrupt, it'd be inconceivable for them to pull the wool over the eyes of the entire scientific community, let alone the general public.
 
DaveW- I don't know about that part about not being able to fool the public. Remember Furbies?
 
It is just a publicity stunt to raise funds... I would like to be proved wrong but the point is you can't prove it either way until you spend another billion dollars building another probe. We only have the pictures they have given us , there is no other evidence we have compare it with. They hold all the cards so you must admit that if they did want to give out false information they could ...
An interesting point that should be noted in this is that the contract with the manufacturers of the cameras on the Mars Global Surveyor means that they have unlimited access to the pictures for upto six months before NASA gets a chance to see them.

[This message has been edited by Rex (edited June 28, 2000).]
 
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