Water Vapor on Mars

Probe maps water vapour on Mars

"Mars Express has detected an area of high water vapour over a region of the Red Planet called Arabia Terra."





I find it interesting that the most portentous claims regarding Mars seem to emanate from the European Space Agency, as opposed to our good friends at JPL/NASA.

More Compelling "Square" Features

From SPSR's Greg Orme: www.ultor.org/april2004.htm

Geomorphology . . . or architecture?

Cerberus Platform Revisited

The original, relatively low-resolution image of the Cerberus Platform.


The exceptionally symmetrical "Cerberus Platform," which shares many attributes with the better-known Face in Cydonia (except, sadly, an anthropomorphic likeness), has been rephotographed by the Mars Global Surveyor, revealing suggestions of possible internal collapse and other traits consistent with artificial manufacture.

New image: www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/publicresults/2004/06/R18-
00336p.gif

Anomaly researcher Nathan has posted a revealing look at the original Cerberus image on his website.

Linda Moulton Howe on Data Suppression

Is Physicist Vittorio Formisano's Mars Data Being Suppressed by ESA?

"Now, has a major European physicist been silenced simply because he might be the first scientist on Earth with hard evidence of a life process beyond Earth? If so, is the suppression linked to an unstated political pecking order in the American and European bureaucracies? Who would control the suppression beyond astronomer Guido De Marchi in Amsterdam?"

Howe's "unstated political pecking order" may not be nearly as unlikely as it may seem . . .

No Humans to Mars

35 Years After Apollo, NASA Seeks Return to Moon

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration would get $229 million less than it did in 2004 and $1.1 billion less than President Bush requested, if a spending bill approved by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee becomes law."

I think NASA can be safely dismissed as a contender for a manned Mars mission. At this rate, a return to the Moon -- a feat accomplished repeatedly 35 years ago -- appears almost impossibly exotic. How very sad.

Ammonia on Mars: Hoax?

Conditional signs of life on a distant planet

"Mr. De Marchi also went on to castigate the article's use of an unnamed NASA scientist. 'This makes it of course impossible to trace how the information did surface,' adding slyly that the wrongness of the report means 'it must be very hot in England this week.'"

I expected the (presumed) tentative discovery of ammonia on Mars to be controversial; I wasn't prepared for allegations of "hoax." Committed conspiracy theorists will, of course, interpret this change of events as an effort to "kill" the ammonia story and its biological implications.

Sorry for the sparse "analysis"; I'm waiting to hear more on this . . .

Life on Mars Confirmed?

Mars Scoop: You Heard it Here First

"On June 12, Linda Howe interviewed Professor Vittorio Formisano, who works with the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft, who said he was about to announce that there is life on Mars. Now he says he'll release this information in Paris in a few days. Ammonia has been discovered on Mars, and because it survives for only a short time in the Martian atmosphere, it must be constantly replenished. Only living microbes can do this, so the conclusion is inescapable: there is life on Mars."




Mars: the living red planet?


I'm inclined to agree. (And whatever happened to the tentative discovery of methane in Mars' atmosphere?)

I'm convinced this issue has become entrenched in the politics of discovery; as I've argued elsewhere, NASA's Mars exploration program has little or no interest in extant Martian life, as such a finding would upset Jet Propulsion Laboratory's prevailing geological agenda. (It's not an accident that neither of the MER rovers currently scuttling over the Red Planet possesses even the simplest life-detection instruments.)

Welcome!

I've decided to "upgrade" the Cydonian Imperative by posting new content on a Blogger template instead of "manually" creating pages for posts. The Cydonian Imperative has always been a blog, in essence if not in name, and it will continue to be one -- only a bit more user-friendly (for myself as well as for readers).

All of the "old" CI material will remain intact at www.mactonnies.com/cydonia.html. CI readers may also enjoy some of the Mars-related commentary archived at Posthuman Blues, my all-purpose daily blog. (Henceforth, Mars news items that would have appeared at Posthuman Blues will appear here.)

Thanks for your continued readership!