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Astrobiology

NASA PAO Promises To Answer Questions and Then Does Not

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
September 3, 2014
Filed under , , ,

NASA Still Won’t Look For Existing Life on Mars (update), earlier post
Keith’s 31 July note: I obviously expected Jim Green to answer in the same cautious way that NASA has always answered this question – one I have asked again and again for the nearly 20 years. Instead, Green launched into a detailed description of all the things that the Mars 2020 rover could detect that have a connection with life. Much of what he said clearly referred to extant / existing life. Now THAT is cool. To clarify things I sent the following request to NASA PAO “Can the Mars 2020 rover detect extant/existing life on Mars?  Will NASA be looking for extant/existing life on Mars?” Let’s see how they respond.
Keith’s 3 Sep update: Well it has been more than a month. Dwayne Brown from NASA SMD PAO specifically asked media reps who were on the telecon to send him any questions via email they might have and that he’d get an answer back to them. I haven’t heard a thing from him since I sent him the email he requested (wth cc: to SMD management). So much for his promises. Either NASA cannot/will not answer this rather simple question or it is not on Dwayne’s priority list right now. I sent additional requests via email to NASA SMD and PAO last week. Still no response.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

7 responses to “NASA PAO Promises To Answer Questions and Then Does Not”

  1. Vladislaw says:
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    I still believe that if life is announced on Mars, NASA will have a hard time getting funding to land there.

    • Todd Austin says:
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      I think that’s the crux of the matter. At the core, they really want to send people there. If we find extant life, there will be all sorts of pressures not to go and complications to going.

      It’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

  2. Hug Doug ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ says:
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    maybe they just got tired of you asking the same questions over and over and over and over and over again.

    • kcowing says:
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      The only reason I ask over and over again is that they never answer my questions.

      • Hug Doug ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ says:
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        that’s because the answer to your question is “yes,” “no,” and “well, maybe,” depending on how you look at it. i think this has been explained very well several times in comments on your previous posts.

        iow, you’re really not asking very good questions.