ESA Says Life Likely on Mars--NASA Says No
18-Feb-2005

Ever since the U.S. and Europe first sent probes to Mars, the big question
has been: is there life there? Many scientists think that life on Earth was
"seeded" by bacteria arriving from Mars on asteroids. Yesterday, NASA
scientists were said to be claiming that they have found strong evidence of
life on Mars, hidden out of sight, and the European Space Agency said that
there is much more methane (believed to be a byproduct of living organisms)
in the atmosphere than previously thought, and that life on Mars is highly
likely. In a stunning press release distributed by NASA today, the Space
Agency claims that its scientists are not, in fact, preparing any report
that suggests that there may be life on Mars.

NASA has a long-standing reputation for taking a fundamental stance that
there is no life on Mars. In fact, Unknowncountry.com has learned that NASA
scientists were preparing a paper for the science journal Nature that would
have stated that there is a possiblity that life exists in caves and deep
crevasses on the red planet.

NASA management appears to have leaped into action to deny this. However,
the European Space Agency takes no such position about the matter, and ESA
scientists continue to say that life on Mars is probable.

Dr. Vittorio Formisano, of the Institute of Physics and Interplanetary
Science in Rome, first stated his belief that methane, and possibly life,
might be found on Mars on Dreamland last July. Now he says that there
appears to be more methane on Mars than previously thought, and that it is
likely that there are microbes in the Martian soil.

Brian Berger reports in space.com that NASA scientists Carol Stoker and
Larry Lemke have submitted their findings to the peer-reviewed journal
Nature. Stoker and Lemke haven't found direct proof of life on Mars, but
they have discovered methane signatures and other signs of possible
biological activity that are similar to those recently discovered in caves
here on Earth. They think that the organisms living on Mars have developed
unusual strategies that allow them to exist in extreme conditions. Life
exists in similar conditions in places here on Earth. They say that the
methane being emitted from the planet's surface is a sign that there is an
underground atmosphere that can sustain life.

NASA's press release states, in full:

RELEASE: 05-052

NASA STATEMENT ON FALSE CLAIM OF EVIDENCE OF LIFE ON MARS

"News reports on February 16, 2005, that NASA scientists from Ames Research
Center, Moffett Field, Calif., have found strong evidence that life may
exist on Mars are incorrect.

"NASA does not have any observational data from any current Mars missions
that supports this claim. The work by the scientists mentioned in the
reports cannot be used to directly infer anything about life on Mars, but
may help formulate the strategy for how to search for martian life. Their
research concerns extreme environments on Earth as analogs of possible
environments on Mars. No research paper has been submitted by them to any
scientific journal asserting martian life."

Right now, NASA has no plans for sending a lander to Mars that is equipped
with a drill to dig beneath the surface and, hopefully, find evidence of
life. However in 2009, they will launch a new rover that will range farther
than its predecessors and sniff the air for methane, thus insuring that they
will not continue to be unable to obtain definite evidence one way or
another regarding life on the red planet.

In 2002, famed author Arthur C. Clarke offered the suggestion that the Mars
'trees' should be observed more closely, but NASA dismissed the idea, saying
that the objects were probably a frost-related feature.