For sometime now NASA's six-wheeled Mars rover has been rolling along, taking incredible pictures and samples of rock and earth. Now NASA says the rover has something “for the history books”
It will be some weeks before they can officially announce what it is exactly. So, has NASA found past or present signs of life on Mars?
A recent report from the U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) announced a stunning revelation on November 20th, 2012 by NASA. According to NASA the news is said to be very exciting and while they would love nothing more than to reveal what it is the rover has found, they are bound by policy to keep it silent until all the tests are made, all possible errors gone over and all data is complied. Until then, we can only guess.
A John Grotzinger who serves as the chief principal investigator for the rover operation spoke to NPR and said, “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting…” The report goes on to say that NASA’s scientists controlling the rover are saying the arm on the machine, affectionately called “SAM”, has made the discovery that the team is now going over. SAM is mobile lab and analyzer all in one. After the unit analyzed all the material collected and sent the data back to NASA, Grotzinger stated that the data would be “one for the history books. It’s looking really good.”
While those of us following the exploration of Mars by NASA’s rover are very excited to hear the recent news, we can only guess at what that find is. But with NASA using words like “history” and “really interesting”, we can only suspect it means exactly what we are thinking – signs of past life, or life itself.