Why NASA And JPL Will Not Admit Fossils

Agreements to secrecy may override their ability to release research results

    Intelligence Secrets At JPL?    An article by Marlin Knight, Attorney (PDF)

    Department of Defense Form 254   showing California Institute of Technology's agreement about JPL (PDF)

    My Perspective On Why NASA Won't Talk    by Sir Charles W. Shults III

    Over the last year, I have expected that some acknowledgement of the findings on Mars would have been made by NASA or JPL.  There is so much data and so many clear signs of fossil life, and these are supported by the discoveries of Mars' wet and clement past.  All of these things paint a picture of a much more Earthlike past for the red planet, with oceans, glaciers, weather cycles and a thicker atmosphere.

    As time passed and more discoveries were made, my first thought was that they were taking their time to make certain of the details- it is always necessary to present a clear and irrefutable case when making an announcement of this magnitude.  When this did not happen in the course of a couple of months, I began to do what any researcher with a huge discovery would do- publish everything.

    In retrospect, I should have spotted that something was wrong when Steven Squyres, an astronomer for NASA and the principal scientific investigator for the two Mars Exploration Rovers, made a statement to the press that the findings were definitely not fossils.  I was astounded.  Understand that Squyres, a professional astronomer at Cornell University, and the man responsible for designing, building, and testing many of the MER instruments, is not to be taken lightly.  He clearly has technical skills and scientific understanding, and has put those tools to excellent use.  So when I read his statement, I could not believe what I was seeing.

    His statement as reported in Space.com was clear: "There simply is no reason to promote a biological origin for these [spherules] when there are so many other, far more probable ways of making them," Squyres said.  And even before the mission, his position was made clear before seeing the first close-up images of the sediments in Meridiani Planum.  Asked if he had any hope of finding fossilized life on Mars, Squyres replied: "Never."

    One NASA geologist, as reported in this article on MSNBC related how uncomfortable researchers became when confronted with the "rotini" feature, a curly thing that appeared in one of the images.  “This feature has the team in Pasadena squirming,” he said. “They want it to be an artifact [that is, not ‘real’].”  So why would researchers be so uncomfortable with the idea of life on Mars, when in fact they were looking for signs of water and the possibility that life might have once been there?  This indicates a clear bias against the possibility at the outset- in other words, it appears that at least some of the researchers had already made their minds up in advance, and now they could not accept what they were being confronted with.  This is not how scientific advances are made.

    To their credit, a rigorous test was devised that should have discounted anything suspect and admitted certain findings- this was known as the Knoll Criterion.  In essence, anything that looked like a fossil but might have been formed by geological or non-biological means would have to be discounted, while only those things that could not conceivably have been formed by geological, chemical, or mineralogical processes would be considered as a sign of life.  Yet, even when plainly confronted with such items, no word has emerged.

    At this point, and from early on in the research, NASA has clammed up.  There have been no admissions of fossil findings, although lots of hedging has been done.  And, there have been no more outright denials of fossils as well.  In fact, there has been a strained, practiced silence since, and images that suggest life or its remains have been sternly ignored.  If these were not fossils, you would expect that they would say clearly, and based on all the evidence to date, that they have not found any fossils.  But they haven't done that.

    Conversely, you would expect that if they had found that these were fossils, they would have confirmed it by now.  But once more, not a word has been said.  This raised many questions for me.

    Understand that after publishing my findings on the web and making radio appearances revealing and discussing my findings, I was contacted by a small  number of people who work for NASA and others who work for JPL.  They asked to remain anonymous because they would face extreme penalties if they talked, and the indicated that they had signed a non-disclosure agreement that prevented them from publicly announcing anything that had been found.  But each and every one confirmed everything that I had found; that Mars was a fossil planet, and that water had been plentiful for a very long time.  Also it was revealed that there was an oceanographer working on the MER team, which is a curious thing when you consider the implications.

    All the fossils I have found are of marine organisms, and they point to an ocean covered Mars.  This is consistent with what we know, because on a world with thinning atmosphere, only in the water could most organisms expect to find what they need for life.  In other words, on Mars the water would have been a surrogate atmosphere, and life could have thrived.  So why will nobody admit what has been found, even though all the evidence, both scientific and photographic, states clearly that Mars was a world teeming with life?  I believe that an answer has been found.

    JPL was once controlled by the Army, and even in recent times it receives, uses, and generates classified data.  But some of that data makes you really step back and ask, "why?"  What is most astounding is what I was told by the people I spoke with- that although the information that resulted from Mars research was not classified, they had signed non-disclosure agreements that provided stiff federal penalties for anyone speaking about their findings.  Those penalties could include federal prison time and loss of academic credentials, and if you have dedicated your studies and career to working in space or defense, that would mean an end to your career.  So why is the information so tightly controlled?

    Some of the data that JPL has access to (and presumably uses) is foreign intelligence, NATO files, and critical nuclear weapons design information.  What in the world do those things have to do with planetary research?  My first thought was that if they commingled that data (or mixed it) with their normal research data, it would mean that the results could be tightly controlled even though it, in itself, might not actually be classified or of great import.  This tool would allow them to have very tight control over intellectual properties and products, such as patents and the results of research papers.

    And, in a sense, this is a workable strategy.  But it gets stranger yet.  Suppose a news reporter in a war zone, say Iraq for instance, filmed some action and in the filming captured scenes of a nuclear weapon or some other classified hardware on film.  That footage would be classified, and would not be released.  Now, imagine that some robot on Mars or the Moon located and imaged some classified hardware, be it spacecraft or weapon.  The repercussions would be great.  But foreign hardware can be classified, and that is an important point.  Just because another government or group made it, it does not automatically mean that it is "okay".  It still can fall under federal jurisdiction.

    Now, what if it was alien hardware?  And don't assume that alien has to mean "extraterrestrial".  It might be from a country that we don't expect has the capability to place something on the Moon or Mars.  So this is just hypothetical, but imagine if an alien artifact were photographed.  Would we expect to see it?  It would raise many questions that are even today uncomfortable ones to address.  Alien hardware would imply certain technical skills.  And, we might learn things from it that would have broad reaching consequences in our civilization.  It might even trigger diplomatic problems or warfare.  So as a matter of course, we would expect that alien hardware, be it from a foreign government or from an extraterrestrial source, would be classified as secret.

    Now, let's step back one turn, and look at the implications.  They found fossils, and that much is clear.  But are fossils artifacts?  Alien fossils are perhaps in the gray zone, and this leaves them in a quandary.  If they state outright to the press that these are not fossils, then they are lying to the public.  But if they say that they are fossils, then they might be releasing classified information.  No matter what they say, science is overridden by either politics or by secrecy.  They can't say anything!

    So they have tied their own hands.  They cannot admit and they cannot deny.  This explains the thunderous silence, and why so many people can see these fossils but nobody seems willing to take a stand.  Most academics, particularly in schools and universities,  listen very closely to authority, because they know not to bite the hand that feeds them.  They face the real and bitter prospect of losing all that they have studied and worked for.  Silence, no matter how imposed, is their only option if they want to pursue their work.

    And the public has a long love-hate relationship with government and authority.  While many people do not trust government, they still accept many of the things they are told as gospel, just because it comes from an authority.  It is far easier to accept what you are told than to actually question it.  It means that things go more smoothly and nobody stands out as odd or unusual.  As a consequence, very few people are going to buck the established word on things.

    I do not worry about such things.  I am in this for the facts.  I know that the findings from past research on Mars have been very compelling, but dismissed with a wave of the hand and no good explanation in the past.  The Labeled Release Experiment on Viking is a prime example, and the fossilized microbes in the Martian meteorite AH-84001 are another.  Here we have two examples of what I feel are extraterrestrial life, or at least its signs.  In my opinion, Dr. Gilbert Levin is the true discoverer of alien life.

    My contribution to this is that I have located dozens of fossils and compiled the data in a form that is easily accessed.  I have included papers on how and why, supporting evidence that there is present day liquid water on Mars, and also made a case that a Mars sample return would be a dangerous and foolhardy thing to do.  If nothing else, I have published where nobody else would.  That alone shows an academic right to the claim that there is indeed fossilized life on Mars, that there is now liquid water on Mars, and that there is in all probability extant life on Mars today.

    Now, what do we do with these findings?