Lately on his X-itter, and on Joe Rogan's "show" -- he's been pushing the mantra that we need to get a crewed mission to Barsoom / Mars, "IMMEDIATELY(!)" -- to "investigate the remains" of a fort, or settlement on Mars. Damn. His evidence? He and Rogan doctored a Mars Global Surveyor orbital image (from around 2006). They claim it depicts the corner of some ancient stone building, outpost or structure.
Here's a bit of the more or less breathless coverage of this non-story, in glossy media:
. . .Social media has been buzzing with talk about a strange formation on Mars that looks like a giant square in the dusty terrain. The snapshot came from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), a mission that captured thousands of images from 1997 until its final transmission in 2006.
. . .Elon Musk and popular podcaster Joe Rogan have [shared] a cropped version online. . . [and they] are asking if a neat, geometric form could appear by chance or if something else is going on.
Dr. Sarah Johnson, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), points to geological processes as the likely cause of these intriguing shapes.
She says that Martian landscapes often reveal features that appear artificial at first glance, but they usually have natural explanations tied to erosion or volcanic activity. . . .
That's correct, Dr. Johnson -- and Elon seeks to raise and spend perhaps a half trillion dollars (with a "T"!), all in, from the federal coffers to go chase a crewed mission to Mars. [As we've long pointed out, almost everything we'd ever need -- in the way of science, on Mars will be done better, cheaper, faster. . . and most of all, SAFER -- by robotic rovers and helicopters.]
That's the sort of "conflict of interest" -- as a disclosure, along with perhaps 70 or so others, which should be front and center, in every governmental communique Tangerine 2.0 issues -- about Elon, SpaceX, Tesla or X-itter. [All for Elon. . . to secure a place in space exploration history -- for his vanity.]
Yikes. What an oddly non-scientific time we are enduring, here at the opening of 47's last stint at 1600 Penn. Out.
नमस्ते
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