Mars Rover Curiosity Makes Curious Find On “Martian” Surface – Cont’d
Publised Friday August 10, 2012
By Travis Moore
Related story: Truck in Rover image
“No one ever has landed such a large vehicle with counter-thrusters, and they did it on Mars traveling near the Martian terminal velocity.”
Skeptics of the Curiosity deployment have hit the blogosphere in force. Prominent lunar landing conspiracy theorist and best-selling author Bart Sibrol did not mince words. “Now we must ask, if Martians choose to drive Chrysler K-cars can we consider them to be ‘alive’,” quipped Sibrol.
Iowa State University Astrophysics Professor Liam Kim also was critical. “Some in the scientific community were wide-eyed the night of the supposed landing,” Kim said. “No one ever has landed such a large vehicle with counter-thrusters, and they did it on Mars traveling near the Martian terminal velocity.” he said. Kim said that he would be “disappointed but not shocked” if Curiosity did not really land on Mars as the world has been led to believe.
Utah State University Professor of Aeronautics Peter C. Wright was more cautious. “We have to trust that NASA is being forthright and did not fool the world along with their own junior engineers,” said Wright, referencing the televised celebrations of young scientists at the Propulsion Laboratory. “Still since this is the second time this occurred and we have two different explanations for the anomalies, I am troubled,” he said.
“Still since this is the second time this occurred and we have two different explanations for the anomalies, I am troubled…”
In May 2012 Andrew Lefkowitz, 11, of Bethesda, Maryland noticed a strange object in the background of an image allegedly beamed home by Mars Rover Exploration Opportunity. The object was soon identified to be the husk of a 1920s Ford Model “A” pickup truck. His finding was independently confirmed by scientific authorities. NASA explained the photo as a image taken from rover testing in the Arizona desert that was mixed in with authentic Mars photos by mistake.
See May 2012 Story Here On Lefkowitz Find
Curiosity is reported by NASA to be the most complex interplanetary rover ever designed. Its engineers are said to be taking their time performing health checkups before he rover makes its first drive weeks from now.
Analysts now expect that every image released to the public for the remainder of the mission will be highly scrutinized for incongruities. “They better find someone better at Photoshop than their current artist!” Sibrol blogged Friday evening. Indeed, Sibrol and his readers will be watching.