And so yet another wonderful chapter in the history of the universe opens.
There's life on Mars! Really? Well, sort of. It's difficult to get to grips
with any real analysis amongst so much noise, but we will try.
Someone (NASA) found something (magnetite) in a meteorite (ALH84001) from
Mars, or somewhere. And it looks like it might (1) be the sort of thing
that a one-celled organism might have left behind it if it was wibbling
about millions of years ago.
The day before Clinton stood in the White House harping on about the US's
"aggressive" space programme being "vindicated" by the
find "in these harsh economic times" (2), his competitor Bob Dole
launched his "Republican National Platform" containing a commitment
to a manned flight to Mars if elected. (And we're in the middle of pre-election
fever at the time of writing...)
The global media then whipped up a frenzy of feel-good reports - often nicely
packaged with Hollywood glitz in the shape of footage from the film "Independence
Day". Just as wars and disasters in other countries seem to magically
appear to divert attention away from trouble at home, the fossil on the
meteorite arrived splat in the middle of "these harsh economic times".
And before the tests are even completed Russia and the USA are already competing
with each other to get to Mars next year (3), at an estimated cost of $150
million per launch.
Why did this exciting revelation occur this year, when NASA was worrying
mightily about its budget? And how does this fit in with a 30 year old US
Government Report (4) that suggests that any discoveries of evidence of
alien life should be withheld from the general public for some years for
reasons of public order?
Government space agencies again show their corruption. The life on Mars
spectacle is just another chapter in a the history of jingoism, oppression,
self aggrandisement and electioneering. Again we see the possibilities for
space exploration used like counters in the game of global politics, just
like those other counters: war, poverty, starvation and every conceivable
form of torture.
The AAA has said time and time again that it is futile to expect any steps
towards establishing communities in space from these agencies. They require
a population imprisoned on this planet for their very existence.
The point is not whether life existed on Mars millions of years ago. The
point is WHAT are NASA and their opposites in Russia and Europe going to
USE that knowledge for. The point, as ever, is what kind of life is there
for the rest of us while the hypocritical back-slapping in the White House
and the top secret military installations continues?
Talking about life on planet earth is like talking about rope in the house
of a hanged man.
Raido AAA