Will MSL now land close to a methane rich area (in red)? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The recent story about methane being detected in Mars’ atmosphere has lead to huge interest around the world, simultaneously renewing fervent media speculation of t…

You’re absolutely right! I totally forgot about the Mars Express discovery to be honest.

I was a little surprised by the press conference as there was a lot of “old news” re-hashed (back in October, there was a huge buzz about using the MSL to seek out the methane “hot-spots”). There was some additional information, but the usual edgy NASA attitude with talking about possible life on Mars appeared to have vanished; there was way more focus on biological processes and not a lot on geological explanations.

All very exciting, but I was curious about how much spin was being put on the “discovery”. After all, the MSL has really been hit hard by a lot of bad press lately (mismanagement, budget overruns, delays, waste), this kind of news, if presented correctly, could give more life to the embattled MSL rover than to the Red Planet.

Call my cynical, but I wonder if the MSL landing zone will change (right over one of the methane vents), suddenly becoming our “best hope ever” of uncovering life (we’ve heard that one before). That’s the fast way of getting Congress to sign some more cheques…

Those are my thoughts anyhow

I hope you are well!

Cheers, Ian