Mars Express sees ice on Mars - little attention in the U.S.
I may be hyper-sensitive, but the images from Europe´s Mars Express showing what scientists think is pack ice at the surface of Mars are just as convincing as anything that NASA's rovers provide! But the Mars Express pictures have been largely neglected in U.S. space news media on the web (and also by CNN.com). Space.com carries the news, but not Spaceflightnow.com (now they do after a day or two of delay). And - to lend credibility to the story - a U.S. scientist is quoted.
Poor ESA! It will always be the "little brother" in the "space family". "NASA" is a magic word that the acronym "ESA" will never be able to equal. I see the same phenomenon locally in Sweden. The media never think that what we do inside the country counts - only foreigners are credible. So, the trick is to ask someone from outside the country to praise what we do in space science in Sweden. Then the media listen.
And of course - a comment from someone even remotely related to NASA is the ultimate stamp of approval. So, American friends, you may complain about the waning status of NASA - on this side of the Atlantic its image as the ultimate bearer of the secrets of the Universe is as strong as ever!
Poor ESA! It will always be the "little brother" in the "space family". "NASA" is a magic word that the acronym "ESA" will never be able to equal. I see the same phenomenon locally in Sweden. The media never think that what we do inside the country counts - only foreigners are credible. So, the trick is to ask someone from outside the country to praise what we do in space science in Sweden. Then the media listen.
And of course - a comment from someone even remotely related to NASA is the ultimate stamp of approval. So, American friends, you may complain about the waning status of NASA - on this side of the Atlantic its image as the ultimate bearer of the secrets of the Universe is as strong as ever!
posted by Sven Grahn | 2/23/2005
4 Comments:
In a way I think this is a reflection of how the story broke; Nature was hoarding it (because it knew that it'd make a great story when they announced it) for release next month, but the abstract had to be discussed at a conference in March, so was on the web now... and New Scientist picked it up, going via an unrelated scientist. Since then Nature slapped an embargo notice on the abstract, then yesterday published a story on their website... it's all very confusing, and I think this may have caused people to hold off on publishing it for now. Oliver Morton has some comments along those lines.
In addition... there was the fiasco about the American "Life on Mars!" paper last week, which turned out not to exist - this may have been more concentrated in the US, leading their editors to be a little more circumspect - waiting to see who else ran the story to see if it was reliable. I mean, this is another "paper to be published in Nature telling us revelatory new things about Mars"; it's only sensible to exercise some caution if no-one else is mentioning it. (It's been a good week between my hearing about it and the news picking it up, so an element of caution is certainly plausible)
On an unrelated note, it seems from the USGS that we have no naming conventions for Martian seas. I do wonder what we'll end up with; it's wonderfully placed to be the Mediarean Sea...
Hi,
I'm into the Russian space program, and it is the same here (in Australia), too - NASA is the only one that gets all the attention, and it is like the others don't exist, or that they are not as important. :-(
- Suzy
http://au.geocities.com/kosmonavtka2/
USA has little eyes for the discoveries from other space agencies.. Mars Express is doing a great job but it has little coverage, remember the ice pictures and the methane measurements :\
Hi Sven, Good blog!
Sadly, space programs are just as nationalistic today as they were during the cold war. I read an English article recently stating that Pioneer Venus was the first satellite of Venus (it was the third), written by one of the PI's of that mission. You'd think he would have a professional awareness of Venera-9 and 10!
American scientists continue to ignore Soviet space history. As an American, I am justly proud of the US space program. But you would think that after walking on the Moon, we would not be defensive.
I agree that ESA is also being somewhat ignored. I usually hear news about it because I read the BBC website for my daily news. I think the ESA is also a bit defensive, with its space program just beginning. There is very little acknowledgement of the Russian technology and personnel involved in Mars Express, for example, or its relationship to Mars-96 and the Energiya Yamel spacecrafts (which is suspiciously resembles).
I'm a little shaken because I have just finished looking at the website of Bernd Leitenberger. On the one hand, it has some nice spacecraft pictures (mostly gathered from NSSDC), but then you come across his nationalistic rants and vicious anti-american articles. I was tempted to ask him to remove some images I have copyrighted, but I don't really like to do that. It's just a sad example of how people role space and nationalism together.
Imagine what would be acomplished if everyone actually cooperated logically. We would launch from the equator at the French site, but we would use Russian or Boeing rockets (because they don't crash into the Atlantic...sorry Ariane...), and maybe have the Japanese build the electronics. Will never happen...
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