Water on Mars: Ten Years Ago on NASA Watch

Making a Splash With a Hint of Mars Water, Science, 30 June 2000

“Opening the press conference, planetary geologist Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems Inc. (MSSS) in San Diego warned that “the actual science may pale before the science fiction that has been written.” The fiction grew out of an accurate, if vague, item on the independent watchdog Web site, NASA Watch (www.nasawatch.com), late afternoon on 19 June. It reported, apparently from sources in the astrobiology community, that NASA had briefed the White House (presidential science adviser Neal Lane, as it turned out) on a major discovery involving water on Mars. Other Web sites added details through Tuesday, 20 June; USA Today put a Web-sourced story at the top of its front page Wednesday morning. The information gleaned anonymously from NASA headquarters personnel and researchers around the country ranged from on target–signs of recent spring activity–to unlikely: ponds and even the possibility of geysers. Although no reporters appeared to have seen the paper (by Malin and his MSSS colleague Kenneth Edgett), Science decided to stem the flow of misinformation by releasing it.”