Congress Mandate??

[TClaeys]

I just heard on an interview that Congress had passed some mandate that NASA could not actually say they are looking for life on, say, Mars.

Has anyone ever heard this before?? Now there is some criticism of the Phoenix mission that it didn't have equipment to look for or identify "life". They can look for all sorts of stuff apparently even amino acids, proteins, and lots more. But they can't actually say they are looking for "life"

Again anyone?? Anyone ever heard this?? I heard it on AstronomyCast when discussing some of the Mars missions on recent podcasts.

And if you've heard this before, why is there such a mandate??

 

[fitzbew88]

I just heard on an interview that Congress had passed some mandate that NASA could not actually say they are looking for life on, say, Mars.
...
And if you've heard this before, why is there such a mandate??

How funny.

We need to find out if this is true first. I wonder if House/Senate legislative activity is online?

An email to the NASA PAO might yield some results.

I can only guess maybe Creationist-type fundie church thingy.

But first I would like to see the real legislation in context.

 

[Aaron LeClair]

Haven't heard of this. If you find out more please post.