The life-on-Mars baloney is just background noise. It provides media attention for known flakes like Levin, hustlers like Barry D. and the cydonuts. However it does no real good. NASA took a big gamble when their spin doctors opted to sell Mars by reinvoking the life-on-Mars thing (they did it earlier with Viking). Unfortunately for NASA, the people aren't buying into it. The Mars program needs to be redefined based upon preparation for human settlement. The American public are incredibly gullible and ill informed. However even they can only be lied to so many times before they wise up. It's time to base the Mars program on something that's real.

Gary