NASA Responds To Martian Life Lawsuit: It’s Just A Rock

The space agency released a short statement to _Popular Science _on the litigation.

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Earlier this week, we reported that NASA was being sued. The allegations? That the space agency had failed to conduct a proper examination of “life” on Mars, which had mysteriously appeared in front of the agency’s Opportunity rover. (The space agency had already concluded it was a rock; the lawsuit alleges that NASA did not properly examine the object well enough to conclude that.) Here’s the object:

A NASA spokesman, Bob Jacobs, released this statement to Popular Science:

So, yeah: although the agency isn’t opening up too much on the litigation, they’re standing by their stance that the rock is, in fact, a rock, not an example of Martian life. Jacobs also directed me to a news conference, where the agency talked at length about the rock/Martian:

You can read the full suit below.