Also a sad thing is that starting from mid 1960s the reviewers of respected Science magazine have made very difficult the publishing of articles where positive result for life on Mars is presented. The Life on Mars issue is far from pure science; there is a lot of religious beliefs, politics and dirty games involved. I quote the book MARS The Living Planet[63], page 97. In meeting concerning Space Biology in 1961, which also Dr. Gilbert V.Levin participated, the Editor of Science magazine Phil Abelson says: “Let’s get out of here, this is talking about looking for life on the other planets! The Bible tells us there cannot be any life on other planets - this is a waste of time!”.

Later Abelson rejected two scientific papers by Dr.Levin on the possibility of having detected life on Mars. What has changed until year 2014? To get publication in Science magazine you have to prefer all the abiotic hypothesis as first alternative and for clear and sense making biological explanation say "..we include this only for the sake of completeness."? [17, Grotzinger].

Science and religion do not have to contradict each other as you can read from the statement about Big Bang and Evolution by Pope Francis in October 2014: Pope Francis: ‘Evolution … is not inconsistent with the notion of creation’ .

A good article about colors in Mars is: Barry DiGregorio, 2012 Contact in Context, Mars – No longer the Red planet but rather, the Golden Brown planet .

During years 2014, 2015 and 2016 scientists, working with Life on Mars issue, have experienced following criminal activity: breaking into their laptops and attacks against their web sites. Also direct threats (to kill), and execution of the threats, against scientists are on the toolbox (cases Rhawn Joseph 2014 and Richard Hoover 2011). And the Chief of NASA Security makes threatening phone calls( as the one 16th of May 2016) to scientist presenting evidence for life on Mars. Is the security chief the best astrobiologist NASA has? Why does NASA Administration want to kill free discussion about this issue? Dr. Hoover is respected astrobiologists at NASA. He made major discovery and published it in article: Journal of Cosmology, 2011: Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites .

Read also article by Patrick Rowan, based on Gilbert V.Levin's interview, 2nd of August 2016: Patrick Rowan's Skywatch: Is NASA running away from life on Mars? . In this excellent article it comes clear that NASA scientists are denied to publish evidence for life on Mars. There are several cases where NASA has forced scientist to withdraw their planned science publications of key evidence for life on Mars. The first threat inside NASA is to cut the funding of the science team, if they make the publication. That is the end of your career in science. Dr. John Grotzinger had to withdraw "Earth shaking" news in 2012. Dr. Carol Stoker had to withdraw chlorophyll result 2002. Dr. Daniel Glavin had to withdraw a paper about finding molecules like those in all microbiological membranes in Curiosity results in 2015. Access to Curiosity organic analysis experiment results are restricted. Nora Noffke’s(2015) and Giorgio Bianciardi’s(2014) observations about microbialities in Mars were ignored by NASA. Modern day inquisition.

This kind of criminal actions against scientists can not originate from low level administrators inside NASA. The order and approval for this must come from high level. What is the role of the NASA administrator Charles Bolden in this? Does Mr. Bolden, ex US Army general, define what scientists are allowed to say and publish? This has serious consequences for planetary protection, to life on both Mars and on Earth.

Scientists and science editors, who still have morale and courage left, should now think if it is right to continue the silence. Should we just repeat the public Lifeless Mars paradigm as NASA Administration wants? Or should we use our own eyes and brains in front of all the new evidence? It is sad to see the newspapers and media, even scientific magazines, blindly repeat the NASA and SpaceX manned mission to Mars news. The planetary protection issue is completely missed. Where is investigating journalism?

When Galileo Galilei pointed the telescope for the first time to the sky he made a large set of discoveries, which changed our view of the world. Church inquisition demanded him to deny the discoveries. Now we have had and have on Mars landers and rovers with excellent cameras and instruments. They have done unexpected discoveries, life on Mars, even visible on the surface, both current and past life. And again we have inquisition which wants to deny these discoveries at any cost.

The current situation with Life on Mars can be well compared to story by Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperors new clothes. The truth can easily be seen, but almost nobody dares to say it, because the Emperor NASA is quiet. Do you remember what happened to the Emperor at the end of the story? Good thoughts around this area is written by Patrick Rowan in his Skywatch blog, October 31st 2016: Searching for life, whether its microbes or megastructures .

By writing the year 2016 article Mission to Mars: The Integration of Planetary Protection Requirements and Medical Support I see that at the same time doctors John D. Rummel ( ex COSPAR PP, ex NASA PPO), Margaret S. Race (SETI, PP), Catharine A. Conley (NASA PPO) and David Liskowsky (NASA Medical Officer) take an important stand for freedom of science and for the basic human right, the freedom of speech. Their article says the things as they are. It gives the correct view, which is completely different than the NASA's public Hollywood style conquering of Lifeless Mars. Thank You John, Margaret, Catharine and David. Article belongs to a series "If Life is Discovered on Mars" in Cosmology.com. Other articles in the series are:

Gilbert V. Levin: Extant Life on Mars: Resolving the Issues

Robert J.C. McLean: Planetary Protection and Missions Between Earth and Mars

Mihai G. Netea, Frank L. van de Veerdonk, Marc Strous, Jos W.M. van der Meer: Infection Risk of a Human Mission to Mars

S. Leuko, L. J. Rothschild, B. P. Burns: Halophilic Archaea and the Search for Extinct and Extant Life on Mars

Rhawn Joseph: A Low to High Probability of Life on Mars: Biologists' Top Five Candidates For Martian Life

Rhawn Joseph (assisted by H.Rabb): Contamination and Damage to the Mars Rovers by Martian Fungi and Bacteria .

In May 2017 Dr. Kelly Smith invited me to participate the SoCIA 2018 conference: Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology in USA University of Nevada, Reno, in April 2018. I see this invitation as an acknowledgement of the work done by several involved scientists last years and even last decades. Dr.Smith is Professor of Philosophy & Biological Sciences in Clemson University. Read also interesting article by Smith, May 2016: Do no harm to life on Mars? Ethical limits of Prime Directive . In the first SoCIA 2016 meeting there was participants from NASA, SETI institute and several universities. And see SoCIA 2018 statement by NASA: Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology (SOCIA 2018) .

In Finland the astrobiology activities are lead by Kirsi Lehto and Harry Lehto in University of Turku. Kirsi Lehto has written a book Astrobiologia , published by astronomical association Ursa 2019. In pages 182-189 she handles the possibilities of life on Mars. The issues and thoughts are similar to observations presented in this study. NASA has requested Olli-Pekka Vainio from Helsinki University to Princenton University to a group which studies the impact of astrobiology to our world view.

In Sweden professors Natuschka Lee and Asta Pellinen-Wannberg from Umeå University, Sweden, organized Astrobiology conference Life on Earth and in the Universe Current State & Future Visions in October 2017. The presentations had several interesting issues.

On March 2019 an interesting article was published with 3 references to this study and Lyall Winston Small's study: R. Gabriel Joseph, Regina S. Dass, V. Rizzo, N. Cantasano, G. Bianciardi, Journal of Astrobiology and Space Science Reviews, 1,40--81, 2019: Evidence of Life on Mars? . In the article series this study is referred also in: Richard A. Armstrong Could Lichens Survive on Mars? . Also the director of NASA Astrobiology institute Penelope Boston is writing in this series: Location, Location, Location! Lava Caves on Mars for Human Habitat, and the Search for Life . Read also T.A.Krupa, LPSC 2017: Flowing water with a photosynthetic life form in Gusev crater on Mars .

On 2019 my abstract Visual identification of Extant Martian life was approved on the agenda of NASA organized conference in Carlsbad, New Mexico Mars Extant Life: What’s Next?.

In 2015 the otherwise very entertaining and good movie The Martian , gave an incorrect view of Manned mission to lifeless Mars. It is good that there is coming a more realistic movie LIFE by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2017 handling the Planetary Protection concern if sample from Mars, with Martian life is brought to Earth. This way large public can easily understand the issues around planetary protection. The year 2017 book The Origin by Dan Brown also nicely brings up some astrobiology issues.

Update 14th of January 2021: I have got information, that when NASA plans Mars missions, the top priority is the costs, not planetary protection. So the contamination risk of the Earth is mostly bypassed or ignored inside NASA administration. I think that the price tag should not matter when we think of saving Earths biosphere from contamination by martian microbes, which could, in worst case, convert Earths biosphere completely to something we could not recognize anymore. We can just think what has been the global price tag of COVID19 pandemic, and multiply that with 100 if martian microbes are spread on Earth. NASA plan is to bring samples from Mars directly to Earth. I estimate from previous success rate of sample return missions, that the risk of failure, for contamination of Earth biosphere is as high as 20 percent, which is unacceptable.

Our technology for making safe entry from space to surface of Earth is not mature enough yet. Example: The NASA Genesis sample return mission crashed on Utah 2004 as the parachute did not open, spreading the samples on the desert. NASA has Planetary Protection Officers, but their common sense words of contamination risks are overruled by money and politics. The President of the United States, Joe Biden should take this issue on his desk. On December 2020 the White House National Space Council published a document National Strategy for Planetary Protection . Joe Biden should take care that it is strictly followed. New plan for NASA and SpaceX in short: (A) Manned missions to Mars must be postponed to distant future, until it is made sure that microbes of Mars do not cause any harm to Earth lifeforms. (B) Execute the tests in Mars with robotic laboratories. Do not bring samples to Earth. A proposal by Barry DiGregorio has been to establish a quarantine lab on Moon, where the samples could be safely tested The Moon: A 100% isolation barrier for Earth during exobiological examination of solar system sample return missions. Inside NASA there has been presented even completely insane views: "The contamination of Earth with Mars microbes will happen anyway sometime in future, so lets make it now and see what happens".