NASA sued by California man over mysterious rock on Mars

Zee Media Bureau/Salome Phelamei California: The US space agency, NASA, has been sued by a California man for not investigating a mysterious rock, discovered by Mars Opportunity rover, a couple of weeks ago. Rhawn Joseph, an astrobiologist, filed a lawsuit against NASA and its administrator Charles Bolden in US District Court in northern California. In his lawsuit, he claims that the object is a living thing that “germinated from spores.” He asked the court to compel NASA to “scientifically examine and investigate a putative biological organism.” “The refusal to take close-up photos from various angles, the refusal to take microscopic images of the specimen, the refusal to release high-resolution photos is inexplicable, recklessly negligent and bizarre,” Joseph stated in the petition. NASA hypothesised that the rock dubbed as Pinnacle Island “may have been flipped upside down when a wheel dislodged it, providing an unusual circumstance for examining the underside of a Martian rock.” Joseph, who has published articles in the Journal of Cosmology, wants NASA to take hundreds of high resolution close-up in focus photos of the rock from multiple angles and then send the original photos to him for investigation. Joseph claims that the rock is an alien life-form and that the space agency`s passing it off as a rock even before doing any extensive experiment of it is “inexplicable and recklessly negligent.” In his proposed court order, Joseph requests that NASA be examined the object further and if they find it to be a biological organism, the space agency must ensure that his name be listed as the first author on the scientific articles about such discovery.