In the September 20th edition of The Dallas Morning News, there was an article about Curiosity’s failure to detect significant methane in the Martian atmosphere. The article was originally published in the Sep. 19th edition of The New York Times. In it, Bob Zubrin was quoted as follows:
“If it had found methane, that would have been killer,” Zubrin said, referring to Curiosity. “Yes, it’s disappointing in that we didn’t get a pony for Christmas. But it doesn’t mean there aren’t ponies out there.”
Thanks to Zubrin, we can now imagine Martian ponies roaming the canyons of Valles Marineris!
You can read the complete article at the following NYT webpage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/science/space/mars-rover-comes-up-empty-in-search-for-methane.html