Dana Rohrabacher
U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., asks about Mars’ ancient past. (House Science Committee via YouTube)

What game was U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., playing when he asked Caltech geochemist Kenneth Farley whether there was any evidence of an ancient civilization on Mars?

The question was an add-on at today’s House Space Subcommittee hearing on NASA’s flagship missions to Mars and to Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter.

The space agency is planning to launch its next rover to the Red Planet in 2020, and it’s working on a spacecraft that would make repeated passes over Europa to gain data about the ocean – and perhaps the life forms – that may lurk beneath the surface. (Congress is pressing for a Europa lander as well.)

Farley was testifying in his capacity as the project scientist for the 2020 Mars rover, and at the end of Rohrabacher’s allotted time, the congressman asked for one extra question.

“You have indicated that Mars was totally different thousands of years ago,” he told the panel. “Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?”

“So the evidence is that Mars was different billions of years ago, not thousands of years ago,” Farley replied. “And there would be … there’s no evidence that I’m aware of…”

Rohrabacher persisted: “Would you rule that out? See, there’s some people … well, anyway…”

“I would say that is extremely unlikely,” Farley said.

And that was that. Rohrabacher thanked the panel, and the subcommittee’s chairman, Brian Babin, R-Texas, thanked Rohrabacher.

“Looking forward to finding out what’s up there, that’s for sure,” Babin added.

The exchange drew, um, notice on the Twitterverse:

Was Rohrabacher seriously wondering whether there was a civilization on Mars? Was he asking purely on behalf of America’s curious youths, like the kid sitting behind him in the hearing room?

Or was he setting up a clever backhanded slap at conspiracy theorists who have been maintaining for years that NASA is hiding evidence of Red Planet civilizations – like the civilization that purportedly sculpted the Face on Mars, or the folks who supposedly set up a slave colony for kidnapped children on the Red Planet?

When Rohrabacher referred to “some people,” and then pulled back, that suggested he had those tall tales in mind.

But if that was his game, the conspiracy theorists will surely remain unconvinced. Farley said exactly what you’d expect to hear from him and the millions of other scientists around the world who would have to be in on the conspiracy.

We report, you decide.

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