Biology
Scientific paper
Jul 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000came.work..316w&link_type=abstract
Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration, p. 316
Biology
Mars Exploration, Mars Surface, Extraterrestrial Life, Exobiology, Mars Sample Return Missions, Mars Missions, Mission Planning, Surveyor Project, Mars Surface Samples, Soil Sampling, Mars Environment
Scientific paper
A basic goal of the Mars Surveyor Program, begun in 1996, was the delivery to Earth of carefully chosen samples of Mars surface material. Interest generated by the proposition that Mars meteorite ALH84001 displays evidence of extraterrestrial life, also put forward in 1996, intensified interest in the Mars Surveyor Program in general and sample return in particular. As we all know, however, the character of the projected Surveyor program has changed dramatically with the failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander missions and the realization that ambitious goals must be scaled back. Most notably, the concept of sample return from Mars has all but disappeared from the dialogue about Mars exploration in the next decade. Remote analysis of surface materials by instruments on landed rovers is offered as the next-best option. This paper argues that remote analysis is not even in the same league as the study of samples in terrestrial laboratories, and that every effort should be made to fulfill the goal of sample return at the earliest opportunity. Remote analysis is inferior to laboratory study in two fundamental ways.
Boynton Willam V.
Wood John A.
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