  |
 |
     |
Other Work
MARS CRAFT ENTERING NEW CHAPTER IN SEARCH FOR SIGNATURE OF LIFE
By Kathy Sawyer
The Washington Post | June 29, 1997, p. A06
On July 4, a robot spacecraft from Earth will plummet to Mars, beginning humanity's first sojourn on the surface of the Red Planet in more than two decades and perhaps taking one small step toward resolving an unusually acrimonious debate about signs of ancient life there.
NASA's three-foot-tall, 1,766-pound Pathfinder spacecraft, scheduled to bounce onto the Martian surface in a cocoon of heavy-duty air bags at 1:07 p.m. Friday, will not settle that argument.
But if Pathfinder can avoid the catastrophic failures that have befallen its recent predecessor, its arrival could mark the resumption of a steady, long-term effort to answer that and other questions about the planet which, in all the known universe, most resembles Earth.
The controversy over evidence of possible ancient microscopic life found in a fist-sized meteorite from Mars arose too recently to have affected the plans for Pathfinder or a second spacecraft en route to Mars, called Global Surveyor. But the debate has altered the landscape -- both literally and figuratively -- for future Mars explorers.
The Mars rock controversy has helped shift the search for extraterrestrial life into the scientific mainstream. And it has made at least one thing alarmingly clear about that quickening hunt, according to leading combatants on all sides: Using current techniques, scientists might not recognize a Martian microbe. . .