Now, don't tell me that letter included yourself, Steven. By my reckoning, you would've been way too young to be part of the team it refers to.
The mystery is .. how did you come across this document, eh?
(Perhaps a bit like that reporter who found Obama's security arrangements document in the gutter outside of Parliament House, eh?
…. (just kidding)).
Anyway, the notorious "Integrated Biology Instrument" reminds me about the pile of controversy it subsequently caused. The scientist who designed this experiment recently released a paper arguing that the results should be revisited, as there is now sufficient geological evidence to support the contention that water
is present on Mars and may have been in quantities in the past .. and apparently, none of this was believed to be the case when the Viking Biology experiment was devised. As a result of this evidence, alternative experiments are now available and could be delivered to Mars, in order to further research the inconclusive attempted life detection findings, originally returned by Viking.
Interestingly, MSL/Curiosity has no such experiments.
Most of MSL's instrumentation has been designed to (i) detect organic chemicals and (ii) attempt to separate soil organics if present, from the soil perchlorates. They are more targetted at figuring out whether the geology in the past, (or present), may have been/are able to support life.
Very interesting .. and thanks for a very interesting post!
Highly valuable memorabilia!
Cheers
Cheers
)
