A chemical test used by the Mars Viking landers more than 30 years ago was not sensitive enough to detect signs of alien life, even if they existed. This clearly shows the drawback of the Mars Viking landers that gave false-negative result with respect to the most important research on Mars. But 30 years to analyze the tests of Viking landers can be considered a blunder committed by Mars scientists.
This study clearly demonstrates that future Mars missions should include other methodologies in addition to this one to detect extinct or extant life on Mars. The temperature limit for the Viking GC-MS experiment really proved cataclysmic for the Mars mission and it is the same planet that we are thinking of inhabiting some day.
The good news that NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled to launch in 2009, will not have the same limitations as the Viking landers because it will analyze the Martian soil in a slightly different way. The problem of how to get the organics from soil to the spectrometer will be solved by the MSL and will cover a lot more ground than the Viking landers and scientists can now pinpoint promising sites for exploration using satellites, a luxury not available during the Viking era.
Via: foxnews
