タイトル | A Sterile Robotic Mars Soil Analyzer |
著者(英) | Levin, Gilbert V.; Miller, Joseph D.; Hoover, Richard E.; Straat, Patricia Ann |
著者所属(英) | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |
発行日 | 2002-01-01 |
言語 | eng |
内容記述 | Since the 1976 Viking Mission to Mars, follow-on efforts to resolve its controversial life detection results have been thwarted by two heretofore insurmountable difficulties: the huge expense of sterilizing the entire spacecraft to protect the integrity of life detection experiments; and the lack of a practical robotic life detection package that could produce results acceptable as unambiguous by the scientific community. We here present a method that assures sterility and the complete integrity of robotic life detection experiments, all at a negligible cost. Second, we propose a candidate set of integrated, highly sensitive experiments that we believe could produce results acceptable to the vast majority of scientists. In addition to the biology-chemistry issue, the extensively debated oxidative state of the Martian surface and other chemical and physical characteristics of the Martian soil would be determined. We present our concept for a miniaturized instrument that could carry out a number of candidate experiments to achieve the objective. |
NASA分類 | Spacecraft Design, Testing and Performance |
権利 | Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
|