Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1976. július-december (30. évfolyam, 27-51. szám)
1976-08-19 / 32. szám
6 AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, Aug. 19. 1976. WLLMONG HNDLFE ON/MNK? Chryse region - too rough for landing AP photo Millions of Americans — if all goes well — will soon be viewing TV pictures of Mars relayed from a U.S. spacecraft, resting on the Martian surface. The primary mission of the Viking project: to examine at first hand the age- old question of possible life on the red planet. Artlst’t e By David F. Salisbury Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Is Mars alive? This question has launched two of the most sophisticated robot spacecraft ever to leave planet Earth. The first ship is expected to land on the Red Planet early this month. Twenty-five seconds after touchdown, the beetle-shaped U.S. explorer should automatically snap the first close-up of the fabled sands of Mars. Back on earth, the television networks will be anxiously waiting to rebroadcast this historic picture to the American public. If successful, the billion-dollar mission will be the culmination of human speculation about the planet Mars which stretches back to the hillsides of ancient Greece. Philosophers and scientists feel that, if Viking discovers life, this fact could have a profound impact on man’s view of himself and of his place in the cosmos. This is why a whole community of scientists, engineers, and technicians have worked on this mission. The first ship, Viking 1, left Earth on August 20, 1975, followed Sept. 9 by its sister ship. The first spacecraft, including an orbiter and a lander, is already circling the Red Planet. The second Viking is due there on August 7. July 4 landing delayed Because the mission timetable worked out to a summer of ’76 landing, the space agency could not resist the temptation to target the first landing on July 4 to coincide with the nation’s bicentennial celebration. But photos from the orbiting Viking spacecraft revealed that the Chryse region, the scheduled landing site, might be too rough for a safe touchdown, and officials delayed the landing while they studied alternate sites. To make the mission possible, U.S. technicians have come up with at least a hundred technological advances. Take the computer-controlled camera system for instance. Should a Martian “elephant” saunter by, its portrait can be taken in color, black and white, infrared, and even stereo. The only foreseeable problem will occur if the creature is speedy: fast-moving objects show up as a streak “But we can always look at the footprints;” says Carl Sagan of Cornell University, who helped plan the camera experiments. The camera is only one of the life-detection experiments aboard the spacecraft. Its virtue, according to Dr. Sagan, is that it does not make any assumptions about Martian life. And, he adds, there is no reason to think that creatures on Mars - should they exist - will not be big enough to see. Dr. Sagan and Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have done some thinking about what life on Mars might be like. Martian environment The main problems Martians would face are lack of water and cold temperatures. The air on Mars is a hundred times drier than the driest place on Earth, and at night temperatures plummet to 200 degrees F. below zero. Because larger-bodied creatures can retain more heat, Martian life forms might be quite large, the two scientists speculate. The creatures could get necessary water by eating rocks or ice. Because of the deadly ultraviolet rays which rain down on the Martian surface, any organisms could have developed outer skeletons like insects, they feel. On Earth, for every pound of elephant there are a thousand pounds of bacteria. Reasoning that the same may be true on Mars, the two landers - no humans aboard - will extend automated scoops to retrieve some Martian soil and attempt to grow microscopic Martian life forms and detect their presence. , Crammed into just one cubic foot on board each landing craft are three automated biological laboratories complete with computer, ovens, radioactivity counters, filters, and other chemical detectors. All told, this small package contains 300,000 transistors, 2,000 other electrical parts, and 37 miniature valves. It is powered by little more energy than is used by the light bulb in a refrigerator. Interpreting the life detection experiments will be “tricky business,” admits National Aeronautics and Space Administration project scientist Gerald Soffen. Even if they think they have found something alive, the' biologists involved say they intend to be very cautious about making public announcements until they have checked and double- checked the evidence. Much as they would like to make a spectacular find, sei-
