Word: martianize
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From New York harbor, the tall ships will move up the Hudson River under a cumulus of sail, like a stately apparition from another century. A few hours later, more than 200 million miles away in space, America's Viking lander will glide through the thin Martian atmosphere and settle on the Red Planet like a gray metal mantis...
Then came what should have been the greatest letdown for the true believers. In 1965 Mariner 4 passed within 6,118 miles of the Martian surface and returned pictures showing what seemed to be a lifeless, cratered, moonlike planet. But even those desolate scenes failed to dissuade the diehards. In 1965 Carl Sagan-then a relatively unknown Harvard astronomer, now the best-known proponent of Martian life and a member of the Viking-lander photoanalysis team-suggested that had a Martian version of Mariner 4 passed within 6,000 miles of earth and taken 22 comparable photographs, it would have...
...data to its orbiting mother ship for relay back to scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the other probe of the eight-year-old $1 billion Viking program was closing in on Mars. The twin Viking 2 spacecraft is scheduled to send still another lander to the Martian surface on Sept. 4, either to expand the search or to stand in for Viking 1 should something go amiss with the first lander. Scientists rate Viking's chances of a successful landing at 70%. Unlike the Apollo lunar module, which could be maneuvered out of harm...
...Other than a helium leak that caused excess pressure in the spacecraft's propulsion system as it neared Mars, Viking had performed flawlessly since leaving Cape Canaveral last August on its journey across space. As it neared its destination a fortnight ago, gathering speed as the pull of Martian gravity increased, Viking took increasingly detailed pictures of Mars. They showed no evidence of the swirling sandstorms that had obscured the surface as Mariner 9 approached in 1971, and the proposed Viking landing site in Chryse was clearly visible. Even more significant to the scientists, the Martian atmosphere showed discernible...
Soil Scoop. On Mars, the laboratory will be served by a mechanical arm, which will reach out and scoop soil up from the surface. One small sample of soil will be dropped into a vessel containing natural Martian atmosphere. Then water vapor and carbon dioxide tagged with radioactive carbon 14 will be added. After five days of incubation under simulated Martian sunlight, the atmosphere will be removed, and the soil heated to 1160° F., hot enough to vaporize organic material. If any organism in the soil has incorporated the radioactive carbon dioxide by a process similar to terrestrial photosynthesis...