Word: probe
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...that instruments that do not actually land on a planet can determine whether it has life. Even if there are no large, conspicuous plants or animals to see from a distance, the soil may swarm with microscopic creatures, as does the earth's. Lederberg suggests equipping an interplanetary probe with a sort of artificial anteater that will stick out a tongue of transparent tape, touch it to the planet's soil, and draw it back again for study by a built-in microscope. The enlarged pictures of dust particles could be transmitted to the earth by radio, should...