Chapter 8, Problem 42POS

Learning from Past Mistakes. The Viking missions landed on Mars about 40 years ago, with ambitious experiments designed to search for life. Today, however, we know that the experimental designs were not sufficient to determine whether or not the missions were finding signs of life. Do you think the scientists should have known better at the time? How can the lessons from Viking inform future searches for life on other worlds? Write a short summary of your answers to these questions, and defend your opinions clearly.