The article is slightly less dramatic than the headline (as is the way, I suppose). The author is not suggesting that the Viking landers could have done anything other than that, and he’s advocating for another mission that would test his hypothesis that any remaining life near the surface might survive by sucking miniscule amounts of moisture out of the air.
The article is slightly less dramatic than the headline (as is the way, I suppose). The author is not suggesting that the Viking landers could have done anything other than that, and he’s advocating for another mission that would test his hypothesis that any remaining life near the surface might survive by sucking miniscule amounts of moisture out of the air.
I’m all for more Mars missions, it just seems a needless smear of Viking in order to achieve that.