Recently, there has been a lot of clamor surrounding exploring Mars. The most prominent subject of this exploration has been the search for past habitation in Martian soil. Yet, in all this excitement, it is easy to forget that this mission had not begun in our generation. In this article, we share how a group of scientists embarked on this mission half a century ago.

Project Viking: The mission that started it all

Before now, Mars has been of particular interest to astronomers and scientists alike. The Martian soil had not only been a distant red planet, but it had also been an edge for habitational curiosity. Therefore, while we may think humanity is overly stimulated to explore the planet. It is important to note that this curiosity was born over 50 years ago.

At the time, the United States was at war with the Soviet Union. And like the moon landing, several attempts had been made by the Soviets to reach Martian soil. This was carried out via the Mars 3 lander, which failed due to unknown reasons in 1971. However, 5 years later, the United States successfully launched the Viking lander 1 in 1976.

When NASA launched Project Viking, the mission was clear: to test the soils of Mars for proof or signs of biological activity. By that time, the Viking mission was the most advanced man-made experiment, and compared to today, the technology may have been limited. However, the scientists who worked on it believed they had found life.

50 Years later, veteran reignites claim of life on Mars

The two scientists who developed NASA’s Viking lander 1 mission were Joan Oró and Gilbert V. Levin. The two scientists joined NASA in delivering a twin spacecraft to Mars. In these two instruments were two designed to check for life on Mars, namely the labeled release (LR), and the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS).

However, due to how complex Mars was at the time, the Viking experiment produced mixed signal results. While the overall data revealed the presence of chemical metabolism on Mars, questions were raised about the actual presence of organic life. This caused a huge debate among scientists and biologists at the time, similar to how this strange black-skull discovery stunned scientists.

Now, 50 years later, while NASA and the scientific community have sidelined the findings of the Viking mission, one person has stood his ground. This is Gilbert Levin, who was the principal developer for the labeled release (LR) equipment. He argued and has reaffirmed his claim that Viking did, in fact, test positive for microbial activity on Mars.

Gilbert Levins’ claim is not completely dismissed.

Just like Levin, the scientific community has also remained adamant in their claims. However, newer missions by NASA have since found proof of reactive chemistry that destroys organic life on Mars. Without the technology to prove this either, both Levin and the scientific community have remained on edge with their claims.

How does this affect future Martian explorations?

While everyone remains in the dark, it is impossible to make a definite claim. However, if it is confirmed that the Viking mission was correct, it would mean a lot. NASA would, for one, re-strategize its approach to collecting and analyzing samples. They would also need to revisit the hotspots investigated by the Viking mission.

This would make it easy and seamless to explore Mars, especially with more advanced technology. Also, in half a century, we would finally be able to agree with Gilbert Levin’s claims. Beyond any of these, coming to a conclusion on the Vikings’ claims earlier could mean something bigger. NASA is planning to develop the first human civilization on Mars. Proof of life could help NASA navigate the landscape and biochemical territories on Mars, like the strange DNA-style signal detected on Mars.

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