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Using the Viking biology experimental results to obtain chemical information about Martian regolithAlthough initially formulated as biology experiments, most of the results produced by the Viking Labeled Release (LR), Gas Exchange (GEX), and Pyrolytic Release (PR) experiments have been reproduced by chemical means. The experiments do not need more study as 'biological' phenomena, but they do deserve much more careful consideration from a chemical viewpoint. They are the only 'wet-chemical' experiments that scientists have performed on another planet, but they have not found very general use as sources of scientific information. There is a large set of potentially useful chemical observations, e.g., the three resolvable and precisely measured kinetic components of the release of C-14-labeled gases, the thermal sensitivity and magnitudes of the oxidation reaction(s) of the LR experiments, the kinetics and magnitude of the O2 and CO2 release of the GEX experiments, the thermal sensitivity of the GEX results, the differences between the thermal sensitivity of the GEX and the thermal sensitivity of the LR responses, and the kinetics and magnitudes of the LR successive injection reabsorption effect. It should be possible to test many chemical aspects of hypothetical martian phenomena in experiments using the biology experimental configurations and derive much valuable information by comparisons with the Viking observations.
Document ID
19930022766
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other
Authors
Plumb, Robert C.
(Brown Univ. Providence, RI, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
September 12, 1992
Publication Information
Publication: Lunar and Planetary Inst., MSATT Workshop on Chemical Weathering on Mars
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
93N31955
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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