It was stated that none of the Soviet probes were designed
to search for life forms, so being decontaminated may not
have been a high priority.
Mars 2 and 6 crashed on the Red Planet. Mars 3 did
make the first successful soft landing on the planet,
but ceased transmitting only 90 seconds into its mission.
It has been confirmed that Zond 2, which flew by
Mars in 1965 (but without returning data, as it had
stopped communicating with Earth just months before
its arrival), was not sterilized at all. There were
concerns that the probe actually impacted with Mars
rather than fly by it at the estimated distance of
1,488 kilometers (930 miles) and spread terrestrial
microorganisms into the Martian environment.
For more information, see these Web URLs:
http://www.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/ejasa/1989/jasa8910.txt
http://www.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/ejasa/1991/jasa9104.txt
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/marspage.html
Larry
At 04:36 PM 01/22/1999 -0800, Bill Arnett wrote:
>>> the Soviets imported Earth microbes to Mars in the early 1970s.)
>
>?? Is this know to be true? Or is it just a possibility? Or an urban myth?
>---
>Bill Arnett "Quantum Mechanics:
>Emerald Hills, CA 37N 122W the dreams stuff is made of"
>billa@zNet.com <URL:http://www.seds.org/billa/>
>