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7 THE SAMPLE-RECEIVING FACILITY
Pages 30-33

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From page 30...
... If tests for potential pathogenesis are deemed necessary, they would be more efficiently conducted by challenging cultured plant and animal tissues rather than plants and animals directly. There will be a need for an appropriately stringent biological containment capability and for a broadly multidisciplinary science team to carry out the initial evaluation and characterization of samples returned from Mars.
From page 31...
... , microbial paleontology and evolution, field ecology and laboratory culture, cell and molecular biology, organic and light stable isotope geochemistry, petrology, mineralogy, and martian geology. Although NASA has developed extensive plans for a Mars sample-receiving facility (Townsend, 1990)
From page 32...
... The various investigative techniques and strategies required to adequately characterize and preserve samples returned from Mars interrelate in such a complex way that it will be essential for the multidisciplinary science team to form a consensus on goals and approaches prior to receipt of any sample material. This will occur only if the investigators have sufficient experience working together as a team investigating sample analogs such as martian meteorites and appropriate terrestrial samples.
From page 33...
... THE SAMPLE-RECEIVING FACILITY 33 samples, the life detection techniques thus developed might serve as the basis for improved technology for the robotic exploration of planetary surfaces. Samples returned from Mars would constitute an especially interesting specimen in an ongoing series of specimens analyzed by the facility, and the research carried out there would produce significant scientific results regardless of whether the martian samples contained evidence of past or present life.


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