Greetings,

          Reading off the NASA web gems it appears we may have a problem gathering samples

from the Phoenix Mission. Hopefully not- cross your fingers.

          Does anyone remember Carl Sagan then at JPL trying to get a friends experiment on the Viking probe called the Wolf-trap ? It was a rather simple idea - place a growth mediam that  mirco organisms may like to grow in and send it to Mars. Mr. Wolf Vishniac working in Antartica  called his eperiment the Wolf trap.

I wasn't around when the Viking missions went to mars. They were a few years before my time. However, I do know a guy who was involved in building the Viking Probes. He is in my Astronomy club. He was one of the engineers for the thing I believe. Anyway, he told me once about the boxes you are referring too. They costed around a million a piece back then and there were three of them. Only one of the testers recorded a very very VERY slight increase in gases within the container but no one thought anything of it except one guy. I understand he has been a pain in the**** ever since then.

 Thanks for the Post,

          if I remember the context of Professor Sagans article it simply stated that Wolf Vishniac's

original Viking test was rejected because it alledgedly could have killed certain supposed Martian microbs - However Sagan pointed out that the 'Wolf-trap' had proven it's usefullness in Antartica in finding small life forms. It was also simple and cheap.

 Thanks again for the posting.