"Sander Vesik" wrote in message
...
Dolores Claman wrote:

"Jon Berndt" wrote in message
...
"Dolores Claman" wrote:

I heard Prof Pillinger (Beagle 2 notoriety) on Sky last night.
He was basically saying that there was no way that either of the
NASA rovers would be able to determine whether life had or
currently existed on Mars.

The press has screwed this one up. The rovers are not meant to search
for
life and their instruments are for geology. The stated purpose for
these
rovers is to examine the rocks and soil for signs of water, etc. --
i.e.
to
determine if *conditions* might have ever been conducive to
*supporting*
life.

Pillinger is exactly correct.

He and you are both wrong. Fossil finds by the Mer rovers would
prove that life had existed. End of story.


The MER rovers are incapable of distinguishing the only type of fossile
that could possibly be found on mars from some other kind of structure.
I heavily doubt they even have such microscopes as would be needed.

Thats complete rubbish, the microscopic analyzer is perfectly capable
of seeing a fossil.

You are making ridiculous assumptions about what kind of life may
be found in a martian fossil record.