The Verdict

The first phase of the Viking mission ended November 8 when Mars passed behind the Sun, interrupting radio communications with the Red Planet. Viking would resume after a while and continue operating in an “extended mission.” On November 9, however, NASA held a Viking news conference. Soffen, Klein, Sagan, and Klaus Biemann of MIT, leader of the team analyzing GCMS data, were present to answer media inquiries. Relevant data and analyses from Viking і and 2 were now in. The scientists stated that the evidence of life was contra­dictory. Klein, responding to a reporter’s questions, said of the data, “I would say that on the basis of incomplete evidence, which is where we are today, we cannot say conclusively that there is life on Mars. I would say we cannot say conclusively that there is not life on Mars.”83 The media representatives pressed for a yes or no answer; instead, they heard the scientists declare an absence of what Sagan called “conclusive explanations of what we’re seeing.” Sagan pled for the media to have “an increased tolerance for ambiguity.”84

The scientists tried to explain that Viking had sampled just two places on a large planet and dug just a few inches beneath the surface, but such caveats were “lost in the noise.” What was perceived by the media and conveyed to Congress and the public was “stripped of nuance, laden with finality.” The verdict: “no life on Mars.”85