This is a continuation of the thread below. See

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=131070&article=10788

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=131070&article=10744

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I noted (indeed, could expect) the following piece by DiGregorio:

The Quarantine And Certification Of Martian Samples
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01g.html

which certainly does reflect the "alarmist" viewpoint about sample return. At any rate, the piece contains at least one outright error. DiGregorio states:

"NASA's sole contender for a Mars Sample Return capsule is "The Catchers Mit [sic]" approach. NASA intends to return Mars soil samples in a basketball-sized container that will enter Earth's atmosphere without a parachute..."

DiGregorio, willfully or not, appears to be uninformed about the latest Mars plans. While passive Earth entry was the baseline in all previous MSR architectures, the latest plans envision an Earth entry vehicle utilizing a parachute landing (See AW&ST, Dec. 11, 2000, pg. 59). Moreover, retrieval of the samples from low Earth orbit by the Shuttle is also being considered.

While DiGregorio is entitled to his own opinion, he is not entitled to his own "facts."

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii