Part 4/8:
Despite these findings, the mission scientists faced a significant dilemma: a third instrument, the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS), reported a stark absence of organic carbon compounds, leading to the dismissal of the positive signals from the previous experiments.
The Faulty Court of Appeal: GCMS
The GCMS was intended to detect organic matter in the Martian soil. However, it emerged that the device had not been functioning correctly, a fact that not only became apparent after the fact but had also been hinted at during the pre-launch phase. Numerous studies conducted on Earth using identical equipment have shown that GCMS can fail to detect life, even in environments known to harbor microbial life, such as Antarctic soils.