Barry DiGregorio -  I.C.A.M.S.R.
International Committee Against Mars Sample Return

• From the years 1347 - 1350, one quarter of the European population died as a result of a flea from China carrying an unfamiliar microbe.
• Smallpox microbes brought to the America's by the Spaniards killed tens of thousands of native inhabitants not naturally immune to this "new" disease.
• When the European explorers reached the Polynesian and Hawiian Islands, 50% of the native inhabitants died as a result of imported microbes...
• In the year 2008, NASA, France, and Italy plan to bring back to the surface of the Earth, a canister from Mars filled with Martian soil, which may contain possible alien viruses and microbes. In light of the recent 1999 loss of both  the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander spacecraft (due to human error), the International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR) urges the scientific and environmental communities to sign our petition to have this mission postponed. ICAMSR seeks a complete life sciences evaluation of the surface of Mars with robotic space probes designed to look for evidence of life before samples are returned to Earth.

Links recommended by Barry DiGregorio
Here are some very classy WWW links for you regarding life in the universe, life on Mars. and planetary protection:

The Book: "Mars the Living Planet" by Barry DiGregorio

Links from interview on Microbes from Outer Space:

Open Letter from Barry DiGregorio: NASAGATE: Remember Watergate?
http://www.lauralee.com/DiGreg3.htm

Chandra Wickramasinghe Hompage
http://www.lauralee.com/chandra.htm

Sir Fred Hoyle Homepage
http://www.lauralee.com/hoyle.htm

Comet Debris Rains on Spain
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/comet_debris_000118_wg.html

Germs from Outer Space
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/flu_in_space_000121.html

Mars Invades Earth
http://www.spacedaily.com/spacecast/news/life-99g.html

International Law & Policy of Extraterrestrial Planetary Protection
http://members.tripod.com/~dcypser/pp/etpp.html

MARS: Before we Go - We got to Know
http://www.space.com/space/heds03_mod_991209.html

The MECCA Project
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/2001/lander/meca/

Mars - One Way to Stay
http://personalwebs.myriad.net/tgunn/oneway96.htm

Fears of Martians
http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/news/97/mars0307.html

Scientists plan to protect Earth from possible microbial Martians
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/98/02/16/marsmicrobes.2-0.html

Will NASA Unwittingly Confirm Life on Mars
http://www.biospherics.com/mars/spacenews/sn120699.html

The Dilemma Of Influenza
http://spacer.com/spacecast/news/life-00d1.html

Links from interview on trace fossils on Mars:

International Committee Against Mars Sample Return
http://www.icamsr.org

Barnacle Bill High Resolution Image by Dr. Timothy Parker:
http://mars.sgi.com/ops/Barnacle_Bill_InsPan_Sres.jpg

Note the distribution of holes in Barnacle Bill, and then look at the soil directly underneath. You can see some small pieces have broken off that look similar to trace fossils on Earth. Is that a fossil worm (looks like n "s") on the soil next to Barnacle Bill?

Here is a collection of high-res images taken by Mars Pathfinder in true color. Note that Mars is not red!
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/mpf/high-res.html

Links from interview on microbial life on Mars:

One of the best links about lifeforms that might exist on Mars is:
http://www.palomar.edu/Wayne/ploct97.htm

Dr. Levin's historic 1997 Biospherics Press Release:
http://www.biospherics.com/pressrelease/pr073097.htm

Dr. Gilbert V. Levin's historic 1997 SPIE Proceeding's Paper Online:
http://www.biospherics.com/mars/spie/spiehtml.htm

Announement of this years SPIE "Astrobiology" Conference in San Diego:
http://www.spie.org/web/meetings/calls/sd98/conf/sd15.html

Here is a great site (link) about life in the universe:
http://www.panspermia.org/

Here is one of the best master-links about life in the galaxy:
http://www.execulink.com/~louisew/lifelinks.htm

Here is a link on the importance of planetary contamination issues:
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/info/mars/Protect.txt

Links for interview on Mars Samples Return to Earth - March 13,1999

ICAMSR -International Committee Against Mars Sample Return-Main Page
http://www.icamsr.org

ICAMSR-Petition
http://www.icamsr.org/petition.html

Water on Mars ? H2O Snow - Image by Dr . Gilbert V . Levin
http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/probes/mars/marssnow.jpg

NASA-Sketch Drawings of Mars Sample Return Mission
http://gumbus.jsc.nasa.gov/misr/sketch/MISR_sketches.html

" E.T. in Quarantine " Article by Jim Oberg Feb. 1999
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/oberg990204.html

Article In Space Views Jan . 1999
http://www.spaceviews/com/1999/02/othernews.html

Dr. Gilbert V. Levin's plea to fellow scientist  Jan . 1999
http://www.biospherics.com/mars/mars/letter.htm

" The Shape of Mars Missions to Come " by Alan Boyle 
http://www.ee.fit.edu/users/1pinto/Science/Searching/Articles/Missions_to_Mars-5.html

Note from Barry DiGregorio
My book "Mars The Living Planet -should have been released in June 1997, however due to circumstances beyond my control (the publisher) it will be released closer to August. Why should it matter? Chapter 9 is written by Dr. Gilbert V. Levin who concludes absolutely that his experiment on the Viking Landers in 1976 discovered living microorganisms in the soil of Mars. In examining over 100 different lines of evidence myself over a four year period --I concur with Levin's conclusion. Will Mars Pathfinder show us any evidence of life? Perhaps, if NASA will allow true color images of the surface of Mars --not images with infrared filters! True color images of Mars are reproduced using only the primary colors red, green, and blue. If cousins of alage or photosynthetic bacteria exist in the Martian soil and on the surfaces of some rocks --then Mars Pathfinder will have confirmed additional evidence for life on Mars. Also, rocks at the Pathfinder landing site may show evidence of fossils. Note that none of NASA's new spacecraft have life detection experiments in spite of efforts by other exobiologists who have submiited numerous proposals to do so. Why are life-detection experiments being considered by NASA as non-essential when they continue with their plan to bring back a soil sample from Mars? If there is even a one-in-a-million chance that Martian soil contains viable living microorganims (and I show that the soil is indeed alive in my book) then NASA needs to thoroughly investigate the nature of that life on the surface of Mars (not on Earth!) by sending robotic spacecraft equipped with a host of biology experiments and microscopes and other biological testing equipment. If we bring back a sample from Mars assuming it is harmless --it could cause the greatest environmental disaster since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. I encourage all readers interested in life in the universe to read my book.

Barry DiGregorio Mars: The Living Planet SEE links recommended by Barry DiGregorio

This highly readable "science story" examines in detail the evidence for and against the presence of life on Mars today—specifically, microbial life, as sought by the biology experiments of the 1976 Viking Mission to Mars, and as announced unexpectedly last August by NASA in regard to a Martian meteorite discovered in Antarctica. One of Viking's biology experiments, Gilbert Levin's Labeled Release experiment, produced intriguing results which some consider to be valid evidence for life. Martian meteorite ALH 84001—found in Antarctica and believed to contain fossilized bacteria from Mars—has made the Labeled Release data even more relevant to this important question of life on Mars. Upcoming explorations by Mars Pathfinder in the summer of 1997 and beyond should trigger even more speculation and investigation into the Mars life issue.

Mars: The Living Planet contains a thorough review of biology experiments carried out on Mars in 1976, with an emphasis on the work of Dr. Gilbert V. Levin. The author has done extensive interviews with Dr. Levin, and Levin himself supplies a provocative conclusion to the book with additional comments by Dr. Levin's Co-Experimenter, Dr. Patricia Straat. Dr. Levin continues to maintain that his experiment more likely than not discovered life on Mars in 1976. Advances in microbiology since that time seem only to bolster the case for life on Mars. In recent years microbial life has been found in places on Earth long considered unsuitable for life, such as hot deep sea trenches and subterranean rock environments. Given these discoveries, along with the evidence provided by Martian meteorites on Earth, what was once considered unlikely—microbial life on Mars—is now up for serious reconsideration. DiGregorio thoroughly explores all avenues in his relentless search for the truth about life on Mars, including social, religious and political obstacles. A fascinating overview of a subject that cries out for resolution!