NASA's 1976 Viking Mission experimenter Gilbert V. Levin who had written in 1997 that his Labeled Release (LR) experiment detected living microorganisms on Mars, recently said that instruments aboard Curiosity can confirm his published claim.

Contrary to the statement of NASA that its new mission to Mars carries no life detector, Dr. Levin said that the organic analyzers and the high resolution camera on Curiosity are his "stealth life detectors."

Together with Dr. Patricia Ann Straat as his co-experimenter, Dr. Levin conducted the LR experiment that produced evidence of life on Mars. However, NASA discounted the LR results because another Viking instrument failed to find organic matter, the stuff of life.

Since the Viking mission, NASA's Mars missions have sought only evidence of habitability, not life itself.
With the new Mars mission, Dr. Levin has again announced his "life claim", noting that should Curiosity detect organic matter, his claim to life is confirmed.

Co-Experimenter Straat agrees with Levin. "I look forward to Curiosity data that may confirm our life interpretation of the LR," said Straat.

To further prove his claim, Levin has written Dr. Mike Malin, designer of Curiosity's camera, requesting for high-resolution pictures of "lichen-like" colored patches as these might be living organisms.

Levin started his Mars life-seeking efforts in 1958. In 1969, with NASA support, he began developing the LR and was appointed as team member of the IRIS experiment aboard the 1971 Mariner 9 Mars orbiter. After Viking, Levin was appointed team member of NASA's MOx experiment aboard the Russian '96 Mission to Mars, converting that soil analysis instrument to give it life detection capability.

"This is a very exciting time," says Levin, now an adjunct professor at Arizona State University, Tempe, "something for which I have been waiting for years. At the very least, the Curiosity results may bring about my long-requested re-evaluation of the Viking LR results."