Why push for something like this?? We've polluted one planet, no need to ruin another one.
/sarcasm
I guess I have to watch Peter Jenning's 2 hour UFO special at 8pm now. Where that dang roll of tin foil?
This is a question that can't be answered by remote instrumentation, it will probably take humans to do the decisive analysis. I don't think robots would be adequate, you would have to do in-field tests based on observations that only a human on-site could make.
At this stage of our exploration this question is about as compelling as "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
Citizens argue the case for the need for this crap
Do the "Save the World" greenies know about this? Methane Gas....ugh! /humor
The screwball dynamic duo of George Noory and Richard C. Hoagland are all over this like it's Richard's discovery. Someone needs to tell them that broken clocks are correct twice a day, even chimpanzees can shoot baskets, and pseudo-scientific ramblings regardless if proved true are still just unsubstantiated tripe. That's why your calculus teacher makes you show the work. Getting the correct answer is worthless without showing the steps of reasoning involved. In short, Hoagland is a farce. A twenty-first century charletan of the lowest order, and Noory is his stooge.
Is that the only place one would find formaldehyde, in methane? And is methane formed only from microbes? ... That we know of?
I'm not trying to imply anything with those questions. I just don't know the answers.
Time to crank up the Genesis Machine, and let Ted Williams piggy-back a ride on it.
Prediction #1: Methane-producing microbial life will be found to exist on Mars. Prediction #2: The microbes on Mars will either share a common ancestor with, or else be direct evolutionary descendents of, either microbial life here on Earth or extinct forms of microbial life here on Earth.
I'll leave it to the reader to imagine the several possible scenarios that could explain how Prediction #2 could be true.
Martian flatulence ping.