Member Questions to Administrators, Matters related to the Forum Options

[Astro0]

If you have a question about Unmanned Spaceflight.com, this is the place to ask it.

[dtolman]

In light of the paper regarding phosphine gas in Venus's atmosphere, and its implications... I had a few questions on in-scope discussion, of increasing boldness:

-is discussion of phosphine gas, instruments, methods of detection, etc - without the wider implications being mentioned - OK? I presume so, but wanted to check.

-If there are instruments being designed with the assumption that the "UV absorber" in the Venusian atmosphere/the producer of the phosphine gas/the source of the albedo changes in its atmosphere are a lifeform - and wish to sample it - are the instruments allowable for discussion if wider context is scrupulously ignored? Eg - the design of a probe or instrument to do sample collection for the mid-atmosphere, or something with an on-board chemistry lab (but nothing as egregious as a PCR device)?

-would it be possible to have a rule 1.3.1 - where discussion of lifeforms in the atmosphere are allowed in the Venus sub-forum - but only on how it *directly* effects the design and creation of a *specific instrument*. eg - how to design an instrument to look for presumptive life is OK if the discussion is limited to technical points regarding its design and construction (configuration a would be better for organic matter, configuration b would be better for looking at nucleic acids, etc) - but wider discussions on possible forms that life could take, its ecosystem and lifecycle, etc would still be firmly prohibited?