QUESTION:
Are there any Nitrogen compounds to be found in Martian rocks or soil? Are
you even looking for them?

ANSWER from Jack Farmer on August 6, 1997:
There is a small amount of Nitrogen in the Martian atmosphere. But Nitrogen
in the Martian crust is another story. Viking did not report any Nitrogen in
the soil, although some have suggested it may be somewhere as nitrates. But
such compounds have not yet been discovered on Mars. I'm not sure what
Pathfinder may find, but we will all be interested to see if Nitrogen
compounds show up in the APXS analyses sometime during the mission.