Obviously we don't want ancient Mars viruses or whatever killing us all. But we also don't want to contaminate the samples with Earth-stuff.

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theragra a day ago | parent [-]

Afaik it is very unlikely anything from mars can affect us in any way. All our bacteria and viruses have millions of years of coevolution.

Best example is how almost all cat and dog infections do not affect humans. And cats and dogs are mammals!

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TheCraiggers a day ago | parent [-]

Sure, but you missed my entire point, which was we don't want to contaminate the samples.

The entire point is looking for evidence of life and organic material. Would be a shame to spend all those billions just to not be sure if the organic material we're looking at came from Earth or Mars.

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hyperhello a day ago | parent [-]

Wouldn’t we be able to tell under an electron microscope?

	▲	IAmBroom 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Short answer: No. Long answer: Maybe, but it would take a lot of detailed study to be absolutely sure.