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The aim is to settle the question of whether life exists on Mars, or ever has, before clouding the issue with modern contamination. I say modern just in case of various panspermia-type possibilities.

That doesn't preclude eventually spreading life to Mars. Even if living indigenous bacteria, or even plant life(!) were found - I think this is the most ambitious scenario now conceivable, the 'Mars mat' of fiction suviving in caves - it likely wouldn't be an argument to stop colonisation, though it might have bearing on arguments about terraforming.




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