Terrestrial sanitation.....

[Brian37]

There is a longstanding thought in space exploration that you sanitize all equipment when sending it to other celestial bodies to insure that your findings won't give you a false positive that what you find might give you the false impression that the life you think you have discovered originated from another body.

Here is my question, WHY is this important? I would think that if would be more important to prove our life can exist on other bodies. That would prove life is possible elsewhere.

For example, it would NOT surprise me if we sent tardigrades to the poles of Mars or Pluto and could prove our life could survive on other bodies.

[arewethereyet]

Cross-contamination is always a thing to be avoided in scientific studies.

Unless, of course, you are studying cross-contamination.

[Silver]

The purest form of sanitation is fire.

[Belacqua]

Here is my question, WHY is this important?

If you went to Mars and found cockroaches, you want to be sure that the cockroaches didn't come with you.

[Brian37]

Cross-contamination is always a thing to be avoided in scientific studies.

Unless, of course, you are studying cross-contamination.

I am all for avoiding false positives.

But considering the distance of space, it would seem more important to prove that our life could survive on other bodies. 

I can see for example a tardigrade surviving on the poles of Mars or Pluto. 

Considering the trillions of galaxies, which would mean googles of planets I have no doubt that other life exists in the universe. So the only thing to me, left to figure out is if there is other life out our level, and that also should not surprise anyone. I would however argue, because of distance any life that can think like humans is probably so remote it is stuck in the same position we are. 

So short term, I think to prove life exists elsewhere would be to prove it can exist locally outside our planet.

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Here is my question, WHY is this important?

If you went to Mars and found cockroaches, you want to be sure that the cockroaches didn't come with you.

Um no, if our cockroaches could survive on Mars, that would prove to me life is possible elsewhere.

[Belacqua]

Um no, if our cockroaches could survive on Mars, that would prove to me life is possible elsewhere.

That's right; it would prove that.

If your goal is to discover whether there is or isn't already life on Mars, however, then you shouldn't bring some with you and then think it's native.

[John 6IX Breezy]

I don't think the issue would be us mistaking life as extraterrestrial when it originated from earth. We have sufficient knowledge about our own microbes, that I doubt we would mistake it for anything else.

Perhaps the issue is that our microbes would be invasive in space, and potentially prey on whatever could be found there.

[Brian37]

The purest form of sanitation is fire.

Meh, pretty sure neither you or I will be alive in 5 billion years when scientists say our sun's  fuel is estimated to run out.

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I don't think the issue would be us mistaking life as extraterrestrial when it originated from earth. We have sufficient knowledge about our own microbes, that I doubt we would mistake it for anything else.

Perhaps the issue is that our microbes would be invasive in space, and potentially prey on whatever could be found there.

Yea but we are already an invasive species.

If the point of science is to prove life can exist elsewhere, pretty sure sticking a tardigrade on the poles of Mars isn't going t lead to humans invading another galaxy.

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Um no, if our cockroaches could survive on Mars, that would prove to me life is possible elsewhere.

That's right; it would prove that.

If your goal is to discover whether there is or isn't already life on Mars, however, then you shouldn't bring some with you and then think it's native.

UGGGGGG!

Way to miss the point.

Just the opposite. If you can put your own life on another body, that would prove that life is possible in more of the universe. And considering that atoms exist all over the universe, it would confirm that life has potential and abundance all over the universe. 

Most scientists would agree that it is far more likely than not that life exists throughout the universe. What better way to prove that than to send our own microbes out to a local body to prove that is possible.

[John 6IX Breezy]

If the point of science is to prove life can exist elsewhere, pretty sure sticking a tardigrade on the poles of Mars isn't going t lead to humans invading another galaxy.

The tardigrades would be invasive; their survival would be at the expense of Mars' resources, including any life forms it eats which we would want to discover.

[Fireball]

To the OP-

Space capsules were scrubbed down before being brought aboard Navy ships after splashdown...in the most nutrient-rich part of the world- the ocean! If they brought anything back, it's already here. Now, I picture tardigrades sitting on Mars waiting for that water-laden comet...and they probably weren't brought there from here. Go write some poetry, willya!?