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Comment by api | Hacker News Reader

A probably dumb question: why don't these missions carry a microscope instrument and a drill? We know there is sub-surface ice or water (brine) at some locations. Bring some up and look at it.

I ask because there's a minor conspiracy theory that's made the rounds that NASA either has these things on board secretly or deliberately does not include them because they don't want to actually find evidence of life. I find that pretty unlikely and figure it's probably a lot harder to build such an instrument and get useful results than you'd think.

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A drill, like on the Curiosity[1] and Perseverance[2] rovers?

They don't have microscopes, but they do collect the samples for potential future recovery.

[1]: https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8314/curiosity-tests-a-new-way-to...

[2]: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/arm/

Both these things are very likely to break down.

Using a drill as a human with hands is easy.

Using a drill on another planet where any jam or failure is permanent is staggeringly hard.

A robot can't just chuck up a bit, or wipe down dust and dirt which is stopping something from working. Or quickly regrease a bearing.

Ultimately one of the best arguments on favor of manned exploration is that despite our robotics, a human in a space suit with a shovel would get an incredible amount done in a few hours.

EDIT: drills have flown, but they are limited in capability.

Not an astrobiologist, but am a microbiologist. IMO microscopes wouldn't be very definitive. I'd suspect they have some magnification capabilities to some extent, even for geology analysis, For microbial life, getting chemical signatures would be much more valuable. They appear to have a mass spec. GC and laser spectrometer suite that can do some of that usefully. https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/spacecraft/instruments/sam/

IMO, the idea of NASA sandbagging on finding life is silly. It's like Pharma hiding the cure for cancer. there are real people in those organizations and that type of insanity wouldn't stay secret for long. (note to anyone replying I will not discuss/argue this stuff on this board, as it won't go anywhere productively.)

There is no life on Mars, so it s probably too expensive to bring useless instruments ?

We're not even sure there's no life on the moon. There could be liquid water in deep underground lakes and there would be no sign of it on the surface.

We're not all convinced there is life here on earth. Or at least intelligent life.

Who is this "we"? The flatearters?

I guess the ones who aren't convinced are supposedly the intelligent ones?

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