Rover and Curiousity have terrible hygiene

[besilarius]

Nothing a good shower couldn't fix.

http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-why-nasa-s-mars-rovers-are-banned-from-investigating-that-liquid-water

[LongBlade]

Weird. You would think they could shrink wrap it or something to hermetically seal it until it arrives at destination.

[Sir Slash]

Build a Robo-Carwash to clean the space probes.

[Staggerwing]

Weird. You would think they could shrink wrap it or something to hermetically seal it until it arrives at destination.

Then all you would do is lock in the very earth bugs which the labcoats fear will contaminate the Martian hydrosystem. Since the fragile systems of the rovers cannot be sterilized after completion you would have to set up a complete sealed sterile factory where every rover component is made from base stock such as iron ore, silicon, and the petrochemical base for many of the plastics. Raw materials go in one microwave/airlock and completed rovers come out the other, sealed for freshness.

[LongBlade]

Weird. You would think they could shrink wrap it or something to hermetically seal it until it arrives at destination.

Then all you would do is lock in the very earth bugs which the labcoats fear will contaminate the Martian hydrosystem. Since the fragile systems of the rovers cannot be sterilized after completion you would have to set up a complete sealed sterile factory where every rover component is made from base stock such as iron ore, silicon, and the petrochemical base for many of the plastics. Raw materials go in one microwave/airlock and completed rovers come out the other, sealed for freshness.

For some reason I thought everything we sent over there was germ free. I guess not, though you'd think they'd sent sterile stuff over for exactly the same reason - just in case. I would argue that we've already "polluted" Mars.

[Staggerwing]

We are after all the very same species that went from the village kitchen midden to Mount Trashmore and the Great Pacific Trash Vortex in the blink of a geologic eye. Soon enough Mars will know us all too well.

[bbmike]

The part I never knew: "every country on Earth is bound by the stipulations of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forbids "anyone from sending a mission, robot or human, close to a water source in the fear of contaminating it with life from Earth".

Then how the heck do we study it for life and other things?  ???

[Sir Slash]

Somebody better tell Matt Damon that real quick.