In some cases, finding life on Mars would be a very compelling find for NASA. But in this case, finding any kind of environment that could potentially support Earthly microbes is something NASA would not find to be compelling. On November 26, 2011 NASA launched the Mars rover, Curiosity, from Cape Canaveral. Before the launching of Curiosity, there was a potential contamination of one of the rover's drill bits. Six months before the launch, mission planners were concerned that the possibility of a unstable landing could damage one of the drills. To be sure, mission planners went back into the rover and installed another drill bit. By doing so, they could establish that Curiosity could sustain landing. Unfortunately, somewhere throughout this last-minute procedure, Curiosity's drill bits could have been contaminated with Earth microbes. The major concern is that if Curiosity finds water or ice and the drill bits touch water, the Earth microbes could survive on Mars. 

An article titled, "If the Mars rover finds water, it could be H2 ... uh oh!" (Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times, September 09, 2012) accurately describes the event of the contamination of Curiosity's drill bit. The author, Louis Sahagun, does not necessarily state an opinion and therefore does not come off as bias. The author simply presents the facts and details of the event. Although Sahagun did not state his opinion on the situation, I will. In the article is a statement from NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, Catharine Conley, saying, "They shouldn't have done it [opened the box] without telling me," she said "It is not responsible for us not to follow our own rules." This statement makes it clear that with a little bit of extra communication, a portion of, if not the entire problem in itself could have been avoided.  I understand that I'm just an undergrad student at the University of New Mexico. Although, I do feel that I have the right to believe that when it comes to a NASA space launch, assuming that it's okay to do something without consulting the Planetary Protection Officer first, is a big "no-no".  Understandably, being somebody who is far from perfect, I realize that we all make mistakes and NASA engineers need a break every once and a while also. With that said, their mistakes are at a much higher stake than my spilling of coffee on a good sweater. 

Some may disagree and say that I'm not having any sympathy for the engineers who contaminated Curiosity's drill bits. That isn't necessarily the point I am trying to get across, I understand that their job is very hard and I guarantee that I couldn't last a day in the life of an engineer. At the same time, the fact that this whole situation might have been avoided with some simple communication, is what seems so silly to me. Upon doing some more research on this event, I found an NPR interview conducted with host, Ira Flatow, and Catharine Conley herself. When asked for a play-by-play of what happened in this situation Conley replied, "It turned out, yes, there was this problem with the communication..." My point exactly. If the Planetary Protection Officer agrees with me, my opinion must mean something. 

The whole point of this article was to emphasize that the drill bits were contaminated with Earth microbes. I would assume that the NASA "rover building area" would be extremely sterilized. The mistake that was made here was that the engineers opened the box after the bits had been sterilized. As I am unsure as to what precautionary "anti-Earth microbe" procedures the engineers took before opening the box, it sounds like whatever they did may not have been successful. Remember, microbes have the same width as 1/100th of a human hair, so they are invisible to the naked eye.

Maybe one day NASA will find some little green friends on Mars, but hopefully not because of Curiosity's contaminated drill bits. It is clear that the issue in this situation was miscommunication and improper sterilization techniques. So, the next time you need to change the drill bits in your space rover, don't forget to sterilize for microbes. If you do forget, just make sure to tell your Planetary Protection Officer.