[stolen_biscuit]

Why would there be a bunch of tardigrades sitting on the probe? Unless they walk out to their nearest moss pile and smear it all over I think the chances are remarkably, incredibly slim.

You know they go to every length to sterilize the probe before launch?

[sph]

Remarkably slim is not impossible.

Let me remind you of when we sent a probe to Earth, thinking it was sterile, and a few billions of years later our RNA-based lifeforms had spread everywhere.

[Laaas]

Why do they sterilise it? Seems counter-intuitive.

[Vecr]

Why is it counter-intuitive? If you send microbes to another planet, it's not possible to figure out if there were any before you arrived.