Microbes have survived on Earth for 90% of the planet's history despite all the climate change. Mars has had liquid oceans over long periods too.

They will easily be able to see bio-markers if they exist at this scale:

http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/astrobiology/biomarkers/images.cfm

Long odds, but it's just possible these guys will be the first to see evidence of the Holy Grail they are after. And us too!

Sorry for barging in, just a quick comment then I'll slink away to lurk-mode again.

These mission scientists are circumspect and they won't state things until they have absolute proof, and that's good. But:

As soon as we saw what got exposed by the rockets it was instantly obvious that anywhere they dug they would find more ice. By the flat heterogeneous landscape it's true for miles around. Phoenix is sitting on a frozen f'ing lake bed. Orbital data already says there is a vast amount of water ice underneath.

Other things that strike me as just 'obvious:'

They are digging these trenches side by side to make a clean workspace for going as deep as they can reach without surface material cascading into it, so as to get purer ice samples.

At this latitude the 'surface,' the depth to which sublimation happens at this time of year, is ideal. It's an awesome location for this experiment. They nailed it, absolutely perfectly.

But the real shock is yet to come, if it does: That will be if/when they detect amino acids in the ice makeup. On that discovery, they will be very, very circumspect - as they should be.

Very exciting times, it's truly historic. Water ice up close is unprecedented.

Thanks for this forum and to all who post, it's a terrific read. You do a superb job of getting down to details, which is why someone 'stating the obvious' is just a bandwidth-waster on one level, but is hopefully also perspective provoking and encouraging. Cheers

welcome, other newcomer, i agree

Is it possible these (in my red circle) cracked apart from what had been one (ice)rock? The body countours leading to the clean 'fracture' surfaces appear to match well. Could the combination of the rocket's temperature and thrust have both moved the rock, and then also cracked it apart? That group certainly looks curious. It's as if they moved, then popped, then landed, then got some more debris washed up against the bottom edges while the new surfaces somehow remained pristine.