[ambrose]

Maybe Radio Astronomer can answer your question, but it is my understanding that NASA goes to great lengths to avoid having ANY kind of microbes or living tissue of any kind whatsoever on the Martian surface. They don't want any contamination which could mess up testing results.

I imagine that insects like cockroaches could certainly survive a trip to Mars, but doing that could open a Pandora's Box...

[MissCalico]

"They don't want any contamination which could mess up testing results."

I was thinking of a kind of hermetically sealed space suit with all the tests performed from within. It really doesn't too plausible though, I agree.

[MikeD]

You're right -- there is a *very* heavy descrub process to remove all microbes, spores, viruses, and any other trace of organic material from Mars probes. Planetary missions are divided into categories, ranging from, say, the Pluto mission (no need for decontamination because you're flying by a dead world) to Mars orbiters (heavy decontamination). There's an actual classification system/nomenclature which escapes me at the moment...

MD