If it's coming up in a geyser, then I guess it makes some sense. Subterranean water would not necessarily be the same temperature as the surface. Of course, it would likely either evaporate or freeze very quickly.
Personally, I think it's a waste to spend billions to see if microbial life exists on Mars. So what if it does? To me, that would not be all that surprising, nor would it be a very useful bit of information. I would be more interested in exploring exploitable resources.
Well, we've found Martian meteorites on Earth, it's almost a certainty that some Earth rocks made it to Mars.
And I thing about the first half dozen to dozen probes that we sent there didn't have extensive bacterial decontamination before they were launched, that's a relatively recent protocol.
We should terraform it. Send up some lichens, molds, mosquitoes and dumpster divers.
Before you know it, somebody would be selling condos.
Well in my opinion I think the significance would be extraordniary. If we found life on Mars, it would have had to develop totally independent of life on Earth. We could see how our life compares to life on other planets? Or if we come from the same mold, with the same type of structure than we could conclude that life develops the same everywhere, or we were all spawned from the same source.
No doubt microbial life does exist on Mars.. We brought it there.. On some of the equipment we landed there.. Same with the moon..