“They’re for kick starting life on that rock.”
“Kickstarting life” on a planet unsuitable for life seems like a fruitless quest to me, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.
““Kickstarting life” on a planet unsuitable for life seems like a fruitless quest to me...”
There are earthbound microbes and the like, which have evolved to live in environments even more hostile and extreme than that on Mars.
Scientists have dubbed them, ‘extremophiles’.
It’s been postulated that some strains could easily survive on Mars.