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[Sirus]

But how'd they figure that out now, instead of a couple years ago when the thing was launched? Were they going through old surveillance footage for shits n' giggles?

[kaijyuu]

One of the engineers probably got guilty about it and told someone.

[Sirus]

If that's the case, dude should lose his job. Hell, a lawsuit wouldn't be out of the question. Millions of dollar's worth of equipment now cannot be used.

[Euld]

I'd almost bet money that Curiosity will find a gigantic swimming pool and accidentally fall in.  Horrible?  Yes.  Funny?  Well I think it would be.  Maybe.

[kaijyuu]

What would a Martian swimming pool be like, I wonder?

[Sirus]

Cold, obviously. Unless the Martians invented heating.

[Scelly9]

It's actually not that cold at foot level, head level however is freezing.

[Derekristow]

But how'd they figure that out now, instead of a couple years ago when the thing was launched? Were they going through old surveillance footage for shits n' giggles?

Unless I missed something, the article doesn't actually say when they found out.  It could be that they found out the day after launch, and nobody in the press bothered to ask until now.

[Skyrunner]

That's too bad. :<

[Scoops Novel]

One of the most impressive fuckups i've ever heard of.

[Scoops Novel]

To what extent can they work around it? Apparently the spectrometer and laser is still good to go, but would they not be able to expose the water? I'm just wondering to extent this is the media circus, but this was a collosal ballsup.

[palsch]

To what extent can they work around it? Apparently the spectrometer and laser is still good to go, but would they not be able to expose the water? I'm just wondering to extent this is the media circus, but this was a collosal ballsup.

So long as they aren't in an area with water the risks are minimal.

The original LA Times article answers most of these questions directly.

[sluissa]

I don't care how careful you are, contamination will happen, they should just get over it... besides, it'll be all over one day when we send humans there... the dirty, bacteria ridden, unclean meat bags that we are.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

What they're mostly worried about is being unable to investigate scientifically. If Curiosity is contaminated and we find living organisms in Martian water, then we can't be sure Curiosity wasn't the one that put them there.

[Bauglir]

I don't care how careful you are, contamination will happen, they should just get over it... besides, it'll be all over one day when we send humans there... the dirty, bacteria ridden, unclean meat bags that we are.

No, I think we can pretty reasonable want to minimize the risk of it, particularly when we're still in the "Why not do research to find out if there's anything we can learn about the beginning of life" phase. When we have people living there, that's another thing, but "One day in the distant future we'll no longer have an interest in maintaining sterility" is hardly justification for giving up on it now.