Microbes that hitch a ride on a spacecraft might make it all the way to Mars, but a recent study finds they probably won’t survive for very long there. A team of researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has been freezing, irradiating and generally pummeling microbes with harsh living conditions in an attempt to understand how life may or may not survive on Mars. The results of the research will be used in developing effective contamination controls for future missions, and may also help scientists understand how to search for biosignatures on Mars.