This image was taken by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander’s Surface Stereo Imager on June 5, 2008, the eleventh day after landing. It shows the robotic arm scoop, with a soil sample, poised over the partially open door of the lander’s oven (Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / Texas A&M University) Marks left by the Phoenix Lander’s scoop, after soil samples were taken (Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / Texas A&M University) An artist’s conception of the Phoenix Mission Lander on Mars (Image: NASA / JPL)

HAVE Mars landers been destroying signs of life? Instead …