Why would corpses on Mars be an issue?

@RoryAlsop That's what i ask. Are there existing agreements to prevent pollution this way.

@uhoh To be honest i've done no prior research about any existing rules etc .I assumed there are none, because the Mars one project is still going on.I use the colorful title to show my emotion that it seems quite allright to contaminate this way !

@Fred The Mars one project wants to leave corpses on Mars. I think cremation would be a good option, but then an incinerator has to be send to Mars before humans go there. And then the aim of the project to be cheap gets lost.

Why do you think a distinction needs to be made between microbes and humans? The only issue is our ability to detect if life exists on Mars. Corpses and microbes degrade that ability to the same extent.

@Hobbes Rovers and other devices can be sterilized beforehand, the human body can't live wthout microbes. Also i'm still asking myself if there are ethical grounds as well ?

So it's not just corpses you're objecting to, but all manned missions. It'd be almost impossible for a manned mission to avoid contaminating Mars.

@Hobbes While humans on Mars stay in their spacesuits there will be no problems with contamination ?

Depends on the design of the spacesuit and habitat. The room where the spacesuits are donned is generally inside, so microbes from inside the habitat will be on the outside of the spacesuit. There are spacesuits that are designed to avoid this, (they're attached to the outside of the habitat), but even then it's difficult to avoid all contact between inside and outside. It's much easier to e.g. toss the trash out an airlock than to process it entirely inside the habitat.

@Hobbes I doubt if the first habitat on Mars will be able to handle dead bodies. Would it be a suitable option for an astronaut that his body will be transported to the Sun ?

Suitable maybe, but the sun is one of the hardest destinations to reach in the solar system. That would be a very expensive funeral.

I'm not an expert, i thought with the enormous gravity of the Sun if should be rather easy, and no retrorockets would be needed. Or is it difficult to go about the inner planets ?

Yes, basically you need to cancel out all of your orbital speed (Mars' orbital speed around the sun is 24 km/s, which is a gigantic amount for rocket engines).

I didn't think on that. So when it comes to corpses on Mars, i think cremation will be the best option, but it could be a long time when this problem happens. so currently i think it doesn't make sense to be alarmed .

Thank you for your attention. It's a privilege to observe the exploration of Mars !