Humankind have already executed on their plan to send humans to Mars during the 2030s.
Lo and behold! Microscopic life forms are discovered in a cave, underground, near the poles where the last vestiges of solid ice-water remain, with enough nutrients from that water which has evaporated to sustain these microbes...
But the resources are running out. We just happened to stumble upon them with only a few decades of resources remaining.
What do we do?
- Leave it as it is, cordon off the area making it a natural park for the remainder of its natural life (the Prime Directive)?
- Proceed without regard to the lifeforms, and continue our development as an interplanetary species?
- Cultivate it and use our technology to help the microbes develop, or at least survive, to fully realize their evolutionary destiny?