1575 War of the Worlds

I was reading a science magazine the other day and they had this great article on human exploration of the planetary bodies in our solar system. Well, not actually human exploration. Robots-invented-by-humans exploration.
I say planetary bodies because some of the places they are planning on visiting are asteroids and moons and such, especially moons of the big gas giants like Uranus.
Asteroid, moon, gas giant, Uranus, ever get the feeling scientists have the minds of fourth graders?
In any event, what got me about this article was a description of a robot we're about to send to Mars. The purpose of this robot is to find any traces of life there. It's a new rover called Curiosity.
And here's how it plans on satisfying its curiosity: It will have a specialized chemical camera, known as a ChemCam. It's shaped like a big box on top of a long stalk or neck that stretches above the main mass of the robot. It will fire a laser at rocks and vaporize them, then analyze the vapor. It also has a robotic arm that will reach out and grab the rocks and analyze them with a variety of sensors.
Here's the deal. The artists rendering of the robot looks exactly like some illustrations I've seen of the Martian spaceships from HG Wells "War of the Worlds." Giant robots firing destructive rays from their tops at the surrounding countryside. Large metal arms reaching out and grasping screaming humans.
So my big cosmic question: What if Martian life is only a millimeter tall? Wouldn’t this robot seem HG Wellsian to them?
Really, should we be blasting lasers and vaporizing protoplasm willy-nilly?
Is the best way to check for signs of life to kill it?
America, ya gotta love it.