        With a robot, they would have no fear of him harming it, nor would they have to worry about any possible contamination of the creature.  The field the big one put around it might have been a way of cleaning it, or the barrier might prove impervious to any foreign bodies.  If they were really worried, they could just upload the data from the unit, and destroy it here on the beach when the meeting was over, then send down another identical one for the next meeting.