Personally I think the idea of panspermia is just dodging the issue, however intriguing it might be. Ultimately you would still need to explain where that extraterrestrial life came from and you're back at square one.

What do you think creationists will make of it if we discover life on another world? In my opinion it's only a matter of time because of probes we are sending to other planets and moons, and because the next generation of space telescopes will be able to image extrasolar planets as well as closely examine the spectrum of the light reflected by them. Scientists are already discussing what the possible signatures of life could be in those spectra.