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Moon Accidentally Colonized By Tardigrades

tardigrades

When humans get back to the Moon, tardigrades will be there to greet them. It seems a colony of water bears was dropped off on Luna, when an Israeli lander accidentally spilled them out on the surface as it crashed. The critters are nearly indestructible and would have no problem surviving both the impact and the harsh airless conditions. “Thanks for the ride guys,” they wave.

Tardigrades on the Moon

Nobody is totally certain that the curious creatures known as tardigrades or water bears actually originated on Earth. We do know that they have been here a really long time and are the only critters to survive every one of the mass extinction events. They hardly notice them and sleep so sound they’re like that guard in the recent Brink’s truck robbery.

Some people, especially the fans of hardcore science fiction, are wondering who’s idea it was to pack them up and send them to space. It may have been a ruse to hitch a lift to Luna but they fooled humans into believing it was their idea.

What we do know, as reported by TwistedSifter, is that an Israeli Lunar lander crashed into the surface and “$100 million American dollars went down the drain.” The interesting part is that it had tardigrades aboard. Those are some really funky animals who’s motto seems to be “have space suit, will travel.

Theirs are built right in. “The Beresheet lunar lander was set to become the first private spacecraft to touch the lunar surface but moments before the lander was about to reach the ground, mission control lost all contact.

tardigrades

Soon after, “Beresheet failed and crash-landed into the Moon.” Nobody is accusing the tardigrades of hijacking the controls or anything but they didn’t care, one way or the other, if they landed smoothly or not.

They have alreadybeen shot from a high-speed gun, traveling nearly 3,000 feet per second (900 meters per second) and surviving a crushing impact of about 1.14 gigapascals of pressure.

Arch Mission Foundation

The doomed spacecraft “was developed as part of the Arch Mission Foundation’s goal of developing a backup Earth.” One that simply had to have tardigrades. It will. The mission carried “many experiments within it,” like human DNA samples and a lunar library.

The DNA and moon manuals were vaporized on impact but the water bears will hardly notice the change of neighborhoods. The only thing missing for them is liquid water. Until some comes along, they’ll wait. They’re as patient at waiting as Marvin the Robot doing time on Sqornshellous Zeta.

tardigrades

Tardigrades “are one of the most resilient species on Earth and they’re able to survive the toughest living conditions, including the dark, cold, oxygen-less void of space.” They go dormant at the drop of a hat. “These water bears have likely entered a dormant state that allows them to basically turn themselves into hibernating shells of themselves.

Researchers have revived tardigrades up to ten years after they’ve entered this state, so it’s possible those displaced water bears might turn out just fine. Other researchers had some more than 30 years old and there are others reported much further back than that.

Researchers have found that hibernating tardigrades “can withstand temperatures as low as minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius) and hotter than 300 degrees F (148.9 C),” Smithsonian magazine reported.

They can also survive exposure to radiation, boiling liquids, and up to six times the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean.

 


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