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A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon(2019)

wired.com

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Re: A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon(2019)

#3

Post by Sebb767 »

Aeolun wrote: post #2

Don’t we have some sort of agreement to keep planetary biospheres clear of earth organisms?

It's explained in the article:

> Fortunately for Spivack and the Arch Mission Foundation, spewing DNA and water bears across the moon is totally legal. NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection classifies missions based on the likelihood that their targets are of interest to our understanding of life. As such, missions destined for places like Mars are subject to more stringent sterilization processes than missions to the Moon, which has few of the necessary conditions for life and isn’t at risk of contamination. In fact, Spivack isn’t even the first to leave DNA on the moon. This honor belongs to the Apollo astronauts, who left nearly 100 bags of human feces on the lunar surface before they returned to Earth.

Re: A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon(2019)

#7

Post by initramfs »

Sebb767 wrote: post #3
Aeolun wrote: post #2

Don’t we have some sort of agreement to keep planetary biospheres clear of earth organisms?

It's explained in the article: > Fortunately for Spivack and the Arch Mission Foundation, spewing DNA and water bears across the moon is totally legal. NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection classifies missions based on the likelihood that their targets are of interest to our understanding of life. As such, missions destined for places like Mars are subject to more stringent sterilization processes than missions to th…

what if the water bears made their way to the bags of feces and started to grow inside there. If the bags serves as a terrarium that produces oxygen from anaerobic microbes via photosynthesis.
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