A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It was just before midnight on April 11 and everyone at the Israel Aerospace Industries mission control center in Yehud, Israel, had their eyes fixed on two large projector screens. On the left screen was a stream of data being sent back to Earth by Beresheet, its lunar lander, which was about to become the first private spacecraft to land on the moon . The right screen featured a crude animation of Beresheet firing its engines as it prepared for a soft landing in the Sea of Serenity. But only seconds before the scheduled landing, the numbers on the left screen stopped. Mission control had lost contact with the spacecraft, and it crashed into the moon shortly thereafter.
Half a world away, Nova Spivack watched a livestream of Beresheet’s mission control from a conference room in Los Angeles. As the founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, a nonprofit whose goal is to create “a backup of planet Earth,” Spivack had a lot at stake in the Beresheet mission. The spacecraft was carrying the foundation’s first lunar library, a DVD-sized archive containing 30 million pages of information, human DNA samples, and thousands of tardigrades , those microscopic “water bears” that can survive pretty much any environment— including space .
But when the Israelis confirmed Beresheet had been destroyed, Spivack was faced with a distressing question: Did he just smear the toughest animal in the known universe across the surface of the moon?
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Nova Spivack is one interesting character.
In this particular bio, it is noted that The Arch Mission Foundation landed their 30million page Lunar Library on the moon,
failing to mention that the Israeli spacecraft crashed on the surface presumably destroying everything except the "DVD".
the before and after "landing" pictures were pretty funny. a link on your link confirms it crash landed and also that nova interned at star trek next generation production in college.
When I saw "tardigrades" I thought you were talking about a Dr Who episode
and I had bad flashbacks to this banned fellow.
Who?
Is that what happened to him? I wondered where he disappeared to. Too bad, if nothing else he was entertaining.
To the article I think this is a good accident as we can now say for sure there is life outside of earth (and there're cute little fellers too)
Averosomething? He was obsessed with butt sex and calling gays deviates.
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Crikey, did they eat anything other than beans and apples? Little less fiber on the next trip.
I'm bothered by the fact that they left that on the moon. It's bad enough we're trashing our own planet but do we have to trash the moon, too?
Someone made the decision, that they didn't need the extra weight.
Well, ok, I think I see the point. But does it decompose in a near 0 oxygen environment?
Nope. Probably froze within seconds.
Now the American flags are deteriorating from the temperature swings from 260F to minus 280F
so one can assume that eventually the 'bags' will disintegrate and the poop will eventually turn to moon dust.
in a couple of thousand years?
True. And with no atmosphere, it will never decay or be blown away, just like the astronauts footprints..
I can already see it now. In maybe a thousand years some smartass future moon tourist will step off a lunar lander saying, "One small step for man, one giant leap for...FUUUUCK ME!"
Quick! We can build dozens of coal burning plants up there, before long it'll have its own cloud cover, then we bring in the farting cows and tons of water and algae... of course that might just make the Tardigrades grow to the size of elephants and take over the moon turning it into a humid hostile jungle...
100 bags seems like a lot for a 3 man 2 week mission.
But there were 6 missions
with each mission "dumping" their 3 men poop inventory into the lunar module for "release" onto the moon
followed by whatever poop the 2 man crew generated and left behind.
Leaving at least a few poops apiece brought back to earth for medical study.
Ok, lets do the math...lol
now we can assume that Apollo 13 brought all of their poop back to earth, right? Possibly in their suits.
So 76 days in space total, but they only averaged 6 days on the moon often leaving one behind in the command module.
so if he pooped after the lunar lander left with the first "load", he had to bring his poop home
SO lets say 3 guys for the first part of the trip......
oh the hell with it
18 men over a 76 day period ? Each bag is about the size of a one quart ziplock bag.
During the Apollo missions, weight was critical, so up to 2/3s of the bodily waste was left on the moon for expediency.
Each mission left a single white trash bag behind.
Pretty amazing that these things can survive in space which as we all know is a very hostile environment, (stating the obvious, I know).
Humans too, can survive in space...all you need is oxygen and a space heater..
Sorry SP, couldn't resist.
another giggle and a snort
unapologetic bump
Thanks d.