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Moon Space

Tardigrades Are Now On the Moon Thanks To a Crashed Israeli Spacecraft (cnet.com) 164

Posted by BeauHD from the moon-bugs dept.
Tardigrades, the microsopic water-dwelling animals that can survive almost any environment, may be on the moon thanks to an Israeli spacecraft called Beresheet. The spacecraft was carrying thousands of dehydrated tardigrades (among other cargo) when it crashed due to glitches with the landing process. CNET reports: The Israeli spacecraft was transporting Arch Mission's first lunar library, a digital archive holding the equivalent of 30 million pages of information. It also carried human DNA samples and thousands of dehydrated tardigrades. It's unknown how much of the cargo actually ended up on the moon's surface following the crash. Based on Arch Mission's analysis of the spacecraft's path as well as the makeup of the lunar library itself, Arch Mission Foundation founder Nova Spivack told Wired on Monday that he's confident the library, a "DVD-sized object made of thin sheets of nickel," survived the crash mostly intact. That doesn't mean the DNA or water bears are in good shape.

"About the tardigrades in the Lunar Library: Some are sealed in epoxy with 100 million human, plant and microorganism cells," Spivack tweeted Tuesday. "Some are encapsulated onto the sticky side of a 1cm square piece of Kapton tape that is sealed inside the disc stack. They cannot reproduce on the moon." Even though the dehydrated tardigrades can't spring to life on the moon, they could theoretically be gathered, revived and studied to teach us about their time there. "It is not likely that cells can survive on the moon without a lot more protection from radiation," Spivack added. "However the human cells, plant cells and micro organisms we sent could be recovered, studied and their DNA extracted -- perhaps to be cloned and regenerated, far in the future."
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Tardigrades Are Now On the Moon Thanks To a Crashed Israeli Spacecraft More

Tardigrades Are Now On the Moon Thanks To a Crashed Israeli Spacecraft

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  • Please reply to this.
    • Heh. I'm strangely reminded of the ending of The Sirens of Titan[1]... what if this was the tardigrades' plan all along? What if they were stranded here after an accident, so they had to manipulate evolution and cause H. Sapiens to arise and wait around for us to develop rocketry so they could hitch a ride back?


      1. Probably Vonnegut's most underrated book, though Mother Night is another strong contender. (It's interesting that these two of these criminally underrated books manage to cover all the grou

      • If we're going on a Vonnegut tear, I have to put in a good word for Player Piano . I'd read the others you mentioned, but overlooked the earlier book until just recently. Amazingly prescient and both related and relevant to the new UBI debates. (Now I wonder if Yang has seen it?)

        • I wish Vonnegut had remade Player Piano, like a Hollywood reboot but for a novel. It was rather interesting, esp. given when it was written vs. where we are today, but he hadn't developed his trademark style yet. And it seems like a subject eminently suitable for his trademark style.

          It's definitely not top tier, but I thought Slapstick was underrated. It had a lot of interesting ideas but it suffered from the Breakfast of Champions syndrome of just ending without much happening. It was better than Breakf

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by shanen ( 462549 )

            Checking my database, I see that I've actually read 14 of his books, but many of them were read so long ago that I would be hesitant to try to rank them now. I would agree that Breakfast of Champions may have been a low point.

        • To be absolutely clear, as a TL;DR you absolutely must, MUST read Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan. Must. They're both tour de forces. (I don't know for 100% if Mother Night is *objectively* a tour de force as well, it's not as wry and witty but it affected me profoundly.) My recommendation of Slapstick should be disregarded unless you've read those three books already.
          • Ok wait, think I misunderstood, past vs. present tense of homonym "read", bah.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by shanen ( 462549 )

              Delete is high on the list of features I would support the development of, if only Slashdot had an economic model that could allow for further development. We are basically lucky that Slashdot has survived so long in the desperate maintenance status.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Please reply to this.

      Please reply to this.

      I for one, welcome our new Tardigrade overlords... will they arrive in Tardis-grades?

    • Please reply to this.

      They're going to take a long time to reply... they are "Tardy"grades after all.

    • Tribbles?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Tardigrades, please reply to this.

      Grib grib grub, snuffle, grib. Humans suck. Grib grib snuffle gruff.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      You deserved a funny mod for that, but I never get one to give. Why can't I borrow (or even sacrifice?) one of the favorable mods I've received, convert it to "funny" and give it to you?

  • The colonisation process continues apace (Score:5, Funny)

    by Harold Halloway ( 1047486 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @06:20AM (#59055962)

    Mars was already the only planet we are aware of that is populated entirely by robots. Now the Moon is the only satellite we know of entirely populate by tardigrades. What a strange solar system we live in.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      They just need the miniature lasers for their heads to start creating their suitably moist habitat in one of those lava tubes.

      • They just need the miniature lasers for their heads to start creating their suitably moist habitat in one of those lava tubes.

        As long as they don't evolve to be big enough to throw moon rocks at the earth.

    • Called "Cards with Tards". Dealer has to hit on soft 17s. Free well drinks if you're playing at the tables. Don't hit the strip clubs if you have a weak stomach.

    • Mars was already the only planet we are aware of that is populated entirely by robots. Now the Moon is the only satellite we know of entirely populate by tardigrades. What a strange solar system we live in.

      We've already put bacteria on the moon... maybe Mars too.

      Humans carry more bacterial cells than human cells in their bodies. We're living, breathing, bacteria farms. When man made objects and man stepped foot on the Moon we started spreading bacteria all over the surface. Tardigrades are not the first terrestrial species we've splattered on the moon's surface. And Bacteria are far more likely to find a food source colonize the moon than Tardigrades... and even that is enormously unlikely.

      We tried to ste

    • Now the Moon is the only satellite we know of entirely populate by tardigrades.

      Not only tardigrades . . . there are plenty of Nazis on the far side of the moon: Iron Sky [wikipedia.org]

      Hmmm . . . and these were sent up by Israel . . . ?

      Obviously this is covert operation by Mossad to attack the Nazis with tardigrades!

  • So how long before they start accessing the mycelial network?

    • Author: I have a great idea for a Sci-Fi show.
      Execs: It is tough to sell Sci-Fi shows.
      Author: Actually it is Super Easy, Hardly an inconvenience.
      Execs: Oh, Realy?
      Author: Lets call it Star Trek or Wars or something, we can just vaguely design the ships to look like it is from that series.
      Exec: Genius.
      Author: Yea if people start complaining, we can just shoehorn in some cameos something, you know just to ret-con some explanation.

    • I swear that show is written by morons. So many awkward lines and scenes. It looks nice and the actors are ok but the show wasn't written by people who know a thing about trek and it seems they really don't care either.

  • Where have we heard stuff like this before? (Score:3)

    by dwywit ( 1109409 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @06:24AM (#59055972)

    "They cannot reproduce on the moon"

    Funny, it almost sounds like they've done tests, studies, and experiments as to what can and cannot reproduce on the moon.

    • Re:Where have we heard stuff like this before? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by JasterBobaMereel ( 1102861 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @06:51AM (#59056032)

      Nothing can reproduce when there is no food

      They have no food - except the other tardigrades ...

      • Nothing can reproduce when there is no food

        They can live a really long time without resources. It's probably only a matter of time before McDonalds crashes a Big Mac truck on the moon. And probably not long after that someone will crash edible food on the moon.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kbg ( 241421 )

        Except food is just an alternative source of solar energy. You can just as easily get it directly from the sun. Somehow life started on earth even at first there was no food.

        • Except food is just an alternative source of solar energy. You can just as easily get it directly from the sun. Somehow life started on earth even at first there was no food.

          It doesn't quite work like that. If you stopped eating and went outside and started sunbathing for 3 months straight... you would starve to death. It took billions of years of favourable conditions and favourable organic molecules for life to occur on Earth that was capable of harvesting energy from the sun. The conditions on the moon are almost certainly not right for that or it would have happened already.

        • You can if you're a plant, and have chlorophyll.

          Tardigrades aren't and don't.

        • Chemosynthesis evolved before photosynthesis... the moon doesn't have hydrothermal vents full of microbially delicious chemicals.

        • Somehow life started on earth even at first there was no food.

          There was lots of food. The reducing atmosphere the Earth had at the time meant there was lots and lots of complex chemicals to munch on.

          Then photosynthesis evolved, the waste from that produced an oxidizing atmosphere, and the soup broke down.

      • They have no food - except the other tardigrades ...

        It's gonna get really ugly in the end.

    • Although we haven't performed extensive experiments on the surface of the moon *itself*, scientists *have already* studied life in *moon-like* conditions.

      And tardigrades have been studied (and even when exposed to outerspace. Just not specifically on the moonsurface yet) and been found extremely resilient to a crazy amount of extreme conditions. Note how the article is extremely specific: they cannot reproduce on the moon surface.
      Because that's probably about the only thing they can't do. Because that would

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      "They cannot reproduce on the moon"

      Nature finds a way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      "They cannot reproduce on the moon" - Funny, it almost sounds like they've done tests

      Where do you think all that tardigrade porn comes from.

  • That's not news (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Turds supposedly went to the Moon in 1969.

  • Why are supposedly intelligent people doing shit like this? Who the fuck is going to use a library like that? Why are they sticking animals on tape? Smarter people want to know!
    • First they concoct a functionless "mission", then it malfunctions [en route to nothing useful] and dumps biological material on the moon.

      Maybe Israel should not be allowed to launch spacecraft of their own for a while. ...I mean, I KNOW they're mostly used to launching rockets at the Palestinians, and they're good at that,,,, but this moon thing is kinda different.

    • Who the fuck is going to use a library like that?

      Anyone who wants to escape the US copyright terror?

  • Don't worry about it (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The supposed tardigrade moon landing is a hoax. The tardigrades DID go into space, just low earth orbit. The "crash" happened on a set in the desert on Earth.

    Tardigrades could never survive the Van Allen radiation belt. Plus, the shadows are all wrong, lunar dust not disturbed, the letter "C" on a moon rock, etc.

  • Better to ask for forgiveness then permission. Now for the observation of what happens when you set the microbes loose on the moon. /sigh
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The moon has elected a new president and it is Tardy Roosevelt. He ran on a campaign of building a space-wall to keep the invading Human caravans at bay.

  • This is how the world ends (Score:5, Funny)

    by eggstasy ( 458692 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @07:52AM (#59056206) Journal

    I, for one, welcome our giant mutated tardigrade overlords.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Deagol ( 323173 )

      I mean who wouldn't? I mean, we'll get that fancy warp drive to finally work, right?

  • Genesis Part II (Score:4, Funny)

    by azcoyote ( 1101073 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @07:55AM (#59056216)
    In the beginning, when Israel seeded life on the moon--and the moon was formless and void, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the craters...
  • His spoof article ''Report on the Nature of the Lunar Surface'' was a ''proof'' that the Moon is really made of green cheese: https://www.independent.co.uk/... [independent.co.uk] Much regretted his serious SF is some of the very best too.

  • Tardigrades Are Now On the Moon Thanks To a Crashed Israeli Spacecraft

    That is one impressive technical achievement. I've seen Star Trek Discovery -- those things are huge!

  • Lost Episode Found! (Score:4, Funny)

    by gachunt ( 4485797 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @08:58AM (#59056394)
    The Trouble with Tardigrades
  • I, for one, welcome our new lunar tardigrade overlords and look forward to their administration.

  • That's where they came from in the first place. We just sent them back to visit their relatives.

  • Good. We should be spreading life to as many places as possible.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Good. We should be spreading life to as many places as possible.

      It mucks up science because it makes it hard to tell what's native, and invasive critters often overwhelm the native ones and may drive them extinct*. I don't think these critters can thrive on the moon, but I don't want to see the same mistake on Mars or watery moons.

      * It's not necessarily because the invaders are "better", but often because predators take a while to adapt to eating them.

  • Are these libtardigrades or republitardigrades? Need to know so I can decide whether to be outraged or triggered.

  • Currently they talk about Jupiter being in Retrograde, now the Moon can also be in Tardigrade...

    I guess it means some unexpected results are entering your life as a result of great effort.

  • Just wait! The heat/cold/radiation on the moon will make them super monsters! EVERYONE PANIC!

  • Tardigrades Are Now On the Moon Thanks To a Crashed Israeli Spacecraft

    Anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists are going to go absolutely nutzo over this.

  • ... started. Alien crash of vessel with experimental shit onboard.

    Future explorers to the Moon will question whether the drop of samples was left by an intelligent species because an intelligent species would have the sense god gave a piss ant not to crash land the goddam thing. (Area 51, I'm talking to you.)

  • Tardigrade: "Dammit, this doesn't look like the brochure. Honey, we've been ripped off! Get our lawyer on phone!"

  • R-Type (Score:1)

    by cyx ( 919627 )
    It all began when we confined them inside the moon. Using human DNA, Bydo evolution began. This will be a hellish nightmare man will not wake from.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Just a friendly reminder that Israel continues to hold Gaza under siege with no limited access to food, water, mobility and justice. https://www.amnesty.org/en/cou... [amnesty.org] The late Stephen Hawking joined the boycott against Israel https://www.nytimes.com/2013/0... [nytimes.com] because he knew that respect for human rights is important in the pursuit of knowledge. Free Occupied Palestine.
  • I hate the thought that the human race's sole purpose might just have been to be nature's way of getting tardigrades off planet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mysidia ( 191772 )

      Rest easy... the Human Race has only completed the first part of its purpose at this juncture -- the moon is still a satellite of earth; The human race's purpose is to distribute the tardigrades farther than that, so that they may survive even after our sun has failed --- the human race will not be able to truly fulfill its ultimate sole purpose, until tardigrades are spread beyond the boundaries of the solar system.

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