[HN Gopher] Tardigrades spilled all over the Moon in 2020 ___________________________________________________________________ Tardigrades spilled all over the Moon in 2020 Author : wglb Score : 14 points Date : 2021-01-12 02:17 UTC (20 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.inverse.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.inverse.com) | onecommentman wrote: | It has been thought that we infested each planet on which we | dropped a probe with tardigrades, especially the earlier | missions. Inadvertently infecting the Solar System is one | argument against space exploration...humans are just too dumb and | clumsy at this point. | hobby-coder-guy wrote: | It has been thought? By who? | aeternum wrote: | Why is spreading life seen as a negative? There are still an | unfathomable number of planets without life. Isn't spreading | life a good thing? | mlyle wrote: | To the extent that we accidentally contaminate the moon -- | with life, radioactive material, etc -- we screw up some of | our ability to study the origins of life, the solar system, | etc. And we don't materially seed the universe with more life | in the process. | | But then again, astronauts have been there, and the practices | that were used were not (could not be) completely sterile. | Still, this is probably a bit worse. | JauntTrooper wrote: | It would be poetic if tardigrades end up colonizing other | worlds hundreds of years before we do. | dyingkneepad wrote: | The danger is if there is already some life that we're not | aware of, then our tardrigades screw up their environment, | eventually killing them. We don't want our tiny bacteria | killing their tiny bacteria. | temp0826 wrote: | It is illogical to have such disregard for the prime | directive. | bpodgursky wrote: | The Prime Directive prohibits contact with intelligent pre- | warp civilizations. | | Starfleet colonized quite a few planets without existing | intelligent life. | BitwiseFool wrote: | What would the tartigrades eat? Surely they would die off | eventually due to a lack of an ecosystem - no matter how hardy | they are. | thesuitonym wrote: | The counter argument is that if the life we inadvertently leave | throughout the solar system thrives, that's an interesting | result too. This only really becomes a problem if there was | other life to begin with. | tessierashpool wrote: | it's not impossible, but this could be how Earth got | tardigrades in the first place. | | (it's a stretch, of course.) | mrlala wrote: | One might say, if we are the only life to enjoy the solar | system (in any reasonable proximity), then does it really | matter? | vector_spaces wrote: | In case anyone was wondering, "Beresheet" means "In the | beginning", as in "In the beginning God created the heavens and | the Earth" | aurizon wrote: | The tardigrades have alrady eaten 25% of the far side of the moon | - to avoid being seen...;) | stolen_biscuit wrote: | Fortunately per the article the tardigrades are sealed in epoxy | and dehydrated, so any concerns about inadvertently disrupting | some theoretical microbial ecosystem on the moon is probably not | founded (not that I believe there is other life on the moon | anyway) ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-01-12 23:00 UTC)