The article discusses the failed lunar landing of the Beresheet spacecraft, launched by the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL in 2019. The mission aimed to be the first privately funded lunar landing and included a unique cargo: the Arch Lunar Library, which housed 30 million pages of human civilization’s records and 100 million human cells, along with thousands of dehydrated tardigrades (water bears) encapsulated for preservation.
On April 11, 2019, Beresheet crashed on the moon due to engine failure, but the Arch Lunar Library survived the impact. Tardigrades are known for their resilience, surviving extreme temperatures, radiation, and desiccation. The article explores the potential for these organisms to survive on the lunar surface and discusses the concept of panspermia, which suggests that life could travel between planets.
Researchers have studied tardigrades’ survivability in extreme conditions, including impact simulations that revealed their limits. While they can endure certain pressures, the conditions of a typical meteorite impact might be too destructive.
The possibility of retrieving the capsule from the moon and reviving the tardigrades exists but is highly uncertain. The moon’s harsh environment is not conducive to life, so future retrieval and revival would be challenging. Overall, the article raises intriguing questions about the survival of life beyond Earth and the potential for interplanetary life to return to our planet.
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