Moss Survived In Space For Nine Months, Study Finds

For 9 months successful 2022, moss lived successful space.

It wasn’t successful a laboratory aboard nan International Space Station, for illustration different farming experiments conducted successful orbit — rather, nan moss was attached to nan station’s exterior, afloat exposed to nan harsh situation of nan cosmos.

The intent of nan abstraction moss test, reported successful a study published Thursday successful nan journal iScience, was to spot if moss — an early onshore works tin of thriving successful immoderate of nan astir utmost environments connected Earth — could past semipermanent vulnerability to nan vacuum of space.

Surprisingly, nan researchers recovered that nan moss spores not only endured, they “retained their vitality” and were still tin of reproducing erstwhile they yet returned to Earth.

“Most surviving organisms, including humans, cannot past moreover concisely successful nan vacuum of space,” Tomomichi Fujita, nan study’s lead writer and a professor successful nan section of biologic sciences astatine Hokkaido University successful Japan, said successful a statement.

“This provides striking grounds that nan life that has evolved connected Earth possesses, astatine nan cellular level, intrinsic mechanisms to strengthen nan conditions of space,” he added.

Mosses are thought to person descended from ancestral plants that started moving retired of h2o to colonize barren onshore astir 450 cardinal years ago.

The organisms are known to beryllium highly hardy, capable to turn everyplace from nan Antarctic tundra to nan peaks of nan Himalayas to volcanic lava fields to each mode of aquatic habitats.

Fujita said he was inspired by that awesome resilience.

“I began to wonder: could this mini yet remarkably robust works besides past successful space?” he said.

His squad started by studying a type of moss known arsenic Physcomitrium patens in simulated abstraction environments successful a laboratory connected Earth, including utmost basking and acold temperatures, vacuum conditions and precocious levels of UV radiation.

They wished that moss sporophytes — encapsulated spores that usability arsenic reproductive structures — were nan parts of moss astir apt to past successful abstraction because they seemed capable to strengthen precocious levels of UV radiation. The spores were besides tin of germinating aft being exposed to some scorching temperatures of 131 degrees Fahrenheit for a period and minus 320 degrees F for complete a week.

So successful March 2022, nan researchers sent hundreds of moss sporophytes to nan International Space Station aboard a cargo spacecraft made by nan aerospace institution Northrop Grumman. Astronauts astatine nan orbiting outpost attached nan sporophyte samples to nan extracurricular of nan abstraction station, wherever they remained for 283 days.

The moss samples were past returned to Earth connected a SpaceX cargo ngo successful January 2023.

The researchers recovered that complete 80% of nan spores survived their nine-month stint extracurricular nan abstraction station. Of those, almost 90% were capable to germinate again successful a laboratory connected Earth.

“We expected almost zero survival, but nan consequence was nan opposite: astir of nan spores survived,” Fujita said. “We were genuinely astonished by nan bonzer durability of these mini works cells.”

In nan study, nan researchers said nan building encasing nan spores whitethorn person acted arsenic protection against nan harmful effects of UV radiation. These structures were apt an evolutionary adjustment hundreds of millions of years ago, nan study authors wrote, to protect early plants during wide extinction events arsenic they started colonizing barren land.

A sporophyte sample from nan abstraction vulnerability experiment.Tomomichi Fujita

The scientists said much investigation is needed, but it’s imaginable that mosses could past successful abstraction for overmuch longer, possibly up to 15 years.

They said nan findings could beryllium utilized to create early cultivation systems successful abstraction and to research whether extraterrestrial soils tin turn viable plants.

“Ultimately, we dream this activity opens a caller frontier toward constructing ecosystems successful extraterrestrial environments specified arsenic nan Moon and Mars,” Fujita said.