I read a slightly different story here. First difference: Tardigrades need time to enter their suspended state. A sudden crash on the moon with instantanteous exposition to the (non-) athmosphere while being in their "live"-state might kill them. Second difference: Nobody expects them to rehydrate on the moon. To my knowledge scientists said, that, if the tardigrades were to be recovered after several months on the moon surface, they could rehydrate an go on living happily ever after. So, sadly no tardigrade welcoming committee for the next astronauts on the moon....
Posts: 202 | Location: Germany | Registered: 14 May 2013
You guys have not seen enough space movies. The lower gravity of the moon will cause them to become as huge as the largest dinosaurs. They will then eat any astronauts that land there.
-------------------------------- Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.
Posts: 25850 | Location: Still living at 9000 feet in the High Rockies of Colorado | Registered: 20 April 2005
BTW, this is the first I've ever heard of tardigrades. What are they supposed to do? Why did this dude want to put them on the moon? It strikes me as the ultimate lunar pollution.
Posts: 35428 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005
It’s part of his evil plan to amass wealth by first letting these tardigrades mutate on the Moon into fluffy poodle sized creatures then sell them off as cuddly purse pets with obscene profit margins.
According to some article I read my vast research, they can be seen with minimal magnification--the sort you might have with a K-12 microscope. Apparently they're popular in school demostrations/labs because they are so visible.
Posts: 35428 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005
