Tardigrades May Have Made it to the Moon

An Israeli lunar lander carrying the tiny animals crashed into the moon in April, and now scientists are trying to determine if the creatures are still alive.

Written byAshley Yeager

| 2 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

2:00

ABOVE: ©ISTOCK.COM, ERAXION

T here may be dehydrated life on the moon. In April, a lunar lander carrying tiny and exceptionally hardy animals called tardigrades crashed into the moon. Now, mission control experts are trying to determine if the tardigrades survived the impact.

“We believe the chances of survival for the tardigrades . . . are extremely high,” Nova Spivack, founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, which provided the tardigrades for the lander, tells BBC. That’s because tardigrades can survive in extreme environments, including high pressure, extreme radiation, and even space.

The tiny animals were dehydrated and stored in resin or stuck on tape and packaged in a “lunar library,” a small container filled with a microscopic archive of human history, human DNA, and the tardigrades. The goal of sending the material to moon was to store a “back-up” of human knowledge and Earth’s biology in case a life-ending event ...

Interested in reading more?

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Ashley Yeager
Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.
View Full Profile