Science has come a long way in discovering the evolution of man and everything else. Only one thing remains constant, in all those billions and billions of years of development, one organism has an ingrained ability to survive, no matter what. This organism is known as bacteria.
These kinds of microbes aren’t deterred by abnormally high pressures or extremely hot and cold temperatures. Bacteria simply adapts and lives.
This article describes the profound event, an experiment, that occurred when a microbe was left on the moon to see it if survived. That microbe did.
Streptococcus mitis, more popularly known as the only known survivor of unprotected space travel, was a stowaway on the Apollo 12. Scientists from NASA will celebrate, without fanfare, the microbe’s thirty year anniversary of its successful journey from the earth and to the moon. This microbe has even been featured in Newsweek article in 1970. The significance of the microbe’s survival prompted immediate research to determine how the microbe could possibly live without oxygen, water and nutrients.
Only now, thirty years down the line, are scientists beginning to see the light on exactly how microbes can thrive in boiling temperatures, negative pressures and intense radiation.
The first US spacecraft to land safely on the moon was the Surveyor. In 1969 the Surveyor 3 brought microorganisms that were recovered and brought back to Earth by the Apollo 12 in safe, sterile conditions.
NASA scientists found that fifty to one hundred organisms survived the launch and 3 years of radiation exposure. These microbes also survived in the harsh, no nutrient, no energy and no water source environment. Apollo missions included retrieving soil samples, but no other life forms were found to be living in it. How the streptococcus bacteria survived at all gave rise to speculations.
Streptococcus is a spherical bacterium that often causes disease, for example, scarlet fever or pneumonia. This certain bacterium is also found as common flora on the skin and in mucus membranes of the mouth and the intestines of humans. Streptococcus mitis is a common bacteria found in the nose, mouth and throat and is often harmless.
Since bacteria were first to colonize the earth, scientists determine what Earth’s environment may have been. Oxygen was in short supply and to anaerobic bacteria, a poison. The ozone layer that shields from intense solar radiation was thin and unformed. Yet, the bacteria survived. There was no telling what food or nutrient source they turned to, and how they adapted to the ruthless conditions.
There are four enterprises that comprise the NASA’s mission, mainly Earth Science, Space Science, Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology, and Human Exploration and the Development of Space (HEDS). The center of microgravity research has been allocated to the Marshall Space Flight Center, where HEDS hold office. Their aim is to determine the basic role of gravity and cosmic radiation in the evolution of living things and other planetary bodies in space. Will the application of these findings aid in the establishment of human life in space and advance life on Earth? Another question that HEDS is mulling over, in collaboration with other Enterprises – Is there life in outer space, other than on Earth? Read the entire article