A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon(2019) | Hacker News Reader

A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon(2019)

wired.com

32 pointsamar-laksh23 comments

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Some previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36009562

The title needs (2019)

I thought the news felt like a deja-vu

Lol fair, done.

Either that, or you’re in the Matrix.

I had pointed out similar concerns a few days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42051857

At this point it’s more an experiment on the limitations that these creatures can be pushed to in the Lunar environment.

"Concern" ?

It may spread life to other planets and systems, and this would mean that life has higher chance of survival no matter if humans are here or not.

If we look over the next 10 thousand years, we have more chances to have the planet survivability highly affected by a nuclear war, than to have tardigrades secretly building a spaceship and attacking us back in Space Wars style.

It's great if plants and animals spread to other planets, those who can survive will survive, and the others may mutate or adapt.

In the long-term, contamination is going to happen anyway due to humans planning to live there.

The concern isn't Earth organisms evolving and attacking us.

The concern is they'll make it harder to detect potential life on other planets (because of false positives) or even that they'll destroy alien life if it exists.

Yeah, which is definitely a concern for a planet with the potential to host life, like Mars or Europa, but for a place where we are pretty much 100% confident life cannot exist, like the Moon, it's just not a concern. Tardigrades are tough little creatures, but even they will just enter a tun state in such a harsh environment (if they even survive).

I mean, I get the enthusiasm for leaving the shit-heap marble we all collectively share with each other. But it would be a pretty embarrassing faux-pas to start introducing invasive species to the moon before we even understand what exactly lives on it.

Don’t we have some sort of agreement to keep planetary biospheres clear of earth organisms?

It's explained in the article:

> Fortunately for Spivack and the Arch Mission Foundation, spewing DNA and water bears across the moon is totally legal. NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection classifies missions based on the likelihood that their targets are of interest to our understanding of life. As such, missions destined for places like Mars are subject to more stringent sterilization processes than missions to the Moon, which has few of the necessary conditions for life and isn’t at risk of contamination. In fact, Spivack isn’t even the first to leave DNA on the moon. This honor belongs to the Apollo astronauts, who left nearly 100 bags of human feces on the lunar surface before they returned to Earth.

what if the water bears made their way to the bags of feces and started to grow inside there. If the bags serves as a terrarium that produces oxygen from anaerobic microbes via photosynthesis.

I would watch that film. Great origin story for a new world, once Earth is wiped out

They were however more cautious about what the Apollo astronauts might bring back from the moon. IIRC they were quarantined for a period of time after returning, at least on the early missions.

Only about Europa....We were told in stern terms....

Wel also have agreements on nuclear weapons proliferation but that doesn't stop israel

our agreements say that all countries are equal, and that includes Israel. Unfortunately, the exclusion of Taiwan from equality means that agreement is not enforced in a fair manner.

and a separate agreement has countries that sign agree not to proliferate nuclear weapons to new countries. Israel, Pakistan, and India did not sign, and are therefore in compliance with that treaty also.

I like how you glaze over the obligations signatories of that treaty DO have... Such as explicitly being not allowed to help other non signatory countries both regarding nuclear programs and ALL MILITARY support. And very explicitly not allowed to aid a "rogue" state in the terms of treaty.. that openly wants nukes. It's not only violatates the treaty direct text it also undermines the entire purpose of the treaty bringing the clock much closer to midnight. If the word of the law was being followed every nuclear proliferation treaty signatory country should be sanctioning Israel as much as North Korea or Iran going back decades. Instead it is ILLEGAL to boycott Israel in many US states.

All of doesn't just apply to treaty obligations but US foreign policy as well... Even from the most ice cold geopolitics pov the USA is behaving irrational and against its best interests in regards to Israel ..

My original point being. If Israel is an exception to nearly every global treaty and agreement geopolitically.... Why would space treaties magically apply to them ?

“All countries are equal, but some countries are more equal than others”

For those who don’t recognize it, this is a take on “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” from Animal Farm by George Orwell. Essential reading for every human (imho).

Thanks, captain

So, from the example of Peanut the Squirrel, that NYS agency wants to gather up all those Tardigrades, kill them, and test the remains for rabies?

> Spivack was faced with a distressing question: Did he just smear the toughest animal in the known universe across the surface of the moon?

No, the Israelis did, if the container was breached, which it may not have been

edit: I’m curious what’s inaccurate about this answer, thats what the article says

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