This might be some weird urban legend, but I heard a story (which I doubt, but might be possible) about one of the missions to the Moon where bacteria was implanted into the lunar soil. As it were, one of the missions involved covering a metal instrument with viruses (maybe staph), and then placing this instrument on the ground. Somehow, NASA determined that some of these viruses were still alive after several years. I'm not sure where this story originated. If this were true, and if some of our microorganisms were actually able to survive there, then a few of them might have adapted to life on the Moon under very harsh conditions, and we could have a lunar strain of (staph?) viruses, which would probably wreak havoc if brought back to Earth. Has anyone heard anything about this?
2007-04-06
18:45:41
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10 answers
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asked by
Clean Independent Energy
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Astronomy & Space