Truemors
Water Bears survive outdoor space flight
Humans can live in a space environment for but a few minutes before the air in their lungs expands, gas bubbles out of their blood and the saliva in their mouths begin to boil. But more fundamental organisms such as bacteria and lichen can tolerate the absence of pressure and searing cold. And now researchers have found that animals known as tardigrades, or water bears, can, too. They also have an uncanny ability to resist damage that the sun's ultraviolet rays cause to humans. They can survive 10 days without oxygen.
Water bears come from Mars ?
Do Water bears come from Mars, flying on an Asteroid to earth, using the asteroid as heat shield and started to live on earth. One speculation circulating on Webpages.
ISS space station tests Water bears
During European Space Agency's Foton M3 mission last September. While orbiting Earth at an altitude of more than 160 miles (258 kilometers), the Water bears / tardigrades were exposed to the vacuum of space for 10 days. Although some of them were shielded from the sun's light, others were bathed in UV-A (long-wave) and UV-B (medium-wave) ultraviolet solar radiation.
Result space travel without space suit
We found that both species of tardigrades survived exposure to space vacuum alone very well, with no significant difference in survival pattern compared to ground controls," says astrobiologist Petra Rettberg of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Köln–Porz, Germany, a member of the research team. "Samples exposed to the combined effect of vacuum and solar radiation had significantly reduced survival."
The Water bear, first Animal that Can Survive in Orbit without Space suit
This proves that at least some animals can survive the rigors of space flight unprotected, a list that might also include the microscopic animals known as rotifers, nematodes (roundworms), drought-resistant insect larvae, and crustaceans like brine shrimp, according to the researchers—all of which share the tardigrades' ability to survive extreme dryness.
But lichens, which other species of tardigrades live on, show no harm from exposure to space. Perhaps such tiny animals and their plant homes are capable of spacefaring. "If sheltered from solar radiation, it is possible that they could survive for quite many years under space vacuum," Jönsson says of the water bears. "But the problems connected with ejection into space and reentry remains," such as the searing heat of friction as rock enters or leaves a planetary atmosphere.
Ultimately, such a trip between worlds might take millions of years. At least some of the tardigrades would be good for the first 10 days. The real problem would be finding another suitable home. "You have to end up in a less hostile place than space," Jönsson says, "in order to reproduce and establish a population."
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