Thursday, June 02, 2011

Earth lifeforms heading to Martian moon

In one of the coolest experiments I know of, an American researcher has arranged for ten species of Earth life - seven of single-celled animals and three of the incredibly hardy multilegged beasties called tardigrades (they have survived exposure to empty space) to travel on the Russian Grunt probe, set to leave this December for Phobos. The Earth life will be monitored during a 34-month journey. A similar experiment has flown on the shuttle, and two copies of the experiment module will be maintained on Earth as controls.

No comments: