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Question
I've read that microbes survived an early mission to the Moon, most recently in David Grinspoon's book 'Lonely Planets.'
I am glad you asked that question, because there is new information available that indicates microbes did not survive years of exposure on the Moon. The story of living microbes retrieved by the Apollo 12 astronauts from a previous Surveyor lander has been told many times (including in Grinspoon's book) and has been widely accepted as evidence for the ablity of some microbes to survive space exposure. New information, however, strongly suggests that these were contaminants, probably introduced on the trip back to Earth from the Moon. Other more recent experiments, however, have shown that some microbes can survive weeks of exposure to space, so the general idea is still valid -- it is just the Apollo data that were probably misinterpreted.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
April 8, 2004
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