Possible Detection of Microbial Life on Moon’s South Pole: NASA Research

SPACE — If NASA’s grand plan to return to the moon stays true to its current political, technical, and financial trajectory, the United States will set a new footprint on our natural satellite by the end of 2025. The moon landing, on the Artemis 3 mission, will It was the first human landing on the moon since the Apollo 17 moonwalker stirred up the gray dust in December 1972.

Artemis 3 will be the first of a number of human missions to the Artemis Polar Exploration Zone, the polar region of 84 degrees south latitude. Selecting a safe and scientifically valuable landing area for Artemis 3 is a challenging task. But no doubt, major discoveries are on the horizon, and one potential surprise could be the detection of life on the moon.

Super Cold Moon Craters

New research about the moon suggests visitors to the moon’s south polar region should look for evidence of life in shaded craters. The shadow is permanent which makes the crater very cold, and organisms could have survived there after their long journey from Earth.

Scroll to read

Scroll to read

Planetary researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Prabal Saxena said microbial life could potentially survive the extreme conditions near the moon’s south pole. “One of the most striking things our (research) team found is that, given recent studies of the range in which certain microbial life can survive, there may be potentially habitable niches for such life in relatively protected areas.” said Saxena.

Saxena believes the moon’s south pole has properties that allow for survival, potentially even cultivating certain episodic microbial life. “We are currently working to understand which specific organisms are best suited to survive in these regions and which areas of the lunar polar region, including points of interest relevant for exploration, may be best suited to support life,” he said.

In work presented at a recent science workshop on potential Artemis 3 landing sites, Saxena and fellow researchers reported that the moon’s south pole may contain substantial surface niches that could potentially host a number of microorganisms.

Could a Sample of Earth’s History be Hiding in a Dark Crater of the Moon?

Small pieces of our planet may have been thrown to the moon as ‘Earth meteorites’; rocks that were thrown into space by a powerful cosmic impact long ago. A member of the research team and an organic geochemist at NASA Goddard, Heather Graham, admits there is such a possibility.

But, that doesn’t mean Earth’s microbes have also survived space travel. “Transfer of organic molecules from meteorite sources is highly probable, and indeed observed in our own analysis of terrestrial meteorites, microbial transfer from similar sources does not carry the same weight of evidence,” said Graham.

“This may be an interesting idea, but without proper data this route could not be included in this study.”

Graham said, more importantly, the research team was well aware humans were the biggest vector of microbes to the moon. “Soon we will have a 50-year history of humans and their objects on the lunar surface without strict requirements regarding contamination,” he said, referring to the Artemis mission.

The dark recesses of the moon could be flooded with microbes…