Full study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2024.0165
Scientists have long assumed the Moon would quickly destroy most microbial stowaways. After all, it’s barren, lifeless rock for a reason. But a new NASA-led study is here to say: “Not so fast…”
Near the poles, craters and other terrain create patches of permanent or prolonged shadow, shielding microbes from the Sun’s lethal ultraviolet radiation. In some of these spots, Earth bacteria and fungi could remain alive for days, weeks, or potentially longer.
Now that’s a problem. Contamination could make it harder to distinguish pristine lunar chemistry from material humans introduced.
Yet if biological contamination cannot be eliminated, researchers argue that carefully tracking it could turn the Moon into an extraordinary experiment in how life survives beyond Earth.
They focused on five organisms likely to accompany humans into space: Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, the famously radiation-resistant Deinococcus radiodurans, several species of Fusarium fungi, and Aspergillus niger, a common fungus already found in bathrooms, HVAC systems, and even aboard the International Space Station.
The Moon’s poles offer very different conditions from the equatorial sites visited during Apollo. Because the Sun sits extremely low on the horizon there, crater walls and ridges cast long shadows. Some crater floors never receive direct sunlight at all.