The Red Planet
By now we talked about many things about space, and about Mars we already looked on how we can terraform the planet, colonize it and of course how this could be useful to us. Today i want to talk about something that we already did on the Red planet and could escalate in ways we do not realize yet.
The missions so far
There have been quiet a few missions that already landed on Mars since today, many failed but still made it to the planet, others lost in space and others destroyed before leaving the earths atmosphere. We are going to talk about all the missions that landed or crashed on the planet, so lets just name a few of them. The first partialy successful mission was Mars 3 lander from Soviet Union followed by the Viking 1-2 missions which were total successes. After them came the rovers Sojouner, Spirit, Opportunite. The lander Phoenix and finally Curiosity that all of you know so much about.
So why do we look at the missions
Well especially the Viking missions which actually detected them too but not only, i believe all the missions, did brought on Mars life from earth, bacterias, viruses, micro organisms. So Mars has no magnetosphere, the atmosphere is thin and the radiation levels high. What happened to all these organisms? The greatest amount perished because that is not their environment, but there are some bacterias that can survive at almost any kind of environment and there is one in particular that can survive outer space like it is going on vacations. The adventurer is named Tersicoccus Phoenicis also called Tersi. That guy can survive all kinds of radiation and the vacuum does not affect him. Well by just taking a look at the situation, there is life on Mars people and we might be the reason it was able to get there.
Tersi is not alone
Now that i have your attention lets see all the little guys capable of space travel that can survive the vacuum of space and radiation. And at number one is a bacteria named OU-20, it survived 553 days trial in total exposure and returned to earth alive. Number two Streptococcus Mitis, one of the most common bacterias that live in our mouths and throats, also one of those guys traveled to the moon with Surveyor probes(it was inside on of the cameras), it survived at moons environment for two whole years it also returned to earth safely.Number three Sea Plankton, well yes it is true and since the experiment was for a few years and sea plankton cant survive that much it used parthenogenesis and produced its own descendants out there(that is a badass). At number four are the Spores of Bacillus pumilus also known as SAFR-032, well these are actually two organisms since it is plus Lichens which survived in the same experiment with SAFR-032. And finally the Tardigrades also known as water bears, that is an actual animal or i should say micro animal, aquatic in nature with 8 tiny legs and it is the first animal with the ability to survive in space. Down bellow comes their pictures:
OU-20
Streptococcus Mitis
Sea Plankton
Lichen
SAFR-032
Tardigrades
Source Links:
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6877/20140503/bacteria-survive-space-travel-iss-research-shows.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_in_outer_space
https://phys.org/news/2016-03-bacteria-space-earth.html
http://morgana249.blogspot.gr/2014/08/6-organisms-that-can-survive-travel-in.html
Thanks for reading feel free to follow, vote and Re-esteem if you find it useful.
You can find more articles of mine here: https://steemit.com/@diasdr
Space Colonization Part 08: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/space-colonization-part-08-the-skies-of-venus
Space Colonization Part 09: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/space-colonization-part-09-asteroid-mining-reality-by-2025-the-future-of-the-human-economy
Space Colonization part 10: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/space-colonization-part-10-terraforming-venus-too-hard-for-now
And in case you are wondering what will happen at these organisms you might take a look at this article by Sungazer13: https://steemit.com/science/@sungazer13/martian-evolution