In the mid -2010, a group of European researchers They went up to the highest, arid and aggressive part from the Sierra de Gredos to collect lichens. Their intention was clear: bringing them to space and seeing what happened to them.
And they did. The Castilian lichens did not travel alone, they went with another lichene of the Alps and with a pair of cryptondolitic fungi of the dry valleys of McMurdo, in the Antarctic region of Victoria Earth. 18 months passed outside the International Space Station. AND They survived: They survived the void of space, lack of water, at external temperatures and radiation.
It was excellent news. But there was a better one.
Because it was not the only experiment they were doing. Actually, half of the samples traveled to the US, yes; But the other half They got into In a laboratory here on Earth and were preserved in conditions very similar to those on the surface of Mars. We talk about “temperature fluctuations between -21.5 and +59.6 ºC, cosmic-galactic radiation of up to 190 megrays, and a vacuum between 10-7 and 10-4 pascals.”
After that year and a half of experiment, when comparing the samples, the specimens exposed to the Martian conditions had twice as much metabolic activity as those who had been in spatial conditions. In the case of alpine lichen (Xanthoria Elegans) It was 80% more. It was interesting, but it wasn’t enough.
But do they only survive or advance? Now a Polish research team has managed to take the steps that were missing. His idea was also simple: studying the physiological and biochemical responses of certain species of live and direct lichens.
In the end, the 2015 study was not able to determine what had happened during those 18 months. His work concentrated on examining what had remained and, in this sense, Polish researchers They paid a lot of attention in what was happening during the process.
And although the results were mixed … Of the two varieties of licen they used, one (one (C. Aculeata) He failed to endure Oxidative stress or associated damage, despite having high amounts of melatonin. Instead, another (D. Muscorum) Yes could effectively activate its defense mechanisms based on crystalline deposits.
… The news is good. Not only because it gives us very interesting keys to conceptualize the challenges of survival and habitability on Mars. But They expand “Our understanding of biological processes in simulated Martian conditions and reveal how hydrated organisms respond to ionizing radiation.”
We still do not know if it is a good idea ‘polluting Mars with earthly life ways’, but we do start to intuit that it will be inevitable. That, in fact, IGual is a process already underway.
Image | THAT | Daniele Colucci
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