Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

The Moon may have something Mars lacks.

Answer: Life!... Living organisms!

When Neil, Buzz and 10 other Apollo astronauts took
a 'dump' on the Moon, they left their fecal matter
in special bags on the surface.

Fecal matter = breeding ground for E-Coli & other microbes.

Question is? Can E-Coli, etc, migrate and reproduce on the Lunar
surface or beneath?

Well...they can migrate through regolith....in theory.
They can mutate into hardier, tougher strains [giving extremophiles
a run for their money].
The regolith would offer some mitigation, relief from extremes of
temperature, radiation to microbes.

Lunar 'soil' does contain Potassium, and other metals as available
indigenous materials; and much much smaller amounts of volatiles
[i.e., hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus] and carbon atoms delivered
by the solar wind and imbedded in the lunar dust & regolith.
Such nanoquantities of volatiles per cubic meter of lunar dust
would hardly constitute 'a feast' for microbes, but they may
survive consuming such meagre fare, and even reproduce,
creating a colony of tough organisms that would best
be described as....Lunar life.

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