Tardigrades &

ASTROBIOLOGY

How’s everyone feeling?

Annotate the alien that gets it

ASTROBIOLOGY

2 billion trillion

2 x 10²³

40% of stars have at least 1 planet, many have more

About 3 x 10²³ planets

Just Earth!

… as far as we know

60 billion

6 x 10¹⁰

INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE

CONDITIONS FOR LIFE

Type your ideas in the chat

EXTREMOPHILES

TARDIGRADES

Survival Claims to Fame

Extreme hot and cold

High and low pressure

The vacuum of space

Radiation

Lack of water - dehydration

Biology & Ecology

Eukaryote: Micro-animal (< 1mm)

Evolved 600 million years ago

Live everywhere, prefer lichens & mosses

Omnivores – eat plants, bacteria, smaller tardigrades

Anatomy – head, 8 legs, 3 body segments, 1 caudal segment

Dormant “tun” state aka cryptobiosis

Link to video

Tardigrade from Lake Fryxell –

A permanently ice-covered lake in Antarctica

Video Credit:

Dr. Wei Li (MCM LTER)

AI Image

In 2019, Israel's Beresheet lunar lander 

crash landed on the moon.

It’s payload included tardigrades in cryptobiosis.

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Scale model of Beresheet

Landing site – pre & post impact

Credit: Wikipedia

Did the tardigrades survive the crash?

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Are they still alive today?

(Vote in the zoom poll)

What type of conditions are the

tardigrades be exposed to?

Did the tardigrades survive the crash?

​

Are they still alive today?

(Type your ideas in the chat)

Let’s examine data from real experiments that tested the “extreme” limits of tardigrades

Each small group will receive raw data from a

real experiment that exposed tardigrades to a moon-like condition and then measured their survival.

You will have 10 minutes in breakout rooms to analyze the data and answer a few questions about your conclusions and interpretations. Please pick a spokesperson to report back the larger group.

What questions do you have before we begin?

(Unmute & ask, or type in the chat)

Data Analysis & Interpretation

temperature

radiation

vacuum

impact speed

dehydration

10 minutes in breakout rooms

(group 2)

(group 5)

(group 1)

(group 3)

(group 4)

temperature

radiation

vacuum

impact speed

dehydration

(group 2)

(group 5)

(group 1)

(group 3)

(group 4)

Report Back & Group Discussion

2 mins per group

Temperature

• Moon surface temps: Night -300 °F(-180 °C), Day +225 °F(105 °C)
• Big temperature swings because there is no atmosphere to trap and distribute heat

Radiation

• 0.0015 Gy/d x 365 days = ~0.5 Gy per year on moon’s surface
• Tardigrades can survive 10,000 x more radiation than humans! (0.5 Gy to 5000 Gy is a difference of 4 orders of magnitude )

Dehydration

• As of 2025, the tardigrades crash landed on the moon 6 years ago.
• Humans can survive without water for 3-4 days.

Vacuum

• The pressure on the moon’s surface is 3 x 10⁻¹⁵ bars or 2.96 x 10⁻¹⁵ atmospheres, which is an incredibly low pressure, effectively a near vacuum
• For reference, humans cannot survive pressures lower than 6180 Pa

Impact Speed/ Shock Pressure

Humans can experience body damage at 1 Mpa (1 megapascal = 0.001 Gpa)

Do you think the tardigrades could have survived the crash?

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Could they still be alive today?

(Vote in the zoom poll)