Tardigrades in space

May and colleagues proposed that the tardigrade Macrobiotus areolatus would be a suitable model organism for space experiments because of its exceptional radiation tolerance.

Jönsson in 2007,[6] and then other researchers such as Daiki Horikawa in 2008[7] and Roberto Guidetti in 2012,[8] to present evidence that they would resist desiccation, radiation, heat, and cold, suiting them for astrobiological studies.

[2] In 2008, F. Ono and colleagues suggested that tardigrades might be able to survive a journey through space on a meteorite, enabling panspermia, the transfer of life from one planet to another.

[10] Back on Earth, more than 68% of the subjects protected from solar ultraviolet radiation were reanimated within 30 minutes following rehydration; although subsequent mortality was high, many produced viable embryos.

[14][8][15] The mission was a prototype for the "Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment" (LIFE)[17] which was to have travelled to the Martian moon Phobos on the Russian Fobos-Grunt spacecraft.

[20][21] In 2019, a capsule containing tardigrades in a cryptobiotic state was on board the Israeli lunar lander Beresheet which crashed on the Moon.

[28] Large space agencies typically follow guidelines for sterilizing mission equipment, but there is no single entity to enforce these rules globally.

The tardigrade Milnesium tardigradum demonstrated its ability to survive the vacuum and ultraviolet radiation of space in the TARDIS experiment on the 2007 FOTON-M3 mission.
When dried, terrestrial tardigrades draw in their legs and go into a cryptobiotic 'tun' state. They quickly revive when re-wetted. [ 1 ]
The 2007 FOTON-M3 mission carrying the BIOPAN astrobiology payload (illustrated) exposed tardigrades to vacuum, solar ultraviolet, or both, showing their ability to survive in the space environment.
Model of the Beresheet Moon lander which crashed, probably destroying its tardigrade payload [ 16 ]