“Eventually, it was reported that the sprouted plants had died, that the potatoes failed to sprout, and that the fruit flies failed to hatch. The total run time for the experiment was nine days instead of the planned 100.”
An important addition to that may explain why: The lunar night approached -150° C and the experiment failed to keep the steady 24° C that it was supposed to maintain, so the plants died. I don’t think it was because growing plants on the moon is intrinsically impossible.
I also wonder how they expected 18 mL of water to last more than a few days anyway. Perhaps someone smarter than me can answer that.
2 week long nights will kill any plant, at least down to the roots. 2 week long days will kill most. Can't garden on moon. Not without grow lights. Maintaining temperature isn't enough.
I also wonder how they expected 18 mL of water to last more than a few days anyway. Perhaps someone smarter than me can answer that.
In any enclosed system the water circulates through the plant, evaporates into the air, possibly condenses on surfaces, then is drawn back into the plants again. There is no need to add water as long as there is enough tongo through the cycle.
This was basically a heated terrarium that did not stay warm enough.
Plants grow mostly by sucking water into their cells, so the water should soon end up stuck in the plants if everything else went right. I suppose they did count with it, but 18 ml of water is still suprizingly little.
The entire farm was about the size of an ice cube tray, and had a growing volume of about 2 cups. Terrariums in general would use about 6 tsps for a 2-cup terrarium; the Chinese experiment used about 3.5 tsps. I'm not sure why they used that amount of water; I would speculate (and it's only speculation) that the plants they choose didn't need more, or possibly the lower gravity on the moon meant that the water was generally more accessible to the plants.
At first, the title of the post made me think that we killed all (possible) life on Mars, not just in the samples taken, just by having landed there and contaminated the planet. Now that would have been a true tragedy.
I wouldn’t call 40 millions years far older, it’s basically the equivalent to a 3 months difference between two 30 year olds. If anything the amazing part is how we are able to determine this with such level of precision.
has the definition of “no longer transmitting” changed recently?
When functioning properly, the FDS compiles the spacecraft’s info into a data package, which is then transmitted back to Earth using the TMU. Lately, that data package has been “stuck,” the blog post said, “transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros.” Voyager’s engineering team traced the problem back to the FDS, but it could be weeks before a solution is found.
I mean, i’m not a scientist, is that not transmitting. flipping click bait titles.
Lol, this reeks of the occasional stupidity behind necessary red tape. For those that didn’t read it, 2 of the fasteners require tools to remove that are not certified for the pure nitrogen environment they’re working in. Because it’s NASA, I can guarantee there is a very tightly controlled list of tools that are allowed to be used in the lab; each of which has gone through hundreds of hours of testing, documentation, and approval by at least one board. So even though all they need is essentially just a screwdriver, it’s going to take weeks or months to get all the approvals in place to use it.
I 100% agree with the rules. You really don’t want to take any chances whatsoever in that field. It just occasionally leads to funny delays like this.
You seem to be talking out of both sides of your mouth there.
They’re dumb because there’s red tape, but the red tape is there so they don’t accidentally ruin the sample? It’s stupid, but it’s a good thing?
This is NASA, the smartest people in the world, who just spent a ton of time, money, and resources retrieving a small sample of material. They don’t want to fuck it up. The tools have to fit in the container, they have to not contaminate the material, they have to do one job and do it perfectly, and they have one chance at it.
Let them take a minute to think about it, there’s no rush here.
But they designed the container… they decided the environment to open it in… why haven’t they already tried and certified the tools needed to open it? Wasn’t that thought of in advance? Or is this just a case of, these tools should work, but for some reason failed? Which is what i’m assuming, since only 2 of the 35 can’t be removed, but still.
The article linked here is kind of crappy. It’s just a single fact stretched out into a couple of paragraphs with no context. Take a look at these real articles, they show the confined space the scientists and engineers are working in, and why it’s so important to take their time doing things right.
If this was just a regular box, you spray some penetrating oil on it, or you can heat it, or you can crank on the bolt until it breaks, then drill out the remaining parts. But all of those options can ruin the sample inside.
This is a box with unique material, they have one chance to open it, and there is no time limit on opening the box. So they’re going to sit down and do some math and figure out the best way to open the box without ruining the contents. They’ll get it open, they just really really don’t want to fuck it up, cause they don’t get a second try at it.
If there was life there 50 years ago there's good chances it has survived til today. Afaik there hasn't been any change in mars that would eradicate whatever life there is. We mightve killed the single organism we found but if we found one we can find more.
I’m the designated jar opener in my family, if they bring it to my couch while I’m watching the news, I’m sure I can get it open in a couple seconds. Then they can say the customary thank you, which is “oh, I must have loosened it.” and then leave.
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