Bacteria On Lunar Lander?

[EndeavorRX7]

I was watching "When we left Earth" on Discovery Channel last night and learned that Apollo 12 astronauts found bacteria on a previous lunar lander that had survived in the vacuum of space. The bacteria was on the lander before it was launched (apparently it wasn't sterilized properly if at all). I had never heard of this before. Has anyone heard of this and know any more details about it?

[Maksutov]

Old news.

Here you go. (http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast01sep98_1.htm)

[EndeavorRX7]

thanks

[01101001]

I thought the show should have been way more skeptical about those results.

Wikipedia: Reports of Streptococcus mitis on the moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reports_of_Streptococcus_mitis_on_the_moon)

I think there are too many question to make a conclusion. Was there a paper that makes the extraordinary claim?

[antoniseb]

I thought the show should have been way more skeptical about those results.

The researchers seem to be more thorough on controversies known at the time. IIRC this doubt about the origin of the bacterial spores is fairly new. I could see that escaping their notice, but not ours.

[01101001]

The researchers seem to be more thorough on controversies known at the time. IIRC this doubt about the origin of the bacterial spores is fairly new. I could see that escaping their notice, but not ours.

It doesn't help that NASA leaves the original claims hanging there on the Web without a footnote to update readers.

[01101001]

It doesn't help that NASA leaves the original claims hanging there on the Web without a footnote to update readers.

At least some NASA matter "teaches the controversy":

NASA Lunar Science Institute: Ask a Lunar Scientist (http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/ask-browse)


Was streptococcus actually found in Surveyor 3 after spending 2 and a half years on the Moon or is that just a rumor?
Yes, this microbe was found on the Surveyor 3 camera that was retrieved and returned to Earth by the Apollo 12 astronauts. For many years it was thought that these microbes had survived their long exposure on the lunar surface. More recently, however, scientific opinion has shifted, and now we think these were probably contaminants introduced when the camera was retuned to Earth. It is very difficult to control such contamination, which is a cautionary tale for future return of samples from Mars. We don't want to identify life in such a sample and then be unsure if the life is from Mars or from Earth. David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist

NASA Astrobiology: Biological contamination studies of lunar landing sites: implications for future planetary protection and life detection on the Moon and Mars (http://astrobiology.gsfc.nasa.gov/analytical/PDF/Glavinetal2004.pdf) (PDF)


Scientists working at the Lunar
Receiving Laboratory (LRL) claimed to have isolated a colony
of viable Streptococcus mitis bacteria from a sample of
foam collected inside the camera housing (Mitchell & Ellis
1972). However, all of the other camera components, including
an internal section of the electrical cabling, did not
contain viable terrestrial bacteria (Knittel et al. 1972), nor
was S. mitis found in the test camera that never went to the
Moon. Meanwhile, it has been suggested that there is photographic
evidence that these bacteria did not survive on the
Moon, but instead were isolated due to laboratory contamination
of the foam during analysis in the LRL (Rummel
2004).

NASA should clean up their various accounts of these bacteria, to at least achieve some consistency.