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NASA fed moon rocks to cockroaches to test for lunar microbes (Space.com)

Zen

Zen

The Wise Ones
Member
Nov 1, 2017
9,658
https://www.space.com/amp/apollo-lunar-samples-safety-animal-testing.html

It's too weird to make up: NASA fed some of its precious Apollo 11 lunar samples to cockroaches. And dumped it in fishbowls. And injected mice with it. No, really.

NASA still has most of the moon rocks the Apollo 11 crew brought home, but a small fraction of the astronauts' bounty was used up in a little-known but vitally important set of experiments that ensured lunar samples were safe to keep here on Earth.
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First, NASA chose the species it would use. In addition to the mice, the agency and its partners also selected other representative species: Japanese quail to represent birds, a couple of nondescript fish, brown shrimp and oysters for shellfish, German cockroaches and houseflies for creepy-crawlies, and more. (Sadly, while we found images of the mice, birds and plants, the moon rock-eating roaches eluded us.)
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Feed me moon rocks if old.
 
Razorrin

Razorrin

Member
Nov 7, 2017
5,236
the HELP Menu.
"A couple of nondiscript fish" makes me laugh more then I think it should!

Honestly, not that weird of an idea. If lunar colonization is gonna be a real thing one of these days, we'll need to know everything we can about existence on it's serface. Knowing if there are dangerous microbes is a part of that.

I don't really know much of the process, but you'd think they'd show up on scope quicker then they'd show up as a symptom on a creature, but I'm no moon scientist.
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
53,148
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Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,944
They should have found some people willing to try them out, it would have been cheaper than having pay a roach specialist and then we would have learned more about how it tasted
 
Son Lamar

Son Lamar

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,238
Alabama
Razorrin said:
"A couple of nondiscript fish" makes me laugh more then I think it should!

Honestly, not that weird of an idea. If lunar colonization is gonna be a real thing one of these days, we'll need to know everything we can about existence on it's serface. Knowing if there are dangerous microbes is a part of that.

I don't really know much of the process, but you'd think they'd show up on scope quicker then they'd show up as a symptom on a creature, but I'm no moon scientist.
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I dont think its about it showing up on scope more of what's the risk to exposure you can see something all day but until you know the actual risk of being exposed to it doesnt matter,
Tho roach's eat damn near anything so not sure if they were right to test on I assume them to be immune to everything short of raid for now
 
Rendering...

Rendering...

Member
Oct 30, 2017
19,089
Dyle said:
They should have found some people willing to try them out, it would have been cheaper than having pay a roach specialist and then we would have learned more about how it tasted
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Chalky, with a clean finish.

I made that up, but any moon rock gastronomist would tell you the same, probably.
 
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