Natural History Wanderings

ExploresWeb  reported

To ask if you could live outside the International Space Station (ISS) is rhetorical at best — but could any living organism on Earth manage it?

One unassuming toughie did, and provided at least rough proof of concept that life could exist on Mars.

Lichen from Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys survived 18 months on a platform attached to the outside of the ISS’s Columbus module, Futurism reported. Though they emerged in worse shape than temperate lichens tested separately in “Mars-like conditions,” many still survived.

Read more  Lichen Survives on Outside of International Space Station » Explorersweb