Terrestrial bacteria can grow on nutrients from space:
In the past decade, there has been renewed thinking about human missions to the moon and perhaps even to Mars. Inevitably, terrestrial microorganisms on the bodies of astronauts, spaceships or equipment will come into contact with extraterrestrial environments. Researchers from the Radboudumc describe in an article in Astrobiology that bacteria can survive on an "extraterrestrial diet," which affected their pathogenic potential
[...] For this study, four non-fastidious environment-derived bacterial species with pathogenic features were selected, including Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To determine whether extraterrestrial survival and growth were possible, the researchers developed a minimal bacterial diet based on nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, iron and water to which carbohydrates found in carbonaceous meteorites were added. The four bacterial species were shown to survive and multiply on this minimal diet.
Journal Reference:
Jorge Domínguez-Andrés et al. Growth on Carbohydrates from Carbonaceous Meteorites Alters the Immunogenicity of Environment-Derived Bacterial Pathogens, Astrobiology (DOI: 10.1089/ast.2019.2173)
The guide to being a hitchhiker in the galaxy says to be a bacterium.
(Score: 2) by Kalas on Friday May 29 2020, @05:34PM (1 child)
We're not already doing that? I thought that was the whole reason New Jersey exists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @10:55AM
Now, now. That was by choice.
New Jersey has more toxic waste dumps and California has more lawyers because New Jersey got first pick.
*rimshot* -- Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all week*. Try the prime rib!
*Actually, I'm never going to leave. Lucky you. ;)