Moss spores have survived a prolonged trip to space, scientists reveal. The spores spent nine months on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to our planet, and over 80% of the spores were still able to reproduce when they arrived back on Earth.
The discovery improves our understanding of how plant species survive in extreme conditions, the researchers wrote in their findings, published Thursday (Nov. 20) in the journal iScience.
It sounds like this could be an approach for vehicles used in long duration manned space flight - modules filled with moss layers as radiation shielding, which can be regenerated simply by taking them back inside for a while; can possibly be combined in usage as CO2 scrubbers. That way the fixated carbon becomes a useful ressource in protecting the crew. Anyone knows if something like that has been tried or considered yet?
This was spores, not moss. Actual layers of moss would be far too heavy, and would take far too much moss to be useful either as shielding or as scrubbers.
The mechanical bits needed for that are too heavy.
If you’re interested, the Project Rho folks have thought this out:
https://projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php#id--Every_Gram_Counts
https://projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/celss.php
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/habmod.php
“Staged” water/fuel tanks (a thinly shielded outside + “storm cellar” for bad bursts) seem to be the most viable form of shielding, but there are a few proposals like external algae farms.
Never even read science fiction that supposes this, but it strikes me as brilliant. Moss is always juicy, plenty of water to block rads. I don’t think being frozen changes that? Also, it could be used as an ablative material to shrug off or attenuate micro damage from dust and the like.
Sure, they’re using spores, not live moss, but seems like we could work something out of this? Right?!
Go write a brilliant sci-fy novel on this OP. I’ll back you in saying it was your idea first!
Itll come down to weight really. Water is one of many ways I’ve heard too protect against radiation, and like your say moss holds a lot of it. That said it sure would be interesting to see how it works in practice!
Fujita thinks the protective, spongy casing surrounding the spores may help defend against UV light and dehydration.
According to this article, they’re just speculating at this point why spores survived. Next step could be to confirm why spores survived. If that’s a form of shielding, then run tests to check if a layer a spore would be a more effective shield than existing matetials. If it is, look for a practical way to use it.
