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Space is a harsh environment: it is a vacuum with sub-zero temperatures, ultraviolet radiation and, of course, almost no oxygen.
But Japanese researchers have discovered a species of moss that doesn't really care.
IN new study published ThursdaystudyCher sent a species of moss called Open Fiscomitrium to the International Space Station (ISS). This moss could not live in the comfortable, more or less earthly confines of the station, but was taken outside, into harsh space, for nine months.
The researchers tested three different stages of moss: protenemates (young moss); brood cells (specialized stem cells); and sporophytes (reproductive structures that contain spores).
Not all stages have been preserved.
As for the young moss, it was unable to survive strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation or extreme temperature fluctuations.
The brood cells had best speed to withstand sub-zero temperatures for 30 days, whereas 80 percent of sporophytes survived.
“The studies presented in this paper have proven that they can survive at least nine months of exposure without growing at all,” said lead researcher Tomomichi Fujita, who is also a professor at Hokkaido University.
But even better, when they were returned to Earth, approximately 90 percent of the spores were able to germinate and grow in the laboratory.
Researchers will have to do further work to find out whether the spores changed while in space.
Plants in space
There is a long history of testing the limits of multicellular organisms in space. especially plants.
Plants are already being grown on the space station.
But why bother?
Scientists say that if humans are going to eventually live on the Moon or even Mars, we need to figure out how to survive, which includes growing food for food. But there may be more to it than that.
“I think [plants would] to be quite critical not just about nutrition, but just about mental health,” said Katherine Naish, assistant professor of geosciences at Western University in London, Ont.
“I mean, seeing greens growing, eating fresh food, I think would be a huge factor for an astronaut's mental health.”
In 2024, Naish participated in an experiment with a then-undergraduate student. Nima Abbaszadeh who studied growing plants in lunar regolith (rocky material) and Martian regolith. Since there are no organic elements in the regolith, fertilizers had to be added to it.
For the most part it worked.
“I was surprised that anything grew at all,” she said. “The Martian soil didn't work, but the lunar soil did – we had two lunar soils, one was the lava plains, the mare, and the other was the highlands – and yes, it grew well in both.”
For Fujita, the idea of using moss in particular Open Fiscomitriumoccurred due to the hardiness of the plant.
But how did the spores survive in extreme conditions? conditions space?
Researchers believe that the structure surrounding the spore acts as a protective layer by absorbing UV radiation. They also suggest that it might be layer covers the internal spore to prevent any damage.
Such protection may also be related to how this hardy group of mosses, called bryophytes, may have transitioned from an aquatic to a terrestrial plant about 500 million years ago.
Fujita says he hopes the findings will help create ecosystems on the Moon and Mars.
“I hope our research on moss will serve as a starting point,” he said.
