# Could tardigrades survive on Mars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747 "2012-08-17T04:20:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/1 "2012-08-17T04:20:29Z")
[These beasts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H0E77TdYnY) Could they make it on Mars? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/2 "2012-08-17T04:23:21Z")
Define “survive”. They could remain their in an inactive form. They couldn’t actually live there, there’s no food. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/3 "2012-08-17T22:42:01Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > They couldn’t actually live there, there’s no food. They could eat dead tardigrades, at least for a while.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/4 "2012-08-18T00:29:22Z")
Could they wait for food sources implanted or lost in the biosphere by humans, once we get around to it? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/5 "2012-08-18T00:55:24Z")
They’ll eat the [Mars lichens](http://umkeyra.hubpages.com/hub/Plant-Life-on-Mars-Lichens-and-Fungus)… _and love it!_ ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/6 "2012-08-18T00:57:26Z")
The existence of tardigrades doesn’t very well support the theory of saltation of the Earth by panspermia. That is, Earth didn’t get colonized by tardigrades. We know this because we have good evidence for prokariotes (bacteria) that predate eukaryotes (cells with nucleii), and single-celled eukaryotes that predate multicellular life (all of which is eukaryotic). Anyway, as mentioned above, what would they eat? No chloroplasts, so they couldn’t generate their own food from inorganics and sunlight. They need to eat other living (or dead) stuff. Water would be an issue, but there might be subsoil water reservoirs of some kind. I remember they were looking for that a decade ago, but don’t remember the conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/7 "2012-08-18T00:58:48Z")
> [@astro](#): > > They’ll eat the [Mars lichens](http://umkeyra.hubpages.com/hub/Plant-Life-on-Mars-Lichens-and-Fungus)… _and love it!_ Problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/8 "2012-08-18T03:07:58Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Water would be an issue, but there might be subsoil water reservoirs of some kind. I remember they were looking for that a decade ago, but don’t remember the conclusion. A decade ago!? Have you been living under a rock? They have a robot up there looking for it right now, not to mention the previous two robots, one of which was still operating until quite recently. All of this has had plenty of media attention. As I understand it, the current betting is that there almost certainly is water, but it has not yet been proved for certain. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-tardigrades-survive-on-mars/631747/9 "2012-08-18T19:25:00Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Could they wait for food sources implanted or lost in the biosphere by humans, once we get around to it? _And_ [different robots](http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/robot-designed-to-help-earth-plants-grow-on-mars.html)besides the media whore robots. I knew I was onto something…