The idea that there is a pile of astronaut poop sitting somewhere on the lunar surface has, of course, generated plenty of attention online. Many commenters, of course, find the concept of vacuum-packed frozen space poop humorous, while others are outraged at the idea that we have left the moon sullied after multiple missions which are widely held to represent the summit of all human achievement.
But while headlines such as Vox’s “Apollo astronauts left their poop on the moon. We gotta go back for that s***” may suggest that Earthlings have a duty to clean up after themselves, there is in fact a renewed scientific interest in what our spacemen left behind on the lunar surface all those years ago. Per the article, NASA is now planning on recovering the human waste the agency left behind over half a century ago, to study how the microbes in the poop have reacted to spending decades on the surface of the moon.
Read Related Also: Man poured ‘pitchers of scalding water’ on disabled roommate, lit her on fire twice for ‘urinating on herself’: Police
Though the surface of the moon is a far harsher environment than Earth and most of the bacteria contained in the poop would likely have long since died and disintegrated, some scientists argue that the microbes may very well have adapted to the conditions and survived, allowing humanity to study the evolution of extraterrestrial life in progress.
