Space tardigrades ready for analyses!

The hardware with TARDIS samples has now been returned to the Swedish laboratory. No damage could be observed so the hardware part of the experiment worked fine. The software part, i.e. the tardigrades, will now be examined, and this will take a few months. Survival of exposed and non-exposed animals will be monitored , and reproduction patterns recorded. And the analyses of damage to DNA will soon be initiated. When all these analyses are ready, we will know if these pioneer tardigrades were able to stand their trip through space.