"...To ask if you could live outside the International Space Station (ISS) is rhetorical at best — but could any living organism on Earth manage it?
One unassuming toughie did, and provided at least rough proof of concept that life could exist on Mars.
Lichen from Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys survived 18 months on a platform attached to the outside of the ISS’s Columbus module, Futurism reported. Though they emerged in worse shape than temperate lichens tested separately in “Mars-like conditions,” many still survived.
Damaged but not destroyed
The study authors focused on the success of the species in the Martian simulation.
“The most relevant outcome was that more than 60% of the cells…remained intact after ‘exposure to Mars,’ ” said Rosa de la Torre Noetzel of Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and co-researcher on the project.
Survival in outer space itself was lower. Only around 35% of these lichen’s cells retained their membranes throughout the experiment..."