If asked which celestial body is the most important for life on Earth, the answer is obvious without much thought—it is certainly the Sun. However, many people might hesitate if asked which is the second most important celestial body. But the answer is actually quite simple: it’s the Moon, which we can see almost every day.
In ancient China, the Moon was endowed with many special attributes, such as being cool, mysterious, and lonely, which are in complete contrast to the Sun’s hot and flamboyant characteristics. This corresponds to the concept of yin and yang in Taoism.
In recent decades, thanks to advancing science and technology, humans have gained a deeper understanding of the Moon, which has only added to its mystery.
According to scientific simulations, the Moon has played a catalytic role in the emergence and evolution of life on Earth. Without the Moon, the probability of Earth nurturing life would be significantly lower. Even if life did emerge by chance, its evolution would be extremely slow.
Why is this?
Because the Moon’s control over Earth’s tides is 2.17 times greater than that of the Sun. Without the Moon, Earth’s tidal forces would be greatly weakened, directly affecting the size of the buffer zone between the oceans and the land.
It is important to know that the earliest life on Earth appeared in the oceans, and all current life forms initially came from the ocean to the land. If the buffer zone between the ocean and land were reduced, this would significantly delay the evolution of life from the ocean to the land, and might even directly affect the emergence of complex life forms.
Due to the Moon being tidally locked to Earth, we have always only seen the near side of the Moon for thousands of years, leaving us completely ignorant of the far side. This has led to many rumors during the space exploration fever of the last century, such as the existence of alien bases or aliens observing Earth from the far side of the Moon.
We can laugh off these unreliable rumors, but as a species with an exceptionally strong curiosity, how could humans not explore this uncharted territory?
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 carried three astronauts to the Moon, fulfilling humanity’s millennia-old dream.
In the following years, humans landed on the Moon multiple times and conducted a series of scientific research activities, capturing a wealth of valuable video and photographic data, and even bringing back many samples of lunar soil with high research value.
Of course, during these lunar missions, humans left many items on the Moon, such as astronauts’ family photos, lunar rovers driven by the astronauts, and several lunar modules.
But if asked what the most unique of these leftover items is, the answer is likely just one thing—96 bags of diapers.
Why are there diapers on the Moon?
As everyone knows, all living beings have excretory needs. On Earth, because of gravity and casual clothing, excretion is a very simple matter for most people. However, in the weightless environment of space, combined with wearing heavy and cumbersome spacesuits, simple tasks become exceedingly difficult.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard rode the “Freedom 7” spacecraft beyond the atmosphere, becoming the first American to enter space. The honor of being the “first man” made Alan Shepard’s heart surge with excitement, which also triggered his need to urinate.
Floating in space, Shepard had to report this “unfortunate” situation to the command center. After a discussion lasting several minutes, Shepard received the final instruction—to urinate directly in his spacesuit.
Thus, Shepard inadvertently earned himself a second “first” title during this space mission. One can imagine the overwhelming frustration Shepard must have felt the moment he felt the warm flow.
On Earth, wetting your pants is a simple issue to handle; you just take off your pants and wash them. However, wetting your pants in a spacesuit is not so straightforward.
Since spacesuits are covered with sensors, which are very fragile and cannot withstand the “assault” of excretions, all the sensors on his body had to be turned off. The spacesuit’s ventilation system then dried the stains before all the sensors could be turned back on.
Simply wetting their pants would be manageable, but over time or with the presence of solid waste, it became clear that this was not a viable solution. Moreover, with the continuous development of human technology, future space exploration activities are bound to increase, making the embarrassing situation Shepard encountered a significant challenge for all astronauts. Consequently, NASA began to consider how to solve the excretion problem for astronauts seriously.
Over time, fixed-position space toilets, male urinals installed inside spacesuits, and even suction-based urine collection devices were introduced. However, none of these methods achieved a satisfactory level of safety and convenience.
Is there no perfect solution to this problem? That is certainly not the case.
Based on numerous solutions, NASA developed a “maximum absorbency garment”—an enhanced diaper.
This diaper is made of highly absorbent materials, capable of absorbing about 600-800 milliliters of liquid. Its multi-layered structure also meets various needs of astronauts.
During the Apollo missions, astronauts naturally used this “comfortable” biological solution. When the missions ended and they returned to Earth, these used diapers were discarded on the Moon to reduce the weight of the return module.
Why did diapers become “treasures”?
The continuation of life has always been one of the primary purposes of human space exploration. As early as the Apollo 16 mission, astronauts took nine types of microorganisms to the Moon to test whether they could survive in the harsh space environment. Although the test lasted only a few days, the exploration of this issue has never stopped.
In 2014, the European Space Agency placed more than 200 types of terrestrial bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms in a simulated space environment and monitored them continuously.
After 533 days, researchers were amazed to find that not only did some microorganisms survive, but some even maintained normal functioning. This discovery gave humanity hope for survival in space, and Americans at this time remembered the diapers they had left on the Moon more than half a century ago.
The human body harbors a multitude of microorganisms, and every time excretion occurs, hundreds or even thousands of these microorganisms are expelled. Therefore, the diapers left behind on the Moon have become the best “experimental vessels.”
In 2017, the United States announced the revival of its manned lunar program. One of its “great” objectives is to locate and retrieve these invaluable 96 bags of diapers to study the survival conditions of the microorganisms within them.
If any microorganisms are still alive, they will have immense scientific value. If they are dead, studying their remains can still provide us with valuable data. This data will be of great significance for guiding humanity’s future survival in space.
