The Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft has successfully docked with the rearward port of the Tianhe core module of the space station at 1:46 today.It is reported that one of the scientific experimental payloads carried by the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft is called anaerobic archaea.It is one of the oldest life forms on Earth and a major contributor to Earth's atmospheric methane. It is widely distributed in anaerobic environments such as the deep sea, rice fields, and the stomachs of ruminants.
Anaerobic archaea were sent to the Chinese Space Station aboard the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft to verify whether they can survive in an environment simulating Mars and in the extreme environment of cosmic radiation, and to help humans explore the major mystery of whether extraterrestrial life exists.
It is understood that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has detected unexplained methane signals many times since it landed on Mars in 2012.
Scientists speculate that this methane may be a product of alien biological metabolism, and methanogens are considered by scientists to be one of the most likely potential life forms to exist on Mars or Enceladus.
This Tianzhou-7 experiment is a verification that if methanogens can survive in this environment, and can, for example, produce methane and grow well, it can prove that primitive life on earth can actually survive and even grow in extraterrestrial environments.
If the methane discovered on Mars may be the source of life, then this life may be homologous to life on Earth.