Origin of Life on Earth and the Space Project Luna-28

Abstract

The Russian space project with the automatic lunar station (ALS) Luna-28 is designed to deliver samples of lunar polar regolith to Earth. It is known that the regolith in the vicinity of the lunar poles may contain several percent by weight of water ice and other volatile compounds of cosmic origin. A significant portion of the lunar water could have been delivered to the Moon by comets. It is known that cometary water contains organic compounds, some of which have a complex prebiological structure. Similar comets collided with the Earth in the distant past and also delivered organic compounds of cosmic origin to our planet. According to the panspermia hypothesis, such compounds in the Earth’s primordial ocean could have initiated the process of the emergence of initial forms of primitive life. On the Moon, similar cometary organic matter may be preserved in pristine form in polar permafrost. Studying samples of the polar material delivered in the Luna-28 ALS return capsule in terrestrial laboratories will allow experimental verification of the presence or absence of extraterrestrial life spores in it.