We need tardigrades for our weather ballon experiment, but this species seems to be rare in big cities like Shanghai or Beijing. There might be a correlation to the environmental pollution - tardigrades can withstand extreme temperature, pressure, radiation and dehydration, but they are sensitive to environmental toxins, especially sulfur trioxide.

A German fellow-countryman, who is working at Siemens in China and got interested in our project, was back in Germany and sent us a few plastic bags with dried moss (the usual residence of water bears) from Munich and Wolfenbüttel. And lo and behold we could observe the first water bears under the microscope here in Shanghai.

Furthermore two students, who studying physics on the Univeristy of North Carolina, will probably touch down coming summer in China and working with us on our experiment.

Not forgetting the visit of John, a doctorand at NASA, his wife and Leo, an engineering student of the University of Cambridge, last year in the largest city in China and the world :)

This is what the Google Lunar X Prize actually does - it connecting people in the whole world with a keen interest in space exploration. I am very thankful for this. Keep on trying! Good luck for all teams.