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If someone placed a watermelon or any other type of fruit on the Moon, will it decompose?

InfinitySwordofDiamond
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    Fruit is all "contaminated" by mold spores. Wine can be fermented by yeasts already on the fruit. The question is if these organisms can reproduce fast enough at lunar temperatures to decompose the watermelon before it desiccates in the vacuum. – Woody May 07 '22 at 03:18
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    Fair point, @Woody, but fruit are pretty good at keeping fungus and bacteria out, if the fruit skin is unbroken, and watermelon skin is quite tough. In the lunar vacuum, I expect fungus spores to stay dormant and bacteria to encyst themselves. And for both to die fairly quickly from exposure to the high energy UV & the large temperature range. But I am not a biologist. I agree that the watermelon would eventually dessicate, but that might take a long time. – PM 2Ring May 07 '22 at 04:35
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    With or with heat shield? – user3528438 May 07 '22 at 05:04
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    When the fruit is exposed to the vacuum on the Moon, it will dry out very fast. Microbes can't decompose a totally dry fruit, so it would not decompose. – Uwe May 07 '22 at 09:41
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    @Uwe ... True. Also, the microbes are on the surface of the fruit so they will desiccate even faster than the fruit. This will likely not kill the bugs, but will make them metabolically inactive. I think it is certain the watermelon will mummify before it has a chance to rot. – Woody May 07 '22 at 15:05
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    It should be very similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-drying#Fruits – Uwe May 07 '22 at 21:10
  • I don't know about decompose but it will definitely freeze. – Nilay Ghosh May 12 '22 at 11:55

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