Later analysis revealed the water was teeming with bacteria, fungi and mites. Can bad bacteria rest in a clean space windows#Įven more concerning were the colonies of organisms attacking the rubberised seals around the space station windows and the acid-excreting bugs slowly eating the electrical cabling. When each Mir module launched from Earth it was near-pristine, assembled in clean rooms by engineers wearing masks and protective clothing. All the unwanted life now living on the station had been carried into orbit by the multinational group of men and women who subsequently occupied the orbiting laboratory. We share our lives, and bodies, with microbes. Most of these microbes are not only harmless but essential, enabling us to digest food and fend off disease.įrom the bacteria lining our gut, to the microscopic mites nibbling at our dead skin, it’s estimated that more than half the cells in our body aren’t human. The women who sewed the Apollo space suits.Įverywhere we go, we take our microbiome with us and – just like humans – it’s learning to adapt to life in space.“Spaceflight causes stress for crewmembers and we wondered if the microbes would be stressed as well and react in a bad way.” “Space is a very stressful environment, and not just for humans,” says Christine Moissl-Eichinger, who’s led a recent European Space Agency (Esa) study into the International Space Station’s (ISS) microbiome using samples collected by the astronauts and cosmonauts on board. Can bad bacteria rest in a clean space free#īy November this year, the ISS will have been occupied continuously for 20 years.Īnd as the world struggles with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, it raises an interesting question – how do you keep a space station free of harmful bugs? (Read more about the l essons Spanish Flu can teach us about dealing with coronavirus.)Īfter the experience of Mir, biologists have been concerned about what else might be living on board and particularly any microbes that might endanger the station, or worse, the astronauts. “We expected to see differences in the genetic make-up or the composition of the microbial community, due to the adaptations they must have gone through,” says Moissl-Eichinger from the Medical University of Graz in Austria. The scientists found that the ISS has developed a stable population of some 55 different types of microorganisms. But, despite the lack of gravity, these bacteria, fungi, moulds, protozoa and viruses have adapted well to their surroundings.
“But we did find they had adapted to all the metal surfaces.” “They weren’t more resistant to antibiotics or had other potentially harmful traits for the humans,” says Moissl-Eichinger.
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