Astronauts will snake into spacecraft next week to take a wipe outside the International Space Station to see if a lab 250 miles above Earth is releasing microbes into space.
This experiment will focus on collecting bacterial and fungal samples near the vent. NASA wants to know whether bacteria can survive the harsh environment, and if so, how far they travel. The specimen will be frozen and brought back to Earth for analysis.
Despite the US Space Agency’s rigorous spacecraft cleaning process, hardy microscopic life forms cannot be completely removed from space-bound equipment. Furthermore, when people go into space, they carry a true ecosystem of life on their skin and bodies. Humans can’t help but spread things like this. This is a point that former NASA chief scientist John Grunfeld emphasized in 2015.
“We already know there is life on Mars because we sent it there,” he said.
NASA has discovered bacteria that won’t die. Now it’s backing up sunscreen.
NASA researchers demonstrate how to remove swabs from sampling caddies used by astronauts during spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – yes, the same pair waiting for Boeing’s spacecraft to return home after experiencing problems, to collect samples among other tasks carry out a spaceship. The 6.5-hour Jaunt outside the station is targeted at 8 a.m. on January 30th.
At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists discovered hundreds of these extreme creatures (creatures capable of living in the harshest Earth environments) while trying to clean a spacecraft. The United States has signed an international treaty to avoid introducing pollutants into extraterrestrial environments.
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To comply, NASA sought to disinfect the Mars rover with a threshold of no more than 300,000 bacterial spores on any surface. This process resulted in a large number of microorganisms that could withstand high temperatures, low nutrients, and lack of water.
Scientists collect specimens to keep a record of so-called “dead bug bodies” that may remain. That way, if the rover’s shovels dig through the otherworldly dirt and find life, they have an idea of whether they’ve discovered aliens or hitchhikers from Earth.
One superbacteria found in a NASA clean room was eventually intentionally sent to the space station, where astronauts hung it outside. When the samples returned, many of the spores were still viable, even after 18 months of exposure to cosmic radiation.
International Space Station fungal culture shown after 5 days.
Credit: NASA
This upcoming station’s research aims to better understand the potential for microorganisms to survive and reproduce in space. This study will determine which humans are associated with environmental habitats on Mars and other destinations in the solar system during crew missions. The findings could inform changes to future crew spacecraft and space protection.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, attempted a similar experiment. They sampled surfaces and announced the discovery of non-spore-forming bacteria growing outside the station. But NASA is skeptical that the device used in the Russian experiment was contaminated and is attempting to generate its own data for comparison.
U.S. astronauts are already conducting quarterly studies to monitor what lives in the air, surfaces and water inside the station. They are now equipped with equipment to perform the identification themselves without sending the culture back to Earth.
NASA hopes this research will also lead to new products. It’s happened before: extracts from that bacteria that once remained outside the train station are now used as sunscreen ingredients.
