Microbes in Space Provide Clues for Planetary Protection

Outer space might be the toughest environment for life, but some hearty microbes have been able to survive in it for surprising amounts of time. Understanding how well microbes can survive in space is of importance when sending out orbiters or landers around bodies that might present the right conditions for life, such as Mars. Scientists want to be careful to avoid contaminating other worlds with life from our own.

 

In a recent study supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), pure cultures of two salt-loving microbes were dried and sent to the International Space Station’s external platform space exposure facility, called EXPOSE-R. Those microbes remained on the exterior for nearly two years. Other microbes were held back on Earth as control samples. Surprisingly, some of those in space survived.

 

The paper, ““The affect of the space environment on the survival of Halorubrum chaoviator and Synechococcus (Nägeli): data from the Space Experiment OSMO on EXPOSE-R,” was published in the Internal Journal of Astrobiology