Astronauts vs. fungus

[Guest guest]

Sigh, even space travel wouldn't be safe for us!

Rosie

http://www.lauralee.com/news/moldfood.htm

Astronauts vs. fungus

Orbiting spacecraft turns out to be food for aggressive mold

By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff, 10/1/2000

The history books will never record it, but life in outer space was

discovered about 12 years ago by a Russian cosmonaut as he was gazing out a

window of the space station Mir.

Squinting to set his sights on the passing Earth below, this space explorer

instead focused on a thick living mat that had made its way up the window's

hard quartz surface, nearly obliterating any view.

A microbiologist, Natalia Novikova, eventually identified the growth as an

aggressive space fungus. And since then, she's had her hands full examining

the various forms of fungi found growing aboard the ship. The aging Mir, it

turns out, is nearly overrun with the stuff. Visitors have found numerous

fungal patches with hues between green and black, feeding behind control

panels, slowly digesting the ship's air conditioner, communications unit,

and myriad other surfaces. Pull out an insulation panel on Mir, and you'll

probably find fungus.

And in the heavy radiation of space, Novikova and others said, these fungi

could mutate into more virulent forms, possibly harming future space

travelers, or even be carried back to Earth to wreak havoc as they join the

many earthbound varieties that relentlessly attack metal, plastic and glass

surfaces.

Scientists are discovering that ''biodegradation,'' the term used to

describe microbial damage to materials, is a far greater problem than

previously thought. Fungal infections could explain why electronics fail

more often than expected, and microbes, along with acid rain, are assaulting

famous landmarks from the Taj Mahal to the Acropolis to the cathedral in

Cologne. Just last month, China hired a Belgium company that said it would

launch a three-year program to rid the 40 varieties of mold eating away the

famed 2,200-year-old army of terra cotta warriors. The mold has attacked

1,400 of the 8,000 life-sized statues of soldiers and horses that were found

in the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang, outside the city of

Xian.

But there's no one to call to combat space mold, and NASA is suddenly

treating the topic seriously. Decades of science fiction notwithstanding, it

now seems the great threat to space exploration comes not from

technologically advanced alien races, but from the same lowly fungi that

attack dorm-room refrigerators. With the $60 billion International Space

Station under construction, and more ambitious missions to the moon and Mars

being considered, the Mir infection has shown that fungi are surprisingly

destructive, giving off corrosive agents like acetic acid that damage

equipment and release toxins into the environment.

Spacecraft ''are closed systems, and there is very little room for error,''

said Ralph , a professor of applied biology at Harvard who has

helped NASA come to terms with the microbial threat. ''Within days, all of

the astronauts share all of the same microflora ... like children in

kindergarten.''

Viewed under a microscope, many fungi look harmless, beautiful even, with

long threads weaving a living filigree. But, unchecked, they happily destroy

the things we build.

, in research for NASA, said that his team placed fungus on plastics

the agency was considering for the International Space Station, and watched

the effects. Over time, the plastics bubbled, released fumes, and broke off

in thin strips. Placed on metals, he said, fungi can plunge through the

surface, weakening it with pits and microscopic fissures.

On space missions, the potential problems multiply because of increased

radiation that can cause the fungi to mutate into more dangerous forms.

Francis Cucinotta, manager of the radiation health office at NASA's

Space Center, said he published a scientific paper in 1995 that found that

about one-tenth of 1 percent of bacterial spores would mutate after a year

of the kind of radiation experienced on a mission to Mars.

The problem, he cautioned, was poorly understood, and nobody could say how

many of the mutations would pose a threat.

But astronauts are also less able to fight off infections, doctors said,

especially on long missions. The stresses placed on their bodies, including

weightlessness, psychological pressure, and trouble sleeping, can all

degrade the immune system.

''If the microflora is altered into some kind of superbug, and the

astronaut's immune system is weakened, it could cause quite a problem,''

said Shearer, a professor of pediatrics and immunology at the Baylor

College of Medicine, and the team leader in charge of immunology for the

National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

US astronaut Jerry Linenger said that when he was on Mir in 1997, he found

''an overgrowth of fungus.''

Linenger, who is a medical doctor and holds a doctorate in epidemiology,

used a standard NASA test to determine fungal counts on surfaces. For the

shuttle, he explained, the samples would be placed in a medium so their

growth could be tracked over several days. But on Mir, he said, he couldn't

do the count because the container was overgrown in half a day.

Linenger, author of ''Off the Planet,'' a book about his experiences on Mir,

said that he did not see any evidence that fungi or bacteria on the craft

caused health problems. But he added that the station had ''a strong smell

of fungal contamination'' - a smell he called ''mushroomy'' in his book -

and that ''there were areas you wouldn't want to stick your hand in.''

According to Novikova, who heads the Microbial Protection Laboratory of the

Russian government's Institute for Biomedical Problems, Mir's problems first

came to light with the finding of fungus on the porthole in 1988, and have

been an issue ever since.

The fungi that did the damage, Novikova said, included members of the genera

Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Cladesporium - all very common on Earth.

In July, a Web site called Space.com described some of Novikova's findings,

but the results did not gain wide attention.

NASA officials said that wherever humans go, they bring a certain amount of

fungus with them. They said they had not seen evidence of biodegradation on

the International Space Station, but they have put into place an

''aggressive'' prevention program. On a visit to the station this summer,

astronauts spent hours lifting out panels to search for evidence that

colonies were causing damage.

''Because of this issue on Mir, it has led us to be more aware of the need

to do these inspections more frequently,'' said Herring, a NASA

spokesman.

There is no evidence that fungi have ever affected the health of the crew,

or threatened the integrity of critical systems, said Manber,

president of MirCorp, the Amsterdam-based company that has leased the rights

to use Mir. He said that the situation hasn't threatened MirCorp's business

ventures, which include sending the winner of a sequel to the television

show ''Survivor'' to the station.

MirCorp has undertaken a $5 million project to upgrade Mir's environmental

control systems, Manber said.

When the space race began with the Russians' launch of Sputnik in 1957, it

was seen as an engineering challenge. But as experience accumulates,

scientists say they are coming to appreciate more and more that it is a

serious biological challenge as well. NASA's Cucinotta said that there are a

host of ''basic questions that NASA must answer before it can go to Mars.''

But for Linenger, who was almost killed by a fire during his stay on Mir,

the lure of exploration will always outweigh dangers such as microbial

infestation. Climbing into a rocket is like ''climbing onto a pile of

explosives,'' he explained. ''There are just too many other things to worry

about.''

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 10/1/2000.

C Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.

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