Unwanted Life Forms Abound in Sick Spacecraft

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Unwanted Life Forms Abound in Sick Spacecraft

By Bill Christensen

posted: 22 May 2007

11:56 a.m. ET

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/070522_technovel_sickspacecra

ft.html

Spacecraft start out clean - as close to germ-free as humans can

make them. But after years of use, unused spaces within the walls

can become home to unwanted life forms.

When NASA joined the Russian space program in its evaluation of the

microbial activity aboard the Mir spacecraft, they made some

interesting discoveries. NASA's plan was to obtain information that

would be useful during long-duration missions.

Mir had suffered several power outages during its fifteen years in

low earth orbit; temperature and humidity had gone well beyond

normal levels. In 1998, NASA astronauts were collecting samples from

air and surfaces. Imagine their surprise when they opened an obscure

service panel in Mir's Kvant-2 Module and discovered a free-floating

mass of water.

" According to the astronauts' eyewitness reports, the globule was

nearly the size of a basketball, " C. Mark Ott, health scientist at

Space Center in Houston, Texas, said.

Following a thorough search, several more globules were discovered.

The water wasn't clean, either; two of the blobs were brown and the

other was milky white. Samples taken back to Earth for analysis

contained several dozen species of bacteria and fungi, plus some

protozoa, dust mites (see photo), and possibly spirochetes. The

temperature behind the panels was a toasty 82 degrees Fahrenheit -

perfect for microorganisms.

Colonies of unwanted organisms were also found growing on rubber

gaskets around windows, on space suit components, cable insulations

and tubing, on the insulation of copper wires, and on communications

devices.

In the near future, astronauts won't need to send out the samples to

a lab. They will use the new LOCAD-PTS handheld microorganism

detector, developed by NASA to give results in just ten minutes.

Microorganisms can pose a real hazard to the health of a spacecraft.

According to Steele, senior staff scientist at the Carnegie

Institution of Washington working with other investigators at

Marshall Space Flight Center:

" Microorganisms can degrade carbon steel and even stainless steel.

In corners where two different materials meet, they can set up a

galvanic [electrical] circuit and cause corrosion. They can produce

acids that pit metal, etch glass, and make rubber brittle. They can

also foul air and water filters. "

Science fiction authors have worried about unwanted alien life forms

in spacecraft for years. In his 1985 novel Schismatrix, sf author

Bruce Sterling wrote about " sours: "

Each Concatenate world faced biological problems as it aged...

The Republic struggled to control its Sours...Mutant fungi had

spread like oil slicks, forming a mycelial crust beneath the surface

of the soil...

(Read more about sours)