Source: An small microbial ecosystem has formed on the International Space Station
Author: Jacek Krywko
Highlights
Astronauts on the International Space Station often suffer from various immune system dysfunctions, including allergies and skin rashes, even though they go through rigorous screening and are probably among the healthiest people on (or at least near) Earth. “It’s hard to pinpoint the exact causes for a lot of these symptoms, but we believe microbiome disruptions that happen in their bodies and in their environment up there could be playing an important part
Largely missing were the microbes that live on plants, animals, and in the soil. When the team compared the ISS microbial diversity with places where people usually live on Earth, those 6.31 percent started to look a bit tiny.
“One of the more similar environments to the ISS was in the isolation dorms on the UCSD campus during the COVID-19 pandemic. All surfaces were continuously sterilized, so that microbial signatures would be erased by the time another person would show up,” Benitez said. So, one of the first solutions to the ISS microbial diversity problem he and his colleagues suggested was that they perhaps should ease up on sterilizing the station so much.
introducing microbes that are beneficial to human health might be better than constantly struggling to wipe out all microbial life on the station
“I’d take a more holistic ecosystem approach,” Benitez said. He imagines in the future we could build spacecraft and space stations hosting entire gardens with microbes that would interact with plants, pollinators, and animals to create balanced, self-sustaining ecosystems. “We’d not only need to think about sending the astronauts and the machines they need to function, but also about all other lifeforms we will need to send along with them,” Benitez said