It was determined that in fact the filters had collected a bacterial population that was 75 smaller than the one encountered in vacuum cleaners, which suggests that the air within the worldwide Space Station is much more hygienic than the surfaces.
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Using DNA sequencing technologies, scientists analyzed all “bug” samples found on the ISS -all of them, not only those that can grow inside a lab. The bacteria found there is the Actinobacteria, known on Earth for developing mostly in the soil, playing an important role in decomposition and humus formation.
More broadly speaking, the research showed that Actinobacteria were more prevalent on the ISS than in the clean rooms – something that was attributed to the stringent cleaning regimens found in clean rooms, where there isn’t a constant human presence like on the space station. Scientists wrote in the journal Microbiome that ISS has more germs than the cleanrooms at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Earth. According to the Washington Post, astrobiologist Kasthuri Venkateswaran and his colleagues at NASA studied a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter that had been on the craft for 40 months, as well as two bags of dust from the onboard vacuum.
The Space Station could also be infected with a strain of bacteria which could cause the deadly disease diptheria.
According to Venkateswaran, their team is “stepping in the right direction” and NASA also knows these things will be “required for tomorrow’s human mission to Mars”.
NASA and its partner agencies go to extraordinary measures to reduce the likelihood that microbes will sneak a ride to ISS, requiring that payloads move through “clean rooms”, which are outfitted with high-powered air filtration systems and thoroughly mopped and scrubbed with disinfectants.
NASA has warned that the global Space Station is “full of germs”.
State-of-the-art molecular analysis of dust samples from the worldwide Space Station (ISS) has been employed to reveal new information about a few of the potential bacterial agents present in the astronauts’ space environment.
The researchers took the samples from the ISS and checked for microorganisms inside of them.
Two pathogens which could be more risky if left unattended were also found. The research did not study how well these pathogens are able to spread inside of closed environments or if they can actually infect the astronauts.
‘The results of the experiment are absolutely unique, ‘ said the head of the Russian ISS orbital mission Vladimir Solovyev.
They claim the plankton were not carried there at launch – but are thought to have been blown there by air currents on Earth.
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One of the key differences between the ISS and the Earth-based cleanrooms, Dr. Venkateswaran said, are that the cleanrooms constantly circulate fresh air while the air on the space station had to be filtered and recirculated. In addition, the ISS is continuously inhabited by six people, while the cleanrooms are used off-and-on by up to 50 scientists every day.
