A team from RMIT University in Melbourne (Australia) launched spores from a rocket Bacilus subtilisa bacterium essential for human health, to verify its survival: after a rapid ascent and a few minutes in microgravity, the section of the rocket containing the bacteria returned to Earth and scientists confirmed that the samples were perfectly healthy. Details are published on npj Microgravity.
A turbulent journey. Bacteria like B. subtiliswhich plays a fundamental role in the immune system, intestinal health and blood circulation, are crucial to sustaining human life for decades in a possible future colonization of Mars.
It is the first time that a similar study has been conducted not in laboratory conditions: during launch, the rocket reached a maximum acceleration of approximately 13 g (i.e. approximately 460 km/h in one second, 13 times the force of Earth’s gravity); the bacteria remained in a situation of space buoyancy called microgravity for over six minutes, and then descends with an extreme deceleration of 20 g (i.e. from approximately 700km/h to zero in one second), spinning vortically 220 times per second. After the turbulent flight, the structure of the spores and their ability to grow was unchanged.
Space and medicine. “Understanding how these microorganisms survive in space is crucial for the future of space travel,” explains Gail Iles, one of the authors. Knowing that these bacteria remain unchanged during the various phases of flight, he explains, allows us to “improve the health of astronauts and develop sustainable life support systems.”
In addition to space and planetary explorations, what has been discovered also has potential implications in the biotechnological field: by studying how bacteria survive or adapt to physical stress, we could discover hitherto unknown resistance mechanisms to develop new antibiotic treatments.
