Combating Bugs in Space

Oct. 9 -- When astronaut Norm Thagard spent four months on the Mir space station, his hygiene routine was fairly basic.

He and his crewmates used two dry towels and one wet towel a day to freshen up. And even though Thagard, who was the first American to live on the now 14-year-old station, exercised at least once a day on board, he reports, “I never felt terribly unclean.”

One thing Thagard did notice, however, was the way the callused skin on the bottom of his feet began to flake off, since there was no pressure on his soles in microgravity.

“I came back with feet bottoms as smooth as a baby,” he says.

Cramped, Damp Places

While sweating and flaking skin may be harmless facts of life here on Earth, in the cramped quarters of a spacecraft or station, such bodily products can invite trouble. Given a moist opportunity, microorganisms inhabiting those shed body parts can flourish, multiply and, particularly if radiation levels are high, mutate.

“Microorganisms grow on everything on Earth or in space,” says Ralph Mitchell, a professor of applied biology at Harvard University. “But because a space station is such a tight space, there can be lots of nooks and crannies where organisms can grow.”

That reality, plus reports of funky smells and mildew-coated surfaces on the Mir space station, has prompted NASA to investigate how to deal with the problem. Its research, which accelerated with the establishment of an immunology and infection commission three years ago, is likely to take on more significance when two cosmonauts and one astronaut are scheduled to take up long-term residence of the International Space Station for the first time next month.

Learning how to combat infection in space will also become important should NASA launch a human journey to Mars in the future. Scientists now estimate a voyage to the Red Planet would require living in space for about two years.

“I’m sure we can get to Mars from an engineering perspective,” says William Shearer, a researcher for the National Space Biomedical Research program commissioned by NASA. “The question is will we be able to return live, healthy astronauts back home.”