With modern technology, outer space is no long unexplored, especially with the United States, United Arab Emirates, and China launching missions to Mars. However, astronauts and future space explorers face one danger that they carry with them from the earth: antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Bacteria, or germs, are living organisms that are everywhere and are a part of the human biological makeup as well. They thrive in various environments such as land and sea, hot and cold, inside the gut of animals and humans, and even in space.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are some of the most dangerous kinds on Earth, such as E. Coli and Staphylococcus aureus (staph). In space, these harmful bacteria are more resilient and dangerous as the unique environment greatly influences the behavior of microbes.
One factor impacting bacteria in space is microgravity or the little gravity that is present in spacecrafts. Microgravity has shown to allow biofilms of bacteria to thrive. Biofilms are compacted cell colonies, or a community of microbes, that attach to one another and protect themselves in polymers, allowing it to grow in resistance to threats.
Bacterial Growth in Space
Becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics allows the microbes to survive and multiply and potentially cause much more harm. Researchers have seen how bacteria have cause equipment on space stations to biodegrade due to the growth of biofilms.
In a previous study from 2016 on bacteria in the International Space Station, Dr. David Coil from the University of Davis described the perfect environment for bacterial growth. 'The warm, humid, oxygen-rich environment of the ISS is a far cry from the vacuum of space,' he said.
In Russia's Mir space station, several types of equipment such as air conditional, a water recycling unit, and a navigation window was covered in biofilms. Over time, it could cause the equipment to malfunction as it biodegrades and results in severe consequences.
Microgravity also affects the structural distortion of microbes by reducing its cell size and increasing its numbers in this particular environment. On Earth, gravity affects buoyancy and sedimentation - two aspects that affect how bacteria react to antibiotics which are also minimized in space.
Buoyancy is the force that allows objects to either sink or float in liquid while sedimentation occurs when solids settle at the bottom of liquids. With the two properties minimized due to lack of gravity, it contributes to microbes becoming more infectious and drug-resistant.
Development of Drug Treatment
On the contrary, space also allows for researchers to develop treatment better because structures of molecules grow better than they do on Earth. Molecular crystals grow larger and more symmetrical in space, providing researchers with more precise structures.
Moreover, 'many molecules that cannot be crystallized on Earth can be in space,' wrote Vikrant Minhas from the University of Adelaide and the co-founder of ResearchSat, a space research company. Drug developers can potentially create better treatments for diseases and cancers as well as develop a higher quality of existing drugs.
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