Andromeda Strain 2: NASA's Microbes-in-SpaceTest

Once again, as is far too often the case, your campy B-movie’s have predicted a terrible future. First killer robots, then horrible things that climb out of swamps, and like a scene from Crichton's Andromeda Strain, killer germs from space

Or, in reality, killer germs from earth, that have gone to space, and then come home again.

That’s the news from a new report conducted by NASA on a shuttle mission from 2006. It was mission STS-115, back in September of 06, that NASA astronauts were accompanied on their spaceward journey by a batch of salmonella. Scientists wanted to see what effect the germs would take on after a space visit. What they found is somewhat disturbing, accompanied by how they found it.

Man’s unwitting science partner – the lab mice – were fed the jetlagged salmonella, and were found to be three times more likely to get sick and die quicker than those mice who were fed the original salmonella.

''Wherever humans go, microbes go, you can't sterilize humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand ... how they're going to change,'' said Cheryl Nickerson, associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.

This information doesn’t just affect the lab mice of the world, but also all those men and women who over the next several decades will be making manned missions to the International Space Station, the moon and Mars.

For a long time, it has been common knowledge that extended space time can have a negative effect on bone density, muscle tone and the immune system. So why the adverse effect on germs? That’s the worrying part, no one’s really certain!

''We do not know,” said Nickerson, “with 100 percent certainty what the mechanism is of space flight that's inducing these changes.''

However, thankfully, there is at least a theory as to why this happens.

''Being cultured in microgravity means the force of the liquid passing over the cells is low,” said Nickerson, referring to the theorized “fluid shear” that they believe causes this change in cell structure. The salmonella cells ''are responding not to microgravity, but indirectly to microgravity in the low fluid shear effects.''

''There are areas in the body which are low shear, such as the gastrointestinal tract, where, obviously, salmonella finds itself,'' she added. ''So, it's clear this is an environment not just relevant to space flight, but to conditions here on Earth, including in the infected host.''

''These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive,'' she concluded.

This news comes just two weeks after a British government advisory panel recommended that Britain disband their longstanding refusal to fund manned missions in to space, and recruit a four person team. I doubt that this will inspire any of the Brits to jump on board a manned mission to germ central.

Posted by Josh Hill.