Microbiology

Abstract

Microbes in space craft are an inevitable reality. Humans and the systems that support them will transfer bacteria, fungi, and viruses to the space craft environment. Over the past six decades, our understanding of microbiology in human space flight has increased considerably. We have gained a significant evidence-base and developed appropriate countermeasures to mitigate the deleterious effect of bacteria, fungi, and viruses during low Earth orbit space flight missions. The International Space Station (ISS) has proven to be a safe, habitable environment and is used to evaluate the microbial risk mitigation strategies needed during longer duration, exploration-class missions. As the space program moves toward exploration-class missions, it is increasingly important to minimize the risk of infectious disease in crew members and to protect the integrity of the space craft. Current and future research efforts will focus on understanding the host-microbe interactions, including changes in the human immune system as well as alterations in microbial function. This chapter reviews current knowledge of space flight microbial risks, summarizes the results from ISS and other space craft, and identifies future research, engineering, and monitoring needs to mitigate microbial risks during exploration-class missions.