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Australian scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have shown that human bacteria can survive the extreme conditions of space flight – launch, microgravity, and return to Earth. This offers hope for safely preserving the human microbiome during future missions, including trips to Mars.
The study, reported by Interesting Engineering, is the first to show that spores of Bacillus subtilis, important for human health, can survive the full cycle of a space launch. Bacterial samples were placed aboard the Suborbital Express 3 – M15 rocket, which launched from Esrange in Sweden. During ascent, the rocket experienced acceleration up to 13g, and spores spent over six minutes in microgravity at 260 km altitude.
Despite extreme forces during descent, including 30g braking and rapid spins, the bacteria remained viable and grew like the control group on Earth, showing remarkable resilience.
The findings, published in Nature, confirm that B. subtilis can endure rapid changes in gravity and acceleration without losing the ability to grow. This is important for long-duration space flights, as microorganisms travel with astronauts beyond Earth.
These results may help develop stable life-support systems for Mars colonies and improve Earth-based biotechnologies. Further experiments will study other bacteria and the effects of cosmic radiation on active cells.
