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The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

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Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#31

Post by mrfusion »

delecti wrote: post #13
wwwtyro wrote: post #4

"The research touches on this, and it warns astronauts to follow recommended planetary protection protocols designed to prevent visiting spacecraft from contaminating other planets and moons in our solar system with microorganisms from Earth. The study suggests that, because of the risk of contamination, these fungal spores may need to be considered a more serious threat." This makes me wonder if we've accidentally a…

I'm more excited by the prospect that we've started terraforming Venus. It has an atmosphere, and with a lot of CO2. Wouldn't take many surviving plant microbes on one of the probes we've sent to start things off. Get the CO2 under control and in a few million years it might be downright balmy.

I think the big problem is that there is no water on Venus though?

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#32

Post by Analemma_ »

delecti wrote: post #13
wwwtyro wrote: post #4

"The research touches on this, and it warns astronauts to follow recommended planetary protection protocols designed to prevent visiting spacecraft from contaminating other planets and moons in our solar system with microorganisms from Earth. The study suggests that, because of the risk of contamination, these fungal spores may need to be considered a more serious threat." This makes me wonder if we've accidentally a…

I'm more excited by the prospect that we've started terraforming Venus. It has an atmosphere, and with a lot of CO2. Wouldn't take many surviving plant microbes on one of the probes we've sent to start things off. Get the CO2 under control and in a few million years it might be downright balmy.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but terraforming Venus’s atmosphere wouldn’t do anything about the pressure, right? Even if all that CO2 became oxygen, and it cooled off a bit, Venus would still have almost 100 atmospheres of pressure at the surface and still be basically uninhabitable.

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#33

Post by not2b »

CydeWeys wrote: post #30
wwwtyro wrote: post #4

"The research touches on this, and it warns astronauts to follow recommended planetary protection protocols designed to prevent visiting spacecraft from contaminating other planets and moons in our solar system with microorganisms from Earth. The study suggests that, because of the risk of contamination, these fungal spores may need to be considered a more serious threat." This makes me wonder if we've accidentally a…

Seriously, is this a threat or is it the unexpected boon of getting a jump-start on terraforming? If you could press a button and "contaminate" Mars with life that would start spreading and generating an oxygen atmosphere, wouldn't you?

It would mean you have a much harder time finding out if Mars once had life, if instead you're detecting mold that hitched a ride with your spacecraft.

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#34

Post by inflatableDodo »

Analemma_ wrote: post #32
delecti wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more excited by the prospect that we've started terraforming Venus. It has an atmosphere, and with a lot of CO2. Wouldn't take many surviving plant microbes on one of the probes we've sent to start things off. Get the CO2 under control and in a few million years it might be downright balmy.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but terraforming Venus’s atmosphere wouldn’t do anything about the pressure, right? Even if all that CO2 became oxygen, and it cooled off a bit, Venus would still have almost 100 atmospheres of pressure at the surface and still be basically uninhabitable.

Because of the thickness of the atmosphere, Venus is probably more suited to floating cloud cities.

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#35

Post by joering2 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #30
wwwtyro wrote: post #4

"The research touches on this, and it warns astronauts to follow recommended planetary protection protocols designed to prevent visiting spacecraft from contaminating other planets and moons in our solar system with microorganisms from Earth. The study suggests that, because of the risk of contamination, these fungal spores may need to be considered a more serious threat." This makes me wonder if we've accidentally a…

Seriously, is this a threat or is it the unexpected boon of getting a jump-start on terraforming? If you could press a button and "contaminate" Mars with life that would start spreading and generating an oxygen atmosphere, wouldn't you?

Probably not. We don’t know how that would affect other planets in our solar system. Besides you would need another button for “water”. Without it no multicell organism is capable of growing.

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#37

Post by [deleted] »

Stratoscope wrote: post #19
GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're in luck! There's a company that makes beer with yeast that's been in space [0]. [0] https://vostokspacebeer.com/

I don't see anything on their site that indicates the use of yeast that has been in space. If that were the case they would surely mention it. It looks like it's just beer in a special bottle that they say will work in zero-G.

[deleted]

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#38

Post by CydeWeys »

not2b wrote: post #33
CydeWeys wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, is this a threat or is it the unexpected boon of getting a jump-start on terraforming? If you could press a button and "contaminate" Mars with life that would start spreading and generating an oxygen atmosphere, wouldn't you?

It would mean you have a much harder time finding out if Mars once had life, if instead you're detecting mold that hitched a ride with your spacecraft.

That's fine though. Having a second home for humanity is more important than maximally preserving the ability to detect past life (note that we wouldn't be eliminating that ability, just hindering it somewhat).

Also, we think we'd be able to tell pretty easily whether any life detected is from Earth (i.e. we brought it along with us). Life that isn't descended from the same tree of life as us is likely to be radically different.

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#39

Post by guenthert »

delecti wrote: post #13
wwwtyro wrote: post #4

"The research touches on this, and it warns astronauts to follow recommended planetary protection protocols designed to prevent visiting spacecraft from contaminating other planets and moons in our solar system with microorganisms from Earth. The study suggests that, because of the risk of contamination, these fungal spores may need to be considered a more serious threat." This makes me wonder if we've accidentally a…

I'm more excited by the prospect that we've started terraforming Venus. It has an atmosphere, and with a lot of CO2. Wouldn't take many surviving plant microbes on one of the probes we've sent to start things off. Get the CO2 under control and in a few million years it might be downright balmy.

Well, at this time, we're venusforming Terra though.

Re: The International Space Station is growing mould, inside and outside

#40

Post by chenster »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #25

Well that is an interesting result. Also bodes well for the pan spermia crowd, they are the ones that think an asteroid impact can bring life to a planet and kick off the whole life cycle. Certainly the center of an icy mass probably stays well within the survival parameters of these forms of mold. Also interesting to see if we can deduce the DNA changes that lead to this resistance. It would be an advantage for astr…

Maybe (and likely) there already exist intelligent alien life forms capable of living in the radiation and vacuum of outer space and migrates from planet to planet, even feed on radiation like Gozila does.
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