Page 173 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

Food and the Environment

Microbiology is a vitally important area, not only within human spaceflight but also for humans on Earth.
Microorganisms such as bacteria, archaea, fungi and algae have a detrimental or a beneficial impact on
our daily lives. This research has far-reaching effects that feed into many different areas of biotechnology
as microorganisms have a role in food spoilage, waste and sewage treatment and processing, nutrient
cycling and exchange, pollution control, and in increased greenhouse gases.
Studying the effects of gravity on plants led to the development of an ethylene scrubber. This technology
is now used as an air purifier that destroys airborne bacteria, mold, fungi, viruses and odors.
The scrubber is used for food preservation in major supermarkets, high-end refrigerator technology,
and trucks that carry groceries to remote regions of countries such as India, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,
to name a few. Even the health care industry benefits from the use of these units in clinics, operating
rooms, neonatal wards and waiting rooms, thereby making these locations safer for their inhabitants.
Plant research in a space greenhouse has permitted the study of root zone substrates in space, thereby
allowing scientists to improve predictions of how artificial soils will behave when irrigated both in space
and on Earth in experimental forests.

Microbiology Applications from Fungal important insights for developing countermeasures
Research in Space to possibly deleterious microorganisms, help to draw
conclusions on how the space environment may
Microorganisms have both negative and beneficial affect similar organisms, and feed into biotechnology
effects. Different species of fungi are inherent in many applications in the future.
of these processes, and can do the following:
The main fungal species studied in the CFS-A
• Spoil food, but assist in waste and sewage experiment was Ulocladium chartarum, which is well
treatment and processing as well as nutrient cycling known to be involved in biodeterioration of organic
and exchange.
and inorganic materials and suspected to be a possible
• Assist in pollution control but also increase contaminant in spacecraft. Other species studied were:
greenhouse gases. Aspergillus niger (which causes a disease called black
• Cause disease but can be used in the manufacture mold on certain fruits and vegetables, and commercially
of antibiotics, detergents and pesticides. accounts for 99% of global commercial citric acid
production); Cladosporium herbarum (frequently
• Cause deterioration in manufactured materials and the most prominent mold spore in air and found on
buildings but can also be used in the recovery of dead herbaceous and woody plants, textiles, rubber,
metals in the mining sector as well as the production paper and foodstuffs of all kinds); and Basipetospora
of biofuels and fertilizers. halophile (which survives in high-saline environments).
• Provide insight into one species, which may
provide insights into others and hence feed
into different applications.
The Growth and Survival of Coloured Fungi in Space-A As we gain knowledge of the life
(CFS-A) experiment determined the changes that
weightlessness and cosmic radiation have on the histories of key species of fungi in the
growth and survival of various coloured fungi species. space environment, that knowledge
Understanding any changes in the physiology and
survivability of different microorganisms in space can be readily applied to better
can help determine the effect that this may have on manage these species on Earth.
spacecraft, on associated systems and supplies, and
on the astronauts who inhabit them. This could provide

159