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Anyone Remember This? (Space Probe Returns with Bio-Material On It)

ColtFarmer

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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I remember a while ago seeing a news item about a space probe that had come back to earth with some manner of crust or something growing on it, it was just a short blurb about it being in quarantine and then nothing else ever again. I always wondered what became of that.
 
I guess that must have been Mir. Some fungus was growing on it, and they were afraid what could happen when it came into the Earths atmosphere again.
 
i recolect some satalite that had been in orbit for some time..enuf theoreticly to be totaly sterilised by radiationa dn vacum etc.. and Nasa findeing something alive in it!.. i recolect speculation that it may have been a techniciean had sniezed into the thing b4 it went up!!!....
 
Yes it was indeed the Mir space station. I remember from reading the articles that it had some kind of fungus or bacteria (apparently) that was eating the metal, plastics etc away and was even growing on the outside.

There were worried that it may survive and spread after re-entry into out atmosphere and start eating out buildings and synthetics etc. As far as I know it didnt survive or spread, but we dont know.

It was probably an Earth strain carried up in the station or in the cosmonauts that reacted oddly with the weightlessness or radiation and mutated.
 
I've got to admit that my main source of info is New Scientist.
They had a couple of articles about all the space junk that man has put up there and quite a lot of it is fecal matter.
So if the panspermia theory is right we could be sending our own shitty germs (and viruses) out there!:eek:
 
The fungus on Mir was terrestrial. The growth of this fungus and other microbes (etc.) was more a matter of contamination in a closed environment than anything paranormal.
Preventing "Sick" Spaceships

In the late 1990s, NASA joined the Russian space program in its evaluation of the microbial activity aboard Mir. For planning long-duration missions, they wanted to learn about the kinds of organisms that can grow in spacecraft occupied for long periods of time and where air and water are recycled. They were especially interested because several times during its 15 years in low Earth orbit, Mir had had the misfortune to suffer several power outages, so the temperature and humidity rose well above normal levels and air circulation was inadequate until the electricity was restored.

In 1998, U.S. astronauts participating in the NASA 6 and NASA 7 visits to Mir collected environmental samples from air and surfaces in Mir's control center, dining area, sleeping quarters, hygiene facilities, exercise equipment, and scientific equipment. Imagine their surprise when they opened a rarely-accessed service panel in Mir's Kvant-2 Module and discovered a large free-floating mass of water. "According to the astronauts' eyewitness reports, the globule was nearly the size of a basketball," Ott said.

Moreover, the mass of water was only one of several hiding behind different panels. Scientists later concluded that the water had condensed from humidity that accumulated over time as water droplets coalesced in microgravity. The pattern of air currents in Mir carried air moisture preferentially behind the panel, where it could not readily escape or evaporate.

Nor was the water clean: two samples were brownish and a third was cloudy white. Behind the panels the temperature was toasty warm—82ºF (28ºC)—just right for growing all kinds of microbeasties. Indeed, samples extracted from the globules by syringes and returned to Earth for analysis contained several dozen species of bacteria and fungi, plus some protozoa, dust mites, and possibly spirochetes.

But wait, there's more. Aboard Mir, colonies of organisms were also found growing on "the rubber gaskets around windows, on the components of space suits, cable insulations and tubing, on the insulation of copper wires, and on communications devices," said Andrew Steele, senior staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington working with other investigators at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Aside from being unattractive or an issue for human health, microorganisms can attack the structure of a spacecraft itself. "Microorganisms can degrade carbon steel and even stainless steel,” Steele continued. "In corners where two different materials meet, they can set up a galvanic [electrical] circuit and cause corrosion. They can produce acids that pit metal, etch glass, and make rubber brittle. They can also foul air and water filters." ...
FULL STORY: https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/11may_locad3
 
This 2001 published study surveyed and analyzed the fungi discovered on Mir ...

Microbiol Immunol. 2001;45(5):357-63.

Fungal flora on board the Mir-Space Station, identification by morphological features and ribosomal DNA sequences.

Makimura K, Hanazawa R, Takatori K, Tamura Y, Fujisaki R, Nishiyama Y, Abe S, Uchida K, Kawamura Y, Ezaki T, Yamaguchi H.
Abstract

This report is on the morphological and molecular biological identification, using 18S- and ITS1-rDNA sequences, of the "space fungi" isolated on board the Russian Mir-Space Station as the major constituents of the fungal flora. The six fungal strains were isolated from air by using an air sampler or from condensation. Strains were identified as Penicillium chrysogenum, Aspergillus versicolor, or Penicillium sp. by both methods. The species of space fungi were common saprophytic fungi in our living environment, potential pathogens, and allergens. This study concluded that the environment on board the space station Mir allows the growth of potentially pathogenic fungi as true in residential areas on the earth. Therefore, to prevent infection or other health disorders caused by these fungi, easy and reliable methods should be established to survey the fungal flora in a space station.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11471823
 
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