Bacteria on the ISS Survives Three Years in Space

Humans are living in space, but only due to our technology. Space is most definitely not kind to humans, but with decades and decades of technological advancements and improvements, one would think that humans would be the most well-suited among other living creatures on Earth when it comes to enduring life in space by now.

However, that is not the case, even if they were inside the International Space Stations, it was proved that prolonged flight can lead to some negative health effects. Oddly enough, when it comes to microscopic organisms, things can be really different.

As a new study, that was published in Frontiers in Microbiology, explains that a very special and very resilient type of bacteria can survive in space all on its own, and for extended periods of time. The Deinococcus bacteria were purposefully exposed to the intense radiation and cold of space for an astonishing three years – and survived!

Tanpopo experiment

A group of Japanese researchers sent balls of bacteria to the International Space Station and stuck them on the outside of the lab. That way, they were exposed to the cold, harsh and radiation-heavy vacuum of space.

This experiment was known by the name of Tanpopo, and it has been ongoing ever since 2015. This name was specifically chosen for the experiment, since ”tanpopo” means dandelion, and the dandelion spreads its seeds via the wind. An astrobiologist,  Akihiko Yamagishi, was wondering whether the same thing could happen in space, with radiation-resistant bacteria?

Yamagishi explained that he wanted to see if there were ways microbes might be able to survive a journey from Earth to somewhere else in the cosmos.

Yamagishi’s team and the Tanpopo mission will continue with exposure experiments with different species in different conditions and hope to see how general the process of massapanspermia may be.