Fungi's cosmic journey: From unwanted space stowaway to scientific fascination for its resilience

In the vast expanse of space, astronauts aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1988 encountered an unexpected and curious visitor.

Cosmonauts aboard the space station realised that something, maybe an alien intruder, was blanketing a station window from the outside.

This intruder turned to be fungi, something that is anything but alien to us, yet in space it was an unwanted stowaway that had hitched a ride to the cosmos. Its vehicle of choice: the cosmonauts themselves.

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Here's why scientists don't hate this piggyback passenger:

Adaptation and survival

The fungi managed to adapt to the harsh space environment so well that not only did it survive, but it thrived on windows, control panels, air conditioners, and cable insulators.

It even managed to infiltrate the crew's food and water supply.

While this incident marked the first time fungi were found causing significant damage to a space station, it wouldn't be the last.

As insidious as it may sound, in the grand cosmic journey, space travellers are never truly alone. Rather than fear this reality, scientists are embracing it.

A team affiliated with the European Space Agency (ESA) has, as per Space.com, now embarked on hypergravity experiments with fungi. They want to unlock the secrets of fungi's survival in space's unforgiving conditions.

Why are scientists excited about fungi?

Understanding how fungi thrived in harsh space environments could pave the way for using it in the construction of off-world settlements and potentially incorporating them into space medications.

As per the report, spacefaring fungal species are like interstellar sleuths, lying dormant during launch and space travel before they "activate" to form thick, living mats in various regions of the space station.

These mats pose threats to astronaut health and jeopardise vital station components, including electronics and plumbing.

Even though since the 1988 incident, diligent efforts have been made to establish robust cleaning routines for eradicating fungi from station walls and equipment before they wreak havoc, it survives.

Scientists realised that studying fungal growth and behaviour in microgravity, particularly their adaptability in repairing DNA damage caused by space radiation, can actually be really helpful for long-term space missions.

As André Antunes, a researcher at Macau University of Science and Technology in China, noted, "We are never going to be able to get rid of fungi entirely as we venture into space, so we need to understand them."

Research with fungi

In 2016, researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducted research by launching fungi, specifically Aspergillus nidulans, to the International Space Station (ISS).The experiment aimed to investigate how the ISS environment induced the fungus to produce molecules not typically found on Earth.

Similar investigations into fungal behaviour are currently underway on Earth, with the ESA studying fungal colony growth in "hypergravity" conditions, where artificially created gravity up to 20 times Earth's force was employed.

This two-week research effort, conducted at ESA's space technology and development centre in the Netherlands, sought to understand how fully grown fungal species respond to stress-inducing conditions.

(With inputs from agencies)

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