Microbes cling on to International Space Station – here’s why astronauts are trying to collect them
Two astronauts are set to exit the International Space Station (ISS) later on a mission to gather living organisms growing on the facility.
NASA astronauts Tracy Dyson and Matt Dominick attempted the operation on 13 May but had to abort it due to “suit discomfort”.
Mr Dominick will be replaced for Monday’s walk by Mike Barratt.
During the six and a half hour operation, they will swab surfaces on two pieces of equipment to determine if microorganisms can survive the extreme environment.
Tracy Dyson and Matt Dominick wait inside the Quest airlock before the aborted attempt. Pic: NASA
So why are astronauts gathering tiny space organisms… and how did they get there?
Microorganisms have been living on the outside of the space station since it blasted off in 1998.
“When the space station was launched, it was inside space shuttles,” said Dr Carly Howett who works on NASA missions exploring the solar system and at the University of Oxford.
“They’re not necessarily pristine environments, so [the microorganisms] could have just hitched a ride on the way up, no problem at all.”
The organisms could have also been released from the space station over the years, according to Dr Howett.
“When we do a [space walk], there’s an airlock. We lose some of the air from inside the space station.
“Perhaps some of that air also carries with it some of these organisms.”
“Studying them should reveal a lot about life in space, as well as helping us make sure we don’t contaminate other planets as we explore the solar system and beyond.
“One of the really interesting things as we go out to explore the outer solar system is [the question], ‘Is there life?’
“To know whether there’s life out there, you have to go to places where you think life might exist. And to do that, you’ve got to make sure you’re not bringing life with you.”
“Whether we go to Jupiter’s moons and look under the surface, whether we fly through the plumes of Saturn’s moons, wherever we go, we want to make sure that we’re detecting brand-new life and not the life that tagged along on the outside of our spacecraft.”
Jupiter, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a mission that Dr Howett worked on. Pic: NASA
Because the International Space Station is comparatively accessible, Dr Howett described it as “low-hanging fruit” in the hunt to discover more about these space microbes.
“It’s in the cold darkness of space, it gets a heat cycle as it goes into sunlight and out of sunlight, so it has gone through these very difficult thermal environments.
“If life is still clinging on and surviving on the outside, it tells us a lot about the kind of environments [microbes] will be able to survive in as we move to the outer solar system.
“It’s right there for the picking. All you’ve got to do is go outside and scrape it and then we can investigate it in our labs.”
Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin takes part in a 2007 spacewalk to help gather samples of microorganisms in space. File pic: NASA
“You throw us into space, we die”
Organisms that can survive in extreme environments like space or the deep ocean are called extremophiles and Dr Howett says they can teach us about a different way of experiencing life.
“You go down to the deepest part of the oceans where there’s no sunlight,” she said.
“You would expect everything to be dead [but] we’ve seen time and time again, these little things that look like teddy bears [that] survive in incredible circumstances.
A cosmonaut helps install containers to collect microbes living in space. File pic: NASA
“The microbes become dormant in these extreme environments, frozen solid. Once they get heated up again, they can come back to life.
“It’s very different to the way that we experience life; you throw us into space, we die.
“Understanding the extent of how long they can be dormant for, how they can survive this thermal cycling is something we don’t know well enough.
“[That’s] why doing experiments like this is really important.”
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This isn’t the first time these organisms have been studied. For nearly two decades, Russia’s cosmonauts collected the microbes clinging to the outside walls of the ISS.
They found microorganisms not only survive in the extreme environment but retain their reproductive ability as well, according to NASA.
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They also found the microorganisms they collected from space became more resistant to antibiotics.
This new study by NASA, that Ms Dyson and Mr Dominick are collecting for, aims to explore whether the ISS releases microorganisms and, if so, how many and how far they may travel.
At least 14 people have been killed in an area of Taiwan popular with tourists after Super Typhoon Ragasa lashed the island nation, with Hong Kong and mainland China braced for impact.
The powerful storm – the strongest in years – has forced thousands to flee their homes, with flights cancelled and schools and businesses shuttered as about 70cm (28 inches) of rain has fallen on eastern areas.
At least four more people were reported to have been killed in the Philippines, where nearly 700,000 people were affected by the super typhoon in the main northern region of Luzon.
The deaths in Taiwan were reported in the eastern Taiwanese county of Hualien, which is popular with tourists.
At least 129 people are missing after a town, Guangfu, was flooded by a deluge from a barrier lake which burst its banks on Tuesday afternoon.
Around 60 million tonnes of water was released, the Taiwanese government said, the equivalent of a major reservoir in southern Taiwan.
A man stands near a military vehicle on a road filled with mud brought by flooding in Hualien, Taiwan. Pic: Reuters
Taiwan’s fire department said all the fatalities and missing people are from Guangfu.
One resident, a postman who gave his family name as Hsieh, told Reuters news agency the water hit like a “tsunami” which swept his car into his living room.
Late on Wednesday morning, a new flood warning sounded in Guangfu, where shouts were heard from residents and rescuers of “the flood waters are coming, run fast”.
Elsewhere, Dama, a village of around 1,000 people, has been completely flooded.
Its chieftain, Wang Tse-an, told Reuters many locals are still stranded there, adding: “It’s chaotic now. There are mud and rocks everywhere.”
Regions across Taiwan have sent at least 340 soldiers to Hualien to help rescue efforts.
In Guangfu, troops operating from an armoured personnel carrier to avoid the thick mud on the streets went door-to-door
handing out water and instant noodles.
Ragasa is set to hit China’s Guangdong province, where more than 370,000 residents have been evacuated, on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s storm level is at its highest level of 10 as people reported being woken by fierce winds in the early hours.
Parts of a pedestrian bridge’s roof were blown away, hundreds of trees were knocked down across the city and more than 30 injured people were treated at hospitals.
A video that showed waves of water crashing through the doors of a hotel and flooding its interiors went viral in the financial hub, where warnings of hurricane-force winds of well over 120mph have been issued.
Donald Trump disparaged the Russian military and backed Ukraine to retake all its occupied territory in an astonishing about-turn on the war.
In a post on Truth Social, made after talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations in New York, the US president said a return to “the original borders from where this war started is very much an option”.
“I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” he wrote.
Mr Trump said “time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO” could help Kyv win back lost territory, and said Russia was in “economic trouble”.
He said Moscow had been “fighting aimlessly” for three-and-a-half years – and had it been a “real military power” it would have defeated Ukraine in less than a week.
“This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger’,” he added.
Mr Zelenskyy told Sky News US correspondent Mark Stone it was a “big shift” from his US counterpart.
He later admitted he was surprised by Mr Trump’s comments, telling Fox News’ Special Report he has a better relationship with the president than before.
Read more: Why emboldened Trump has changed his stance on Ukraine
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations. Pic: Reuters
Trump’s patience not ‘infinite’
Mr Trump also appeared to pour cold water on his hopes of persuading Vladimir Putin to sign a peace deal.
Speaking to Emmanuel Macron at the UN summit, he said their relationship had turned out to be meaningless.
Just last month, Mr Trump rolled out the red carpet for the Russian president at a summit in Alaska – in a push to expedite the war’s conclusion.
Before returning to the White House, he repeatedly claimed he’d be able to end the conflict in 24 hours.
Speaking at the UN Security Council, his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, admitted ending the war had proven an “extraordinary challenge”.
He said Mr Trump had “worked on it tirelessly”, but warned Russia his patience is not “infinite”.
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Rigby to Trump: Was Putin’s Alaska invite a mistake?
The US president has previously suggested Ukraine will never be able to reclaim all the territory Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Ukraine has lost large areas of land in the east of the country.
In the Donetsk region, Russia now controls about 70% of the territory. Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to four cities analysts have dubbed the “fortress belt”.
Moscow has partly annexed three other regions, too: Luhansk in the east, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson further west.
The situation in Ukraine on 19 September
Trump tells NATO to shoot down Russian jets in its skies
Meanwhile, Russia appears to be provoking its neighbours to the west. Last week, Estonia said three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated its airspace for 12 minutes before Italian NATO jets escorted them away.
The week before, about 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, prompting NATO jets to shoot some of them down and the alliance to beef up its defence of Europe’s eastern flank.
While talking to Mr Zelenskyy at the UN, Mr Trump was asked by reporters whether he thought NATO should shoot down any Russian planes that entered NATO airspace.
“Yes, I do,” Mr Trump replied.
On Truth Social, he said the US would continue to supply weapons to NATO, and it was for the alliance to “do what they want with them”.
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Mr Trump also suggested the Russian people are not aware of “what is really going on with this war”.
He added: “Most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine. Putin and Russia are in big economic trouble and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
He has called on European and NATO allies to increase economic sanctions on Moscow.
In a joint statement following the president’s comments, G7 foreign ministers said discussions were ongoing about additional economic sanctions on Russia.
As U-turns go, it’s a game-changer.
Donald Trump has pivoted from pressing Ukraine to surrender territory to suggesting it’s able to win all its land back.
This is the man who threw Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House in February and brought Russia’s Vladimir Putin in from the cold in Alaska last month.
So, why the handbrake turn from framing negotiations as the most practical outcome to a new-found confidence in Ukraine, when supported by its European neighbours and NATO?
Trump held talks with Zelenskyy at the UN. Pic: Reuters
Firstly, it could be the military and economic reality on the ground. Russia’s paying a high price for the war, both in manpower and finances.
Trump has acknowledged that Moscow is in “big economic trouble”, which strengthens the case for Ukraine prevailing with Western help.
Ukraine’s resilience has also shifted perceptions – the impossible now looking possible if allies remain committed.
Secondly, it could be the influence of allies. European leaders flew to Washington en masse last month to urge caution in dealings with Putin.
European NATO members have stepped up aid to Ukraine, further weakening the President’s rhetoric about America carrying the financial burden.
He’s suddenly aligning himself with European countries, endorsing the shooting down of Russian planes violating their airspace.
Thirdly, it could be more about domestic politics, with the president under bipartisan scrutiny at home over his “softly, softly” approach to Russia.
A tougher national defence posture could help him consolidate support among Republicans, while also appealing to moderates, who regard the defence of Ukraine as a test of national credibility.
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Zelenskyy on Trump’s ‘big shift’ over Ukraine
Trump versus the world
There’s another factor worth considering – Trump’s negotiating tactic. He has a long record of changing position to gain leverage.
Talk of compromise might have been the strategy for getting Ukraine and Russia into talks, but with Russia showing no willingness to compromise, his calculation shifting back to the restoration of Ukraine.
Whatever the reason for his change of heart, and whether it translates into US policy, the last three days have shown an emboldened Trump.
From his declaration of “hate” for his opponents during a memorial service for Charlie Kirk, to his sensational claim to have “found an answer on autism”, to his derision of the UN, he’s unfiltered right now.
Place him in front of a microphone or online, and it’s Trump versus the world.
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