Earth & Sky

E. coli in space

This small laboratory studies the biological changes of cells at the gene/protein level that happen in space. It's carried by the earth-orbiting GeneSat-1 satellite. Photo courtesy of: NASA Ames Research Center

Humans will someday travel safely beyond the moon, with the help of recent space experiments on E. coli bacteria.

That’s according to scientist John Hines at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California. Hines told Earth & Sky about Genesat–1, a satellite carrying a laboratory about half the size of a shoebox in orbit around the Earth.

Genesat studied how conditions of microgravity and radiation in spaceflight affect living organisms. This spaceborne lab carried a friendly strain of E.coli commonly found in peoples’ stomachs, where this bacteria helps regulate our metabolism, digestion, and immune response.

John Hines: So, in a sense, when E. coli are happy, we’re happy. So if we want to understand what might happen in space, and how space might affect humans, if we send E. coli into space and monitor their conditions, and we’re able to see that they’re in their normal condition, and perform the same way in space as they do on the ground or understand what those changes are, it gives us a picture as to how we might be maintained and stay safe and healthy in space as humans.

This experiment launched in December of 2006. Hines said that everything worked “perfectly.” He hopes the next step will be to send a laboratory carrying higher life forms – such as nematodes, plants or flies – beyond the moon.

Thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand.

Written by Jorge Salazar