ESA Experiment Aims to Keep Spaceships Clean and Healthy

The European Space Agency (ESA) is conducting an experiment with the goal of keeping spaceships in good health.

On Earth, cleaning up a house and keeping it germ-free could only take a few hours. But in the International Space Station (ISS), it's an entirely different story. Air and water are constantly recycled and wastes are discarded only when a spacecraft leaves en route to Earth every few months or so. These conditions make a manned spacecraft a breeding ground for illness-causing microbes. Humans are incubators for different sorts of bacteria and a space station's closed environment could only worsen the situation.

In the early 1990s, cosmonauts on board the Russian space station Mir found that their spacecraft was filled with fungi hiding behind control panels, on windows, space suits, and communication devices among others. Bacterial pathogens were also discovered to be thriving in the ISS, including Actinobacteria, which is often associated with the human skin, The Conversation reports.

In one particular study, researcher Cheryl Nickerson also discovered that spaceflight culture could increase the disease-causing potential of the foodborne bacteria Salmonella.

This is what ESA wants to take action against. The agency is conducting Matiss experiment on the ISS to investigate antibacterial properties of materials in space and see which of these materials are less hospitable to bacteria and fungi and are easier to clean.

The advanced technology for the Matiss experiment consists of self-assembly monolayers, green polymers, ceramic polymers and water-repellant hybrid silica, each capable of preventing bacteria from sticking to the surface and growing, effectively making them easier to clean, ESA said in a statement.

For the experiment, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will set four identical plaques in the European Columbus laboratory and will be left for at least three months. The units will be specifically placed on the European Drawer Rack, on the European Physiology Modules, and at the air vents. After exposure to the ISS air, the plaques will be sealed and taken to Earth for analysis next year.