Scientists Surprised to Discover 26 New Unidentified Bacterial Species in NASA Spacecraft Facility’s ‘Clean’ Room

Every step of a space mission is meticulously planned and organized by the authorities. One of the most important aspects that officials keep a note of is contamination, according to Space. It is an important objective for any space organization that no unwanted item enters any part of the mission for various reasons. But in a shocking turn of events, NASA detected 26 new microbe species in the very rooms used to prep the Phoenix Mars lander. Findings regarding this detection have been published in the journal Microbiome. 

The discovery was made by a team of scientists from India, Saudi Arabia, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. This detection surprised researchers because all the rooms were used to get NASA's Phoenix Mars lander prepared for its 2007 launch. This implies that the rooms had been sanitized, and for it to be a habitat of not one but 26 new microbe species was shocking. These specimens were collected from rooms in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA and other space organizations typically make it a priority to ensure their functional work stations are adequately sanitized, because they don't want any microbial life from Earth to reach space. Over the years, scientists have come across microorganisms called extremophiles, which are so resilient that they can survive even in the most inhospitable habitats like the slopes of undersea volcanoes and hydrothermal vents. The objective of the study was to understand the possibility of these microorganisms being transferred to space missions and also surviving a harsh extraterrestrial environment. 

Researchers believe this analysis is very important to protect the integrity of other planets, according to USA Today. "This effort is pivotal for monitoring the risk of microbial contamination and safeguarding against unintentional colonization of exploring planets," study team member Alexandre Rosado from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia explained.

During their analysis of clean rooms used in NASA's Phoenix Mars lander, researchers found 53 strains in total. On examination, they uncovered a total of 26 new species. Further analysis indicated many of these new species had genes that protected them from decontamination and radiation. Researchers believe these extremophile specimens are so hardy that they could even withstand space. Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a retired senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a lead author of the study, claimed that if this assertion turns out to be true, then it can facilitate a massive development in interplanetary exploration, life sciences, and even bioengineering.

Experts shared that the genes which protected the specific species were associated with functions like DNA repairing, boosting of metabolism, and detoxification of harmful substances, according to Space. Junia Schultz, a postdoctoral fellow at KAUST, explained that all these functions could be used to improve life on Earth. "The genes identified in these newly discovered bacterial species could be engineered for applications in medicine, food preservation, and other industries," she explained. Hence, these bacterial specimens could turn out to be a treasure house that benefits both humanity and NASA.