Researchers from IIT Madras and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have studied the interactions between microbes in the International Space Station (ISS).
What’s it about? The aim is to develop a strategy to disinfect the space station and minimise potential health risks to the astronauts. The two key members were Dr Karthik Raman from IIT Madras and Dr Kasthuri Venkateshwaran from JPL.
- Studying the microbes will help us understand the risks of short and long-term space travel on the astronauts’ health. The motivation for the study was previous observations of Klebsiella pneumonia on the ISS’ surface.
- That pathogen can cause pneumonia and other infections. The data was analysed from microbial samples from three space flights at seven locations at the ISS.