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Disease May Prevent Manned Journey To Mars
Pickens writes "Science Daily News reports that human missions to Mars and all other long-term space flights might be compromised by disease, first because space travel appears to weaken astronauts' immune systems; and second, because it increases the virulence and growth of microbes. 'When people think of space travel, often the vast distances are what come to mind first,' says Jean-Pol Frippiat from Nancy-University in France, 'but even after we figure out a way to cover these distances in a reasonable amount of time, we still need to figure out how astronauts are going to overcome disease and sickness.' Frippiat says studies show that immune systems of both people and animals in space flight conditions are significantly weaker than their grounded counterparts and that common pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli and Staphylococcus reproduce more rapidly in space flight conditions, leading to increased risk of contamination, colonization and serious infection."
Well - as of this posting, first post remains the most intelligent comment on the story. To bad some dickweed modded the post down - the moderator is totally clueless regarding the problem, or the suggested solution.
For the clueless: we have, on earth, an ecosystem, at the bacterial level. Determining what controls the growth of pathogens would enable us to introduce those controls onto the ship. Viruses, germs, and bacteria that may prey on those pathogens are part of that ecosystem. Humidity, temperature, and radiation are other parts of the system. Gravity may or may not be an important part of the system.
The core of the problem is controlling those bacterial populations - not eliminating them. There are some good posts below explaining why it might be bad to eliminate them.
Diversified ecosystem. lannocc really has a clue about what is going on, so mod him up, folks.
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