You can file this one under “too bizarre to be made up.” Apparently, the mold growing on Mir is much more dangerous than we previously reported. This hyper-aggressive mold is able to chew through plastic, glass, and even metal to pose great risk to the Russian astronaut. Green and black fungal patches lurk beneath insulation panels, slowly digesting the station’s air conditioner, communications unit, and other vital systems. This mold is stronger and more aggressive than anything found on planet Earth.
How did this ordinary mold become super-powered? Natalia Novikova, a deputy chief of the Department of the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow has been investigating the problem for years. The mold originally came from Earth, probably hitching a ride on the astronauts themselves since every person carries some amount of mold on them. But while in space, this normal mold changed into something far more serious.
It turns out radiation in space causes normal mold brought from Earth to mutate with more aggressive characteristics. The level of radiation on Mir is 500 times more intense than on Earth. In fact, the mold has shown to become more aggressive after the increase of solar activity.
But the danger posed to spacecraft by mutant mold isn’t even the worst part. Eventually, these spacecrafts return to Earth, carrying the mutant mold with them. Back on Earth Novikova doesn’t know how they may behave, “If you take a space-grown microorganism which used metal as a part of its habitat and keep cultivating it by increasing the content of metal in its habitat, you can potentially get a destructive biological weapon which will literally eat arms.”
If left unchecked, the space mold may join with other native varieties, forming a super-strain of mold that will relentlessly attack metal, plastic and glass surfaces. Could world domination be far off?
But don’t start hailing your mutant mold overlords just yet. IBMP is very careful about hiding mutant space mold. Microorganisms are sealed in special containers and kept in safe places.
The effects of radiation on living tissue required further studies. In a Japanese study, two strains of cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum were used to investigate the effects of cosmic radiation. But, thankfully, the test failed to show much effect between the space sample and the control group observed on Earth.
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