Significant Achievements in Space Bioscience 1958-1964 Part 16

The s.p.a.cecraft sterilization program requires the use of rooms having the lowest attainable level of bacterial contamination. The rate of dissemination of bacteria from the humans in the room is basic to the problem. Data on this matter are being obtained through support of the Communicable Disease Center of the U.S. Public Health Service. The findings are affecting the measures used in surgical practice to lower infection rates.

Studies on the physiology of hibernation in mammals are important to understand temperature regulation and the mechanism of survival at low body temperatures. The purpose of this type of research is to understand and use reduced metabolic activity in astronauts on future extended s.p.a.ce flight. Other applications involve studies of the mechanisms of injury and freezing biological organisms, for improving techniques in hypothermic surgery, pathology, and preservation of tissue for human grafting.

Food and Agriculture

Gathering agricultural information by remote sensing of Earth's surface from aircraft, balloons, and satellites has a potential application in research and development. Current needs for data gathered in this way include crop and livestock surveys for marketing planning; soil mapping; crop disease, insect, and weed surveys; soil conservation management and research; and crop acreage control programs. As population and world trade increase, the needs will become even more intense for regularly scheduled synoptic surveys of the world's agricultural lands for crop plantings and harvests; determining the condition of crops as affected by drought, disease, or insect outbreaks; and studies of the lands suitable for agricultural development in underdeveloped countries. The only way that worldwide synoptic surveys can be made is by using orbiting platforms.

The NASA nutrition program for developing diets for prolonged manned and animal s.p.a.ce flight lends itself to civil defense purposes; military maneuvers where s.p.a.ce and weight are prime considerations; polar and desert exploration; reducing hunger in underdeveloped countries; and detecting metabolic diseases as well as diseases of infancy and old age.

For s.p.a.ce research such a diet can be used on prolonged manned s.p.a.ce flights, animal experiments in s.p.a.ce, manned orbiting laboratories, and s.p.a.ce and planetary stations. Studies on the packaging and stability of foods under various conditions of humidity, temperature, and radiation will lead to better processing and storage.

Learning how microbial spores are transported by air is important to biology, agriculture, and medicine. Besides spreading crop destruction, microbial spores produce allergic responses in some human beings. To obtain the facts, not only the biology of micro-organisms but also the weather factors that induce the flight of mature spores must be known.

Thus, both biological and meteorological problems are involved. Data obtained under a NASA contract with the General Mills Electronic Division (now part of Litton Industries, Inc.) indicate that spores of fungi are present in low numbers in the stratosphere. A reservoir of spores exists which cannot be brought down by the normal scrubbing mechanisms of rainfall and other meteorological disturbances in the troposphere. This finding has important implications for reducing the spread of agricultural crop diseases and for protecting persons suffering from allergies. This project has indicated the necessity for designing novel biological samplers for use in the stratosphere. Such samplers will aid in determining various pollutants of the atmosphere.

The NASA program for developing sterile s.p.a.cecraft for the biological exploration of Mars will contribute improved methods of sterilization that can be applied to the canning industry. Studies on sterilization at low temperatures for long periods of time are being supported by NASA at the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology and the Communicable Disease Center and the Sanitary Engineering Center of the Public Health Service.

The developing capability is making possible the heat sterilization of products that never before could be thoroughly sterilized.

In preparing for missions to search for extraterrestrial life, research on the psychrophilic or cold bacteria, on halophytic or salt bacteria, and on specialized bacteria and other organisms growing in extreme environments is defining the extremes under which life can exist.

Increased knowledge about organisms that can grow in or on refrigerated, dried, or salted foods and other materials should have practical applications for food storage and preservation. Research on psychrophilic bacteria is being conducted by Whirlpool Corp. and the NASA Ames Research Center.

Theoretical studies of Martian life involve investigations of plant and bacterial spores. Many of these forms are spoilage organisms and some produce lethal toxins. This work has potential importance for food processing and for obtaining more precise knowledge of how wounds become infected. The program for investigating possible forms of life on Mars includes a thorough study of anaerobic micro-organisms. This research has led to the discovery of new types of nitrogen-fixing bacteria other than the familiar types found in the root nodules of leguminous plants.

Thus, it may be possible to use these microorganisms, or the principles involved, in the incorporation of vital atmospheric nitrogen into terrestrial soils which are now unproductive.

Industry and Manufacturing

Batteries that have been developed in the s.p.a.ce program to endure high sterilization temperatures for extended times will have greatly increased shelf life at normal storage temperatures and will be serviceable after many hours of baking at high temperatures.

Currently, the highest quality tape recorders are subject to imperfect reproduction because the tapes are heat labile; i.e., they soften and stretch when warm. The development of high-quality magnetic tapes for s.p.a.ce-data recorders is an outgrowth of the materials developed to meet s.p.a.cecraft sterilization requirements. These improved tapes will be useful for all types of recording-industry, automation controls, home, and studio.

OUTLOOK FOR BIOSCIENCE-MAJOR PROBLEMS

The problems undertaken are among the most challenging, if not _the_ most challenging, man faces on the s.p.a.ce frontier. These include the quest for the origin of life, the explanation of life and life processes, the elucidation of the environment's role in establis.h.i.+ng and maintaining normal organization in living organisms, the possibility of extraterrestrial life on other planets-the concern of exobiology. The greatest promise for their solution lies in advances in biological theory rather than other avenues of research; therefore, it is fortunate that the need to solve them has come at a time when developments in experimental biology are at a high level. In addition, technological developments in electronics and engineering are providing new and wonderful instruments for this great exploration into the sources of life. Many of these have had practical application that has made possible important advances in medical diagnosis and treatment.

The broad national s.p.a.ce goals initially charted by NASA have gone beyond s.p.a.ce flight in near-Earth orbit to lunar and interplanetary exploration by man and machine. For such missions, more intensive and comprehensive research in the life sciences is needed. Before manned voyages for extended periods into deep s.p.a.ce will be possible, solutions must be found for problems such as the development of bioregenerative life-support systems, communication with nonhuman species, and the development of new methods for transferring knowledge to the human brain.

The problems are all of the type that could perhaps be solved by truly great advances in biological theory, and probably not by any other avenue.

_References_

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[ref.11] _Urey, H. C.:_ The Planets. Their Origin and Development. Yale Univ. Press (New Haven), 1952.

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[ref.16] _Calvin, M.:_ Reduction of Carbon Dioxide in Aqueous Solutions by Ionizing Radiation. Science, vol. 114, 1951, p. 416.

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