When astronauts go to the International Space Station (ISS) they carry within and on them, a whole series of microbes. These microbes don’t really care about the amount of clean-up you do – they will just stick to it and survive the ride!
So microbes get to travel to Space totally for free. And some love it even more up there than down here on Earth. Of course, some of them are bad guys, that cause health problems to their astronaut-buddies. But others are actually helping us develop a bunch of cool space-applications: energy producing, recycling, and life support systems needing oxygen and food!
There is a cool youtube video from DNews Channel talking more about bacteria in the ISS. And you can also read these papers on the topic:
- Microbial Monitoring of Crewed Habitats in Space
- Sustainable life support on Mars – the potential roles of cyanobacteria
Beijinhos*
Space Microbes 
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