Chernobyl Fungi Onboard The Space X's Dragon Could Protect The Human Space Travelers From Radiation

The Space X Dragon capsule, which was launched on Monday, carried 8 species of fungi that were collected at Chernobyl. According to scientists, these fungi could be helpful in protecting the human space travelers from the destructive radiation of space.

Clay Wang, a pharmacologist and his colleagues had chosen 8 species of fungi, which were found living in the Exclusion Zone directly in the ruined power plant and some of them were from outside of the Exclusion Zone. The two species namely the Cladosporium sphaerospermum and the Cladosporium cladosporioides grow toward radiation favorably. The researchers hope that radiation on the space will stimulate good changes in the group of microorganisms, according to Popular Science.

Katshuri Venkateswaran, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the fungi collected at the accident site had more melanin than the fungi collected from outside the exclusion zone. He further said that this means the fungi have adapted to the radiation activity and as many as twenty percents were found to be radiotrophic---meaning they grew towards the radiation; they loved it, as noted by Daily Galaxy.

Wang also said that they want to see if they actually make new compounds in space. They are finding clues if these microbes can provide clues that will help humans survive in space. Originally, the microbes were collected by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for their study about the effects of radiation.

According to Daily Galaxy, the microbes will be developed by the crew in microgravity for two weeks before the samples are returned to Earth. Venkateswaran added that the radiation levels combined with microgravity could pave the way to helpful compounds for mankind. He concluded that once they understand the molecular mechanisms, these fungi would be a good model for exposing to space and Mars radiation.