Study Reveals Mars-Survivable Fungus in NASA Cleanrooms

A new study reveals that a resilient fungus isolated from NASA's ultra-sterile cleanrooms could potentially survive the journey to Mars and conditions on its surface, prompting calls to strengthen planetary protection protocols for future missions.

Researchers led by microbiologist Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a former senior scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, examined fungal strains collected from cleanrooms used in the assembly and testing of spacecraft for the Mars 2020 mission, which delivered the Perseverance rover to the Red Planet in 2021. These facilities maintain stringent controls, including constant air filtration, surface sterilization and strict personnel protocols, to minimize microbial contamination. Despite such measures, 27 fungal strains persisted, including Aspergillus calidoustus, whose asexual spores, known as conidia, demonstrated remarkable endurance in laboratory simulations mimicking space travel and the Martian environment.

The experiments exposed the conidia to individual and combined stressors replicating key mission phases: extreme cold down to minus 60 degrees Celsius, intense ultraviolet and ionizing radiation equivalent to months in space,...