Microorganisms are closely-connected to us, our body, our food, our environment, so it is impossible to rule them out of space travel. According to the experts, the work paves the way for understanding the threat of microbes to space missions, as well as the opportunities for resource independence from Earth. The findings have been published in Frontiers in Microbiology. âWith crewed long-term missions to Mars, we need to know how human-associated microorganisms would survive on the Red Planet, as some may pose a health risk to astronauts. In addition, some microbes could be invaluable for space exploration. They could help us produce food and material supplies independently from Earth, which will be crucial when far away from home,â explains joint first author Katharina Siems, also based at the German Aerospace Center.