The International Space Station (|SS) has low microbial diversity, which could lead to astronaut health issues, according to a study published in Cell.

Researchers found that the microbial communities resemble those found in sanitized environments like hospitals rather than natural settings.

Co-senior study author Pieter Dorrestein explains that increasing microbial exposure could improve astronaut health during long-term space travel.

The study suggests incorporating natural elements, like soil, into the ISS to enhance microbial diversity and astronaut well-being.

The study in question:

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00108-4

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

[H]umans simply are not built for space.

Well ... duh. In order for humans to be "in space," we have to send them inside little bubbles of "earth."

A good deal of the point of sending people to space is discovering how people respond to being in space, figuring out which stresses are acceptable and which must be compensated for.

I wish we could divert all of human space flight budget to automating probes. ... Once we have space-based automated manufacturing, then it will be the time to bring in the humans.

And if we did that, we would still have to do the things we're doing right now to figure out how to maintain human beings in spacecraft for long periods of time. There's nothing wrong with doing both at once.

The fact also remains that it is much easier to operate a manned spacecraft than it is to operate an autonomous/remote one, at the scales of complexity that manned craft and their experiments employ.

[–] surph_ninja -2 points 3 days ago

There’s nothing wrong with doing both at once.

I disagree, so long as space programs remain underfunded. Give them access to the defense budget? Then yeah, go to town and create even more diverse efforts.