Biofilms have emerged as a critical life-support system for long-duration spaceflight, shaping human and plant health rather than functioning solely as infection risks.
New research frames microbial films as part of the habitat itself, with consequences for how crews stay healthy, grow food, and survive beyond Earth.
Biofilms as space support
Inside spacecraft and closed habitats, microbial communities organize into dense biofilms that sit directly at the interface between living hosts and their environment.
By documenting how these communities support essential biological functions under spaceflight stress, Dr. Katherine J. Baxter at the University of Glasgow traced the finding across human systems and plant-root environments central to mission survival.
The evidence showed that space conditions can disrupt these supportive biofilm relationships, weakening benefits that life on Earth usually takes for granted.
That vulnerability sets clear limits on current space health strategies and explains why the mechanisms behind biofilm behavior must be examined more closely next.
How space changes microbes
In microgravity, near weightlessness that changes how fluids move, biofilms can form new shapes and new weak points.
Without gravity pulling liquids down, microbes bathed in uneven nutrients switch genes on and off, then build different matrix patterns.
Ground simulations and real flights both changed architecture and stress tolerance, but each species reacted in its own way.
That uneven response means engineers cannot assume one cleaning rule works everywhere, especially when crews live inside sealed systems.
Helpful microbes, harmful invaders
Astronauts carry their own microbiome – the community of microbes that lives on and inside the body – into every capsule and sleeping pod.
In the mouth, gut, and on the skin, these microbes form biofilms that stay close to tissues, helping block harmful invaders and train the immune system.
If space stress weakens that structure, fast-growing strains gain room, and stubborn infections become harder to treat.
The researchers warn that focusing only on pathogens leaves crews blind to the supportive biofilms they rely on daily.
Biofilms feed plants
Long missions lean on plants, and roots depend on the rhizosphere, the thin soil zone around roots.
Microbes there formed biofilms that held water, released nutrients, and crowded out pathogens before they reached plant cells.
In microgravity, liquids spread differently around roots, so biofilms may trap too little oxygen or too much waste.
If those exchanges fail, a greenhouse can lose yield quickly, and crew diets become one more mission risk.
Studying living biofilms
By tracking genes, active gene messages, and small molecules at once, scientists can see inside a layer that is up to 97% water.
That matters because many biofilms mix bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and each group trades different signals and nutrients.
Even good measurements can mislead if teams sample different surfaces or time points, so shared standards become essential.
Shared space data
The roadmap depends on NASA, the United States space agency, and its Open Science Data Repository (OSDR).
NASA built OSDR to store space and ground data, then gave analysts common tools to compare missions and catch errors faster.
Because NASA flights cost so much, shared pipelines and open checks help the community squeeze more insight from every launch.
OSDR only works when teams document samples the same way, or else results fail to line up across studies.
Managing biofilms on purpose
Standard cleaning and antibiotics reduce microbes, but long missions may also need biofilms that actively support health.
Scientists could tune surfaces, food, and water chemistry so helpful strains stick, share nutrients, and resist harmful takeovers.
They can also adjust microbial signals that trigger matrix building, which changes how tightly a biofilm holds together.
“Spaceflight offers a distinctive and invaluable testbed for biofilm organisation and function, and, importantly, evidence so far makes it clear that biofilms need to be better understood, managed, and likely engineered to safeguard health during spaceflight,” said Baxter.
What space can reveal
Spaceflight stacks stressors on microbes at once, so biofilms reveal strengths and weak points faster than on Earth.
Low gravity, higher radiation, and constant recycling of air and water change what microbes eat and how long they linger.
The results may point to targets for new coatings or probiotics that keep useful biofilms stable during stress.
Still, teams must test any fix in realistic mixed communities, because a single strain rarely behaves the same alone.
Biofilms research for space
The authors called for coordinated biofilm experiments that connect ground simulations to flight data, instead of isolated one-offs.
That means studying mixed communities on human tissues and plant roots, where microbes compete, cooperate, and respond to host signals.
OSDR teams can align protocols across missions, which builds datasets large enough to spot patterns that single flights miss.
Without that coordination, space biofilm research stays descriptive, and mission planners miss chances to prevent problems before launch.
The paper turned biofilms into a design problem, linking crew health, plant growth, and shared data into one system.
Next steps require cross-mission tests that prove which interventions keep helpful biofilms steady, without inviting infections back.
The study is published in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes.
—–
Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.
Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.
—–