PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (S): Gerald R. Taylor, Royce M. Brockett, James K. 



Ferguson, Richard C. Graves, and Bernard J. 

 Mieszkuc 



EXPERIMENT TITLE/NUMBER : Skylab Environmental and Crew Microbiology Studies 



PROGRAM/MISSION : Skylab 2, 3, 4 



CLASSIFICATION : Human , Microorganism 



DISCIPLINE(S) : Environmental health 



OBJECTIVES : To detect the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms 

 on the crewmembers and their spacecraft and to obtain data which would 

 contribute to an understanding of the response of the crew's microbial flora 

 to the space environment. 



PROTOCOL : Microbial flora samples were collected from selected sites in 

 Orbital Workshop, Command Module, on crew body surfaces and from urine and 

 feces, pref light, inflight, and postflight. 



EQUIPMENT : Calcium alginate swabs. 



RESULTS : Approximately 10,000 microbial isolations were obtained, identified 

 and characterized. Variation occurred in microbial response because of 

 ecological relationships, host susceptibility and external environmental 

 factors. Spread of pathogens between crewmen was common. While the total 

 number of aerobes was found to increase, the species and number of anaerobes 

 decreased. 



CONCLUSIONS : Data showed that, while gross contamination of the Skylab 

 environment was demonstrated and there were several inflight disease events, 

 such events are not limiting hazards for long term manned space flights. 

 Intercrew transfer of pathogens was demonstrated, although evidence of 

 postflight microbial shock was not found. 



PUBLICATIONS : 88, 517 



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