03-11-2021, 09:57 AM
(03-11-2021, 12:59 AM)selden Wrote: Certainly minimizing the need for support from Earth is essential, but the smallness of the environment does make the control of toxin sources, including molds, very important. Toxic molds have been detected on both
Mir and the ISS, for example, although in very small concentrations so far.
See https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_file_..._id=491399
True - but this is going to be the case in any space based environment (or even moderately sealed off Earth environment) that has to operate for anything more than a few days. Learning how to control this sort of thing on ISS or other space stations can contribute know how to learning how to control it on a Mars mission and in an eventual Mars base/colony. Which in turn will lead to know how for more ambitious missions all the way up to the interstellar.
Coming at this from a different direction - toxic molds are a thing even on Earth in the most open ecosystem we've got. We just didn't know about them for most of human history.
Todd