Detection of microorganism from China's spacecraft assembly cleanroom

Abstract

Adequate research showed that microorganisms are ubiquitous in orbiting space station, which have a potential impact on the health status of astronauts and reliability of equipment. Microbial community analysis of spacecraft-associated assembly cleanroom is important, since they are considered as prime culprit by some to cause spacecraft equipment malfunction. In this study, culturable bacteira in spacecraft assembly cleanroom (SAC) was detected by contact plate. Furthermore, quantitative loop-mediated isothermal amplification (qLAMP) was first used to assess the abundance of fungi in air sample of SAC. Thirty eight bacteria were isolated and identified. The total culturable bacterial burden for SAC surface samples was 36–632 CFU/100 m2, while fungal burden was 160–236 CFU/100 m2. The fungal burden for SAC air samples was 5.36 × 102–3.62 × 104 28S rRNA gene copies/m3. A viability ratio of 12.36–23.12% was detected by PMA treatment. The results of this study first revealed the overall culturable bacteria diversity and fungal abundance in the SAC of China, which will facilitate further development of a targeted biological safety prevention and maintenance practices.