In 1901, scientists discovered the yellow fever virus, in 1907 - the variola virus. Two years later, in 1909, there was a poliomyelitis virus, then herpes. Then scientists noticed a strange pattern that still defies explanation. In those same years, the Earth was literally attacked by meteorites.
In 1909, when an outbreak of polio was recorded, dozens of meteorites fell to the ground. The largest of them was found in Mexico, weighing almost 53 kilograms. And in 1911, the largest iron meteorite weighing more than 22 tons fell in Australia, and it was in this year that the Rous sarcoma virus was discovered.
Is there a connection between the fall of heavenly bodies and outbreaks of earthly epidemics? In the Middle Ages, people believed: when a comet passes, expect another plague epidemic. This is how it happened most often.
Hero of the Soviet Union, cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov dozens of times observed the fall of celestial bodies right in space, from the window of the Mir orbital station. He has four flights and 10 spacewalks behind him. But Serebrov could not even imagine that one flight would be fatal for him. He remembers that expedition by the minute …
The cosmonauts of the Mir orbital station have just boarded it. At the station, there was equipment that was used by the crew of the previous shift, including space suits. Space station flight engineer Alexander Serebrov had to prepare equipment for spacewalk. When the astronaut opened one of the suits, a wave of green dust literally poured over him.
Alexander Serebrov: “We open the spacesuit - and it opens from our back, there is such a door, a knapsack in which all life support systems are in, - and from there in the rays of light a cloud of green dust”.
Dust settles on the ground, but in space, in zero gravity, it is simply elusive. Several layers of mold have formed inside the suit. The team had to clean up all this with improvised means. The mold and dust were collected and sent to the dust collector. A few days later, they noticed: the water at the station had an unpleasant aftertaste, and a week later a pungent smell appeared in the compartments.
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Alexander Serebrov: “We say:“Water with a smell, let us change the column”. We were not allowed. Then we began to pay attention to the fact that the condensate pumping pumps stop every half hour, the siren buzzes, something stops there and stops pumping this very condensate."
Then the cosmonauts disassembled the column and determined that the pump needed to be replaced. But it did not help. Soon Serebrov noticed that the entire filter of the column was clogged with poisonous yellow crumbs.
Alexander Serebrov: “I blew out the filter, I see some pieces at the ends. I put a wire in there and pull out a one and a half meter worm. It was lithe, yellow, with dark brown spots. Like a snake like that."
The cosmonauts experienced a tremendous shock from what they saw. How could this creature end up in a sealed orbital water supply system? The team reported the incident to the Mission Control Center. The expedition was urgently prepared for the return to Earth.
But the cosmonauts had little time. One microbacterium in space mutated so that it managed to be reborn into a whole slug. Under the influence of cosmic radiation, microorganisms began to slowly destroy the Mir station. One by one, the most important devices went out of order.
Natalya Novikova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Full Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Head of the Laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Environmental Microbiology and Antimicrobial Protection”: “There was a failure of the commutation device on the Mir. And when it failed and was lowered to Earth, we made sure, when we removed the casing of this device, that inside the insulation of the wires there was a very strong, thick, extensive coating of mold. Then, also on the ISS, we recorded a malfunction of certain instruments. In particular, the fire detector and smoke alarm failed."
The cosmonauts have ceased to control the situation. A fire could break out on Mir at any moment. Without a fire detector and smoke alarm, such a situation could lead to a disaster.
Alexander Serebrov sent the worm on a cargo spacecraft to Earth (where he safely sunk into oblivion, in any case, it was never reported anywhere else). The crew had a few more days to spend in space. Already at the station, Serebrov felt unwell. The head was constantly spinning, nauseous, for several days the cosmonaut lay with a temperature.
The fact that the Mir orbital station was practically covered by various types of mold is no secret. The naked eye photo of the station hatch shows extensive mold damage. In such conditions, Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Serebrov and his team spent 197 days.
Alexander Serebrov: “I somehow climbed onto the spherical bottom, this is the aft part of the module, so it was covered with white bloom. It's not just aluminum oxide. I took the strokes, lowered them to Earth. But they didn’t inform us, so as not to frighten”.
After the emergency at the Mir station, a whole program was created at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems to study the behavior of microorganisms in space. It was called Biorisk. Special equipment was developed for the experiment.
The material was spores of bacilli and microscopic fungi, which are the most resistant to external factors. They were placed on metal structures from which the outer shell of the spacecraft was made. This sample was left in a Petri dish, which was hermetically sealed. There was a membrane filter on the cover. It allowed air to pass inside the cup, but kept microorganisms inside.
Natalia Novikova: “When the lid was opened, there was only a filter between the microorganisms and outer space. That is, the microorganisms were actually in outer space."
Microorganisms spent 18 months in space. So for the first time it was proved that bacteria can not only survive in extreme conditions, but also transform into stronger organisms under the influence of strong radiation.
Natalya Novikova: "In the case of returning expeditions, terrestrial microorganisms that remained in the spacecraft at the start, in the atmosphere or in the environment of another planet, may transform in an unknown way and return to Earth with some new properties."
After the return of Alexander Serebrov to Earth, the symptoms of a strange disease began to intensify. Severe abdominal pain, nausea and constant weakness did not allow to live normally. The cosmonaut turned to the Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology for help, but the doctors were unable to make an accurate diagnosis.
Alexander Serebrov: “At the Institute. I filled dozens of Petri dishes with gamalea. They say: "You have yeast bacteria in your intestines, but we have no analogues on Earth, it is a mutant, so we do not know how to treat it."
The Mir station, all overgrown with space fungus, was flooded in 2001 in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists assured that the station was heat treated while flying through the atmosphere. In such a stove, not a single microbe will survive. But they recognized: the properties of the mold mutated in zero gravity are not known until the end. What if space microorganisms survived on the flooded station? What is happening now at the depths where the remains of the "Mir" rest is unknown. Is there a threat that an unknown infection will come from the depths of the water to the earth?
Alexander Serebrov: “They did the wrong thing with Mir, they flooded it in a hurry, without taking samples either inside or outside, on structural elements. This radiation even affects the structure of the metal, radiation accumulates there, and the secondary radiation is sometimes stronger than the primary one”.
Alexander Serebrov suffered from a strange infection until his death. He died on November 12, 2013.
Igor Prokopenko, "Military Secret" series