Can I get a bacterial infection.. on Mars?

October 19, 2014 9:09 PM

Can I get a bacterial infection if I got myself an unfortunate wound on Mars?

So I started reading a new novel today, barely got started. It's about a guy stranded on Mars. It's this book, The Martian by Andy Weir.

Anyway, the guy gets a fairly serious wound at the very beginning, and says something like "I'll be on antibiotics for a couple of weeks, but then I'll be fine." He's got protective space suits to hang out in, as well as a little life-support craft. Where would the bacteria that might potentially cause an infection come from? Some that were inside the life support bubble that he's hanging out in? (Assuming he didn't catch any incubating illness before he landed on the red planet, as well.)

posted by bitterkitten to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Best answer: There is bacteria on and around us all the time. It's normally harmless if the skin is unbroken. When that barrier is compromised, wounds can become infected. So unless the space suits and the life-support craft and his skin are completely sterile, that's where the bacteria would come from.
posted by Beti at 9:19 PM on October 19, 2014 [8 favorites]

There is bacteria all over our skin and on nearly every surface on earth. Hundreds of strains of bacteria have been discovered that can survive NASA's stringent sanitation processes and the trip through interplanetary space (we've likely already brought them to Mars with our Rovers). Our skin normally makes a nice protective barrier, unless it's punctured. In other words, his wounds could become infected with normal earth bacteria that he brings with him.

I don't know the likelihood that antibiotics developed for Earth bacteria would work against Martian-evolved organisms. I don't think we'll know until/unless we find some living ones first.
posted by muddgirl at 9:21 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

There are bacteria all over your skin, some of which will cause issues if they get inside you. Unless he underwent some sort of disinfectant procedure before travelling, it could just be those bacteria. (And he probably wouldn't want to disinfect himself of all of the bacteria on his skin anyway, since some of them are no doubt useful.)
posted by lollusc at 9:23 PM on October 19, 2014

Dude's gotta poop.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:27 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For example: "Approximately 25-30% of healthy people carry [staph] on their skin or in their nose." When it's on your skin or in your nose it's not a problem. But when it gets in a cut it can be a problem. If it gets deep in a cut then it can be a very serious problem.

There are actually more bacteria in your body than human cells, they just happen to be much smaller than human cells. By simple population count, you are more "other" than human ;)
posted by sbutler at 10:17 PM on October 19, 2014 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Dude's gotta poop.

minor spoilers ahead

And there we come to a major issue with The Martian; the essence of the story -- no more spoiler here than the book jacket will give you -- is that an astronaut on Mars is presumed dead and left behind by his colleagues escaping the crisis that seemingly kills our protagonist. Lacking any way to communicate with home he sets in to wait out the interval to the next mission arrives, a year or more away.

There is a whole lot of Robinson Crusoe on Mars here, with lengthy discussions on how he is repurposing materiel -- often quite ingeniously -- to survive. However, the biologist astronaut blithely states he will be using his own wastes for fertilizer for the crops he will grow in his indoor garden, hand waving it away with a single statement that human manure is not usually used because of the pathogens but as they would all be pathogens from his own body, he faces no danger. Er, upper and lower GI tract, anybody?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:16 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

In old Western novels you read about "gut-shots." These are bullets to the gut which pierce (for example) the large intestine. The large intestine holds a huge number of bacteria which, if it enters the peritoneum or blood stream causes a slowly cumulative death. In the old western days of no antibiotics, gut-shot was synonymous with dying painfully over a week or a couple of months. So, yes our own bacteria can be pathogens and commonly are.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:24 AM on October 20, 2014