Astronauts often experience immune dysfunction, skin rashes, and other inflammatory conditions while traveling in space. A new study published in the journal Cell suggests that these issues could be due to the excessively sterile nature of spacecraft.

Thankfully, the study offers one potential way forward: Add some dirt. “Introducing an environmental non-saline soil matrix could potentially alter the microbial composition of industrialized built environments, including the ISS, to align more closely with the microbial communities found in environmentally exposed habitats,” write the researchers.

There are many potential dangers of life in space for astronauts including exposure to radiation, the mental health impacts of isolation and confinement, and the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

The overly sterile environment of the International Space Station is missing important microbes, a new detailed map shows. If we want to live off Earth, we may need to take more of our bacterial frien

Some of the health effects astronauts suffer on the International Space Station (ISS) may not be a consequence of weightlessness, as previously thought, but of the ISS being too clean, a new study proposes.