An experiment that involves Montana State University scientists and students is orbiting the earth aboard a Russian space capsule.

Launched Friday from Kazakhstan, the experiment involves common contaminants that hitch rides into space and may threaten astronauts’ health. The experiment is scheduled to orbit for 12 days on the unmanned Soviet Foton-M3 mission and land Sept. 26 in northern Kazakhstan or southern Russia.

MSU and NASA want to know how space affects six strains of bacteria and one kind of fungus that often accompany astronauts into space without their knowing it, said MSU microbiologist Barry Pyle, who studies the long-term effects of space travel.

“It appears that crew members are generally healthy and able to face the challenges of stress, microgravity and radiation,” Pyle said. “Because of this, they haven’t run into any problems that I know of with the efficacy of antibiotics and other medications. However, long duration flight, such as going to Mars, may be a different matter. This is why there is still some interest in determining effects of space flight on microorganisms.”

In a variety of tests conducted simultaneously in space and on the ground, the researchers will examine what happens to the exchange of chromosomes among the bacteria, for example. They will also see how microgravity affects ordinary mutation rates. The outcome may explain the ability of bacteria to cause disease or resist antibiotics in space.

Samples from the completed experiment will go to Moscow for preliminary processing by Pyle and Tresa Goins, MSU assistant research professor in microbiology, and then to the Bozeman campus where they will be analyzed by three undergraduate students and research associate Susan Broadaway. The students are Chelsea Crandell of Scobey, Aaron Smith of Havre, and Kien Lim of Malaysia.

The first samples are expected to arrive at MSU the first week of October, Pyle said. More samples should arrive in November.

Pyle’s Russian counterparts sent a similar experiment into space in 2005, but the space capsule was five to 10 degrees too cool for the experiment, Pyle said. To rectify the problem, the Russian team enclosed the current experiment in a container that had its own temperature controls.