In a somewhat academic discussion about survival of astronauts in outer space it has been suggested that a long term assignment may not be possible for human beings. The science project being discussed was a potential Mission to Mars where the one way journey would take about 250 days and the stay on Mars would be little under a year to wait for the orbital point closest to Earth to return.

This means that in a mission to Mars the astronauts would be spending little over two years in space. Scientific researchers argue that the health of the human beings may deteriorate too much in this time frame. The main reason being that pathogens such as viruses and bacteria tend to mutate and become more deadly in space.

There is a hypothesis that the increase in radiation can cause these deadly mutations to speed up. This will affect the health of the astronauts adversely making them incapable of functioning optimally. The reason for this suggestion is the fact that the fungi found in spacecrafts returning from outer space have the ability to eat through the plastic insulation of electric cables.

This ability does not exist in the fungi present on Earth. While it may be inconclusive evidence to suggest that the other microbes like salmonella and staphylococcus will also mutate in space the possibility does exist. More scientific research will be required to see if this actually is the truth.