How to get a pathogen into space stations?

[Elentarri]

There is also this short story anthology, which I didn't particularly enjoy, but it does have a variety of ideas on what people have written about fictional fungi: Fungi Anthology

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

How dedicated is your guy to getting this fugal disease into a space station etc? Because the easiest way to get it in, would be to infect himself with it. Most fungal diseases are relatively minor for most people - eg ringworm, vaginal candida, thrush - and slow moving. So it should be no problem if he's fit and healthy to carry the illness, and then just wander around the station infecting people. If he wants it to spread faster after he's out of quarantine, could he get hold of an immune suppressant drug and flush it through the air system? Add it to the water supply? Then once the infection is out there, he could dose himself with the cure.

Also, I suspect most people on space stations for a long time would be relatively susceptible to various infections, as they'd only be exposed to a limited number of infections anyway as everyone gets medically checked regularly and quarantined in a heartbeat if anything's found. (The irony being that if people are never exposed to illness, they become more susceptible. One reason a regular, ongoing vaccination program against an entire litany of diseases should be carried out in such situations.)

Cheers, Greg.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Do

I have a problem that I could use help with.

I want to get a pathogen into space stations, or more accurately, into hollowed out astroids. This means there will be lots of rock in the way and if you're living in space then quarantine protocols will be in place or even the common cold might cause problems. So how do I get a pathogen across the vacuum of space, through airlocks and no doubt past other security/safety barriers and infect the poor souls living within the astroids?

Once in, no space station will ever be 100% secure, especially with a large population so I can infect them all in no time. But that first leap has me struggling, how do people living in space pick up outside infections and especially naughty ones. Quarantine, by definition, is hard to get around and more so the barrier of vacuum.

All ideas welcome, with any setup change welcome as well.

Do your hollowed out asteroids have green spaces? Plants have roots. Roots grow downward (mostly) and can get very invasive. Downward in an environment like that would mean outwards, towards the exterior surface of the asteroid.

Roots from an internal tree find their way into a secure, high quarenteen, research facility on the surface?

 

[Bowler1]

I think I might have to kill Psychotick, who seems to have my story written already.

The mycelium is generally good, but I need some life cycle twists in there to spice things up. But if you're a true believer, or infected, then you'll carry the mycelium right into a nice sterile environment of a large asteroid - as per Psychotick/Bowler1.

 

[hvoad]

I have a problem that I could use help with.

I want to get a pathogen into space stations, or more accurately, into hollowed out astroids. This means there will be lots of rock in the way and if you're living in space then quarantine protocols will be in place or even the common cold might cause problems. So how do I get a pathogen across the vacuum of space, through airlocks and no doubt past other security/safety barriers and infect the poor souls living within the astroids?

Once in, no space station will ever be 100% secure, especially with a large population so I can infect them all in no time. But that first leap has me struggling, how do people living in space pick up outside infections and especially naughty ones. Quarantine, by definition, is hard to get around and more so the barrier of vacuum.

All ideas welcome, with any setup change welcome as well.

What do you mean by quarantine? My first guess if you're a visitor, then they'll put you in quarantine when you arrive for some time to make sure you're not sick. You can make it so that the pathogen has a long enough incubation period that they escape notice. So, infect someone and have them arrive at the station. And lots of pathogens evolve so that they maintain survival, which means they become more infectious and less deadly over time (because if the host is dead, he's not transmitting). So you can make it so that the pathogen is not noticeable in the population until a significant number of them suddenly show symptoms. And by then, the clock is already ticking and no one knows how long them have.