By Stephen Beech

Microbes essential for human health can survive the extreme forces of space launch, reveals new research.

The world-first rocket test proved bacteria can endure blast-off and re-entry unharmed.

There are plans to send crews to Mars within decades.

But sustaining life on the red planet would be more difficult if important bacteria die during the flight.

Now an Australian-led study has found the spores of Bacilus subtilis - a bacterium essential for human health - can survive rapid acceleration, short-duration microgravity and rapid deceleration.

The spores of bacteria were launched high into the sky, then studied once their rocket fell back to Earth, in what is believed to be the first study of its kind in real conditions outside a lab.

Study co-author Professor E

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