With the increasing duration of space missions, the impact of fungi on aerospace materials requires systematic investigation. We evaluate the adaptability of Aspergillus brasiliensis and its corrosion effects on aluminum alloy under space conditions through a 90-day experiment. Fungal growth characteristics, ultrastructural changes, metabolic activity, and interactions with the material surface are analyzed. The results show that Aspergillus brasiliensis maintains high adaptability to microgravity, exhibiting thickened cell walls, enhanced spore formation, and increased metabolic activity. Corrosion analysis reveals that fungal attachment accelerates localized material degradation through organic acid secretion and oxygen concentration differentials. The microgravity environment further amplifies these effects by influencing fungal metabolism and altering corrosion dynamics. Compared to ground-based conditions, space-exposed samples show significantly higher organic acid concentrations and metal ion dissolution, indicating intensified corrosion. These findings enhance the understanding of microbial corrosion mechanisms in space and provide a foundation for antifungal strategies to improve the reliability of aerospace materials during long-term missions.

Microbial fouling is an important challenge in water recovery system of manned spacecrafts for longer term missions. Microbial fouling of 5A06 aluminium alloy induced by typical extreme environment-resistant bacteria in oligotrophic solutions of simulated condensate of manned spacecraft was investigated. Bacillus cereus showed poor survival ability to oligotrophic environments, and a small amount of remaining live B. cereus cells mainly existed in the form of spores without forming biofilms. And when B. cereus was mixed cultured with Cupriavidus metallidurans, the system was mainly affected by C. metallidurans biofilms rather than B. cereus cells. C. metallidurans could promote the thickness of passive films of aluminum alloy, so C. metallidurans posed a minor threat to the corrosion of 5A06 aluminum alloy. However, C. metallidurans showed strong adaptability to oligotrophic environments and formed a large number of biofilms. And the contamination threat of C. metallidurans still dominated even cultured with B. cereus. Even when cultured with B. cereus, the threat of contamination from C. metallidurans still pre-dominates. Therefore, C. metallidurans would pose a threat of microbial fouling to the oligotrophic water recovery system of manned spacecrafts.