Bacterial spores have been known to endure several years in orbit but this is the longest any cells of cyanobacteria, or photosynthesising microbes, have been seen to survive in space.
This type of research also plays into the popular theory that micro-organisms can somehow be transported between the planets in rocks - in meteorites - to seed life where it does not yet exist.
Rocks from the Earth have been blasted all the way to Mars and the other way as well and the idea that comets or space debris from other solar systems could have been a seed for life here is interesting. Some meteorites are older then our solar system formation.
This discovery could have implications on future colonization, exploration of the Moon and Mars. There are many scientific and cultural reasons for humans to colonize the Moon and Mars. some argue we will soon come into another age of exploration and in the coming decades we will spread out to the planets.
