Commander Paul Stamets has tardigrade DNA thanks to combining his own genetics with a tardigrade named Ripper. Stamets' tardigrade DNA lets him navigate the USS Discovery through the mycelial network. Stamets invented the USS Discovery's spore drive, and he is unaffected by temporal disruptions thanks to his tardigrade DNA.

It's true: Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), the inventor of the spore drive on Star Trek: Discovery, has tardigrade DNA. Discovery's displacement-activated spore hub drive is a classified propulsion system unique to Star Trek: Discovery, and an alternative to the warp drive that's usually seen on Star Trek's starships. Rather than warping space-time to travel faster than light, the spore drive actively displaces the USS Discovery from normal space into another plane of existence, the mycelial plane. During a jump, or "black alert", Discovery travels along the mycelial network, an interconnected structure that branches through space-time organically.

Spore drives were...