Examining the diversity of microbes on Earth and on the International Space Station

Project Status (updated 1/30/15)

Project MERCCURI: Send microbes to space, see what's growing on the International Space Station (ISS), and compare to thousands of citizen-collected samples on earth.

-Collect/identify microbes to go to the ISS (See candidates here)

-Microbes were flown to the ISS and grown in microgravity (Successful Launch on April 18, 2014, Growth from December 8-12th, 2014. Preliminary analysis here. Final results here.

-Collect microbes from the ISS for analysis on earth (Swabs collected on ISS, May 9th 2014, Swab samples returned to earth May 18, 2014, Analysis in Progress)

-Collect/analyze 3000 cell phone/shoe samples (All samples collected, Analysis in progress)

-Visualize cell phone/shoe data for public (Event Map Available, Interactive Data Visualization to Follow)

-Generate educational materials for classrooms (Published March 2014)