NASA is building a Space Microbial Culture Collection (SMCC), a culture repository to house a diverse collection of microbial isolates from space-related research and exploration efforts. SMCC will store, curate and make these valuable biological resources available to the public.

SMCC is the latest branch of the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC), which is housed at Ames Research Center. NASA-funded researchers have been collecting and culturing microbes from a wide range of projects for decades. These samples include bacteria found on swabs collected inside the International Space Station, novel organisms found in extreme environments on Earth that are considered to be analogs for other planets, and microbes that have been experimentally exposed to space-like stressors.

These microbial samples have traditionally been stored in the labs of individual researchers and across different NASA centers. SMCC will centralize the curation of these resources, bringing them together in a single repository, verifying their identity and making both genomic data and biological materials available to researchers who request them.

A central component of SMCC will be the microorganisms that have been collected over the years by planetary protection engineers from spacecraft during assembly. An essential task in planetary protection is to monitor and control the microbial bioburden of spacecraft destined for planetary destinations that might harbor extraterrestrial life. In the process, NASA has amassed a remarkable collection of stress-tolerant microorganisms. By making these organisms available for research, SMCC will enable scientists to study and understand the organisms that humans will bring with us as we explore space, and help to prevent the forward contamination of other planets.

SMCC is still in development, with plans to make data and strains available to the public by 2027. Once fully operational, key features will include

• A repository containing thousands of isolates from a variety of space-related projects
• A web portal where users can search and visualize data and metadata from SMCC's collection
• Downloadable gene and genome sequence data from isolates in the collection
• The ability for members of the public to request isolates from the repository for research purposes, at no cost

While the repository is in progress, requests, suggestions and inquiries are welcome via the Contact Us box on the SMCC web page.