2026 Metagenomics in Spaceflight: Establishing an Implementation Roadmap
The 2026 Metagenomics in Spaceflight: Establishing an Implementation Roadmap workshop is scheduled for Nov. 2-6, 2026, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The purpose of the meeting is to provide a collaborative forum for generating solution-driven approaches involving metagenomics for risk-informed decision-making during flight operations.
Event Information
The workshop represents an international collaboration between space life scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Attendees will seek to develop an actionable plan to bridge the gap between current state-of-the-art technology and its implementation.
As the complexity of future missions increases, metagenomics-based approaches allow for an expansion of tools and methods to assess biological contamination during mission operations. This workshop will serve as a proactive effort to enable operational decision-making and support a paradigm shift from current prescriptive requirements to a risk-informed decision-making framework. The workshop will involve coordination across a diverse set of life science disciplines including Planetary Protection, space biology, astrobiology, and crew monitoring and health.
Presentations may include topics on:
- Technology Roadmap and Current Progress on the Mitigation of Knowledge Gaps
- Current Status / State-of-the-Art Technology
- Safety Critical Decision-Making
- Standardized Practices for Spaceflight Implementation
- Technology Needs
- Dark Matter
The workshop will be held at JPL's von Kármán Auditorium in Building 186.
Click here for a map of JPL that includes details on where to park and how to get to the meeting.