Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins collects tubes containing swab samples of microbes for the 3DMM investigation.
iss064e035217 (Feb. 23, 2021) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins collects tubes containing swab samples of microbes for the 3DMM (Three-dimensional Microbial Monitoring of ISS Environment) investigation. The study analyzes and sequences the DNA from bacteria swabbed from station surfaces to understand how microbes respond at a molecular level to specific stress conditions, including altered gravity and atmospheric composition.