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From 2012-2014, we conducted a nationwide citizen science project, Project MERCCURI [http://spacemicrobes.org/](http://spacemicrobes.org/), aimed at raising public awareness of microbiology and research on board the International Space Station (ISS). Project MERCCURI (Microbial Ecology Research Combining Citizen and University Researchers on the ISS) was a collaborative effort involving the "microbiology of the Built Environment network" (microBEnet) group, Science Cheerleader, NanoRacks, Space Florida, and SciStarter. One of the goals of Project MERCCURI was to examine how a number of non-pathogenic bacteria associated with the built environment would grow on board the ISS compared to on earth.  Most previous work growing bacteria in space has focused on species known to contain pathogenic strains (e.g. _Escherichia coli_ \cite{9043122} \cite{12521048} and _Pseudomonas_ \cite{21169425} \cite{24192060}), \cite{24192060})),  and much less attention has been paid to the "normal" microbes that surround us (i.e., species not known to be pathogenic). An understandable bias towards pathogens and pathogenic pathways is highlighted by work on topics such as biofilm formation (\cite{23658630}, \cite{11179638}), antibiotic resistance/production (\cite{16091928}, \cite{11543359}, \cite{12483468} reviewed in \cite{16460819}), and virulence (\cite{10816456}, \cite{24283929}). While concern about pathogens in spacecraft is certainly warranted, it should be emphasized that the ability of a pathogen to survive outside a host and the ability to infect a host are both, at least in part, dependent on the existing community of non-pathogenic microbes in those locations. For example, mechanically ventilated hospital air shows a much higher abundance of potential pathogens \cite{22278670}, presumably due to the lack of inflow or competition from other microbes. Similarly, the infectivity of some pathogens has been shown to be very dependent on the host microbiome (e.g. \cite{26511795}, \cite{21402903}, \cite{26374122} \cite{21804357}). Therefore, it is important to understand the entire microbial ecosystem of spacecraft. Indeed, in recent years, several culture-independent studies have examined the microbiome of the ISS (\cite{14749908}, \cite{24695826}, \cite{Moissl_2007}), including another part of Project MERCCURI \cite{12345678}. These studies have shown, not surprisingly, that the microbiome of the ISS bears a strong resemblance to the microbiome of human-associated built environments on earth. Therefore it is of interest to see how microbes from human-associated environments behave in space.