BioSTAR - NASA's Bioburden and Sampling Tool for Assessing Risk

About this technology

Overview

BioSTAR is an interactive, web-based tool that streamlines bioburden estimation and Planetary Protection Equipment List (PPEL) creation for spacecraft hardware. It converts sampling results into rigorous statistical estimates of microbial contamination with quantified uncertainty, integrating validated recovery efficiencies from common sampling devices. Users can access reference data from previous flight projects, apply NASA-STD 8719.27 specifications when direct sampling is unavailable, and generate spore densities with full probability distributions. BioSTAR also enables streamlined PPEL building, supporting reporting and risk analysis. The tool is available at https://biostar.jpl.nasa.gov/. Access privileges are required. For questions, access requests, or feedback, please contact michael.dinicola@jpl.nasa.gov.