MadWest Rocketrybotany meets the upper atmosphere
OSDR Training

Get your experiment OSDR-ready

NASA's Open Science Data Repository accepts data from anyone — if it meets open-science standards. This page translates those standards into plain language for rocket builders.

What is OSDR?

The Open Science Data Repository (formerly GeneLab) is NASA's home for spaceflight and space-relevant biology data. It stores experiments — from omics to phenotype assays — with rich metadata so other researchers can find, understand, and reuse them.

For a MadWest flight, OSDR is the destination: it's where your germination counts and flight logs stop being a class result and become part of the open scientific record.

The FAIR principles

OSDR is built on FAIR data. Design to these four words and you're most of the way there:

FindableRich metadata + a persistent identifier
AccessibleOpenly retrievable in standard formats
InteroperableStandard vocabulary, units & file types
ReusableDocumented methods so others can build on it

Training modules

Work through these in order. Each one maps a part of your flight to what OSDR needs.

Module 1 — Think in metadata

Data without context is useless to a repository. "84% germination" means nothing; "84% germination of Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0, 7 days post-flight, 22 °C, vs. 91% ground control" is reusable science.

  • For every number, capture what, which organism, when, under what conditions.
  • Record units explicitly and consistently.
  • Keep a sample-to-sensor map so biology links to the flight log.

Module 2 — Describe the assay

OSDR organizes studies around assays — the measurements you ran. Know which type yours is.

Your measurementAssay type
Did seeds sprout?Phenotype — germination
Seedling height/mass over daysPhenotype — growth time-series
Gene activity (if you sample)Omics — transcriptomics
Flight environmentEnvironmental / mission metadata

Module 3 — Use standard vocabulary

Interoperability means calling things by names a computer and another scientist both recognize.

  • Use full scientific names and standard strain identifiers for your organism.
  • Prefer controlled terms/ontologies where OSDR asks for them rather than free text.
  • Use SI units and ISO date-times throughout.
When in doubt, mirror how an existing OSDR study describes a similar plant experiment — browse the repository for examples. link a model study here

Module 4 — Build the control story

OSDR data is only meaningful against a baseline. Your ground control isn't optional paperwork — it's half the dataset.

  • Document that the control was handled identically except for flight.
  • Report flown and control results side by side with sample counts.
  • Note anything that differed (timing, temperature excursions) honestly.

Module 5 — Package for submission

Final module: assemble everything into the structure OSDR expects, then hand off to the submission workflow.

  • Tabular results as clean CSVs; one row = one observation.
  • A metadata sheet describing study, organism, factors, and assays.
  • Methods write-up detailed enough to repeat.
Continue to the Data Submission page for the actual file structure and step-by-step upload path.

OSDR-readiness checklist

If you can tick all of these, your flight is ready for the submission workflow.

✅ Experiment

  • Clear hypothesis & organism
  • Identical ground control
  • Adequate sample counts

✅ Data & metadata

  • Units & timestamps on everything
  • Flight log linked to biology samples
  • Methods documented for reuse

Your data is ready. Let's submit it.

The submission workflow walks you from organized files to a live entry in NASA's repository.

Go to Data Submission →