[1] This novel species was discovered by scientist Myron T. La Duc of NASA’s Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group, a unit whose purpose is to clean and sterilize spacecraft so as not to have microorganisms contaminate other celestial bodies or foreign microorganisms contaminate Earth, on the surface of the Mars Odyssey in a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge before the spacecraft was launched to space.

La Duc named the bacterium Bacillus odysseyi sp.

It had apparently evolved to live in the sparse environment of a clean room, and its secondary spore coat makes it especially resistant to radiation.

[2] B. odysseyi consists of an exosporium, spore coat, cortex, and core.

B. odysseyi shares many DNA similarities with Bacillus fusiformis and Solibacillus silvestris.