Life in the Universe An Assessment of U.S. and International Programs in Astrobiology (2003) / Chapter Skim
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1. The Roadmaps
1. The Roadmaps
Pages 8-17
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From page 8... ...
In 1996, then-NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin recognized and sought to capitalize on the immense public interest generated by the 1996 report of putative fossil organisms in the martian meteorite ALH84001,2 and by the discovery of planets orbiting nearby stars like the Sun.3 With the help of NASA's Ames Research Center and the late Gerald Soffen, who was project scientist for the Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s, NASA began the definition of the new program in Astrobiology, broadly construed as the investigation of the origin, distribution, and future of life in the universe.4 In 1997, the agency announced its intention to create a geographically distributed institute for the study of astrobiology, to provide general research funding under this rubric, and to use the institute as an experiment in the use of new communications technology to enable scientists to work intimately on collaborative research regardless of geographical limitations. Eleven initial nodes were selected, each headed by a lead university, research institute, or NASA center.
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From page 9... ...
Is liquid water required for life? Is life a phenomenon requiring at least two basic kinds of polymers (molecules composed of repeated fundamental units)
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From page 10... ...
Effects of climate and Define climatological and geological effects upon the limits of habitable zones around the Sun geology on habitability and other stars to help define the frequency of habitable planets in the universe. Extrasolar biomarkers Define an array of astronomically detectable spectroscopic features that indicate habitable conditions and/or the presence of life on an extrasolar planet.
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From page 11... ...
Over the past couple of decades, scientists have found life flourishing in environments previously thought to be uninhabitable from ocean floor vents at high temperatures and extreme pressures to ecosystems buried beneath a kilometer of basaltic rock. Such extreme environments are potentially the refuge of organisms with primitive qualities, which suggests that these organisms are the modern descendants of ancient life forms.
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From page 12... ...
COEL would also like to see a more careful study of the relevance of microgravity research in Earth orbit to NASA' s Astrobiology program, since NASA itself makes this connection in a cursory way in the current roadmap. While gravity has influenced biological processes on Earth, the study of extant organisms subject to varying values of the gravitational acceleration (from zero to terrestrial)
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From page 13... ...
Advances Significant scientific advances have occurred in the past 5 years in addressing some of the questions identified in the Astrobiology Roadmap. Examples of a few areas that have borne particular fruit, with examples of references, include the following: · Analysis of complex organic chemistry in interstellar clouds of gas and dust that give rise to new stars and solar systems;8 · Direct study of extrasolar giant planets through transits and spectra;9 · Discovery that living organisms, normally found on Earth's surface, can survive at extreme pressure;~° · Evidence from geologic features that liquid water once flowed on the surface of the planet Mars; · Indications from magnetic field geometry that liquid water likely exists today below the icy crust of three of Jupiter's large moons, most notably, Europa; · Ground-based studies of Titan, indicating both temporal and spatial variability and the presence of organic molecules;~3 · Chemical-isotopic hints that microbial life on Earth existed 3.9 billion years ago, almost to the period of early heavy cometary bombardment;~4 · Evidence that liquid water existed in the crust of Earth some 4.3 billion years ago;~5 · Elucidation of the detailed history of evolution and the phylogenetic relationships among organisms; and · In vitro evolution experiments that have come close to developing self-replicating systems in the laboratory.
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From page 14... ...
To determine whether habitable or life-bearing planets exist around nearby stars, and 4. To understand how life forms and evolves.
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From page 15... ...
Recommendation In the current respective roadmap processes, careful attention should be paid to the relationship between the Astrobiology and the Astronomical Search for Origins programs in order to identify overlaps, common areas of research, and approaches to enhance the level of interaction in research. THE 2000 SPACE SCIENCE STRATEGIC PLAN The Strategic Plan issued by NASA's Office of Space Science in 2000 is an overarching document that implicitly includes both the Astrobiology and the Origins Roadmaps.24 Because the details of these programs and how they interact are really the purview of the roadmaps themselves, COEL does not make specific comments about the much more general material present in the strategic plan.
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From page 16... ...
NASA Headquarters, the Ames Research Center, and key members of the scientific community have done a good job in designing and initiating the institute, in encouraging a broader community of astrobiology researchers, and in developing and implementing training and degree programs. Recommendation NASA should undertake a comprehensive review of the scientific and educational results of its Astrobiology program in general, and of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)
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From page 17... ...
19. Office of Space Science, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Origins—Roadmap for the Office of Space Science Origins Theme, JPL 400-887 4/00, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., 2000.
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