Astrobiology is the study of life's origins and the potential for life in the Universe.This view of Jovian moon Europa was created by processing an image JunoCam captured during Juno’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022.A comic book style illustration shows Clipper swooping down from the top right toward Europa. An image of Jupiter from the Juno mission is in the background. Europa is hand drawn and a cutaway at the surface shows the ocean underneath.The rocket lifts off on a blast of bright white and yellow to the left of frame. Smoke pours over the ground. A water tower and a few other structures are visible to the right amidst the smoke. The scene appears against a deep blue sky.
NASA-DARES RFI: Due Date Extended: The NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration StrategyResponse Date: March 17, 202501/04
NASA-Funded Study Examines Tidal Effects on Planet and Moon InteriorsTides and the interiors of planets and moons.02/04
New Edition of Astrobiology Issue #4 – Missions to the Outer Solar SystemUpdated edition includes NASA’s Europa Clipper mission03/04
Europa Clipper Begins Journey to Jupiter’s Icy MoonLift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Oct. 14, 202404/04
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NASA Scientists, Engineers Receive Presidential Early Career Awards (NASA)Jan. 18, 2025
Artist drawing of a planet transiting a fiery star upper right. The space telescope is in the foreground lower left. The body of the craft and its lens tilted toward the star. A single, long solar array stretches out from the body to left bottom corner.
NASA’s Pandora Mission One Step Closer To Probing Alien Atmospheres (NASA)Jan. 17, 2025
A point of light is left of center against a dark background. To the left of the point is a blue/purple cloud-like structure that spreads longitudinally toward the left of frame. Upper right is an orangish, almost butterfly-like structure of light.
Hubble Captures Young Stars Changing Their Environments (NASA)Jan. 17, 2025
Chandra is a long, tubular structure with two wings of solar panels (3 panels each). The telescope fills most of the frame with the solar panels reaching from bottom left to upper right. The tube points away from the camera. A blue planet is upper left.
Exoplanets Need to Be Prepared for Extreme Space Weather, Chandra Finds (NASA)Jan. 16, 2025
The NASA insignia is one of the agency's best-known symbols.
NASA-DARES RFI: Due Date ExtendedJan. 16, 2025
Ten small portrait images of sample tubes laying on the martian surface are combined to form one large landscape image. In each image a small tube sits on the ground in the shadow of the Perseverance rover. Perseverance (not visible) captured the images.
NASA to Explore Two Landing Options for Returning Samples from Mars (NASA)Jan. 8, 2025
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Illustration of the Perseverance rover arriving on Mars.
NASA MISSIONSMars 2020

NASA's Mars 2020 mission is the next step in NASA's long-term robotic exploration of Mars. The rover Perseverance will provide important data relevant to astrobiology research, along with a vast amount of geological information about the landing site and the planet at large that will help put the astrobiological data into context.

Perseverance will not be looking for organisms living on Mars today. However, the rover will collect data that could be used to identify biosignatures of ancient microbial life.

What really sets this mission apart is that Perseverance will be collecting a suite of samples to be returned to Earth via a Mars Sample Return mission. The opportunity to bring back samples from another planet will allow our researchers to interrogate them with all of the sophistication and thoroughness that Earth-based instrumentation provides.

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