"why does nasa not use electricity and the rail system to launch equipment from earth into space and beyond?"
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New ASTEP Projects Reach from Arctic to Antarctic, Mars to Europa
The NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) Program this month has awarded grants to seven new projects, including four field campaigns and three technology development projects.
The new ASTEP field campaigns will take place in terrestrial analogues to other planetary environments, ranging from the high Arctic to Antarctica. The new technology development initiatives will proceed with an eye toward future missions to Mars, Enceladus, and Europa.
The new projects, proposed in response to the
July 22, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings
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Washington Post Covers Astrobiology
In yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post, writer Marc Kauffman discusses the “…scientific explosion taking place in astrobiology.”
July 21, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Deep-sea Discoveries on Expedition Using ASTEP AUVs
The June 26 issue of Nature features a report on the results of underwater research conducted with a pair of NASA Astrobiology-sponsored robotic explorers.
Two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), called Jaguar and Puma, funded by the Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program, were deployed on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI’s) Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE). The AGAVE team traveled to...
July 8, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings
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Astrobiologists Study Microbial Life in Canadian Lake
This week a multinational and multidisciplinary team of researchers begin 2008 field operations in British Columbia for the Pavilion Lake Research Project. The Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets program is one of several contributors to the project.
The Pavilion Lake research team is studying limestone structures called microbialites, located on the floor of the lake. These microbialites are believed to have...
June 23, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings
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Can A Robot Draw A Map?
On a dry lakebed in the Mojave desert, a small experimental rover named Zoe wanders back and forth between dusty clay sediments and black fields of basaltic lava, belched out during eruptions that formed the nearby cinder cone, Amboy Crater.
March 6, 2008 / Written by: Henry Bortman
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New Astrobiology Roadmap Due in '08
A team of NASA and external representatives of the science community is in the process of updating NASA’s 2003 astrobiology roadmap. A draft revised roadmap, to be finalized later in 2008, is publicly available for review and comment online here.
The last iteration of the roadmap was issued in September 2003. The fundamental questions framing the roadmap – How does life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? What is the future of life on Earth...
February 13, 2008 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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Astrobiology Prospects ROSE-y
The Astrobiology Program has a bigger budget in fiscal year (FY) 2008 (which began October 1, 2007) than it did for FY 2007, thanks to NASA Associate Administrator for Science Alan Stern and Planetary Sciences Division Director Jim Green. In one of his first actions at NASA, Stern allocated $1 million of his discretionary funds to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) to provide for continuity of membership beyond calendar year 2008. In additional action, Green allocated...
February 13, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings
