NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

NASA Astrobiology Institute Strategic Science Initiative Workshop

May 13-15, 2009
Tempe, AZ

The purpose of the Strategic Science Initiative workshop was to identify areas in which integration of the funded NAI research portfolio (and possibly related funded research efforts) would lead to greater scientific insights and productivity. For those areas (termed “initiatives,” but without the implication that they would necessarily become new initiatives of the NAI), a specific workshop objective was to develop a science description: What are the initiative’s science goals? What currently funded research elements would be integrated? How would the integration be effected? What additional, but modest, resources might be applied to facilitate the integration? What would be some of the expected outcomes? The emphasis was thus on integrating currently funded research, with the possibility of applying discretionary resources only at the margin to facilitate integration.

Eight major areas of Institute-wide research emerged from the workshop. They are presented below.

• PRODUCTION OF VOLATILES/ ORGANICS/ WATER AND THEIR DELIVERY TO PLANETS
• ORIGINS OF LIFE
• ARCHAEN BIOSPHERE INITIATIVE
• HABITABILITY AND THE LIMITS OF LIFE
• PRESERVATION AND DIAGENESIS OF ORGANICS
• BIOSIGNATURES
• THE ASTROBIOLOGY OF MARS: METHANE AND OTHER CANDIDATE BIOMARKER GASES, RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES ON EARTH AND MARS, AND EXTENSIONS TO THE SEARCH FOR EARTH-LIKE EXOPLANETS
• OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION