NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Letter from the Director

The year just concluded, the Institute’s fifth, has been a year of milestones and accomplishments. The achievements, as in the past, are focused on both individual and collective efforts from our member researchers; their work, their publications, their contributions to the landscape of science.

And, once again, in their participation with initiatives either conceived by them and supported by NAI Central, or vice versa. The partnership between our distributed Teams and the centralized administrative directorate persists, and continues to generate productive results in a variety of endeavors that define and nurture the astrobiology community. I will...

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Project Reports

Organized by Astrobiology Roadmap Objective (2003 Version)

Goal 0:

• Objective 0.0: This activity does not fit one of the above categories (3 reports)

Goal 1: Understand the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the Universe

• Objective 1: Determine whether the atmosphere of the early Earth, hydrothermal or exogenous matter were significant sources of organic matter. (51 reports)

Goal 2: Explore for past or present habitable environments, prebiotic chemistry and signs of life elsewhere in our Solar System

• Objective 2: Develop and test plausible pathways by which ancient counterparts of membrane systems, proteins and nucleic acid were synthesized from simpler precursors and assembled into protocells. (50 reports)

Goal 3: Understand how life originates from cosmic and planetary precursors

• Objective 3: Replicating, catalytic systems capable of evolution, and construct laboratory models of metabolism in primitive living systems. (66 reports)

Goal 4: Understand how past life on Earth interacted with its changing planetary and Solar System environment

• Objective 4: Expand and interpret the genomic database of a select group of key microorganisms in order to reveal the history and dynamics of evolution. (118 reports)

Goal 5: Understand the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life

• Objective 5: Describe the sequences of causes and effects associated with the development of Earth's early biosphere and the global environment. (100 reports)

Goal 6: Understand the principles that will shape the future of life, both on Earth and beyond

• Objective 6: Define how ecophysiological processes structure microbial communities, influence their adaptation and evolution, and affect their detection on other planets. (63 reports)

Goal 7: Determine how to recognize signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth

• Objective 7: Identify the environmental limits for by examining biological adaptations to extremes in environmental conditions. (67 reports)

Goal 0:

• Objective NAI1: carrying out, supporting and catalyzing collaborative interdisciplinary research (3 reports)
• Objective NAI2: training the next generation of astrobiology researchers (3 reports)
• Objective NAI3: providing scientific and technical leadership on astrobiology investigations for current and future space missions (3 reports)
• Objective NAI4: exploring new approaches using modern information technology to conduct interdisciplinary and collaborative research amongst widely-distributed investigators (3 reports)
• Objective NAI5: supporting outreach by providing scientific content for K-12 education programs, teaching undergraduate classes, and communicating directly with the public (3 reports)

Project Reports

Organized by Team

• Arizona State University
• Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Harvard University
• Johnson Space Center
• Marine Biological Laboratory
• Michigan State University
• NASA Ames Research Center
• Pennsylvania State University
• Scripps Research Institute
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Colorado, Boulder
• University of Rhode Island
• University of Washington
• Virtual Planetary Laboratory (JPL/CalTech)