NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

University of Colorado, Boulder

Executive Summary

Colorado Executive Summary

Project Reports

Origin of multicellularity and complex land-based ecosystem

Biological potential of Mars

Formation and Evolution of Habitable Planets

From Proto-Metabolism to the RNA World

Functional Genomics of Thioredoxins in Halobacterium sp. NRC-1

Identifying microbial life at crustal rock-water interfaces

Investigations of the birth of stars and planets

Membrane RNAs

Molecular Survey of Microbial Diversity in Hypersaline Ecosystems

Origin of multicellularity and complex land-based ecosystem

Philosophical Issues in Astrobiology

Re-tracing Steps Towards a Habitable World: The Biogeochemical Evolution of Sulfur on the Early Earth.

The impact of atmospheric particles on life

Understanding the Microbial Ecology of Geologically-based Chemolithoautotrophic Communities

EPO Reports

Public Lectures by Co-Is

Journalist Workshop: Extrasolar Planets

CUB Seminar Series

The Birth of Stars and Planets

Project Reports

Organized by Astrobiology Roadmap Objective

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. (6 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. (3 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. (9 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. (8 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. (13 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. (4 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. (2 reports)