NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Executive Summary

GSFC Executive Summary

Project Reports

Accomplishments of Graduate Student Avi Mandell

Accomplishments of Graduate Student William Anderson

Accomplishments of Graduate Student Yani Radeva

BioSignatures of Earth and Earth-like Planets

Breakdown of methane due to electric discharge: A Laboratory Investigation with Relevance to Mars

Chemical Models of Nebular Processes

Composition of Parent Volatiles in Comets: Emphasis on Oxidized Carbon

Cosmic Ice Laboratory

Extrasolar Planets

Fingerprinting late additions to the Earth and Moon via the study of highly siderophile elements in lunar impact melt rocks

Laser mass spectrometry for planetary analog and in situ chemical analyses

New Astrobiology Virtual Conference Facility

Origin and Evolution of Organics

Origin and Evolution of Organics in Planetary Systems

Search for Biomarker Gases on Mars

Summary of Activities in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory

Summer Undergraduate Internships in Astrobiology

Synthesis of Complex Organics on Natural Grain Analogs

The Evolution of Organics in Space

Towards a Cometary Taxonomy based on Organic Composition

X-ray emission from intermediate-mass young stars and star-forming regions

EPO Reports

Minority Institution Astrobiology Collaborative

Summer Undergraduate Internship in Astrobiology

National Air and Space Museum "Are we alone in the Universe"

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. (9 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. (8 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. (12 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. (2 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. (1 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. (1 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. (5 reports)