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NASA's Carl Sagan Fellows to Study Extraterrestrial Worlds
NASA announced Wednesday the new Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars.
Planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, are being discovered at a staggering pace, with more than 300 currently known. Decades ago, long before any exoplanets had been found, the late Carl Sagan imagined such worlds, and pioneered the scientific pursuit...
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Looking for Life on Mars – in a Canadian Lake
On the surface, Pavilion Lake, nestled among the peaks of Canada’s Marble Range, looks like a thousand other mountain lakes. It’s not unusually large or deep. It’s not especially acidic, or...
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Mars Research in Polar Bear Country
New from the Nordic issue of Astrobiology Magazine, European Edition: An interview with Hans Amundsen, the expedition leader of AMASE (Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition). AMASE scientists travel to a group of islands in the High Arctic in order to conduct Mars-related field research.
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AMASE 2008 Blog
The 2008 Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition now has a blog. Follow along as team members beam reports via Iridium satellite phone.
Here is a brief overview of AMASE from Andrew Steele in the blog
What is AMASE.
Since 2003 the Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition has been traveling to field sites on Svalbard to test the protocols, procedures and equipment needed to detect traces of organic chemistry and perhaps life on Mars. The AMASE crew over...
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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
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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.”
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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...