"Are there any Earth like mountains on the Moon, or are all the raised features the result of impacts?"
Welcome to the NAI Newsletter! The Newsletter is a compendium of announcements, events, updates, and news items related to the NAI and its research. If you have news items or suggestions you can send them to the editor, Marco Boldt at: Marco.Boldt@nasa.gov.
Newsletter for April 19, 2007
- NAI Announces 2007 Director's Discretionary Fund Awards
- NAI Director's Seminar: "Microbial Activities in Deep Subseafloor Sediments"
- Presentations from Lunar Science Workshop Available
- ESA Call for Proposals for "New Cosmic Vision"
- Lab-On-a-Chip Works Aboard the ISS
- NAI Scientist Receives Hazel Barnes Prize
- Exoplanets and M Stars
- Final Assembly of Earth-Like Planets
- Plants on Other Planets May Not be Green
- Habitability of Planets Around M Dwarf Stars
- PAH's Responsible for "Red Glow"
NAI Announces 2007 Director's Discretionary Fund Awards
The NASA Astrobiology Institute is pleased to announce the selection of 18 proposals for support through the 2007 NAI Director's Discretionary Fund. These awards allocate more than $1.7M toward strategic investments that advance the science of astrobiology, demonstrate impact to NASA's space flight programs or its broader science activities, and/or contribute to NASA's role as a federal R&D agency. The members of the Institute, in collaboration with members of the larger astrobiology community, responded to this year's DDF Call for Proposals with a bold, interdisciplinary, and focused set of proposals. New work made possible by this support includes the development of instrumentation for remote biosignature detection, the study of extra-solar planets, the simulation of the Martian environment, and the study of Earth in an astrobiological context from the Moon.
Congratulations to all the selected investigators, and to those new collaborators, "Welcome to the NAI!"
The complete list of NASA Astrobiology Institute 2007 DDF Awards can be viewed at:
http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/ddf_2007/index.cfm
NAI Director's Seminar: "Microbial Activities in Deep Subseafloor Sediments"
Speaker: Steven D'Hondt (University of Rhode Island)
Date/Time: Monday, April 30, 2007 11AM PDT
Abstract:
Recent studies by URI investigators and our collaborators have advanced understanding of Earth’s subsurface life in several ways. These advances include the following discoveries: (1) respiration per subseafloor cell is much lower than canonical estimates of respiration required for cell maintenance; (2) thermodynamic cooperation sustains complex subsurface communities for millions of years; (3) subseafloor biomass and predominant redox activities vary predictably with the chlorophyll content of the surface ocean; (4) subseafloor redox activities ultimately affect the chemistry of the ocean and atmosphere; and (5) Earth’s subsurface biomass is much smaller than the canonical estimate. Preliminary data suggest that hydrogen from radiolysis of water may be a significant food source for microbial communities in the low-activity sediments that characterize much of the open ocean.
For more information and participation instructions, visit: http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/seminars/seminar_detail.cfm?ID=102
Presentations from Lunar Science Workshop Available
Presentations from the "Workshop on Science Associated with the Lunar Exploration Architecture" held in Tempe, Arizona, February 27-March 2, 2007 are available at: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LEA. Presentations are still being uploaded to the website, so please continue to check the website as needed. Any questions regarding this announcement may be directed to Ms. Marian R. Norris, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, mnorris@nasa.gov.
ESA Call for Proposals for "New Cosmic Vision"
The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued a Call for Proposals for the First Planning Cycle of the New Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 (http://sci.esa.int/cv2015). It is anticipated that some U.S. investigators may wish to participate in the flight programs that will result from the advanced studies being solicited by the Call, and NASA is interested in the possibility of supporting U.S. investigator participation in future flight projects. Per the Call, U.S. investigators collaborating on Assessment Phase proposals to be submitted to ESA will be required to provide ESA with a supporting letter from NASA. Proposers desiring such a letter must submit a brief description no later than May 15th to the Science Mission Directorate at NASA HQ. Please contact Paul Hertz for more information: Dr. Paul Hertz, Chief Scientist, Science Mission Directorate, NASA, Washington, DC 20546; Telephone: (202) 358-0986; E-mail: paul.hertz@nasa.gov.
Lab-On-a-Chip Works Aboard the ISS
The Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS) is an instrument developed by the NAI Carnegie Institution of Washington Team over the past 4 years in collaboration with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Charles River Labs. LOCAD-PTS was flown to and recently tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to enable crew to monitor microorganisms and potentially hazardous chemicals within the cabin environment. The successful test is the first demonstration of this new technology, from sampling to data retrieval - by an astronaut in space.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/06apr_locad2.htm?list123050
NAI Scientist Receives Hazel Barnes Prize
Margaret Tolbert from NAI's University of Colorado, Boulder Team, is receiving the 2007 UC-Boulder Hazel Barnes Prize. This prize is the University's most prestigious faculty award. Tolbert has earned it, UC-Boulder has announced, "for her contributions to understanding the chemistry and climate of planetary atmospheres, including past and present," and "for her teaching and research
efforts with undergraduates and graduate students, 15 of whom have won prestigious NASA and Environmental Protection Agency fellowships in recent years." http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2007/129.html Congratulations Margaret!
Recently Published Research from the NAI
Exoplanets and M Stars
Members of NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory Alumni Team and their colleagues have a new paper in the current issue of Astrobiology. They present a critical discussion of M star properties that are relevant for the long- and short-term thermal, dynamical, geological, and environmental stability of conventional liquid water habitable zone (HZ) M star planets.
Final Assembly of Earth-Like Planets
NAI Postdoctoral Fellow Sean Raymond leads a team of authors from NAI's University of Colorado, Boulder, and University of Arizona Teams, and Virtual Planetary Laboratory and University of Washington Alumni Teams in a new publication in Astrobiology. They present analysis of water delivery and planetary habitability in 5 high-resolution simulations forming 15 terrestrial planets. Their results outline a new model for water delivery to terrestrial planets in dynamically calm systems, which may be very common in the Galaxy.
Plants on Other Planets May Not be Green
Differently colored plants may live on extra-solar planets, according to two new papers in the current issue of Astrobiology authored by members of NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory Alumni Team and their colleagues. They took previously simulated planetary atmospheric compositions for Earth-like planets orbiting various star types (including M stars), generated spectra, and found that photosynthetic pigments may peak in absorbance in the blue for some star types, and red-orange and near-infrared for others. Their results also suggest that, under water, organisms would still be able to survive ultraviolet flares from young M stars and acquire adequate light for growth - which greatly increases the scope for habitability in these systems.
Habitability of Planets Around M Dwarf Stars
Multidisciplinary work from members of NAI's SETI Institute Team and a host of collaborators across the NAI re-examines what is known at present about the potential for a terrestrial planet forming within, or migrating into, the classic liquid–surface–water habitable zone close to an M dwarf star. Their new paper, published in the current issue of Astrobiology, presents the summary conclusions of an interdisciplinary workshop sponsored by NAI and convened at the SETI Institute in 2005.
PAH's Responsible for "Red Glow"
New work from NAI NASA Ames Research Center Team members and their colleagues published recently in PNAS suggests that the cause for much of the extended red emission, or ERE, is due to closed-shell cationic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, or PAH, dimers. Their work sheds light on the processes involved in carbonaceous dust evolution in the interstellar medium.
Astrobiology EPO, Undergrads, Grads, Postdocs
NAI Graduate Student Simulates Mars in the Utah Desert
Irene Schneider from NAI's Penn State Team is spending two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station in a simulated expedition to the Red Planet. The last of the 2006-2007 season's missions, the team's focus is "Emergency Preparedness” and includes simulation and protocol development for EVA (Extravehicular Activity) emergencies, radiation poisoning prevention, EVA radiation emergency protocols and an emergency air quantity/location study.
Learn more at: http://live.psu.edu/story/23541
2nd International Workshop: Exploring Mars and its Earth Analogues
June 19-23, 2007
Centro Congressi Panorama
Trento, Italy
The Italian Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency invite all interested researchers to attend the 2nd Workshop on Mars and its Terrestrial analogues. Activities related to Mars’s exploration are steadily increasing and new mission planning is in progress. This large effort involves scientists and engineers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as well as several other Countries
The comparative study of Mars and terrestrial analogues will provide a solid ground for the future exploration of the planet. Landers and rovers need a detailed analysis of the environments where they will operate. The detailed study of the Martian environment is of paramount importance and it is boosted by comparisons with suitable terrestrial environments and geological features. New stereo and high-resolution cameras, mapping spectrometers, and lander/rover missions are providing data from outcrops showing rocks and sedimentary structures.
In order to directly investigate the Martian analogues, a field trip to the Dolomites is being organized which will explore fluvial, shallow marine and evaporitic deposits of Permian and Triassic age. This field trip will demonstrate how to identify sedimentary processes and environments analogs of those that produced stratified rocks on Mars.
For more information: http://irsps.sci.unich.it/education/mars07/
