Astrobiology: Life in the Universe

NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)


  1. Now showing: Year 2008 projects that addressed Astrobiology Roadmap Objective 5.3

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

    Objective 5.3: Biochemical adaptation to extreme environments

    Amino Acid Preservation in Saline-Lake Sediments and Mars-Simulant Regolith

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.3, 7.1

    Application of U-tube and fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor to characterize the chemical and physical properties of a deep permafrost and sub-permafrost environment at High Lake, Nunavut, Canada.

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Chemistry and biology of ultramafic-hosted alkaline springs

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3, 7.2

    DDF: Geomicrobiology of a Unique Ice-Sulfur Spring Ecosystem in the High Arctic

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    Design, construction and testing of a Cavity-Ring Down Spectrometer for determination of the concentration and isotopic composition of methane

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 3.3, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2

    Earthbound microbial and geological robotic based observations for Mars

    TEAM: CAL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 5.1, 5.3

    Ecology of a Hawaiian lava cave microbial mat

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.3

    Environmental genomics reveals a single species ecosystem deep within the Earth.

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.2

    Examination of the Microbial Diversity Found in Ice Cores (Brenchley)

    TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1

    Functional Genomics of Thioredoxins in Halobacterium sp. NRC-1

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.3

    Genomics of sulfidic cave extremophiles (Supplement to NNA04CC06A)

    TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    High Lake Gossan deposit: An Arctic analogue for ancient Martian surficial processes?

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1

    Icelandic subglacial lakes

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Identifying microbial life at crustal rock-water interfaces

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.2

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3, 6.2

    Laboratory Microbial Simulations: Astrobiological Signatures

    TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Mars Forward Contamination Studies Utilizing a Mars Environmental Simulation Chamber

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 3.2, 3.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1

    Mechanisms of Marine Microbial Community Structuring

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Microbial Communities and Activities in the Deep Marine Subsurface

    TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2

    Microbial Communities in Subpermafrost saline fracture water at the Lupin Au Mine, Nunavut, Canada

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Microbial diversity of a hypersaline microbial mat

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 3.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.2

    Modeling Early Earth Environments

    TEAM: VPL-UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.2

    Molecular and Isotopic Microbial Community Analysis of Deep Subsurface Sediments

    TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Molecular Signatures of Life on the Edge (DDF project)

    TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Planetary Habitability

    TEAM: VPL-UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 4.1, 5.3, 6.1, 7.2

    Planetary-Scale Transition from Abiotic to Biotic Nitrogen Cycle

    TEAM: SETI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Radiolytic oxidation of sulfide minerals as a source of sulfate and hydrogen to sustain microbial metabolism

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.3, 4.1, 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Saline Lakes and Gypsum Dunes in the Rio Grande Rift System as Analogues for Sulfate Deposits on Mars

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.3, 7.1

    Sediment-buried basement deep biosphere

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 3.3, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2

    Stromatolites in the Desert: Analogs to Other Worlds

    TEAM: VPL-UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

    Sulfur biogeochemistry of the Early Earth

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 1.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    The High Lakes Project (HLP)

    TEAM: SETI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 4.1, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1