Astrobiology: Life in the Universe

NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)


  1. Now showing: All projects that addressed Astrobiology Roadmap Objective 2.1

  2. Roadmap Goal 2: Explore for past or present habitable environments, prebiotic chemistry and signs of life elsewhere in our Solar System

    Objective 2.1: Mars exploration

    Untitled

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1

    1. From Molecular Clouds to Habitable Planetary Systems

    TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1

    2. Extraterrestrial Materials: Origin and Evolution of Organic Matter and Water in the Solar System

    TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.1

    6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures

    TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    7. Astrobiotechnology

    TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 5.3, 6.2, 7.1

    Abiotic Nitrogen Cycling

    TEAM: SETI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 3.1

    Advancing Techniques for in situ Analysis of Complex Organics

    TEAM: GSFC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 7.1

    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

    Biological potential of Mars

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 3.1

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

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

    TEAM: GSFC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    Carbonate Lithologies on Devon Island, Canada

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.3

    Challenges for Coring Deep Permafrost on Earth and Mars: Drilling Project at High Lake, Nunavut, Canada

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

    Characterization of Aqueous Processes on Mars Through Spectral Remote Sensing

    TEAM: CAL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    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

    Early oceans on Mars

    TEAM: CAL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1

    Earthbound microbial and geological robotic based observations for Mars

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

    Evolution of the interior and its consequences for water on Mars

    TEAM: CAL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1

    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

    FMARS Long Duration Mission: a simulation of manned Mars exploration in an analogue environment, Devon Island, Canada

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.3

    Habitable Planets

    TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 4.3

    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

    Hydrodynamic Escape from Planetary Atmospheres

    TEAM: VPL-UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.1

    Ice Ages on Mars

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    Ice at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    Icelandic subglacial lakes

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

    Iron, the Oxygen Transition, UV Shielding, and Photosynthesis

    TEAM: SETI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    Isotopic fingerprints of past life and surface conditions on Mars

    TEAM: CAL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 7.1

    Isotopic Signatures of Methane and Higher Hydrocarbon Gases from Precambrian Shield Sites: A Model for Abiogenic Polymerization of Hydrocarbons

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    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

    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 pyrite oxidation in nature and the lab: sulfate mineral biosignature investigation

    TEAM: UWIS / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1, 7.1

    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 Signatures of Life on the Edge (DDF project)

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

    Origin and Evolution of Organics

    TEAM: GSFC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.1

    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

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.4, 4.3, 7.1, 7.2

    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

    Recognition of Theoretical Environments on Mars

    TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 7.1

    Research Activities in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory

    TEAM: GSFC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 7.1

    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

    Sleeping through the Arctic Martian Sol

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    Stability of methane hydrates in the presence of high salinity brines on Mars

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 7.1, 7.2

    TES study of intracrater low albedo deposits, Amazonis Planitia, Mars

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

    The Diversity of the Original Prebiotic Soup: Re-Analyzing the Original Miller-Urey Spark Discharge Experiments

    TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 6.2, 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

    Training for Oxygen: Peroxy in Rocks, Early Life and the Evolution of the Atmosphere

    TEAM: SETI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 7.2

    Understanding the Microbial Ecology of Geologically-based Chemolithoautotrophic Communities

    TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1

    Water on Mars

    TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

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  • 2003
  • 2004
  • 2005
  • 2006
  • 2007
  • 2008

  • Change the project list by adding or removing a roadmap objective. Click an objective to add, click the [x] to remove.

  • 1.1 Models of formation and evolution of habitable planets
  • 1.2 Indirect and direct astronomical observations of extrasolar habitable planets
  • 2.1 [x]
  • 2.2 Outer Solar System exploration
  • 3.1 Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts
  • 3.2 Origins and evolution of functional biomolecules
  • 3.3 Origins of energy transduction
  • 3.4 Origins of cellularity and protobiological systems
  • 4.1 Earth's early biosphere
  • 4.2 Foundations of complex life
  • 5.1 Environment-dependent, molecular evolution in microorganisms
  • 5.2 Co-evolution of microbial communities
  • 5.3 Biochemical adaptation to extreme environments
  • 6.1 Environmental changes and the cycling of elements by the biota, communities, and ecosystems
  • 6.2 Adaptation and evolution of life beyond Earth
  • 7.1 Biosignatures to be sought in Solar System materials
  • 7.2 Biosignatures to be sought in nearby planetary systems

  • Change the project list by adding or removing a team. Click a team to add, click the [x] to remove.

  • Carnegie Institution of Washington
  • Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Marine Biological Laboratory
  • NASA Ames Research Center
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • SETI Institute
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • University of Hawaii
  • University of Wisconsin
  • VPL at University of Washington