Astrobiology: Life in the Universe

NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)


  1. Now showing: Years 2003, 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

    5. Life in Extreme Environments

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1, 5.1, 5.3, 6.2, 7.1

    6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    7. Astrobiotechnology

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 5.3, 6.2, 7.1

    A timescale for the evolution of life on Earth - Hedges

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2, 2.1, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1, 7.2

    A timescale for the evolution of life on Earth - Nei

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2, 2.1, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1, 7.2

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

    Year: 2008 / 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.

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Bacterial Adaptation to Low Temperatures

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Benner - Self-Reproducing Molecular Systems and Darwinian Chemistry

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: SRI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2

    Biogeochemistry of the Early Earth

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 3.1, 4.1, 4.3, 5.2, 5.3, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2

    Biological Studies of Hydrothermal Systems

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1

    Causes and consequences of the diversification and tetinction of metazoans: Neoproterozoic variations - Arthur

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Chemistry and biology of ultramafic-hosted alkaline springs

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3, 7.2

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

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Diversity and physiology of prokaryotes in selected thermophilic and mesophilic environments that might resemble early Earth's biosphere<BR>

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

    Early Microbial Ecosystems

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    Earthbound microbial and geological robotic based observations for Mars

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CAL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 5.1, 5.3

    Ecological genomics

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Ecology of a Hawaiian lava cave microbial mat

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.3, 6.1, 7.2

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.3

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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.2

    Enzymes of Ancient Metabolic Pathways

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2

    Eukaryotic origins and the evolution of cellular complexity - Eukaryotic rRNA evolution: early diverging eukaryotes

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

    Evolution in microbe-based ecosystems: Desert springs as analogues for the early development and stabilization of ecological systems

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: ASU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1

    Evolution of atmospheric O2, climate, and biosphere - Ohmoto

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 4.1, 4.3, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    Evolution of biocomplexity from an ancient autotrophic lineage

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.3, 6.1

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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1

    First-Stage Biofilm Formation Under Extreme Conditions in Ice

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.2

    Functional Genomics of Thioredoxins in Halobacterium sp. NRC-1

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.3

    Genomic and Proteomic Analysis of Permafrost Bacteria

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Genomic Evolution and the Tree of Life

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: UCLA / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 3.4, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

    Genomics of sulfidic cave extremophiles (Supplement to NNA04CC06A)

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    GEOPULSE

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.2

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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1

    Hyperthermophiles of the hydrothermal vent subsurface: limits of life and extraterrestrial analogs

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Icelandic subglacial lakes

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Identifying microbial life at crustal rock-water interfaces

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.2

    Indigenous Bacteria of Arctic and Antarctic Permafrost

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.3, 6.1

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3, 6.2

    Isolation of psychrophilic microorganisms

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.4, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2

    Isotopic and molecular approaches to microbial ecology and biogeochemistry (The evolution of organic matter) <BR>

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: HAR / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    Laboratory Microbial Simulations: Astrobiological Signatures

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Life Beyond the Planet of Origin

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3, 6.2

    Mars Forward Contamination Studies Utilizing a Mars Environmental Simulation Chamber

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: UH / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Microbe-mineral interactions

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1

    Microbial Communities and Activities in the Deep Marine Subsurface

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Microbial diversity of a hypersaline microbial mat

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 3.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.2

    Microbial Mat Communities

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Modeling Early Earth Environments

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

    Molecular Signatures of Life on the Edge (DDF project)

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: PSU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1

    Molecular Survey of Microbial Diversity in Hypersaline Ecosystems, Ecogenomics

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: CUB / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    Organic Molecules as Biosignatures

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: JPL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 2.2, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1

    Physiological Regulation of Cytosolic pH in Eukaryotic Acidophiles

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: MBL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 5.1, 5.3, 6.2

    Planetary Habitability

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: IPTAI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 5.3, 7.1

    Sediment-buried basement deep biosphere

    Year: 2008 / 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

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: VPL-UW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

    Subsurface Biospheres

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: URI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.3

    Sulfur biogeochemistry of the Early Earth

    Year: 2008 / 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 Evolution of Desiccation Tolerance in Cyanobacteria

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.3

    The Evolutionary Connection between Photosynthesis and Nitrogen Fixation

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: ASU / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

    The High Lakes Project (HLP)

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: SETI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 2.1, 4.1, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1

    The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution Subproject: The Proterozoic Oxidiation of the Earth's Surface<BR>

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: HAR / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.3, 6.1

    The Virtual Planetary Laboratory - The Life Modules

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: VPL / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1, 4.1, 5.3, 6.1, 7.2

    Theoretical Studies of Hydrothermal Synthesis Reactions

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: CIW / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2, 5.1, 5.3, 6.1

    Using functional genomics to infer the biology and chemistry of the Last Common Ancestor

    Year: 2003 / TEAM: SRI / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.3

Change your results

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

  • 2003 [x]
  • 2004
  • 2005
  • 2006
  • 2007
  • 2008 [x]

  • 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 Mars exploration
  • 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 [x]
  • 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.

  • Arizona State University
  • Carnegie Institution of Washington
  • Harvard University
  • Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Marine Biological Laboratory
  • Michigan State University
  • NASA Ames Research Center
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • SETI Institute
  • Scripps Research Institute
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • University of Hawaii
  • University of Rhode Island
  • University of Washington
  • VPL at University of Washington
  • Virtual Planetary Laboratory (JPL/CalTech)