NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Letter from the Director

The year just concluded, the Institute’s fifth, has been a year of milestones and accomplishments. The achievements, as in the past, are focused on both individual and collective efforts from our member researchers; their work, their publications, their contributions to the landscape of science.

And, once again, in their participation with initiatives either conceived by them and supported by NAI Central, or vice versa. The partnership between our distributed Teams and the centralized administrative directorate persists, and continues to generate productive results in a variety of endeavors that define and nurture the astrobiology community. I will...

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Project Reports

Organized by Astrobiology Roadmap Objective (2003 Version)

Goal 0:

• Objective 0.0: This activity does not fit one of the above categories (1 reports)

Goal 1: Understand the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the Universe

• Objective 1.1: Models of formation and evolution of habitable planets (38 reports)
• Objective 1.2: Indirect and direct astronomical observations of extrasolar habitable planets (13 reports)

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 (37 reports)
• Objective 2.2: Outer Solar System exploration (13 reports)

Goal 3: Understand how life originates from cosmic and planetary precursors

• Objective 3.1: Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts (22 reports)
• Objective 3.2: Origins and evolution of functional biomolecules (27 reports)
• Objective 3.3: Origins of energy transduction (4 reports)
• Objective 3.4: Origins of cellularity and protobiological systems (13 reports)

Goal 4: Understand how past life on Earth interacted with its changing planetary and Solar System environment

• Objective 4.1: Earth's early biosphere (59 reports)
• Objective 4.2: Foundations of complex life (38 reports)
• Objective 4.3: Effects of extraterrestrial events upon the biosphere (21 reports)

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

• Objective 5.1: Environment-dependent, molecular evolution in microorganisms (35 reports)
• Objective 5.2: Co-evolution of microbial communities (28 reports)
• Objective 5.3: Biochemical adaptation to extreme environments (37 reports)

Goal 6: Understand the principles that will shape the future of life, both on Earth and beyond

• Objective 6.1: Environmental changes and the cycling of elements by the biota, communities, and ecosystems (45 reports)
• Objective 6.2: Adaptation and evolution of life beyond Earth (18 reports)

Goal 7: Determine how to recognize signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth

• Objective 7.1: Biosignatures to be sought in Solar System materials (37 reports)
• Objective 7.2: Biosignatures to be sought in nearby planetary systems (30 reports)

Project Reports

Organized by Team

• Arizona State University
• Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Harvard University
• Johnson Space Center
• Marine Biological Laboratory
• Michigan State University
• NASA Ames Research Center
• Pennsylvania State University
• Scripps Research Institute
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Colorado, Boulder
• University of Rhode Island
• University of Washington
• Virtual Planetary Laboratory (JPL/CalTech)