Assessment of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (2008) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 5-16
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From page 5... ...
This disappointment reduced NASA's eagerness to fund follow-on missions to Mars or other major activities relating to the search for life beyond Earth. In 1996, exobiology experienced revitalization in the aftermath of an announcement claiming the discovery of evidence of past life in the martian meteorite ALH 84001, and the subject of exobiology began its transformation into the current-day field of astrobiology.
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From page 6... ...
While one of the instruments did seem to show a positive detection of life, 8 the other two life-detection instruments did not.9,10 Moreover, a fourth experiment revealed no sign of organic material in the samples of martian regolith analyzed.11 Scientists later demonstrated that the positive results from the single experiment likely resulted from abiotic processes related to the highly oxidizing nature of the martian surface material. 12 In the wake of Viking's failure to unambiguously detect biological activity or, even, organic compounds in the martian soil, the exobiology program experienced a decrease in political support.
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From page 7... ...
THE NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE The planning for NASA's Astrobiology program built on several parallel activities that had taken place earlier in the 1990s. As is mentioned above, NASA's long-standing Exobiology program had achieved much success by concentrating on the funding of activities that did not readily fit within the more rigid disciplinary boundaries favored by other funding agencies.
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From page 8... ...
Ames personnel soon began holding workshops and meetings to explore models for the best way to perform astrobiology and related multidisciplinary research. Meanwhile, Gerald Soffen, then the head of University Programs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and formerly the principal scientist on the Viking missions to Mars, independently developed a concept for an institute focusing on astrobiology.
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Most recently, the NAI's 2007 Director's Discretionary Fund competition emphasized a strategic impact on NASA's ability to achieve its goals, 33 especially in the areas of flight missions, cross-program synergies, collaborations with other funding agencies, and external partnerships. CURRENT STATUS OF NASA'S ASTROBIOLOGY PROGRAM NASA's Astrobiology program currently resides within the Planetary Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and consists of four different programmatic elements: • The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)
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From page 10... ...
The resulting report, Life in the Universe: An Assessment of U.S. and International Programs in Astrobiology, commented that "remarkable progress has been made over a short period of time in defining the key scientific questions, initiating research and training programs, and developing collaborations on a national and international scale."34 The report identified five issues that NASA needed to address in the near term to ensure the health of the Astrobiology program: 35
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The report expressed concern about the potential tendency to regard astrobiology as a private club whose membership is exclusively confined to those researchers affiliated with the NAI. • The "astro" in astrobiology.
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2.0 Explore for past or present habitable 2.1 Through orbital and surface missions, explore Mars for potentially habitable environments, prebiotic chemistry and environments, as evidenced by water or aqueous minerals. Study martian meteorites to signs of life elsewhere in the solar guide future Mars exploration.
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From page 13... ...
SOURCE: Excerpted from revised NASA Astrobiology Roadmap; see http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/. Despite the concerns about these five issues, the report concluded that NASA's Astrobiology program "is well poised to catalyze fundamentally important discoveries concerning the origins of life, its distribution in the cosmos, and the long-term fate of life on Earth."36 Now, 5 years after Life in the Universe was drafted, the first and fifth items above are no longer regarded as issues of general concern.
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From page 14... ...
39 These fundamental, astrobiology goals, enunciated by President Bush in 2004 as the science component of the Vision, figure prominently in NASA strategy planning documents.40 The most recent NRC comments on the role, scope, and status of NASA's Astrobiology program are made in An Assessment of Balance in NASA's Science Programs.41 This document makes the following points (p.
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Thus, the Astrobiology program enters its second decade with a major disconnect between the resources allocated to its execution and the important role ascribed to the program in NASA and NRC strategic plans. NOTES 1. See, for example, S.J.
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Sargent, et al., The Search for Origins: Findings of a Space Science Workshop, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., 1996. 19. For more information concerning the Astrobiology Roadmap see http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/.
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