In collaboration with other European groups, they are investigating the effects of reactive compounds-such as ozone or hydrogen peroxide-radiation and freeze–thaw cycles on selected microbes. The chamber is about 40 cm in height and has a diameter of 36 cm, and can be refrigerated to about −60 ☌. This facility allows scientists to control abiotic parameters such as pressure, temperature, gas composition and radiation to simulate presumed Mars environmental conditions and study microbial responses. “The recent excitement over the possibility of finding organic molecules on Titan will be nothing compared with the thrill of finding Earth-like planets in orbit around stars in our solar neighbourhood.”īio-chamber at the Mars Simulation Laboratory of the University of Aarhus, Denmark. “As to the future prospects for astrobiology, they are sunny! The search for life beyond the Earth is a major driving force behind many current space programmes of ESA and NASA and, who knows, maybe the Indian and the Chinese space agencies too,” said Mark Brake, professor of science communication and Director of the Centre for Astronomy and Science Education at the University of Glamorgan, UK. Consequently, astrobiologists are realizing how much their research needs political protection and scientific advocacy.ĭismissing these dark clouds on the horizon, many scientists continue to endeavour enthusiastically. Bush announced plans to “gain a new foothold on the moon” ( Bush, 2004), NASA Administrator Michael Griffin proposed cutting astrobiology funding to half its 2005 level ( Lawler, 2007). NASA's total budget continues to shrink rapidly since its peak in 2005, and internal competition for funds is becoming tougher. Clearly, money will be a delicate issue for astrobiologists in the near future. After reading The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology, I came to the conclusion that one of the field's attractions was money-and lots of it” ( Bada, 2005). They point to the key problem that experimental evidence-at least, for extraterrestrial life-is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, thus making it a speculative rather than an observational science.Īs Jeffrey Bada from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (La Jolla, CA, USA) wrote, “cientific curiosity alone cannot explain the explosive growth of astrobiology.
By the same token, today's critics question whether astrobiology can really be considered a self-sufficient discipline or if it is just a trendy tag for biology and microbiology.
Despite growing attention, the field is still haunted by the curse that evolutionary biologist George Gaylord Simpson voiced more than 40 years ago: “his ‘science' has yet to demonstrate that its subject matter exists!” ( Simpson, 1964). Signs are accumulating, however, that astrobiology has finally reached the point at which its fate will be decided. The European Space Agency (ESA Paris, France) is working on life-seeking planetary missions, and the international Centro de Astrobiología, based in Madrid, Spain-the first non-US research centre to be associated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute-coordinates much of these research activities in Europe. Europe has also jumped on the astrobiology bandwagon-albeit with an obvious delay. Further augmenting the status of the discipline, NASA founded its Astrobiology Institute in 1997-with its headquarters at the Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, CA, USA) and nodes based at universities and research institutions around the USA-which is funded with a five-year budget. Shortly after its foundation in 1958, NASA inaugurated a robust research programme in the field, and money has generously flooded in ever since.
Shortly after its foundation in 1958, NASA inaugurated a robust research programme in the field, and money has generously flooded in ever sinceĭespite its distant focus, astrobiology is by no means neglected.
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