Revised: May 2008

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.", Bill Watterson, The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

Is our Earth the only world that supports life? Until the dawn of the Space Age, we could never be sure. Although most astronomers of the last century knew that the Moon was uninhabitable, scientists were unwilling to rule out the possibility that aeons ago, the Moon may once have boasted an atmosphere and that the lunar seas were once as water-filled as our own. Venus' clouds were thought to have concealed anything from vast swamplands to oceans of carbonated water to arid deserts. Speculations regarding Mars ran anywhere from microbes to mighty civilizations, as the Red Planet tantalized Earthlings with faint details that sometimes appeared to resolve into a globe-spanning web of channels.

Fifty years later, humanity is no better off than when it started this game of galactic hide-and-go-seek. The game has expanded, and there are more contestants on the field. Although the Moon has been disqualified, Venus and Mars still hang on as potential contestants for being our nearest inhabited (or formerly inhabited) neighbors, despite Venus' broiling surface and Mars' frozen landscape. The Jovian worlds and their moons, especially Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus and Titan, have joined in as possible abodes for life. Meteorites and comets are laced with organic compounds, and the radio signatures of the basic building blocks of life have been detected in nebulae, the birthplaces of the stars. Astronomers have discovered dozens of worlds orbiting stars other than our Sun. Organic compounds have already been detected on one of them, HD 189733b, about sixty-three light years from Earth.

This pathfinder is a gathering of NASA reports and other resources on the exciting possibilities of astrobiology, the search for life on other worlds. All items are available at the Headquarters Library, except as noted. NASA Headquarters employees and contractors: call (358-0172) or email Library@hq.nasa.gov for information on borrowing or in-library use of any of these items. Members of the public, contact your Local Library for the availibilty of these items. NASA Headquarters employees can request additional materials or research on this topic. The Library welcomes your comments or suggestions about this webpage.

Technical Reports

Allen, Carlton C., and Dorothy Z. Oehler. "Sample return from Ancient Hydrothermal Springs", Ground Truth from Mars: Science Payoff, Albuquerque, NM, 21-23 April, 2008.

(20080013167: (2008) NTRS)

 

Bej, Asim K. "Identification and Characterization of Extremophile Microorganisms with Significance to Astrobiology", The 2002 NASA Faculty Fellowship Program Research Reports, NASA-CR-2003-212397, Huntsville, AL, April 2003.

(20030093599: (2005) NTRS)

 

Belz, Andrea P. and James A. Cutts. "Planning for planetary protection: challenges beyond Mars", IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, 4-11 March 2006.

(20060043980: (2006) NTRS)

 

Billingham, J. (ed.). Life in the Universe. NASA-CP-2156. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 1 Jan. 1982.

(19820013010: (2004) NASA History Office)

 

Black, David C. (ed.). Project Orion: A Design Study of a System for Detecting Extrasolar Planets. NASA-SP-436. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 1 Jan. 1980.

(19800018761: (2004) NASA History Office)

 

Dick, Steven J, and James E. Strick. The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology. LC-2004004037. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 2004.

(20050167071: (2004) NASD)

Note: This report is available to the general public as a book, published by the Rutgers University Press.

 

Fimmel, Richard O., William Swindell, and Eric Burgess. Pioneer Odyssey. NASA-SP-396. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1 Jan. 1977.

(19770021111: (2005) NASA History Office)

 

French, B.M., and S.P. Maran (eds.). A Meeting with the Universe: Science Discoveries from the Space Program. NASA-EP-177. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1 Jan. 1981.

(19820019321: (2004) NASA History Office)

Note: The sixth chapter of this report is an excellent introduction to many of the issues of astrobiology.

 

Gammon, R.H. Chemistry Between the Stars. NASA-EP-127. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1 Sept. 1976.

(19770009010: (2004) NTRS)

 

Hoover, Richard B. "Ratios of Biogenic Elements for Distinguishing Recent from Fossil Microorganisms", SPIE Optics and Photonics: Optical Engineering and Application, San Diego, CA, 26-30 Aug. 2007.

(20070037446: (2007) NTRS)

 

Landis, Geoffrey A. Astrobiology: The Case for Venus. NASA-TM-2003-212310. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, July 2003.

(20030067857: (2005) NTRS)

 

Meadows, Victoria. "Search for habitable worlds: how would we know one if we saw one?", International Science School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 7-18 July 2003.

(20060043778: (2006) NTRS)

 

Morrison, Philip, John Billingham, and John Wolfe (eds.). The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: SETI. NASA-SP-419. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 1 Jan. 1977.

(19780010828: (2004) NASA History Office)

 

Phillips, C.R. The Planetary Quarantine Program: Origins and Achievements. NASA-SP-4902. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1 Jan. 1974.

(19750006598: (2004) NASA History Office)

 

Pikuta, Elena V., and Richard B. Hoover. "Microbial Extremophiles in Evolutionary Aspect", SPIE Optics and Photonics: Optical Engineering and Application, San Diego, CA, 26-30 Aug. 2007.

(20070037445: (2007) NTRS)

 

Sellar, R. Glenn, Jack D. Farmer, Andrew Kieta, and Julie Huang. "Multispectral Microimager for Astrobiology", SPIE Optics and Photonics Symposium , Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology X, San Diego, CA, 13-17 Aug. 2006.

(20080013262: (2008) NTRS)

 

Werber, M. Objectives and Models of the Planetary Quarantine Program. NASA-SP-344. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1 Jan. 1975.

(19750017532: (2006) NTRS)

Internet Resources

Angrum, Andrea. Voyager Interstellar Mission. Golden Record. 29 Jan. 2008 [8 May 2008].

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html

 

Dunbar, Brian. Epoxi Mission. 22 Feb. 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/epoxi/index.html

Note: This is a follow-on mission using the Deep Impact probe's cameras to search for planets orbiting other stars.

 

__________. Mars. 17 April 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main/index.html

Note: This is the main portal for news of all of NASA's Mars probes.

 

Garber, Steve. SETI: The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. 22 Sept. 2003 [5 May 2008].

http://history.nasa.gov/seti.html

 

Jackson, Randal. Planetquest: Exoplanet Exploration. 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

 

Koch, David, and Alan Gould. Kepler Mission. 29 April 2008 [6 May 2008].

http://kepler.nasa.gov/

 

Rummel, John D. NASA Astrobiology Program. 5 May 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/

 

SETI Institute. 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://www.seti.org/

 

SETI League. 3 May 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://www.setileague.org/

 

SETI@home. 1 May 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

 

Wickramasinghe, N.C. Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology. 15 August 2007 [5 May 2008].

http://www.astrobiology.cf.ac.uk/

 

Williams, David R. Evidence of Ancient Martian Life in Meteorite ALH84001? 9 Jan. 2005 [5 May 2008].

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html

 

__________. Ice on Europa. 6 Jan. 2005 [5 May 2008].

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ice/ice_europa.html

 

Yu, Allan. Saturn's Moons. Enceladus. 28 March 2008 [5 May 2008].

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/moons/moonDetails.cfm?pageID=5

 

__________. Titan. 11 July 2007 [5 May 2008].

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?PageID=73