Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-3937
RELEASE: 07-108
NASA SELECTS NEW MEMBERS OF ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA is awarding five-year grants to four
research teams that will become new members of the NASA Astrobiology
Institute (NAI).
The new multidisciplinary teams are led by the University of
Wisconsin, Madison; the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena;
Montana State University, Bozeman; and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), Cambridge. For the first 18 months of research,
teams will receive $350,000 in funding. The five-year average grant
size is approximately $7 million per team.
"These teams have proposed exciting research that is complementary to
work being done by other NAI members," said NAI Director Carl
Pilcher, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "The
selection of these teams forms an excellent foundation for entering
the institute's second decade."
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and
future of life in the universe. In 1998, NASA founded the
Astrobiology Institute, a virtual research institution based at Ames,
to stimulate and support this multidisciplinary field of research and
education as part of NASA's overall science portfolio.
The University of Wisconsin team, headed by Clark Johnson, proposes to
study organic and mineralogical signatures and environments of life
on Earth and other planets. This team's work focuses on technologies
for the detection of microbial life from its subtle effects on rock
chemistry. These technologies will examine ancient rocks on Earth,
paving the way for eventual instruments to search for signatures of
life on Mars.
The California Institute of Technology team, led by Victoria Meadows,
will extend research done within the NAI from 2001 to 2006. This team
has developed a Virtual Planetary Laboratory to explore the
habitability and biosignatures of extrasolar, Earth-like planets.
These scientists use computer models of planets with different sizes,
temperatures and atmospheres to investigate how the presence of life
on such planets could be detected telescopically.
The Montana State University team is headed by John Peters. Its focus
is on the origin of life, investigating the role of iron-sulfide
compounds in the transition from the non-living to the living world.
This work will support the mission of NASA in the area of prebiotic
chemistry and the development of signatures for terrestrial and
extraterrestrial life.
Roger Summons leads the MIT team. The team will investigate
requirements for the development of multicellular life in Earth's
ancient past. They will concentrate on organic biosignatures
preserved in the rock record and the state of the Earth's early
atmosphere, and will investigate the critical genetic pathways that
constrained and supported early life while multicellularity
developed.
"Each of these teams brings something important to NASA's overall
portfolio in astrobiology, and to the future success of missions in
planetary science, astronomy and Earth science," said Colleen
Hartman, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington.
The addition of these new teams brings the membership of the NASA
Astrobiology Institute to 16, selected with staggered 5-year terms.
The astrobiology teams are widely distributed throughout nearly 150
universities and other research institutions, including numerous
international affiliates.
More than 500 research scientists work in these teams, and there is a
strong focus on public education and the training of the next
generation of astrobiologists. The basic research carried out in the
institute directly supports many NASA missions, such as exploration
of Mars and the search for planets around other stars, including
investigations of the habitability of other worlds.
For more information a bout the NASA Astrobiology Institute, visit:
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
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