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Projects
New Habitability
of Exoplanets Research Group (HERG) |
| Project Leader: D Schulze-Makuch |
BOLD Mission to Mars |
| Project Leader: D. Schulze-Makuch |
Mars: Hydrothermal Fluids and the Search for Biomarkers |
| Project Leader: C. Fan |
Modeling the Rise of Cyanobacteria in Earth’s early History |
| Project Leader: J. Wu |
Pavilion Lake Research Project, Canada |
| Project Leader: D. Lim |
Pitch Lake Project, a Natural Asphalt Lake in Trinidad and Tobago |
| Project Leader: D. Schulze-Makuch |
TANDEM Mission to Titan and Enceladus |
| Project Leader: A. Coustenis |
Study of Mission Concepts in Collaboration with
the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at Caltech |
| Project Leader: W. Fink |
News
Strategy paper for Astrobiological Exploration
Investigators: Bob Shapiro and Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Reference: Shapiro, R.S. and Schulze-Makuch, D. (2009) The search
for alien life in our solar system: strategies and priorities. Astrobiology,
vol. 9, no. 4, 335-343.
Abstract:
With the assumption that future attempts to explore our Solar System
for life will be limited by economic constraints, we have formulated a series
of principles to guide future searches: (1) the discovery of life that has originated
independently of our own would have greater significance than evidence for panspermia;
(2) an unambiguous identification of living beings (or the fully preserved, intact
remains of such beings) is more desirable than the discovery of markers or fossils
that would inform us of the presence of life but not its
composition; (3) we should initially seek carbon-based life that employs a set
of monomers and polymers substantially different than our own, which would effectively
balance the need for ease of detection with that of establishing a separate origin;
(4) a ‘‘follow-the-carbon’’ strategy
appears optimal for locating such alternative
carbon-based life. In following this agenda, we judge that an intensive investigation
of a small number of bodies in our Solar
System is more likely to succeed than a broad-based survey of a great number
of worlds. Our priority for investigation is (1) Titan, (2) Mars, (3) Europa.
Titan displays a rich organic chemistry and offers several alternative possibilities
for the discovery of extant life or the early stages that lead to life. Mars
has already been subjected to considerable study through landers and orbiters.
Although only small amounts of methane testify to the inventory of reduced carbon
on the planet, a number of other indicators suggest that the presence of microbial
life is a possibility. Care will be needed, of course, to distinguish indigenous
life from that which may have spread by panspermia. Europa appears to contain
a subsurface ocean with the possibility of hydrothermal vents as an energy source.
Its inventory of organic carbon is not yet known.
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Associated Scientists |
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Directions/Contacts
| Physical Location: | Webster Hall 1132 (currently) Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164, USA Tel.: (509)-335-4812 (Carol Turse) or Dirk Schulze-Makuch (509)-335-1180 |
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