[meteorite-list] NASA Selects Science Teams for Astrobiology Institute

[Ron Baalke]

Sept. 5, 2012

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Karen Jenvey 
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 
650-604-4789 
karen.jenvey at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 12-307

NASA SELECTS SCIENCE TEAMS FOR ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA has awarded five-year grants totaling 
almost $40 million to five research teams to study the origin, 
evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. 

The newly selected teams are from the University of Washington; 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Wisconsin, 
Madison; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and University of 
Southern California. Average funding to the teams is almost $8 
million each. The interdisciplinary teams will become members of the 
NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), headquartered at NASA's Ames 
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. 

"These research teams join the NASA Astrobiology Institute at an 
exciting time for NASA's exploration programs," said John Grunsfeld, 
astronaut and associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate in Washington. "With the Curiosity rover preparing to 
investigate the potential habitability of Mars and the Kepler mission 
discovering planets outside our solar system, these research teams 
will help provide the critical interdisciplinary expertise needed to 
interpret data from these missions and plan future 
astrobiology-focused missions." 

The University of Washington's "Virtual Planetary Laboratory," led by 
Victoria Meadows, will integrate computer modeling with laboratory 
and field-work across a range of disciplines to extend knowledge of 
planetary habitability and astronomical biosignatures in support of 
NASA missions to study extrasolar planets. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology team, led by Roger Summons, 
will focus on how signs of life are preserved in ancient rocks on 
Earth, with a focus on the origin and evolution of complex life, and 
how this knowledge can be applied to studies of Mars using the 
Curiosity rover. 

The University of Wisconsin team, led by Clark Johnson, will study how 
to detect life in modern and ancient environments on Earth and other 
planetary bodies. 

The University of Illinois team, led by Nigel Goldenfeld, seeks to 
define a "universal biology," or fundamental principles underlying 
the origin and evolution of life anywhere, through an 
interdisciplinary study of how life began and evolved on Earth. 

The University of Southern California team, led by Jan Amend, will 
study life in the subsurface, a potentially habitable environment on 
other worlds. They will use field, laboratory, and modeling 
approaches to detect and characterize Earth's subsurface microbial 
life. 

"The intellectual scope of astrobiology is breathtaking, from 
understanding how our planet went from lifeless to living, to 
understanding how life has adapted to Earth's harshest environments, 
to exploring other worlds with the most advanced technologies to 
search for signs of life," NAI Director Carl Pilcher said. "The new 
teams cover that breadth of astrobiology, and by coming together in 
the NAI, they will make the connections between disciplines and 
organizations that stimulate fundamental scientific advances." 

These five new teams join 10 other teams led by the University of 
Hawaii; Arizona State University, Tempe; The Carnegie Institution of 
Washington; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.; 
Pennsylvania State University; Georgia Institute of Technology; and 
teams at Ames; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; 
and two teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 

For more information about the new teams, NAI, and NASA's astrobiology 
program, visit: 

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov 

-end-