Keith’s note: The NASA Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) is underway from 11-13 June at Cornell University. Yet there is no mention of this event at the official NASA Astrobiology website or its event page; at its 827,000+ follower Twitter feed @NASAAstroBio; at the NASA Science Mission Directorate webpage; The NASA STEM Education webpage; NASA+ scheduled events webpage; or even the Cornell University webpage. No email about links was sent out to the NASA Astrobiology mailing list or media. Here is the official AbGradCon webpage. Here are the live webcast links via the NASA Astrobiology YouTube page (that they tell no one about) starting at 9:00am EDT/1:00pm GMT each day: 11 Jun, 12 Jun, 13 Jun. Only NASA could take a subject as potentially profound as Astrobiology – the search for life elsewhere in the universe – and ignore even the most basic rudiments of outreach and public awareness. FWIW David Grinspoon and Lindsay Hayes I am not exactly sure who is in charge of outreach strategy for NASA’s Astrobiology program but they have failed miserably in this instance. Instead of offering access to students nationally – and globally – in what would be a wonderful exercise of soft power – NASA just sits on its hands. Someone needs to fix this.

Keith’s update: A month ago, on 2 May 2024, NASA Ames posted “Researchers Develop ‘Founding Document’ on Synthetic Cell Development“ which says “In a paper published recently in ACS Synthetic Biology, researchers outline the potential opportunities that synthetic cell development could unlock and what challenges lie ahead in this groundbreaking research. They also present a roadmap to inspire and guide innovation in this intriguing field.” When it was originally published at NASA.gov it had a link to “Building Synthetic Cells─From the Technology Infrastructure to Cellular Entities” (ACS Synth. Biol. 2024, 13, 4, 974–997 Publication Date: March 26, 2024) which, it would seem, was the ‘Founding Document’ that NASA wanted everyone to know about. Cool stuff. Thanks for the heads up NASA. But wait: the article that NASA points to is behind a pay wall. It is rather odd for NASA PAO to overtly promote this article as a ‘Founding Document’ – one that is apparently important (to NASA) – but then lets this important thing sit behind a paywall offsite. So I sent an email to NASA a month ago. They said they’d fix it. They then fixed it. Now the link is simply gone from the NASA.gov article and no hint is offered as to where it is or how to read it. A month later and there is still no link to the article or link to the text that is this ‘Founding Document’ By now NASA should be aware of various OSTP/OMB policies with regard to making taxpayer-funded research available. NASA has gotten better at this but apparently not everyone got that memo. So, will you please post the ‘Founding Document’ NASA – or make it openly available at its source?

Keith’s note: With regard to Mars Sample Return, Bill Nelson said today that “$11 billion for Mars Sample Return and waiting until the 2040s to get a sample back are both “unacceptable” … “What to do? I have asked staff to reach out via RFI to JPL, industry, to all NASA centers to report back this Fall an alternate plan that get samples back quicker and cheaper and stay within budget limits that Decadal Survey said we should.” More: NASA Sets Path to Return Mars Samples, Seeks Innovative Designs

Keith’s note: Although NASA did not sponsor research wherein tardigrade proteins were tested in human cells to see if they work and possibly influence human metabolism – someone did -and it worked. This emerged as the result of prior work into extremophiles. Tardigrades are a favorite extremeohpile amongst astrobiologists. They have even been studied on the International Space Station. Drug companies scour the world – sifting through soils, undersea creatures, and toxic waste dumps for interesting organisms that can provide new industrial processes or biomedical applications. One would hope that the people at NASA who do the whole Spinoffs thing every year would pay attention to things like this. Perhaps a little funding might be worth considering. NASA loves to talk about all the things ISS biomedical research can do for people back on Earth. Who knows maybe the notion of hibernating astronauts on long space missions could benefit. Last week NASA was crowing about the Biden Cancer Moonshot thing. Well, NASA Astrobiology research might also have similar spinoff benefits. But NASA won’t know unless it starts to poke around. Full release.

Keith’s note: In the ‘Star Trek Strange New Worlds’ Second Season episode “Under The Cloak of War” there are battle scenes that feature military base with a lot of tents. Those tents were bought by the production company from the manufacturer Heimplanet. By coincidence, astrobiologist, SCUBA explorer, and adventurer Dale Andersen had several of these tents at his base camp at Lake Untersee, Antarctica in 2023. One thing led to another and now Heimplanet has a blog post on Dale’s expedition and their tent referencing my Astrobiology.com website and Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Life imitating art imitating life etc. C’mon NASA SMD, you need to push the envelope a lot further as you tell the world about your various Astrobiology projects. Your outreach is paltry and boring. Full story: That Time Star Trek Tents Were Actually Used In Antarctica.

Keith’s 26 March 2024 note: 3 months ago I posted a note about the badly maintained Astrobiology program pages at NASA.gov. Among other things it was not clear who was in charge of NASA’s Astrobiology program, NASA SMD’s public-facing webpages seemed to be uninterested in even mentioning the word “astrobiology” much less sending you to places where you could learn about it, and NASA’s own search engine was not at all helpful and downright misleading. Since then couple of personnel-related things have been fixed but otherwise, if you want to understand what NASA is doing in Astrobiology, you should use Google instead. “Searching for life” in the universe is often cited by NASA – and is one of the most provocative things NASA does – with profound implications. Yet the agency seems to go out of its way to make sure all the existing research and potential stays out of date and hidden inside of badly designed and maintained websites. Go figure. Below is my earlier post with comments about the few things that have been fixed.

Keith’s note: I have been living with the image in my mind of the Pioneer plaques and Voyager Golden Records heading across the outer solar system and into interstellar space for half a century. To me, that was the most Carl Sagan – of Carl Sagan – ideas. All these years later – despite its Disco era origins – it transcends time well – which is exactly what you want a message to the inhabitants of another solar system to embody. Well, NASA just did something as cool – and in some ways even cooler. More at An Astrobiology Droid Asks And Answers ‘How Many Ways Can You Say Water’?

Keith’s note: Mars Sample Return, however well-intentioned and lauded by advisory committees, has been tossed around and modified and rescheduled so many times that it is no longer clear what it should do – or if it is even needed. It has always been somewhat gospel that NASA would not send human crews to Mars until a sample return mission had allowed the question of current life to be addressed. The current scenario has a Mars sample return to Earth in 2033 and (one would guess) basic findings a year later. A decade ago NASA talked about sending humans to Mars in the mid 2030s. Now it is the 2040s. Given the increasingly slow pace and out of control costs with which NASA develops human spaceflight capabilities, in order to meet a mid 2040s goal, basic mission design and hardware development needs to happen shortly after the sample comes back to Earth. Add in recent JPL layoffs, private plans by SpaceX et al to simply go there regardless of a sample return mission, and China’s plans to do sample return sooner than the U.S., and the entire NASA Mars Sample Return paradigm has become hopelessly clouded and conflicted. Given incredible advances in nanotechnology and genomics perhaps it is time to consider in situ life detection missions that actually look for life instead of sniffing around the edges. Here is what NASA OIG said the other day:

• The trajectory of the MSR Program’s life-cycle cost estimate, which has grown from $2.5 to $3 billion in July 2020, to $6.2 billion at KDP-B in September 2022, to an unofficial estimate of $7.4 billion as of June 2023 raises questions about the affordability of the Program. Characteristics intrinsic to big and complex missions like the MSR Program are hard to quantify in estimates but can drive project costs upwards throughout development. These include fully understanding the mission’s complexity, initial over-optimism, a less than optimal design/architecture, and the team’s ability to perform to expectations. When developing its cost and schedule estimate for KDP-C, and as the MSR Program addresses its architecture issues, Program management must consider these intrinsic characteristics and not attribute past cost growth to just the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, or supply chain issues.
• Additionally, MSR Program formulation is impacted by coordination challenges between NASA and ESA. While communication processes are formally documented and being followed, NASA and ESA are experiencing issues related to schedule transparency, asynchronous design progress, and mass allocation, which appear to stem from differing operational approaches, acquisition strategies, and agency funding mechanisms. The CCRS project team noted that significant progress has been made addressing interface issues between the two entities.
• The MSR Program recently acknowledged it likely cannot meet the life-cycle cost estimate and launch dates established at KDP-B. A September 2023 report by an Independent Review Board recommended the Program consider modifications to specific mission designs. Accordingly, it is critical that before the MSR Program is approved to proceed from formulation into development, viable alternatives to the Program’s mission architecture are considered—including mission launch and sample return alternatives—as well as the value of the samples returned, the Program’s schedule, life-cycle cost estimate, and the Agency’s historic leadership position in space exploration.

Keith’s note: I guess its nice that NASA’s Astrobiology program officially emails info about job openings – in Norway. It might be a little more appropriate to start sending out info on job openings – in the U.S. – for all the people being laid off at NASA JPL and NASA Goddard. Meanwhile at the official NASA Astrobiology website the top story is about a undergraduate fellowship with a due date of 2 February 2024 – almost 2 weeks ago. Why bother being accurate. Just sayin’

“The integration of biology and spacefaring has led to the development of three interrelated fields: Astrobiology, Bioastronautics, and Space Bioprocess Engineering. Astrobiology is concerned with the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, while Bioastronautics focuses on the effects of spaceflight on biological systems, including human physiology and psychology. Space Bioprocess Engineering, on the other hand, deals with the design, deployment, and management of biotechnology for human exploration. This paper highlights the unique contributions of each field and outlines opportunities for biologists to engage in these exciting avenues of research. By providing a clear overview of the major fields of biology and spacefaring, this paper serves as a valuable resource for scientists and researchers interested in exploring the integration of these disciplines.” More here: “Astrobiology, Bioastronautics, And Space Bioprocess Engineering: Domains Of Life Sciences In Spacefaring: What, Where, And How To Get Involved“

Keith’s note: On Saturday 27 January 2024, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy appeared on CNN with Christiane Amanpour. A variety of topics such as warfare in space, safety, going to the Moon etc. were discussed but the one topic that got the most air time was Astrobiology – the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Transcript of that portion of the interview plus a link to the entire video.

Keith’s note: I was on Deutsche Welle TV today talking about Astrobiology Mars, Europa Clipper, JWST, international cooperation, space stations, and the year ahead in space. [Audio]. What is always frustrating to me (and by now I unfortunately understand why) is how rarely NASA sends anyone to talk on TV – especially non-American TV – about space exploration in general – and talk about everything – human and robotic, Earth and Astrophysics, commercial and civilian – everything – that all nations and all companies and so many individuals are doing – in and about space. When tired NASA spokesmouths like Bill Nelson do get on TV its to repeat pre-prepared, non-controversial, and non-committal talking points that brag about some things but gloss over other things that are best left unmentioned since the answer is embarrassing or uncertain. The NASA talking heads stick to the official Artemis II launch in 2024 even though no one at NASA believes that is even remotely possible – much less lunar landings in 2025, 2026, 2027 … I was probably the only person on global TV – here or internationally – talking about space to a zillion people today – and probably the only one who tried to be inclusive and enthusiastic about everyone’s success and opportunities – and I am certain that I was the only person on TV saying the word “astrobiology” today. Really pathetic, NASA. Someone please prove me wrong. (sigh) I’ll be on another global network in a few days. Update: here’s the DW segment with an intro – and then my banter.

Keith’s note: Astrobiologists are often focused on how a planet’s life history shapes the life on it and how that life can, in turn, alter a planet’s life history. Life forms as small as cyanobacteria can totally alter the atmosphere. So can humans. As we deal with changes we have brought to our ecosphere these lessons have applicability. They also may suggest ways to mitigate the bad effects of human activity. Here is one example. We all got sick and stopped polluting as much – and the Earth “noticed”. Moreover, as we look to expand humanity to other worlds or giant space colonies some people talk about altering sterile locations to become habitable via terraforming. Yet again, the impact of the anthropocene on Earth has relevance. More information: Short Term Impact of Human Activity During the Anthropocene: The Corona Pandemic Reduced The Melting Of Himalayan Glaciers

Keith’s note: An earthling – Weevil (by Dix Balino) and Mars Droid Perseverance’s “Bit Carousel” (NASA JPL). What lifeforms on Earth seem to be “alien” and what will our first robotic emissaries look like as they search for life on the “alien” worlds we will visit? A preview. More information on this topic at Astrobiology.com

Keith’s note: This is a revised version of the original website that was first posted – from Antarctica – in 1996. As far as Dale Andersen (who is in Antarctica now doing Astrobiology research) and I know we ran one of the first – if not the first website updated FROM someone onsite in Antarctica. You might find out 1996 take on things interesting … Dale wrote: “We have radio telephones that allow us to contact McMurdo via several repeaters which have been placed in Taylor Valley. With this phone line we can send data via computer (e-mail, access the web etc.) at about 4800 baud. The signal is first sent to McMurdo, and is then forwarded by the servers there to Black Island (thirty miles to the west of McMurdo), and then uplinked by satellite back to the states where it enters into the Internet and ends up at Keith’s house in Virginia.“ and I said “When images have been placed on the remote FTP server, I use FTP to retrieve the images (usually from my home). I then manipulate the images into thumbnail and webpage – optimized versions with Adobe PhotoShop 4.0, link them to a webpage using World Wide Web Weaver 1.1, and then mount them on the Reston Communications webserver. My webserver is a Radius 81/110 Mac clone, with 40 Mb of RAM, running Webstar 2.0, connected to the Internet via a dedicated 128 kbps ISDN connection.” In other words this was sporty at the time but still rudimentary. Here are the pics. Oh yes – they got to hang out with Sir Edmund Hillary there.

Dale Andersen: “The weather at Lake Untersee has been rough lately. Following the test run of our tents with a small storm that rolled through last week with 70 mph winds, our team of 7 faced the might of a 105 mph (159 kph)blizzard at Lake Untersee over the last several days. Some tents were deliberately collapsed to avoid destruction, while others suffered damage in the storm. Yet, like the Phoenix rising from ashes, we rallied, and, piece by piece we resurrected our camp, a true display of teamwork and resilience in the face of nature’s challenges. #AntarcticaStrong #SciencePrevails – here is an audio recording of a typical night (last night) with winds hitting the tent walls.” See: Dale Andersen’s Astrobiology Antarctic Status Report: 15 November 2023: More Bad Weather At Lake Untersee.

Hi Keith, Yesterday here at Lake Untersee, we experienced a day of contrasting weather. It started off beautifully with plenty of sunshine and very little wind. The highlight of the day, our seasoned field team member, Birgit Sattler, rejoined us, arriving via a Twin Otter aircraft operated by Ultima-Antarctic Logistics and operated by the skilled Ken Borek pilots. The serene weather, however, took a dramatic turn in the afternoon. Winds began to surge, reaching gusts of over 70 mph. This sudden change in weather conditions led to the unfortunate loss of one of our North Face Dome tents. We acted swiftly during the ground blizzard that had formed to secure the tent and its contents by weighing it down with rocks. More

Dale Andersen: “We’re excited to embark on a journey of discovery at Lake Untersee, a mysterious and untouched gem nestled in the heart of Antarctica. Our mission is to unravel the secrets of this ancient lake and its surrounding oasis, where time-locked paleolake basins and permafrost hold clues to understanding our planet’s past and future. Join us as we delve into this fascinating world, where science meets adventure in one of […]

Keith’s note: I am making a totally unexpected – but still exciting – career pivot effective 30 October 2023. After more than 25 years today is my last day with SpaceRef – not by choice. So now I am technically unemployed or semi-retired. Either way I am now going to focus only on what interests me and nothing else. More to follow. Here’s a hint. True Star Trek fans should be able to piece this together from the pics above. If you comment – wrong answers only 😉 FYI: I have Dan Goldin, Gerry Soffen, Barry Blumberg, Jill Tarter – and so many others – and (of course) ALH84001 to thank for creating the field that I will be focusing the rest of my career on. NASAWatch.com will continue albeit in a much more focused form and Astrobiology.com will continue in a more expanded form while I re-engage (and finish) with my book on Astrobiology. There will probably be no TV things for me for a while as the news outlets are all covering pre-World War III preparations. Otherwise, I am just going to to look up – and beyond. Ad Astra y’all.