The Astrobiology Workshop held at Ames Research Center on September 9-11 was by all accounts a resounding success, bringing together life scientists and space scientists for a truly interdisciplinary sharing of ideas related to life in the universe.

• Attendance was 250 on the first day, filling the available room. The smaller workshop held on the next two days was nominally restricted to about 100 invitees, but in fact it attracted an overflow crowd, with all seats filled most of the time and additional people sitting on the stairs or standing at the back of the room. Peak attendance was actually reached during the final afternoon.

• The meeting attracted a number of leading scientists, including two Nobel laureates. It was broadly interdisciplinary in attendance, with the following breakdown of the invited participants:
  • Astronomers and physicists: 23

  • Earth and planetary scientists: 37

  • Life scientists: 38

• Many participants stated that this was the most informative meeting they had attended in years, and that they were surprised and impressed to see the recent advances in fields outside their own.

• There was a consensus that "astrobiology" made sense, and that there are many opportunities for interdisciplinary work that often "fall through the cracks" between traditional disciplines.

• My own summary of conclusions about future research opportunities include:

• There is a cross-cutting need to focus more research on the microbial world, in areas that range from origin of life to evolutionary biology to understanding the Earth's ecosystems. These studies should include the "extremophiles" living in extreme environments.

• To properly interpret the record of martian climate and ancient life as provided by martian meteorites and (later) returned samples, we must carry out parallel studies of ancient terrestrial rocks and the history they preserve of life on our own planet.

• We remain profoundly ignorant concerning many long-term effects of microgravity, partial gravity, and space radiation on living systems. Research support and facilities must be provided in these areas to validate any plans for human missions to Mars or efforts to establish self-sufficient bases there. There is special concern that the scientific potential of the Space Station for basic research not be compromised.

• Issues of planetary protection and of the past and present exchange of materials between Mars and Earth are critical to support any Mars exploration program that includes sample return or human flights. We have both scientific and ethical responsibility to better understand the implications of any contact between terrestrial and martian ecosystems.

• Recent discoveries have shown that there are many pathways to the formation of planetary systems, stimulating new approaches to understanding star and planet formation. As new data confront the theories, we can expect an explosion in understanding of the origin and evolution of planets, especially habitable planets around other stars.

• Mars exploration is a powerful integrating principle to focus many areas of astrobiology, ranging from the origin of life to planetary evolution to human adaptation to space flight, and astrobiology should be an essential element of plans for both human and robotic exploration of Mars.

David Morrison, ARC Director of Space
12 September 1996

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