NEWSFOCUS Astrobiology Fights for Its Life A decade after NASA pledged to create a robust program to find and understand life in the universe, researchers face a debilitating budget crunch and skepticism within their own agency

THESE SHOULD BE HEADY TIMES FOR tist on Mars exploration. Researchers are for astrobiology within the space agency and astrobiologists. Reports of recent liquid afraid that the field may go the way of the outside. And the new Congress, which water on Mars and organic matter in the far agency’s life and materials science effort, a includes a more powerful California delega- reaches of the solar system signal that the once-robust $1 billion program now virtually tion, is expected to go to bat for the field in fledgling discipline, which seeks to under- extinct as more pressing needs in the human upcoming budget battles with the White stand the nature of life in the universe, is space flight program have siphoned off funds. House. “We’re going to emerge from this in coming of age. Add an expanding roster of Those fears grew stronger last summer when an even stronger position,” insists Carl newly discovered extrasolar planets and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the Pilcher, the new NAI director. But others examples of life flourishing in extreme envi- Mars Society that astrobiology is marginal to aren’t so sanguine. “I feel a pang in my stom- ronments on Earth—amid the high ultra- the agency’s mission. The fiscal downturn has ach,” says Kenneth Nealson, a biologist at the violet of the Andes, in Australian radioactive meant staff cuts at the program’s centerpiece, University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Survival springs, and in granite formations deep the decade-old NASA Astrobiology Institute is going to be tough.” underground—and the research challenges (NAI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center, on seem boundless. “The field is not only the edge of Silicon Valley in Mountain View, Life mission promising,” says Steven D’Hondt, an ocean- California, and less money for the outside NASA has spent a half-century looking for ographer at the University of Rhode Island, scientists it supports. life beyond Earth. For most of that time, how- Kingston, who studies microbial life deep in New, politically savvy leaders in place at ever, the exercise was an afterthought to the ocean sediment. “It is productive and Ames, NAI, and NASA headquarters have agency’s main focus on space exploration. on March 12, 2012 extremely successful.” high hopes that they can make a better case That modest effort underwent a dramatic But don’t ask D’Hondt how astrobiology change in the mid-1990s, the same time is faring in his lab. He is turning away NASA’s sprawling Ames center—founded prospective graduate students because his on the eve of World War II to promote aero- support from NASA has dried up. D’Hondt’s nautical research—appeared to be on the colleagues have similar tales to tell. They are verge of closure. A team of senior NASA scrambling to find funds from other sources officials proposed a makeover for Ames that to cope with a 50% cut over the past 2 years would draw upon its existing small programs www.sciencemag.org in NASA’s support for astrobiology. in exobiology, the life sciences, and comput- “We’re in dark times now for astrobiology,” ing to focus on two core missions: computing says Michael Meyer, a former senior scientist Astrobionauts. Scott Hubbard (left) helped recruit and what was termed astrobiology. The idea for astrobiology and now NASA’s lead scien- Baruch Blumberg to beef up NAI’s research program. wowed then–NASA chief Daniel Goldin, Downloaded from

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Published by AAAS ASTROBIOLOGY | NEWSFOCUS who was eager to link up with the exploding biological revolution. Astrobiology’s Roller-Coaster Budget The makeover got a boost when scientists announced in 1996 that they had detected evi- dence of fossilized life in a martian meteorite found in Antarctica. With the backing of then–Vice President Al Gore, Goldin folded NAI and astrobiology funding as a whole into a larger package that included several ambitious Mars missions. He forecast a $100-million- a-year budget line for astrobiology that would help biologists, astronomers, geologists, chemists, and other researchers probe the nature of life on Earth and throughout the uni- verse. His vision had its critics—particularly among biologists—who groused that NASA was using the hype over the martian meteorite to jump on the biology bandwagon. But those concerns were given little credence by a White House, Congress, and NASA leadership intent on pursuing a field that had captured the public’s imagination. Befitting its nontraditional subject, the new NAI was designed to be a nontraditional Downward spiral. NASA’s increased focus on human exploration has meant less money for astrobiology institute. Its research, done by collabora- within an already tight science budget. tive teams from universities outside the on March 12, 2012 institute, would focus on the existence of would look like NSF [the National Science Blumberg, a Nobelist in medicine from Fox habitable planets and moons within the Foundation], and someone would challenge Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Penn- solar system, the origins of life on early its existence,” says physicist G. Scott Hubbard, sylvania, who played a critical role in devel- Earth, the limits of terrestrial life, and signa- NAI’s founding director and later chief of oping a vaccine for hepatitis B. The appoint- tures of life on extrasolar planets. Instead of Ames itself. He and others envisioned NAI ment satisfied Goldin’s demand to Hubbard having a large staff housed in one location, pursuing basic research while also taking a to find “a King Kong biologist” who would NAI would function as a “virtual” institute, lead role in proposing astrobiology instru- provide NAI with instant biological gravitas. employing a few civil servants who would ments that could fly on spacecraft. But that gravitas came at a price: Blum- www.sciencemag.org grow a cadre of experienced scientists work- In 1998, after a stiff competition, NAI berg had no experience with NASA or space ing arm in arm with NASA engineers to plan picked 11 university teams to receive approx- projects. “My understanding was that this future missions. “We knew that if we didn’t imately $1 million annually for 5 years. The was to be a basic science institute, and the keep a connection to missions, this thing next year, Hubbard was replaced by Baruch teams were selected and funded on that Downloaded from

Seeing red. The NASA Astrobiology Institute is making a small contribution to the planned Mars Science Laboratory but has little role in other NASA efforts to search for extraterrestrial life.

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basis,” Blumberg recalls. “Scientists were itive, 5-year grants hampers long-range plan- given broad direction” to pursue a host of top- ning. And government regulations preclude ics. And so they did, with projects on every- the teams from bidding on new NASA proj- thing from chemical evolution in the inter- ects because they are already collaborating stellar medium to biosynthetic pathways in with the agency. Their diversity would also living cells. The work was intended to lay the make it virtually impossible to settle on a sin- foundation for seeking signatures of life, says gle instrument, notes Bruce Runnegar, a Uni- Blumberg, an approach that he calls “very versity of California, Los Angeles, paleontol- mission-oriented.” ogist who served as a team member and then When Blumberg returned to Fox Chase in succeeded Blumberg. 2002, astrobiology at NASA appeared to be Distance learning. Ames biologist Lynn Rothschild Over time, NAI’s portfolio veered notice- thriving. The institute’s original $4 million hunts for extremophiles in an Australian pond. ably toward the study of extremophiles. That annual budget had grown to $25 million, the unintended shift—driven perhaps by the high number of NAI teams stood at 16, and some at the table when the relevant instruments quality of proposals it received in that area, 15% of the 150 senior scientists on those were chosen. Without their participation, NAI say scientists—was a boon to researchers, teams were members of the U.S. National had little direct impact on planning missions. who canvassed the globe to examine life that Academy of Sciences. NASA was also And missions are at the heart of NASA’s rea- could live off radioactivity from rocks in deep spending considerable sums on technologies son for being. Several university scientists mines, metabolize in subzero temperatures, to monitor life on other planets and for tradi- and NASA insiders give Blumberg credit for or thrive in highly alkaline or highly acidic tional exobiology, which focuses on prebiotic establishing an excellent research program, environments. “If you are looking for life on conditions for life in the universe. but they believe that his failure to pursue a Mars, Europa, or the outer planets, you have But astrobiology’s apparent good health solid role in future missions became the insti- to look at other kinds of energy sources,” says proved illusory. The gulf between NAI and tute’s Achilles’ heel. Andrew Knoll, a Harvard University paleo- the engineers who traditionally run NASA Others note that Blumberg and his succes- biologist who led one of the teams whose began to widen as the institute’s work sor labored under tough constraints. Space- work was not renewed. That makes work on diverged from the agency’s mission pipeline. craft projects can take a decade or two to com- organisms in mines on Earth relevant to the on March 12, 2012 “Engineers know what they’re going to build, plete, and the cost and technology needed to search for subsurface life on Mars, he notes. while basic scientists don’t know what they build specific instruments far exceed the But the emphasis on extremophiles also are going to find,” acknowledges Blumberg. means of a $60-million-a-year institute. Such widened the gap between the institute and Although many scientists associated with the instruments typically require the technical and NASA’s core mission. NASA continued to institute worked on missions to Mars and scientific muscle of a NASA center, aero- develop, launch, and gather data on missions other astrobiology-related flight projects, space corporation, or large research univer- to Mars, asteroids, Jupiter, and Saturn that NAI and its team members did not have a seat sity. Having its roster of scientists on compet- provided exciting data on the existence of www.sciencemag.org A strong foundation. Spain’s astrobiology center Union and the Spanish government provided a $20 million showcase has steady funding. for astrobiology, and the defense and education and science min- istries—along with the regional government of Madrid—supply a steady stream of operating funds. “We are independent and have suffi- cient funds,” says Director Juan-Pérez Mercader, ticking off a long list of ongoing projects. Although its budget and staff are a fraction of the size

of NAI and its university teams, the Madrid center is linked both to basic Downloaded from research in the lab and to specific European Space Agency missions, such as the ExoMars orbiter and rover planned for launch in 2013. It Rains in Spain and Wilts in Australia The same cannot be said for the 4-year-old Australian Centre for Astro- biology at Macquarie University in Sydney. The Australian institute also In a gleaming steel-and-glass building in Madrid surrounded by mani- was a beneficiary of the U.S. decision to develop the field. “We had a lot cured lawns, dozens of Spanish researchers are probing the hows, of encouragement from NAI and [its director] Baruch Blumberg,” says wheres, and whys of life in the universe. With an annual budget Director Malcolm Walter. With five scientists, 10 graduate students, and approaching $3 million, Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología is thriving. an annual budget of $1 million, the Australian center focuses primarily on Interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, and lab technicians are extremophile research. But a proposed 40% cut in government funding, working on a sophisticated laser that could sample elements in martian which Walter sees as a direct result of the NASA cuts, is likely to mean lay- soil as early as 2013, developing a drill system for detecting organisms offs. “When the U.S. sneezes, we get a cold,” he says. under the Red Planet’s surface later in that decade, and simulating in Some U.S. scientists worry that the Europeans are moving into astro- their labs Earth’s early conditions. Each project includes European or biology’s driver seat. “The center of gravity will shift to Europe, and we’ll American researchers from a host of institutions. lose leadership,” predicts Lynn Rothschild, a biologist at NASA Ames The center’s happy buzz of activity stands in stark contrast to the Research Center in Mountain View, California. Indeed, younger angst felt by its U.S. cousin, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) (see researchers may want to book a flight to Madrid. Spain’s center has just main text). Ironically, the creation of NAI spurred Spanish researchers to announced plans for a graduate student program, and as Mercader makes start their own institute in 1999. Construction grants from the European clear, “it is open to anyone who wants to come.” –A.L. PREVIOUS PAGE: NASA/JPL-CALTECH; NASA/AMES/TOM TROWER; SOURCE: NASA; CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): CENTRO DE ASTROBIOLOGÍA; NASA NASA/JPL-CALTECH; PREVIOUS PAGE:

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water and other conditions that might be space program, Rummel is a respected have spoken out against raiding the science favorable to life elsewhere. At the same time, agency insider. At the same time, Pilcher, a budget to pay for those projects. And some astronomers using both space-based and longtime NASA headquarters official, took members of the overwhelmingly Democra- ground-based telescopes detected extrasolar over as the institute’s fourth director. And his tic California delegation—including Repre- planets with increasing frequency. boss is Simon P. “Pete” Worden (see following sentative Anna Eshoo (D–CA), who repre- However, none of these missions—most story), who has big plans for Ames. sents the area around Ames and is a close of which were well under way when the insti- Rummel and Pilcher confront a worried ally of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tute was formed—include specific instru- batch of researchers as well as a shrinking (D–CA)—are aware and concerned about ments designed to test for life. That makes it pool of graduate students. “Plenty of people the fate of astrobiology. hard to judge NAI’s impact over the past are getting fed up with the lack of proposals In the meantime, scientists soldier on. decade. “What credit can the NAI take? I funded,” says Kevin Hand, a graduate student Thanks to an NSF grant, D’Hondt traveled to don’t have a good quantitative answer,” says at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Califor- the South Pacific last month to study deep-sea Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the nia. “People are doing other things ancillary microbes. But he is worried that the NASA University of Colorado, Boulder, and long- to astrobiology,” he notes, while they wait for cuts may inflict long-term damage to the field. time advocate of the field. And with the NASA to pump more money back into the “We won’t be able to produce the scientists exception of a contribution to the future Mars effort. And some researchers such as Nealson needed for future space missions,” he warns. Science Laboratory slated for a 2009 launch, are skeptical that the program can be redi- Not everyone is so pessimistic. Even if the the NASA astrobiology effort is not directly rected to make it more relevant to explo- institute becomes a victim of the current involved in upcoming missions. The Terres- ration-focused NASA. budgetary storm, many scientists think that trial Planet Finder, a good candidate for pick- There is a chance Congress may come to the field will survive. “Given the incredible ing up biological signals from extrasolar the rescue. Whereas Republican legislators nature of the questions posed by astrobiol- planets, has been put on indefinite hold, as regularly defended U.S. President George ogy,” says Hand, “I’d be doing this if I had to has a proposed Astrobiology Field Lab to W. Bush’s push for a new launcher and pick up dimes from the street.” Mars that could probe beneath the planet’s human exploration of the moon, Democrats –ANDREW LAWLER surface for hidden microbes. Its ambiguous contributions make astro- on March 12, 2012 biology tremendously vulnerable as NASA attempts to finish the space station, build a new launcher, and set up a base for humans on the moon—all without significant budget increases. Whereas space and earth sciences have formidable political allies, astrobiology so far has proved too small, too scattered, and too new to fight off budget threats. Griffin www.sciencemag.org has proposed cutting astrobiology funding in 2007 to half of its 2005 level, and NAI has repeatedly delayed its next team competition. Without a new round of winners, there will be no teams left by 2008. That decline runs counter to the conclu- sions of a May report from the National Academies’ National Research Council that Downloaded from called astrobiology “an outstanding example of the development of a successful new inter- disciplinary area” and recommended contin- ued robust funding. However, Griffin says that it’s not his job to nurture a fledgling field To Simon P. “Pete” Worden, NASA’s Ames Alabama. Weeks later, Ames lost another that won’t help him put humans on the moon. Research Center in Silicon Valley seemed like project when NASA headquarters decided Asked at an August meeting of the Mars Soci- the perfect beachhead from which to launch a that the rival Dryden Flight Center in southern ety about the impact of the cuts on astrobiol- retrograde campaign for a new generation of California was better able to hold down the ogy students, he retorted that “if they want to smaller, cheaper, faster scientific spacecraft. cost of readying the Stratospheric Observa- work for government money, they must look But the maverick astronomer and retired tory for Infrared Astronomy for flight later at what the government wants—not what they U.S. Air Force general had barely arrived as this decade. By the end of the summer, think it should want.” the center’s director last May when he Worden’s superiors shot down his bold pro- encountered unexpected fire. posal to incorporate smaller and cheaper New life The first blow was the transfer of responsi- probes into the fleet set to explore the lunar Despite Griffin’s skepticism, some scientists bility for developing lunar robotic orbiters and surface early in the next decade. expect astrobiology to survive and prosper. landers—the center’s key piece in U.S. Presi- Those three early setbacks haven’t Last fall, John Rummel took over as astro- dent George W. Bush’s human exploration deterred Worden, a self-proclaimed NASA biology chief at NASA headquarters. A effort announced 3 years ago—from Ames to basher who jokes that the agency’s initials

CREDIT: NASA/AMES/TOM TROWER CREDIT: biologist with a strong affinity for the human Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, stand for “Never a Straight Answer.” Instead,

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