CQR Search for Life on New Planets

Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. www.cqresearcher.com Search for Life On New Planets Are distant worlds habitable?

ith increasing frequency, scientists are finding evidence that planets and moons throughout the universe could be hospitable to life. W Nearly 1,800 planets orbiting stars other than the sun have been confirmed since 1995, including more than 700 in February alone. Scientists now conclude that the Milky Way galaxy alone contains a trillion planets, and many believe microbial life, if not intelligent life, exists beyond Earth. Still, finding extrater -

The Allen Telescope Array, in Northern California, is restrial life poses enormous challenges. Adequate instruments for now made up of 42 dishes that scan space for radio signals possibly sent by civilizations from distant observation and sufficient scientific understanding don’t yet exist to planets or moons. Initially funded by Microsoft co- founder Paul Allen, the privately operated array is envisioned to include 350 dishes when, and if, determine whether distant planets — or even potentially habitable funds are raised for its completion. moons in our own solar system — harbor life. Moreover, scientists are split on whether sending robots or humans to explore distant I THIS REPORT worlds is more effective. The biggest challenge for space science, N THE ISSUES ...... 531 however, may be Washington budget-cutting, which has made it dif - S BACKGROUND ...... 538 ficult to ensure stable, long-term funding for large scientific projects. I CHRONOLOGY ...... 539 D AT ISSUE ...... 545 E CQ Researcher • June 20, 2014 • www.cqresearcher.com CURRENT SITUATION ...... 546 Volume 24, Number 23 • Pages 529-552 OUTLOOK ...... 547 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 550 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 551 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

June 20, 2014 THE ISSUES Tally of Exoplanets Volume 24, Number 23 533 Rises to Nearly 1,800 MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri • Is complex life rare in the Scientists find hundreds of [email protected] 531 universe? distant planets each year. • Should the search for ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS: Maryann extraterrestrial life focus on Missions to Mars Haggerty, [email protected], 535 Kathy Koch , [email protected] Earthlike planets? Scientists have been studying • Should the search for life the “red” planet for more SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: rely on robotic missions? than 50 years. Thomas J. Colin [email protected] The Search for Habitable 537 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Brian Beary, BACKGROUND Planets Marcia Clemmitt, Sarah Glazer, Kenneth Jost, NASA lays out its goals for Reed Karaim, Peter Katel , Robert Kiener, exploration in coming Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks Scientific Groundwork decades. 538 The Cold War drove the SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis space race. Chronology EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Ethan McLeod 539 Key events since 1953. 542 Viking and After FACT CHECKERS: Eva P. Dasher, Unmanned craft have explored SETI Scientists Scan the Michelle Harris, Nancie Majkowski Mars and other planets. 540 Universe INTERN: Kaya Yurieff Private funds finance search New Hopes for intelligence. 544 Astrobiology drew increased interest as scientists discovered Planet Studies Give planets in other solar systems. 542 Earthlings a Cosmic Perspective An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CURRENT SITUATION “We’ve learned what we really don’t know.” VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: 546 Remarkable Discoveries At Issue: Michele Sordi NASA’s robots continue to find 545 Is asteroid retrieval a good planets that might harbor life. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONLINE LIBRARY AND step toward a human Mars REFERENCE PUBLISHING: mission? 547 Webb Telescope Problems Todd Baldwin Budget, timetable have Copyright © 2014 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - delayed other missions. FOR FURTHER RESEARCH lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. For More Information No part of this publication may be reproduced OUTLOOK 549 Organizations to contact. electronically or otherwise, without prior written permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis- Funding Perils 547 Bibliography sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of Washington budget battles 550 Selected sources used. federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. threaten science missions. The Next Step CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional 551 Additional articles . Quarterly Inc. SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- Citing CQ Researcher free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 4) Moons May Contain Water 551 532 Sample bibliography formats. (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. — and Life 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - Enceladus, Titan and Europa show promising signs. tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Re - searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Cover: SETI Institute Wash ing ton, DC 20037.

530 CQ Researcher Search for Life On New Planets BY MARCIA CLEMMITT

The increasingly frequent THE ISSUES discovery of evidence that many moons and planets could arlier this month, as - support at least microbial life tronomers announced touches one of humanity’s most E the discovery of a sur - persistent questions: Are we prise in the skies: the heav - alone in the universe? iest rocky planet ever ob - The public’s fascination with served — 17 times the mass life elsewhere in the universe of the Earth. Until now, sci - is clear “any time data or pic - entists had thought that all tures show signs of water,” says such massive planets would Linda Billings, a research pro - be made of gas or ice, like fessor at the George Washing - Jupiter and Neptune in our ton University School of Media solar system. and Public Affairs who fre - The new planet, though, quently has consulted for the has such a small diameter in National Aeronautics and Space relation to its mass that it Administration (NASA). “All the must consist mainly of dense headlines scream, ‘Life on Ence - rock, the researchers said. ladus!’ The public discussion Scientists currently think immediately turns to life.” life is more likely to devel - In some ways, that fascina - op on planets with hard sur - tion with life in space is un - faces, so the discovery “in - alloyed good news for NASA. creases the number of planets NASA science missions such k y out there which could be r as the Kepler space telescope, t S potentially habitable,” said re - launched in 2009 to search for d e search team member Dimitar T exoplanets, and the Cassini / L

Sasselov, a professor at the P Saturn orbiter, launched joint - J Harvard-Smithsonian Center / ly in 1997 with the European A S

for Astrophysics, in Cam - A Space Agency and Italy’s space

1 N bridge, Mass. Complex patterns cover the icy surface of Jupiter’s agency, are almost wholly re - The big, rocky planet, which moon Europa in an image created with data acquired by sponsible for the data and ob - is 560 light years away, circling NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s. Flyby NASA servations on which a current a star in the constellation Draco, missions since 2004 have shown that some moons flood of findings is based. is not the only such find to including Europa contain evidence of water and NASA essentially invented geologic activity, making them possibly habitable. make headlines recently. * Many scientists believe that microbial life, if not astrobiology — the interdis - The pace of discovery of intelligent beings, exists beyond Earth. ciplinary scientific field that confirmed exoplanets — studies the origin, nature, dis - planets orbiting stars other tribution and future of life than the sun — has greatly accelerated: In April, scientists reported spotting across the universe. Since its found - Of the almost 1,800 exoplanets found an Earth-sized planet orbiting at the ing in 1958, the agency has funded a since the first one was discovered in right distance from its star to have liquid sometimes- controversial group of sci - 1995, 715 were just added to the list water — another sign of potential habit - entists whose work has shaped the now- in February. 2 (See graph, p. 533. ) ability — in a solar system 490 light mainstream field. Today those efforts years away. 3 Other scientists found are paying off in new discoveries. evidence of a lake the size of Lake * A light year is a unit used for astronomical dis - But findings suggesting that life tances. One light year is the distance light can Superior under the ice near the south may exist in many more places than travel in a vacuum in one year — a little less pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, in - previously thought create their own than 6 trillion miles. The sun is about eight light creasing the chance that Enceladus too challenges. Scientists still have neither minutes from Earth. might harbor life. 4 adequate observational instruments nor

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 531 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

“We should allow ourselves . . . as Moons May Contain Water — and Life broadly as possible, to think of life as Moons once thought to be quiet and lifeless are now known to contain being as capable as possible, and get signs of water and geologic activity. Since 2004, flyby missions have some overall sense of how much hab - itable real estate might be out there,” captured images showing evidence of water in the atmospheres and said Tori Hoehler, a research scientist on the surfaces of Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiter’s at NASA’s Ames Research Center, i n moon Europa — the best candidate to support life. Mountain View, Calif. “But if we want . . . to narrow down to a place we Moons with could actually search for life, then we Geological ought to be fairly restrictive. In order Activity and to come up with an answer that’s going Evidence of to convince a lot of people, we’ll need Water to find a place where we can widely agree, ‘Yeah, these are signatures of life Name Enceladus Titan Europaas we . . . understand it.’ ” 6 Year Discovered 1789 1655 1610 Interest in planetary science and Mean Radius (miles) 157 1,600 970 astrobiology is widespread in the sci - ence community today, says James Kast - Planet Orbited Saturn Saturn Jupiter ing, a professor of geosciences at Penn - Source: “Enceladus: Overview,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration sylvania State University in State College (NASA), Aug. 12, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/mb6nm3r; “Titan: Overview,” NASA, and a former NASA research scientist. Feb. 28, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/89ky6rj; and “Europa: Overview,” NASA, May 6, “Until fairly recently, astronomers were 2014, http://tinyurl.com/yjhwpdp focused on cosmology, stars and black holes,” Kasting says. “Over the past 10 sufficient understanding to determine merly thought to be far outside the to 15 years, though, 30 or 40 percent whether distant, potentially habitable sun’s habitable zone have internal of the papers presented at the Ameri - exoplanets do in fact support life. Equal - heat and liquid water. In addition, the can Astronomical Society have been on ly daunting are technical challenges discovery of what are known as ex - exoplanets.” New observational instru - involved in searching for life on a tremophile microorganisms on Earth, ments designed to find planets explain moon of Jupiter or Saturn. Moreover, which survive in environments as cold much of the shift, he says. “Astronomers these challenges arise as the United as Antarctica and as dark as the deep - are basically interested in what they States still lacks consensus on a path est ocean trench and are nourished can see.” forward for NASA’s central and prici - by substances as strange as uranium Plaguing the entire enterprise of space est mission — human spaceflight — and crude oil, makes it clear that life science, however, is long-simmering un - and Washington’s budget-cutting makes adapts to more environments than certainty about what NASA’s key future it harder than ever to ensure long- once imagined. missions should be. Also in doubt is term stable funding for large science As a result, “I’m very optimistic about whether the country is willing to pay projects. 5 primitive life — microbes. They’re going the high cost of space exploration, es - The recent discoveries have renewed to be ubiquitous,” says Dan Werthimer, pecially human spaceflight, or, in fact, optimism about one thing: Microbial chief scientist at the SETI [Search for of big science generally. 7 life, at least, will someday be found Extraterrestrial Intelligence] Research A growing number of nations de - elsewhere. Center at the University of California, velop and fund or at least jointly par - Two decades ago, scientists be - Berkeley. “In 20 or 30 years we may ticipate in space science missions — lieved the Milky Way galaxy contained even find them in our own solar launches of vehicles, instruments and solar systems besides our own, but system.” other equipment, such as space tele - they had no proof. Thanks to new Even with a consensus that plenty scopes, and rovers such as Curiosity methods of detection and observa - of microbial life is out there, figuring on Mars. On the list are Russia, China, tion, though, the galaxy is now thought out how to find it remains difficult. Is Japan, several European nations — to have about a trillion planets. Mean - it better to concentrate the search on working individually and jointly as the while, findings within our own solar Earthlike planets or to search more European Space Agency (ESA) — Brazil, system indicate that several moons for - broadly? Scientists are of two minds. India and more. 8 Other nations, in -

532 CQ Researcher cluding South Africa, Chile and Aus - tralia, help to support large land-based Tally of Exoplanets Rises to Nearly 1,800 telescopes. 9 The first exoplanet — a planet orbiting a star other than the sun — NASA, however, has been the lead was detected in 1995. France’s CoRoT probe, launched in 2006, agency, worldwide, for funding and co - and NASA’s Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, reveal hundreds of ordinating much of the basic science exoplanets each year. NASA announced that Kepler had confirmed that underpins space missions, includ - ing development of new instruments 715 new planets in February, most of which NASA says belong to for observation, as well as of astro - solar systems much like our own. nomical and astrobiological theory. “No - (Number of Confirmed Exoplanets, 1995-2014 body else has such deep pockets — Exoplanets) (cumulative) $5 billion a year” for science, says Mar - 2,000 cia Smith, founder and editor of the * news and analysis website SpacePolicy 1,500 Online.com and former longtime aero - space specialist at the nonpartisan Con - 1,000 gressional Research Service. 500 “In Europe there was for a very long time a field called exobiology, 0 but it was not funded,” says Austrian- 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2014 bor n astrobiologist Pascale Ehrenfreund, NASA/ESA/L. Calcada * As of June 6, 2014 a research professor of space policy and international affairs at the Space Source: “Catalog — Confirmed — All Planets,” The Paris Observatory, updated June Policy Institute at George Washington 6, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/bwz8bzr. University. “In Europe we don’t have a funding space agency like NASA. that is uniquely compelling to justify interest in supporting NASA, says Roger ESA has 20 countries, and the coun - such investment and risk,” so if NASA Handberg, a professor of political sci - tries are responsible for the science. is to pursue human spaceflights for ence at the University of Central Flori - In some, you are able to get funding. exploration, it must be done for “in - da, in Orlando. Today, no similar mo - France has an astrobiology program. spirational and aspirational reasons,” tivation exists, he says. “You see that But ESA does not fund research. It such as the belief that it’s human des - in the fact that nobody cares about funds missions.” tiny to explore the solar system. the Chinese space program. People In the United States, when it comes The panel also noted that the Mars tried to start a race with them for a to envisioning the future of space sci - goal isn’t achievable, given current while. But nobody was interested.” ence, “there is a consensus in nation - Washington priorities, which work (China’s space-exploration goals in - al space policy, international coordi - against increased or even steady fund - clude placing a space station in low- nation groups and the public ing for NASA. If a Mars mission isn’t Earth orbit, landing humans on the imagination for Mars as a major goal “appropriately financed, it will not suc - moon and landing at least robot ex - for human space exploration,” says a ceed,” said the report. “Nor can it suc - plorers on Mars. 11 ) June report from the National Re - ceed without a sustained commitment Motivating taxpayers — and Con - search Council, a congressionally char - on the part of those who govern the gress — to spend large sums on space tered organization that assembles ex - nation — a commitment that does not exploration depends on a compelling perts to advise the nation on scientific change direction with succeeding answer to the question, “What are we and technical issues. Earth’s neighbor, electoral cycles.” 10 trying to accomplish?” says Roger Lau - which the report said was among the The goal of seeking knowledge and nius, a former NASA chief historian “small set of plausible goals for human inspiration has never been sufficient to who is an associate director of the space exploration,” has long tantalized get funding for the space program and Smithsonian Institution’s National Air those who seek to investigate space. is even less likely to be so today, some and Space Museum. Seeking knowl - The group was largely pessimistic longtime NASA observers say. edge about the universe likely isn’t an about the feasibility of a NASA-led Fierce competition with the Soviet adequate answer, he says. human Mars mission, though. First, Union during the Cold War was by The truly compelling answer is too there is “no single practical rationale far the most successful driver of U.S. far in the future to move most people,

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 533 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

Launius says. “It’s about colonization. Science. “Astronomers, wowed by the The development of intelligent life Everybody who’s been serious about sheer number of stars and planets such as humans is such an unlikely spaceflight has talked about going some - where life could possibly evolve, were event that it may be unique to Earth, where else and settling. But you’ll find generally the optimists. Biologists, im - said Ward. “Nervous systems and [the very little public talk from NASA about pressed by the arduous and perhaps brain’s large] mass require so much that. It isn’t imminent, and thus it’s not unique evolutionary journey of life on oxygen that it’s really a burden to the salient to the public.” Earth, were the pessimists.” 13 animal,” he said. So “you only get as The human fascination with ex - That planets are so numerous is a intelligent as you have to be.” Earth’s traterrestrial life might in itself be a less persuasive argument for the ubiq - top predators, “the big cats, the big compelling reason for many, though, uity of complex life than it seems, dogs, for 30 million years, they’ve been said former NASA Administrator some scientists argue. The character - very good” at finding food, demon - Daniel Goldin, founder and CEO of istics of many solar systems make for strating that human-style intelligence the San Diego computer software and environments in which it would be is seldom necessary for a species to hardware development company The very difficult for life to emerge or per - survive and thrive, he said. 18 Intellisis Corp. Asking people about sist, they say. But the universe simply includes their views of NASA and space ex - For one thing, many parts of space “too many throws of the biological ploration calls forth many answers and are likely inhospitable to the evolu - dice for technological life” to be ab - sometimes little passion, but “ask them tion of complex life, notes the Las sent everywhere except for one plan - about the search for life” and things Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope et, said Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of are different, Goldin said. “That affects Network, a California-based founda - astronomy at the University of Cali - their inner heart.” 12 tion that is developing a worldwide fornia, Berkeley, one of the first sci - As scientists consider the next steps network of telescopes for scientific entists to discover an exoplanet and in the search for extraterrestrial life, and educational purposes. 14 The cen - the discoverer of more than two-thirds and policymakers debate what they’re ter of the Milky Way galaxy, for ex - of the first 100 exoplanets identified. willing to pay for the quest, here are ample, is a violent and chaotic place, (“Technological life” forms, such as hu - some of the questions being asked: dense with, among other things, stars mans, develop and use technology.) undergoing supernova explosions — “It’s a foregone conclusion. The num - Is complex life rare in the uni - the universe’s most intense explosions, ber of suns is just too large.” 19 verse? caused when a star’s core becomes so Besides the huge number of chances Astrobiologists have little doubt that massive and dense from aging or other complex life has had to develop, ev - microorganisms such as bacteria are causes that it triggers a series of nu - idence now suggests that planetary fairly numerous in the universe. Chem - clear explosions. 15 Planets in that area conditions conducive to life may not ical experiments make clear that in - are so heavily bombarded with radi - need to be quite as specific as some organic chemicals that appear preva - ation that it’s unlikely that life could believe, other scientists say. lent among the stars can fairly easily survive long enough to evolve, the For example, the original concept of combine into the simple organic mol - foundation’s website points out. 16 a sun’s “habitability zone” declared that, ecules that make up life’s building Earth and its solar system have ad - given a star of a certain size and tem - blocks, such as proteins. The universe ditional peculiarities that could make perature, only planets within a fixed ra - is simply too large, with too many our planet a nearly unique site for dial distance from that sun would be planets — as many as a trillion in the complex life to evolve, some scientists warm enough for life to evolve. But that Milky Way galaxy alone — for this have hypothesized. idea was based on the Earth-centric idea process not to have occurred fairly For example, the gravitational pull that only solar heat could adequately often, scientists say. of Earth’s unusually large moon has warm a planet, “and now we’re find - When it comes to more complex helped to stabilize the tilt of the Earth’s ing that there are other mechanisms,” life forms such as humans, dogs, oc - orbit, creating a relatively steady cli - says Berkeley’s Werthimer. Some moons topuses or Venus flytraps, though, there mate and a regular rhythm of seasonal of huge Jupiter and Saturn — formerly is much more uncertainty. Scientific change that likely gave life a chance thought to be frozen worlds well out - debate began in earnest in the early to develop, said University of Wash - side the sun’s habitable zone — are 20th century and was fairly polarized, ington paleontologist Peter Ward and now known to have liquid water. The writes David Grinspoon, an astrobiol - astronomer Donald Brownlee in their gravitational pull of the planets they ogist and curator of astrobiology at book Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is orbit keeps the moons’ rocky cores in the Denver Museum of Nature and Uncommon in the Universe. 17 movement, generating warmth, he says.

534 CQ Researcher Missions to Mars

USSR USSR United States United States United States USSR United States United States United States United States Marsnik Sputnik 23: Mariner 4: Mariner 6 & 7: Mariner 9: Mars 2 & 3: Viking 1 & 2: Mars Observer: Mars Global Mars Pathfinder 1 & 2: Flyby; lost Flyby; obtained Flyby Orbiter; captured Orbiters/ Twin orbiters/ Orbiter; fuel Surveyor: & Sojourner: Flyby; contact first close-up missions; images of landers; landers; line ruptured Orbiter; Lander-rover; never 66 million images of Mars obtained Mars’ moons Phobos deployed collected soil three days provided collected reached miles from mass, radius, and Deimos; first-ever samples, took before entering highest-ever atmospheric, orbit Earth shape and learned rover on atmospheric orbit resolution weather and evi dence of topography and Mars, but readings and images of soil composi- carbon dioxide atmospheric dust storm created global Mars tion data in ice conditions destroyed it atlas of Mars

Oct. 10 Nov. 1, Nov. 28, 1964 Feb. 24 & May 30, 1971 May 19 & Aug. 20 & Sept. 25, Nov. 7, 1996 & 14, 1962 March 27, 28, 1971 Sept. 9, 1975 1992 Dec. 4, 1960 1969 Launch Dates 1996 April 7, June 2, June 10 & Aug. 12, Aug. 4, Nov. 26, Jan. 15, Nov. 5, Nov. 18, 2013 2001 2003 July 7, 2003 2005 2007 2011 2012 2013

United States European Space United States United States United States United States China & Russia India United States Odyssey: Agency Rovers Spirit & Reconnais- Phoenix: Lander; Curiosity: Phobos-Grunt Mars MAVEN: Orbiter; Express & Opportunity: sance: Orbiters; identified mineral Rover; & Yinghuo-1: Orbiter Orbiter; will located Beagle 2: Collected soil, searched for composition in investigating Combined Mission: study upper deposits of Orbiter; detected rock samples; evidence of soil hinting at climate, mission for India’s first atmosphere water beneath evidence of findings suggest past water with presence of environment, Chinese orbiter interplan- and climate surface, methane gas, past presence of camera and thawed water evidence of and Russian etary changes measured volcanic activity; water on Mars spectrometer; and potential water and soil collector; spacecraft radiation and lander crashed scouted future habitability human failed during mission communicated landing sites habitability launch Opportunity rover’s findings Source: “Missions to Mars,” The Planetary Society, undated, http://tinyurl.com/7tcpmr4 and “Historical Overview of Mars Exploration,” Historic Spacecraft, undated, http://tinyurl.com/75p675r

Intelligent, communicating life forms sion is healthy. We should be having the door for planets far outside the tra - also may be more common than some a good debate.” ditionally defined habitable zones to think, argues Grinspoon. “Some evo - host life, said Sara Seager, a professor lutionary biologists have argued that Should the search for extrater - of planetary science and physics at the intelligence in the universe must be restrial life focus on Earthlike Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 21 rare because there are no other ex - planets? A very massive planet, for example, amples on Earth” besides humans. But Because the only life we know of can hold onto a much wider atmos - “we discuss evolution as if it were a developed on Earth, odds of finding pheric shell than the rather thin gaseous done deal, for which we are provid - extraterrestrial life are likely highest on shell that surrounds Earth. If the at - ing the wrap-up commentary.” In fact, planets that share many of Earth’s mosphere of a large planet contains evolution on Earth is “an ongoing, un - characteristics, many scientists main - gases such as hydrogen that have a so- folding process” that might eventually tain. Others, however, point out that called greenhouse effect, then even at produce other intelligent, technological new evidence suggests that Earthlike a distance 10 times farther from its star species, he writes. 20 planets may not be the only or even than Earth is from the sun, the planet In short, “the split is just as big as the likeliest places for life to develop. might still be warm enough to develop ever” between scientists who believe The presence of liquid water facili - life, said Seager. (Greenhouse gases trap complex life may be somewhat com - tated development of life on Earth, bi - heat energy by allowing visible light mon and those who believe it’s prob - ologists say. Thus, scientists have long from a star to pass through easily but ably extremely rare or even confined surmised that habitable planets must be allowing little infrared radiation from the to planet Earth, says Penn State’s Kast - close enough to their stars for the stars’ planet’s surface to reflect back into space.) ing. No data settle the question, “so it’s heat to keep water in liquid form. Re - Even the conviction that a habit - a philosophical issue. But as long as cently, though, other heating mecha - able plant must be warm enough for there’s data coming in, all the discus - nisms have been discovered, opening liquid water may be too Earth-centric,

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 535 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

some scientists say. For the extra-large microfossils. It’s a little bit of an Earth- journeys, says George Washington’s molecules that make up living beings centric approach right now. Later on, Ehren freund. The task “of ferrying hu - to form out of smaller molecules, liq - we might branch out into something mans to another planet is very, very com - uid water functions as a medium and ri skier. But we look at what we under - plex. You have to look at the radiation a solvent to help those chemical re - stand,” she says. field, gravity and microgravity, the effects actions along. But while water clear - on the cardiovascular system, how bone ly has been vital to develop and sus - Should the search for life rely density changes. All kinds of things hap - tain life on Earth, “that is not necessarily on robotic missions? pen on such long journeys.” because water is this greatly wonder - When it comes to doing science in Human-spaceflight missions often ful solvent,” said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, our own solar system, there’s long been have been praised for their inspira - a professor at Washington State Uni - debate over whether to rely on cheap - tional value. versity’s School of Earth and Environ - er robotic missions that can fly today “Robotic missions are much cheap - mental Sciences, in Pullman. 22 or pricey human-spaceflight missions, er and may provide more scientific in - Water has its downsides — for in - which require many years of prepara - formation, but they don’t catch the stance, it expands as it freezes and tion but may have an inspirational value, public imagination in the same way, “tears up [the] cellular membranes” in at least, that robots can never match. and they don’t spread the human race the winter, Schulze-Makuch argued. “And “I love human exploration, and I into space, which . . . should be our life on Earth had no other choice than love the idea of humans to Mars,” said long-term strategy,” said renowned to adapt to water on our planet. If you Brent Sherwood, manager of the In - Cambridge University cosmologist and are on a very different planet with very novation Foundry at NASA’s Jet Propul - theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, different conditions, the result could sion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., which on NASA’s 50th anniversary in 2008 . 27 have been very different,” he said. 23 helps NASA researchers develop sci - (For comparison with the $2.5 bil - “We need to stop imposing our lim - ence missions. But flying humans to lion needed to put Curiosity on Mars, ited understanding [of habitability] on Mars would cost at least $100 billion the Apollo human-spaceflight program the rest of the universe,” said Seager . 24 over three to four decades, according in the 1960s and ’70s cost $109 bil - But focusing on Earthlike charac - to NASA estimates, and would accom - lion, in 2010 dollars. The Apollo pro - teristics in the search for life on exo - plish little besides depositing “six civil gram included six human moon land - planets is the only practical way to servants on another planet. . . . I think ings, for an average cost for achieving proceed, other scientists say. For ex - it may be judged in the grand arc of each landing mission of about $18 bil - ample, while life on some planets may modern history . . . as not worth it.” 25 lion, according to Canadian science exist entirely underground, the search Meanwhile, at a comparatively small writer Claude LaFleur. 28 ) for life on exoplanets will focus on cost of $2.5 billion, the Mars Science Some analysts dispute the idea that the surface, says Penn State’s Kasting. Laboratory (MSL) mission in August robotic exploration is more cost-effective. Studying a planet through telescopes 2012 landed the rover Curiosity — the Human explorers have several ad - provides information about the chem - most broadly capable robot rover so vantages over robots that create more ical composition of a planet’s atmos - far — on the “red” planet, Sherwood scientific bang for the buck, wrote Ian phere, which provides clues about said. And with NASA’s robotic explor - Crawford, a professor of planetary sci - whether surface life is present. “But ers becoming sturdier and more sci - ence and geology at Birkbeck, a part underground inhabitants wouldn’t entifically useful over the years, “the of the University of London system. change the atmosphere much” and thus humans are not going to be doing any - For one thing, humans travel much would be hard to detect, he says. thing close to the kind of science that more quickly over difficult terrain. For There’s very little certainty about we’re already doing robotically,” he said. example, Apollo 17 astronauts, who the best ways to look for signs of The United States should consider fo - landed on the moon in 1972, traveled extraterrestrial life, some scientists cusing NASA’s human-spaceflight pro - farther over the lunar surface in three point out. gram on other types of missions, such days than the Mars rover Opportuni - In robotic exploration within our as building a space-based solar-power ty traveled in eight years over the red own solar system, for example, “we’re system as a renewable energy source planet, he said. 29 looking for ourselves or for something for Earth, said Sherwood . 26 Human missions also return with similar,” says George Washington Uni - Robots will do the job for now, be - much more material from space for versity’s Ehrenfreund. “Our current in - cause much more technology devel - study, Crawford noted. Altogether, as - struments are looking for organic ma - opment and medical research are need - tronauts from the 1969-1972 manned terial. In the future we’ll look for ed to help humans make long space Continued on p. 538

536 CQ Researcher The Search for Habitable Planets NASA has laid out its goals for the coming decades of space exploration. Present Late 2010s 2020s 2030s Goals • Survey and complete • Determine hot/cold planets • Characterize planet-forming • Create maps of other Kepler’s census of • Identify habitable planets “disks” Earthlike planets “Earthlike,” nearby • Study planet-forming circles • Obtain full-disk images • Confirm surface water planets of cosmic dust and gases and range of other and identify possible • Capture images also known as “disks” and Earthlike planets life systems of the universe giant-planet atmospheres •Search for signs of • Measure prevalence of habitability and evidence potentially habitable planets of biological activity • Detect seasonal variations • Quantify dust in habitable zones • Study habitable-zone planets around red dwarf stars

Telescopes Kepler Wide-Field Infrared Large Ultraviolet Optical ExoEarth Mapper Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) Hubble Focused Telescope Assets (WFIRST-AFTA) Spitzer Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) James Webb Space Telescope Source: Chryssa Kouveliotou, et al. , “Enduring Quests, Daring Visions: NASA Astrophysics in the Next Three Decades,” NASA, December 2013, http://tinyurl.com/p6uweu9 Guide to NASA’s Telescopes Name Launch Description Hubble April 24, 1990 Space-based telescope; uses direct imaging to take pictures of stars and galaxies, as well as discover and characterize exoplanets. Spitzer Aug. 25, 2003 Uses infrared detectors to study stars, galaxies and planetary disks by detecting dust disks, considered an important part of planetary formation. Kepler March 7, 2009 Uses photometer to record data from groups of stars for three-and-a-half or more years; detects exoplanets passing in front of stars through changes in brightness in images. TESS 2017 Would use four wide-field cameras to detect exoplanets passing nearby stars and study their mass, size, density and orbit. James Webb 2018 Would use infrared cameras and sensors to study electromagnetic wavelengths, the Space history of the universe and the formation of solar systems that can support life. Telescope LUVOIR 2020s Would identify Earth-size and larger exoplanets, survey them for habitable conditions Surveyor and measure atmospheric conditions using ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared telescope . WFIRST Mid-2020s Would perform wide-field imaging and surveys capturing very minimal, distant light -AFTA sources of the near infrared sky, use microlensing and direct imaging to survey stars and exoplanets, and detect dark energy. ExoEarth Unknown Would combine images from a number of telescopes to produce maps, confirm surface Mapper water and identify possible life on distant Earthlike planets.

Sources: “What is the Hubble Space Telescope?” NASA, May 4, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/p8np9g8; “Kepler: A Search for Habitable Planets,” NASA, April 2, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/plvza27; “Spitzer Space Telescope,” NASA, July 30, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/m u8j68l; “WFIRST-AFTA: Wife-Field Infrared Survey Telescope,” NASA, May 30, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/k4ayn3l; “TESS — Transiting Exo- planet Survey Satellite,” NASA, undated, http://tinyurl.com/lss9dno; “About the Webb,” NASA, undated, http://tinyurl.com/pyxcp5 8.

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Continued from p. 536 Future Mars missions might consist Apollo missions brought back 382 kilo - of astronauts landing on a Martian grams, or 842 pounds, of lunar sam - moon, then tele-operating robots on BACKGROUND ples from more than 2,000 locations, the planet’s surface. Such an approach while the three sample-return missions could drastically cut costs, because in the Soviet Union’s 1959-1976 Luna about half the cost of manned plan - Scientific Groundwork robotic moon-exploration program etary missions comes from traveling brought back less than a pound. 30 into and back out of a planet’s gravi - ong before the Space Age, humans Today’s robots are highly capable tational field, Lester said. 32 L hoped to find signs of life elsewhere explorers, but when unforeseen cir - “The science community is very split” in the universe. Advancing science to cumstances arise, their reaction times on whether NASA science should focus the point of being able to recognize such a sign, however, has exercised the ingenuity of researchers across decades and scientific disciplines . 33 Hope has sometimes outrun sci - ence. In the late 19th century, Amer - ican astronomer Percival Lowell de - scribed observing straight-line surface markings on Mars through a telescope. The lines were canals, he declared, engineered by Martians to channel water to deserts. Many, including as - tronomers, were convinced. By the 1920s, though, better telescopes showed no lines, which were deemed an op - tical illusion caused by fuzzy images and wishful thinking. Despite some missteps, though, many 19th- and early 20th-century dis - coveries laid scientific groundwork for today’s search for extraterrestrial life. One such development in the early A

S 19th century was spectroscopy — analy - A

N sis of chemicals based on the unique Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot on the first moon landing spectrum that each element shows when mission, stands on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Part of the lunar module burning. In the 1860s, English as - is visible at left. Although scientists debate what NASA’s key future missions should be, there is widespread U.S. and international interest in Mars tronomer William Huggins’ spectroscopic as a major goal for human exploration. observations showed that stars con - tained the same chemical elements as are painfully slow, because it takes on smaller, cheaper missions that can the sun. With sun and stars made of several minutes for a signal to travel launch today or wait for big missions, identical building blocks, said Huggins, between a Mars rover and its Earth- says Penn State’s Kasting. “Personally, I his discovery provided the first exper - based handlers, said Daniel Lester, a see the intersection with manned imental evidence for the “hitherto . . . research fellow in astronomy at the spaceflight as key, but others see it as pure speculation” that there might be University of Texas, Austin. As both tremendously expensive and wasteful. “living beings” among the stars. 34 tele-operating technology and human- A lot of the younger folks feel that Understanding the most primitive spaceflight technologies improve, how - way. They want to see missions go up living organisms and the mechanics of ever, Lester envisions possible joint as soon as possible — for their own how life begins could be crucial to the human-robot missions that would cap - careers,” he says. “But us old fogies search for alien life, some reasoned. In italize on robots’ durability, strength would like to see some really big mis - a 1936 book, Origin of Life , Soviet bio - and precision and humans’ ability to sions, so we have a chance to get the chemist Aleksandr Oparin detailed a respond to surprises. 31 answers before our lives are over.” Continued on p. 540

538 CQ Researcher Chronology

indicating that Mars may have 1998 1950s Space Age begins; been hospitable to life. NASA opens Astrobiology Institute. scientific interest in origin of life grows. 1975 2004 Viking landers 1 and 2 arrive on Opportunity rover finds evidence 1953 Mars, but onboard biology experi - that Mars once had water. University of Chicago chemists ments using Martian soil find no Harold Urey and Stanley Miller signs of life. 2009 create amino acids — the building NASA launches Kepler telescope to blocks of proteins — by charging 1977 search for exoplanets — planets a mixture of methane, ammonia Shocking biologists, scientists find outside Earth’s solar system. and water with electricity, showing “extremophile” microbes and sea that living matter might have animals living in total darkness 8,000 • arisen from inorganic chemicals. feet under the Pacific Ocean.

1957 1979 2010s Hopes of finding Soviet Union begins Cold War Pioneer 11 spacecraft accomplishes alien life rise as hundreds of space race when it launches Sputnik , first Saturn flyby. exoplanets are found. the first artificial satellite. • 2011 1958 First two Earth-sized exoplanets National Aeronautics and Space orbiting a sun-like star are discov - Administration (NASA) founded. 1990s-2000s ered. . . . Researchers say cosmic Budget concerns limit space dust contains organic matter. • exploration to robotic missions. . . . Astrobiology becomes a key 2012 priority in NASA science. Rover Curiosity , the most complex 1960s U.S. races to put Mars mission yet, lands on the astronauts on the moon before 1993 “red” planet. the Soviets. . . . NASA funds Congress votes to cancel NASA fund - exobiology research. ing of the search for extraterrestrial 2013 intelligence (SETI). Hubble telescope spots water vapor 1960 plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa. American astronomer Frank Drake 1995 conducts first radio telescope search Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and 2014 for extraterrestrial intelligence. Dider Queloz report first definitive NASA announces that Kepler tele - sighting of a planet outside Earth’s scope data verify discovery of 715 1969 solar system. . . . Galileo orbiter exoplanets, bringing total number Apollo 11 achieves President John F. determines Jupiter’s moons have of known exoplanets to 1,750. . . . Kennedy’s goal of landing American geological activity such as volcanoes. Astronomers find two more poten - astronauts on the moon before 1970. tially habitable exoplanets — the 1996 biggest-ever observed rocky planet • NASA reports that a meteorite of and an Earth-sized planet likely Martian origin found in Antarctica warm enough to have liquid water. may carry traces of ancient Mart - . . . Large lake is spotted deep 1970s-1980s ian microbial life; the widely dis - under the icy surface of Saturn’s Hope dims after Mars landers puted finding sparks interest in moon Enceladus. . . . NASA find no sign of life on Mars. astrobiology. MAVEN orbiter, launched in No - vember 2013, continues en route to 1971 1997 Mars, where it is scheduled to go Mariner 9 Mars orbiter finds volca - NASA’s Mars Pathfinder becomes first into Mars orbit in September to noes and evidence of past floods, operational rover on another planet. study the planet’s atmosphere.

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 539 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

SETI Scientists Scan the Universe “Within this decade, we’ll look at 10 million stars.”

he search for extraterrestrial intelligence — SETI — might NASA funding for doing non-SETI work, mainly developing more appropriately be named “SETT — search for ex - sky-observing instruments.) T traterrestrial technology,” says Jill Tarter, a former lead SETI researchers mainly have scanned radiation in the micro wave scientist for SETI at the National Aeronautics and Space Ad - portion of the radio wave spectrum, where less interfering ra - ministration (NASA) and a founder and retired president of the diation from natural objects exists. private, nonprofit SETI Institute, in Mountain View, Calif. In addition, “we’re now looking for visible light” says Eric Extraterrestrials, if they exist, most likely communicate over Korpela, a research astronomer in the SETI research group at vast distances the way humans do — by using technology that the University of California, Berkeley, because some highly un - emits electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves or visible usual lights that could be signals have been seen. light. And while humans have no ability to contact alien in - Picking up extraterrestrial signals by “eavesdropping” on alien telligence directly, they have the technical means to detect ev - civilizations’ interplanetary communications that leak into the idence of alien telecommunications. universe — as Earth’s radio, TV and radar transmissions do — Stars, too, emit electromagnetic radiation — vast amounts of it. is one possibility for SETI searchers, although such transmis - And by the late 1950s the radio telescope — invented in the 1930s sions are likely to be weak. Easier to pick up would be sig - — came into its own as a tool for studying the heavens. By the nals that another civilization specifically intended to attract at - early 1960s a handful of scientists were using the telescopes to tention. That means part of the puzzle “is figuring out how scan for signals from extraterrestrial communications technology, ETs [extraterrestrials] would communicate,” says Korpela. and in the late 1960s NASA established a SETI program. 1 One possibility would be “engineering something that’s almost But beginning in the 1970s, some in Congress repeatedly point - like a natural phenomenon — so that it would get picked up by ed to NASA SETI’s lack of concrete results and called for its end. instruments that are being used to observe that natural phenome - In 1993, an amendment, introduced to a budget-balancing mea - non,” says Tarter. “But you would make it different enough so that sure by Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., led to the program’s termi - observers would notice that it was different” such as by creating a nation. After that, the SETI Institute — founded in 1984 by Tarter pulsating signal that regularly switched between two frequencies. and others — and a handful of small university research programs To have a shot at finding any signals, researchers need many got SETI funding from private sources. observations and a lot of computing power to sort through the (The SETI Institute also employs astrobiologists doing non- complex images that radio telescopes capture of radiation streak - SETI research, who do get NASA funding. Similarly, the SETI ing through the skies. program at the University of California, Berkeley, gets some To maximize telescope time, the Berkeley group “piggy -

Continued from p. 538 lated lightning,” writes Denver Muse - sion of human knowledge of phenom - hypothetical scenario on the early um astrobiologist Grinspoon. “After a ena in the atmosphere and space. ” 37 Earth, where chemical reactions in a few days they were both astounded “When NASA was established, doing methane-rich atmosphere might have to find their experimental flask full of science was one of its major purpos - created organic molecules from inor - an ugly, sticky, brown goo. The gunk es,” says John Logsdon, a professor ganic substances. As chemicals includ - turned out to be made of amino acids emeritus of political science and in - ing water, methane and ammonia re - — the building blocks of proteins, the ternational affairs and founder of the acted and formed larger, molecules, the stuff of life.” 36 Space Policy Institute at George Wash - most stable new compounds would In 1957, the Soviet Union’s surprise ington University. Nevertheless, “once persist to react again, Oparin theorized. launch of the first artificial satellite, the seven Mercury astronauts were in - This process — a kind of “chemical Sputnik 1 , kicked off the Space Age troduced” in April 1959 “that’s all the evolution” — would lead to an abun - and triggered an intense space race media and the public saw,” he says. dance of the large, complex organic between the United States and its Cold Under President John F. Kennedy, who molecules found in living cells . 35 War rival. On July 29, 1958, just over took office in January 1961, “NASA In 1953, University of Chicago eight months after Sputnik , President was a real Cold War agency,” com - chemists Harold Urey and Stanley Miller Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the au - mitted to besting the Soviet Union’s tested Oparin’s hypothesis. “They mixed thorizing law to create NASA. achievements by landing men on the ammonia, methane, and water in a First on the list of eight purposes pre - moon and returning them safely to flask and sparked it up” with “simu - scribed for the agency was “the expan - Earth by the end of the 1960s.

540 CQ Researcher backs” their instruments onto telescopes being used for other and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Observatory in West Vir - observations. “We don’t get to point the telescope, but we don’t ginia. The National Science Foundation may close the Byrd really know where to point it anyway,” Korpela says. telescope altogether in a few years, Werthimer says. Berkeley’s SETI group and the SETI Institute both use volunteer The SETI Institute uses mainly the Allen Telescope Array, in citizen-scientist participation to add computer-analysis capability. Northern California, which it developed. Telescope arrays are In 1999, Berkeley debuted one of the first volunteer dis - large groups of small telescopes that work together like a single tributed-computing projects. SETI@Home runs either as a screen - huge, powerful telescope. The Allen Array is ultimately planned saver or in the background while a computer user does other to have 350 dishes, and it opened in 2007 with 42 dishes, fund - tasks. It scans and downloads chunks of raw telescope data ed by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. But additional large do - onto a volunteer’s personal computer and alerts the Berkeley nations are proving hard to come by. Construction is mostly team if an interesting signal turns up. on hold. In 2011, money woes shuttered the facility from April “We didn’t invent this kind of public computing, but we to December. 3 moved it into the mainstream,” says Korpela. “About 60 pro - “Within this decade, we’ll look at 10 million stars,” says jects now use the software we developed.” Tarter. This is about the number of stars and their accompa - In 2012, the SETI Institute introduced a website, SETI Live, where nying solar systems that scientists estimate must be scanned users can log on and scan Institute data for patterns that could be before there’s any real probability of intelligent communications signals. While most observations are scannable by computer algo - being spotted, she says. If nothing turns up by then, it will be rithms, some are in such crowded areas of the electromagnetic a safe guess that intelligent communicating civilizations are very spectrum that humans must do the analysis, explained Tarter. 2 scarce indeed — existing in fewer than one in 10 million solar Besides “Find ET,” SETI scientists’ wish lists all contain the systems. “That’s my personal milestone.” same item: “Send money,” as Tarter puts it. The SETI enterprise is “quite fragile,” says Dan Werthimer, — Marcia Clemmitt chief scientist at Berkeley’s SETI Research Center. Funds must be cobbled together from private grants, and few young sci - 1 Steven J. Dick and James E. Strick, The Living Universe: NASA and the De - entists are entering the field, he says. velopment of Astrobiology (2005), p. 18. 2 Clara Moskowitz, “New Site Lets you Search for Extraterrestrial Life,” Moreover, tight government funding threatens the two large Space.com , Feb. 29, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/7o2v76l. National Science Foundation-funded, land-based telescopes that 3 “SETI Search Resumes at Allen Telescope Array, Targeting New Planets,” his group depends on — Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory SETI Institute, Dec. 5, 2011, http://tinyurl.com/7ny4lox.

Despite the dominance of human gin of life and the possibility of life be pleased with the agency’s scientif - spaceflight, however, the U.S. govern - on other planets — an interdiscipli - ic support, however, many analysts ment also kept an eye on Soviet sci - nary field then called “exobiology.” say. Priorities for NASA’s scientific re - entific interests, particularly Oparin’s (The term “astrobiology” replaced “exo - search and missions are largely set by work. “The fear of CIA agents that the biology” in the 1990s.) the science community itself. “There is Soviets, led by the world-famous NASA’s championing of the young a very well-organized space commu - Oparin, might possess some important field raised some eyebrows, especial - nity that works with NASA” to set the lead in origin of life research, might ly among life scientists pursuing more agenda, says Logsdon. Once each even be close to creating life in the traditional research. Funding exobiol - decade, so-called decadal surveys “set laboratory, was in the air,” write Steven ogy research is “a curious develop - out scientific priorities for the next 10 Dick, an astronomer and former NASA ment in view of the fact that this ‘sci - years and suggest what kinds of mis - chief historian, and James Strick, an ence’ has yet to demonstrate that its sions might meet those priorities,” he associate professor of science, tech - subject matter exists!” complained in - says. “NASA’s generally accepted these nology and society at Franklin & Mar - fluential Columbia University paleon - and has to explain when they don’t shall College, in Lancaster, Pa. 38 tologist and evolutionary biologist follow the decadal survey.” 40 The Cold War angst paid off for George Gaylord Simpson in 1964. 39 From the beginning, NASA funded the small group of American scientists Researchers whose interests lie with - biological research on the edges of sci - who persuaded NASA to establish a in the purview of NASA’s science pro - ence, such as Urey and Miller’s con - program to fund research on the ori - grams have generally had reason to tinued work on the development of

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 541 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

Planet Studies Give Earthlings a Cosmic Perspective “Even if you’re not interested in science, you’re interested in this.”

pend your days pondering the place of living things in exoplanet found was a complete surprise. It was a Jupiter-size a vast universe, and some big thoughts are likely to cross planet in a really short orbit, which was utterly unexpected.” 1 S your mind. A new perspective accompanies the search The shocks have kept coming, turning carefully construct - for what distant planets are like and whether they might host ed hypotheses on their heads. life. And the lessons are only beginning, scientists say. Highlighting “the way surprises keep popping up is the dis - “It’s in the public interest to shed light on our place on covery of a batch of planets that are orbiting in the wrong di - Earth, in the solar system, in the universe. And the public re - rection,” said John A. Johnson, a professor of astronomy at sponse to NASA’s astrobiology research shows it,” says Linda Harvard University who specializes in exoplanet discovery. “All Billings, a research professor at the George Washington Uni - of the planets in our solar system orbit in the same direction, versity School of Media and Public Affairs who has consult - the direction in which our star spins. That reflects the way we ed for NASA. “Even little kids are fascinated by this. Even if think planets form,” he said. Observing the spin of newly dis - you’re a person who’s not interested in science, you’re in - covered exoplanets quickly produced counter examples. “All terested in this. of a sudden we found some tilted orbits, and then we found Among scientists, astrobiology and planetary-science research one planet going backward around its star. So I’m afraid to findings have repeatedly overturned consensus ideas and stretched predict 10 years out; this kind of result shows that it’s almost the limits of what’s truly understood about space. impossible to predict.” 2 After decades of research on the nature of our own sun The study of other worlds could cause a perspective shift and its planets, scientists believed they had a good under - among the public, too, says Jill Tarter, a founder of the pri - standing of questions such as how solar systems are formed, vate, nonprofit SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., who what kinds of planets are possible and which sort of planets now holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research orbit closer to and farther from their stars. But since the mid- there. Even though many agree that global cooperation is cru - 1990s, with the first sightings of exoplanets — planets orbiting cial for addressing the world’s worst problems, such as cli - other stars — much of what astrophysicists expected would be mate change, resource depletion and even poverty, nations a near-universal pattern turned out to be rare. still generally view one another as rivals rather than as in - “We’ve learned that we really don’t know what we’re talk - habitants of a single planet who should work together, says ing about with respect to exoplanets: how they form, what Tarter. their distributions are, anything!” said Gibor Basri, an astro - SETI — the search for extraterrestrial intelligence — is one physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. “The very first of the few enterprises that clearly fosters a global view, she organic compounds from inorganic large questions with very uncertain an - to be no need to keep going, so we matter. Astrobiology research has never swers, says former NASA astrobiology stopped,” says Logsdon. In 1972, Presi - been a big-ticket item for the agency; chief scientist John Rummel, who di - dent Richard M. Nixon announced that today, it receives just $50 million of NASA’s rects the Institute for Coastal Science NASA’s human-spaceflight programs annual $5 billion science budget, for and Policy at East Carolina University would henceforth focus on creating a example, according to George Wash - in Greenville, N.C. cost-saving space shuttle for round trips ington University’s Billings. Nevertheless, Although science got only 20 per - into low-Earth orbit. before NASA’s exobiology/astrobiology cent of NASA’s budget in the 1960s and support began, origin-of-life research had ’70s, the scientific work “was vibrant” been “sparsely funded, to put it mildly,” in those early days, says Logsdon. Viking and After write Dick and Strick. 41 Nevertheless, Logsdon says, the space The government’s two main life-science race was the agency’s focus. To best or American exobiologists, though, grant -making agencies, the National Sci - the Soviets, the United States poured F the early 1970s were full of ex - ence Foundation (NSF) and the National resources into the Apollo program. citement, as a series of planetary or - Institutes of Health (NIH), “were not In July 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil bital and flyby missions led to the willing to fund this research because — Armstrong became the first human to biggest planet-exploration mission yet while they weren’t uninterested — walk on the moon and gave the United attempted. In 1976, the Viking 1 and these studies were low priority. They States bragging rights. But “once we won Viking 2 spacecraft began orbiting, were a fishing expedition,” exploring the race to the moon, there appeared photo graphing and conducting instru -

542 CQ Researcher says. “If there’s a signal, it’s not just being sent to California. It’s being sent to Earth.” Fostering an international public awareness of SETI could be a way of encouraging people to view themselves “as earth - lings — as all the same and in on things together,” Tarter ar - gues. “Not a lot of things really encourage us to get beyond

ourselves,” she says. “This might.” A S

If SETI scientists ever do pick up a signal from an intelli - A N gent civilization, the event will have huge significance, Tarter NASA engineers prepare for the 2009 launch of the says. It will be a hopeful sign that — despite the risks of de - Kepler space telescope, designed to search for new struction from nuclear wars, overpopulation, pollution and ca - exoplanets, or planets beyond the sun. Every year, space reening asteroids — it’s still possible for a technological civi - probes identify hundreds of new exoplanets. Kepler uses lization like ours to survive for a very long time, she says. “If a photometer to record data from stars for three-and-a-half we find something, it’ll be heartening news for us that there or more years; it then detects exoplanets by measuring is a way to get through difficulties and survive.” changes in the brightness of the images. It’s a matter of probabilities. The Milky Way galaxy is well over 10 billion years old — 10,000 times one million years. So “I think it’s profound either way,” Werthimer said. “If we unless another technological civilization survived for tens of find that we’re alone, we’d better take really good care of this thousands of years, at least, the odds are extremely slim that planet. Because it’s very precious.” 3 its era would be near enough in time to human history for earthlings to encounter its signals. — Marcia Clemmitt Scientists even harbor some hope of learning the survival secrets of very old civilizations, if any are found. “If we find 1 Phil Plait, “Is Anybody Out There?” Discover , November 2010, http://tinyurl. that we’re part of a galactic community and get on the galac - com/pcjvmra. 2 tic Internet and learn all their poetry, music, literature, sci - Ibid. 3 “Full Committee Hearing — Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the ence, we could learn a lot,” Dan Werthimer, lead SETI sci - Universe,” archived webcast, U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and entist at the University of California, Berkeley, told a House Technology, May 21, 2014, http://science.house.gov/hearing/full-committee- panel in May. hearing-astrobiology-and-search-life-universe. ment readings of the atmosphere and the sum of all the results was convinc - Before February 1977, scientists be - surface of Mars. ingly negative: There is no life on Mars. lieved that all earthly life ultimately After a month, each orbiter released At least no life that we know how to derived energy from the sun, either a lander to the surface, each carrying search for.” 42 through photosynthesis or by con - multiple instruments and experiments. Despite years of preparation, the suming photosynthesis-based life. That The highest-profile experiments would Mars expedition was a case of NASA month, scientists exploring the deep search for signs of microbial life in unknowingly “trying to do too much ocean floor found an entire undersea Martian soil. For most observers, in - too soon,” says Rummel. Although al - ecosystem, including blind crabs and cluding many scientists, the life-detection most no one realized it, most of the clams, thriving in total darkness. At experiments were the soul of the Viking tools and concepts needed to effec - the base of the animals’ food chain mission. tively search for extraterrestrial life had were microbes that get their energy Hopes for signs of life were quickly yet to be developed, he says. from the chemical bonds of sulfur com - dashed, however. Although “the mission A mere seven months after the pounds that seep up through so-called was amazingly successful and greatly en - Viking disappointment, for example, a hydrothermal vents, in a process now riched our knowledge of the atmosphere discovery 8,000 feet below the Pacific called chemosynthesis. 43 and surface of Mars . . . the biology ex - Ocean revealed a stunning truth, says After Viking , the NASA planetary sci - periments were a bust,” writes Grinspoon. Rummel: Biologists knew far less that ence missions continued, albeit with “Though some early, puzzling readings anyone had imagined about the variety much less public attention. In 1978, the provided brief, exciting moments of hope, of life forms on Earth. Pioneer Venus Orbiter began a 14-year

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 543 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

exploration that produced the first topo - or studying an organism’s evolutionary SETI research proceeds with private graphical map of the surface of Venus. history, it has become the basis of funding, from corporations, founda - In 1979, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft ac - biotechnology. tions and individuals. ( See sidebar, p. complished the first flyby mission to Woese’s work demonstrates what 540. ) Saturn, and in 1986 the Voyager 2 was primitive tools the Viking lander sci - the first flyby craft to reach Uranus. entists had, Rummel says. “When the For exobiologists, it was a time to Viking looked for life, they were going New Hopes rethink assumptions, said the Denver to try to culture organisms in an Earth - Museum’s Grinspoon. “How do we de - like environment. We didn’t realize that rom the mid-1970s to the early sign an experiment to look for life on with molecular tools [such as gene se - F ’90s, exobiologists worked in rel - another planet when we’ve only ob - quencing] you find 10 times more mi - ative obscurity. NASA’s star was dimmed served it on this one? The question crobes than with traditional methods.” as well, especially after the 1986 ex - forces us to think deeply about . . . NASA also funded other paradigm- plosion of the space shuttle Chal - the essential features [of life] that busting research. Lynn Margulis, for lenger , in which seven people died. would transcend the specific natural example, a professor of biology and With President George H. W. Bush’s history of one world.” 44 geosciences at Boston University and appointment of engineer Goldin as NASA continued to fund out-of-the- the University of Massachusetts, NASA administrator in 1992, though, box research on the nature of life. In Amherst, turned evolutionary biology exobiology’s fortunes took a some - 1977, biophysicist Carl Woese, a long - on its head with her theory that multi - what unexpected turn for the better. time recipient of NASA grants, had cellular organisms evolved partly through The 1990s brought bitter NASA bud - overturned one of modern biology’s a process in which large single- celled get battles in Washington, and Goldin — longstanding principles: that all living bacteria devoured but didn’t destroy the longest-serving NASA administrator things can be classified into two over - smaller ones, with the merged pair liv - ever, working for three presidents — was arching domains — single-celled ing on interdependently. Margulis’ idea, known for an unrelenting focus on trim - prokaryotes (mainly bacteria), whose first developed in the 1960s, was “hereti - ming costs. With Congress and President cells have no nuclei, and mostly mul - cal. It couldn’t get funding” other than Bill Clinton, who took office in 1993, ticellular eukaryotes (plants, animals from NASA, says Rummel. “You mean promising flat NASA budgets, he had no and everything else), whose cells have you’re telling me evolution doesn’t just choice but to cut costs and reorder pri - nuclei. Woese found a third distinct operate by neo-Darwinian competi - orities to keep the agency functioning, category. His new group — dubbed tion? Organisms are moving in together? Goldin said in a 2010 speech . 46 archaea — had previously been lumped Then, that was nutso. Now it’s stan - Some of his administrative changes with bacteria, but Woese discovered dard biology.” were also an attempt to realign the that it had different biochemistry and As exobiologists began to show re - agency’s science programs for 21st- cell structures and a different evolu - sults and draw wider interest, the Na - century science, some space analysts tionary history. tional Science Foundation began fund - say. While the 20th century was the Woese’s research showed archaea, ing work in the field, including Miller’s century of physics, Goldin “recognized many of which live in extreme condi - continuing work on how organic mol - that biology was on the rise and on tions, to be among the Earth’s oldest ecules could have naturally formed its way to becoming the king of the living things, raising the question of from inorganic ones on the early sciences,” says George Washington Uni - whether extreme environments on other Earth; the collection of lunar and Mar - versity’s Billings. planets might also give rise to life. tian meteors from Antarctica; and Uni - In 1995, NASA rechristened exobiolo - Not only was Woese’s discovery versity of California, Berkeley, as - gy “astrobiology” and defined it as an groundbreaking, but so were his meth - tronomer Geoffrey Marcy’s research on overarching interdisciplinary field ex - ods. He used the then-revolutionary detection of exoplanets. 45 amining the origin, nature, distribution and technically daunting method of gene In the 1970s and ’80s, NASA also and future of life on Earth and in the sequencing. Woese “was really the first funded work on the use of radio tele - universe. In 1998, the agency estab - guy to sequence a genome, and NASA scopes to detect possible signals em - lished its first Astrobiology Institute — funded it,” says East Carolina Universi - anating from other intelligent civiliza - a so-called “virtual” collaborative re - ty’s Rummel. Genome sequencing means tions across the galaxy. However, the search and training organization coor - determining the exact structure of a search for extraterrestrial intelligence dinated by NASA’s Ames Research Cen - DNA molecule — the bearer of heredity. was controversial, and Congress voted ter, in Mountain View, Calif., and including With uses such as identifying bacteria in 1993 to end the funding. Today, Continued on p. 546

544 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Is ayes steroid retrieval a good step toward a human Mars mission?

LOUIS FRIEDMAN DOUGLAS R. COOKE CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AEROSPACE CONSULTANT , C OOKE CONCEPTS EMERITUS , T HE PLANETARY SOCIETY AND SOLUTIONS

TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SPACE SUBCOMMITTEE OF TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SPACE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE SCIENCE, SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY THE HOUSE SCIENCE, SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE, MAY 21, 2013. COMMITTEE, MAY 21, 2013.

hile other nations dream of duplicating the Ameri - he mission currently being proposed includes three sepa - can achievement of a half century ago, the adminis - rate elements: the detection and characterization of candi - w tration’s new plan has the U.S. looking beyond the t date near-Earth asteroids; the robotic rendezvous, capture moon on a path that will eventually take humans to Mars later and redirection of a target asteroid to the Earth-moon system; in this century. and the crewed mission to explore and sample the captured The new initiative is not a giant-step, Apollo-like crash pro - asteroid. . . . Each mission element is supposed to contribute gram; instead it follows a flexible and cost-effective path using to a human Mars mission in the 2030s. stepping stones into the solar system. The stepping stones are However, . . . published news articles have indicated that literally and figuratively provided by near-Earth asteroids. The there is not an apparent expectation for significant scientific special cleverness enabling the first step is to use a robot to return from planetary scientists. . . . The NASA science mission go out and capture one of these stepping stones and bring it director is quoted as saying, “We’ve been very clear that this to just beyond the moon so that we can reach it without is not a science-driven mission.” Therefore to me and others, building new rockets or crew systems beyond those already it is not apparent that the administration’s asteroid-retrieval now being dyeveloped. Theere is no othes r affordable way to proposal was dneveloped based ono consultation with the step onto the path to Mars. broader space community. . . . The scheme is audacious, yet both reasonable and feasible. I believe there are potential technical issues with the pro - A robotic spacecraft using solar electric propulsion will ren - posed mission. The yet-to-be-chosen asteroid must be relatively dezvous with a very small asteroid (about 25 feet in diameter, small. . . . As I understand it, a small asteroid is difficult if but still relatively heavy at about 1.5 million pounds) in an not impossible to characterize from Earth. The makeup and orbit that is close to the Earth’s orbit around the sun. The as - stability of the object may not be known in advance. If it is teroid would be captured in a large high-strength bag or con - tumbling, it may not be retrievable. . . . Due to the difficulty tainer deployed once the spacecraft has rendezvoused with of characterizing asteroids from Earth, . . . a robotic mission the asteroid. may be needed in advance of any human mission. . . . Also Redirecting the asteroid to the desired orbit in Earth-moon problematic is the fact that opportunities to visit given asteroids space will take several years. . . . Using a gravity assist from can occur infrequently due to their specific orbits. Therefore, the moon, the asteroid will be put into a high lunar orbit that the time between a robotic characterization mission and a extends beyond the moon. . . . It could then be the target for human mission to a specific asteroid can take years. . . . the first translunar-human mission, with a goal of doing this If humans are indeed going to go to Mars, the next gener - by 2025. This Asteroid Retrieval Mission can be done soon, ation of explorers is going to have to learn how to survive in with a launch perhaps four or five years from now. . . . other forbidding, faraway places across the vastness of space. While a five- [to] 10-meter asteroid is a small celestial object, The moon is a crucially important stepping stone along that it is still a big enough place for astronauts to conduct science path — an alien world with partial gravity, like Mars, yet one measurements and human operations to study its characteristics that is only a three-day journey from Earth. Human lunar ex - and determine its potential as a source of resources. They can ploration will provide opportunities to test new technologies, even bring samples back to Earth. After a 50-plus year hiatus experience living and working on extraterrestrial surfaces and . . . humans will again be visiting a celestial body and taking learn ways to use resources found in space. . . . new steps deeper into the solar system. . . . It is also clear that human space exploration will be most This project will not just unify NASA, with science, technol - successful when the shared aspirations of the international ogy, robotic and human components, but also it will unify community are realized. A global exploration strategy maximizes many others globally, with a great adventure. Europe, Japan resources and talent applied to the endeavor, benefitting all of and Russia all have asteroid mission plans. . . . After the aster - us in space and on Earth. For this reason, the lunar mission oid is in place even private spacecraft developers could be which is already broadly agreed upon amongst our international invitedno to explore and test new prospecting ideas there. partners is the logical next major step.

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 545 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS

Continued from p. 544 sized planet in a star’s habitable zone. get. All told, astrobiology funding “is small scientists at U.S. and foreign universities The planet, which is 490 light years — about $50 million annually,” says and research centers. away, has a good chance of having liq - George Washington University’s Billings. The relaunch of astrobiology as a uid water on its surface, they said . 49 The Obama administration’s fiscal NASA priority took place against a Also this spring, the space probe 2015 budget proposal for NASA, an - backdrop of discoveries that once again Cassini — launched in 1997 and or - nounced on March 4, would allot boosted hopes for the possibility of biting Saturn since 2004 — turned up $4.97 billion to science programs. That’s finding extraterrestrial life. evidence of a lake the size of Lake less than the $5.15 billion the pro - In 1995, for example, Michel Mayor Superior deep under the ice at the grams got for this fiscal year but up and Didier Queloz of Switzerland’s Uni - south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, from the $4.78 billion they received versity of Geneva announced the dis - increasing the possibility that life might in fiscal 2013. 52 covery of the first confirmed exo - have developed there. 50 In fiscal 2013, the agency was hit by planet. More exoplanet discoveries In February, NASA announced that a 5 percent spending cut — called se - quickly followed. 47 715 exoplanet candidates identified by questration — that Congress in 2011 Even one still-disputed finding, in the Kepler space telescope — launched agreed to impose annually on many August 1996, rekindled some hope in 2009 — had been confirmed, rais - federal agencies until Congress reaches that life might yet be discovered on ing the total of known exoplanets to a long-term budget agreement. After that Mars. Several NASA scientists an - almost 1,800. 51 cut, though, NASA supporters warned nounced that a meteorite of Martian Whether — and which — NASA that repeated cutting would doom space origin found in Antarctica in 1984 missions should get more federal dol - missions, most of which take years if showed traces of chemicals similar to lars remains hotly disputed in Wash - not decades to develop. In January 2014, those formed by some bacteria, as well ington, however. Overall, NASA’s sci - a one-year budget deal exempted NASA as tiny tubular formations that might ence and astrobiology budgets have from the fiscal 2014 cut. 53 be bacterial remains. remained fairly constant for several The administration is requesting “While the theory has not been ac - years, space policy analysts say. $1. 28 billion for NASA’s planetary-science cepted by most of the scientific com - The budget for NASA science pro - program, the home of much, though not munity, it helped to enthuse many at grams has hovered around $5 billion all, of the agency’s astrobiology funding. NASA and reorient much of space sci - annually, or about 30 percent of a total That’s down substantially from the aver - ence toward answering this question NASA budget of $17 billion to $18 bil - age $1.5 billion NASA spent annually on about life beyond,” wrote space his - lion, says space historian Logsdon. The planetary exploration between 2003 and torian Launius. 48 agency’s other big-ticket budget items 2012, said Casey Dreier, director of ad - mainly involve its many ongoing and vocacy for The Planetary Society, a Pasade - future space missions, such as the In - na, Calif.-based nonprofit research and ternational Space Station, rockets, satel - advocacy group. 54 CURRENT lites, planetary flyby and rover vehicles Illustrating the extent to which big and space telescopes. science depends on long-term stable NASA’s designated science funds funding, the Obama budget requests SITUATION mainly support development of con - $15 million for early work on ex - cepts for new observational instruments ploratory missions to Jupiter’s Europa or investigation and creation of scien - and $20 million for preliminary work Remarkable Discoveries tific theories on which to base experi - on a Wide-Field Infrared Survey Tele - ments that eventually fly on space mis - scope (WFIRST) to scan exoplanets’ or astrobiology enthusiasts, 2014 is sions. Astrobiology doesn’t have its own atmospheres for possible signs of life, F a year of remarkable discoveries budget line, but “has different homes both with projected launch dates in made possible by NASA’s robot missions in NASA,” says former Congressional the mid-2020s or later. 55 — from new signs that one of Saturn’s Research Service space analyst Smith. Also included in the administration’s moons might be habitable to a slew of “At the present time it’s considered so request is $133 million for a mission confirmed exoplanet sightings. Budget broad that it’s everywhere.” that the White House views as a next struggles and uncertainty over future Exoplanet research is funded from step toward human spaceflight to Mars U.S. missions continue, however. the astrophysics budget, for example, — using a robotic craft to place an as - In April, NASA scientists reported while much other astrobiology research teroid in orbit near the moon, where observing the first approximately Earth- comes from the planetary science bud - human astronauts can explore it . 56

546 CQ Researcher Supporters of such a mission argue that When the JWST project began, “NASA’s budget is a pittance compared there is potentially more to learn from “they didn’t realize that there was still with pretty much everything else the an asteroid mission because, unlike the technology development to be done,” government does,” said popular-science moon, humans have not already ex - says Penn State’s Kasting. “If it works writer Phil Plait. “President Obama’s amined any asteroids, which are of in - properly, it’ll be a great observatory proposed national budget for 2015 is terest because of the dangers posed by for many scientists.” But “it can’t be $3.9 trillion. NASA’s budget is less than an asteroid hitting the Earth but also serviced, since there is no manned half a percent of that.” 64 because of their potential as sources of space program,” a risky situation for minerals. 57 (See “At Issue,” p. 545. ) a complex instrument with scores of Doing big science requires big equip - deployable systems, he says. ment, and the path NASA funding bills The Government Accountability Of - OUTLOOK must take through Washington high - fice (GAO), Congress’ nonpartisan audit - lights what some see as the biggest ing arm, found that NASA’s cost-estimation problem in the U.S. government’s sci - process should have sought out more Funding Perils ence enterprise: ongoing uncertainty. real-world data as a basis and had more The example of the European Space frequent updates. 60 Two key causes of f Washington’s budget process re - Agency suggests that it doesn’t have to cost growth and schedule slippage have I mains contentious and unpredictable, be that way, says Dreier. “For their size been delays in making major technical it may threaten not only NASA science program — it’s 15 percent the size of decisions and, first and foremost, many missions but also the international and NASA’s — they’re able to do quite a “technical challenges,” involving “imma - commercial partnerships on which some bit,” he says, by committing to steady ture technologies” and “design challenges,” missions depend, policy analysts say. funding over time and acknowledging according to the GAO . 61 The Obama administration’s fiscal 2013 up front that projects will take many In a bid to limit future cost-estimation budget, for example, withdrew almost years. For example, a spacecraft that problems, NASA now requires more all U.S. support from ExoMars, a planned will orbit Jupiter’s moon Ganymede verification of cost estimates, asking for joint mission with the European Space “doesn’t launch until 2024. They start - a 70 percent confidence level that an Agency to look for signs of past and ed building it in 2012, and it’ll take estimate is correct before accepting it, present life on Mars, in which the Unit - eight years after launch to get into orbit. says Smith of SpacePolicyOnline . ed States had agreed to participate in They play this really long game.” The fiscal 2015 budget hasn’t com - 2009, says Smith of SpacePolicyOnline. pleted its trek through Congress, but on Worse, some in the European space May 8 the House Appropriations Com - community still haven’t gotten over a sim - Webb Telescope Problems mittee approved $17.9 billion for NASA ilar U.S. change of heart in 1981, when — $435 million more than the president President Ronald Reagan withdrew most ASA faces at least one budget requested and about $250 million more U.S. support from a joint mission to the N problem largely of its own mak - than the current budget. The panel would sun. “We’ve fulfilled our part of the bar - ing — huge cost overruns on the suc - direct more money than the White House gain on a lot of projects, but because we cessor to the Hubble Space Telescope, toward space science, including more changed our mind on these, the Euro - currently scheduled for a 2018 launch. funds for a Europa mission. 62 peans feel let down” and perhaps dis - The James Webb Space Telescope Money spent on space exploration is trustful of future collaborations, Smith says. (JWST), most of whose components a waste of funds in a world with so many In hopes of eventually saving cash, are now nearing completion, is opti - pressing needs, some observers say. “The the White House also wants $848 mil - mized to pick up infrared radiation, cost of one modern space shuttle is one- lion — considerably more than the making it well suited to observe plan - and-a-half million lives lost for [want] of $696 million Congress provided last year etary atmospheres, small, cool stars and anti-malarial bed nets,” wrote Keith Yost, — for the Commercial Crew Program, the most distant objects in the uni - a staff columnist for The Tech newspaper which is helping three private compa - verse. Originally planned in 1996 for at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech - nies perfect vehicles to carry astronauts a launch sometime between 2007 and nology, in Cambridge, Mass. 63 to the International Space Station (ISS) 2011 and estimated to cost between For some space enthusiasts, NASA in low-Earth orbit beginning in 2017. 65 $1 billion and $3.5 billion, it’s now es - science programs more than fulfill the (Two companies already fly supplies to timated to cost $8.8 billion. 58 Over agency’s mandate to expand human the ISS. 66 ) In April, though, Rep. Frank the years it has drained money from knowledge, and they regard Wash - Wolf, R-Va., the retiring chairman of the other NASA projects. 59 ington’s penny-pinching as ill-advised. appropriations subcommittee for NASA,

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 547 SEARCH FOR LIFE ON NEW PLANETS said that “once you take into account April 17, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/pnk7nxw . Feb. 5, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mgsb4mb . the larger fiscal situation,” Congress can’t 4 Lisa Grossman, “Buried ‘Lake Superior’ seen 16 “Where is the Earth in the Milky Way do more than in the past. 67 on Saturn’s moon Enceladus,” New Scientist , Galaxy?” Reference Desk, Hubblesite.org, http:// Some analysts argue that if private April 3, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lxokz5q . tinyurl.com/ozzzoby . 5 17 players can lower costs, commercial For background, see John Felton, “Space Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, Rare Program,” CQ Researcher , Feb. 24, 2012, pp. Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the flights could mean more launches and 177-204. Universe (2003), p. 223. thus more experiments in space. But 6 Phil Plait, “Is Anybody Out There?” Discover , 18 “How Rare Is the Earth?” NOVA, PBS, Oct. 21, others say government funding will still November 2010, http://tinyurl.com/pcjvmra . 2011, http://tinyurl.com/mco5n6m . determine how much science NASA 7 For background, see Thomas J. Billitteri, 19 “The Great Debate — Are We Alone? — pursues and that it’s still unclear whether “Human Spaceflight,” CQ Researcher , Oct. 16, Geoff Marcy and Dan Werthimer,” Berkeley SETI spaceflight would be much cheaper . 68 2009, pp. 861-884. Research Center, April 30, 2010, http://tinyurl. Meanwhile, Penn State’s Kasting 8 For background, see “Global Space Programs,” com/34ahxnv . holds out hope that one big item on Space Foundation, http://tinyurl.com/lpwhcsb . 20 Grinspoon, op. cit. , p. 143. astrobiologists’ wish lists “will be on 9 For background, see Helen Sim, “A tele - 21 Mark Kaufman, “Think Outside the Box to the agenda again.” scope is born: Australia SKA Pathfinder,” Find Extraterrestrial Life,” National Geographic , “Right now the government is kind of Phys.org, June 11, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ May 2, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/mhevhmn . Sara pnlz56g , and Linda B. Glaser, “Chilean gov - Seager, “Exoplanet Habitability,” Science , May 3, broke. But some day we want to build ernment grants land for giant telescope,” 2013, pp. 577-581. a terrestrial planet finder” — a space tele - Cornell Chronicle , Jan. 11, 2014, http://tinyurl. 22 Astrobio, “The Great Exoplanet Debate, scope specifically designed to spot plan - com/mxu848a . Part 3: Limits to Determining Habitability,” As - ets with Earthlike characteristics. “I think 10 “Pathways to Exploration — Rationales and trobiology Magazine , March 25, 2013, http:// we’re not going to find the Earthlike plan - Approaches for a U.S. Program of Human tinyurl.com/pzmuccr . ets without such a mission,” he says. Space Exploration,” National Research Coun - 23 Ibid. cil, Committee on Human Spaceflight, June 24 Adam Frank, “Habitable Planets May Not 2014, p. S-6 ff, http://tinyurl.com/jwupmwz . Look Exactly Like The Earth,” NPR, May 6, Notes 11 Bradley Perrett and Amy Svitak, “China’s 2014, http://tinyurl.com/kt8avoo . Space Program Is Taking Off,” Aviation Week , 25 Mike Wall, “Should NASA Ditch Manned 1 Marcus Woo, “Astronomers Find ‘Mega-Earth,’ Nov. 25, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/partwnx , and Missions to Mars?” Space.com , Aug. 5, 2012, Most Massive Rocky Planet Yet,” National Geo - “China’s Space Exploration Goals Before 2020,” http://tinyurl.com/bnr6bwf . graphic , June 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lw7p6z5 . China Daily , March 10, 2014, http://tinyurl. 26 Ibid. ; also see “Mars Science Laboratory/ 2 Ron Cowen, “NASA unveils exoplanet haul,” com/l97uyyd . Curiosity,” Solar System Exploration, NASA, http:// Nature , Feb. 26, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lwwh6 12 Daniel S. Goldin, “Astrobiology Institute: tinyurl.com/9d2bsoq . 6x . Different authorities list slightly different Founding Vision and Reflections,” Address to 27 David Shiga, “Stephen Hawking calls for Moon numbers of confirmed exoplanets because NASA/Lockheed Martin Symposium, NASA, and Mars colonies,” New Scientist , April 21, 2008, some confirmations remain in dispute. For Oct. 14, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/l8jmoum . http://tinyurl.com/n2g9zgu . background, see Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, “Data 13 David Grinspoon, Lonely Planets: The Nat - 28 Claude LaFleur, “U.S. Piloted Programs Dispute Revives Exoplanet Claim,” Science , ural Philosophy of Alien Life (2004), p. 43. Funding, 1959-2015,” The Spacecraft Encyclo - July 27, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/pqrpbt3 , and 14 “What Are the Requirements for Life to pedia , http://tinyurl.com/krw2ljp ; and Claude John Bochanski, “Formalhaut b: An Exoplanet Arise and Survive?” Las Cumbres Observatory LaFleur, “Cost of US Piloted Programs,” The Redeemed,” Sky & Telescope , Oct. 26, 2012, Global Telescope Network, 2012, http://tinyurl. Space Review , March 8, 2010, http://tinyurl. http://tinyurl.com/ovljue7 . com/nreqcjp . com/9flpu5g . 3 Miriam Kramer, “Found! First Earth-Size 15 For background, see Fraser Cain, “What’s 29 Courtney Dressing, “Dispelling the Myth Planet That Could Support Life,” Space.com , At The Center Of Our Galaxy?” Universe Today , of Robotic Efficiency: Why Astronomers Should Support Human Exploration of the Solar Sys - tem,” Astrobites , March 29, 2012, http://tinyurl. About the Author com/ldkja7o . 30 Ibid. , also see “Luna Mission,” Lunar and Marcia Clemmitt is a veteran social-policy reporter who pre - Planetary Institute, http://tinyurl.com/kswmexu . viously served as editor in chief of Medicine & Health and 31 Adam Mann, “Humans vs. Robots: Who staff writer for The Scientist. She has also been a high school Should Dominate Space Exploration,” Wired , math and physics teacher. She holds a liberal arts and sci ences April 11, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/mlgoza3 . degree from St. John’s College, Annapolis, and a master’s 32 Ibid. degree in English from Georgetown University. Her recent 33 For background, see Steven Dick and reports include “Sugar Controversies” and “Traumatic Brain James Strick, The Living Universe: NASA and Injury.” the Development of Astrobiology (2005); and David Grinspoon, op. cit.

548 CQ Researcher 34 Grinspoon, op. cit. , p. 36. 35 Ibid. , p. 49. 36 Ibid. , p. 49. FOR MORE INFORMATION 37 “National Aeronautics and Space Act of Astrobiology Magazine , www.astrobio.net . NASA-sponsored online daily magazine 1958” (Unamended), National Aeronautics and for general readers. Space Administration, http://tinyurl.com/3bjogm6 . 38 Dick and Strick, op. cit. , p. 26. Astrobiology Web , http://astrobiology.com . Astrobiology news and press release aggregation site run by a for-profit media company. 39 Steven J. Dick, “The Twentieth Century History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate: NASA Ames Research Center , Mail Stop 239-4, Naval Air Station, Moffett Field, Major Themes and Lessons Learned,” Chapter Mountain View, CA 94035 ; 650-604-3658 ; 7 of Astrobiology, History and Society: Life Be - www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/index.html #.U5JqGCiOBVQ . Website of NASA’s yond Earth and the Impact of Discovery (2013), lead center for astrobiology has research news and information. p. 140 . NASA Astrobiology Institute , http://astrobiology.nasa.gov . NASA’s main Web 40 For background, see “National Research portal for astrobiology has information about astrobiology and research news. Council,” SpacePolicyOnline.com , http://tinyurl. com/qyxkf9b . NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109 ; 818- 354-4321 ; www.jpl.nasa.gov . Website of NASA’s lead center for exoplanet research 41 Dick and Strick, op. cit. , p. 26. and robotic exploration of the solar system has research news and information. 42 Grinspoon, op. cit. , p. 55. 43 Cristina Luiggi, “Life on the Ocean Floor, The Planetary Society , 85 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105 ; 626-793-5100 ; 1977,” The Scientist , Sept. 1, 2012, http://tinyurl. www.planetary.org . Nonprofit research and advocacy group for planetary science. com/mem93wc . SETI Institute , 189 Bernardo Ave., Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94043 ; 650-961- 44 Grinspoon, op. cit. 6633 ; www.seti.org . Nonprofit research institution for astrobiology and the search 45 “Assessment of the NASA Astrobiology In - for extraterrestrial intelligence. stitute,” Space Studies Board, National Research Space Policy Online , PMB 12, 2503D N. Harrison St., Arlington, VA 22207 ; 571- Council, 2008, p. 6, http://tinyurl.com/lusb5jw . 46 286-9168 ; www.spacepolicyonline.com . Space policy news and analysis website Goldin, op. cit. run by a longtime Washington space policy analyst. 47 For background, see “Exoplanet History — From Intuition to Discovery,” NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute 55 “FY2015 President’s Budget Request Sum - crease for NASA,” SpacePolicyOnline.com , May of Technology, http://tinyurl.com/oybfp42 . mary,” NASA, pp. 121, 627, http://tinyurl.com/ 8, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mm8rgxj . 63 48 Roger Launius, “Wednesday’s Book Review: lmwal5d . Keith Yost, “Opinion: Should we cut NASA ‘Talking About Life: Conversations on Astro - 56 Dreier, “The Sorry State,” op. cit. funding?” The Tech , April 9, 2010, http://tinyurl. biology,’ ” Roger Launius’s Blog , March 13, 2013, 57 Louis Friedman, “Asteroid Retrieval: A Step - com/y6huwj6 . 64 http://tinyurl.com/oorxrok . ping Stone to Mars,” testimony delivered to Phil Plait, “Another Year, Another Set of 49 Kramer, op. cit. the House Committee on Science, Space and Bizarre Cuts to NASA’s Budget,” Slate , March 5, 50 Grossman, op. cit. Technology, May 21, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/ 2014, http://tinyurl.com/prx29hc . 65 51 Cowen , op. cit. lwudtba . Marc Boucher, “NASA FY2015 Budget — 52 “Fiscal Year 2015 Appendix: Budget of the 58 “James Webb Space Telescope: Actions Commercial Crew Is Investing in America,” U.S. Government,” White House Office of Needed to Improve Cost Estimate and Over - SpaceRef , March 5, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ Management and Budget, p. 1211, http:// sight of Test and Integration,” U.S. Government n3m2osc ; and Ken Kremer, “Why Commer - tinyurl.com/msbhunf , and Jeffrey Mervis, “U.S. Accountability Office, December 2012, p. 3, cial Crew Is Critical for Future Exploration: Science Agencies Get Some Relief in 2014 Bud - http://tinyurl.com/m9wst3n . One-on-One Interview with NASA Administra - get,” Science , Jan. 14, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/ 59 Dan Leone, “NASA Acknowledges James tor Charles Bolden,” Universe Today , May 30, lnh2bzm . Webb Telescope Costs Will Delay Other Sci - 2014, http://tinyurl.com/kp9z68s . 66 53 Ledyard King, “Another year of sequestra - ence Missions.” Space News , Nov. 7, 2011, http:// Elizabeth Howell, “SpaceX’s Dragon: First tion would delay NASA’s missions,” USA Today , tinyurl.com/6t4mzpo , and Amy Svitak, “Tech - Private Spacecraft to Reach Space Station,” Oct. 29, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/kenod7d . Led - nical, Cost Issues Persist for Webb Telescope,” Space.com , March 25, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/ yard King, “Budget deal would preserve NASA’s Aviation Week , July 22, 2013, http://tinyurl. bxe47ap , and “Press Release: U.S. Cargo Space - big missions,” USA Today , Jan. 14, 2014, com/nkebwrj . craft Wraps Up Its First Station Resupply Mis - http://tinyurl.com/qxktxrc . 60 “James Webb Space Telescope,” op. cit. , p. 13. sion,” NASA, Feb. 18, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ 54 Casey Dreier, “To Europa! . . . Slowly. First 61 Ibid. , p. 3, and “NASA’s James Webb Space m3b53gm . 67 Impressions of NASA’s New Budget Request,” Telescope: Knowledge-Based Acquisition Ap - Jeff Foust, “Commercial crew, Crimea, and The Planetary Society, March 7, 2014, http:// proach Key to Addressing Program Challenges,” Congress,” The Space Review , April 14, 2014, tinyurl.com/lee7ze4 . Casey Dreier, “The Sorry U.S. Government Accountability Office, July 2006 , http://tinyurl.com/kar2w7g . 68 State of Planetary Science Funding in One p. 9, http://tinyurl.com/n48w8lz . Jeffrey Marlow, “What Does Private Space - Chart,” The Planetary Society, Dec. 9, 2013, 62 Marcia S. Smith, “House Appropriators Ap - flight Mean for Science?” Wired , Jan. 25, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/npyj286 . prove FY2015 CJS Bill with $435 Million In - http://tinyurl.com/kxou3fm .

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 549 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Howell , Elizabeth , “Are ‘Super Earths’ and ‘Habitable Zones’ Misleading Terms?” Astrobiology Magazine , May 26, 2014 , Dick , Steven J. , and James E. Strick , The Living Universe: http://tinyurl.com/q2zoat5 . NASA and the Development of Astrobiology , Rutgers Uni - Geoff Marcy, an exoplanet researcher at the University of versity Press , 2005 . California, Berkeley, argues that the common use of terms A former NASA chief historian (Dick) and a science historian such as “habitable” and “super-Earth” to describe exoplanet (S trick) at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., describe discoveries is misleading because it implies what current NASA’s early embrace of astrobiology and how the field and science can’t support: that newly discovered planets might the agency’s relationship to it changed over time. host life.

Grinspoon , David , Lonely Planets: The Natural Philos - Kaufman , Marc , “Think Outside the Box to Find Ex - ophy of Alien Life , Harper Perennial , 2004 . traterrestrial Life,” National Geographic , May 2, 2013 , An astrobiologist and curator at the Denver Museum of Nature http://tinyurl.com/mhevhmn . and Science chronicles the scientific search for extraterrestrial Most exoplanet researchers agree that a wide variety of life, from ancient times to the turn of the 21st century. planetary environments may host life, but some say focus - ing on the most Earth-like environments makes for the most Impey , Chris , Talking About Life , Cambridge University promising search strategy Press , 2010 . A University of Arizona astronomy professor interviews biol - Marlow , Jeffrey , “What Does Private Spaceflight Mean ogists, geologists, astronomers and others about the science, for Science?” Wired , Jan. 25, 2013 , http://tinyurl.com/ history and philosophy of the search for extraterrestrial life. kxou3fm . Private companies now take cargo into space and soon Articles will transport tourists, too; scientists speculate about what lower-cost private space travel could mean for their work. Arnold , Carrie , “The Man Who Rewrote the Tree of Life,” NovaNext, Public Broadcasting Service , April 30, 2014 , Nadis , Steve , “Alien Worlds on Earth,” Discover , Feb. 4, http://tinyurl.com/pjsl9gs . 2014 , h ttp://tinyurl.com/o8fuqoj . Once rejected by mainstream scientists, biophysicist Carl A planetary scientist explores Earth’s most extreme envi - Woese eventually was recognized for one of the greatest bi - ronments, from a lake under the Antarctic ice to 1,000-foot- ology achievements of his time — the use of gene sequencing deep caves. It’s part of a quest to figure out the conditions to identify a new category of single-celled organisms. under which life can persist, in preparation for seeking signs of life on distant moons and planets. Astrobio, “The Great Exoplanet Debate, Part 3: Limits to Determining Habitability,” Astrobiology Magazine , Reports and Studies March 25, 2013 , http://tinyurl.com/pzmuccr . At an astrobiology conference, a panel of scientists discussed “Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade the issues facing the search for far-away planets; article in - 2013-2022,” Committee on the Planetary Science Decadal cludes link to a video of the session. Survey, National Research Council , March 2011 , http://tiny url.com/ldg784d . Billings , Lee , “What Will It Take to Find Life Elsewhere An advisory committee of academic scientists lays out the in the Universe?” Popular Science , Oct. 10, 2013 , http:// goals of astrobiologists and other planetary scientists for the tinyurl.com/mpfz3eh . next decade and describes how various NASA missions could Funding problems in the 2000s led NASA to delay until accomplish those goals. 2018 the launch of its James Webb Space Telescope, origi - nally scheduled for 2010, to better design the project for Kouveliotou , Chryssa , et al. , “Enduring Quests Daring exoplanetary research. Visions — NASA Astrophysics in the Next Three Decades,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration , Decem - Foust , Jeff , “The Uncertain Road to Mars,” The Space ber 2013 , http://tinyurl.com/p6uweu9 . Review , April 21, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/p6ervbw . An advisory committee of academic scientists outlines the While the Obama administration says an asteroid-retrieval top questions for astrophysicists and exoplanet researchers mission is the next step toward NASA’s long-term goal of a to answer over the next 30 years and the existing and con - human Mars mission, other space experts argue for a moon templated observational instruments they may use. landing instead.

550 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Exoplanets and its budgets are too small to succeed, according to an extensive review of the human spaceflight program by ex - “Scientists Call Image of Exoplanet ‘Best-Ever,’ ” Voice perts from the National Research Council. of America , May 19, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/o9vfsof . Physicists at Stanford University used new technology to Dean , James , “Boeing hopes its crew capsule will replace produce a photo of exoplanet Beta Pictoris b, 63 light years shuttle,” USA Today , June 10, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/ from Earth, that scientists are calling the “best-ever direct n8t8ynm . photo of a planet outside our solar system.” The Boeing aircraft manufacturing company hopes to win a NASA contract to assemble a new commercial crew capsule; Andrews , Bill , “Two New Classes of Exoplanets Discov - the capsule’s missions would be the first human spaceflights ered,” Discover , June 2, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/m7y64jn . to launch from Florida in several years. Scientists have discovered two new types of exoplanets that overturn previous scientific assumptions about how a NASA Funding planet’s size predicts its composition and about where these planets may be. Foust , Jeff , “NASA Facing New Space Science Cuts,” Na - tional Geographic , May 30, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/kxl2g4j . Hays , Brooks , “NASA scientist expands list of habit - A budget battle is brewing over NASA, with new budget ability possibilities for exoplanets,” United Press Inter - cuts threatening spacecraft and telescope projects, while de - national , June 10, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/o7kk6cp . bate continues over the agency’s future exploration aims. A NASA scientist has created a new checklist for habit - ability on exoplanets based on recent scientific discoveries Leone , Dan , “Senate Spending Bill Includes $17.9 Billion that life can endure more extreme conditions than previ - for NASA,” Space News , June 3, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/ ously believed. pkwe4b8 . The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending Extraterrestrial Life bill that gives NASA $17.9 billion next year, about $254 million more than in 2014. Klotz , Irene , “Alien Life Discovery Could Happen Within 20 Years,” Discovery News , May 21, 2014 , http://tinyurl. Moskowitz , Clara , “Cash-Starved NASA May Have to Nix com/pjuresj . 1 Space Telescope to Save Others,” Scientific American , Astronomers told members of a congressional science com - May 23, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/ploh6vm . mittee that within 20 years humans should know whether NASA is weighing deactivating the infrared Spitzer Space extraterrestrial life exists, depending on financing. Telescope as much of its astrophysics budget goes to support the James Webb Space Telescope, due to launch in 2018. Miller , Mark J. , “To Protect Alien Life-Forms, Earth Space - craft Being Sanitized,” National Geographic , May 16, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/p9ahynt . CITING CQ RESEARCHER NASA and other international space agencies have agreed Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography to strict cleaning protocols for all spacecrafts to ensure that Earth bacteria and microorganisms do not contaminate any include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats extraterrestrial life found in space. vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.

Minter , Adam , “The Earthlings Already Sent to Mars,” MLA STYLE Bloomberg View , May 21, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/l9aulxn . Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher 2 Sept. A reporter says it will be impossible to maintain a per - 2011: 701-732. manent ecological barrier between the Martian environment and astronauts when they reach Mars’s surface and that or - APA S TYLE ganisms from Earth already may have reached Mars through Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Re - meteorites and spacecrafts. searcher, 9 , 701-732. Human Spaceflight CHICAGO STYLE Chang , Kenneth , “Seeing Obstacle-Filled Path to Mars,” Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher , Sep - The New York Times , June 9, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/p92v726 . tember 2, 2011, 701-732. NASA has not detailed a viable strategy for getting to Mars,

www.cqresearcher.com June 20, 2014 551 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

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