Astrobiology | Newsfocus

ASTROBIOLOGY | NEWSFOCUS water and other conditions that might be space program, Rummel is a respected have spoken out against raiding the science favorable to life elsewhere. At the same time, agency insider. At the same time, Pilcher, a budget to pay for those projects. And some astronomers using both space-based and longtime NASA headquarters official, took members of the overwhelmingly Democra- ground-based telescopes detected extrasolar over as the institute’s fourth director. And his tic California delegation—including Repre- planets with increasing frequency. boss is Simon P. “Pete” Worden (see following sentative Anna Eshoo (D–CA), who repre- However, none of these missions—most story), who has big plans for Ames. sents the area around Ames and is a close of which were well under way when the insti- Rummel and Pilcher confront a worried ally of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tute was formed—include specific instru- batch of researchers as well as a shrinking (D–CA)—are aware and concerned about ments designed to test for life. That makes it pool of graduate students. “Plenty of people the fate of astrobiology. hard to judge NAI’s impact over the past are getting fed up with the lack of proposals In the meantime, scientists soldier on. decade. “What credit can the NAI take? I funded,” says Kevin Hand, a graduate student Thanks to an NSF grant, D’Hondt traveled to don’t have a good quantitative answer,” says at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Califor- the South Pacific last month to study deep-sea Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the nia. “People are doing other things ancillary microbes. But he is worried that the NASA University of Colorado, Boulder, and long- to astrobiology,” he notes, while they wait for cuts may inflict long-term damage to the field. time advocate of the field. And with the NASA to pump more money back into the “We won’t be able to produce the scientists exception of a contribution to the future Mars effort. And some researchers such as Nealson needed for future space missions,” he warns. Science Laboratory slated for a 2009 launch, are skeptical that the program can be redi- Not everyone is so pessimistic. Even if the the NASA astrobiology effort is not directly rected to make it more relevant to explo- institute becomes a victim of the current involved in upcoming missions. The Terres- ration-focused NASA. budgetary storm, many scientists think that trial Planet Finder, a good candidate for pick- There is a chance Congress may come to the field will survive. “Given the incredible ing up biological signals from extrasolar the rescue. Whereas Republican legislators nature of the questions posed by astrobiol- planets, has been put on indefinite hold, as regularly defended U.S. President George ogy,” says Hand, “I’d be doing this if I had to has a proposed Astrobiology Field Lab to W. Bush’s push for a new launcher and pick up dimes from the street.” Mars that could probe beneath the planet’s human exploration of the moon, Democrats –ANDREW LAWLER surface for hidden microbes. Its ambiguous contributions make astro- on March 12, 2012 biology tremendously vulnerable as NASA attempts to finish the space station, build a new launcher, and set up a base for humans on the moon—all without significant budget increases. Whereas space and earth sciences have formidable political allies, astrobiology so far has proved too small, too scattered, and too new to fight off budget threats. Griffin www.sciencemag.org has proposed cutting astrobiology funding in 2007 to half of its 2005 level, and NAI has repeatedly delayed its next team competition. Without a new round of winners, there will be no teams left by 2008. That decline runs counter to the conclu- sions of a May report from the National Academies’ National Research Council that Downloaded from called astrobiology “an outstanding example of the development of a successful new inter- disciplinary area” and recommended contin- ued robust funding. However, Griffin says that it’s not his job to nurture a fledgling field To Simon P. “Pete” Worden, NASA’s Ames Alabama. Weeks later, Ames lost another that won’t help him put humans on the moon. Research Center in Silicon Valley seemed like project when NASA headquarters decided Asked at an August meeting of the Mars Soci- the perfect beachhead from which to launch a that the rival Dryden Flight Center in southern ety about the impact of the cuts on astrobiol- retrograde campaign for a new generation of California was better able to hold down the ogy students, he retorted that “if they want to smaller, cheaper, faster scientific spacecraft. cost of readying the Stratospheric Observa- work for government money, they must look But the maverick astronomer and retired tory for Infrared Astronomy for flight later at what the government wants—not what they U.S. Air Force general had barely arrived as this decade. By the end of the summer, think it should want.” the center’s director last May when he Worden’s superiors shot down his bold pro- encountered unexpected fire. posal to incorporate smaller and cheaper New life The first blow was the transfer of responsi- probes into the fleet set to explore the lunar Despite Griffin’s skepticism, some scientists bility for developing lunar robotic orbiters and surface early in the next decade. expect astrobiology to survive and prosper. landers—the center’s key piece in U.S. Presi- Those three early setbacks haven’t Last fall, John Rummel took over as astro- dent George W. Bush’s human exploration deterred Worden, a self-proclaimed NASA biology chief at NASA headquarters. A effort announced 3 years ago—from Ames to basher who jokes that the agency’s initials CREDIT: NASA/AMES/TOM TROWER CREDIT: biologist with a strong affinity for the human Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, stand for “Never a Straight Answer.” Instead, www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 315 19 JANUARY 2007 321 Published by AAAS NEWSFOCUS Worden remains bent on radical changes for NASA administrator. As for the Ames On tension between Griffin and the the troubled lab. Ames and its famous neigh- appointment, mutual acquaintances say Grif- science community: bor, Google, last month agreed to an innova- fin is eager for Worden’s help in promoting It’s unfortunate there’s a perceived problem. tive technology-sharing deal that will make the president’s new exploration vision but There are clearly a lot of incensed people. NASA’s enormous archives of Earth and chose to keep him far outside the fishbowl of Mike’s position—which I support—is that an space data accessible to the public. The deal Washington politics. agency has a set of customers, first and fore- could pave the way for Google Moon to join Worden spoke recently with Science about most the Congress and the White House. They Google Earth and Google Mars. And Worden his setbacks, plans, and vision for the center. set priorities. If they want to change those pri- hasn’t given up on smaller, faster, and –ANDREW LAWLER orities, they can. There has been a tendency cheaper: He has wrangled $10 million from [for astronomers] to regard what NASA does his bosses to begin thinking about small On budget cuts to life sciences and as a sinecure. spacecraft that could journey to asteroids and astrobiology: the outer solar system as well as the moon. The agency has been given certain priorities On how scientists can help: He hopes to scale up the program once and missions by Congress and the president. I’m an advocate of small, fast missions that there’s more money for such activities. In the Astrobiology—not that it isn’t superb sci- could do 80% of the capability for 10% of the meantime, he’s pursuing contracts from ence—has a lower priority. But there is non- cost. What would be useful is for the scien- other federal agencies to help the center’s NASA funding—the private sector, other tific community to prioritize missions within 2500-strong workforce weather the current government agencies—and we are aggres- the budget we’ve got, so we can get more sci- NASA budget crisis. sively pursuing those options. Is it easy? No. ence, better science, by doing more smaller True mavericks are rare among the govern- It is much like what happens at a university. I missions and fewer bigger ones. ment’s colorless cadres of generals and civil- spent the last 2 years as research faculty at ian bureaucrats. But the 57-year-old Worden, Arizona. I didn’t have a tenured position, and On exploration versus science: who earned an astronomy doctorate from the you did the work you needed to do. I’m a sci- We are faced with a crisis in exploration. University of Arizona, Tucson, has a history of entist. If I were king, I’d double the science The vehicle we have is being phased out for bucking conventional wisdom regardless of budgets. I think scientific exploration of the a lot of good reasons, and there’s an invest- its effect on his career. In the 1980s, he was an solar system and the universe is really excit- ment to make. Once the shuttle is phased on March 12, 2012 early advocate of President Ronald Reagan’s ing and a key area of our future. I’d love to out, I would anticipate scientific opportuni- Strategic Defense Initiative, an unpopular spend two-thirds of the defense budget on sci- ties will go up quickly with a much more stance that earned him the sobriquet of Darth ence if I could get away with it.

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