A Discovery Sourcebook for Astrobiology ISU Design Team, SSP 2002 Pomona, CA, July/August 2002 Acknowledgments The authors express their sincere gratitude and appreciation to the individuals and organizations that con- tributed their time, expertise, and facilities to assist in making this project possible. Design Project Co-Chairs Faculty & Guest Lecturers 1st half co-chair Sheryl Bishop David Miller Jim Dator 2nd half co-chair Ben Finney Lloyd French Jim Funaro John Logsdon Teaching Assistant Ray Williamson Weng Ang Penny Boston David Bushman Project Advisor Pam Conrad James Burke George Dyson Ken Edgett Arthur Lonne Lane And ISU Staff & TA’s Chris McKay Mark Helmlinger Cover Design Jeffrey Morris Walter Meissl Dave Morrison Gérardine Goh Ken Nealson Photo Courtesy of European Southern François Raulin Observatory David Southwood Douglas Vakoch Kasthuri Venkateswaran Michel Viso i SPONSORS Sponsors The International Space University Summer Session Programme 2002 in Pomona, California was made possible through the support of the following organizations. ii Authors Name Affiliation Country Master of Arts in Science, Technology and Public Policy Nadia AFRIN George Washington University BANGLADESH USA Student Isaiah ALVARADO Cal Poly Pomona USA USA Master Student Tonje Nanette ARNESEN MSS 02/03, International Space University NORWAY Strasbourg, France PhD Student Tobias BÖHNKE The Ångström Space Technology Centre (ÅSTC) DENMARK Uppsala Universitet, Sweden Science and Technology Teacher Philomena BONIS Waterloo Region District, School Board CANADA Canada Spacecraft Radiation Threats & Effects Specialist Simon CLUCAS Space Department, QinetiQ, UNITED KINGDOM United Kingdom B.Eng. - Electro-Computer Engineering Gary DAVIS Jet Propulsion Laboratory USA USA L&B Samantha DUCKETT Freelance Lawyer UNITED KINGDOM UK George DYKE MD Robotics, MSS Operations Analyst CANADA Canada Jennie ECKARDT Stanford University USA San Francisco, USA Control System Developer Steven ERICKSEN Interstates Control Systems, Inc. USA USA Test Engineer Alicia EVANS Boeing Company USA USA PhD Student Planetary Science (Luna Geochronology) Vera Assis FERNANDES Dept. of Earth Science, University of Manchester PORTUGAL (acquired: USA) United Kingdom Master Student Talmon FEUERSTEIN MSS 02/03, International Space University CANADA Strasbourg, France PhD Student Astrid FOSSUM Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics NORWAY Norway Bachelor in Physics, PhD Student Gloria GARCIA-CUADRADO Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) SPAIN Barcelona, Spain Master of Engineering, PhD Student Oliver GERLER University of Technology Graz AUSTRIA Austria M.Eng. - Electrical Engineering Tilman GLÖTZNER Project Engineer, Etas GmbH GERMANY Germany LLM Student Gérardine Meishan GOH Faculty of Law, University College London SINGAPORE United Kingdom Masters Student Masato GOTO MSS 02/03, International Space University JAPAN Strasbourg, France João GRACIANO M.Sc. in Physics Engineering PORTUGAL Andrea GUIDI Aerospace Engineer ITALY Italy Director Jason GUTH UBS Warburg UNITED KINGDOM UK Christian L. HARDCASTLE ISS Chief Test & Operations Engineer, Boeing USA USA Masters Student Martin HOUSTON University of Washington IRELAND USA Masters Student Atsuyo ITO Leiden University JAPAN The Netherlands System Engineer iii AUTHORS Christophe JACQUELARD Advanced Projects Departments, EADS FRANCE France US Air Force 1st Lieutenant Kip JOHNSON National Space Society Member USA USA M.Sc. Astronomy, M.Eng. Physics Bobby KAZEMINEJAD European Space Agency, Planetary Missions Division AUSTRIA The Netherlands Robotic Engineer, Masters Student Jasmin LETENDRE University of Sherbrooke CANADA Canada Masters Student, Physics Walter MEISSL Vienna University of Technology AUSTRIA Austria AMTS Systems Design: Space Science and Remote Sensing Brian MOFFAT COM DEV Inc CANADA Canada Senior Project Engineer Sven MÜNCHEBERG Kayser-Threde GmbH GERMANY Munich, Germany LLB, Pupilage in Eldoret-Ngala and co. Nelson MUTAI Directorate of Civil Aviation Aeronautics KENYA Kenya PhD Student Øystein OLSEN University of Oslo NORWAY Norway Masters Student, Planetology Jari PAKARINEN University of Oulu FINLAND Finland PhD Student Bojan PECNIKˇ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik CROATIA Germany B.Sc. Physics, M.S. Mechanical Engineer Fernmarie RODRIGUEZ University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez PUERTO RICO / USA Puerto Rico ExtraVehicular & Crew Systems Manager Arthur SCHEUERMANN Boeing KSC USA USA Systems and Networks Manager Isabelle SCHOLL Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale-CNRS FRANCE France M.Sc. Student Stefan SCHRÖDER Astronomical Institute "Anton Pannekoek" University of Amsterdam THE NETHERLANDS The Netherlands Engineer, M.S. Aeronautics & Astronautics Aaron J. SWANK Stanford University USA USA B. Eng. (Mechanical), École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada Bruno SYLVESTRE MSS 02-03 Student, International Space University CANADA Strasbourg, France Ir. Mechanical Engineer Frank VAN LIEMPT Dutch Space THE NETHERLANDS The Netherlands TopSat Comms Engineer Edrich YAU QinetiQ Space Department UNITED KINGDOM United Kingdom PhD Student Kris ZACNY University of California, Berkeley USA iv Foreword The International Space University was founded to advance the exploration and use of space in the service of people throughout the world. Its central goal is to bring together those young people who are motivated and able to lead humanity into a peaceful and abundant future both on and off our planet. With personal relationships forged during an intense period of study and work as students, ISU alumni are expected to go out and create a worldwide network of friendship and achievement as they rise in the space professions. With grounding in the whole wide variety of space-related disciplines, they then can call on each other for help and counsel as they build the international space programs of the future. More than 2000 ISU graduates in more than 60 countries are already realizing this objective. ISU has two main programs: a peripatetic summer session and a Master of Space Studies curriculum at its permanent headquarters in Strasbourg. In each program students, in addition to their multidisciplinary core courses and individual assignments, carry out design projects intended to give experience in teamwork under stress and to generate influential results. The topics of these projects are deliberately selected to be difficult and important. In the 2002 summer session one project focused on space in the service of human health and the other focused on the new interdisciplinary realm of astrobiology - the study of possible universal life. This report deals with that project. Astrobiology has emerged from the world of speculation into the world of investigation because of suggestive new findings in several scientific fields: increased understanding of the fundamental processes of life on Earth, observation of life’s main elements and molecules throughout space, discovery of living microbes in extreme terrestrial environments, detection of the signatures of planets orbiting many stars, and above all the realization that life may be a common, perhaps even inevitable, result of cosmic evolution. With these tantalizing hints before us, it is time for a broad attack on the question - especially one that engages talent in each of the many relevant fields and in each of the many places where skills and resources exist. The students of the ISU 2002 astrobiology team devoted their energy to defining this attack. Here is their report. James Burke v FACULTY PREFACE Faculty Preface At every Summer Session Program of the International Space University, students carry out two design projects intended to give teamwork experience under stress and to generate analyses and recommendations on topics of current interest in the world’s space programs. In 2002, the two projects were about astrobiology and the use of space systems in improving human health. This document presents the results of the astrobiology project. Astrobiology is emerging as a new, interdisciplinary scientific field with information sources both on and off Earth. The ancient concept of a plurality of inhabited worlds has received new stimuli from recent discoveries – planets around other stars, microbes in extreme terrestrial environments, interstellar and stellar evolution involving the elemental building blocks of life. Given the rich diversity of the subject, the first task of the student team was to narrow the scope of their in- quiry. They decided to focus on likely progress over the next twenty years, concentrating on both ground-based and space-based activities that may realistically advance human understanding of the origins and distribution of Earth-like life in the solar system and around nearby stars. In choosing this focus, they deliberately excluded entities that may possibly live somewhere in the cosmos, not violating any currently known law of nature, yet being so different from our water and carbon based life that we might not even recognize them as alive. Within this scope, the team examined ways to investigate and possibly discover other life, from bacteria to galactic civilizations, and they also considered the likely social effects of a confirmed discovery. The focus of the report, along with the format, style, and management behind it, is the product of the participating students. The document you are reading is unique – its breadth and perspective could not be matched by a consultant, company, or national space agency. More than the results of an academic exercise,