Chapter VI 

 Summary of Proposed Experiments 



The next several decades offer many exciting opportunities to conduct exo- 

 biological observations and experiments in Earth orbit, and to attack a wide 

 variety of questions that are not directly amenable to ground-based studies. This 

 summary highlights the most important aspects of the exobiology research 

 identified in this report, prioritizes the various projects, and indicates which can 

 be pursued with facilities available now and which must wait for capabilities that 

 are planned for the future. The order in which the different research topics are 

 discussed in the Observational Exobiology section indicates, by the consensus of 

 the members of this Workshop, their relative importance to exobiology. The 

 ordering within the other two sections, Cosmic Dust Collection and In Situ 

 Experiments, does not imply any prioritization, nor is the order in which the 

 three major sections appear meant to imply anything about their relative impor- 

 tance. These selected experiments are for Earth-orbital activities only, and they 

 augment the very strong interests of the exobiology community in ground-based 

 research and solar system missions. 



6.1 Observational Exobiology 



Since life, as we know it, is a planetary phenomenon, it is of utmost impor- 

 tance to know whether planets exist outside our own solar system. The orbital 

 observatories of the next few decades should allow us to answer this fundamen- 

 tal question. In addition, we anticipate that the greatest increase in our under- 

 standing of the origin and evolution of the biogenic elements will come from the 

 use of telescopes above the Earth's atmosphere, opening up the wavelength 

 region from the far infrared to the submillimeter. This portion of the spectrum 

 provides unique information about many molecules and particles in diverse 



A famous early 20th century engraving (191 1) erroneously thought to be a 17th 

 century woodcut of a Medieval astronomer passing through the sphere of the stars 

 to see the mechanisms of the Ptolemaic universe beyond. (Courtesy of Science 

 Graphics, Tucson, AZ.) 



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