Exobiology 



Recommendation 



• NASA should initiate the SETI Microwave Observing Project now and take 

 the following steps toward its completion: 



— Build a fully functional, prototype SETI system, test it in the field, and 

 use it to carry out the Microwave Observing Project. 



— Conduct the Targeted Search and Sky Survey of the SETI MOP. 



Relationships Between Exobiology and Other 

 Research Programs 



No basic research program comparable in scientific scope to the Exobiology 

 Program exists elsewhere in the world. The goals and objectives of the program 

 are of great interest among scientists around the world, and the number of 

 investigators conducting exobiological research in Europe, Japan, India, and the 

 Soviet Union is growing. NASA should encourage the development of a broad 

 international community of exobiologists to stimulate the research area and to 

 expand awareness of the unique contributions made by its space missions to this 

 fundamental field of research. 



Unlike the discipline-oriented scientific investigations supported by the National 

 Science Foundation (NSF) and other funding agencies, the research encompassed 

 by the Exobiology Program is strongly interdisciplinary and often mission oriented. 

 Studies of Antarctic microbial ecosystems, however, are supported jointly by 

 NASA's Exobiology Program and by the NSF's Division of Polar Programs. The 

 opportunity to broaden the active scientific constituency of the Exobiology 

 Program suggests that more such coordination would be beneficial. 



The Exobiology Program is closely connected to other NASA programs. Because it 

 deals in large measure with the history of life on Earth, the Exobiology Program 

 establishes an interface with the Life Sciences Division's Biospherics Research 

 Program, which is concerned with understanding the present relationship between 

 life and its environment on Earth. In principle, hypotheses generated by the 

 Biospherics Research Program, as well as related programs in OSSA's Earth 

 Science and Applications Division, can be tested through study of the geological 

 record. In turn, interpretations of the geological record of biological evolution can 

 be assessed in light of knowledge of the present biosphere-geosphere system. For 

 these reasons, the Life Sciences Division should exploit opportunities to coordi- 

 nate activities of the Exobiology and the Biospherics Research Programs that will 

 lead to mutual enhancement. 



The scientific goals of the Exobiology Program also complement those of other 

 divisions within NASA. Investigations of other bodies in the solar system for 

 information pertinent to the origin of life or its precursors formed an integral part 

 of the science objectives identified by the Solar System Exploration Committee of 

 the NASA Advisory Council in its reports, Planetary Exploration Through Year 2000: 

 Part One: A Core Program (7), and Planetary Exploration Tluough Year 2000: Part Two: 



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