Doctoral Dissertation Research: Astrobiological Models in NASA's Search for Microbial Life

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

How do scientists search for evidence of life on Mars and how does this relate to knowledge about life on Earth? NASA astrobiology scientists in the United States are leading the efforts to search for microbial life on other planets, for the purpose of understanding how life on Earth originated and whether non-Earth environments can support life. In NASA, the search for life takes place at the microbial level. While scientists have devised precise techniques for detecting microbial life on Earth, they are unsure of the forms Martian microbes could take. In order to prepare for interplanetary missions, scientists must find ways to imagine and detect non-Earth life. The way that NASA scientists imagine non-Earth life shifts ways in which life on Earth is defined. This project, which trains a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores how astrobiological models and mission plans develop as scientists imagine Earth microbial in relation to extraterrestrial life. The project outcomes and plans for dissemination of its data and findings will complement recent efforts by NASA to increase public involvement in discussing and participating in future space missions, such demonstrated by STEM education initiatives to promote student experiments on the ISS and inviting public opinion on Mars Sample Return mission concepts. Additionally, the project broadens the participation of groups historically underrepresented in science. Dana Burton, under the supervision of Dr. Ilana Feldman of the George Washington University will explore the research processes that NASA scientists employ to imagine, define, and detect non-Earth life, and probe the networks through which they debate this knowledge, amidst growing public interests in deteriorating climatic conditions on Earth and commercial interests in accessing other planetary bodies. The research for this anthropological doctoral dissertation will take place at two facilities: Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Ames scientists are interested in the biological definitions and delimitations of life, while JPL scientists are in charge of constructing technologies that conduct science in space, such as rovers. Through interviews, observations, and analysis of archival data, the researcher will study these sites in unison to understand both how life is defined (particularly by observing scientific research (in the lab and in the desert) of life forms that live in extreme environments) and how the durability of mission technologies is tested. In so doing, this project will comment on how scientists are preparing for explorations of life and the environments supporting life in space. Overall, this research endeavors to understand how scientific knowledge about astrobiology is produced and how it may shift conceptualizations of life in significant ways on Earth. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.