The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) was established in 1998 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) "to develop the field of astrobiology

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry,...

 and provide a scientific framework for flight missions". The NAI is a virtual, distributed organization that integrates astrobiology research and training programs in concert with the national and international science communities. Since 2006, the director of the institute has been Carl Pilcher.

History

Although NASA had explored the idea of forming an astrobiology institute in the past, when the Viking biological experiments

Viking biological experiments

The two Viking spacecraft each carried four types of biological experiments to the surface of Mars in the late 1970s. These were the first Mars landers to carry out experiments to look for biosignatures of life on Mars. The landers used a robotic arm to put soil samples into sealed test containers...

 returned negative results for life on Mars

Life on Mars

Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. Fictional Martians have been a recurring feature of popular entertainment of the 20th and 21st centuries, but it remains an open question whether life currently exists on...

, the public lost interest and federal funds for exobiology dried up. In 1996, the announcement of possible traces of ancient life in the ALH 84001 meteorite from Mars led to new interest in the subject. At the same time, NASA developed the Origins Program

Origins Program

NASA's Origins program is a decades-long study addressing the origins of the universe, various astronomical bodies, and life. The Origins program was started in the 1990s.So far, it consists of the following missions:* Hubble Space Telescope*...

, broadening its reach from exobiology to astrobiology, the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

In 1998, $9 million was set aside to fund the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI),an interdisciplinary research effort using the expertise of different scientific research institutions and universities from across the country, centrally linked to Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California

Mountain View, California

-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...

. Gerald Soffen

Gerald Soffen

Dr. Gerald A. Soffen , known as Jerry or Gerry, was a NASA scientists and educator who served in a wide variety of roles for the space agency, primarily dealing with either education or with life sciences—especially the search for life on Mars.He earned his A.B.S. from the University of California,...

 former Project Scientist with the Viking program, helped coordinate the new institute. In May, NASA selected eleven science teams, each with a Principal Investigator (PI). NAI was established in July with Scott Hubbard as interim director. Nobel laureate Baruch S. Blumberg was appointed the first director of the institute, and served from May 15, 1999–October 14, 2002.

On 2 December 2010 the Institute announced that it had discovered the first microorganism able to live and reproduce using arsenic

Arsenic

Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...

. The GFAJ-1

GFAJ-1

GFAJ-1 is a strain of rod-shaped bacterium in the family Halomonadaceae. The extremophile was isolated from the hypersaline and alkaline Mono Lake in eastern California by a research team led by NASA astrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon...

 bacterium was found by NASA researchers at Mono Lake

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...

 in California.

Program

The NASA Astrobiology Program includes the NAI as one of four components, including the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program; the Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID) Program; and the Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP)

Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP)

Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets is a program established by NASA to sponsor research projects that advance the technology and techniques used in planetary exploration...

 Program. Program budgets for fiscal year 2008 were as follows: NAI, $16 million; Grants for the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program, $11 million; ASTID, $9 million; ASTEP, $5 million.

Teams

NAI is a partnership between NASA and its NAI Teams or nodes. Past and present teams are:

Arizona State University Arizona State University Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona... Carnegie Institution of Washington Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States... Harvard University Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... Indiana University Indiana University Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000... Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena... Johnson Space Center Marine Biological Laboratory Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory is an international center for research and education in biology, biomedicine and ecology. Founded in 1888, the MBL is the oldest independent marine laboratory in the Americas, taking advantage of a coastal setting in the Cape Cod village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts... Michigan State University Michigan State University Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,... MIT Montana State University NASA Ames Research Center NASA Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other... NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service... Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's... Scripps Research Institute SETI Institute SETI Institute The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to “explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe”. SETI stands for the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence". One program is the use of both radio and optical telescopes to search... University of Arizona University of Arizona The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885... University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA... University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses... University of Colorado, Boulder University of Hawaii, Manoa University of Rhode Island University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island is the principal public research university in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Its main campus is located in Kingston. Additional campuses include the Feinstein Campus in Providence, the Narragansett Bay Campus in Narragansett, and the W. Alton Jones Campus in West... University of Washington University of Washington University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University... University of Wisconsin Virtual Planetary Laboratory

Research

Selected, significant topics of interdisciplinary research by NAI as of 2008:

• Early habitability of Earth
• The rise of oxygen and Earth's "middle age"
• Snowball Earth
  Snowball Earth
  The Snowball Earth hypothesis posits that the Earth's surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen at least once, some time earlier than 650 Ma . Proponents of the hypothesis argue that it best explains sedimentary deposits generally regarded as of glacial origin at tropical...
  
  
• Microbial mat
  Microbial mat
  A microbial mat is a multi-layered sheet of micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and archaea. Microbial mats grow at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces but a few survive in deserts. They colonize environments ranging in temperature from –40°C to +120°C...
  
   ecology
• Discovery of the "rare biosphere
  Rare biosphere
  Changes in the biodiversity of an ecosystem, whether marine or terrestrial, may affect its efficiency and function. Disruption due to climate change, or other anthropogenic perturbations can result in decreased productivity and in some cases lead to disruptions in global biogeochemical cycles...
  
  "
• Sub-seafloor life
• Metal isotope tracers of environment and biology
• Life without the Sun
• Early wet Mars
  Water on Mars
  Water on Mars is a psychedelic rock and electronic music group from Quebec City, Québec, Canada. The music trio is led by Philippe Navarro, guitarist, vocalist, arranger, producer, principal lyricist, and music composer....
  
  
• Methane on Mars
• Comets in space and in the laboratory
• Exoplanet discovery and analysis
  Methods of detecting extrasolar planets
  Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of detecting such a faint light source, the light from the parent star causes a glare that washes it out...
  
  
• Modeling exoplanet biospheres