The Search for Life's Origins


Book Description

The field of planetary biology and chemical evolution draws together experts in astronomy, paleobiology, biochemistry, and space science who work together to understand the evolution of living systems. This field has made exciting discoveries that shed light on how organic compounds came together to form self-replicating molecules-the origin of life. This volume updates that progress and offers recommendations on research programs-including an ambitious effort centered on Mars-to advance the field over the next 10 to 15 years. The book presents a wide range of data and research results on these and other issues: The biogenic elements and their interaction in the interstellar clouds and in solar nebulae. Early planetary environments and the conditions that lead to the origin of life. The evolution of cellular and multicellular life. The search for life outside the solar system. This volume will become required reading for anyone involved in the search for life's beginnings-including exobiologists, geoscientists, planetary scientists, and U.S. space and science policymakers.




Life on Mars


Book Description

The search for life on Mars—and the moral issues confronting us as we prepare to send humans there Does life exist on Mars? The question has captivated humans for centuries, but today it has taken on new urgency. As space agencies gear up to send the first manned missions to the Red Planet, we have a responsibility to think deeply about what kinds of life may already dwell there—and whether we have the right to invite ourselves in. Telling the complete story of our ongoing quest to answer one of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy, David Weintraub grapples with the profound moral and ethical questions confronting us as we prepare to introduce an unpredictable new life form—ourselves—into the Martian biosphere. Now with an afterword that discusses the most recent discoveries, Life on Mars explains what we need to know before we go.




Imagined Life


Book Description

The captivating possibilities of extraterrestrial life on exoplanets, based on current scientific knowledge of existing worlds and forms of life 2023 Canopus Awards for Interstellar Writing Finalist It is now known that we live in a galaxy with more planets than stars. The Milky Way alone encompasses 30 trillion potential home planets. Scientists Trefil and Summers bring readers on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life--unlike anything we have experienced so far--that could exist on planets outside our own solar system. Life could be out there in many forms: on frozen worlds, living in liquid oceans beneath ice and communicating (and even battling) with bubbles; on super-dense planets, where they would have evolved body types capable of dealing with extreme gravity; on tidally locked planets with one side turned eternally toward a star; and even on "rogue worlds," which have no star at all. Yet this is no fictional flight of fancy: the authors take what we know about exoplanets and life on our own world and use that data to hypothesize about how, where, and which sorts of life might develop. Imagined Life is a must-have for anyone wanting to learn how the realities of our universe may turn out to be far stranger than fiction.




Planets and Life


Book Description

The Earth is the only planet in the Solar System where liquid water is present on the surface, a condition that seems necessary for the development of life. Its sisters Venus and Mars are extremely different. Why did these three planets, born under fairly comparable conditions, evolve to the conditions we observe today? Understanding the physical or chemical factors that are at the origin of such divergent evolutions is a first step in an approach to the problem of the origin of life on Earth.




Forging the Future of Space Science


Book Description

From September 2007 to June 2008 the Space Studies Board conducted an international public seminar series, with each monthly talk highlighting a different topic in space and Earth science. The principal lectures from the series are compiled in Forging the Future of Space Science. The topics of these events covered the full spectrum of space and Earth science research, from global climate change, to the cosmic origins of life, to the exploration of the Moon and Mars, to the scientific research required to support human spaceflight. The prevailing messages throughout the seminar series as demonstrated by the lectures in this book are how much we have accomplished over the past 50 years, how profound are our discoveries, how much contributions from the space program affect our daily lives, and yet how much remains to be done. The age of discovery in space and Earth science is just beginning. Opportunities abound that will forever alter our destiny.




How We'll Live on Mars


Book Description

Award-winning journalist Stephen Petranek says humans will live on Mars by 2027. Now he makes the case that living on Mars is not just plausible, but inevitable. It sounds like science fiction, but Stephen Petranek considers it fact: Within twenty years, humans will live on Mars. We’ll need to. In this sweeping, provocative book that mixes business, science, and human reporting, Petranek makes the case that living on Mars is an essential back-up plan for humanity and explains in fascinating detail just how it will happen. The race is on. Private companies, driven by iconoclastic entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, and Sir Richard Branson; Dutch reality show and space mission Mars One; NASA; and the Chinese government are among the many groups competing to plant the first stake on Mars and open the door for human habitation. Why go to Mars? Life on Mars has potential life-saving possibilities for everyone on earth. Depleting water supplies, overwhelming climate change, and a host of other disasters—from terrorist attacks to meteor strikes—all loom large. We must become a space-faring species to survive. We have the technology not only to get humans to Mars, but to convert Mars into another habitable planet. It will likely take 300 years to “terraform” Mars, as the jargon goes, but we can turn it into a veritable second Garden of Eden. And we can live there, in specially designed habitations, within the next twenty years. In this exciting chronicle, Petranek introduces the circus of lively characters all engaged in a dramatic effort to be the first to settle the Red Planet. How We’ll Live on Mars brings firsthand reporting, interviews with key participants, and extensive research to bear on the question of how we can expect to see life on Mars within the next twenty years.




Rare Earth


Book Description

What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.




Critical Perspectives on the Viability of Human Life on Other Planets


Book Description

Recent technological developments have opened up the possibility of colonizing other planets. Some experts argue that space colonization will be essential for the survival of the human species. Students will analyze and evaluate experts' opinions on space colonization in order to reach their own conclusions, and expand their horizons.




Out of the Silent Planet


Book Description

The first novel in C.S. Lewis's sci-fi trilogy, which tells the adventure of Dr Ransom who was kidnapped and transported to another planet.




The Allies of Humanity Book Three


Book Description

The Allies of Humanity Book Three presents the third set of Briefings from an off-planet source whose stated purpose is to prepare the human family for the realities of life in our local universe and to alert us to an alien Intervention now taking place on Earth. The Allies of Humanity claim to represent a group of “free worlds” in our local region of space who do not pursue intervention or domination of other worlds, but instead seek to support freedom and sovereignty in emerging worlds such as our own. Here the Allies distinguish themselves from the Intervention into our world by exploitative commercial forces they call “the Collectives” whose activities represent a dark agenda kept secret for over half a century. The Allies of Humanity Briefings reveal the four major activities of this alien agenda and give us a clear picture of who is visiting our world, why they are here and what they ultimately want. The Briefings also give us a window into the reality of life beyond our world, a view that we would never have otherwise, revealing the nature of trade, travel and interaction between worlds and the challenges humanity will face in our local environment of space. With this the Allies make clear that we are in the unfortunate position of being a native world discovered by powerful forces from beyond. History has taught us the danger and the tragedy that native peoples faced when they encountered outside forces for the first time. Now we are all the natives of a new world facing the threat of Intervention. The Allies Briefings give us the key information we need to understand the Intervention, to protect ourselves from its activities and ultimately safeguard our world from its agenda. With this, we are also given a new vision of humanity’s future in space and a pathway to cultivating a greater unity and freedom in our world as we emerge into a larger universe of intelligent life.




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