We have been exploring the universe for millennia - all the while speculating about life elsewhere. Where do we stand in this quest? We've completed an initial reconnaissance of our solar system and have begun to identify others. We have peered backward in time across great distances to the earliest days of our Universe while simulating the events of those early times in laboratories here on Earth. We know how to live in space for years at a time, and understand both the norms and extremes wherein life thrives on Earth.

We have thrown our machines across and then out of this solar system, and have sent radio waves outwards, forming an irregular bubble perhaps a hundred light years across in the process. The preparatory work has been completed - we know how to find life elsewhere - and where to look.

The National Academy of Sciences convened a workshop in October 1998 to look at how small life on Earth could be. Interest in this topic was spawned, in great part, by the small structures reported in the ALH84001 Martian meteorite. Sadly, the organizer of this fascinating workshop, Joseph Zelibor, died only days before this event as the result of a traffic accident. I spoke with Joe at great length by phone on the day of his accident - alas, only an hour or so before it happened. We talked exclusively about one thing: Astrobiology. Ironically it was both the first and last conversation I was ever to have with him - yet I felt like I had known him for years as I hung up the phone. He was very excited about how Astrobiology was coming into focus. You can be certain that some of the things we spoke of that day are scattered throughout this issue of Ad Astra. In a eulogy delivered at the workshop, Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation, asked the participants "to do as Jody [Joe] Zelibor would have wished you to do - think a bit on the wild side - about possibilities of new ways of assessing and understanding the limits of life forms in structure, function, and survival under the harshest conditions."

That's what Astrobiology is all about folks. All of the amazing things that life has managed to do on Earth are just a small introduction to the myriad possibilities which are to be found out there.

Ex astra - ad astra

Keith Cowing, guest editor

Astrobiology is often described as being "the study of the living universe". With a scope this grand, only a textbook - perhaps several - would be adequate to describe it. Given the pace at which things are being discovered, those books would be out of date before they hit the bookstores. As such, this issue is intended to serve as an appetizer as well as an attempt at an overview.

Panspermia, the theory that life can be spread from one world to another via spores or bacteria, has witnessed renewed interest in the past several years. Let's suppose that this does indeed happen. In "Toilets of the Gods or The Colon-ization of Space" by Noted science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, cautions that the source of our own microbial emissaries might not be what we would prefer it to be ...

Astrobiology is an emerging discipline for the next millennium - one that seeks to build upon previous knowledge obtained by a wide variety of existing disciplines - often in ways NASA and other research agencies haven't thought of before. "Astrobiology 101: Exploring the Living Universe", by Mitchell K. Hobish and Keith Cowing, attempts to capture the flavor of what NASA's Astrobiology program is focusing upon. This introduction is based upon their observations derived from attending a series of NASA Astrobiology workshops held in summer 1998.

These days you need to have an organic chemistry book sitting next to your telescope as you explore the universe: the elements and compounds for life seem to be present everywhere and are woven into the very fabric of the cosmos. In "Ex astra: Life from the Stars - Organic chemistry amidst the stars", by Michael Meyer, the origin, processing, distribution, and recycling of various compounds are discussed, with the end result being planets - and life.

In August 1996, the news of possible fossils from another planet (Mars) spread like wildfire across this planet. After all the hoopla died down, the critics emerged. In "It's dead Jim. But was it ever alive?" NASA's ALH84001 Mars meteorite team takes on those who differ with some or all of the initial suggestions made about this ancient piece of Mars. Specifically, they evaluate the evidence they have accumulated thus far, asking "how well does this piece of Mars meet accepted criteria for evidence of ancient life?" Curiously, there is also an unexpected byproduct of all this research into past Martian life: our view of life on Earth has been affected in ways we hadn't thought of.

Since we're the only species studying biology on this planet, we get to make the classifications - and our environment tends to be the one we consider "normal". For a long time we simply didn't look for life outside these bounds. Enter the extremophiles", organisms that live in "extreme" environments: life we discovered, where we had not expected it to be. "The Search for Extremophiles on Earth and Beyond: What is extreme here may be just business-as-usual elsewhere", by Penny Boston, takes a look at some of the curious forms of life we've found on this planet - and the implications for finding life on other worlds. As our appreciation for what life can tolerate on Earth expands, so does the range of places off this Earth where life might be found.

We live in a time when the news media speaks of emerging diseases that seem to leap out of the jungle. We also live in a time when such lethal organisms are routinely and safely isolated for study in the laboratory so that their secrets can be revealed and their menace defeated. Media attention to this good news is much less prevalent. We will soon be bringing samples back to Earth from other worlds for study. It is possible that they may contain life. We do so for one simple reason: the best resources that we will ever have to study these samples are going to be found here on Earth. In "Bring Em Back Alive-- Or At Least Carefully: Planetary Protection Provisions for Sample Return Missions", by Margaret S. Race and John D. Rummel, explores the issues surrounding the means whereby safety is assured, as well as the societal processes whereby these assurances are developed.

The best laboratory for learning how to search for life on other planets is right under our feet! "Earth Is a Planet, Too! Inhabited Worlds: It takes one to know one", by Mitchell K. Hobish, explores the ways in which Earth serves as an example of the places life might be found elsewhere as well as a being testbed for the technological and human resources required to find life on other worlds. Earth is also a planet, lest we forget, and the study of its geology and biology helps us formulate the study of other worlds - even those circling other stars.

One of the grand schisms running through space advocacy and politics seems to be whether we should send people or robots out to explore space. Often times, adherents to one point of view never stop to look at the merits of the opposite approach. Both sides loose out in the process. In "Robots Vs Humans in space: BOTH will be required", by Gregory Schmidt and Michael Hawes, both approaches are examined. More importantly the synergies between both approaches are highlighted.

Keith Cowing is a consulting astrobiologist, writer, webmaster and recovering ex-civil servant and is self-employed via his company Reston Communications. Mr. Cowing is webmaster for "The Astrobiology Web", "NASA Watch", and "Genomics: A Global Resource". From 1994-98 Cowing worked at the American institute of Biological Sciences where managed various aspects of biomedical peer review for NASA and U.S. Army research programs. From 1990-93, Cowing was a NASA civil servant and served as Manager of Pressurized Payload Accommodations at the Space Station Freedom Program Office. At NASA, he was the Payload Accommodations Manager for the Centrifuge Facility, the Gas-Grain Simulation Facility, the Gravitational Biology Facility, and the CELSS Test Facility. Cowing has both M.A and B.A. degrees in Biology from Central Connecticut State University. He has also worked as a sign language interpreter for the deaf, was a presidential campaign advance man and enjoys running, skiing, hiking, hang gliding, fossil collecting, scuba diving, and rock climbing (Keith and his wife Jenny met while climbing).