Life Beyond Earth: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

The key to life anywhere, including off planet, will be focusing in an ecological approach, both understanding the relationship of the organisms to their environment, and to each other. This includes the fundamental questions of astrobiology: “Where do we come from?”, “Where are we going?” and “Are we alone?” For over a decade NASA has used synthetic biology, which is in simplest form, is creating new capabilities with life, as an enabling technology to answer these questions. Examples will be given for the search for life elsewhere, and notably, the use of synthetic biology as an enabler of human exploration. We have a current satellite mission that combines synthetic biology and the first steps towards enabling a human colony off planet using an ecological approach.