Morrison D
NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA 94035-1000, USA.
Astrobiology. 2001 Spring;1(1):3-13. doi: 10.1089/153110701750137378.
The new discipline of astrobiology addresses fundamental questions about life in the universe: "Where did we come from?" "Are we alone in the universe?" "What is our future beyond the Earth?" Developing capabilities in biotechnology, informatics, and space exploration provide new tools to address these old questions. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has encouraged this new discipline by organizing workshops and technical meetings, establishing a NASA Astrobiology Institute, providing research funds to individual investigators, ensuring that astrobiology goals are incorporated in NASA flight missions, and initiating a program of public outreach and education. Much of the initial effort by NASA and the research community was focused on determining the technical content of astrobiology. This paper discusses the initial answer to the question "What is astrobiology?" as described in the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap.
“我们从何而来？”“宇宙中只有我们吗？”“地球之外我们的未来是什么？”生物技术、信息学和太空探索能力的发展为解答这些古老问题提供了新工具。美国国家航空航天局（NASA）通过组织研讨会和技术会议、设立NASA天体生物学研究所、向个体研究人员提供研究资金、确保将天体生物学目标纳入NASA飞行任务以及启动公众宣传和教育项目，来推动这一新兴学科的发展。NASA和研究界最初的许多努力都集中在确定天体生物学的技术内容上。本文讨论了NASA天体生物学路线图中对“什么是天体生物学？”这一问题的初步答案。
