Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System

by Paul Clancy , André Brack , Gerda Horneck

• ISBN13: 9780521124546
• ISBN10: 0521124549
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

How did life begin on Earth? Is it confined to our planet? Will humans one day be able to travel long distances in space in search of other life forms? Written by three experts in the space arena, Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System aims to answer these and other intriguing questions. Beginning with what we understand of life on Earth, it describes the latest ideas about the chemical basis of life as we know it, and how they are influencing strategies to search for life elsewhere. It considers the ability of life, from microbes to humans, to survive in space, on the surface of other planets, and be transported from one planet to another. It looks at the latest plans for missions to search for life in the Solar System, and how these are being influenced by new technologies, and current thinking about life on Earth.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Imperative of Exploration

Exploration as a metaphor

How Can We Know Life?

The molecular basis of life on Earth

The limits to life

The transfer of life between planets

What are the signatures of life?

After the discovery/life as a cosmic phenomenon

The Search for Life Beyond Earth

The prospects for long-duration human space-flight

Human exploration and the search for life

Interplanetary ethics

The Cosmic Biological Imperative

The key technologies for human planetary exploration

Exploration in space

Exploration in time

Prediction, imagination and the role of technology

Our Cosmic Destiny

Our cosmic destiny

Appendices

Index

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