Moonshots and Earthshots in the Search for Life Beyond Earth
July 20-23, 2019 at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) in Green Bank, WV
Supported by a grant from Unither Bioelectronique, in honor of Dr Barry Blumberg, the late Chairman of its corporate parent’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Nobel Laureate Baruch S. “Barry” Blumberg (1925-2011)
Founding Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute
This workshop will bring together thinkers from diverse fields to discuss progress and challenges in Astrobiology that we expect over the next decade (the Earthshots) and future plans that might require several decades work and possibly major technical or intellectual advances (the Moonshots).
I understood that my mandate was to establish a basic science organization that could discover and understand natural phenomena that related to early life and to life elsewhere.
Barry Blumberg, on his appointment as founding director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI).
The workshop will begin on the afternoon of Saturday 20 July and end with lunch on Tuesday 23 July. For logistical reasons it will be limited to about 50 participants.
The detailed workshop program is built around the interests of the participants, but we expect to cover topics including:
- History and status of the search for technosignatures
- Radio emission from planets
- Chemical complexity in the interstellar medium
- Habitable planets in the Milky Way
- The structure and chemistry of planet-forming disks
- Precursors for biotic chemistry in the Solar System
- Searches for life in the Solar System
- Ethics and philosophy of the search for extraterrestrial life
- Exoplanet biosignatures
- Technical developments: telescopes & spacecraft & …
There will also be a presentation about Barry Blumberg and his contributions to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). The isolation and great natural beauty of the Green Bank Observatory leads to workshops of particular intimacy and focus. The many dozens of past Green Bank workshops have included Frank Drake’s 1961 meeting on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a followup “SETI at 50” held fifty years later, and workshops on astrochemistry, cometary radio astronomy, and radio astronomy from space, among many others.
Astrobiology raises the difficult question of how to define life. What is it exactly that we are looking for beyond Earth?
David C. Catling, Astrobiology – A Very Short Introduction, Oxford Press
Program of events
The workshop offers a wide variety of talks and presentations, plus plenty of time to discuss and network with fellow astronomers, physicists, scientists, as well as subject matter experts in the field of Astrobiology. See the full program of events now.
Presentations will be webcast live as they happen.
Archived videos will be shared after the conference is completed.
Scientific Organizing Committee
- Alan Boss (Carnegie Institution for Science)
- Steven Dick (former Library of Congress Blumberg Astrobiology Chair)
- Dawn Gelino (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute)
- Joe Lazio (JPL)
- Jay Lockman (GBO)
- Karen O’Neil (GBO)
- Martine Rothblatt (United Therapeutics)
- Jason Wright (Penn State University)
Local Organizing Committee
- W. Armentrout
- A. Bonsall
- N. Butterfield
- F.J. Lockman
- L. Morgan
- S. Shears
- M. Vosteen
View a List of Confirmed Participants
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Batalha, Natasha [9] | University of California, Santa Cruz |
| Belikov, Ruslan [10] | NASA Ames Research Center |
| Berea, Anamaria [11] | Blue Marble Space Institute of Science |
| Bergin, Ted [12] | University of Michigan |
| Boss, Alan [13] | DTM – Carnegie Institution |
| Boston, Penny [14] | NASA Astrobiology Institute, NASA Ames Research Center |
| Carlson, Rick [15] | DTM – Carnegie Institution |
| Chambers, John [16] | Carnegie Institution for Science |
| Charbonneau, Rebecca [17] | University of Cambridge |
| Christiansen, Jessie [18] | Caltech / IPAC-NExScI |
| Cohen, Adam [19] | Associated Universities, Inc. |
| Conley, Cassie [20] | NASA Ames Research Center |
| Cordiner, Martin [21] | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| Crovetto, George [22] | Clairmont Nichols Opticians |
| Denning, Kathryn [23] | York University |
| De Paulis, Daniela [24] | Daniela De Paulis Studio |
| Dick, Steven [25] | Former NASA Chief Historian |
| Drake, Frank [26] | SETI Institute |
| Drake, Nadia [27] | National Geographic |
| Grinspoon, David [28] | Planetary Science Institute |
| Gupta, Harshal [29] | NSF |
| Impey, Chris [30] | University of Arizona |
| Jihae [31] | musician, actress |
| Kasting, Jim [32] | Penn State University |
| Kellermann, Ken [33] | NRAO |
| Kuhn, Jeff [34] | Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii |
| Kwok, Sun [35] | University of British Columbia |
| Langston, Glen [36] | NSF |
| Lazio, Joseph [37] | Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology |
| Lineweaver, Charles [38] | Australian National University |
| Lockman, Felix J. [39] | Green Bank Observatory |
| Macalady, Jenn [40] | Penn State University |
| MacGregor, Meredith [41] | DTM-Carnegie Institution |
| Mancinelli, Rocco [42] | NASA |
| Mehta, Rajan | DNA |
| Milam, Stefanie [43] | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| Oman-Reagan, Michael [44] | Memorial University |
| O’Neil, Karen [45] | Green Bank Observatory |
| Peters, Ted [46] | Graduate Theological Union |
| Pilcher, Carl [47] | Blue Marble Space Institute of Science |
| Ransom, Scott [48] | NRAO |
| Rothblatt, Martine [49] | United Therapeutics |
| Rothschild, Lynn [50] | NASA Ames Research Center |
| Schwartz, Jim [51] | Wichita State University |
| Siemion, Andrew [52] | Berkeley SETI Research Center |
| Sizemore, Hanna [53] | Planetary Science Institute / Green Bank Observatory |
| Smith, Kelly [54] | Philosophy, Clemson University |
| Tatel, David S. [55] | United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit |
| Weinberger, Alycia [56] | Carnegie Institution for Science |
| Welsh, Barry [57] | Space Science Laboratory, UC Berkeley |
| Werthimer, Dan [58] | University of California, Berkeley |
| Wright, Jason [59] | Penn State University |