Astrobiology Program Strategy Process Update

Betcha didn’t know that the unofficial motto of NASA’s Astrobiology Program was “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of Congressional paralysis stays these scientists from the swift completion of their appointed webinars” 😉

Although NASA was shutdown, the Astrobiology Strategy webinars continued through the great work of Andy Burnett and the folks at KnowInnovation! Thanks so much for keeping us from losing too much momentum.

The webinars that occurred during the shutdown were recorded and we encourage you to view them via: http://astrobiologyfuture.org

The schedule of up-coming webinars is also posted there.

We realize that other civil servants may not have been able to participate and that the altered scheduled and format may have excluded others. However, the webinars are only intended as a kick-off to open discussion on a concept paper and to give the community a sense of the thought processes that led to the current form of the document. For those of you that missed the webinars it’s not too late to add your voice to our conversation about the future directions of astrobiology research. We encourage everyone to review the concept documents, comment on them, and participate in the discussion about them.

Once again, thanks to KnowInnovation and all the webinar attendees and participants who kept the astrobiology fires burning while we civil servants were restrained from working. Onward!

Michael New
NASA Headquarters