Space Biology: The Past, The Present, The Future

Abstract

Space has always been an object of fascination since the beginning of time. Scientists have always studied the stars and the study of space biology, also called astrobiology, has been around since NASA’s establishment in 1958. NASA defines Space Biology as the “research to build a better understanding of how spaceflight affects living systems.” NASA’s founded its Astrobiology Program in 1960, although it was called exobiology then. Exobiology is simply the study of life on other planets or in space. The program originally started as studying how life began, both on Earth and if it could exist on other planets. NASA actually funded its first exobiology project in 1959, before the start of the official program. This small project started as trying to design an instrument to detect microbial life in extraterrestrial environments. Soon after, NASA joined into researching an emerging idea known as SETI: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This idea spread and eventually began NASA’s famous Project Orion, to build a vehicle safe for human space travel.