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Start Here for Space: Surviving the Solar System

Originally aired on: May 13, 2021

Understanding how life can survive in harsh environments and how we can apply that knowledge to space exploration is critical to the success of other planetary habitation. Join us as experts discuss how they search for life in extreme environments, similar to what we anticipate finding on other planets, and how that life can survive and thrive. Space exploration and the future colonization of the Moon and Mars was a key topic at the 2023 Space Symposium.

Moderated by: Dr. Trista J. Vick-Majors

Speakers

Tessa Fisher is a PhD candidate, astrobiologist, SFF author, and advocate for LGBT visibility in the sciences. Her research is primarily focused on using network theory to hopefully develop better biosignatures and technosignatures for exoplanets, based on their atmospheric composition. This approach, versatile and resilient in the face of high uncertainty, also offers the possibility of a universal biosignature, independent of the biochemistry involved.

am an environmental microbiologist who examines how microbial life persists within extreme subsurface environments such as permafrost (permanently frozen ground) and oceanic crust/marine sediments. Because of the sheer amount of these subsurface environments on Earth, these microorganisms make up the most abundant lifeforms on our planet - yet they remain poorly understood. To carry out my research, I employ a combination of genomic sequencing with culturing, microbial metabolic activity and viability measurements both in the field and in the laboratory. While less than 1% of known microorganisms can be cultivated in the lab and are known to us solely through molecular analyses, this approach results in a more holistic understanding of environmental microbiology than genomic analyses alone. Understanding subsurface life assists in the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system where the subsurface may be the most habitable of our likely targets.

Dr. Jackie Goordial

I am a Research Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in life in extreme environments and their preservation within the mineral and rock record. I am also a research affiliate in Mineral Sciences at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.

Dr. Trista J. Vick-Majors

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