Habitable Worlds (ROSES 2024)

The goal of the Habitable Worlds program is to use knowledge of the history of the Earth and the life upon it as a guide for determining the processes and conditions that create and maintain habitable environments (including transient environments) and to search for ancient and contemporary habitable environments and explore the possibility of extant life beyond the Earth.

NASA's Habitable Worlds Program includes elements of the Astrobiology Program, the Mars Exploration Program, the Outer Planets Program, the Planetary Protection Research Program (all in the Planetary Science Division) and Living With a Star in Heliophysics. A common goal of these programs is to identify the characteristics and the distribution of potentially habitable environments in the solar system and beyond. This research is conducted in the context of NASA’s ongoing exploration of our stellar neighborhood and the identification of biosignatures for in situ and remote sensing applications. For further information on the science scope of Astrobiology, please refer to the Astrobiology strategy, which can be found on the Astrobiology web page at https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/astrobiology-strategy/. Information on the habitability-related goals of the Mars Exploration Program can be found in the "Mars Science Goals, Objectives, Investigations and Priorities: 2020" document, available on the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group web page at https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/reports.cfm. For the Outer Planets Program, refer to the document "Scientific Goals for Exploration of the Outer Solar System," most recently updated in 2019 and found on the Outer Planets Assessment Group web site (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag).

Theoretical and experimental studies will be considered, as well as quantitative terrestrial field experiments that improve scientific understanding of how in situ measurements at analog sites can or will improve our understanding of the potential for the environment to support life. Research areas include, but are not limited to, the presence of water and/or exotic solvents, sources of energy for life, presence of organics and their reactivity, and water body physics and chemistry as they pertain to habitability and habitability over time, as well as space weather signatures that may be indicative of impacts to planetary habitability.

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