Team:Stanford-Brown/Integrated Practices

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The most obvious application for a bioballoon is atmospheric research on Mars and other planetary bodies. This application inspired our project choice. Planetary scientists hope to find ways to feasibly investigate the life history of other planets while still preserving these spaces as pristine environments for generations of other researchers.

We spoke to several planetary scientists about the profound significance of responsible research on planets like Mars and Venus and on moons like Titan and Europa. These researchers included James Head, Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, investigator on several NASA and Russian Space missions, and current co-investigator for the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; Lynn J. Rothschild, evolutionary biologist and astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, Professor of Astrobiology and Space Exploration at Stanford and Brown Universities, and our team mentor; Jill Tarter, Bernard M. Oliver Chair for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California; and Dr. Alan Stern, former chief of all space and Earth science programs (2007-2008), current leader of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, and current Chief Scientist at World View Enterprises, a company developing high-altitude balloons for commercial use in research and private space exploration. (Click here to see video interviews with Professor Head, Professor Rothschild and Dr. Tarter.)

These researchers conveyed the inestimable value of origin-of-life research on other planets, which helps us better understand and appreciate humans’ position in the universe. Such research forces us to reconsider our definitions of “life” -- if we found “life” on another planet, would we recognize it? -- and to confront the precariousness of human existence -- what were the conditions that allowed life to appear and evolve? Research on Mars also implicitly explores the possibility of human interplanetary colonization.

Mars research (like research on other planets) is expensive in terms of both money and time. It depends upon sturdy, efficient research tools that can supply information to current scientists without compromising future studies. In theory, the ability to develop biological research tools (like our balloon) onsite, eliminating the need to transport additional resources from Earth, would propel such research forward. However, any benefit would be quickly negated if those tools were to contaminate a planet with live organisms from Earth.

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