Due: by end of December 5, 2022
Searches for life outside the Earth comprise a large part of NASA's current plans.
1. As a guide to how to search for life, we adopt the idea of Life As We Know It (LAWKI). Is the assumption of LAWKI as a foundational principle for our searches sensible? Support your answer with cogent arguments.
2. The idea of Habitable Zone also plays a role in our searches. Based on our thinking of 20 years ago, how was the extent of the Habitable Zone defined for our Solar System? Which planets were suggested to lay in our Solar System's Habitable Zone?
3. Today, how have we changed the criteria used to define the extent of the Habitable Zone in our Solar System? What are the criteria currently used? Do our criteria lead to a simple definition for the range covered by the Habitable Zone in our Solar System? Which Solar Systems objects might lie in the Habitable Zone of our Solar System?
4. Which object(s) offer the best possbilities for the discovery of extra-Terrestrial life in the coming decade?