Keith’s note: NASA’s budget is going to be slashed one way or another. Despite all the talk about making NASA more focused – or efficient – or “greater”, NASA science will suffer. Scores of missions will either be canceled, shutdown, or put on indefinite pause. Meanwhile Europe and our officially designated foe China surge ahead to fill gaps that we have created. NASA has yet to find the secret sauce wherein they can walk and chew gum at the same time. i.e. do astonishing things that no one has done before while conveying the scientific value of these accomplishments to decision makers and simultaneously, the practical, everyday utility to people and families as they try and make it through their daily lives. For what it is worth, as I have noted before: NASA has led space science and “Made America Great In Space” for more than half a century. Let’s not let that science leadership fade. Let’s expand it further. This won’t happen on its own. NASA must get its act together, find its mojo again, and put forth the multiple reasons why we should use and explore space – tailored to the various audiences who need – and deserve – to be informed. One size does not fit all. While NASA needs to learn how to explain itself to citizens and policymakers, how it explains its accomplishments on the global stage should be simple. Very simple – since NASA has led the way by:

• touching the sun
• visiting every planet in our solar system
• discovering over 6,000 planets orbiting other stars
• launched the first weather and Earth resource satellites
• sending humans to walk on another world
• doing the first offworld search for life
• moving an asteroid
• finding water on the Moon and Mars
• discovering oceans inside icy moons
• sailing across interstellar space
• peering back to the dawn of the universe
• developing a global brand that all nations aspire to

Keith’s note: according to NBC “A large swath of the U.S. currently does not have the basic, ground-level immunity necessary to stop the spread of viruses that had once receded into the past, a six-month NBC News investigation in collaboration with scientists at Stanford University finds.” Given public policy ignorance that substitutes for epidemiology (Science) I can’t wait for all of the public opinion rants and arm waving about the Environmental Impact Studies for NASA Mars Sample return to Earth. That is – if that mission ever actually happens. Then it’s up to China to worry about this. Or not.

Keith’s Note: I just spoke with Deutsche Welle about the NASA announcement of biosignatures on Mars [Audio]

Keith’s note: I have been editing Astrobiology.com – @Astrobiology – for 30 years. I ran peer review panels for NASA Exobiology research before that. There have been a lot of “almost” announcements over the past 30 or so years – but this one is really solid. We have not found extant life on Mars – but we seem to have found remnants of something biological from Mars’ deep past aka ‘biosignatures’ – in rocks ~350 million years old which match rocks of similar ages – with biosignatures – that we find here on our own planet from Early Earth. See NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year.

Keith’s note: according to “NASA to Share Details of New Perseverance Mars Rover Finding“ there will be some Mars news – likely Astrobiology related – announced at 11 am EDT Wednesday 10 Sep. Just a guess …. from 56th LPSC a few months ago: “The Detection of a Potential Biosignature By the Perseverance Rover on Mars“ by upcoming press event participant Joel Hurowitz: “Upon entering Neretva Vallis,Perseverance investigated a set of distinct mudstone and conglomerate outcrops. We report on measurements from these rocks and describe the discovery of a potential biosignature”. Again, just a guess. Watch live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-StZggK4hhA

Keith’s note: two items from NASA about the Dragonfly mission just dropped – almost simultaneously: “Dragonfly Astrobiology Mission Progresses Through Key Development And Test Activities“, which spins things in a positive light and highlights progress made thus far, and “NASA’s Management Of The Dragonfly Project“ from the NASA Office of Inspector General which highlights schedule delays and cost overruns for Dragonfly. NASA PAO usually has a heads up from OIG that a report is coming out. Or maybe it is just a coincidence. That said, NASA is simply ignoring the true progress of this mission and why it has been delayed. Oh yes and NASA has immense budget pressures right now.

• NASA OIG says: “In January 2022, Dragonfly was approved to continue development with an updated estimated life-cycle cost range of $2.1 to $2.5 billion and expected launch date of June 2027. Then in March 2023, NASA directed project officials to initiate a replan due to funding constraints. The replan, which was completed in July 2023, included new cost, staffing, and schedule plans. As a result, the project estimated a new launch readiness date of July 2028 with an expected arrival at Titan in 2034. By the time NASA formally established the project’s cost and schedule baseline in April 2024, life-cycle costs had grown to $3.35 billion and the launch readiness date was delayed by over 2 years.”
• NASA PAO says “NASA’s Dragonfly mission has cleared several key design, development and testing milestones and remains on track toward launch in July 2028.” (no mention of any cost overruns. delays etc.)

Update: see below. Science Magazine is trying to bully me. Keith’s note: Science magazine is retracting a NASA paper they published 15 years ago – “A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus“ – but they are not saying exactly why they are doing so – other than a new standard they just invented. And it took them 15 years to figure this out. Statement from NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate Nicola Fox: (more below)

Keith’s note: I was planning on retiring and writing my book on Astrobiology expeditions to other worlds. Then Trump 2.0 happened and everyone suddenly wanted NASAWatch back. That said, I am still trying to escape reality for several hours a day and travel on a personal Away Team sortie into the future. I hope y’all can do that too. I just posted this NOAA discovery of an alien-looking species on Astrobiology.com with an editor’s note: “One day we will begin a detailed exploration of ocean worlds other than our own. Hopefully they will be habitable – and inhabited. Given that we still find new life forms on Earth – things which also seem strange by comparison to what has already been discovered, we have along way to go – on this world. As such it make sense to practice the skills of exploration and discover on a world close to us and our tools. In so doing we need to develop some translatable skills that we can apply to the robotic and human exploration of these other worlds. Expeditions and discoveries as describe below still happen. And the more we look, the more we discover. This story is about the newly-named Advhena magnifica (Advhena is derived from advena in Latin which means “alien”). How are we going to name the new life forms that we discover offworld? Will we use the same Latin-based binomial naming system that is used on Earth, perhaps adapt it with a new prefix or suffix, or pick another language? Or go digital? Something to think about.” Full post

Keith’s note: this web reel was just posted by CNN from the end of my interview this morning. OK, I have just about run out of ways / platforms to wave my arms and talk about what NASA needs in order to explore the universe. Your turn. “NASA needs a permanent administrator who understands rocket science and knows how all this stuff works and is committed to lead the agency through these troubles to, you know, better times. That isn’t happening. And it’s very frustrating to the 17-18,000 civil servants and several hundred thousand contractors and the people of America. Please Mr. President send us a real NASA Administrator so we can get on with the whole explore the universe thing.”

Keith’s note: Those of you in the space community know that NASA Science is facing an immense budget cut. Dozens of missions have been cancelled and many missions that are still returning valuable data are being shut off – in many cases to save a few million dollars – a tiny fraction of what it took to mount the missions in the first place. This data will be lost. In the case of New Horizons which is currently traversing the outer solar system, NASA is going to knowingly forfeit a third interstellar mission (after the twin Voyagers). This latest interstellar mission would be done with a healthy spacecraft outfitted with 21st century instrumentation. The Voyagers are minimally functional and will soon fade all together. We could continue to expand America’s pre-eminent exploration of interstellar space until the middle of this century. And that lead will last unchallenged for a generation or more to come. As I noted last month “This is not the way for America to lead the way out into the cosmos. Hopefully Congress will wake up and notice. Let’s ‘Keep America Great In Space’ — not abandon our lead.” More: Stellar Cartography: A Demonstration Of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons.

Keith’s note: As you have probably heard by now the elements that compose Earth and all of the life on it came from the stars. Meteorites from comets and asteroids constantly bombard our home world and sometimes cause dramatic changes to its environment. Radiation from our local star drives our ecosystems. Distant events such as supernovae and gamma ray bursts may directly impact life. We are made of star stuff as Carl Sagan once said – but were are still connected to things beyond out home world. Life forms can respond to gravity vectors, temperature and pressure changes, chemical gradients, Earth’s magnetic field, and radiation sources – all of which overlap and interact and have been shaping our world since it first formed. Another omnipresent feature has been the stars in the night sky. Due to the way Earth orbits the sun and the distant, slowly changing nature of star patterns, it is not surprising that various life forms evolved the ability to use the stars to navigate from one place to another for food, mating, hibernation etc. Some life forms even use lunar cycles (“months”) to drive their behavior. In the example below, Bogong moths use the night sky to guide them during long-distance travel. More at Astrobiology.com: Bogong Moths Use Stars In The Night Sky To Navigate Hundreds Of Kilometers

Keith’s note: Last night NASA SMD AA Nicky Fox was presented with the Collier Award for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – an astonishing mission that has literally touched the sun. NASA Comptroller nominee Greg Autry congratulated her with a tweet adding “Go NASA Science”. This morning the @NASASpaceSci Twitter account announced that it was being shut down and swallowed into a larger effort somewhere at NASA. Yet another example of how the NASA FY 2026 budget and other Administration Executive Orders and memos have moved to gut NASA’s science budget, cancel missions, eliminate external research grants, stiff other space agencies with international agreements, and cut personnel. Weirdly, (soon to be) Administration personnel like Autry try to laud NASA science. Some political staff at NASA even try to take credit for missions started and launched by other presidents. Alas, Autry will preside over the cancellation of all these science activities and he’ll write glowing tweets about what he cut. It’s now all Flags and Footprints. Science is a buzz word used as hashtag windowdressing in social media. If Greg Autry wants to cheer on Science at NASA then he’ll need to support it too after he arrives.

“Dear ASGSR (American Society for Gravitational and Space Research) Members and Friends, As you may have heard, the President’s Budget Request (PBR) was recently released and includes severe cuts to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. More specifically, NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division (BPS), which funds a lot of our research, faces a draconian 72% reduction in funds from $87.5M to just $25M. This budget includes only $13M for Physical Sciences research, $4M for Space Biology, and $4M for the CERISS initiative.” More

Keith’s note: Thomas Zurbuchen was the longest serving Associate Administrator of the NASA Space Science Directorate. In this interview with Kristin Fisher, Zurbuchen warns that the proposed budget would send parts of NASA’s science portfolio “out of business,” undermine American leadership in space science, and risk a mass exodus of talent from NASA’s ranks. Link. Video below.

Keith’s note: On 25 May @ScienceMagazine tweeted a link to an article in Science Robotics magazine about a NASA Europa mission concept. So did @SciRobotics. The tweets referred to an article in the 21 May edition of Science Robotics: “Autonomous surface sampling for the Europa Lander mission concept“ written by 21 authors – all of whom work for NASA JPL, or related institutions. Cool stuff – yes? They have been testing it in Alaska. But the article is behind a paywall. I was able to find pieces of the article elsewhere – including a video – but without a subscription to Science Robotics I have to pay extra to read this article – an article written by NASA-funded people about a NASA-funded mission concept. I searched for “Europa lander” at NASA .gov and was sent to https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-lander/ which is a dead link and this page from 2017. NASA is supposed to be making these materials available to all taxpayers. But they don’t. Then the NASA folks moan and groan about missions being cut – and see that polls reflect public apathy toward NASA – when they simply do not have the initiative to highlight all of their cool stuff in the first place. NASA has easy access to immense social media, web, and TV audiences but PAO has no clue how to make the best use of this reach. Just sayin’. See: “Europa Astrobiology Lander Mission Concept: Autonomous Surface Sampling” at Astrobiology.com

Keith’s note: NASA’s Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups have issued a document dated 6 May 2025, titled “AGness”. According to the authors (which has been annotated to enhance clarity, original document below), addressing members of the planetary science community: “The linked document below, The Keys of AGness, is a product of the collective Planetary Analysis and Assessment Groups (AGs), presented by their Chairs and vetted through their respective Steering/Executive Committees, and with community feedback. It captures what the community sees as the key pillars and important role of the AGs in the advancement of planetary science now and as we move into the future. The intended audience is multifold and includes NASA leadership, who are in the process of re-imagining the AG structure and support mechanism, and the broader planetary science community as a general reference and reminder of the forums, community building, support, repositories, and voice that the AGs provide.”

Keith’s note: According to “Slope Streaks on Mars – Not A Sign Of Water After All?” from Brown University: “A new study led by the University of Bern and Brown University in the U.S. casts doubt on one of the most tantalizing clues that water might be flowing on present-day Mars. Researchers analyzed a global database of 500,000 enigmatic streaks that occur on steep Martian slopes, concluding that they’re most likely caused by dry processes rather than liquid flow.” This could have important impacts on Mars exploration – by droids as well as humans. Remember that whole ‘water may be flowing on the surface of Mars’ thing back in 2000? (NASAWatch broke the story). People went totally crazy. Now there’s a suggestion that things are possibly different than we thought. Will NASA’s Astrobiology program mention it? Most likely not.

Keith’s note: Here we go again. With all the things being cut at NASA, you’d think that the NASA Astrobiology team would at least try and stand up and show their relevance. Guess again.

• The top story on NASA.gov Wednesday night is: “Another First: NASA Webb Identifies Frozen Water in Young Star System“ – Water Water Water 💧🫧💦🌧️ – it is one of the key things that Astrobiology looks for and thinks about. But there is no mention of this “First” discovery at @nasaastrobio or astrobiology.nasa.gov – and the scientific paper is behind a paywall. Update: here’s the paper on astro-ph https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08863 – NASA still points to the paywall version.
• On Wednesday morning NASA and ESA announced “Webb’s Titan Forecast: Partly Cloudy With Occasional Methane Showers“ – interesting JWST studies of the atmosphere of Titan – a prime target for Astrobiology exploration – especially the $3 billion+ Dragonfly mission. But astrobiology.nasa.gov or @nasaastrobio make no mention. The scientific paper cited in the press release is behind a paywall (again).
• Is Astrobiology As Boring As NASA Thinks It is? (earlier post) – Next to searching for the origin of the universe, searching for life elsewhere in the cosmos is one of the most profound things NASA does. If only NASA would act that way.

Keith’s 13 May update: someone at NASA fixed the calendar page at astrobiology.nasa.gov. Nothing else was changed. FWIW the NASA search engine still does not know where that website is. Keith’s 10 May note: We’re all concerned about things going offline, cancelled etc. While we only have the “skinny” budget from OMB, it is obvious that big cuts are coming to NASA space science. You’d think that NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) disciplines would be standing up to show their stuff – their value – as a hedge against possible cuts. Some are. Others are not. Indeed NASA seems utterly uninterested in telling you that it is spending billions of dollars on Astrobiology research and missions. Next to searching for the origin of the universe, searching for life elsewhere in the cosmos is one of the most profound things NASA does. If only NASA would act that way.