Life-Detection Technologies for the Next Two Decades

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evolution and future prospects of life-detection technologies in astrobiology, emphasizing recent advancements and the need for unambiguous extraterrestrial life detection methods over the next two decades.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of past, current, and emerging life-detection technologies and discusses future research directions in astrobiology.

Findings

Advances in space-proven payloads enhance detection sensitivity.

Emerging technologies aim for unambiguous extraterrestrial life evidence.

Interdisciplinary approaches are crucial for future progress.

Abstract

Since its inception six decades ago, astrobiology has diversified immensely to encompass several scientific questions including the origin and evolution of Terran life, the organic chemical composition of extraterrestrial objects, and the concept of habitability, among others. The detection of life beyond Earth forms the main goal of astrobiology, and a significant one for space exploration in general. This goal has galvanized and connected with other critical areas of investigation such as the analysis of meteorites and early Earth geological and biological systems, materials gathered by sample-return space missions, laboratory and computer simulations of extraterrestrial and early Earth environmental chemistry, astronomical remote sensing, and in-situ space exploration missions. Lately, scattered efforts are being undertaken towards the R&D of the novel and as-yet-space-unproven life-detection technologies capable of obtaining unambiguous evidence of extraterrestrial life, even if it is significantly different from Terran life. As the suite of space-proven payloads improves in breadth and sensitivity, this is an apt time to examine the progress and future of life-detection technologies.