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Advancing Astrobiology: The Search for Signs of Life Elsewhere in the Universe
Summary
NASA should invest in a comprehensive program to answer one of humanity’s biggest questions: “Are we alone?”
The United States has the scientific and technological prowess to find possible evidence of past or present life in our solar system. Over the last decade, the space science community has discovered Earth-like planets around other stars. The United States has launched Mars 2020—its first astrobiology mission to Mars. The Perseverance Rover will seek signs of ancient life and is part of the initial Mars Sample Return campaign. And, in the coming decade, we are poised for exponential growth in the technology, planetary science, and astrophysics components of the search for life.
Establishing a formal Astrobiology Program Office at NASA would better elevate, coordinate, and guide what could be the agency’s most important mission. Notably, there are currently no NASA programs on astrobiology that integrate across the Astrophysics and Planetary Science divisions in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate along with the technology investments of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA has no astrobiology czar.
Astrobiology is a relatively modern scientific field of study that has been enabled by a suite of robotic space missions and next-generation telescopes. We now have the potential to reveal new insights into the fundamental nature of life across the universe and our own planet.
The SIPRI chapter describes the nuclear weapon modernization programs underway in each nuclear-armed state and provides estimates for how many nuclear warheads each country possesses.
FAS researchers Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda with the Nuclear Information Project write in the new SIPRI Yearbook 2024, released today.
The total number of U.S. nuclear warheads are now estimated to include 1,770 deployed warheads, 1,938 reserved for operational forces. An additional 1,336 retired warheads are awaiting dismantlement, for a total inventory of 5,044 warheads.
A military depot in central Belarus has recently been upgraded with additional security perimeters and an access point that indicate it could be intended for housing Russian nuclear warheads for Belarus’ Russia-supplied Iskander missile launchers.