Welcome to the TREATAE Network website. This website contains links to UK Universities and SME's that are involved in Astrobiology research or work in closely associated supporting technologies. This site contains a list of conferences, potential funding opportunities and has facilities for posting messages or locating contact details via private links.

Take part in the Astrobiology Society of Great Britain Astrobiology and Education Survey here.

A list of workshops supported by TREATAE can be found here.

 

Topics Covered by Network

The network involves interaction between several subject areas representing the contribution that physical scientists and engineers make to all stages of Astrobiological Exploration; from the development of ideas on the chemical origins of life to the more obvious areas such as sample analysis and retrival.

Three themes or general topics for which the transfer of technology or adaptaion of ideas is important are described in the following sections.

 

Workshops

Future Workshops  

Future workshops are planned on the topics of "New techniques for Astrobiology and the Life Sciences", "New Science of Astrobiology, principals and applications" and "Raman Spectroscopy Database". Details of how to register interest can be found here.

Organic geochemists in Astrobiology and Astrobiology in organic geochemistry

Various areas of astrobiology are cross-disciplinary in nature and draw on aspects of biology, geology, chemistry and analytical technologies. Organic geochemistry also combines these areas, and unsurprisingly many organic geochemists actively research and work as astrobiologists. TREATAE will support an evening meeting at IMOG 2007 to draw together the organic geochemists with research interests in astrobiology.

IMOG 2007 will take place in Torquay between 9-14 Spetember 2007. Conference site can be found here

To register interest in the TREATAE sponsored meeting please contact
Stephen Bowden

 

 
 
 
 
Application of Raman Spectroscopy to Astrobiology and Earth Analogues

Raman spectroscopy is becoming increasingly prevalent as a tool in astrobiological exploration and as a method for investigating geological and meteoritic materials. A workshop is planned for September 2006 and will comprise presentations and fieldwork.

All aspects of Raman Spectroscopy relevant to Astrobiology will be covered including imaging and chemical analysis.

 

 

Organisers for the Workshop are:

Howell Edwards - University of Bradford

John Parnell - University of Aberdeen

 

Please contact them to notify Interest
Astrobiology 2006, "Life here there and Everywhere"

TREATE is supported the 2006 Astrobiology Society of Britain meeting which was held at the Univeristy of Kent, 18th to 21st of April. Topics covered included instrumentation relavent to Astrobiology and a session on Raman Spectroscopy.

Click here for details

or contact Mark Burchell

  
 
PAFS-net (Planetary Analogue Field Studies Network)

The PAFS-net workshop will be held 26-27th June, 2006. It will feature the Planetary Analogue Field Studies Network, which draws upon the GSPARC repository of natural and synthetic materials, to address the peculiarities and challenges of in situ measurements on planetary surfaces.

PAFS-net is not confined to a single payload configurations or mission, or to make specific instrumentation recommendations, but simply aims to provide a knowledge base to engineers and scientists based on practical experimentation.

For details contact Derek Pullan: dpu@star.le.ac.uk

 
Affordable Robotic Missions in Space

As a follow up to the meeting on sampling on Planetary Surfaces a further meeting addressed affordable robotic missions in space. The meeting was held November 2005. For further details please contact Alex Ellery.

 
A.Ellery@eim.surrey.ac.uk

 

  
The Origin and Distribution of Life in The Universe

Treatae co-sponsored the Astrobiology in Scotland meeting. The meeting was held at the Univeristy of St Andrews on 27th May, 2005. The title of the conference was The Origin, Evolution and Distribution of life in the Universe.

The conference organisers are:

John Parnell - Univeristy of Aberdeen
Tony Prave - Univeristy of St Andrews
Keith Horne - Univeristy of St Andrews

Other co-sponsors for the meeting are:

 

  

This one-day conference at the University of St.Andrews will assemble researchers from across Scotland and the UK to discuss these fundamental issues and to launch a new initiative of Astrobiology research in Scotland. The conference aims to act as a catalyst to stimulate collaborative, inter-disciplinary research and to discuss the creation of

  • An Astrobiology Research Group in Scotland and a Scotland-wide graduate level Astrobiology course extending across the disciplines relevant to Astrobiology and utilising the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) telepresence infrastructure as part of the SUPA graduate school curriculum.

  • The range of topics under the umbrella of Astrobiology is broad and includes research areas such as the search for habitable planets, extra-solar planets, extremophiles, origin of life and early evolution of life on Earth, and artificial life in cyberspace.
 

 

  
Third Preliminary Meeting for the Exploration of Subglacial Lake Ellsworth

The 3rd Preliminary Meeting for the Exploration of Subglacial Lake Ellsworth was held on the 8th of March at the British Antarctic Survey.

Further details and the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Homepage can be found Here

  


Map showing the Location of Lake Ellsworth

A session on sampling on planetary surfaces was held at the EANA meeting 22-25th of November (2004). The EANA workshop covered life in extreme environments and was held at the Open University.

The session on sampling on planetary surfaces was supported by the TREATAE network and aimed to re-invigorate the Space and Planetary Robotics Network (SPRN).

 

  

If you would like to go on the SPRN mailing list please email Alex Ellery at:

A.Ellery@eim.surrey.ac.uk

The notes from the SPRN meeting can be found here

A number of subglacial lakes have been identified in Antarctica. These lakes have been isolated from the surface for considerable periods of time and each represents a unique environment. Life in subglacial lakes must adapt to total darkness, low nutrient levels, high water pressures and isolation from the atmosphere. Subglacial lakes thus represent unique biological habitats.

Similar environments may exist on other planers such as Europa, which may contain liquid water beneath its icy surface.

A number of ice lakes in Antarctica (above left - image BAS) could make suitable astrobiological analogues for planets or satellites such as Europa (above right - image NASA). Exploring these lakes remotely will require remotely operated technology capable of working in these environments (right - artists impression of a remote device being used to explore an arctic subglacial lake).

 

Drilling, sampling and studying subglacial lakes remotely and without causing their contamination represents a considerable physical and technological challenge. In this regard the exploration of ice lakes represents a good analogue for the exploration of planets and satellites such as Europa.

The TREATAE ice lake workshops will examine how current analytical and robotic technology can be used to answer questions concerning the biology and ecology of one particular subglacial lake in West Antarctica, named Lake Ellsworth. The workshops will develop a science plan to undertake the in situ measurement and sampling of Lake Ellsworth, in order to understand how life may function in this unique and extreme environment.

 

The TREATAE (Transfer of Engineering and Analytical Technology to Astrobiological Exploration) network is an initiative under the Life Sciences Interface programme of EPSRC.
The Network has four purposes:

1) To establish a multi-disciplinary network in support of UK research in astrobiological exploration.
2) To encourage the transfer of ideas, techniques and scientific methodology between engineering and physical sciences to astrobiology.
3) To encourage interaction between universities, and between academic and industrial institutions.
4) To encourage innovation, creativity and the development of ideas for support from future research programmes.

Principal Investigator: Prof John Parnell

Co Investigator: Prof Charles Cockell

Co Investigator: Dr Alex Ellery
  
Co Investigator: Dr Mark Sephton