AbSciCon26 tipsheet 2: Technosignatures, life in space, existential questions, robot explorers

Astrobiology Science Conference 2026
Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center
One John Nolen Drive
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
17 - 22 May 2026

Press contact: Sean Cummings, +1 (202) 777-7373, [email protected]

WASHINGTON - The 2026 Astrobiology Science Conference, hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), will convene next week in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. The biennial conference brings together a diverse, international astrobiology community to share new research investigating life's potential, from Earth's extreme environments and deep past to our Solar System's icy moons and distant exoplanets.

Tips in this advisory:

• Robot explorers
• Planetary protection
• Technosignatures
• The astronaut life
• What is life? culture, science, philosophy

Reporters and press officers interested in press registration should email [email protected]. Please include a link to a byline, masthead or a staff page listing your name and position. Freelancers should provide a link to a portfolio or links to at least three bylined science news stories published in the last 12 months. Let us know whether you plan to attend AbSciCon26 online or to come to Madison in person. Media access to the meeting is issued at the discretion of AGU Media Relations. Learn about AGU's press eligibility requirements.

AbSciCon26 will host about 900 scientific posters, talks, town halls and plenary lectures. Browse the conference program for a preview of the scientific sessions. Registered attendees can log in to build a personal schedule in the conference desktop planner and mobile app.

Although AbSciCon26 is primarily an in-person meeting, remote reporters can join a small set of online-only discussion sessions on Zoom via the conference app by registering to attend the conference virtually. Recordings of the audio and slide presentations from in-person town halls, plenaries and oral sessions will be available on demand on the conference app about 72 hours after each session is finished. AGU media relations will be on site to help reporters connect with attending scientists.

Recommended sessions part 2:

*Sessions listed in conference local Central Daylight Time (GMT - 5 hours)

Robot explorers for Mars, icy worlds and beyond

A proposed heli drone to explore the lava tube caves of Mars
Monday 10:00 AM abstract | app schedule
Online Session: Missions to Mars: Life Detection and Habitability I
Roger Wiens [email protected]

Underwater charging station keeps Icefin robot diving longer
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Accessing Ocean Worlds: Challenges and Technologies for Sub-ice Exploration and Science I Poster
Henry Wolf [email protected]

Expedition to Juneau icefield samples 300-meter deep subglacial reservoir in test run for Europa
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Accessing Ocean Worlds: Challenges and Technologies for Sub-ice Exploration and Science I Poster
Samuel Howell [email protected]

A drill-equipped payload will let Mars landers search 15 meters below the surface
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Sample Collection and Handling: The Critical Path for Astrobiology Missions I Poster
Joey Palmowski [email protected]

How specialized robots could help us spelunk Mars' caves for signs of life
Thursday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Planetary Caves and Voids as Targets for Astrobiology Science I eLightning
Jennifer Blank [email protected]

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Planetary protection

Icy worlds get new planetary protection guidelines
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Accessing Ocean Worlds: Challenges and Technologies for Sub-ice Exploration and Science I Poster

• An international scientific committee aims to keep Europa, Enceladus and other icy moons pure for science - and Earth safe from returning samples. With the Europa Clipper and Juice missions en route to survey the large, icy moons of Jupiter for signs of life, astrobiologists are already planning for more robot missions to can drill into the ice and take samples. To prevent visiting spacecraft from contaminating pristine worlds with stowaway lifeforms from Earth, the Committee on Space Research recently released an update to its Planetary Protection Policy, first published in support of the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty. The new guidelines define icy worlds, establish the driest and coldest conditions at which Earth life can survive and assign a 1,000-year period of biological exploration for all icy worlds during which contamination controls should be honored to preserve them for science.

Students launch dirt into space to test which microbes pose contamination threats
Thursday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Planetary Protection for Crewed Missions: New Strategies, Emerging Technologies, and Lessons Learned II PosterTechnosignatures: signs of civilization

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Technosignatures: signs of civilization

Local space weather could distort radio transmissions from alien civilizations
Monday 10:00 AM abstract | app schedule
Session: Searching for Technological Signatures of Life Beyond Earth I Oral

Which exoplanets could observe Earth using our most popular exoplanet detection method?
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Searching for Technological Signatures of Life Beyond Earth II Poster

Are spider pulsars massive spaceships for escaping dying solar systems?
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Searching for Technological Signatures of Life Beyond Earth II Poster

A software package to detect massive mirrors deployed around exoplanets
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Searching for Technological Signatures of Life Beyond Earth II Poster

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The astronaut life

Need medicine in space? Just add water.
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Microbial and Human Habitability of Mars: Is Synthetic Biology the Solution? I Poster

• Astronauts might one day make their own medications by adding water to a test tube. In the future, years-long space missions will need medicines to treat low bone density, radiation poisoning, and other medical issues - but these protein-based drugs would break down over the course of such long voyages, eventually rendering them useless. A better approach may involve taking the protein-building parts of living cells and freeze-drying them in test tubes, a method that has kept them viable for nearly three years in unpublished lab experiments. Adding water to a test tube could revive those protein-builders even years into a mission, giving astronauts the tools to make their own medicines on demand.

Forget washing machines: astronauts may clean their clothes with plasma guns
Thursday 10:00 AM abstract | app schedule
Session: Planetary Protection for Crewed Missions: New Strategies, Emerging Technologies, and Lessons Learned I Oral

• Forget washing machines: astronauts may clean their clothes with plasma guns
  On future long-haul missions, even astronauts will need cozy comforts like bedding and sofas to stay comfortable for years in space. But current space-approved cleaning methods don't work well on soft materials, which make great breeding grounds for microbes. Instead, researchers are trying another approach: blasting cotton T-shirt fabric with plasma jets, which produce reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that kill microbes better than vacuuming or surface wipes can. Trials on clean fabric so far show no impacts to the fabric itself, and researchers are now running tests with several microbe species. They also plan to test a handheld, soda-can-sized plasma jet cleaning tool currently being designed.

A blind astronaut crew runs a simulated space mission on Earth
Wednesday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Fostering the Astrobiology/Humanities Connection I Oral

Martian water is toxic. Bacteria may hold the clues to cleaning it.
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Microbial and Human Habitability of Mars: Is Synthetic Biology the Solution? I Poster

Future habitats on Mars could be made from bioplastics
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Microbial and Human Habitability of Mars: Is Synthetic Biology the Solution? I Poster
Robin Wordsworth [email protected]

Plants on Earth can recognize their families. Can they do so in space?
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Microbial and Human Habitability of Mars: Is Synthetic Biology the Solution? I Poster

This astronaut health monitor needs only a drop of blood
Thursday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Planetary Protection for Crewed Missions: New Strategies, Emerging Technologies, and Lessons Learned II Poster

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What is life? and other philosophical musings

How science influenced classical music composition in the Space Age
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: The Cosmic Mirror: How Astrobiology and Cosmology Shape Human Understanding I Poster

Ethics, ET, movies and the public imagination
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: The Cosmic Mirror: How Astrobiology and Cosmology Shape Human Understanding I Poster

Artistic conceptions of dark matter bias how we imagine life beyond Earth
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: The Cosmic Mirror: How Astrobiology and Cosmology Shape Human Understanding I Poster

Do space sciences endanger humanity's sense of self?
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: The Cosmic Mirror: How Astrobiology and Cosmology Shape Human Understanding I Poster

Astrobiology images may already be deciding how humanity would react to the discovery of alien life
Wednesday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Fostering the Astrobiology/Humanities Connection I Oral

Why haven't we met any aliens? They may have become so advanced that they lost their reason to live
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: The Past, Present, and Future of Astrobiology and Society: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and Contributions from the Social Sciences and Humanities I Poster

Personifying the environment may help, not hinder, science
Thursday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Online Session: The Past, Present, and Future of Astrobiology and Society: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and Contributions from the Social Sciences and Humanities II

How the military-industrial complex shapes astronomy
Friday 12:15 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: The Past, Present, and Future of Astrobiology and Society: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and Contributions from the Social Sciences and Humanities IV Oral

Searching for life in the stars is controversial, putting some scientists' safety at risk
Thursday 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM session abstracts
Online Session: Safety for Scientists: Astrobiology, a Global Issue, and a Call to Action

• Searching for life beyond earth can become an incendiary activity: it often generates significant public attention and emotion around a topic that is inherently controversial and uncertain. Misunderstandings about the science involved sometimes end in public backlash that threatens scientists' safety. A session about how astrobiologists deal with these challenges will include talks on:
  • International safety recommendations and the specific safety challenges astrobiologists face. app schedule
  • How to foster trust between scientists and the public in advance, to preemptively mitigate the impacts when misunderstandings do arise and promote acknowledgement of scientific expertise even when science cannot offer certainty. app schedule
  • How potential public reactions to extraterrestrial life in the future could, by association, impact the researchers studying it. app schedule
  • Scientists' firsthand experiences with the aftermath of putting controversial research out into the world. app schedule

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Save the date for more 2026 science

• JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 24 - 29 May in Makuhari, Chiba City, Japan
• AGU26 Annual Meeting, 7 - 11 December in San Francisco, California, USA

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million professionals and advocates in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.