Life In Space, Beyond Earth: Habitability In Question – Between Astrobiology and Aerospace Medicine

Abstract

The search for life beyond Earth and the possibility of human habitation in space constitute significantly interdisciplinary scientific challenges, especially involving astrobiology and aerospace medicine. Astrobiology investigates the conditions of the emergence of life on Earth and the possible existence of living beings on other worlds, with emphasis on habitability studies for biosignature detection. Aerospace medicine focuses on the physiological and psychological impacts that the space environment, marked by cosmic radiation, microgravity, and confinement, among other aspects, imposes on human beings. This article aims to analyze the contributions of these fields to the contemporary debate on the habitability of extraterrestrial celestial bodies. For these means, an integrative literature review was carried out based on descriptors selected from DeCS, which, when combined, were used for the bibliographic search in PubMed. Twenty-nine articles were selected to compose this current manuscript, whose information was organized into three topics in the Results and Discussion section: (i) "Astrobiology and habitability," (ii) Aerospace medicine and habitability; and (iii) "Syntheses: Life sciences in search of space colonization." The convergence between these disciplines, their integration of knowledge, from identifying potentially habitable exoplanets to ensuring astronaut health, is fundamental to enabling long-duration missions and future space colonization, transforming human activity in the cosmos from a fictional possibility into a sustainable scientific reality, based on collaboration and transdisciplinary innovation.