Generations Initative within NASA

A description of the Generations Initiative was included in a presentation by Mary E. Kicza, Associate Administrator, Office of Biological and Physical Research, May 2002 to the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. Generations is proposed to formally begin October 2002 as a new element of the Fundamental Space Biology Division within OBPR. This Division studies "gravity's influence on the evolution, development, growth, and internal processes of plants and animals. Their results expand fundamental knowledge that may eventually benefit medical, agricultural, and other industries. The types of research planned for this field of science include:
• Increasing our knowledge of the fundamentals of biological evolution;
• Advancing our understanding of cell behavior; and
• Using plants as sources of food and oxygen for exploration"

Kicza briefly profiled the Generations Initiative within the Fiscal Year 2003 budget request as:

"The Generations effort will study the adaptation of organisms to the space environment over several generations and investigate the capacity of terrestrial life to evolve in space. The project will employ ground-based research, the ISS, and free-flyer platforms flying in different orbits, including a high-Earth orbit beyond the Van Allen radiation belts. These multiple platforms will enable researchers to study the varying effects of the space environment on biological systems and processes in order to better understand the mechanisms of evolution. It will add to our fundamental knowledge, and may enable the development of countermeasures and life support technologies for future space missions. The research planned for this initiative complements the research currently planned for ISS, in that the science will maximize early ISS research capability. It focuses on the genomic mechanisms involved in the process of adaptation to space, and the early ISS hardware readily supports these kinds of studies."