Planetary biology and origins of life : proceedings of the Topical Meeting of the COSPAR Interdisciplinary Scientific Commission F (Meeting F3) of the COSPAR Twenty-ninth Plenary Meeting held in Washington, DC, U.S.A. 28 August - 5 September, 1992

Part 1 Extraterrestrial organic chemistry and the origins of life: circumstellar chemistry from microwave and mm-wave spectroscopy, J.H. Bieging organic molecules in the gas phase of dense interstellar clouds, W.M. Irvine possible evidence of hydrocarbons released by the nucleus of Halley's comet, G. Moreels et al comets and life in the universe, J. Oro et al origin of amino acids in the early solar system, J.F. Kerridge exobiology research on space station freedom, J.L. Huntington et al. Part 2 Life on Mars - past, present and future: exobiological exploration of Mars, H.P. Klein et al life on Mars? II physical restrictions, R.L. Mancinelli and A. Banin search for life on Mars - evaluation of techniques, D.E. Schwartz et al studies in the search for life on Mars, J. Koike et al a physical and chemical characterization of Martian permafrost as a possible habitat for viable microorganisms, V. Ostroumov. Part 3 Planetary protection for Mars missions: modern aspects of planetary protection and requirements to sterilization of space hardware, V.V. Demidov et al the experimental study of microbial contamination of the space hardware, V.B. Vasin and V.I. Trofimov planetary protection considerations for Marsnet and Mars sample return missions, C. Lindberg and G. Horneck. Part 4 Chemical evolution on Titan: Titan's atmosphere composition - certainties and speculations, D. Gautier surface-atmosphere interactions on Titan compared with those on the pre-biotic Earth, J.I. Lunine and C.P. McKay raindrops on Titan, R.D. Lorenz. Part 5 Origin and early evolution of biological - (A) energy transduction and membranes (B) information and catalysis: on the levels of enzymatic substrate specificity - implications for the early evolution of metabolic pathways, A. Lazcano et al role of trace metal ions in chemical evolution - the case of free-radical reactions, R. Navarro-Gonzalez and C. Ponnamperuma direct interaction between amino acids and nucleotides as a possible physicochemical basis for the origin of the genetic code, M.K. Hobish et al. Part 6 Carbon chemistry and isotopic fractionations in astrophysical environments: production and evolution of carbonaceous material by ion irradiation in space, G. Strazzulla et al carbonaceous matter in cometary dust and coma, F.R. Krueger isotopic ratios in planetary atmospheres, C. de Bergh.