Astrobiology is focused on the study of life in the universe. However, lifeless planetary environments yield biological information on the variety of ways in which physical and chemical conditions in the universe preclude the possibility of the origin or persistence of life, and in turn this will help explain the distribution and abundance of life, or lack of it, in the universe. Furthermore, many places that humans wish to explore and settle in space are lifeless, and studying the fate of life in these environments will aid our own success in thriving in them. In this synthetic review, I have three objectives, as follows: (1) To discuss the biological value and use of lifeless environments, (2) To explore the diverse planetary bodies and environments that can be lifeless and to categorize them, and (3) To propose sets of biological experiments that can be undertaken in different categories of lifeless worlds and environments and suggest concepts for mission ideas to realize these goals. They include origin of life and microbial inoculation experiments in lifeless but habitable environments. I suggest that the biological study of lifelessness is an underappreciated area in planetary sciences.

中文翻译：

---

无生命世界和环境的生物学研究

天体生物学专注于研究宇宙中的生命。然而，无生命的行星环境产生了关于宇宙中物理和化学条件排除生命起源或持续存在的可能性的各种方式的生物学信息，反过来这将有助于解释生命的分布和丰富，或缺乏它，在宇宙中。此外，人类希望在太空探索和定居的许多地方都没有生命，研究这些环境中的生命命运将有助于我们自己在这些环境中取得成功。在这篇综合评论中，我有以下三个目标：（1）讨论无生命环境的生物学价值和用途，（2）探索可能无生命的各种行星体和环境并对其进行分类，(3) 提出可以在不同类别的无生命世界和环境中进行的生物实验，并提出实现这些目标的任务理念的概念。它们包括在无生命但可居住的环境中的生命起源和微生物接种实验。我认为对无生命的生物学研究是行星科学中一个被低估的领域。