Summary. Astrobiologists often organize their efforts around the "Drake Equation," a multiplicative series of terms that each describe an important parameter in assessing the spatial density of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way. Although some of these terms remain as stubbornly unknown as ever-for example, the average lifetime that a civilization lasts once it has acquired the ability to communicate over interstellar distances-others have recently come into focus far more sharply than before. These include the average number of planets per star, the fraction of those planets that could prove hospitable to life, and the fraction of those planets on which life may actually develop. I aim to provide an overview, using the Drake Equation framework, of the current situation, concentrating on methods and prospects for the detection and analysis of extrasolar planets, and for using robotic spacecraft to search for life on the likeliest sites in our solar system-Mars, Europa, and Titan. The next few decades may well yield the first positive detections of extraterrestrial life and a reasonably accurate assessment of the prevalence of life throughout our galaxy and beyond.