MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 3, Number 6, 15 July, 1996. Co-editors: David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA, thoma457@uidaho.edu. Julian Hiscox, Microbiology Department, BBRB 17, Room 361, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2170, USA, Julian_hiscox@micro.microbio.uab.edu. MARSBUGS is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright exists with the co-editors, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either of the editors. Contributions are welcome, and should be submitted to either of the two editors. Contributions should include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along with the author(s)' correspondence address. Subscribers are advised to make appropriate inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. INDEX 1) NEW MARSBUGS FTP SITE Dave Thomas 2) NASA ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY (Mars landers) 3) EDUCATORS INVITED TO HELP PLAN 'LIVE FROM MARS' TELECASTS JPL release 4) EUROPE AND ITS PARTNERS ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ESA press release 5) NASA NAMES LANDSAT 7 SCIENCE TEAM AND FUNDS PROMISING YOUNG EARTH SCIENTISTS NASA release 96-125 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW MARSBUGS FTP SITE by Dave Thomas Courtesy of the University of Idaho, back issues of Marsbugs are now available via anonymous FTP at ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs. All back issues are currently available in ASCII (.txt) format. As time allows, printer-ready versions of back issues in MS Word for Windows format will be placed in the site as well. Please check out the site and send any comments to Dave Thomas at the address above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY (Mars landers) This notice constitutes a broad agency announcement as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2). NASA Announcement of Opportunity: Mars Pathfinder and Mars'96 Lander Science Opportunities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is interested in receiving proposals under a NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO 96-OSS-01) for Mars Pathfinder and Mars'96 Lander Science opportunities. To maximize the science data return from these missions, this AO solicits proposals for research by individual investigators to participate as: Mars Pathfinder Participating Scientists, Mars Pathfinder Atmospheric Structure Instrument/Meteorology Package (ASI/MET) Facility Instrument Scientists, and the Mars 96 Mars Oxidation Experiment (MOx) Facility Instrument Scientists. Upon the AO's release date of July 25, 1996, the full text of the AO and appendices will be available electronically via the World Wide Web at the URL address: "http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/solar_system/". A Notice of Intent to propose is due by September 2, 1996, and may be electronically submitted to E-mail Address: hlancast@leda.hq.nasa.gov. Individuals not having access to the Internet may request printed copies by submitting a request to hlancast@leda.hq.nasa.gov. For additional information contact: Dr. Michael A. Meyer, Code SR, Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Phone: (202) 358-0307; Internet mmeyer@hq.nasa.gov. Participation in this program is open to all categories of organizations, both domestic and foreign: industry, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, NASA centers, and other Government agencies. The opportunity will be open through October 25, 1996. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDUCATORS INVITED TO HELP PLAN 'LIVE FROM MARS' TELECASTS JPL release Educators and students get your passports and become virtual travelers to Mars! NASA won't leave the public on the launchpad when the first two Mars- bound spacecraft in a decade-long program of Mars exploration blast off from Cape Canaveral, FL, this fall. Teachers and students visiting NASA host sites across the country will be able to follow these spacecraft to Mars and learn about the latest scientific discoveries through a series of "electronic field trips," designed to engage the public in international plans to continue exploring the most Earth-like planet in the solar system. If that isn't enough, virtual travelers will be transported to the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997, to see Pathfinder's landing site on an ancient flood plain known as Ares Vallis. It's all part of a new interactive series of telecasts, called "Live from Mars." NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in partnership with The Planetary Society in Pasadena and a program called "Passport to Knowledge," is inviting teachers across the country to attend a workshop on July 20 -- called "The Mars Virtual Teacher Training Conference" -- to learn more about the broadcasts and discuss plans for bringing them into classrooms via the Internet, video conferencing and public television. The conference will be held at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, D.C. The Mars Virtual Teacher Training Conference will take place in conjunction with a three-day celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Viking landing on Mars. During the workshop, JPL will introduce a new educational CD-ROM on the next two missions to Mars, distribute classroom instruction modules to augment the Passport to Knowledge telecasts and outline NASA's objectives and strategies for exploring Mars over the next decade. Elementary, middle and high school teachers may participate remotely via the Internet and video conferencing. "Live from Mars" will consist of four telecasts airing before and during the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions. Cosponsored by NASA, the National Science Foundation and public television's K-12 Learning Services, the telecasts are part of a recent Internet initiative which created "Passport to Knowledge," an innovative approach to science education using interactive television and online computer networks to break the barriers of time and space. Since its inception in 1994, Passport to Knowledge has aired several award- winning educational programs. "Live from Antarctica" brought contemporary research on such topics as Emperor penguins, Weddell seals, continental drift and the dynamics of ice sheets to classrooms all over the country. "Live from the Stratosphere" transported students to the stratosphere aboard a NASA jet to learn more about the ozone hole, ultraviolet radiation and the interaction of Earth's upper atmosphere with the solar wind. "Live from the Hubble Space Telescope" allowed youngsters to work with leading astronomers in analyzing the results of Hubble telescope observations of Neptune and Pluto. The first two telecasts of "Live from Mars" are tentatively scheduled to air from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996, and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, April 24, 1997. A third telecast originating from JPL, home of the Mars Pathfinder mission, is being planned for Pathfinder landing day on July 4, 1997. The telecast, which will include the first pictures of the Martian surface to be taken by the spacecraft, will be followed by a fourth program to be scheduled in the months ahead. All telecasts will be broadcast on NASA TV and at scheduled times on public television. For additional information on the July 20 Mars Virtual Teacher Training Conference, contact Dr. Cheick Diarra, educational outreach director in the Mars Exploration Program Office at JPL, telephone (818) 354-5428; Andrea McCurdy, NASA K-12 Internet Initiative, via e-mail to andream@quest.arc.nasa.gov; or Jan Wee, Passport to Knowledge, via e-mail to janw@quest.arc.nasa.gov. Updated information on the Passport to Knowledge programs is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.quest.arc.nasa.gov. Continually updated information on the 1996 Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions is available on the Internet at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mars. Workshop registration forms and agendas can be obtained by writing or calling Judy Cole, Mars symposium coordinator, Science and Technology Corp., 101 Research Drive, Hampton, VA, 23666, telephone (804) 865-8721, or by sending e- mail to cole@stcnet.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EUROPE AND ITS PARTNERS ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ESA press release The successful flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia with the European-built Spacelab in its cargo bay, which landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 7 July, was not only the longest Shuttle mission - 17 days - to date but also brought the USA, Europe and Canada another important step closer to scientific utilization of the International Space Station. The beginning of in-orbit assembly of the International Space Station is only about 500 days away: the first element, the Russian-built Functional Payload Block (FGB transliterated from the Russian), will be launched into low Earth orbit in November 1997. The STS-78 mission was launched on 20 June, carrying the Life and Microgravity Spacelab. One of its main purposes was to study the effects that the near- weightlessness or microgravity that space provides has on fundamental physical processes, such as crystallization, solidification, evaporation and condensation. The other part of the scientific mission was devoted to gaining a better understanding of the effects of long-term spaceflight on astronauts' physical and mental condition. Gravity is one of the four basic physical forces (the others are the electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak nuclear binding forces) and influences nearly all physical, chemical and biological processes. The influence of gravity often masks our view of other forces and phenomena, or even acts as a disturbing force. This is true in particular of processes which take place in very unstable and sensitive areas between two different states of matter, such as liquid/solid or liquid/vapor. The study of such processes, which play a key role in many energy-conversion and industrial processes on Earth, in weightlessness, or "under microgravity conditions" as the specialists say, brings new insights that are applicable on Earth. The European Space Agency provided four of the research facilities on board and over half the 41 experiments. The facilities are: -the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility, a furnace which generates a well- defined heat profile of up to 1115 C in the experiment samples, and was used for metallurgical experiments and for the growth of semiconductor crystals, -the Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility, which uses three different methods of growing protein crystals and applies interferometric means to determine concentration differences, -the Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit to study how bubbles, drops and particles react and interact during melting and solidification, and investigate convection, evaporation and condensation phenomena, -the Torque Velocity Dynamometer, which looks rather like a piece of exercise equipment that would be found in a fitness center, used to perform precise investigations of the effects of spaceflight on astronauts' muscles. In addition, ESA provided a set of very sensitive sensors, called the Microgravity Measurement Assembly, which were placed at various locations in the Spacelab and measured the level of microgravity and the impact of various disturbances caused, for example, by atmospheric drag or even the astronauts' movements. The measurements were relayed in real time to scientists working on the ground. ESA financed the four facilities, which were developed and manufactured by various European industrial companies. Under a cooperation agreement with NASA, ESA provides and supports facilities and in exchange makes half of their utilization available to NASA-selected researchers and their experiments. The same type of exchange arrangement is envisaged for the early utilization phase of the International Space Station. This flight also saw another first, the most extensive use of "telescience" to date. Applying a technique that ESA is developing for the International Space Station, scientists can monitor and control their on-board experiments from their own laboratories, where they are able to make use of expertise, processing capabilities and reference facilities. Such a capability is particularly important during long missions. In addition to several remote sites across the USA, there were five sites in Europe: in Toulouse (F), Aachen (D) Brussels (B), Naples and Turin (I). This method of work will be widely used for the International Space Station which will remain in orbit for over 10 years, providing scientists with an ongoing, long-term opportunity for scientific research in space. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA NAMES LANDSAT 7 SCIENCE TEAM AND FUNDS PROMISING YOUNG EARTH SCIENTISTS NASA release 96-125 NASA has selected the team leader and other members of the science team for the future Landsat 7 remote-sensing satellite and awarded grants to promising Earth scientists in the early stages of their research careers. Solicited in a September 1995 NASA Research Announcement, the recent selections also include interdisciplinary Earth scientists and additional researchers to work with data returned by instruments to be flown on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Earth Observing System spacecraft. The total value of the awards to 198 scientists from 60 institutions is approximately $15 million. All of the scientists will be working in support of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, a long-term comprehensive research effort to better understand the Earth as an integrated system of land, water, air and life. The Landsat 7 science team will be led by Dr. Samuel Goward of the University of Maryland in College Park. Other team members are based at universities in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, and New York; the U.S. Geological Survey and Department of Agriculture; and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. Landsat 7 is scheduled for launch in December 1998, with a main objective of continuing the record of remote- sensing measurements of Earth's land surfaces made by the Landsat series of satellites since 1972. A small technology demonstration satellite developed under NASA's New Millennium program will fly in formation with Landsat 7 to evaluate an advanced hyperspectral imaging instrument that could extend the Landsat-type data set beyond the Landsat series. Mission To Planet Earth's "New Investigator Program" (NIP) is designed to provide financial support to scientists and engineers at an early stage of their professional career. NIP proposals were restricted to recent Ph.D. recipients graduating no more than five years before the issue date of the announcement. The proposed investigations had to be based on analysis, interpretation, and significant use of data from space-based observations leading to an improved understanding of the Earth system and global climate change. A long-term cost-sharing commitment by the associated university was a secondary requirement for selection. Twenty-one of 67 submitted proposals were selected, with the researchers based at 18 universities, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution near Boston, GSFC and JPL. "NASA selected this group of outstanding young scientists to foster interdisciplinary Earth system science and education in support of its missions in the 21st century," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Lead Program Scientist in the Office of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. A complete list of the researchers selected and the topics of their proposals is available on the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/mtpe/eosresul.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 3, No. 6.