MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 3, Number 12, 1 October, 1996. 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 of this compilation exists with the 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. Back issues may be obtained via anonymous FTP at: ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related fields. This newsletter is not intended to replace peer-reviewed journals, but to supplement them. We, the editors, envision MARSBUGS as a medium in which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events. Exobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may come out of the most unexpected places. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: exobiology proper (life on other planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), ecopoeisis/ terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INDEX 1) NASA SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR FIFTH DISCOVERY MISSION NASA release 96-191 2) VIEWS OF MARS SPACECRAFT PROCESSING AVAILABLE Internet advisory I96-8 3) NASA LEWIS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MARS PATHFINDER MISSION From the NASA Lewis Office 4) SECOND NEW MILLENNIUM FLIGHT WILL SEND MICROPROBES TO THE SURFACE OF MARS NASA release 96-192 5) SCIENCE WRITER BRIEFING ON EXTRASOLAR PLANETS by Ray Villard 6) WHITE HOUSE REVISION OF U.S. SPACE POLICY From the Washington Post 7) A WISE ALLOCATION OF SPACE RELATED RESOURCES by Robert D. Brown 8) ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: METEORITES AND ORGANIC MATTER by Norman Hugh Redington and Karen Rae Keck 9) FIRST GLOBAL IMAGE OF TOTAL ATMOSPHERIC OZONE OBTAINED FROM NASA INSTRUMENT ABOARD JAPANESE SATELLITE NASA release 96-188 10) TRANSCRIPT OF EXCERPTED REMARKS BY NASA ADMINISTRATOR DANIEL S. GOLDIN FOLLOWING THE LANDING OF SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS NASA release 96-193 11) SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION'S FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE by Charles "Pete" Conrad NASA SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR FIFTH DISCOVERY MISSION NASA release 96-191 The process of selecting the fifth flight in NASA's Discovery Program series of small, low-cost, highly focused planetary exploration missions has begun with the issuance of the formal Announcement of Opportunity by NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Due for launch before the end of September 2002, the fifth Discovery mission must be developed and prepared for launch for less than $183 million (FY97 dollars), with mission operations and data analysis costs less than an additional $43 million. "We're open to proposals that address any aspect of planetary science," said Dr. Wesley Huntress, Associate Administrator for Space Science at NASA Headquarters. "We look forward to receiving a diverse group of mission concepts, in both cost and complexity." Based on past history, more than a dozen proposals from both domestic and international teams with members from industry, educational institutions, non- profit institutions, NASA centers and other government institutions can be expected, according to Ken Ledbetter, director of the Mission and Payload Development Division in the Office of Space Science. If more than one mission can be accommodated within the stated budget, NASA will consider selecting more than one, he added. Feedback from the previous round of Discovery selections has led to a more streamlined process for picking this fifth mission. First-round proposals are due by December 11. A subset of these proposals will be selected for detailed feasibility studies to run from April through August 1997, with final selection of the winning proposal tentatively scheduled for late September 1997. One NASA Discovery mission, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, was launched in February toward its planned orbital survey of the large asteroid Eros, beginning in January 1999. The next Discovery mission, the Mars Pathfinder, is due for launch on December 2 toward a July 1997 landing on the red planet, where it will photograph the surface, monitor the Martian climate and deploy a small surface rover. The third Discovery mission, Lunar Prospector, was selected in February 1995. Due for launch in October 1997, this small orbiter spacecraft is designed to map the chemical composition of the lunar surface and survey the Moon's global magnetic and gravity fields at a level of detail greater than that achieved by any previous mission. The fourth Discovery mission, Stardust, originated from the same group of proposals and was formally selected in November 1995. Following a February 1999 launch, Stardust is designed to gather first-time samples of interstellar dust and dust spewed from the comet Wild-2 and return them to Earth in 2006 for detailed analysis. The complete text of the latest Discovery Announcement of Opportunity is available on the Internet at the following URL: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/research.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VIEWS OF MARS SPACECRAFT PROCESSING AVAILABLE Internet advisory I96-8 Internet users can view NASA's preparations of two spacecraft that soon will be bound for Mars. Still images of processing of the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder are available from the Kennedy Space Center, FL. The pictures, which are "frame grabs" from television cameras, are updated every 90 seconds. The McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket that will launch the Mars Global Surveyor will be stacked on Pad A at Complex 17 starting Sept. 20. Live video from the launch pad will be available and also will be provided from Pad 17-B for the Mars Pathfinder vehicle when stacking begins. The Internet address for images of Mars Global Surveyor and the Delta launch vehicle at Complex 17 is: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/payloads/missions/mgs/video.html The Internet address for Mars Pathfinder images is: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/payloads/missions/pathfinder/video.html Mars Global Surveyor is scheduled to be launched November 6 and Mars Pathfinder on December 2. Both spacecraft will be launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. The missions are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA LEWIS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MARS PATHFINDER MISSION From the NASA Lewis Office The Mars Pathfinder probe, which will launch this December, is the first American probe to the surface of Mars since the Viking missions of the 1970s. NASA Lewis Research Center has been involved in the Mars Pathfinder mission nearly from the beginning. The Mars Solar Energy Model (G. Landis and J. Appelbaum) provided an early demonstration that sufficient solar energy is available at Mars to provide operating power for a spacecraft and lander. This solar energy model was incorporated into the computer model used by JPL to design solar arrays for the Pathfinder lander, and the Sojourner rover. Since then, Lewis scientists have designed, built, and delivered hardware for three sensors incorporated onto the rover. Also delivered were several small tungsten points for removing electrostatic charge accumulated during rover surface operations. The Materials Adherence Experiment (MAE), will quantify how much dust settles out of the atmosphere. The Viking landers showed that the atmosphere of Mars contains a large amount of suspended dust. The MAE consists of two sensors. The first sensor is a solar cell (G. Landis and P. Jenkins) which will measure how much light is obscured from the cell by the dust that settles on it. Results will show how opaque Mars dust is, and how rapidly it settles out of the Martian atmosphere. The second sensor is a quartz crystal monitor (G. Hunter, G. Landis, L. Oberle) which will use a vibrating quartz crystal. An adhesive surface on the crystal accumulates the dust, and resultant changes in crystal frequency indicate its mass. Together, the two sets of measurements will provide excellent information on dust properties and deposition rates. The Wheel Abrasion Experiment (WAE) will assess wheel wear (D. Ferguson and J. Kolecki). WAE uses atomically thin metal films deposited on black anodized aluminum strips attached to a rover wheel. A photocell monitors changes in film reflectivity as the rover moves and the surfaces wear. Twice each Martian day, all the other rover wheels will be locked stationary while the test wheel alone is spun and allowed to dig into the Martian surface. Marked abrasion will indicate a surface composed of hard, possibly sharply edged grains. Lack of abrasion would suggest a somewhat softer surface. WAE results will be correlated with ground simulations to determine which terrestrial materials behave most like Mars dust. This knowledge will enable a deeper understanding of erosion processes on Mars and the role they play in Martian surface evolution. All of the above results will be significant to future Mars mission designs. Rover electrostatic charging will be controlled by fine, tungsten points mounted on the rover antenna base (J. Kolecki and M. Siebert). Tests and calculations have confirmed the possibility that the rover will accumulate a large static charge during its surface operations. (The charge is thought to occur when the dry Martian dust is compacted by the rover wheels.) Once this charge is accumulated, disruptive electrical discharges on or around the rover become possible. Since actual Martian conditions are unknown, discharge points have been added to the rover as a precaution. If the rover accumulates electric charge, some, or all of it will be removed to the atmosphere through the discharge points. Atmospheric dust, blowing by the rover, will collect this charge, and eventually return it to the Martian surface. Discharge currents through the points are predicted to be non-disruptive. Information can be found electronically about the Pathfinder mission at the Pathfinder home page: http://wwwmpf.jpl.nasa.gov/ Information on NASA Lewisą role in Pathfinder can be found at: http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT1995/6000/6840s.htm (and at various pages linked from this page) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECOND NEW MILLENNIUM FLIGHT WILL SEND MICROPROBES TO THE SURFACE OF MARS NASA release 96-192 Two small science probes will be sent to Mars in 1999 to demonstrate innovative new technologies brought to the forefront by NASA's New Millennium program. Under terms of a new agreement between the New Millennium and Mars Exploration programs, the microprobes will hitchhike to Mars aboard NASA's 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander. "A successful demonstration of the microprobe technologies will enable a wide range of scientific activities that would not be affordable with conventional technologies," said Dr. John McNamee, manager of the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander and Orbiter project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "In particular, scientific investigations which require a relatively large number of surface stations distributed over the surface of Mars, such as seismic or meteorology networks, will be made possible by the microprobe concept," McNamee said. "In addition, microprobe penetrators may be the most efficient and effective way of obtaining soil samples and measurements from below the sterilized Martian surface." In the process of enabling future characterization of the Martian climate by a meteorological network, the Mars microprobes will complement the climate- related scientific focus of the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander by demonstrating an advanced, rugged microlaser system for detecting subsurface water. Such data on polar subsurface water, in the form of ice, should help put limits on scientific projections for the global abundance of water on Mars. Future missions to the planet could use similar penetrators to search for subsurface ice and minerals that could contribute to the search for evidence of life on Mars. The 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander will be launched in January 1999 and spend 11 months en route to the Red Planet. Just prior to its entry into the Martian atmosphere, the microprobes, mounted on the spacecraft's cruise ring, will separate and plummet to the surface using a single-stage entry aeroshell system. Chosen for its simplicity, this aeroshell does not separate from the microprobes, as have traditional aeroshells on previous spacecraft, such as the Mars Pathfinder and the Viking landers of the mid-1970s. The probes will plunge into the surface of Mars at an extremely high velocity of about 446 miles per hour (200 meters per second) to ensure maximum penetration of the Martian terrain. They should impact the surface within 120 miles (200 kilometers) of the main Mars '98 lander, which is targeted for the planet's icy south polar region. Upon impact, the aeroshells will shatter and the microprobes will split into a forebody and aftbody system. The forebody, which will be lodged between one to six feet underground, will contain the primary electronics and instruments. The aftbody, connected to the forebody by an electrical cable, will stay close to the surface to collect meteorological data and deploy an antenna for relaying data back to Earth. The microprobes will weigh less than 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms) each and be designed to withstand both very low temperatures and high deceleration. Each highly integrated package will include a command and data system, a telecommunications system, a power system, and primary and secondary instruments. Nearly all electrical and mechanical designs will be new to space flight. "In addition to a team of industrial partners that will help develop advanced technologies to be demonstrated during the mission, we have just selected Lockheed Martin Electro-Optical Systems as a primary industry partner to participate in the integration and test program for the microprobes," said Sarah Gavit, Mars microprobe flight leader at JPL. Technologies proposed for demonstration on this second New Millennium flight include a light weight, single- stage entry aeroshell, a miniature, programmable telecommunication subsystem, power microelectronics with mixed digital/analog integrated circuits, an ultra low-temperature lithium battery, a microcontroller and flexible interconnects for system cabling. In-situ instrument technologies for making direct measurements of the Martian surface will include a water and soil sample experiment, a meteorological pressure sensor and temperature sensors for measuring the thermal properties of the Martian soil. "The Mars microprobe mission will help chart the course for NASA's vision of space science in the 21st century, a vision that incorporates the concept of 'network science' through the use of multiple planetary landers," said Kane Casani, manager of the New Millennium program. The probes will become the first technology to be validated in this new network approach to planetary science. "Networks of spacecraft will address dynamic, complex systems," Casani said. "For example, a single lander can report on the weather at one spot on a planet, but a network of landers is needed to characterize the planet's dynamic climate. Similarly, a single seismometer will indicate if a quake has occurred on a planet, but a network of seismometers can measure the size of a planetary core. We need multiple spacecraft to go beyond our initial reconnaissance to completely characterize dynamic planetary systems the way we are able to do on Earth." The New Millennium program is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC. The Mars `98 lander, managed by JPL for the Office of Space Science, is in development at Lockheed Martin Astronautics Corp., Denver, CO, under contract to JPL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SCIENCE WRITER BRIEFING ON EXTRASOLAR PLANETS by Ray Villard, Public Information Manager, Space Telescope Science Institute The past year has seen rapid, breathtaking advances in the search for planets around other stars. Scientists involved in this research will meet at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, October 16-18 at a workshop entitled "Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System and the Next Generation of Space Missions." In conjunction with the meeting, a science writer briefing will be held at the STScI on Wednesday, October 16, 1996 from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., where key conference participants will present a summary of the current state of knowledge in their respective fields. The two-hour briefing/luncheon will discuss recent progress in the search for extra solar planets, future mission and program concepts, and the astrophysical context of planet detection. The speakers and their topics are as follows: Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA Headquarters The Origins Program Dr. Michael Shao, Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) Dr. Mark Colavita, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Ground-based Interferometric Studies of Stars Dr. William Borucki, NASA Ames Research Center Kepler (a mission to detect earth-sized planets by photometric means) Dr. David Latham, Center for Astrophysics Radial Velocity Searches Dr. George Gatewood (University of Pittsburgh) Astrometric Searches on the Ground and in Space The science writers briefing will be held in the STScI Boardroom. A deli lunch will be provided at a cost of $7.50 per person (payable to Cheryl Gundy on October 16). All science writers and/or editors interested in attending this luncheon meeting should contact Cheryl Gundy by e-mail at "gundy@stsci.edu", telephone at 410-338-4707, or fax at 410-338-4579. The deadline for registration is Friday, October 11. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHITE HOUSE REVISION OF U.S. SPACE POLICY The White House's long awaited revision of the U.S.'s space policy is dicussed in the following article of the Washington Post: Please visit the Post's WWW site and/or the article directly at: (Good luck in re-typing this back into the Netscape URL request box. Hopefully you can cut-and-paste it) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A WISE ALLOCATION OF SPACE RELATED RESOURCES by Robert D. Brown We need a policy toward space research that is understood and widely supported by the "average" citizen of the planet regardless of national heritage. I believe that a program designed to protect Earth from bolide impacts, regardless of their set-down sites on the planet, is a rationale that can be supported by most national governments and their citizens. An assumption of your above comments is that an Earth Protection System (EPS) would be entirely Earth-based. I disagree. The "ideal" EPS would eventually (over hundreds of years) incorporate every science program NASA has presently conceived, and others that no one has yet contemplated. There are, no doubt, impactors in space whose mass is so large that no humanly inspired intervention will alter a trajectory that takes them on a collision course with our planet. So be it. At the same time, the statistics show that there are far more potential impactors in space whose sizes are such that their impact(s) anywhere on Earth would devastate all of our civilization, but are within the scale of objects that we could (using existing and/or future technologies) deflect. A multibillion dollar space program whose banner calls for the retrieval of fossilized microbes from the Martian surface, though philosophically pure, will never enjoy the broad support of those whose taxes pay for such efforts. In contrast, a program designed to place telescopic systems on the Martian surface (or, for example, Vesta) that facilitate our monitoring of the asteroid belt objects is technically within the same magnitudes of difficulty, but do not tie the "average" citizen's expectations of outcomes to the presence or absence of fossilized microbes somewhere beyond Earth. Meanwhile, the retrieval of extra-terrestrial rocks that might shed light on this otherwise academic question, becomes a secondary objective without any additional financial/philosophical/political costs. NASA's present leadership has "bet" the confidence of many future generations of Earthlings on the outcome of a short-sighted (and timed) Martian exploration program whose "apparent" logic is the overthrow of all of the studies and conclusions of NASA's last series of Martian explorations. How "on Earth" did this happen! I think it is time for a change in NASA's declared agenda, current leadership, or both... ...The Clinton Administration's announcement that the Mars exploration program will not seek to place humans on the Martian surface by 2018 is a wise decision, particularly when linked to an acceleration of robotic explorations of the Martian surface. Perhaps the money the government has now "saved" the taxpayers can be more wisely directed toward the fulfillment of the Congressional mandate known as the "Shoemaker Report", a document prepared in the aftermath of the SL-9 impacts on Jupiter. Indeed, now NASA could go well beyond the recommendations of the Shoemaker Report in its support of observational astronomers' survey of local portions of the universe, with the short, intermediate, and long term goals of assisting in the development of an Earth Protection System designed to deflect incoming asteroids and comets. The general public can comprehend the value of such an endeavor. [Robert Brown's comments are part of ongoing discussions on the Usenet's sci.space.policy and sci.geo.geology. Dr. Brown's opinions are not necessarily those of the editors.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: METEORITES AND ORGANIC MATTER by Norman Hugh Redington and Karen Rae Keck This is to announce the second edition of the free annotated on-line bibliography, "Meteorites and Comets: Organic Matter and Exobiological Hypotheses, 1834-Present," by Norman Redington and Karen Rae Keck. Over 100 additional references have been added since the first edition appeared on August 19. An entire new section on the organic chemistry of astronomical ice has been created, and the section on comets has been improved. We appreciate the time and effort of those who have written to us about this project, and especially of Dr. Max Bernstein of NASA Ames Research Center, who sent a list of fifty references which we had overlooked. In the next month, we hope to add a section on meteorite-impact sonochemistry as well. The bibliography is located at the Net Advance of Physics at: http://web.mit.edu/~redingtn/www/netadv/bioast/clash/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FIRST GLOBAL IMAGE OF TOTAL ATMOSPHERIC OZONE OBTAINED FROM NASA INSTRUMENT ABOARD JAPANESE SATELLITE NASA release 96-188 Daily global mapping of the Earth's ozone layer from space has resumed with the acquisition of the first image from the U.S. Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) on September 12. "We are extremely pleased with the quality of this first image" said P.K. Bhartia, TOMS Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. "We're looking forward to continuing our monitoring of the global ozone situation and especially the upcoming season in the Antarctic." ADEOS continues the series of TOMS total ozone and volcanic sulfur dioxide observations that began with the Nimbus-7 satellite in 1978 and continued through the operation of a TOMS on a Russian Meteor-3 satellite, until that instrument ceased functioning in December 1994. Data from another TOMS instrument flying on the recently launched NASA TOMS- Earth Probe spacecraft complements the global ADEOS data by providing high- resolution imagery of atmospheric features related to urban pollution, biomass burning, forest fires, desert dust and small volcanic eruptions, in addition to ozone measurements. In recent years, the depleting effects of industrial chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on ozone were demonstrated through the sudden appearance of the Antarctic ozone hole and other, more gradual losses in global ozone. The principal mission of TOMS/ADEOS is to monitor global ozone trends during the period when CFC-related depletion is predicted to be near its maximum. "Stratospheric concentrations of chlorine from CFC's are expected to peak near the end of the century and then decline as a result of the Montreal Protocol," said Arlin Krueger, Principal Investigator for the TOMS/ADEOS mission. "TOMS/ADEOS will help us track this prediction. It also will continue to measure the concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere in the wake of volcanic eruptions, thus extending the existing database of more than 100 eruptions, including Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 and El Chichon in 1982." TOMS complements four of the Japanese instruments on ADEOS. The Improved Limb Atmospheric Sounder measures the vertical profiles of ozone and other trace gases in polar regions, while the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases measures ozone beneath the orbital track, and the Retroreflector In Space determines trace gas profiles as ADEOS passes over ground-based laser stations. In addition, TOMS will provide information to help correct data from the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner for atmospheric absorption at visible wavelengths. ADEOS is an international global change research mission of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) that includes instruments from the U.S., Japan, and France, with investigators from many other. The satellite is a key part of an international environmental research effort that includes NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), a long-term, coordinated research program to study the Earth as a global environmental system. The goal of MTPE is to allow humans to better understand natural environmental changes and to distinguish between natural and human-made changes and impacts. MTPE-related data, which NASA distributes to researchers worldwide, is essential to helping humans make better informed decisions about their environment. During its lifetime on Nimbus-7, TOMS helped make "ozone" a household word through its false-color images of the Antarctic ozone hole. Even after 14 years of operating the instruments, TOMS scientists are testing new concepts such as the monitoring of absorbing aerosols that are produced in fires, dust storms, and volcanic eruptions, estimation of ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation at Earth's surface, and detection of volcanic hazards to aviation. TOMS measures ozone by comparing the level of ultraviolet light emitted by the Sun to that scattered from the Earth's atmosphere back to the satellite. The first TOMS/ADEOS image is available electronically at the following URL: http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/adtoms/adeos.html The TOMS program is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIPT OF EXCERPTED REMARKS BY NASA ADMINISTRATOR DANIEL S. GOLDIN FOLLOWING THE LANDING OF SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS NASA release 96-193 "I had the privilege of spending just a few minutes with Shannon Lucid after landing, and I'm happy to say she's in great shape. Her spirits are terrific. It's always inspirational being with Shannon; she's such a positive person. She's looking forward to getting together with her husband and family. She'll be doing that very, very shortly. I also would like to say that I didn't tell the press the proper thing. I told them she was going to come out in a horizontal position. She asked to come out standing up, so she came out under her own power. I went into the crew transport vehicle and there she was sitting in a chair--just very, very comfortable, so she's in great shape. She has to have a number of physical tests--we'll leave that to the 'docs' and Shannon--but her spiritual and emotional state is really terrific." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION'S FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE by Charles "Pete" Conrad This has been an incredible year for America's space efforts, especially those aimed at lowering the cost of getting into space. A lot of the progress being made is thanks in part to you and other supporters of the Space Frontier Foundation. That's why I hope to see you in Hollywood during the weekend of October 18-20 at the Foundation's Fifth Annual Conference. The Theme is "Space: Your Ticket To Ride". I'll be chairing a panel on "Cheap Access to the Space Frontier"--you won't want to miss it! Please give me the chance to thank you in person for your support of the Foundation and its vital work to open the space frontier to American free enterprise. Send in your registration ASAP, and I'll see you in Hollywood! For more information about the conference, point your web browser to: http://www.space-frontier.org, send e-mail to: davida5625@aol.com, or call 1-800-78SPACE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 3, No. 12.