MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 4, Number 2, 24 January, 1997. 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) IN MEMORY OF CARL SAGAN by Mark Pallen 2) SOIL CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT LIKELY TO FLY TO MARS AGAIN By Diane Ainsworth 3) BEST-YET IMAGES OF JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA TO BE PRESENTED NASA editors note N97-3 4) ICE VOLCANOES RESHAPE EUROPA'S CHAOTIC SURFACE NASA release 97-12 5) IN SEARCH OF HABITABLE MOONS Pennsylvania State University release 6) BIORACK ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE: ANOTHER STEP IN ESA'S PREPARATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ESA press note 7) EMERGENCY REPAIR SAVES PATHFINDER WIND INSTRUMENT By Mark Whalen 8) MONKEY DIES AFTER COMPLETING 14-DAY BION MISSION NASA release 97-9 9) ROVER ROUNDUP Planetary Society 10) LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--LIFE ON MARS 11) LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--RETURN TO MARS 12) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORT JPL release ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN MEMORY OF CARL SAGAN by Mark Pallen Carl Sagan, planetary astronomer, author and self-styled exobiologist, died on 20th December 1996. I suspect that many Marsbugs readers will have drawn inspiration in their youth and in their adult life from the works and words of Carl Sagan. I remember reading his book "The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective" in my early teens. Living in a typical humdrum suburban lower middle class family, I was enthralled by the idea that adults such as Sagan could take seriously ideas like the search for extra-terrestrial life and terraforming of planets. The fact that I subscribe to Marsbugs now is probably a direct result of reading Sagan's book over twenty years ago. Many more eloquent than myself have published obituaries. The following sites and the links within them will give the reader the chance to reflect on Carl Sagan's life and substantial contributions to exobiology, planetary science and humanity's attempts to understand itself and its place in the universe: Scientific American Obituary: http://www.sciam.com/explorations/010697sagan/010697explorations. html Michael Rapp's unofficial Carl Sagan Web site (everything you would want to know and more!): http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~mrapp/sagan/toc.html CNN Obituary: http://www.cnn.com/US/9612/20/sagan/ The Planetary Society's Carl Sagan Tribute Page: http://planetary.org/tps/articlearchive/headlines/headln- 122296.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- SOIL CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT LIKELY TO FLY TO MARS AGAIN By Diane Ainsworth [from the JPL Universe] An instrument similar to the U.S. instrument flown on the doomed Mars '96 mission--known as the Mars Oxidant Experiment (MOx)--is likely to fly on a future mission to Mars because of its scientific value in helping scientists understand the nature of oxidation reactions and soil chemistry on the surface of the red planet. Mars '96, carrying instruments from 12 countries including the United States, France and Germany, was lost a day after its launch on Nov. 16, when the Proton launch vehicle's fourth-stage booster failed to catapult the spacecraft out of Earth's gravity and on its way to Mars. During the last eight months, a team of engineers at JPL had made numerous trips to Moscow to complete the integration of the two identical MOx instruments, each mounted on a petal of two small Russian landers that were to be deployed on the surface of Mars in September 1997. Despite the tragic setback of Mars '96, collaborative efforts with the Russians proved to be an invaluable learning experience for the U.S. team. "Final integration was an engineering milestone for the U.S. experiment, culminating a development effort which started in 1992," said Mark Herring, project manager at JPL. "In the course of our travels, we gained a lot of experience participating in this collaborative effort as part of an international mission." MOx, built at JPL as part of the expanding U.S.-Russian cooperative effort in space exploration, was designed to measure the rate at which metals and organics corrode when exposed to the Martian environment. The $8 million instrument was carried into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Russia, at 11:48 p.m. Moscow time (12:48 p.m. Pacific time) on Nov. 16, but the spacecraft failed to leave Earth's orbit and plunged into the southeastern Pacific Ocean on Nov. 17, roughly between Easter Island and Chile. The goal of the Mars '96 mission was to investigate the evolution of the Martian atmosphere, surface and interior. The mission was to acquire, using a variety of instruments, wide-scale, comprehensive measurements of the physical and chemical processes that occur on Mars today and those that took place in the past. Loss of the mission leaves a gap in the science information that was to be gathered during NASA's 10-year-long program of robotic exploration. Among others, scientists working on the MOx experiment, however, are optimistic that an experiment very similar to MOx will fly to Mars in the next century. "The importance of the surface chemistry on Mars to our understanding of the Martian environment, including the search for life, makes MOx a leading contender for flight on a future mission," Herring noted. The experiment was designed to further investigate the presence of a strong oxidizing agent in the Martian soil, which was inferred from the results of the biology experiments onboard the Viking landers in the mid- 1970s. "We had hoped MOx would be able to tell us more about the surprisingly reactive properties of the Martian soil first detected by the Viking biology experiments and tell us if this reactivity is the cause of the complete absence of organics in the surface soil on Mars," added Dr. Christopher McKay, project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., who plans to propose that a MOx-like instrument be built for a future mission to Mars. "If we plan to search for the organic remnants of early life on Mars with future missions, then we have to understand the processes that are destroying these organics on the surface so that we know how deep we have to dig to reach unoxidized material," he said. "Viking, for instance, dug under a rock as deep as 11 centimeters (4 inches) but found only oxidized sand." MOx uses chemical sensor technology originally developed at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. The instrument measures the oxidizing power of the Martian soil and atmosphere using a detector that monitors the change in reflectivity of a thin chemical film that is exposed to the Martian environment. The instrument, which weighs only 1.3 kilograms (3 pounds), relies on its own power source, a set of batteries, to carry out the measurements. Upon landing and deployment, MOx would have operated autonomously, Herring said, according to a sequence that would have been programmed into its internal "read-only memory." While the mission was designed for a one-year lifetime, the operating life of MOx was limited by its battery power source. Depending on the actual conditions on the surface of Mars, the operating time would have been between 80 and 160 days. "The instrument's sensor head was located on a petal of each of the two Russian small stations and was comprised of eight sensor cell assemblies, four of which were designed to contact the soil and four that would have been exposed to the atmosphere," Herring said. "Within each cell assembly there were six active sensing sites and six reference sites, for a total of 96 sites. "The active sites were protected by thin membranes of silicon nitride, which would have protected the sensor films from premature oxidation," he explained. "These membranes would break upon deployment, exposing the active films. The reference sites would remain permanently sealed. The sensor films were selected to provide a broad range of chemical reactions. Each film type was duplicated in the air and soil cells." Each of the 96 sensor sites was illuminated by two light-emitting diodes (LEDs), one operating at a wavelength of 590 nanometers and the other at 870 nanometers. The reflected signal would have been measured by a silicon photodiode detector array. The sensor sites were coupled to the LEDs and the detector array through fiber optics. Data from the experiment promised to shed new light on a range of chemical activity occurring in the Martian environment and tell scientists whether oxidizing agents were present in the atmosphere. The Martian atmosphere is 95.3 percent carbon dioxide; a few percent nitrogen and argon; and trace amounts of oxygen, carbon monoxide, water and ozone. In addition, specific minerals in the Martian surface material may have been identified if their pattern of reactivity was sufficiently distinct. Loss of the mission and new strategies for ensuring that a MOx-like instrument flies on a Mars mission in 2001 or thereafter will likely be addressed in the next several months. ----------------------------------------------------------------- BEST-YET IMAGES OF JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA TO BE PRESENTED NASA editors note N97-3 [I'm sorry that this is too late for the televised briefing, but the URL at the bottom is still good. DJT] New images from NASA's Galileo mission showing remarkably diverse styles of geologic resurfacing on Jupiter's icy moon Europa will be discussed in a press briefing at 1 p.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 17. The briefing will originate from the auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and will be carried live on NASA Television. Most of the images to be discussed were taken during Galileo's close pass of the Jovian moon on Dec. 19, 1996, when the spacecraft came within 430 miles of Europa's surface, which may cover a liquid subsurface ocean. Galileo flew more than 200 times closer to Europa than the Voyager 2 spacecraft did in 1979. Participants in the briefing will include Galileo imaging team scientists Dr. Ron Greeley and Dr. Robert Sullivan, both of Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. NASA Television is available through the Spacenet 2 satellite on transponder 5, channel 9, 69 degrees West longitude, frequency 3880 MHz, audio subcarrier 6.8 MHz, horizontal polarization. Note: The new images of Europa will also be available on the Galileo home page on Jan 17: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- ICE VOLCANOES RESHAPE EUROPA'S CHAOTIC SURFACE NASA release 97-12 Ice-spewing volcanoes and the grinding and tearing of tectonic plates have reshaped the chaotic surface of Jupiter's frozen moon Europa, images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft reveal. The images, captured when Galileo flew within just 430 miles (692 kilometers) of Europa on Dec. 19, were released at a news briefing today at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. Although the images do not show currently active ice volcanoes or geysers, they do reveal flows of material on the surface that probably originated from them, said Galileo imaging team member Dr. Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University, Tempe. "This is the first time we've seen actual ice flows on any of the moons of Jupiter," said Greeley. "These flows, as well as dark scarring on some of Europa's cracks and ridges, appear to be remnants of ice volcanoes or geysers." The new images appear to enhance Europa's prospects as one of the places in the Solar System that could have hosted the development of life, said Greeley. "There are three main criteria to consider when you are looking for the possibility of life outside the Earth -- the presence of water, organic compounds and adequate heat," said Greeley. "Europa obviously has substantial water ice, and organic compounds are known to be prevalent in the Solar System. The big question mark has been how much heat is generated in the interior. "These new images demonstrate that there was enough heat to drive the flows on the surface. Europa thus has a high potential to meet the criteria for exobiology," Greeley added. "This doesn't prove that there is an ocean down there under the surface of Europa, but it does demonstrate that it is a scientifically exciting place," said Galileo imaging team member Dr. Robert Sullivan, also of Arizona State University. The images also reveal a remarkable diversity in the geological age of various regions of Europa's surface. Some areas appear relatively young, with smooth, crater-free terrain, while others contain large craters and numerous pits, suggesting that they are much older. The icy crust bears the signs of having been disrupted by the motion of tectonic plates. "There appear to be signs of different styles of tectonism," said Greeley. "In many areas we see that the crust was pulled apart in a spreading similar to the processes on the sea floor on Earth. This is different from the tectonic processes at work on, say, Jupiter's moon Ganymede. This suggests that Europa's interior may be different from Ganymede's." Galileo scientists will have a better chance to understand Europa's interior when the spacecraft gathers gravity data on another flyby next November. The gravity field is measured by tracking how the frequency of Galileo's radio signal changes as it flies past the moon. This was not possible during the recent flyby because radio conditions were degraded as Jupiter passed behind the Sun from Earth's point of view. Europa is crisscrossed by an amazingly complex network of ridges, according to Sullivan. "Ridges are visible at all resolutions," he explained. "Closely paired ridges are most common. With higher resolution, ridges seen previously as singular features are revealed to be double." Some of the ridges may have formed by tension in the icy crust: as two plates pull apart slightly, warmer material from below might push up and freeze to form a ridge. Other ridges may have been formed by compression: as two plates push together, the material where they meet might crumple to form the ridge. In addition to ice flows and tectonics, Greeley and Sullivan noted that some areas on Europa seem to have been modified by unknown processes that scientists are still debating. Greeley said that some areas, for example, seem to have been modified by "sublimation erosion"--the evaporation of water and other volatiles such as ammonia and methane into the vacuum of space. "Something is destroying the topography," said Greeley, "and this sublimation erosion is a good candidate for what is at work." During last month's encounter, Galileo flew more than 200 times closer to Europa than the Voyager 2 spacecraft did in 1979. After a swing past Jupiter next week in what mission engineers call a "phasing orbit," Galileo's next targeted flyby will take it again past Europa as it passes within 364 miles (587 kilometers) on Feb. 20. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The new Galileo images of Europa are available on the Galileo home page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN SEARCH OF HABITABLE MOONS Pennsylvania State University release University Park, Pa.--Recent identification of Jupiter-like planets around distant stars has raised hopes of extraterrestrial life outside our solar system, but not on the gas giants themselves. "While gas giants probably will not support life, the moons orbiting these planets might meet the requirements necessary to sustain life," says Darren Williams, graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State. In today's (January 16) issue of the journal Nature, Williams, Dr. James F. Kasting, professor of geosciences, and Dr. Richard Wade, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, outline these requirements. "First, the gas giant must orbit its star within the habitable zone--the zone around a star where the solar flux allows liquid water to exist," Williams says. "If the orbit is too distant, water freezes. If it is too close, high temperatures cause the hydrogen in water to be lost to space. " The researchers examined the known gas giants to see if they fell into their star's habitable zone. "Only 16 Cyg Bb and 47 Uma B come near to being in the habitable zone," says Williams. "Also, moons around gas giants must be able to sustain an atmosphere for billions of years and must also be close enough to their planet to have a stable orbit." A moon's mass, the ionizing radiation it receives, the solar flux and the magnetic effects of the gas giant all play a part in trying to remove the atmosphere. If a moon is too small, heating will cause the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere to attain escape velocity-- the speed at which the moon's gravity will no longer hold them-- and disappear into space. To retain oxygen and nitrogen, the moon must be at least 0.07 the size of the Earth. But stellar heating is not the only consideration. When ionized atomic nitrogen recombines with electrons, it may also be lost to space. A moon must be at least 0.12 the mass of Earth to keep from losing appreciable amounts of nitrogen by this process. Another way to lose atmosphere is through the action of the gas giant's magnetosphere--the area in which the planet's magnetic field operates. Moons in the magnetosphere lose atmosphere because of bombardment by trapped energetic charged particles. A planet with its own magnetic field is protected from this effect, but, until recently, it was thought small bodies, like moons, did not have magnetic fields. "The Galileo spacecraft's recent identification of a magnetosphere around Ganymede, which is only .03 the mass of Earth, suggests that some moons may not be affected by their planets magnetosphere," says Williams. "We also know that Saturn's moon Titan travels in and out of the magnetosphere, but still has a dense nitrogen atmosphere. This may not be the problem it was once thought." To retain an atmosphere, moons must first form an atmosphere. Moons around extra solar gas giants might have received their water through bombardment by icy comets or carbonaceous asteroids, but research in our own solar system suggests that moons orbiting Jupiter-size planets have trouble retaining volatiles from comets. If, however, moons originated in the outer part of stellar nebula, they may have incorporated large amounts of water. These moons may have so much water that when in the habitable zone, they are oceanic with little dry land. Between these watery moons and those devoid of water are inner moons like Jupiter's Europa which have a good balance of rock and water and are most likely to be Earth-like. In the long term, habitable moons must also be able to compensate for the increasing brightness of their suns through time. An increase in carbon dioxide, from volcanic activity, can cause greenhouse warming which compensates for a fainter sun. As the moon ages--and the star becomes brighter--rock weathering continues to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but a decrease in geologic activity reduces the amounts of carbon dioxide replaced by geologic activity which, in turn, decreases greenhouse warming. Normally, for a planet to retain internal heat and remain geologically active for 4.5 billion years, it must be at least 0.23 the mass of Earth or just over twice the mass of Mars. This would be a large, planet-sized moon. Moons close enough to gas-giants, however, may be warmed by tidal heating--the gravitation pull on the moon of the gas giant. These moons would support tectonic activity or at least individual volcanoes. Williams is not the first to suggest moons of gas giants as likely locations for extraterrestrial life. In the popular film "Return of the Jedi," the Ewoks race through a terrestrial- looking landscape on the Forest Moon of Endor, in pursuit of the minions of Darth Vader, while the planet orbits a gas giant similar to Jupiter. The planets 47 Uma B and 16 Cyg Bb are not perfect subjects for habitable moons. 47 Uma B lies just outside the habitable zone and 16 Cyg Bb has an orbit that is so eccentric it traverses the entire habitable zone dipping inside and outside the acceptable orbit. While these are not perfect, there seems to be sufficient flexibility and variety of factors to suggest that given a large enough gas giant with large enough moons, life could evolve and persist. Mr. Williams may be reached at (814) 863-7947 or williams@astro.psu.edu Dr. Kasting may be reached at (814) 865-3207 or kasting@essc.psu.edu Dr. Wade may be reached at (814) 865-0418 or wade@astro.psu.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------- BIORACK ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE: ANOTHER STEP IN ESA'S PREPARATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ESA press note When the US Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on Sunday (12 January) for the STS-81 mission to the Russian space station Mir, it carried the European Space Agency's Biorack facility on its fifth flight in space and its second of three to Mir. The Biorack is being used during this nine-day mission to study the effects of radiation and the absence of gravity (i.e. microgravity) on plant, fungus, tissue and cell growth. This research will help to determine the effects of long-duration spaceflight on organisms and prepare for the International Space Station. The first element of the Space Station is scheduled to be later this year, in November. The Biorack integrates several scientific facilities in a single rack--highly desirable given the limited room available onboard a spaceflight. It offers incubators that permit experiments to be performed in different temperature controlled environments; simulated 1-g that allows investigator's to distinguish between effects induced by gravity and microgravity; and a "glovebox" or protected workspace for specimen handling. Many of the 12 experiments being carried out during the flight, prepared by scientists from across Europe and one in the USA, are expected to provide information that can be used to prepare for both life and experimental work on board the International Space Station. Those experiments include the following: * Spaceflight conditions, namely cosmic radiation and microgravity, may have an influence on genetic processes in biological material. This is important for all organisms, particularly as flights become longer. Investigators are studying the effects on the DNA of a fungus as a step toward understanding the influence on the genetic processes in general (Technical University of Munich, D). * Bacteria can form a film on any surface submerged in or exposed to water, including the water systems for crew life support on board spacecraft. To be able to provide the highest possible water quality on board and limit the crew's risk of infection, and to minimize the deterioration of water systems, experimenters are attempting to determine the effects of spaceflight and microgravity on the formation of such biofilms. (Montana State University, Montana, USA) * Biological material used in experiments that will be performed on board the International Space Station will have to be preserved to enable it to endure its transportation to the Station, a journey that will last from several days to a week and will be subjected to adverse conditions, including heavy vibrations, microgravity and radiation. Scientists are looking at different methods of preserving different organisms and whether the basic properties of the specimens are affected. (Institutes in Amsterdam (NL), Zurich (CH), Louvain (B), Banyuls- sur-Mer (F), Milan (I), and Montana (USA)) Some of the experiments will be further pursued when the Biorack is flown next, in May on board STS-84. ESA astronaut Jean- Francois Clervoy will be the payload commander on that mission and will oversee all of the Biorack experiments. For further information, please contact ESA Public Relations Division 8/10, rue Mario Nikis F-75015-PARIS Tel: 33.(0)1.53.69.71.55 Fax: 33.(0)1.53.69.76.90 ----------------------------------------------------------------- EMERGENCY REPAIR SAVES PATHFINDER WIND INSTRUMENT By Mark Whalen [from the JPL Universe] It was an otherwise quiet Saturday morning for Gina Alleruzzo on Oct. 12. She didn't have much planned for the day, maybe a little shopping. Then the phone rang about noon. It was her co- worker Colin Mahoney, cognizant engineer for a wind instrument aboard the Pathfinder spacecraft. Alleruzzo, a technician in the Electronics Packaging Group in Section 349, wondered what was up. "He never calls, especially on a Saturday," she noted. It turns out that her low-key weekend would soon be history. Mahoney explained that she was needed to perform a bit of emergency "microsurgery." The patient? The Atmospheric Structural Instrument/ Meteorology Experiment (ASI/ MET), which was already packed aboard Pathfinder at Cape Canaveral. A quality assurance inspection earlier that day by Don McQuarie of Section 506 revealed breakages in tiny wires on the instrument's wind sensor, which will measure wind speed and direction on Mars, as well as temperature. Alleruzzo, who built the instrument, was the logical choice to repair it. However, Pathfinder was just about to be mated to its heat shield at the Cape. There was no time to lose-the sensor had to be repaired over the next two days or the spacecraft would have to fly with the instrument unable to measure wind speed or to detect wind direction as accurately as planned. The sensor has six elements, one of which is a wire around a fiberglass post. The elements are wired in a series; if one breaks, the sensor is not operational. Mahoney and Alleruzzo hopped a redeye flight to Florida that departed at 10:30 that night. With no rest, she arrived at the Cape armed with a strand of wire about .08 millimeters (.003 inches) thick, as well as a spare wind sensor. She then confronted further complications: Pathfinder's petals were already folded up into flight position, surrounding the broken sensor. "I was worried because at first I couldn't see where it was broken," Alleruzzo said. "I also couldn't see if the broken wire was tangled with another element." Finally, with the aid of a microscope, she was able to see that only one of the six elements was broken. But she was still faced with the daunting task of removing the damaged wire and then replacing it, having just 6 to 8 inches of work space between Pathfinder's closed petals. After installing a protective cover over the instrument and carefully positioning herself under the spacecraft, she reached her hand around a bracket to wrap the delicate wire. The job was completed in about an hour, and subsequent tests showed that the sensor was working once again. "The flight launch preparation team and senior project staff were dubious that Gina could fix it because of the physical restrictions and delicacy of the job and because the petals were already folded up," noted Clayton LaBaw, ASI/MET instrument manager . Alleruzzo's ability to perform the delicate work proved crucial to the survival of the instrument in part because of its position within the spacecraft. The sensor is poised atop a mast that will stand upright after the spacecraft lands and its petals open. "If the mast had to be removed from the petals, it might have taken two weeks to repair the instrument and reconfigure the spacecraft," Mahoney said. "So the only option was to repair it on the spacecraft already folded up." Alleruzzo's resourcefulness resulted in congratulations from Pathfinder Project Manager Tony Spear and Mars Program Manager Donna Shirley. Alleruzzo, who has worked at JPL for three and a half years and has supported instrument manufacturing for numerous Lab missions, seemed to take the whole episode in stride. "Whoever broke the wire probably didn't even know it happened," she said. "Thanks to Don's final viewing, we discovered the damaged wind sensor in time to repair it. "The flight team felt bad that the instrument was broken, but was elated that I was able to fix it," she said. "It wasn't exactly an easy thing to do, but I knew I could do it." ----------------------------------------------------------------- MONKEY DIES AFTER COMPLETING 14-DAY BION MISSION NASA release 97-9 A rhesus monkey, one of two just returned to Earth after the Russian Bion 11 flight, died Jan. 8, 1997, post-operatively after all post-mission tests were completed at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The cause of the animal's death is unknown at this time. The death will be investigated separately by both the Russian Space Agency and NASA. Ronald Merrell, M.D., Chairman, Department of Surgery, Yale University, New Haven, CT, will determine a process for an independent investigation of the incident. Merrell is the Chair of the NASA Bion Task Force. The Bion program is a cooperative space venture among the U.S., Russian and French space agencies for the conduct of biomedical research using Russian-owned rhesus monkeys. The 14-day Bion 11 mission, carrying two rhesus monkeys, began on Dec. 24, 1996, with its launch from Russia's Plesetsk launch site. The mission landed in Kazakhstan on Jan. 7. The monkeys "were alert, active and knew the people who were there to greet them," according to Dr. Joseph Bielitzki, NASA's Chief Veterinary Officer, who observed the landing. The monkeys were then transported to the Institute for Biomedical Problems where postflight testing was conducted. The data collected are still being analyzed and will help U.S., French and Russian investigators understand how space flight affects the musculoskeletal system, as well as animal behavior and physiology. Following the recovery period, the remaining monkey will be retired to the Institute of Medical Primatology (Russian Primate Center) at Sochi/Adler. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ROVER ROUNDUP Sponsored by The Planetary Society Saturday, February 1, 1997 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Santa Monica Beach (Opposite Loews Hotel at 1700 Ocean Ave) Santa Monica, California Admission: Free In conjunction with the 1997 International Conference on Mobile Planetary Robots, The Planetary Society will host a Rover Roundup on the beach in Santa Monica, a couple of blocks south of the Santa Monica pier. The Roundup will feature robotics rovers that have been designed to explore other worlds remotely, just as Sojourner will explore Mars when Pathfinder lands on the Red Planet this summer on the 4th of July. Ranging in size from a few inches to six feet, the rovers will traverse sand dunes and maneuver around rocky obstacles, controlled through teleoperations or by autonomous navigation. The international collection will feature rovers from all over the United States as well as from Russia, Japan and Germany. Join the fun for a glimpse of the future in planetary exploration. International co-sponsors: NASA, JPL, AIAA, ESA, CNES, DARA, ISAS, NASDA, ASI, AKA, NPO Lavochkin and IKI. ----------------------------------------------------------------- LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--LIFE ON MARS Dr. Robert Jastrow, Director of the Mount Wilson Institute, will be the lead-off speaker in the MWOA (Mt. Wilson Observatory) Winter-Spring Lecture Series. "Evidence for Life on Mars: Implications for Humankind's Place in the Cosmos" Altadena Public Library, 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA Sunday, January 26, 1997 Refreshments at 1:30 PM Lecture at 2:00 PM Dr. Jastrow is the well known author of "God and the Astronomers," "Red Giants and White Dwarfs" and "A Journey to the Stars." Dr. Jastrow will tie together the recent "life on Mars" discoveries, announcements, and controversies, with the new technology at Mt. Wilson Observatory, designed to aid in the quest for extrasolar planets. Jastrow is never boring, so don't miss this one. Get to the library via the 210 fwy; exit north on Lake. Go about 2.5 miles, turn left on Mariposa. Library is at the 2nd stop sign (Santa Rosa Ave), SW corner. ----------------------------------------------------------------- LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--RETURN TO MARS "Return to Mars: Twenty Years After Viking" Dr. Arden Albee Watson Caltech Lecture Wednesday, February 19, at 8 p.m. Beckman Auditorium Admission: FREE Shortly after Election Day two spacecraft embarked on return missions to Mars--the first since Viking 20 years ago and the first in a decade long program of robotic exploration of Mars. Only a few months earlier scientists had announced the possible discovery of fossil life in a meteorite recovered from the Antarctic. These events have once again focused popular attention on Mars. Mars is an extremely rich mission target because the scientific questions it poses touch on geology, geophysics, geochemistry, atmospheric physics, climatology, biology, and most of all, comparative planetology and the evolution of life. Mars Global Surveyor will carry out an extensive orbital study of Mars using its suite of sophisticated remote-sensing instruments. Mars Pathfinder will be the first mission to land on the Red Planet since Viking and will carry an autonomous rover to explore the surface. Neither mission will directly address the question of life on Mars, but they will provide a rich storehouse of information for scientists to study, leading to still more directed questions about the planet. Subsequent missions in 1998, 2001, 2003, and 2005 will address fundamental questions about the evolution of Mars and in particular whether life ever evolved on Mars. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORT JPL release Friday, 17 January 1997 On Monday of this week, Surveyor's flight team activated the Mars Orbiter Camera in preparation for four days of star imaging. Once per afternoon from Tuesday through Friday, the spacecraft turned to point the camera at a cluster of stars called the Pleiades. Over the course of one hour on each imaging day, the camera observed stars within the cluster in order to perform focus checks. Communications with the spacecraft during star imaging was not possible because the star-pointed orientation resulted in pointing the high-gain antenna away from the Earth. Consequently, all of the data from the camera was stored on Surveyor's solid-state recorders. This data was transmitted back to Earth approximately three hours after the conclusion of each day's imaging. The daily playback of camera data required 49 minutes. During that time, Surveyor transmitted 250 megabits of data at a downlink rate of 85,333 bits per second. Next week, the onboard flight computer will activate heaters in the camera that will bake the epoxy structure of the camera to remove residual moisture. A set of four more star images will be taken after the bakeout period ends in late March. The star images taken this week will serve as a reference to assess the focusing capability of the camera after the bakeout. Other activities this week included a two-hour radio-science calibration that occurred late in the evening on Wednesday. This test involved using the spacecraft's ultra-stable oscillator to control the frequency or "tone" of Surveyor's radio transmissions to the Earth. Normally, the spacecraft listens to a signal transmitted from the Earth as a reference to set the tone of the signal transmitted to Earth. The oscillator functions as an electronic clock that can precisely control the tone of Surveyor's signal without listening to the Earth-based reference signal. Future tests of the oscillator will occur approximately every other week until the spacecraft reaches Mars. These tests are important because a stable radio signal as controlled by the oscillator will be critical toward the collection of scientific data at Mars. After a mission elapsed time of 71 days from launch, Surveyor is 16.05 million kilometers from the Earth, 136.00 million kilometers from Mars, and is moving in an orbit around the Sun with a velocity of 30.85 kilometers per second. This orbit will intercept Mars on September 12th, 1997. All systems on the spacecraft continue to be in excellent condition. ----------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs Vol. 4, No. 2.