MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 1, 21 January, 1998. Editors: David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA, thoma457@uidaho.edu or Marsbugs@aol.com. Julian Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton Laboratory, Berkshire, RG20 7NN, UK. Julian.Hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk or Marsbug@msn.com 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) MARTIAN METEORITE CONTAINS NO BIOLOGICAL LIFE, RESEARCH TEAM SAYS From Case Western Reserve University 2) MARTIAN METEORITE BEARS SIGNS OF LIFE FROM EARTH, NOT MARS From The Planetary Society Home Page 3) ORGANIC MATERIAL IN MARTIAN METEORITE FOUND TO BE FROM EARTH From Scripps Institution of Oceanography 4) ORGANIC MATERIAL IN MARS METEORITE IS FROM EARTH From University of Arizona News Services 5) PATHFINDER RESULTS FEATURED IN THIS WEEK'S SCIENCE MAGAZINE JPL release 6) 1997 - THE YEAR OF MARS PATHFINDER By Diane Ainsworth 7) RECONFIGURED MGS READY FOR MISSION BASED ON NEW ORBIT By Diane Ainsworth 8) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 9) NEXT GENERATION: MARS '98 From The "JPL Universe" 10) GALILEO STARTS TWO-YEAR EXTENDED EUROPA MISSION By Jane Platt 11) EUROPA: THE 'GEM' OF JUPITER Voice of America Transcript 12) ORIGINS ADVANCES ITS STUDY OF STAR, GALAXY AND LIFE FORMATION By Jane Platt 13) LOS ALAMOS INSTRUMENTS TO PROSPECT FOR WATER ON THE MOON From Los Alamos National Laboratory 14) ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR 10 STARDUST EDUCATOR FELLOWSHIPS NASA release 15) NASA SOFTWARE CLEARLY DISPLAYS BREAST TUMOR SCANS IN 3-D NASA release N97-088 16) SENATOR GLENN GETS A "GO" FOR SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION NASA release 98-8 17) FIRST STATION ELEMENT TO BE SHIPPED TO RUSSIAN LAUNCH SITE NASA release 98-7 18) EXTRATERRESTRIAL CUISINE IS COOKING IN CORNELL LAB From Cornell University News Service ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARTIAN METEORITE CONTAINS NO BIOLOGICAL LIFE, RESEARCH TEAM SAYS From Case Western Reserve University 4 December, 1997 The famous Martian meteorite, ALH84001, contains no biological life forms, according to a Case Western Reserve University researcher and colleagues. The team issues this report in the December 4 issue of Nature, duplicating the methods of a team of scientists from the Johnson Space Center and Stanford University. In rare counterpoint writings in the "Scientific Correspondence" section, Nature allowed the Johnson Space Center team to respond to the group's findings. This paper also appears in the December 4 issue. CWRU's Ralph Harvey, senior research associate in the Department of Geological Sciences, was on the research team. The lead researcher on the paper was John Bradley from MVA Inc. and the School of Material Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. The third researcher is Hap McSween from the University of Tennessee. The trio reports that most of the purported nanofossils or "worm- like images" are nothing more than lamellae, or fractured surfaces of pyroxene and carbonate crystals. Last year, the Johnson- Stanford team announced it found evidence of nanofossils in the meteorite. Reports of life on Mars spurred the July 4 mission to Mars to look for further evidence of life. Allan Hills 84001--a meteorite the size of a potato--remains in the center of a spirited controversy about the possibility of life on Mars. The meteorite was found in the 1980s in Antarctica by the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Search for Meteorite Program (ANSMET), headed by Harvey with headquarters at CWRU. A Web page offers details on ANSMET, including a link to more information on the meteorite. To view these resources, visit http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/geol/ansmet/index.html. Harvey, who is currently on his annual expedition to Antarctica to collect meteorites, commented before leaving November 21 that the Johnson-Stanford team has always argued that they had used different techniques to study the meteorite. Bradley, Harvey, and McSween published a paper last year in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (GCA), announcing that what the other researchers observed was formed geologically, not biologically. The Johnson-Stanford group also announced that these nanofossils were lying on the surface of the meteorite. In the first GCA study, which used transmission electron microscope imagining (TEM), the researchers found non-biological magnetite whiskers on or near the surfaces of the carbonates. Superficially the whiskers look like worms, but in fact they have nothing to do with biological processes, according to Harvey and colleagues. The latest study took place over the past six months as the researchers re-examined the meteorite using the new techniques. This time they found yet another population of worm-like forms that are actually mineral lamellae formed by non-biological, geological processes. The lamellae look like worms or nanofossils, but when the specimen is tilted and viewed from another angle, it clearly shows that the lamellae are attached and part of the mineral surfaces. "The surface topography is highly irregular on a nanometer scale, with emergent lamellae following the major cleavage direction of the substrate," Bradley writes in the paper. The researchers have published pictures of the TEM images to support their findings. "Peculiar surface structures or segmentation on the worm-like forms are artifacts from conductive metal coatings applied to the samples for imaging in the electron microscope. This is not the first time metal coating artifacts have lead to misidentification of nanofossils in rocks," Bradley said. "We have now found two different types of mineral forms in ALH84001 that look just like nanofossils, but they are strictly non-biological origins. Sometimes even nature has a perverse sense of humor," he added. Harvey stressed that during this latest study, the team was careful to use exactly the same methods as the Johnson-Stanford group to lay to rest any arguments that the research methods had affected the findings. The worm-like mineral lamellae are commonly found at the fractured surfaces of planar crystals. Harvey noted that lunar rocks--in which there has been no evidence of life found--contain these same formations. Does this put an end to the life on Mars debate? "We haven't driven the final nail in the coffin yet about organisms in this Martian rock, but our latest article offers a lot of insight that shows these fractures zones in the rock are incredibly complex," Harvey said, "and that it is very dangerous to try to draw any hypothesis from a few pictures from here or there." ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARTIAN METEORITE BEARS SIGNS OF LIFE FROM EARTH, NOT MARS From The Planetary Society Home Page Scientists report that the Martian rock is contaminated with organic material from earth. The case for life on Mars seems to be becoming more difficult to prove. The meteorite that scientists thought contained microscopic fossils of Martian life may just be contaminated with organic material from Earth. In tomorrow's issue of Science, two teams of researchers report that the organic carbon in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) comes from Earth and not from Mars. In two separate papers, scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Arizona in Tucson conclude the potato-size Martian rock was contaminated by the surrounding Antarctic ice in which it was found. The scientists are the first to publish results of tests of organic material contained in the meteorite since research teams at NASA's Johnson Space Center and Stanford University announced their results in August 1996. "This is bad news with respect to using these meteorites to assess whether there ever was or is life on Mars," said Jeff Bada, a professor of marine chemistry who headed the Scripps team. "It shows that the meteorites aren't going to give us a definitive answer." The Finding: Possible Martian Microfossils To understand this continuing scientific debate, we should review the findings of scientists at Johnson Space Center and Stanford University. In August 1996, they reported that they had found in meteorite ALH84001 the first organic molecules thought to be Martian in origin. Called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), these organic molecules were found in easily detectable amounts in tiny globs of carbonate within the meteorite. They also noted finding several mineral features characteristic of biological activity and possible microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organisms inside the meteorite. Their findings were published in the August 16, 1996, issue of Science. The scientists proposed that very primitive microorganisms may have assisted in the formation of the carbonate, and some of the microscopic organisms may have become fossilized, in a fashion similar to the formation of fossils in limestone on Earth. Questioning the Finding: Amino Acids in the Martian Rock Bada's team at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography analyzed amino acids contained within a sample from the meteorite, while Timothy Jull's team at the University of Arizona examined the radiocarbon activity of the bulk organics. "What we found," Bada said, "was that, yes, there are amino acids in the meteorite at very low levels, but they are clearly terrestrial and they look similar to amino acids we see in the surrounding Antarctic ice. How they got in there is still an open issue." Bada said he chose to focus his analysis on amino acids within the meteorite because, unlike PAH's, they play an essential role in biochemistry. An expert in the analysis of amino acids, Bada used high- performance liquid chromatography to analyze amino acids in the meteorite to determine their "handedness." He found that the bulk of the amino acids consisted of the left-handed forms similar to that seen in the Allan Hills ice in Antarctica where the meteorite was found. Bada said he could not rule out the possibility that minute amounts of some extraterrestrial amino acids such as right- handed forms of alanine were preserved in the meteorite. "What we and Tim Jull's team have shown is that there is no evidence in our hands that the meteorite contains any compounds that we could definitely trace to Mars except maybe some tiny mysterious component that we don't understand at this point," he said. Questioning the Finding: Radiocarbon Dating the Martian Rock A.J. Timothy Jull's group at Arizona used 14C and 13C tracers to determine the origin of the carbonate minerals and organic carbon in the meteorite. Their results indicated that the bulk of organic material in ALH84001 is contaminated material it acquired after falling to Earth. "It looks like regular terrestrial organic material," Jull said. "The 14C content of it suggests that there were several episodes of contamination." Jull's team burned samples of the meteorite at different temperatures to separate organic carbon and carbonate minerals in the meteorite. In four separate such "stepped-combustion" experiments, they collected the carbon dioxide gas produced and prepared the carbon for isotopic analysis by standard radiocarbon procedure. At the university's Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Laboratory, the scientists then measured how much of the heavy stable carbon isotope, carbon-13, and the radioactive carbon isotope, carbon-14, were present in both the organic carbon and the carbonate minerals. Jull's group is the first to report on the bulk, or main part, of the organic material in a sample of the ALH84001 meteorite. For the past three years, Jull, a research geoscientist, has been studying the isotopic composition of the Allan Hills meteorite to get more information about the isotopic composition of the early Martian atmosphere. Before Johnson Space Center and Stanford University scientists announced in August 1996 the possible existence of bacterial fossils in the meteorite, several scientists, including Jull, had discovered that the carbonate minerals of the meteorite were far richer in carbon-13 than are any carbonates on Earth. "This unusual signal (carbon-13 enrichment) tags the carbonate minerals in the Allan Hills meteorite as likely formed from a reservoir such as the Mars atmosphere," Jull said. He and his team now also have discovered that the abundance of carbon-13 in the organic carbon in the meteorite is an exact match to the abundance of carbon-13 in Earth's organic carbon. "It looks like regular terrestrial organic material, with the exception of one small component in ALH84001." The researchers say they suspect that this component is some carbon indigenous to the rock, possibly associated with a mineral phase that burns at higher temperatures. The carbon-13 data alone are convincing evidence that the organic carbon in the meteorite is "regular terrestrial organic material," Jull said. "Combining this with the carbon-14 evidence is the clincher," he added. Radioactive carbon is produced when cosmic rays from space strike Earth's atmosphere and react with nitrogen. Carbon-14 also can be produced in minerals irradiated in space and on Mars, by high- energy nuclear reactions. However, Jull and his co-researchers show there is no mechanism to produce carbon-14 in the organic material, as this requires low-energy neutrons to interact with nitrogen atoms. Thus, organic material, which originated on Mars would contain a negligible amount of radioactive carbon before it fell to Earth. Jull and his team discovered that the organic carbon in the Allan Hills meteorite contains enough carbon-14 to yield radiocarbon ages of between 11,000 and 5,200 years. Jull previously had determined by radiocarbon analysis of silicate minerals in the meteorite that the rock fell to earth about 13,000 years ago. "The carbon-14 shows conclusively that the carbonates and the organics in the meteorite do not come from the same source," Jull said. "It also shows the organic carbon has a terrestrial source, likely through several episodes of contamination. "The organic material contains 14C and the carbonate doesn't because the carbonate came from somewhere in space, presumably Mars, and the organic material is a recent addition which took place while the meteorite was sitting on the ice," Jull said. "So, there is no connection between the two things." The Questions Continue Jull said that although the scientific community can be expected to make many more discoveries about the Allan Hills meteorite, he would be surprised if scientists got a definite answer on the question of possible ancient life on Mars from this or any other meteorite. J. Warren Beck, an associate research scientist in physics at the University of Arizona, agreed. "Even if we ultimately find that all the organic matter in this meteorite came from Earth, that doesn't rule out the possibility that life may have evolved on Mars. A meteorite represents only a tiny fragment of an entire planet," Beck said. Bada said scientists will have to wait until a Mars mission scheduled for 2005 to bring back samples from the Martian surface to determine whether life ever graced the planet. "In the meantime, we can throw any kind of analyses that we want to at these meteorites and we are not going to provide an answer one way or another about whether life existed on Mars," he said. Credits and More Information Co-authors of the Scripps paper with Bada are Daniel Glavin, a Scripps graduate student; Gene McDonald, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Luann Becker, of the University of Hawaii. Co- authors of the University of Arizona paper with Jull and Beck are Christopher J. Courtney and Daniel Jeffrey of the University of Arizona. http://www.planetary.org/articlearchive/headlines/1998/headln- 011598.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ ORGANIC MATERIAL IN MARTIAN METEORITE FOUND TO BE FROM EARTH From Scripps Institution of Oceanography 15 January, 1998 Organic material contained in a meteorite heralded as bearing signs of previous life on Mars is actually from Earth. Scientists at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Arizona in Tucson report in two separate papers in the Jan. 16 issue of Science that the potato- sized rock was contaminated by the surrounding Antarctic ice in which it was found. The scientists are the first to publish results of tests of organic material contained in the meteorite, named Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001), since research teams at NASA's Johnson Space Center and Stanford University announced their results in August, 1996. "This is bad news with respect to using these meteorites to assess whether there ever was or is life on Mars," said Jeff Bada, a professor of marine chemistry who headed the Scripps team. "It shows that the meteorites aren't going to give us a definitive answer." Bada's team analyzed amino acids contained within a sample from the meteorite while Timothy Jull's team at the University of Arizona examined the radiocarbon activity of the bulk organics. "What we found was that, yes, there are amino acids in the meteorite at very low levels, but they are clearly terrestrial and they look similar to amino acids we see in the surrounding Antarctic ice," Bada said. "How they got in there is still an open issue." Likewise, Jull's team used 14C and 13C tracers to determine the origin of the carbonate minerals and organic carbon in the meteorite. Their results indicated that the bulk of organic material in ALH84001 is contaminated material it acquired after falling to Earth. "It looks like regular terrestrial organic material," Jull said. "The 14C content of it suggests that there were several episodes of contamination." Scientists at Johnson Space Center and Stanford reported in Aug. 1996 that they had found the first organic molecules thought to be Martian in origin. Called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), these organic molecules were found in easily detectable amounts in tiny globs of carbonate within the meteorite. They also noted finding several mineral features characteristic of biological activity and possible microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organisms inside the meteorite. Their findings were published in the Aug. 16, 1996, issue of Science. The scientists proposed that very primitive microorganisms may have assisted in the formation of the carbonate, and some of the microscopic organisms may have become fossilized, in a fashion similar to the formation of fossils in limestone on Earth. Jull's analysis of isotopes contained in organic material and carbonate from the meteorite, however, indicates the two are of a completely different origin, making a relationship between the two impossible. "The organic material contains 14C and the carbonate doesn't because the carbonate came from somewhere in space, presumably Mars, and the organic material is a recent addition which took place while the meteorite was sitting on the ice," Jull said. "So, there is no connection between the two things." Bada said he chose to focus his analysis on amino acids within the meteorite because, unlike PAH's, they play an essential role in biochemistry. An expert in the analysis of amino acids, Bada used high- performance liquid chromatography to analyze amino acids in the meteorite to determine their "handedness." He found that the bulk of the amino acids consisted of the left-handed forms similar to that seen in the Allan Hills ice in Antarctica where the meteorite was found. Bada said he could not rule out the possibility that minute amounts of some extra-terrestrial amino acids such as right-handed forms of alanine were preserved in the meteorite. "What we and Tim Jull's team have shown is that there is no evidence in our hands that the meteorite contains any compounds that we could definitely trace to Mars except maybe some tiny mysterious component that we don't understand at this point," he said. Bada said scientists will have to wait until a Mars mission scheduled for 2005 to bring back samples from the Martian surface to determine whether life ever graced the planet. "In the meantime, we can throw any kind of analyses that we want to at these meteorites and we are not going to provide an answer one way or another about whether life existed on Mars," he said. Co-authors of the Scripps paper are Daniel Glavin, a Scripps graduate student; Gene McDonald, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Luann Becker, of the University of Hawaii. Co- authors of the University of Arizona paper are Christopher Courtney, Daniel Jeffrey and Warren Beck, all of the University of Arizona. Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the World Wide Web: http://sio.ucsd.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------ ORGANIC MATERIAL IN MARS METEORITE IS FROM EARTH From University of Arizona News Services 15 January, 1998 Organic material contained in a meteorite heralded as bearing signs of previous life on Mars is actually from Earth. Organic carbon in the potato-size rock comes from the Antarctic ice in which it was found and not from Mars, scientists from The University of Arizona in Tucson and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego conclude in two separate papers in the Jan. 16 issue of Science. They are the first to publish results of tests of organic material contained in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001). A. J. Timothy Jull's group at Arizona burned samples of the meteorite at different temperatures to separate organic carbon and carbonate minerals in the meteorite. In four separate such "stepped-combustion" experiments, they collected the carbon dioxide gas produced and prepared the carbon for isotopic analysis by standard radiocarbon procedure. At the University's world- class Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Laboratory, the UA scientists then measured how much of the heavy stable carbon isotope, carbon- 13, and the radioactive carbon isotope, carbon-14, were present in both the organic carbon and the carbonate minerals. Jull's group is the first to report on the bulk, or main part, of the organic material in a sample of the ALH84001 meteorite. The scientific team includes J. Warren Beck, an associate research scientist in physics; Christopher J. Courtney, a research technician in physics; and Daniel Jeffrey, an undergraduate student who worked on the project with partial funding from the NASA/Arizona Space Grant Program. For the past three years, Jull, a research geoscientist, has been studying the isotopic composition of the Allan Hills meteorite to get more information about the isotopic composition of the early Martian atmosphere. Before Johnson Space Center and Stanford University scientists announced in August 1996 the possible existence of bacterial fossils in the meteorite, several scientists, including Jull, had discovered that the carbonate minerals of the meteorite were far richer in carbon-13 than are any carbonates on Earth. "This unusual signal (carbon-13 enrichment) tags the carbonate minerals in the Allan Hills meteorite as likely formed from a reservoir such as the Mars atmosphere," Jull said. He and his team now also have discovered that the abundance of carbon-13 in the organic carbon in the meteorite is an exact match to the abundance of carbon-13 in Earth's organic carbon. "It looks like regular terrestrial organic material, with the exception of one small component in ALH 84001." The researchers say they suspect that this component is some carbon indigenous to the rock, carbon possibly associated with a mineral phase, that burns at higher temperatures. The carbon-13 data alone are convincing evidence that the organic carbon in the meteorite is "regular terrestrial organic material," Jull said. "Combining this with the carbon-14 evidence is the clincher," he added. Radioactive carbon is produced when cosmic rays from space strike Earth's atmosphere and react with nitrogen. Carbon-14 also can be produced in minerals irradiated in space and on Mars, by high- energy nuclear reactions. However, Jull and his co-researchers show there is no mechanism to produce carbon-14 in the organic material, as this requires low-energy neutrons to interact with nitrogen atoms. Thus, organic material, which originated on Mars would contain a negligible amount of radioactive carbon before it fell to Earth. Jull and his team discovered that the organic carbon in the Allan Hills meteorite contains enough carbon-14 to yield radiocarbon ages of between 11,000 and 5,200 years. Jull previously had determined by radiocarbon analysis of silicate minerals in the meteorite that the rock fell to earth about 13,000 years ago. "The carbon-14 shows conclusively that the carbonates and the organics in the meteorite do not come from the same source," Jull said. "It also shows the organic carbon has a terrestrial source, likely through several episodes of contamination." Jull said that although the scientific community can be expected to make many more discoveries about the Allan Hills meteorite, he would be surprised if scientists got a definite answer on the question of possible ancient life on Mars from this or any other meteorite. Beck agreed. "Even if we ultimately find that all the organic matter in this meteorite came from Earth, that doesn't rule out the possibility that life may have evolved on Mars. A meteorite represents only a tiny fragment of an entire planet," Beck said. Jeff Bada, a professor of marine chemistry who headed the Scripps team, and his group analyzed amino acids from a sample of the Allan Hills meteorite. Their research appears in a companion paper in the Jan. 16 issue of Science. Co-authors on this paper include Daniel Glavin, a Scripps graduate student; Gene McDonald of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Luann Becker of the University of Hawaii. "What we found was that, yes, there are amino acids in the meteorite at very low levels, but they are clearly terrestrial and they look similar to amino acids we see in the surrounding Antarctic ice," Bada said. "How they got in there is still an open issue." Life on Mars? Read "Planetary Sciences Research Discoveries" on line at: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/PSRdiscoveries ------------------------------------------------------------------ PATHFINDER RESULTS FEATURED IN THIS WEEK'S SCIENCE MAGAZINE JPL release 1 December, 1997 Based on the first direct measurements ever obtained of Martian rocks and terrain, scientists on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission report in this week's Science magazine that the red planet may have once been much more like Earth, with liquid water streaming through channels and nourishing a much thicker atmosphere. Among the more significant discoveries of the Mars Pathfinder mission was the identification of possible conglomerate rocks, which suggests the presence of running water to smooth and round the pebbles and cobbles, and deposit them in a sand or clay matrix, says Dr. Matthew Golombek, Mars Pathfinder project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. This scenario supports the theory that Mars was once warmer and wetter. "If you consider all of the evidence we have at Ares Vallis--the rounded pebbles and cobbles and the possible conglomerate, the abundant sand- and dust-sized particles and models for their origins, in addition to the high silica rocks," Golombek says, "it suggests a water-rich planet that may have been more Earth- like than previously recognized, with a warmer and wetter past in which liquid water was stable and the atmosphere was thicker." A panoramic view of Pathfinder's Ares Vallis landing site, featured on the cover of the Dec. 5 issue of Science, reveals traces of this warmer, wetter past, showing a flood plain covered with a variety of rock types, boulders, rounded and semi-rounded cobbles and pebbles. These rocks and pebbles are thought to have been swept down and deposited by floods which occurred early in Mars' evolution in the Ares and Tiu regions near the Pathfinder landing site. The cover image, which is a 75-frame, color-enhanced mosaic taken by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder, looks to the southwest toward the Rock Garden, a cluster of large, angular rocks tilted in a downstream direction from the floods. The image shows the Pathfinder rover, Sojourner, snuggled against a rock nicknamed Moe. The south peak of two hills, known as Twin Peaks, can be seen on the horizon, about 1 kilometer (6/10ths of a mile) from the lander. The rocky surface is comprised of materials washed down from the highlands and deposited in this ancient outflow channel by a catastrophic flood. "Before the Pathfinder mission, knowledge of the kinds of rocks present on Mars was based mostly on the Martian meteorites found on Earth, which are all igneous rocks rich in magnesium and iron and relatively low in silica," Golombek and a team of Pathfinder scientists report in a paper entitled, "Overview of the Mars Pathfinder Mission and Assessment of Landing Site Predictions." The paper summarizes the scientific results of the mission, which are also detailed in six other papers in this issue. The scientists report that chemical analyses of more than 16 rocks and studies of different regions of soil--along with spectral imaging of rock colors, textures and structures--have confirmed that these rocks have compositions distinct from those of the Martian meteorites found on Earth. "The rocks that were analyzed by the rover's alpha proton X-ray spectrometer were basaltic or volcanic rocks, with granite- like origins, known as andesitic rocks," Golombek reports. "The high silica or quartz content of some rocks suggests that they were formed as the crust of Mars was being recycled, or cooled and heated up, by the underlying mantle. Analyses of rocks with lower silica content appear to be rich in sulfur, implying that they are covered with dust or weathered. Rover images show that some rocks appear to have small air sacks or cavities, which would indicate that they may be volcanic. In addition, the soils are chemically distinct from the rocks measured at the landing site." The remarkably successful Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, part of NASA's Discovery program of fast track, low-cost missions with highly focused science objectives, was the first spacecraft to explore Mars in more than 20 years. In all, during its three months of operations, the mission returned about 2.6 gigabits of data, which included more than 16,000 images of the Martian landscape from the lander camera, 550 images from the rover and about 8.5 million temperature, pressure and wind measurements. The rover traveled a total of about 100 meters (328 feet) in 230 commanded maneuvers, performed more than 16 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, carried out soil mechanics and technology experiments, and explored about 250 square meters (820 square feet) of the Martian surface. The flight team lost communication with the lander on Sept. 27, after 83 days of daily commanding and data return. In all, the lander operated nearly three times its design lifetime of 30 days, and the small, 10.5 kilogram (23- pound) rover operated 12 times its design lifetime of seven days. Now known as the Sagan Memorial Station, the Mars Pathfinder mission was designed primarily to demonstrate a low-cost way of delivering a set of science instruments and a free-ranging rover to the surface of the red planet. Landers and rovers of the future will share the heritage of spacecraft designs and technologies first tested in this "pathfinding" mission. Golombek points out that the rocky surface and rock types found in Ares Vallis match the characteristics of a flood plain on Earth, created when a catastrophic flood washed rocks and surface materials from another region into the basin. Ares Vallis was formed in the same way that the 40-kilometer-long (25- mile) Ephrata Fan of the Channeled Scabland in Washington State was formed, says Golombek, adding that the Ephrata Fan was deposited when channels of water flowing down the Grand Coulees filled the Quincy Basin. Additional data from the Pathfinder landing site revealed that magnetic dust in the Martian atmosphere has been gradually blanketing most of the magnetic targets on the lander over time. "The dust is bright red, with magnetic properties that are similar to that of composite particles," Golombek states. "A small amount of the mineral maghemite has been deposited almost like a stain or cement. These results could be interpreted to mean that the iron was dissolved out of crustal materials in water, suggesting an active hydrologic cycle on Mars. The maghemite stain could be a freeze-dried precipitate." Another team of scientists used daily radio Doppler tracking and less frequent two-way radio ranging techniques during communications sessions with the spacecraft to pinpoint the location of the Pathfinder lander in inertial space and the direction of Mars' rotational axis. In his published paper, Dr. William Folkner, an interdisciplinary scientist at JPL, and co-authors present estimates of the Martian polar moment of inertia, which show that Mars has a dense core surrounded by a lighter mantle. The results imply that the radius of Mars' core is larger than about 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) and less than about 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles). Mars' core and mantle are probably warmer than Earth's at comparable depths. Eventually, scientists may be able to determine whether Mars' core is presently molten or fluid. "Variations in Mars' rotation around its own spin axis are thought to be dominated by mass exchange between the polar caps and the atmosphere," Folkner reports. "During winter, part of the atmosphere condenses at the poles. If the southern cap increased symmetrically as the northern cap decreased, then there would not be any change in moment of inertia or rotation rate. However, because of Mars' orbital eccentricity, difference in elevation and difference in albedo, the polar caps are not formed symmetrically. "The unbalanced waxing and waning of the Martian polar ice caps results in seasonal changes in air pressure at the Pathfinder and Viking landing sites, " he says. "These changes in air pressure are correlated with changes in Mars' rotation rate, which have been observed in our radio tracking measurements." The season and time of arrival of Mars Pathfinder in the late northern summer resulted in some variations in the temperature of the upper atmosphere compared to Viking data, reports Dr. Tim Schofield, JPL team leader of the atmospheric structure and meteorology instrument, and colleagues in their published report. High in the atmosphere, at altitudes of 80 kilometers (50 miles) above the surface, temperatures were cold enough to make carbon dioxide condense and form carbon dioxide clouds. At altitudes of between 60 kilometers and 120 kilometers (37 miles and 75 miles), the Martian atmosphere was an average of 20 degrees colder than Viking measurements, Schofield reports. Seasonal variations and Pathfinder's entry at 3 AM local solar time, compared with Viking's entry at 4 PM local solar time, may account for these variations. On the surface, however, daytime temperatures were typically 10 to 12 degrees warmer than Viking surface temperatures. Mars Pathfinder measured regular pressure fluctuations twice a day, which suggested that a moderate amount of dust is being uniformly mixed in a warm lower atmosphere, as was the case with Viking data. The daily average pressure reached a minimum on the 20th day of the mission (Sol 20), indicating the winter south polar cap had reached its maximum size. Schofield reports that surface temperatures follow a regular daily cycle, with a maximum of 15 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and a minimum of minus 105 degrees Fahrenheit at night. The science team also observed rapid daytime temperature fluctuations of up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit in as little as 25 to 30 seconds. These observations suggest that cold air was warmed by the surface and convected upward in small eddies. Pathfinder encountered winds that were light and variable compared to the Viking landers, Schofield reports. The winds blew steadily from the south during the Martian nights, but during the day they rotated in a clockwise direction from south to west to north to east. Whirlwinds or dust devils were detected repeatedly from mid-morning through the late afternoons. Other scientific findings of the Mars Pathfinder mission, presented in this week's issue of Science, are: * Chemical analyses returned by Mars Pathfinder indicate some rocks appear to be high in silica, suggesting differentiated parent materials. These rocks are distinct from the meteorites found on Earth that are thought to be of Martian origin. * The identification of rounded pebbles and cobbles on the ground, and sockets and pebbles in some rocks, suggests conglomerates that formed in running water, during a warmer past in which liquid water was stable. * The measurement of the moment of inertia of Mars by tracking Pathfinder radio data indicates the radius of the central metallic core is greater than 1300 km but less than roughly 2000 km. * Airborne dust is magnetic with a mean size of about 1 micron. Interpretations suggest the magnetic mineral is maghemite, which may have been freeze- dried on the particles as a stain or cement, and that the iron may have been leached out of crustal materials by an active hydrologic cycle. * Remote-sensing data at a scale of generally greater than 1 kilometer and an Earth analog correctly predicted a rocky plain safe for landing and roving, with a variety of rocks deposited by catastrophic floods that are relatively dust free. * Imaging revealed early morning water ice clouds in the lower atmosphere, which sublimate away as the atmosphere warms. * Abrupt temperature fluctuations with time and height were recorded in the morning, which was consistent with warming of the atmosphere by the surface and convected upwards in small eddies into the atmosphere. * Dust devils were frequently measured by temperature, wind and pressure sensors, and at least one likely contained dust, suggesting that these gusts are a mechanism for mixing dust into the atmosphere. * The soil chemistry of Ares Vallis appears to be similar to that of the Viking 1 and 2 landing sites, suggesting that the soil may be a globally deposited unit. * Some rocks at the landing site appear grooved and fluted, suggesting abrasion by saltating sand-sized particles. Dune- shaped deposits were also found in a trough behind the Rock Garden, indicating the presence of sand. * The weather was similar to the weather encountered by Viking 1; there were rapid pressure and temperature variations, downslope winds at night and light winds in general. Temperatures at the surface were about 10 degrees Kelvin warmer than those measured by Viking 1. * The atmosphere has been a pale pink color due to fine dust mixed in the lower atmosphere, as was seen by Viking. Particle size and shape estimates and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere are also similar to that measured by Viking. Additional information, images and rover movies from the Mars Pathfinder mission are available on JPL's Mars news media web site at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews or on the Mars Pathfinder project's home page at http://marsweb.jpl.nasa.gov . Images from Mars Pathfinder and other planetary missions are available at NASA's Planetary Photojournal web site at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1997 - THE YEAR OF MARS PATHFINDER By Diane Ainsworth From The "JPL Universe" 9 January, 1998 [The] mission captivates the world while setting new standards in planetary exploration. Of all the headline news in 1997, Mars Pathfinder's remarkable landing and performance on the surface of frozen, nearly airless Mars stole the show. Pathfinder became a landmark mission and a catalyst for new and affordable ways of exploring other worlds. Pathfinder's landing marked America's return to the red planet after more than 20 years. In addition to a swift, seven- month cruise to the planet, Pathfinder dived directly into the Martian atmosphere and landed with the aid of a parachute and giant cocoon of airbags. This novel entry technique had never been demonstrated before. Nor had any spacecraft before Pathfinder carried a roving vehicle the size of a small microwave oven to the surface of another planet. Pathfinder's companion rover, named "Sojourner" after Sojourner Truth, a female abolitionist who lived during the American Civil War, was the first robotic vehicle ever to make direct measurements of rocks and soil on Mars. Over the course of three months--which was three times the design lifetime of the spacecraft--Mars Pathfinder returned about 2.6 gigabits of data, which included more than 16,000 images of the Martian landscape from the lander camera, 550 images from the rover and about 8.5 million temperature, pressure and wind measurements. All science objectives had been fulfilled when the mission ended, 83 days after a nearly perfect landing on July 4. The only remaining objective was to complete a high-resolution 360-degree image of the landing site called the "Super Pan," of which 83 percent had been received. The last successful data transmission cycle from Pathfinder was completed at 3:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time on Sept. 27, 1997. Sojourner, built to last seven days, wound up roaming the floor of an ancient flood basin and exploring about 250 square meters (820 square feet) of the Martian surface. In all, the rover traveled a total of about 100 meters (328 feet) in 230 commanded maneuvers, performed more than 16 in-situ chemical analyses of rocks and soil, and carried out numerous soil mechanics and technology experiments. "The mission demonstrated a reliable and low-cost system for placing science payloads on the surface of Mars," said Project Manager Brian Muirhead. "We've validated NASA's commitment to low-cost planetary exploration, shown the usefulness of sending microrovers to explore Mars, and obtained significant science data to help understand the structure and meteorology of the Martian atmosphere and to understand the composition of the Martian rocks and soil." "Pathfinder was an unequivocal success and has given us phenomenal insights into how to operate future landers and rovers on the surface of Mars," added Dr. Wesley Huntress, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters, when the mission was officially declared over. "I congratulate the entire Pathfinder team on their accomplishment, which is a lofty but wonderful standard for future missions to attempt to exceed." Part of NASA's Discovery program of low-cost planetary missions with highly focused science goals, the spacecraft used an innovative method of directly entering the Martian atmosphere. Assisted by an 11-meter (36-foot) diameter parachute, the spacecraft descended to the surface of Mars and landed, using airbags to cushion the impact. This innovative method of diving into the Martian atmosphere worked like a charm. "Every event during the entry, descent and landing (EDL) went almost perfectly," said Mission Manager Richard Cook. "The sequences were executed right on time and well within our margins." Pathfinder's descent through the Martian atmosphere was nearly flawless. After being suspended from a 20-meter (65-foot) bridle and firing its retro rockets, the spacecraft released a 5.8-meter (19-foot) diameter cluster of airbags intended to soften the landing. The entry, descent and landing sequence marked the first time this airbag technique had been used. Pathfinder hit the ground at a speed of about 18 meters per second (40 mph) and bounced about 16 times across the landscape before coming to a halt, Dr. Tim Parker of JPL later reported. The airbag sustained little damage. To top it off, the spacecraft landed on its base petal, consequently allowing a thumb-sized auxiliary antenna to communicate the successful landing just three minutes after impact. Once safely on the surface, Pathfinder opened its solar- powered petals and unveiled the small, 10.5-kilogram (23-pound) rover and science instruments to their new home. Science operations got under way within a day of landing, after the rover had exited the lander using one of two exit ramps. As the rover ventured out into unexplored territory, the lander's camera began to image the surroundings, often taking shots of the rover so that scientists and engineers could monitor the vehicle's progress. A new portrait of the Martian environment began to emerge as the spacecraft started to record weather patterns, atmospheric opacity, winds and a variety of other Martian conditions. The rover's alpha proton X-ray spectrometer began studying rocks and making direct measurements of their chemical compositions, another first in this mission. Some of the rocks near the landing site were rich in silica, or quartz, and some were identified as possible conglomerates, reported Project Scientist Dr. Matthew Golombek and his colleagues. Conglomerates are usually formed by running water, which smoothes and rounds pebbles and cobbles found in the conglomerate. Running water would also be the agent necessary to deposit these rocks in a sand or clay matrix. "If you consider all of the evidence we have at Ares Vallis--the rounded pebbles and cobbles and the possible conglomerate, the abundant sand- and dust-sized particles and models for their origins, in addition to the high silica rocks," Golombek said, "it suggests a water-rich planet that may have been more Earth- like than previously recognized, with a warmer and wetter past in which liquid water was stable and the atmosphere was thicker." A panoramic view of Pathfinder's Ares Vallis landing site was featured on the cover of the Dec. 5, 1997 issue of Science, showing traces of this warmer, wetter past. The Ares Vallis flood plain was covered with a variety of rock types, boulders, rounded and semi-rounded cobbles and pebbles, deposited by floods that occurred early in Mars' evolution. "Before the Pathfinder mission, knowledge of the kinds of rocks present on Mars was based mostly on the Martian meteorites found on Earth, which are all igneous rocks rich in magnesium and iron and relatively low in silica," Golombek and his colleagues reported in Science. Chemical analyses of more than 16 rocks and studies of different regions of soil--along with spectral imaging of rock colors, textures and structures-- confirmed that these rocks had compositions distinct from those of the Martian meteorites found on Earth. "The rocks that were analyzed by the rover's alpha proton X- ray spectrometer were basaltic or volcanic rocks, with granite- like origins, known as andesitic rocks," Golombek said. "The high silica or quartz content of some rocks suggests that they were formed as the crust of Mars was being recycled, or cooled and heated up, by the underlying mantle. Analyses of rocks with lower silica content appear to be rich in sulfur, implying that they are covered with dust or weathered. Rover images show that some rocks appear to have small air sacks or cavities, which would indicate that they may be volcanic. In addition, the soils are chemically distinct from the rocks measured at the landing site." Golombek noted that the rocky surface and rock types found in Ares Vallis matched the characteristics of a flood plain on Earth, created when a catastrophic flood washed rocks and surface materials from another region into the basin. Ares Vallis was formed in the same way that the 40-kilometer-long (25-mile) Ephrata Fan of the Channeled Scabland in Washington state was formed, and the Pathfinder scientists traveled to that area a year before the landing to study the geology and experiment with rover prototype hardware. Additional data from the Pathfinder landing site revealed that magnetic dust in the Martian atmosphere had been gradually blanketing most of the magnetic targets on the lander over time. "The dust is bright red, with magnetic properties that are similar to that of composite particles," Golombek said. "A small amount of the mineral maghemite has been deposited almost like a stain or cement. These results could be interpreted to mean that the iron was dissolved out of crustal materials in water, suggesting an active hydrologic cycle on Mars. The maghemite stain could be a freeze-dried precipitate." Another team of scientists used daily radio Doppler tracking and less frequent two-way radio ranging techniques during communications sessions with the spacecraft to pinpoint the location of the Pathfinder lander in inertial space and the direction of Mars' rotational axis. Dr. William Folkner, an interdisciplinary scientist at JPL, and co-investigators were able to estimate the Martian polar moment of inertia, which showed that Mars had a dense metallic core surrounded by a lighter mantle. The results implied that the radius of Mars' core was larger than about 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) and less than about 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles). Mars' core and mantle were probably warmer than Earth's at comparable depths. "Variations in Mars' rotation around its own spin axis are thought to be dominated by mass exchange between the polar caps and the atmosphere," Folkner said. "During winter, part of the atmosphere condenses at the poles. If the southern cap increased symmetrically as the northern cap decreased, then there would not be any change in moment of inertia or rotation rate. However, because of Mars' orbital eccentricity, differences in elevation and albedo, the polar caps are not formed symmetrically. "The unbalanced waxing and waning of the Martian polar ice caps results in seasonal changes in air pressure at the Pathfinder and Viking landing sites," he added. "These changes in air pressure are correlated with changes in Mars' rotation rate, which have been observed in our radio tracking measurements." The season and time of arrival of Mars Pathfinder in the late northern summer resulted in some variations in the temperature of the upper atmosphere compared to Viking data, Dr. Tim Schofield, JPL team leader of the atmospheric structure and meteorology instrument, and colleagues reported. High in the atmosphere, at altitudes of 80 kilometers (50 miles) above the surface, temperatures were cold enough to make carbon dioxide condense and form carbon dioxide clouds. At altitudes of between 60 and 120 kilometers (37 and 75 miles), the Martian atmosphere was an average of 20 degrees colder than Viking measurements, Schofield said. Seasonal variations and Pathfinder's entry at 3 AM local solar time, compared with Viking's entry at 4 PM local solar time, may account for these variations. On the surface, however, daytime temperatures were typically 10 to 12 degrees warmer than Viking surface temperatures. Pathfinder measured regular pressure fluctuations twice a day, which suggested that a moderate amount of dust was being uniformly mixed in a warm lower atmosphere, as was the case with Viking data. The daily average pressure reached a minimum on the 20th day of the mission (Sol 20), indicating the winter south polar cap had reached its maximum size. Schofield said that surface temperatures followed a regular daily cycle, with a maximum of 15 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and a minimum of minus 105 degrees Fahrenheit at night. The science team also observed rapid daytime temperature fluctuations of up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit in as little as 25 to 30 seconds. These observations suggested that cold air was warmed by the surface and convected upward in small eddies. Among a variety of other science findings, Pathfinder also observed winds that were light and variable compared to the winds encountered by the Viking landers. The winds blew steadily from the south during the Martian nights, but during the day they rotated in a clockwise direction from south to west to north to east. Whirlwinds or dust devils were detected repeatedly from mid-morning through the late afternoons. Additional scientific findings are likely to result in the months ahead as researchers continue to analyze data from this mission. Meanwhile, another mission--Mars Global Surveyor--will be observing the planet from space, while other missions gear up for launches in the near term. As part of a sustained program of exploration, Mars is likely to become a familiar place to everyone over the next decade. ------------------------------------------------------------------ RECONFIGURED MGS READY FOR MISSION BASED ON NEW ORBIT By Diane Ainsworth From The "JPL Universe" 9 January, 1998 1997 saw the arrival of two spacecraft at Mars and the beginning of an extended program of Mars exploration. Two months after Pathfinder's landing, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor was captured in orbit on Sept. 12, after a 10-month journey through deep space. Global Surveyor was designed to replace Mars Observer, which was lost in August 1993. Ingenuity, teamwork and an exceptionally dedicated group of engineers and scientists quickly went to work to develop and launch the spacecraft within a short amount of time and on a tight budget. The time and cost of the mission broke all the records--26 months to build the spacecraft at a cost of only $148 million, which was well under the cost cap and a fraction of what it cost to build previous spacecraft destined for Mars. Mars Global Surveyor carried six scientific instruments to study Mars' climate, surface topography and subsurface resources. Its primary scientific objective, though, was to map the entire surface of the red planet. The journey to Mars wasn't as smooth as the team had hoped for, but each problem that cropped up was remedied in a creative and swift manner. In mid-November, as the spacecraft began to aerobrake into the upper fringes of the Martian atmosphere, structural damage to the yoke hinge of one of the solar panels, incurred during initial deployment of the panels shortly after launch, caused the unlatched panel to begin flexing during each dip lower into the Martian atmosphere. Mechanical stress analysis tests suggested that the solar panel yoke--a triangular, aluminum honeycomb material sandwiched between two sheets of graphite epoxy--had probably fractured on one surface during initial deployment. The analysis further suggested that the fractured surface, with increased pressure on the panel during aerobraking, began to pull away from the aluminum honeycomb beneath it. The flight team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, in collaboration with atmospheric specialists at JPL, decided upon a more gradual aerobraking strategy in which to lower the spacecraft. Aerobraking was reinitiated at 0.2 newtons per square meter (3/100,000 of 1 pound per square inch), about one- third of the original aerobraking level. That level was thought to be safe, but could be adjusted in the event of additional trouble with the panel. Science teams then came up with a new aerobraking strategy and a new mapping orbit. The new mapping orbit would be a mirror image of the original mapping orbit, but it would take an additional year to set up. The spacecraft would have to take a six-month hiatus in the spring of 1998 to allow Mars to move into the proper alignment for mapping. The spacecraft's orbit would take Global Surveyor across Mars' equator at 2 AM rather than at 2 PM, and the side of Mars that would have been dark would now be illuminated by the Sun. "From the perspective of the science instruments, the orbit will look just like the original orbit, except that instead of taking data from north to south on the sunny side of Mars, Global Surveyor will be making its observations in a south to north direction in the sunlight," said Glenn E. Cunningham, Mars Global Surveyor project manager, at a mid-November press briefing at JPL. Rather than reaching its final mapping orbit in mid-January 1998, and beginning the science mission in mid-March 1998, Mars Global Surveyor would achieve its final orbital position in mid-January 1999, and mapping was to begin in mid- March 1999. Apart from the year's delay in beginning mapping, the new mapping orbit would preserve all of the science objectives of the mission. During this year's hiatus, Global Surveyor will remain in a fixed, elliptical orbit in which it will pass much closer to the surface of Mars during each periapsis--or closest part of its orbit around Mars--than it will in the final mapping orbit. These close-range bonus passes will provide superb opportunities for data acquisition. The spacecraft's full suite of instruments, including the laser altimeter, will be turned on during this time to study the planet close up. "We expect to gain some spectacular new data during this time," Cunningham said. "The spacecraft's orbit will still be elliptical during this period, with a duration of between eight to 12 hours, but at periapsis, the surface resolution will be much greater and the lighting angles will be spectacular." If additional problems arise with the aerobraking process, the new mission plan will offer the Surveyor team other opportunities to reach an elliptical orbit that will satisfy many of the mission's science objectives. These so-called "off- ramps" from the aerobraking process will be detailed in a new mission plan to be reviewed by NASA officials in February 1998. With renewed vigor that the science mission had not been compromised, the flight team resumed aerobraking on Nov. 7. Since then, the spacecraft's scientific instruments have performed flawlessly, continuing to return new information about Martian magnetic properties, its atmosphere, surface features, temperatures and mineralogy. Among the most intriguing science discoveries was confirmation that Mars had a weak, non-uniform, planet-wide magnetic field. The discovery continues to baffle scientists, but it was the first time that Mars' magnetic field had, in fact, been studied. The spacecraft's magnetometer, which began making measurements of Mars' magnetic field after its capture in orbit on Sept. 11, detected the magnetic field just four days after the beginning of its orbit around Mars. The existence of a planetary magnetic field has important implications for the geological history of Mars and for the possible development and continued existence of life on Mars. "Preliminary evidence of a stronger than expected magnetic field of planetary origin was collected and is now under detailed study," said Dr. Mario Acuna, principal investigator of the magnetometer/electron reflectometer instrument at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. "This was the first opportunity in the mission to collect close-in magnetic field data. Much additional data will be collected in upcoming orbits during the aerobraking phase of the mission to further characterize the strength and geometry of the field. "The current observations suggest a field with a polarity similar to that of Earth's and opposite that of Jupiter, with a maximum strength not exceeding 1/800 of the magnetic field at the Earth's surface. "This result is the first conclusive evidence of a magnetic field at Mars," Acuna continued. "More distant observations obtained previously by the Russian missions Mars 2,3 and 5 and Phobos 1 and 2 were inconclusive regarding the presence or absence of a magnetic field of internal origin." The magnetic field holds important clues to the evolution of Mars. Planets like Earth, Jupiter and Saturn generate their magnetic fields by means of a dynamo made up of moving molten metal at the core. This metal is a very good conductor of electricity, and the rotation of the planet creates electrical currents deep within the planet, which give rise to the magnetic field. A molten interior suggests the existence of internal heat sources that could give rise to volcanoes and a flowing crust responsible for moving continents over geologic time periods. The latter phenomenon is called plate tectonics. "A magnetic field shields a planet from fast-moving, electrically charged particles from the Sun, which may affect its atmosphere, as well as cosmic rays, which are an impediment to life," Acuna said. "If Mars had a more active dynamo in its past, as we suspected from the existence of ancient volcanoes there, then it may have had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water on its surface." It is not known whether the current weaker field now results from a less active dynamo, or if the dynamo is now extinct and what the scientists are observing is really a remnant of an ancient magnetic field still detectable in the Martian crust. "Whether this weak magnetic field implies that we are observing a fossil crustal magnetic field associated with a now extinct dynamo--or merely a weak but active dynamo similar to that of Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune--remains to be seen," Acuna said. Mars Global Surveyor is the first in a sustained program of robotic exploration of Mars. In December 1998, a second pair of spacecraft will be launched toward the red planet, carrying instruments that will augment this new global portrait of Mars. As those spacecraft arrive at Mars, Global Surveyor will be generating a global map of the planet that will aid in the selection of future landing sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 26 November, 1997 Over the last two weeks, few activities other than normal aerobraking operations have occurred on the Mars Global Surveyor mission. As of today, the spacecraft has completed 49 orbits around Mars, including 13 passes through the atmosphere since the resumption of aerobraking on November 7th. Currently, the spacecraft completes one orbit around Mars every 32.1 hours. This period of revolution represents nearly a 13-hour reduction as compared to the original 45-hour orbit that Surveyor entered upon arrival at the red planet. Predictions provided by Dan Johnston of the navigation team show that aerobraking will continue to shrink the orbit period at an average rate of about 14 minutes per orbit over the next week. In other aerobraking-related events, the atmospheric science team reports an increased presence of dust in the Martian atmosphere in the southern hemisphere. This situation will be closely monitored over the next few weeks because global dust storms have the potential to cause large variations in atmospheric pressure at aerobraking altitudes. After a mission elapsed time of 384 days from launch, Surveyor is 187.60 million miles (301.91 million kilometers) from the Earth and in an orbit around Mars with a high point of 26,040 miles (41,907 km), a low point of 76.7 miles (123.5 km), and a period of 32.1 hours. The spacecraft is currently executing the P49 command sequence, and all systems continue to perform as expected. 9 January, 1998 Over the winter holidays, a relatively stable Mars atmosphere has allowed the Surveyor flight team to achieve slightly faster than normal aerobraking progress in terms of reducing the size of the spacecraft's orbit. Currently, the spacecraft takes 23.5 hours to complete one revolution around Mars. This orbit period is nearly 45 minutes less than that predicted for this time one month ago. During the last three weeks, some of the passes through the atmosphere have resulted in an air resistance force experienced by the spacecraft as high as 0.35 newtons per square meter. In contrast, the pressure target as specified by the baseline aerobraking plan measures only 0.25 newtons per square meter. Much of the increase in aerobraking progress has come as a result of this differential. However, because the dust storm season on Mars lasts for several more months, the atmospheric advisory group has informed the flight team that the stable atmospheric conditions may not continue. In terms of long-range process, Surveyor has completed nearly 87 revolutions around the red planet since arriving last September. The current plan involves aerobraking until late March or early April to shrink the orbit to just under 12 hours. At that time, aerobraking will be temporarily suspended by raising the low point of the orbit out of the atmosphere. This plan will allow for a concentrated period of science data collection during the summer of this year. The summer pause is also necessary so that Mars will be at the right place in its orbit around the Sun when the spacecraft begins mapping operations in March 1999. After a mission elapsed time of 428 days from launch, Surveyor is 201.62 million miles (324.47 million kilometers) from the Earth and in an orbit around Mars with a high point of 20,346 miles (32,744 km), a low point of 75.8 miles (122.0 km), and a period of 23.5 hours. The spacecraft is currently executing the P88 command sequence, and all systems continue to perform as expected. The next status report will be released on Friday, January 30th. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEXT GENERATION: MARS '98 From The "JPL Universe" 9 January, 1998 The Mars Surveyor '98 program is the next generation of spacecraft to be sent to Mars. Consisting of an orbiter--to be launched Dec. 10, 1998, and lander, set for launch on Jan. 3, 1999--the Mars '98 mission will add to the knowledge gained by the Global Surveyor and Pathfinder missions. The general science theme for the 1998 Surveyor missions is "Volatiles and Climate History." The Mars '98 orbiter will arrive at Mars Sept. 23, 1999, while the lander will touch down Dec. 3, 1999. Upon arrival at Mars, the spacecraft will use a series of aerobraking maneuvers to achieve a stable orbit, and then use atmospheric instruments and cameras to provide detailed information about the surface and climate of Mars. The '98 orbiter mission will carry a rebuilt version of the Mars Observer Pressure Modulated Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR), as well as the Mars color imaging system. PMIRR will observe the global distribution and time variation of temperature, pressure, dust, water vapor and condensates in the Martian atmosphere. The imaging system will observe synoptically Martian atmospheric processes at global scale and study details of the interaction of the atmosphere with the surface at a variety of scales in both space and time. In addition to the science payload, the orbiter spacecraft will provide an on-orbit data relay capability for future US and/or international surface stations. The lander will land near the southern polar cap and is equipped with cameras, a robotics arm and instruments to measure the composition of the Martian soil. Two small microprobes are also piggybacking on the lander, which will penetrate into the Martian subsurface to detect water ice. The science package for the lander includes the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor (MVACS) integrated lander payload, the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) and an atmospheric lidar experiment provided by the Russian Space Agency Institute for Space Science. The integrated lander payload includes a surface stereo imager with Mars Pathfinder heritage; a meteorology package; an instrumented robotic arm for sample acquisition, soil manipulation and close-up imaging of the surface and subsurface; and the thermal and evolved gas analysis experiment for determining the nature and abundance of volatile material in the Martian soil. The images obtained while the lander descends to the surface will establish the geological and physical context of the landing site. The atmospheric lidar experiment will determine the dust content of the Martian atmosphere above the landing site. Dr. John McNamee of JPL is Mars Surveyor '98 project manager. ------------------------------------------------------------------ GALILEO STARTS TWO-YEAR EXTENDED EUROPA MISSION By Jane Platt From The "JPL Universe" 9 January, 1998 After yielding a rich harvest of science results in 1997, NASA's Galileo spacecraft wrapped up its primary mission on Dec. 7 and began a two-year follow-on journey, known as the Galileo Europa mission. The transition from primary to extended mission brought a change in management. Bob Mitchell, who served as mission director for the last year of Galileo's primary mission, was appointed project manager for the Galileo Europa Mission, taking over from Bill O'Neil, who served as Galileo project manager for the flight to Jupiter and the two-year primary mission at Jupiter. O'Neil will serve as a consultant on the senior staff of JPL's Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate pending his next assignment at the Laboratory. "A great bounty of Jupiter system science has been obtained and the continuing study of these data will surely add many more important discoveries," O'Neil said of the mission. "I've been involved with the Galileo mission since its beginning in 1977, and have been at the helm since 1990 for the flight to Jupiter, the first-ever outer planet entry and orbit insertion, and throughout the two-year primary mission tour of the Jovian system. I feel extraordinarily fortunate to have had this priceless, truly unique experience. But it is time for new challenges. I am delighted to turn the reins over to Bob Mitchell. Having worked closely with Bob for more than 25 years, I know that he will do a superb job leading the team." "Accomplishing what we have set out to do with such a small team is going to be a real challenge," Mitchell said. "But we have an excellent team in place, and I'm looking forward to it." The first flyby of the Galileo Europa Mission took place on Dec. 16, when the spacecraft swooped past Europa at an altitude of 200 kilometers (124 miles), making it the closest Europa encounter of the entire Galileo mission. The extended mission will include seven more Europa flybys, four encounters with Callisto, and one or two close flybys of Io, depending on spacecraft health. Pictures and other data returned by Galileo during its primary mission continued to fascinate the public in 1997. New images of Europa revealed evidence of ice flows, a complex network of crisscrossed ridges, chunky ice rafts and relatively smooth, crater-free patches. The areas of rafting added to the mounting evidence of liquid oceans under Europa's icy crust at some point in its history. The presence of oceans would increase the odds that life could have existed there. "We're intrigued by these blocks of ice, similar to those seen on Earth's polar seas during springtime thaws," said Dr. Ronald Greeley, an Arizona State University geologist and Galileo imaging team member. "The size and geometry of these features lead us to believe there was a thin icy layer covering water or slushy ice, and that some motion caused these crustal plates to break up." Galileo investigators discovered a hydrogen atmosphere around Ganymede and both hydrogen and carbon dioxide in an atmosphere on Callisto. The spacecraft also found that Europa has an ionosphere, produced by ionization of its tenuous oxygen atmosphere. This finding came after a series of six occultation experiments, when the radio signal was interrupted while Europa was positioned between Galileo and Earth. These experiments were performed during Galileo's encounters with Europa in December 1996 and February 1997. "While this discovery does not relate to the question of possible life on Europa, it does show us there are complex surface and atmospheric processes occurring there, and Europa is not just some dead hunk of material," said lead investigator Dr. Arvydas Kliore of JPL. Galileo also transmitted new evidence of numerous high- temperature volcanoes on Jupiter's volatile moon, Io. One recent discovery revealed a new dark spot the size of Arizona on Io. The visible change occurred between Galileo's seventh and tenth orbits of Jupiter, and produced a dark area about 400 kilometers (249 miles) in diameter, surrounding a volcanic center named Pillan Patera. "This is the largest surface change on Io observed by Galileo during its entire two-year tour of the Jovian system," said Galileo imaging team member Dr. Alfred McEwen, a University of Arizona research scientist. Other significant results from Galileo this past year included the confirmation of the spacecraft's 1996 discovery of a magnetic field and magnetosphere on Ganymede, and the discoveries that all the Galilean moons except Callisto have a core. Callisto did show signs of surface erosion and blanketing at fine scale. "Before Galileo, we could only make educated guesses about the structure of the Jovian moons," said Dr. John Anderson, a JPL planetary scientist. "Now, with the help of the spacecraft, we can measure the gravitational fields of the satellites and determine their interior structure and density. We can determine how the matter is distributed inside." Galileo's instruments also detected some interesting, Earth- like phenomena on Jupiter, including the presence of lightning and aurora. Recent findings confirm the suspicion that the thunderstorms provide energy for the low pressure centers on Jupiter, which in turn feed the Great Red Spot, white ovals and other large storms. In 1997, Galileo also found clusters of volcanic vents and hot spots in greatest concentration on Io in the areas closest and farthest from Jupiter. Other discoveries include evidence of salt and carbon dioxide in Europa's icy crust and landslides on Callisto. While the spacecraft was busy making scientific history, Galileo team members made history of their own in January. O'Neil, Johnson, and others met with Pope John Paul II during a trip to Italy. "None of us ever anticipated that Project Galileo would result in a papal audience, "O'Neil said. "The Pope seemed very interested in learning about Galileo results. He encouraged continuing exploration of the universe." O'Neil and Johnson received honorary doctorates from the University of Padova and attended the Three Galileos Conference, a meeting designed to honor Galileo the man, Galileo the mission, and Galileo the new national telescope of Italy. ------------------------------------------------------------------ EUROPA: THE 'GEM' OF JUPITER Voice of America Transcript 15 January, 1998 Announcer: The Voice of America presents New Horizons, a weekly program on developments in science, technology and medicine. Today, "Europa: the 'Gem' of Jupiter," a look at the planned in- depth exploration of one of Jupiter's major moons during the second leg of the US Galileo mission. TAPE: CUT ONE--O'NEIL: (:18) "Galileo is a tremendous success of the human creativity and spirit. It will surely be recorded as one of the great feats of the 20th century. Galileo is now embarked on its two year extended mission... To particularly study Europa and Io in a manner far beyond anything envisioned even a few years ago..." TEXT: Bill O'Neil, project manager of the just-concluded first phase of the US space agency's Galileo Jupiter mission. The project was named for the Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, who, with his homemade telescope, first observed Jupiter and discovered its four main moons some 400 years ago. For two years ending last month (December, 1997), the intrepid unmanned Galileo spacecraft sent a constant stream of data and hundreds of high- resolution pictures of the biggest planet in our solar system, its close-in moons, and several nearby asteroids. Through complex feats of navigation, the spacecraft followed a zigzagging course between Jupiter and its satellites, using the gravity of one moon to propel it toward a flyby of the next one, where the spacecraft would collect more pictures and data for transmission to earth. Galileo accomplished this in spite of problems with its high-gain antenna, which developed shortly after its launch in 1989. The spacecraft also sent a parachute-borne atmospheric probe down into Jupiter's gas ball, gathering information about the huge planet's weather systems. Galileo has now begun a second phase of Jupiter exploration--one that will take a far more detailed look at its enigmatic ice-covered moon, Europa. Bob Mitchell of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab is manager of the Galileo Europa mission, known as "gem." TAPE: CUT TWO--MITCHELL: (:22) "We're going to be generating a lot more high-resolution data. We're flying up close to Europa. Europa as you probably know is the focus of it. Europa is kind of exciting just because of the fact that we know there is a lot of ice. We suspect there may be a liquid ocean under there, and that kind of a finding right here in our own solar system would be very exciting." TEXT: The Galileo Europa mission, just getting underway, will run for two years, as did Galileo's first phase of operations at Jupiter which began in December of 1995. Torrance Johnson has been Galileo project scientist since mission planning got underway in 1977. He says that if the next two years are as productive as the previous ones, it will be an astounding record, indeed. TAPE: CUT THREE--JOHNSON: (:49) "I'm reminded of a couple of years ago when we started planning this fabulous journey and realized that we had to deal with the loss of the high-gain antenna. And I estimated at that time that we'd achieve 70 percent of our original science objectives as a result of using these tools. And I took a lot of ribbing from my scientific colleagues about being so bold as to come out with a number like that. And I'm here to publicly confess that I was wrong. I'm not going to give you a new number, but it's over 100 percent, I'm sure. "There are two reasons for that. One is the tremendous skill and dedication of the people working for Galileo... And the second is that the target cooperated. Jupiter dished up some nice juicy new surprises for us that went far beyond what we had in our list of original objectives anyway." TEXT: Dr. Johnson says the high points of Galileo's first two years at Jupiter included spectacular thunderstorms and pictures of lightning in the big planet's atmosphere. TAPE: CUT FOUR--JOHNSON: (:40) "In those clouds and in those atmospheric features we were able to see those bright spots... Huge lightning bolts in Jupiter's atmosphere 10 to 100 times more powerful than lightning bolts on the earth... We have found that the winds blow into these spots and blow down--huge massive downdrafts carrying dry air into the depths of the Jupiter atmosphere. The spectrometer has been able to measure differences in humidity in various parts of these spots of over a factor of 100--suggesting that we now are beginning to understand the meteorological conditions that led to the extremely dry conditions that the probe found when it descended through one of those spots." TEXT: But perhaps the most exciting discovery during the Galileo spacecraft's first two years of Jupiter exploration concerned the big moon, Ganymede--one of Jupiter's four close-in Galilean satellites. These were the moons first detected by the Italian astronomer for whom the spacecraft was named. Ganymede, it seems, has its own magnetic field, which, as Torrance Johnson explains, puts it in select company. TAPE: CUT FIVE--JOHNSON: (:32) "This was something we had never anticipated. Our first flyby of Ganymede we found evidence for it. It's been building with our subsequent flyby's. We're now convinced that Ganymede has its own magnetic field and has a magnetosphere around it." "You might think this is the smallest magnetosphere in the solar system--when this magnetosphere is added to the ones we know about at the earth, mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, it's the seventh magnetosphere known--but it's actually a little bit bigger than mercury's magnetic field. So it's not even the smallest magnetosphere." TEXT: The Galileo craft also got a brief look at Io--the most dynamic of Jupiter's four main moons--with its active volcanoes that spew material into the magnetosphere surrounding Jupiter. The volcanic ash forms a doughnut-like torus around the planet. Galileo's sensors were also able to take the temperature of the lava from Io's volcanic eruptions. It was several hundred degrees hotter than typical lava here on earth. But it is the enigmatic icy moon, Europa, that's been attracting the greatest attention--and is now the focus of part two of Galileo's mission, called gem. Galileo's instruments spotted ice floes, or "rafts," on the surface of Europa's ice cover, indicating melting at some time in the past. As Torrance Johnson put it, does this mean there's an ocean underneath? And if there is liquid water, is there the possibility of life? TAPE: CUT SIX--JOHNSON: (:12) "This is of course one of the reasons why we're very interested in Europa--the possibility that there may be liquid water underneath that ice surface. Certainly there was melting disruption of that crust in the recent geological past." TEXT: Zeroing in on the cause and the timing of that surface melting is the primary research objective of gem--the Galileo Europa mission. Ronald Greeley, a professor of geology at Arizona State University, says there seems to be heat in the interior of Europa. TAPE: CUT SEVEN--GREELEY: (1:04) "Europa is really the gem of the solar system... We've known for some time that she has an outer frigid shell of ice and a heart of rock and metal. The big question has been: 'has that heart ever been warm? Warm enough to disrupt the surface?' What the Galileo pictures have shown us with abundant evidence is that, yes, heat flow from that interior has been sufficient to rip the surface apart. "What is the evidence for that? First, there are areas that resemble icebergs and ice floes. This has to reflect near-surface heat. We've also seen places where the icy crust has been ripped apart and dark material has filled in that rift area. And just recently, we've seen places where heat apparently has driven molten material--or at least ductile material--up toward the surface where it's ruptured the surface like a blister and left behind structures that are frozen in place like glaciers." TEXT: Spectrographic analysis of the images from Galileo show that, around these iceberg and glacier-like structures, there are mineral deposits, blue in color, that are embedded in Europa's icy surface. These deposits were evidently brought up by whatever warm material caused the blistering and rupturing of the surface. Project scientist Torrance Johnson says these deposits are further evidence that there at least was liquid water on Europa at one time. TAPE: CUT EIGHT--JOHNSON: (:30) "We now believe they are very heavily hydrated minerals--that is, minerals with lots of water attached to them. And we believe that the types of minerals that we would call salts--not normal table salt, but more like Epsom salts, things like magnesium and sulfur and sulfates and sodium sulfates. These are the types of salts found in some primitive meteorites. And their presence on the surface in these young areas suggests that they were dissolved in water, brought to the surface and formed evaporative deposits on the surface of Europa." TEXT: Other tantalizing evidence that there at least once was water on Europa is the presence of impact structures on the ice. These are similar to what might have been left by a meteorite that struck the surface--leaving a hole in the ice that promptly froze over. Ronald Greeley: TAPE: CUT NINE--GREELEY: (:38) "We think those impact structures--we don't see a crater preserved--but we think they're similar to what we can obtain in hyper-velocity impact experiments... The crater form is not preserved, but what you see is the series of ring fractures and the scar of the impact. So we would suggest that the structures we see on Europa reflect that kind of impact-- that is, a thin, brittle layer overlying a viscous sub-medium." TEXT: The impact scars and surface mineral deposits on Europa clearly suggest the effects of water--welling up from beneath a thin ice coating toward the surface. But the question remains: when did these events occur? Recently or a long time ago? And does any liquid water yet remain under Europa's surface ice, or is it frozen through? TAPE: CUT TEN--GREELEY: (:20) "The big unknown is the timing of the events. Has that heart been warm throughout geologic history and is it currently warm? Are the features we're looking at the result of recent events or the reflection of geologic past? Those are some of the questions that we hope to address during gem." TEXT: Over the two years of the "gem" mission, the Galileo spacecraft will conduct eight flybys of the large icy satellite of Jupiter. If there is currently any liquid water under Europa's ice, what would be the visible evidence detectable to the spacecraft--the "smoking gun," if you will? We asked Ron Greeley: TAPE: CUT ELEVEN--GREELEY: (1:17) "This is a fundamental question of course that a lot of people are interested in. I think the only definitive way that we on gem would be able to resolve the issue is, if we can see surface changes that occur either from the time of the voyager data or the time during Galileo. What kinds of surface features would these be? We might see places of surface changes--coulees (flows) of material that could be erupted onto the surface. We might be able to see active geysers of the sort that are observed on Io. "Those are probably long shots--but they would provide very clear- cut evidence that Europa is currently active. What we do know is that in at least the recent geologic past, there has been slush, or at least very warm ductile ice. The kinds of features that we're seeing--like the iceberg set in a matrix--all of those things clearly point to that style of deformation and the presence of that kind of material. The issue is the timing. That's a problem that's under current debate, and a clear answer has not emerged yet." TEXT: Project scientist Torrance Johnson says it's unlikely that Galileo will determine for certain whether liquid water resides under Europa's ice. Making that determination would require more intensive day-to-day contact--of the type achieved by a spacecraft in permanent orbit around Europa. TAPE: CUT TWELVE--JOHNSON: (:49) "Really determining for sure whether there's an ocean there now-- that may be the job of the next mission for which we hope we're laying the groundwork. Where a series of multiple flyby's give us insight into the general gravity structure of Europa, probably to determine whether the upper layers of Europa are responding to tides like an ocean requires an orbiter. That's the type of thing people do on the earth with orbiters. It's the type of thing we did on Venus with orbiters--actually looking at solar tides in the solid body of Venus. Those types of geodetic experiments typically need many, many, many gravity passes in a very repetitive way. That's probably something that could only be done with an orbiter, although we may get hints from our eight more encounters." TEXT: One of the factors that might determine whether liquid water exists on Europa now has to do with the source of its endogenous heating. The principal source is internal friction caused by tidal effects as the big moon whips through Jupiter's monstrous magnetic field. But as Torrance Johnson explains, that may only be part of the story. TAPE: CUT THIRTEEN--JOHNSON: (1:30) "Europa is being heated today as we speak, pretty heavily by tides. It's the second most tidally-heated body in the system after Io. It's also being heated by radioactive heat sources. All of these bodies have a significant amount of rock in them. The rock contains uranium, potassium and thorium--the same elements that decay in the earth and the other terrestrial planets and produce heat. So it's those things together that produce the heat budget." "Now whether that heat is sufficient for maintaining a Liquid ocean turns out to be a complicated geophysical problem. It's one of those cases where you run the model one way and it says 'yes, maybe,' and you run the model another way and it says 'no, maybe.' and the differences between those models are things that we don't have a good handle on theoretically or in the laboratory--things like the exact response of the ice on Europa to tidal flexing--how much heat is deposited for so much strain in the surface." "There are a lot of things that tend to favor melting, however-- things like the possible salinity of the ocean, which would lower its melting temperature. And things like the currents induced in an ocean by tides, which also would dissipate energy and heat as they do on the earth. So most of the current geophysical models that people are running on Europa suggest that there is enough energy there to keep a liquid ocean present--but not for certain, which is one of the reasons we're still searching for physical evidence." TEXT: In addition to intensively surveying Europa, the Galileo spacecraft will spend a small amount of time over the next two years in a repeat examination of the moon, Io, as well as of Jupiter, itself. Galileo science planning manager Karen Buchsbaum says that one of the questions the team hopes to resolve is whether Io, like the moon Ganymede, has a magnetic field. TAPE: CUT FOURTEEN--BUCHSBAUM: (:58) "When we return to Io for two close flyby's--one in October and one in November, 1999--the first will be a more equatorial pass, the second a polar pass. We'll be able to do detailed gravity studies to understand better the internal structure. We want to understand the interaction of Io with the magnetosphere (of Jupiter) and the plasma torus. We want to resolve the issue left from December of 1995 about whether Io has its own internal magnetic field--as was shown with Ganymede--and we want to study the supply of materials provided by Io to the magnetosphere as the volcanic activity spews material forth from the moon itself." "Finally, and very importantly, we have high-resolution imaging and spectral data that we want to collect to give us the best-ever data that we would have of active volcanic vents on Io and an opportunity to study the composition of the lava on the surface of Io." TEXT: As the Galileo spacecraft embarks upon phase two if its mission to Jupiter and its environs, one of the principal concerns of scientists and planners is the huge planet's immense radiation fields. Mission manager bob Mitchell says the tiny craft held up well during its first two years at Jupiter. Can it make it for two more? TAPE: CUT FIFTEEN--MITCHELL: (:45) "Jupiter's radiation environment is a very harsh one. And the spacecraft is designed originally to do what it has done to date-- a little bit more, but about what we've done so far. And by the time we're done with what we have designed to do--which is eight flyby's of Europa--and then dip down and have two close flyby's of Io, which is way down deep in the radiation--by the time we've done all that, we will have well exceeded what the spacecraft was designed to do." "But our experience with these kinds of spacecraft systems is that they typically perform well beyond what the initial design requirements were. So we're optimistic that this thing is going to work for a full two years more. But we can't know for sure." TEXT: Whatever discoveries are made over the remaining two years of Galileo's mission at Jupiter, they will be icing on the cake, given the already impressive record established by the tiny but intrepid spacecraft during its first phase of operations. Project scientist Torrance Johnson: TAPE: CUT SIXTEEN--JOHNSON: (:28) "We've had a wonderful two years exploring this system--and it is a system. Many of us on the Galileo science team are involved in trying to update textbooks and encyclopedia articles and we're finding it a very tough task, because we can't just take our previous text and add a few lines for Galileo results. We're having to tear it up and literally rewrite the textbooks. That's what the last two years have done for us, and I suspect that we're going to have even more of that with the next two years of extended operations." TAPE: MUSIC THEME Announcer: You've been listening to New Horizons, a weekly Voice of America program on developments in science, technology and medicine. Today you heard, "Europa: the 'Gem' of Jupiter," a look at the planned in-depth exploration of one of Jupiter's major moons during the second leg of the US Galileo mission. This program was written and produced by Brian Cislak. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ORIGINS ADVANCES ITS STUDY OF STAR, GALAXY AND LIFE FORMATION By Jane Platt From The "JPL Universe" 9 January, 1998 1997 was a busy year for the Origins program, an ambitious and intriguing series of missions to teach us more about star and galaxy formation and extend the search for life beyond our solar system. For the first of the Origins missions, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), the year was spent with planning and design during the project's Phase B. SIRTF passed its preliminary design review and non-advocate review in late September, and will undergo its critical design review in the fall of 1998. The development of SIRTF's large, sensitive infrared detector arrays was completed and construction of the flight detectors was initiated. SIRTF will enter Phase C/D in April 1998. With a planned launch in 2001, SIRTF will explore galaxy evolution and star formation in other galaxies, and will probe the distant reaches of the observable universe to study some of the most luminous galaxies known. Within our own galaxy, SIRTF will search for brown dwarfs, and will detect and characterize extra-solar disks that may represent new solar systems forming. SIRTF will complete NASA's Great Observatories Program, a suite of observatories designed to study the universe at all wavelengths. The other observatories in this family are the Hubble Space Telescope, the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, and The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. NASA has selected the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), which is operated jointly by Caltech and JPL, to be the home institution for the SIRTF science center. Dr. Tom Soifer of Caltech has been named director of the center, which will be responsible for operating SIRTF and processing its data. The SIRTF mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science. Another in the series of Origins missions, the Space Interferometry Mission, entered Phase A in October 1997. Chris Jones, the former Cassini spacecraft development manager, was appointed project manager for SIM, which will have an unprecedented ability to pinpoint stars and determine with high accuracy ages and distances in the universe. Within the Milky Way galaxy, SIM will search for signs of planet formation in disks of material orbiting other stars. The spacecraft will look for the wobble of stars that are caused by planets orbiting around them. As the world's first long baseline optical space interferometer, SIM will serve as a technological stepping stone for the Terrestrial Planet Finder, a future Origins mission designed to capture a "family portrait" of other planetary systems. The Planet Finder would characterize the atmospheres of newly-discovered "Earthlike" planets to determine which of them might be habitable. The planned Keck interferometer successfully completed its preliminary design review in September, with a critical design review scheduled next summer. The Keck project will link the two 10-meter (393-inch) telescopes at Hawaii's Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea into one interferometer, later adding four 2-meter (79- inch) outrigger telescopes to complete the six-element imaging array. The project has begun the process of applying to Hawaii's conservation district for permits to install the outriggers. The linking of the two main telescopes is scheduled for completion in 2000, with 2002 set as the target date for the outriggers to begin operations. The Keck interferometer will survey 500 nearby stars, using astrometry for extra-solar planet detection. It will look for the wobble caused by planets of a mass as low as Uranus out to a distance of 10 parsecs. The so-called "warm Jupiters," the type of planets currently being detected indirectly, will be seen directly using the six-element interferometer. In addition, the Keck interferometer will determine the extent of the zodiacal dust clouds believed to shroud other solar systems, gathering information that will affect the design of the Terrestrial Planet Finder. New images of various celestial objects were captured by the 2- Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), which began operations in 1997 using the first of a pair of twin telescopes. The two 1.3 meter (51-inch) telescopes will peer through the Milky Way galaxy's curtain of interstellar dust to conduct a near-infrared survey of the entire celestial sky. Operations began in 1997 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory site atop Mount Hopkins near Tucson, Ariz., while the other 2MASS telescope, at a National Optical Astronomy Observatories site in Cerro Tololo, Chile, will begin operating in February of 1998. 2MASS, which is primarily funded by NASA, is based at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. IPAC is processing the 2MASS data. The survey is designed to catalogue 300 million stars and 1 million galaxies in the local universe, along with such exotic targets as quasars, black holes and brown dwarfs. It will also observe many known asteroids and possibly some comets. It's expected that 2MASS will discover new infrared sources that may form the basis for future space observatories, like the Advanced X-Ray Facility (AXAF), the Space Infrared Telescope Facility and the Next Generation Space Telescope. Another project supported by Caltech's IPAC is the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), which has a mission to discover how galaxies change through time and to detect the birth of new galaxies, called proto-galaxies. Within weeks of the September 1998 launch of the WIRE spacecraft into low Earth orbit, this small telescope will detect tens of thousands of starburst galaxies--galaxies where stars are forming at a much higher rate than usual--as well as an unknown number of proto-galaxies. ------------------------------------------------------------------ LOS ALAMOS INSTRUMENTS TO PROSPECT FOR WATER ON THE MOON From Los Alamos National Laboratory 30 December, 1997 Sometime in the next month or so, Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists will gather information bearing on a major question impacting the future of space colonization: does the moon have water? Three Los Alamos instruments on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Lunar Prospector, scheduled for a Jan. 5, 1998, launch, will look for water, map the location of valuable elements and gather data on events that release gases from below the surface of Earth's nearest neighbor. "If we can find sufficient water, it's going to be a land rush like the Oklahoma Sooners," said Bill Feldman, project leader for the Los Alamos instrument package. Los Alamos is a Department of Energy laboratory. Feldman is confident that Los Alamos' neutron spectrometer will find water if it is there--even if it occurs in a very small amount--most likely in the form of dirty ice in permanently shaded craters near the moon's poles. The instrument, which detects and distinguishes neutrons of different energies, should find even faint traces of any ice that is within three feet of the lunar surface. Ever since last year, when radar mapping instruments on the Clementine probe suggested the possible presence of water on the moon, the importance of Lunar Prospector has grown. Ice, likely deposited by comet and meteoroid impacts, would open the way to interplanetary colonization. "Water is the key resource that will support life as well as travel from the moon to the planets. Besides sustaining life for moon colonies, hydrogen from the ice can be extracted for rocket fuel," Feldman said. "I am sure that there are people who would colonize the moon once sufficient water is available," he continued. "The moon is one of the best environments you could possibly have for any number of scientific and commercial enterprises." In addition to serving as a fueling station for interplanetary travel, a moon colony could provide a base for important research in radio, ultraviolet and infrared astronomy. Lunar Prospector will take four and one-half days to reach the moon, but Los Alamos scientists will turn on their three instruments--the neutron spectrometer, an alpha particle detector and a gamma ray spectrometer--90 minutes after launch. They want to calibrate the sensors in transit to the moon and make sure everything is working perfectly when the spacecraft reaches its polar orbit around the moon. After three high-altitude orbital maneuvers at the moon and about a week after launch, Lunar Prospector will settle into its mapping orbit, skimming about 60 miles above the lunar surface. The neutron spectrometer, the latest in a long line of such instruments built for Los Alamos' nonproliferation programs for the past 35 years, detects neutrons that escape into space when cosmic rays strike the upper layers of the moon's surface. The spectrometer measures neutrons it encounters in three different ranges of speed, or energy. Neutrons that strike heavy elements bounce around like a ping-pong ball without losing much energy, whereas neutrons bouncing against hydrogen--the lightest element and a principal component of water--give up their energy to the hydrogen relatively quickly. The detector will see very few medium-energy neutrons in an area with hydrogen, because the high-energy neutrons generated by cosmic rays quickly become lower energy neutrons. If the detector sees few or no medium-energy neutrons, water must be present. Feldman said the instrument could give indications of water within a few days of beginning its mapping work, if a lot of water is present, or it could take weeks to make a determination. "If it's a small spot of ice in a large field of view, it will produce only a small dip in the data," he explained. "That will take a lot of tweaking and a lot of interpretation, and I'll be loath to say anything definite until we're really sure." Prospector also will carry a Los Alamos gamma ray spectrometer experiment that will provide global maps of the major rock-forming elements on the lunar surface. The instrument records the spectrum of gamma rays and neutrons emitted by elements contained in the moon's crust. The map of certain elements will provide clues to lunar evolution, and tell future lunar '49ers where to look for such valuable elements as aluminum, iron, uranium and titanium. The moon was sampled during Apollo missions 25 years ago, but along a near-equatorial orbit that covered only 20 percent of the moon. Lunar Prospector will map the elements over the remainder of the moon's surface. An alpha particle spectrometer from Los Alamos will give scientists more information about the moon's minor--by Earth standards--seismic activity. Lunar magma that cooled just beneath the outer crust contains uranium, and as uranium-238 decays it produces radon. If moonquakes vent radon to the surface, the spectrometer will capture the evidence by recording the alpha particle signatures of radon's radioactive decay . The three spectrometers were tested for a year and integrated with Lunar Prospector by Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft. The mission is scheduled to last one year. Lunar Prospector is part of NASA's Discovery Mission series. Alan Binder of Lockheed-Martin Missile and Space Corporation is the principal investigator. Southwest Research Institute in Texas provided electronics for the Los Alamos instruments. Los Alamos staff members Bruce Barraclough and Dick Belian are scientific collaborators on the project and Ken Fuller of Los Alamos' Space Engineering Group was the principal engineer. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR 10 STARDUST EDUCATOR FELLOWSHIPS NASA release STARDUST is the fourth of several flight missions in NASA's Discovery program. The goal of the Discovery program is to design small, less expensive spacecraft with specific scientific goals that can be built in 36 months or less. Mars Pathfinder and Lunar Prospector are examples of Discovery missions chosen in the past. More information on this exciting project can be found on the Internet at: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/top.html The spacecraft will launch in February 1999 on board an expendable launch vehicle and rendezvous with Comet Wild 2 in January 2004, coming within 150 kilometers (93 miles) of the comet's nucleus. The spacecraft will be the first ever to collect dust spewed from a comet and return it to Earth for detailed analysis. The comet samples are made up of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and material that condensed in the solar nebula, a diffuse cloud of gas and dust from which the Sun and planets were formed. A sample return capsule will reenter Earth's atmosphere and land on a dry lake bed in Utah in January, 2006. Stardust Workshop/Stardust Presenters Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) STARDUST Outreach Opportunity Program is implementing a nation-wide teacher training initiative and developing educational modules. This effort is targeted at grades 4-8. Initially, 10 STARDUST Educator Fellows will be recruited from around the country to help field test the STARDUST educational modules and Teacher Training Workshop. This initial group will help test and modify the workshop presentation. An additional Announcement of Opportunity will be distributed in late spring/summer 1998 to solicit candidates from whom an additional 15 Educator Fellows will be selected and trained in fall 1998. Candidates selected for the STARDUST Educator Fellowship will receive: * an all-expenses-paid intensive training workshop on: the STARDUST mission; science and educational aspects necessary to effectively present the STARDUST related topics; and comets and other small Solar System bodies. This will take place on three to-be-determined days during April 26-May 2 in Denver, Colorado at Lockheed Martin Astronautics. * a crash course on presentation strategies and a complete teacher training presenter package to use for STARDUST workshops * priority updates and mailings on the latest STARDUST mission information and materials * materials to help plan and promote STARDUST workshops * continued contact with the STARDUST science team to answer questions and to facilitate discussion The STARDUST Educator Fellowship Team will reflect a geographically and institutionally diverse mix of presenters from a variety of environments - science centers/museums; school districts; universities; educational organizations; etc. - to ensure a diverse team and reach. In return, selected Fellows must commit to conducting a minimum of two educator training workshops per year (approved by the STARDUST Education Outreach Team) and to sharing evaluation information from those workshops with the STARDUST educational partners. The training will provide Fellows with a unique opportunity to interact with STARDUST Project scientists and engineers. The Education Outreach Team will serve as a liaison for the Fellows to facilitate the dissemination of new information and continued contact with the STARDUST Fellowship Team. While a variety of factors will be used in the final selection, the profile of ideal STARDUST Educator Fellows includes: * actively teaching or conducting teacher training in a formal or informal science environment (e.g., school district, science center, museum, educational organization); * willing to conduct a minimum of two STARDUST Teacher Training Workshops on their own during each year they are involved with the program; * has a written commitment from their host institution (current employer or sponsoring organization) to provide release time for the Teacher Training and an expressed willingness to support the candidate in conducting at least two STARDUST Teacher Training Workshops per year; * willing to submit a resume, two letters of reference and a two- page proposal outlining their interest in STARDUST and how they envision sharing the educational activities for which they will be trained; and * a commitment to provide timely reports and assessment information back to the STARDUST Education Outreach Team. Selection STARDUST Educator Fellows will be chosen from extensive networks of classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, and museum/science center educators. The STARDUST Educator Fellowship Team will be selected in order to provide a geographic and institutional mix of presenters from a variety of environments: science centers/museums; school districts; universities; educational organizations; etc., ensuring a diverse team of STARDUST Fellows across the country. An announcement of those selected will be made by March 6, 1998. Please contact Kerri Beisser at 703/683-9740 for applications to the fellowship. Attn: Kerri Beisser STARDUST Educator Fellowship Proposals Challenger Center for Space Science Education 1029 North Royal Street Suite 300 Alexandria, Virginia 22314 703-683-7546 FAX ------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA SOFTWARE CLEARLY DISPLAYS BREAST TUMOR SCANS IN 3-D NASA release N97-088 Clear, accurate three-dimensional (3-D) images made from a series of scans of a breast and tumor were shown by NASA at the Radiological Society of North America Conference, McCormick Place, Booth 9322, Chicago, IL, from November 30 until December 5, 1997. Each high fidelity 3-D picture is known as a "reconstruction," a computerized object that a physician wearing 3-D glasses can see from all angles on a computer monitor. "These reconstructions are highly accurate 3-D visual models of affected breasts with tumors. Once this technique is fully developed, we think physicians will be able to visualize the borders of tumors more clearly," said Dr. Muriel Ross of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. Ross is director of the Ames Biocomputation Center that uses computer technology to improve medical practices. In the new technique, a series of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) breast scans are combined to make a 3-D image using Reconstruction of Serial Sections (ROSS) software that was developed in the Biocomputation Center. The method eliminates "noise," or interference, seen in more common renderings of breast tissues done in many clinics. "For this initial reconstruction, we combined features of the ROSS software we have been using with another version we use for Computed Axial Tomography (CAT) scans," Ross said. "Eventually, a special version of the software will be developed for MRI. In the meantime, we have demonstrated that high fidelity, 3-D reconstructions can be made from typical MRI breast scans." Normally, mammograms are used for initial screening for breast cancer. If a suspicious lump is detected, a follow-up MRI using contrast medium can be conducted. "The medium is injected into the patient's blood stream. This medium rapidly concentrates in the tumor, which shows in the scan as a bright area. But even with this technique, it is hard to see where the tumor begins and ends," Ross said. "Later, we intend to work with sonograms," she said. A sonogram is a scan that uses sound to visualize objects inside bodies. "We want to reduce noise that comes from multiple, echo-like reflections of sound coming from tissues. Borders of objects can be difficult to define because echoes bounce and can interfere with one another." The NASA Biocomputation Center at Ames will become part of a larger National Biocomputation Center soon to be established by NASA and Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, according to Ross. "The new center will be a national resource to further the use of virtual reality in medicine," Ross said. Virtual reality is a computer-created environment that simulates a real-life situation. In work related to the breast tumor 3-D imaging program, the NASA- Stanford biocomputation team is working on virtual reality computer tools to aid in complex facial reconstructive surgery. Surgeons can use a big-screen workbench, special gloves, computer tracking wands and software to manipulate a 3-D computer image of the patient. "The surgeon can work on the virtual reality image and replace the soft tissues to see what the patient may look like after facial reconstruction. If the doctor doesn't like the results, it's easy enough to start all over," Ross said. The team is interested in working with mastectomy patients needing breast reconstruction, and with children who need reconstructive surgery to correct deformities of the head and face. Eventually the system could be used in other medical specialties or surgical procedures. Virtual reality will allow surgeons to rehearse complex procedures before an operation. In addition, the team expects virtual reality will be a powerful teaching tool for medical students. A digital library of computerized "virtual patients" will be created that physicians can use to share information about uncommon procedures, according to researchers. Development of the breast tumor enhancement software follows an agreement that enlists NASA technologies to fight breast cancer and other women's illnesses. The agreement was signed in October in Washington, DC, by representatives of NASA and the Department of Health and Human Services. Major areas of concern are cancer, reproductive health, pregnancy, osteoporosis and education. Additional information is available on NASA technologies being used to detect and treat breast cancer by calling the NASA HQ Newsroom at 202/358-1600 or via the Internet at URL: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/cancer_tech.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ SENATOR GLENN GETS A "GO" FOR SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION NASA release 98-8 16 January, 1998 NASA today named John Glenn to the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery, scheduled to launch in October. Glenn will serve as a payload specialist on that mission. Glenn made history 35 years ago when he strapped himself into a nine- by -seven foot capsule atop an experimental rocket and became the first American to orbit the Earth. Recently he asked NASA if he could fly again to conduct space-based research on aging, but only if he met the agency's physical and mental requirements. "Not only is John Glenn a Marine test pilot, an astronaut, and the first American to orbit the Earth, he brings a unique blend of experience to NASA," said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "He has flight, operational, and policy experience. Unlike most astronauts, he never got the opportunity for a second flight. He is part of the NASA family, an American hero, and he has the right stuff for this mission." Glenn, who still flies his own plane, flew 149 missions as a Marine fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, and was hit by enemy fire 11 times. As a test pilot, he set a transcontinental speed record and recently set a record for speed on a flight from Dayton, OH, to Washington. Since aging and space flight share a number of similar physiological responses, the study of space flight may provide a model system to help scientists interested in understanding aging. Some of these similarities include bone and muscle loss, balance disorders and sleep disturbances. Space biomedical researchers and gerontologists believe more research in these areas could help older people live more productive and active lives, and could reduce the number of individuals requiring long-term medical care in their later years. Senator Glenn has been a catalyst in promoting the use of space flight for the benefit of healthy and productive aging. The human research on this mission will be conducted by NASA and the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. The research was peer reviewed by independent scientists, and includes studies on sleep disorders, muscle atrophy, balance, and clinical evaluations of blood and heart function. "The research on this mission will contribute to building our knowledge and understanding of the aging process," said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging. "The data collected will be used to conduct continued research on how aging affects sleep cycles, muscle deterioration, and balance." Dr. Michael DeBakey, Chancellor Emeritus of Baylor Medical College, who reviewed the medical data on Glenn, said he sees "no evidence to prevent him from going into space. Flying Senator Glenn offers important opportunities to study the effects of the space environment on aging systems as has never been done in the past." Dr. Robert Butler, professor of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center, director of the International Longevity Center, agreed. "It serves both science and a better understanding of what human beings of all ages will experience as we enter the next century to have an older person included on a space flight," said Butler, one of the nation's foremost gerontologists. "Senator Glenn is particularly well qualified since he has done this before, and because of his work with NASA and the National Institute on Aging to develop research that will lead to a better understanding of the effects of aging. His involvement makes a bold statement about the capabilities of older people and will help us understand the effects of aging and space flight. Senator Glenn's courage and willingness to undertake this mission are notable." NASA has previously flown astronauts up to 61 years old. At least eight crew members over the age of 55 have flown multiple missions. Shannon Lucid was 54 when she spent six months aboard the Russian space station Mir. Before NASA made the decision to fly Glenn, the senator underwent a battery of medical tests conducted by NASA physicians and by independent consultants. They all found him medically qualified for space flight. According to NASA flight surgeons, Glenn's fitness level is excellent. "We have 42 years of medical history on Senator Glenn and we were able to perform an exhaustive medical evaluation," said Dr. Denise Baisden, a NASA flight surgeon. "He is medically qualified to fly." A distinguished group of multi-disciplinary medical experts, led by Dr. Clifford C. Dasco of Baylor College of Medicine, concurred with Baisden's recommendation. "There are no significant medical issues that would prevent Senator Glenn from going into space on the Space Shuttle," the panel concluded. ------------------------------------------------------------------ FIRST STATION ELEMENT TO BE SHIPPED TO RUSSIAN LAUNCH SITE NASA release 98-7 16 January, 1998 The International Space Station will complete a major milestone toward its first launch as the first station piece, a US-funded and Russian-built control module, is shipped from a Moscow factory next week to its Russian Space Agency launch site in Baikonur, Kazahkstan. In advance of the shipment of the control module, formerly called the Functional Cargo Block and designated by the Russian acronym FGB, a rollout ceremony and press conference will be held at the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center in Moscow at 11 AM Moscow time on Saturday, January 17. Highlights of the rollout ceremony will be broadcast, tape-delayed, on NASA Television at 3 PM EST Saturday, with a repeat airing at 6 PM EST. The actual shipping of the control module is scheduled to begin on Thursday, Jan. 22. The 20-ton module is targeted for a late June launch to begin the five-year, 45-flight orbital assembly of the new space station. It will be launched on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan. The control module was built by the Khrunichev factory, under contract to The Boeing Company, the prime contractor to NASA for the International Space Station. It will depart Khrunichev via a special rail car late next week to begin the 1,200-mile, five- day train journey to Baikonur, where it will begin five months of launch preparations and final testing. "When the control module arrives at Baikonur, all of the elements for our first two launches will be undergoing final launch processing," International Space Station program manager Randy Brinkley said. "The year of the International Space Station is 1998. This is something that all of us have looked forward to for a very long time. We have a lot of exciting and challenging activities ahead as we begin our assembly in orbit. The incredible efforts of a worldwide engineering and development team will be coming to fruition, and a new, unprecedented phase of space construction will begin." Shortly after the control module is launched from Russia, Endeavour will launch on Space Shuttle mission STS-88 from the Kennedy Space Center, FL, with the second piece of the station, a connecting module called Node-1, built by Boeing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. The node was shipped to Kennedy to begin a year of launch preparations and final testing in June 1997. Two mating adapters have since been shipped to Kennedy from California and are being attached to the node prior to its launch. Endeavour's crew will dock the control module to the node and perform three spacewalks to make final connections between the two components during the 11-day flight. The station will then await the launch of the Russian-built Service Module, a component that will become the early living quarters, targeted for December. The first crew of the new station is planned for launch on a mission in early 1999. The 20-ton control module will provide early power and propulsion for the station as well as the capability to remotely rendezvous and dock with the Service Module. Construction began on the control module at Khrunichev in December 1994. NASA Television is available in the continental United States and is carried on GE-2, Transponder 9C, 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz. ------------------------------------------------------------------ EXTRATERRESTRIAL CUISINE IS COOKING IN CORNELL LAB From Cornell University News Service 19 January, 1998 For out-of-this-world space habitat menus, Cornell experts develop plant-based foods, such as tofu cheesecake and carrot "drumsticks." After months in a space habitat, astronauts on the moon or Mars will have Cornell University to thank if their daily meals are culinary delights. To help NASA plan the cuisine for future lunar and Martian space colonies, a Cornell chef, nutritionist, food and biological engineer and vegetarian cooking teacher are collaborating to develop and test tasty, nutritious and economical recipes that astronauts can prepare from a limited set of 15 to 30 crops to be grown in future space habitats. Wheat and potatoes are the staples to be complemented with rice, soy and peanuts, salad crops and fresh herbs, all to be grown hydroponically in artificially lit, temperature- controlled space farms. The fare now being tested at Cornell by weekly taste-testing panels composed of students, faculty and staff includes seitan tacos with lettuce and tomato sprinkled with earth-made cheese, carrot "drumsticks," tempeh sloppy