MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 11, 21 April 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. Article 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 and Word97 files suitable for printing may be obtained via anonymous FTP at: ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs. Also, an official web page is under construction. Currently it is part of http://members.aol.com/marsbugs/dave.html (right now, the page simply points to the FTP site). 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) THE MARS "FACE" AND LOWELL'S "CANALS" By Larry Klaes 2) EUROPA, THE LAST OUTPOST FOR LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? By Julian Hiscox 3) STUDENTS OBSERVE IMPACT OF SPACE TRAVEL ON NERVOUS SYSTEM NASA release 98-62 4) TWO UT SOUTHWESTERN-TRAINED PAYLOAD SPECIALISTS TO STUDY THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ABOARD SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA From the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 5) YORK UNIVERSITY "ON BOARD" WHEN SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA BLASTS OFF APRIL 16 York University release 6) SHUTTLE MISSION WILL USE ESA EQUIPMENT TO FOCUS ON "INNER SPACE" ESA release 15-98 7) MOC VIEWS VIKING LANDER 1 SITE THROUGH DUST STORM CLOUDS JPL release 8) STARDUST Status Report By Ken Atkins ------------------------------------------------------------------ THE MARS "FACE" AND LOWELL'S "CANALS" By Larry Klaes In light of the Mars "face" controversy, I offer up this quote from an article written in the Wall Street Journal in 1907: "The most extraordinary development (in 1907) has been the proof afforded by the astronomical observations (showing) that conscious, intelligent human life exists upon the planet Mars... Dr. Lowell, director of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona... gives a number of photographs taken of Mars. He sums up the testimony of these photographs by saying that they reveal to laymen and astronomers that markings exist on Mars which are, of course, the lines of the great canals constructed on Mars for the purpose of irrigating that globe..." Starting in the 1890s, wealthy Boston astronomer Percival Lowell saw what he thought were straight lines crossing the surface of Mars. While he was not the first to see them, he was among the first and most vocal to make the radical interpretation that these lines were much too straight to be natural features. Therefore, they had to have been built by an advanced intelligence. The next thing you know, Lowell had populated Mars with an ancient and noble civilization of highly intelligent Martians trying desperately to survive its dying planet by bringing water from the poles to their great cities along the equator. All this from the small and blurry images of Mars he viewed through his ground-based telescopes at the bottom of Earth's ocean of shimmering air, never closer than 35 million miles from our planet. Thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web (WWW), one can read one of Lowell's books on this subject, titled simply Mars and published in 1895, by going to this URL: http://www.bibliomania.com/NonFiction/Lowell/Mars/index.html British author H. G. Wells imagined in his great 1898 science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, that Lowell's Martians decided it would probably be easier just to conquer Earth and take all of its bountiful resources for themselves from those noisy, primitive little monkeys walking around on that alluring blue globe. One can read this novel as well from this Web site URL: http://hot.virtual-pc.com/mjbstein/wotw/wwindex.htm The public was entranced by Lowell's vision of Mars populated by alien beings. Newspaper editors from such prestigious papers as The New York Times vigorously defended Lowell and scolded other astronomers who said they only saw dark smudges instead of lines. Many astronomers theorized that the "canals" were merely optical illusions produced by the limited seeing of natural surface features from tens of millions of miles away. The media and public accused the astronomers of not being open- minded to the possibility. In reality, all most astronomers were saying was they wanted more evidence and that Lowell was making a major claim from very little data. I highly recommend these two works on this amazing event in planetary astronomy history for more information. Lowell and Mars, by William Graves Hoyt, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1976 (reprinted 1996). http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/books/bid691.htm The following book is available in its entirety on the Web: The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery by William Sheehan, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1996. http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/online.bks/mars/contents.htm As it turned out, when the first unmanned Mariner probes began imaging Mars close up in the 1960s and 1970s, the canals Lowell saw were indeed optical illusions created by his human mind connecting indistinct and disconnected natural features on the Martian surface. Actually, there are "canals" on Mars, but they are natural waterways created eons ago when Mars apparently had large amounts of liquid water flowing across its land. People really want to know if we are alone or not in the Universe. It is a subject that has certainly compelled me all of my life. For all I know, there could indeed be alien artifacts on Mars, or a big, black Monolith buried under the lunar crater Tycho. It is not impossible that some ETI have the capability and the will to explore other star systems, including our own, either with robot probes or in person. But I find it unfortunate that for the last two decades, some people have expended a large amount of time, energy, and effort on a surface feature that looked like a face based on a couple of distant images taken by the Viking orbiter. Had they been as clear as the ones recently taken by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), at least this Martian controversy probably never would have happened. I know, people can spend their time and energy focusing on whatever they please. In summation, there likely is life beyond Earth spread throughout our galaxy and beyond. But since I have no proof of this, I won't say so for certain. I am much less certain that there is evidence of alien visitation in our own solar system, especially with the Mars "face". Why? Because with 400 billion stars in our vast Milky Way galaxy, I do not think our solar system, Mars, Earth, and humanity are the most well-known or popular visiting spots around, despite our culturally egocentric view as to humanity's importance in the greater scheme of things. But again, if evidence can be found to the contrary, I will be as happy, fascinated, and eager to know more about it as anybody else. I just hope that when it comes to the "face", the "pyramids", the lunar "spires", and other such items seen only vaguely in blurry images, that we will keep Percival Lowell and his "canals" in mind before we turn rocks into alien artifacts without further evidence. Larry Klaes lklaes@learningco.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ EUROPA, THE LAST OUTPOST FOR LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? By Julian Hiscox "It may, however, be contended, with perhaps some plausibility, that Jupiter has in the distant future the prospect of a glorious career as the residence of organic life." --Sir Robert Stawell Ball FRS, The Story of the Heavens, 1897. "Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the ships that opened the Solar System for the human species, trailblazing a path for future generations." --Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, Random House, 1994. Life in the Solar System, a planetary phenomenon? Whether life is present on other worlds is a question that has occupied the minds of astronomers and philosophers since the time of ancient Greece. Traditionally planets have always been considered as abodes for life. However, for some years now a growing number of scientists have speculated that a moon of Jupiter, Europa, might contain a liquid water interior, and an even fewer number to suggest where there is water there may also be life. To understand why this idea is not so outlandish it is first necessary to discuss why planets can support life in the first place. Then apply what we have learnt to the case with Europa. The concept of habitable zones A planet must satisfy a number of conditions in order to support some sort of life as we know it. It must have liquid water and other compounds (e.g., the so-called CHNOPS elements--carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur). A planet needs to have a stable climate that is, at the very minimum, conducive to the continued presence of liquid water over geologically significant periods of time. Therefore the orbit of such planets must lay within a zone thermally compatible with life--where the average global surface temperature lies between a little less than 0°C up to some value at which a runaway greenhouse effect occurs (i.e. what has occurred on Venus). If the orbit of such a planet satisfies these criteria then it is said to be within the habitable zone of that star [see Fit for Life by James F. Kasting, Science Spectra, Issue 2, 1995]. The habitable zone (HZ) depends primarily on the luminosity of the star. The more luminous the star, the farther out the habitable zone starts. Earth has remained continuously habitable for at least 3.8 billion years. Beyond the orbit of Mars it is difficult to speculate where life might be or have been in residence, because according to HZ theory, surface liquid water on a planet or moon is highly improbable. In essence we need to look for places where liquid water might be stable for a geologically significant period of time, without relying on the Sun’s energy for warmth. Perhaps there is one last refuge in the Solar System that we can consider, Europa, a satellite of Jupiter. To Jupiter we turn The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes provided the first high- resolution reconnaissance of the outer planets. They returned a wealth of data and for our interest in where else life might arise in the Solar System, they provided some tantalizing hints. The Galilean satellites of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are each almost as big as the planet Mercury, and it is with Europa that we turn our attention. Europa was farthest away of all the Galilean satellites at the time of Voyager 1’s closest approach to it (732,270 kilometers). Voyager 2, approaching to within 204,000 kilometers, acquired the first close up pictures of Europa on July 9th, 1979. Voyager 2 showed that the surface of Europa resembled that of a fractured ice pack in the Arctic Ocean, among darker orange-brown areas. This led many scientists to speculate that Europa had a liquid water interior, although more data was needed in order to be sure. However it was not until this decade that we returned to Jupiter. The contribution of Galileo--Europa in detail After a six-year journey from Earth, Galileo arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995. In moves designed to lock the spacecraft in orbit around the gaseous giant planet, Galileo swung by the moon Io, then fired its main engine, and in between, collected the precious data from the atmospheric probe it dropped five months earlier. For two years and 11 orbits during its Prime Mission, Galileo revealed an array of fascinating details about Jupiter and its moons. During this mission high resolution images of were obtained in order to answer some of the questions posed by the Voyager missions. Many different surface features were identified on Europa including cracks, troughs, impact craters. Much of the evidence for liquid water is derived from interpretation of how these features might have formed. Some of the cracks on Europa’s surface extend for thousands of kilometers, splitting into widths of 50 to 200 kilometers, but reaching depths of only 2100 meters or so. These tectonic features may be subdivided into sets that apparently have different structural origins. Some are global in extent, whereas others are restricted to local areas. One theory to explain how these structures formed was that Europa’s surface area increased by 10 to 15%. Alternatively, and perhaps a simpler explanation, is that Europa’s surface may represent a water-and- ice version of Earth’s plate tectonics. Ridges are clearly visible on Europa and are 5 to 10 km wide and rise at most only a few hundred meters above the surrounding surface. Europa’s surface is almost devoid of impact craters and so cannot be a primitive surface--unlike areas of Mars. Analysis of the photographs taken by Voyager found only five fresh craters of 10 to 30 km in size. The crust therefore must have been warm and soft sometime after formation to wipe out evidence of early intense bombardment. To explain this data Europa’s internal structure might be composed of a water-rich lithosphere (or cryosphere), possibly a 100 km thick, may have formed from a vast ocean that covered the entire moon shortly after its formation. An alternative to this thick ice model for Europa’s cryosphere is that this icy outer shell is only a few tens of kilometers thick. If such is the case, then the brown spots and mottled terrain may represent the peaks of silicate massifs nearly protruding through the icy shell. Excavation of these materials by impact or magmatic activity may have created the dark coloration of some areas of Europa. This outer icy crust may be underlain by a watery asthenosphere over which the cryosphere may deform. Because of Europa’s small size, rapid cooling might be expected to have quickly produced a thick, rigid lithosphere that could preserve many impact craters. The absence of many craters and the apparent youth of Europa’s surface also suggests that a small energy input has slowed its cooling substantially and allowed thermally driven geologic processes to continue to the present or nearly so. It is possible that a heating mechanism caused by orbiting Jupiter (which has a strong gravitational attraction), so called tidal heating, has allowed repeated eruptions of watery lava to obscure its early history. Originally scheduled to end its exploration on December 7, 1997, NASA approved the extension of Galileo' studies through the last day of 1999, in three phases each with tightly focused objectives: the Europa Campaign ("Ice"), the Io Torus Passages ("Water"), and the Io Campaign ("Fire"). For the first eight orbits, spanning more than a year, Galileo will continue to search for further evidence of an ocean beneath the surface of Europa. The surface will be analyzed in greater detail for active ice volcanoes and other direct evidence of liquid water. Europa's hypothesized layered interior and variation in the thickness of the ice shell and in the depth of the presumed ocean will be measured by the pull of its gravity on Galileo. A flowing, salty subsurface ocean can generate a magnetic field, Galileo will try to determine if the magnetic signals nearest Europa are generated within. Galileo will also obtain detailed images and atmospheric data from around the globe, including Europa's polar regions, from closest approach heights ranging from 200 to 3600 km. With three times better resolution than in the Prime Mission, some planned images will show details as small as 6 meters. The latest, most detailed pictures Europa lend more support to the theory that slush or even liquid water lurks beneath the moon's surface. The latest images as of writing were taken in December 1997. The new images provide three key pieces of evidence showing that Europa may be slushy just beneath the icy crust and possibly even warmer at greater depths. The evidence includes a strangely shallow impact crater, chunky textured surfaces like icebergs, and gaps where new icy crust seems to have formed between continent- sized plates of ice. Some of the new images focus on the shallow center of the impact crater known as Pwyll. Impact rays and debris scattered over a large part of the moon show that a meteorite slammed into Europa relatively recently, about 10-100 million years ago. The Galileo research team at Brown University suggest that the crater's shallow basin and high set of mountain peaks may mean that subsurface ice was warm enough to collapse and fill in the deep hole. What now for Europa? Looking further to the future, a mission to sample the surface of Europa has been proposed as part of the NASA Discovery series. Called Europa Ice Clipper, the mission’s goals are to understand the processes that shape Europa and look for further evidence of a sub-surface ocean. The highlight of the mission will be the collection of a sample of the surface of Europa to look for the presence of organic molecules and minerals. The initial analysis will be conducted the spacecraft. However, the ultimate goal is to return the sample to Earth for analysis in terrestrial laboratories (or the orbiting International Space Station). The idea is to release an impactor, which will hit the surface of Europa and generate a plume of material through which the Earth- return-vehicle will pass. Life on Europa--a plausible theory? Unlike the Earth and Mars, Europa can in no way be considered to lie in the HZ of the Sun. However, if Europa contained a liquid water ocean for 4.5 billion years through tidal heating, then the question might be how could life not have existed? In 1983 Ray Reynolds and his colleagues at NASA Ames Laboratory suggested there could be regions of Europa where conditions lie within the range of adaptation of Antarctic terrestrial organisms. Although this does not imply that all conditions were suitable for an origin of life event. First, the CHNOPS elements must have been present and second, there must be a source of liquid water, which at least appears to have been satisfied. The precise mineral composition of Europa is unknown, although there are strong indications that at least silicates and water (as ice) are present. Over the millennia material such as the CHNOPS elements may have been deposited either by comets in the form of amino acids, ammonia, and methane, or the injection of material into Europa’s surface. For example sulfur dioxide (SO2) has been identified on Europa and may be formed when sulfur ions in the Jovian magnetosphere are injected into Europa’s water ice surface. Life on Europa and beyond? Although we do not know for certain whether Europa has a liquid water interior, it is striking that Europa, one of two prime candidates for a second habitable world in our own Solar System (the first being Mars), nevertheless lies well beyond the surface- liquid water zone, has only a tenth the mass of Mars, and has almost no atmosphere. Recently several planets (called extrasolar planets) have been inferred to orbit other stars. Whilst some extrasolar planets themselves don't appear to be habitable, Darren Williams, Jim Kasting and Richard Wade of the University of Pennsylvania proposed that if rocky moons orbited some of these planets then such companions could be habitable if the planet-moon system orbits the sun in the HZ. The inferred planetary companions to the stars 16 Cygni B and 47 Ursae Majoris could satisfy this criterion. The conditions are that each moon would have to be at least 0.12 Earth masses to retain a substantial and long-lived atmosphere. Now, based upon the model for life on Europa, it would seem that satellites other than those in the HZ could harbor life--provided a mechanism, such as tidal heating, existed to keep liquid water stable for geologically significant periods of time. Dr. Julian A. Hiscox is the editor of the Planetary Society’s Mars Underground News and co-editor of Marsbugs. He researches the replication of RNA and the origin of life. Suggested Reading Greeley, R. and Batson, R. The NASA Atlas of the Solar System, Cambridge University Press, 1997. Reynolds, R. T., Squyres, S. W., Colburn, D. S. and McKay, C. P. "On the habitability of Europa," Icarus 56, 246-254, 1983. Squyres, S. W., Reynolds, R. T., Cassen, P. M. and Peale, S. J. "Liquid water and active resurfacing on Europa," Nature 301, 225- 226, 1993. Williams, D. M., Kasting, J. F. and Wade, R. A. "Habitable moons around extrasolar giant planets," Nature 385, 234-236, 1997. ------------------------------------------------------------------ BOOK REVIEW: THE MIR SPACE STATION. A PRECURSOR TO SPACE COLONISATION By Julian Hiscox Title: The Mir Space Station: A Precursor to Space Colonisation. Author: D. M. Harland. Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-97587-7 Pages: 439. Year: 1997. There have been a number of plans for space stations since the first conceptual scheme appeared in "Man Will Conquer Space Soon," by Werner Von Braun, Willey Ley, Fred Whipple, Joseph Kaplan, Heinz Haber, and Oscar Schacter in Colliers magazine, March 22nd, 1952. The practical realities of these ideas came to fruition beginning in the early 1970s, with the then Soviet Union’s Salyut series, and the US Skylab. The 1980s and 1990s saw the construction of the Russian Mir space station. Throughout this period we have learnt how to construct relatively large, inhabitable vehicles intended for long-term human presence in space, albeit confined to a permanent crew of no more than three people. Currently, the next generation space station is being built--the International Space Station (ISS), so named because of the large number of nations taking part in the construction and operation of the station. In 1966, details of the first international space treaty were hammered out and prepared for signature. The Outer Space Treaty was signed simultaneously in London, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., on January 27, 1967. Asserting the philosophy that the exploration of space should "contribute to broad international co- operation... [and] the development of mutual understanding... between States and peoples," it remains to this day the ultimate document governing space activities. Using the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements, the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the 14 member states of the European Space Agency (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK) began to develop the ISS. The station will be constructed in orbit 190 miles above the Earth. Three phases are planned for the evolution of the ISS. The first step to the ISS is complete. Phase 1 offered an unprecedented opportunity for Russia and the USA, to unite their considerable resources. Between March 1995 and May 1998, NASA and Russian scientists have been conducting experiments in the Russian Space Station Mir. NASA-Mir scientists seek to answer vital questions about how humans, animals and plants function in space, how we can build better technology in space, and how we can build future space stations. Historically, whilst the American manned space program will be remembered for putting a man on the Moon, the Russian space program will be remembered for the almost permanent presence in space. The development and long-term operation of the Mir Space Station has unquestionably been one of the most significant contributions to manned space flight of the Soviet/Russian Space Program. The experience of long-duration human space flight gained from its operation for well over a decade is considered vital to future space stations operations and human missions to Mars and beyond. The Mir Space Station by David Harland reviews the beginnings of the Soviet/Russian Space Station Program and the groundbreaking flights of Salyuts 6 and 7. It also presents an up-to-date, comprehensive, chronological review of the construction and operation of Mir from an engineering perspective and illustrates how Mir is an evolutionary outgrowth of the Salyut experience. Prior to Mir all space stations were launched from the Earth essentially ready to go, the Mir complex was the first space station to be constructed from different modules launched at different times. The book forms an integral part of the excellent Wiley-Praxis Series in Space Science and Technology. Mir was based on Salyut technology and was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on 19th February 1986. The station had no fewer than six docking ports with improved crew accommodation. Much of the scientific equipment found in Salyut stations was absent. Cosmonauts now enjoyed separate compartments with table, chair and intercom. Life-support and ventilation systems were improved and water was regenerated from atmospheric moisture. At the front end was a spherical multiple docking unit with five docking ports, one axial for visiting spacecraft and four disposed radially at 90o to each other for the future attachment of laboratory modules. At the rear of the station was another port for the docking of a fifth lab module and visiting spacecraft including re-supply units. The opportunity to begin human operations in the Mir station fell to cosmonauts L. D. Kizim and V. A. Solovyov in March 1986 who initially spent much of their time adjusting technical equipment and testing a new space to ground radio/video link. One more impressive demonstration of Soviet mastery of space technique recounted by Harland was to follow in May of that year when the two cosmonauts made space history by transferring from one orbiting space station to another. After docking with the unmanned Salyut 7/Cosmos 1686 complex, they completed a series of experiments, which included making two EVAs. Whilst Mir was vacated an unmanned Soyuz TM ascended from Baikonur to duck with the Mir complex. This was a key test of an improved ferry which embodied several new systems; approach and docking; radio communications; a combined propulsion unit for maneuvers and orientation and a lighter stronger parachute for Earth return. Problems began with Mir after the initial busy period and the program began to fall short of its objectives. The two twenty ton "building block" modules which were expected to be launched to Mir for attachment to the multiple docking unit failed to meet the deadline and three cosmonauts still aboard in April 1989 were told to prepare the station for a period of unmanned operation. To complicate matters, there had been reports of Mir’s storage batteries failing to hold their full charge from the solar arrays. Throughout the next decade Mir was continuously inhabited, despite its original three-year life span. The Mir Space Station outlines the design and construction of Mir, giving detailed descriptions of its structure, environmental, power supply and maneuvering systems. The operation of the Mir complex is presented in detail, together with a comprehensive chronological summary of activities to launch, dock, commission and adapt the various modules. Also covered in great detail are the various science and engineering conducted aboard Mir during its operational history. One third of the book details the most recent developments with Mir and also the beginnings of the ISS, which have both served as a means of integrating the manned aspects of the Russian and American space programs. The concept of international co-operation in space is not a new one--beginning with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, but the fact that it persisted so strongly through three decades of the Cold War stands as a testament to the compelling nature of the idea that space notices no boundaries. Phase 1 is a NASA program encompassing 11 space shuttle flights over a four- year period. It uses existing assets - primarily US shuttle orbiters and Mir to build joint space experience and start joint scientific research. Phase 1 served as a four-year prologue to station assembly in Phases 2 and 3. NASA and its international partners are finding that Phase 1 is a valuable precursor to learning about all aspects of living and working in low-Earth orbit. Harland describes how NASA and Russian engineers, designers, technicians, and flight crews worked together to achieve a common goal by making many small, practical decisions on a daily basis, melding their different work styles into a unified plan. Shuttle-Mir is a complicated interlocking program incorporating the very different working styles and philosophies of the US and Russian space agencies and their international partners. Harland details how the job was made manageable by the co- operation of mission planners, hardware engineers, flight crews and others who are united in their dedication to the program's success. He recounts how the Russian Space Station Mir was the focal point of the program, providing long-duration living and working quarters for the international flight crew. Its oldest components have been in orbit for 10 years, but it is constantly being renewed, updated, and re-supplied to keep it in good condition. The U.S. space shuttle extended the capability of Mir by providing large-haul capacity. It was originally conceived as a vehicle for hauling people and things back and forth between Earth and a space station. 15 years after the first launch, it fulfilled that role, and perhaps justified in part the enormous cost developing a comprised space transportation system. Harland’s book does an excellent job of describing the complete history of Mir, almost up to the publication date of the book. Included is an account of the collision in 1997 between a Progress re-supply ferry and Mir, which was extensively covered in the media at the time and threatened the loss of Mir and the hasty return of the crew. This episode serves to illustrate Harland’s emphasis throughout the book--that humans can live and work in space and overcome all manner of obstacles--including the political turmoil in the transition period from the disintegration of the USSR to the Commonwealth of Independent States. However, the book’s subtitle "A Precursor to Space Colonisation" is not really a subject of the book and Harland does not elaborate on how Mir can be seen as such a vehicle. Perhaps because it would require a large leap of technology to extrapolate from a crew of three to space stations supporting several hundred to several thousand people as some ideas call for--notably the ideas of the late Princeton physicist Gerald O’Neal. With that said The Mir Space Station focuses specifically on the technology involved and engineering aspects of the construction and utilization of a large orbital complex designed to be occupied continuously over a long period of time. As the International Space Station takes shape, this timely review of the Mir experience will be valuable background reading. ------------------------------------------------------------------ STUDENTS OBSERVE IMPACT OF SPACE TRAVEL ON NERVOUS SYSTEM NASA release 98-62 14 April 1998 Students from around the world are learning about the next Space Shuttle mission, called Neurolab, by logging onto the Internet at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron They are learning how scientists, technicians and astronauts are preparing for the STS-90 mission, scheduled for liftoff April 16. Neurolab will study the effects of weightlessness on the nervous system. "NASA is breaking a time barrier by enabling students to interact with Neurolab researchers via the Internet long before any new information is printed in textbooks," said Linda Conrad, NeurOn (Neurolab Online) Project Manager at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. "About 50 scientists, engineers and the Shuttle and ground crews are working with students and educators through the Internet project." The NASA on-line mentors upload biographies and field journals to the NeurOn Internet pages. NASA employees from Ames, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, and Kennedy Space Center, FL, will answer students' e-mail questions and will participate in "Web chats" with youngsters and teachers. During Internet chats, young people use computers to converse with mentors by typing questions and reading responses and dialogue via the World Wide Web. NASA scientists note that, even after 50 years, they know very little about the way the brain and nervous system are affected by space flight. NASA's Neurolab mission is expected to answer many questions about the way the nervous system reacts to microgravity. There are 26 experiments scheduled for Neurolab. "Lesson plans for teachers are available on the website so they can more easily integrate NeurOn activities related to the experiments into the classroom," Conrad said. The young students monitor activities of ground crew members as they assemble hardware and prepare provisions such as food and water, for the 16-day mission aboard the Shuttle Columbia. A seven-member astronaut crew will conduct the experiments. In their classrooms, students will simulate mission activities to better understand the Neurolab mission. The NeurOn website includes a section that displays projects for youngsters and galleries of student work. The NeurOn project is one of many Internet offerings from NASA's Quest Project at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov These interactive projects connect students with NASA employees and are designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in high technology. ------------------------------------------------------------------ TWO UT SOUTHWESTERN-TRAINED PAYLOAD SPECIALISTS TO STUDY THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ABOARD SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA From the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 14 April 1998 When the next flight of space shuttle Columbia goes into orbit April 16 on board will be two payload specialists who trained in space medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. They will conduct experiments aboard Spacelab, the shuttle's scientific laboratory, on a flight dedicated to the study of the nervous system in space. Dr. Jay Buckey worked as a research fellow with longtime space researcher Dr. Gunnar Blomqvist, the Alfred W. Harris Professor in Cardiology and director of NASA's Specialized Center of Research and Training in Integrated Physiology at UT Southwestern. Dr. Jim Pawelczyk was a research fellow with Dr. Benjamin Levine, associate professor of internal medicine and medical director of Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas' Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM). Pawelczyk later was an investigator in the NASA center at UT Southwestern. Each joined the UT Southwestern faculty after completing his fellowship. Another shuttle veteran, Dr. Drew Gaffney, was on the faculty of UT Southwestern while serving as a payload specialist aboard the first dedicated life-sciences flight in 1991. "Training three scientists who became payload specialists for life-sciences research--that's a record no other medical center can claim," Blomqvist said. As payload specialists, Buckey and Pawelczyk will be conducting experiments in space for a variety of researchers from around the world. Five major areas of research will be covered: blood pressure control and gravity; sensory motor and performance studies, such as eye-hand coordination and orientation in weightlessness; changes in the body's balance system; sleep problems in space; and the development of mammals in microgravity, including the formation of gravity sensors. UT Southwestern's investigations, in which IEEM researchers play a crucial role, will focus on blood pressure control and how the cardiovascular system is stressed by gravity. This could lead to a better understanding of the type of blood-flow problems that cause an elderly person who stands up too quickly to become dizzy. Blomqvist said astronauts leaving the pull of earth's gravity experience a similar blood-pressure problem when they enter space and return to earth. UT Southwestern researchers on previous missions--Spacelab Life Sciences 1, Spacelab Life Sciences 2 and Spacelab Mission Deutsche-1--gathered information on how the system adapts to space and readjusts to earth conditions. These studies revealed a defect in the autonomic nervous system apparent upon return to earth's gravity. "These studies have broad application to medicine on earth as well as space," said Blomqvist, principal investigator of the blood- pressure studies. "Half a million people in the United States have trouble with control of blood pressure and blood flow to the brain while in the upright body position and might be helped by knowledge gained from these studies." Other principal investigators for the blood-pressure experiment include Dr. F. J. Baisch of DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Germany, Dr. D. L. Ekberg of Virginia Commonwealth University and Dr. Robertson of Vanderbilt University. To conduct studies in anti-gravity, some research tools had to be adapted to the space environment. In order to conduct one experiment, Blomqvist and his associate Boyce Moon, a senior research scientist in internal medicine, modified a clinical method of testing blood pressure control. The simple test normally involves plunging a hand into ice water. To perform the test in space the two created a mitt filled with an icy gel. In another innovation Dr. Cole Giller, a consultant to the space lab and an assistant professor of neurological surgery, developed a Doppler ultrasound technique that will allow monitoring of the blood flow to the brain in space during a wide range of activities. Buckey and Pawelczyk are on leave from their academic posts at other universities to work with NASA in Houston, where they have trained for the past two years. ------------------------------------------------------------------ YORK UNIVERSITY "ON BOARD" WHEN SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA BLASTS OFF APRIL 16 York University release 9 April 1998 Two of the 26 experiments set to blast off with the Space Shuttle Columbia on April 16--and the only two Canadian experiments on board--have been developed by research teams with strong connections to York University. Barry Fowler, a professor of kinesiology and Health Science at York, is the lead researcher on an experiment that will probe why astronauts lose eye-hand coordination when they work in the weightless environment of space. His research team includes Deanna Comfort, a York Ph.D. student in psychology, and Dr. Otmar Bock, formerly of the Center for Research in Earth and Space Technology (CRESTech) at York and now affiliated with the Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln in Germany. Ian Howard is a Distinguished Research Professor emeritus of the Departments of Psychology and Biology at York and the Co-director of the Human Performance Laboratory in CRESTech, a provincial Center of Excellence with its headquarters at York. Howard heads a Canadian team, which includes CRESTech project scientists Jim Zacher and Heather Jenkin. Together with an American team led by Dr. Chuck Oman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they are responsible for the "Role of Visual Cues in Spatial Orientation" experiment, which will look at how astronauts orient themselves during work in space, and how they develop a sense of what is "up" and "down." "Having these two experiments on board the Shuttle is very exciting and a testament to ground-breaking research going on at York, not only into how the body reacts to space flight, but also in related areas of space science, astronomy, earth and atmospheric science, and computer science," said Bob Prince, York's Dean of Pure and Applied Science. Howard's and Fowler's experiments join 24 others aboard the 17-day STS-90 Shuttle mission, called Neurolab. Seven astronauts, including Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dave Williams, will conduct the experiments on the effects of weightlessness on the nervous system, one of the most complex and least understood parts of the human body. Made up of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and sensory organs, the nervous system faces major challenges during space flight. The brain helps to regulate blood pressure, coordinate movement, regulate sleep and more--and all of these functions will be investigated on board the Neurolab mission. For Fowler's experiment, astronauts on board the Shuttle will conduct a series of tests to see whether they can adapt their eye- hand coordination as they adjust to weightlessness. Fowler said his experiment will help us understand how astronauts will adapt to prolonged weightlessness on the International Space Station. Howard's experiment will be conducted using NASA's Virtual Environment Generator (VEG) to test astronauts in three different "virtual" environments. "This experiment should greatly improve our understanding of how humans orient themselves, and could be enormously helpful in combating spatial disorientation, not just among astronauts but also among pilots and ordinary drivers here on earth," said Howard. The work these scientists do contributes to the quality of education offered by York University's Faculties of Arts and Pure and Applied Science. "York is particularly proud of the co- operative relationship we've developed with many other important actors in the space science field, such as the Canadian Space Agency and CRESTech," said Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties) Brock Fenton. To celebrate York's involvement in the Space Shuttle mission, the York Alumni Association has organized a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to observe final preparations for the launch and the Shuttle take-off on April 16. Joining York alumnus and Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean (York Ph.D. '83) in Florida will be Chair of the York Board of Governors Charles Hantho, Co-Chair of York's National Campaign and Board of Governors' member John Bankes (York MBA, LLB '77), Alumni Association Director Charles Kennedy, Project Scientists Jenkin and Zacher, and approximately 50 York alumni and guests. For more information, please contact: Sine MacKinnon Sr. Advisor, Media Relations York University (416) 736-2100, ext. 22087 Alison Masemann Media Relations Officer York University (416) 736-2100, ext. 22086 Nicole Gignac Canadian Space Agency cell: (514) 894-2865 Backgrounder VISUO-MOTOR COORDINATION FACILITY EXPERIMENT (VCF) *Co-investigator: Dr. Barry Fowler, Professor of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University *Canadian Project Scientist: Deanna Comfort, Ph.D. candidate in Experimental Psychology, York University Dr. Barry Fowler's team is in charge of the Visuo-Motor Coordination Facility experiment, designed to measure the subtle loss of eye-hand coordination that occurs when astronauts work in the weightless environment of space. Astronauts show poor coordination in space because their bodies are accustomed to compensating for the earth's strong gravitational pull. In space, that force is substantially reduced, so they can easily misjudge simple distances. For example, if an astronaut tried to catch a baseball in space, he or she would get hit in the head -- because his or her "light" arm, which is not being held down by the force of gravity, reaches too high and misses the ball entirely. The study will be performed by six astronauts before, during and after the flight. The astronauts' eye-hand coordination will be measured while they point, grasp and track computer-generated targets that appear to be floating in space. During the test, the astronauts will wear a specially designed glove that allows precise tracking of hand movements and response times. Each astronaut will be tested several times over the course of the flight to determine whether humans eventually adapt their movements to weightlessness in space. If they do, all the better, but if they don't, Fowler's team will study these results to determine the best strategy for helping astronauts overcome these problems. The results of these experiments are more important as shuttle pilots depend more and more on quick and accurate coordination to maneuver intricately along other objects in space. To dock a space station safely, for instance, the pilot must be accurate within a few centimeters while both vehicles move through space at 30,000 km per hour. Space engineers could use such knowledge to better design cockpit instrumentation, taking into account pilots' limited coordination during sudden or ongoing weightlessness. THE ROLE OF VISUAL CUES IN SPACE ORIENTATION (VISO) *Co-investigator: Dr. Ian Howard, Co-Director of the Human Performance Laboratory (HPL) in the Center for Research in Earth and Space Technology (CRESTech), Distinguished Research Professor, York University Psychology & Biology departments *HPL Project scientists: James Zacher and Heather Jenkins, CRESTech Dr. Ian Howard's team will study the process by which astronauts orient themselves during work in space. In our daily lives, gravity produces a constant anchor for us to use as a reference for orientation. But in space, astronauts lose this reference. They lose sense of what is objectively "up" and "down," and often become motion sick while subconsciously trying to figure it out. This "space motion sickness" affects nearly half of all astronauts. A contributing factor to space sickness may be a conflict between astronauts' visual cues and the absence of inner ear and somatic sensations (pressure on your feet or seat). Space motion sickness is a significant cost in terms of astronaut "down time," reduced work quality, and danger due to impaired coordination. The Visual Cues experiment will try to discover how quickly astronauts switch from using the balance organs in the inner ears to using strictly visual cues to orient themselves. It will also examine how "fake" gravity (putting pressure on the bottom of their feet) can override these visual cues, and how long it takes to re-adapt once the astronauts have returned to earth. One of the primary goals of this experiment is to uncover whether virtual reality pre-training for astronauts might be more effective than current training practices. The tests will be conducted in three different "virtual reality" environments, created by NASA's Virtual Environment Generator (VEG). These environments include a spherical room with no "up" or "down" cues and a cubic room, furnished and unfurnished. The astronauts will be tested in the real rooms before and after flight, and in the virtual reality version of the rooms while on the Space Shuttle. The VISO experiment will help improve our understanding of conditions that create spatial disorientation, which is a problem not just for in-space travel, but also for pilots and drivers here on earth. The insights into the way the nervous system establishes a balance between information it gathers from the inner ear and the eyes could also help in testing patients with neurological diseases. ------------------------------------------------------------------ SHUTTLE MISSION WILL USE ESA EQUIPMENT TO FOCUS ON "INNER SPACE" ESA release 15-98 15 April 1998 When the US Space Shuttle blasts off on 16 April on a mission to investigate the human nervous system, it will be carrying a unique rotating chair that is set to add a new dimension to the astronaut's already topsy-turvy life in space. Developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) by a European industrial team headed by Aerospatiale, the special chair will spin astronauts at speeds of up to 45 rpm as part of an experiment to investigate the role of the inner ear in detecting changes in motion and orientation. While they are being rotated, the astronauts will wear a sophisticated head display unit and measuring device that will record their eye movements and thus their response to the stimulation as they attempt to orient themselves. The ESA rotating chair is one of the main items of equipment onboard the Shuttle's STS-90/Neurolab flight that will focus on the effects of weightlessness on the nervous system, one of the most complex and least understood parts of the human body. The 16-day Neurolab flight will bring together two of the last great frontiers of human exploration -- outer space and inner space. Scientists from France, Germany and Italy are leading seven of the 26 experiments, which range from studies of the inner ear and sleep patterns to a very visual study of how astronauts adapt to catching a ball in weightlessness. The results should have many practical applications back on Earth. For those with disease or trauma to the ear's vestibular system which senses balance, for those with cerebral deficiencies and neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, and for the millions with orthostatic intolerance (dizziness from standing up too quickly), Neurolab research may offer further insight into the disorder or new approaches to diagnosis leading to more effective treatment. Neurolab is also expected to provide key answers to how the human body functions in weightlessness, clarifying the requirements for upcoming long-term stays on the International Space Station. Most of the experiments to be carried out by the seven-member crew, which includes three medical doctors, will take place in Spacelab, the pressurized scientific laboratory carried in the Shuttle's cargo bay. Developed by ESA and built by European industry under the leadership of ERNO (now Daimler-Benz Aerospace), Spacelab is making its 22nd and final scheduled trip into orbit after 15 years of service. The Shuttle is scheduled to lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 20:19 Central European Time on 16 April. To learn more about the Neurolab mission and its science, visit the ESA web page: http://www.eas.int ------------------------------------------------------------------ MOC VIEWS VIKING LANDER 1 SITE THROUGH DUST STORM CLOUDS JPL release 15 April 1998 [The images described here may be viewed at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/4_14_98_vl1_releas e/index.html] Shortly after 08:32 PDT on 12 April 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft pointed the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) towards the location of the Viking Lander 1 near 22.48° N, 47.97° W. During acquisition of the 2.7 meter (8.8 foot) per pixel (projected resolution) image, the spacecraft was about 640 km from the site, viewing down from space at an angle of 31.64°. The local illumination conditions at the time were equivalent to a local martian solar time of 9:20 AM. [Image] MOC 23501 (red) and 23502 (blue) Wide Angle Context Image (showing location of MOC 23503) (JPEG = 825 KB) The figure above shows the wide-angle view of the region during the orbit 235 observations. This view, a map projection, shows an image area of about 310 km wide by 290 km, at a scale of 300 meters (985 feet) per pixel. The green channel of this image was synthesized from the red and blue channels. Noted by a white box is the outline of the MOC high-resolution (narrow angle) image (MOC 23503). A well-developed local dust storm dominates this view of the planet. Plumes from the storm suggest that the wind is blowing from lower left to wards the upper right. The slightly dark zone around the dust cloud may be surface that has been swept clean of a fraction of the mobile dust. The dust cloud obscures most of the landing site as seen in this image. [Image] Viking Orbiter 027A63 showing location of MOC 23503 (GIF = 2.2 MB) This figure shows the location of the MOC high-resolution image, as seen on a Viking Orbiter frame. The map-projected VO frame (027A63) shown here has a displayed scale of 28 meters (92 feet) per pixel. The Viking image was acquired on 17 July 1976 at 3:07 AM PDT. The Viking Lander 1 site is on a relatively smooth plain in Chryse Planitia. Seen in this Viking image are two important attributes of this location: brightness "streaks" associated with impact craters and irregular, almost sinuous ridges. The dark streaks pointing towards the northeast are consistent with the direction of winter, downslope winds (as seen in the present dust storm). Such dark streaks usually develop as light-colored dust is kicked up by turbulence behind the crater and then transported away by the wind. The ridges are believed to reflect tectonic forces associated with the ground's adjustment to the weight of material filling the Chryse basin. The origin of the fill is not certain: it may be lava flows, flood debris, or both. [Image] MOC 23503 full frame at 1/8th resolution (GIF = 283 KB) This figure shows the MOC image 23503 at roughly the same scale as the Viking image (22 meters, or 71 feet, per pixel). Remarkably, despite the cloudiness seen in the low-resolution wide-angle images, considerable surface detail is visible. The MOC image shows two phenomena associated with the dust cloudy atmosphere--a reduction in contrast caused by the haziness of the atmosphere and a light and dark mottling that reflects local variations in cloud thickness (not particularly the light patches at the extreme top and bottom of the image). Note that this version of the image has been processed to enhance both small detail while trying to retain the overall brightness variations. The dark band near the center of the image represents data lost during the transmission and transport of the image to Malin Space Science Systems. [Image]< [Image] (Left) Mosaic of Viking Orbiter 452B11 (left) and 452B10 (right) (GIF = 292 KB) (Right) MOC 23503 (partial frame) (GIF = 2.13 MB) The left-hand image, above, is a section out of a mosaic of two Viking Orbiter very high-resolution images, also taken under less- than-optimum illumination and atmospheric conditions. The two Viking frames (452B10 and 452B11) were map-projected to a common scale of 7 meters (22.8 feet) per pixel and portions mosaicked. The white arrow points to the approximate position of the lander, as determined by Morris and Jones (Icarus 44, 217-222, 1980) from matching features seen in lander images with features seen in these orbiter pictures. Owing to atmospheric hazes and some residual spacecraft motion-blur, the effective scale of these images is probably between 10 and 12 meters (33 and 40 feet) per pixel. The right-hand view, above, is a section of MOC narrow angle frame 23503 that covers the same area as seen in the highest resolution Viking images. This map-projected picture has a scale of 2.7 meters (9 feet) per pixel. However, defocus of the camera and, more importantly, atmospheric haze, reduces the effective scale of this image to about 4 meters (13 feet) per pixel. This scale is insufficient to resolve the Viking Lander, and the image shows no indication of the presence of the lander. The scale is also marginal for distinguishing large rocks. Some can be seen as part of the ejecta of the larger craters in the scene (especially around the fresh crater about a kilometer to the west of the landing site). Although the MOC image is about 3 times higher resolution than the Viking image, the combination of non-vertical viewing, the less-than-optimum illumination conditions, and the substantial atmospheric contribution to image degradation, all lead to an image that does not address the major outstanding questions regarding the site. Images acquired if the spacecraft passes over the landing site during the mapping will be substantially better. ------------------------------------------------------------------ STARDUST Status Report By Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager 10 April 1998 Activity continued to increase related to assembly of the flight system. The Flight Cometary & Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) was delivered by the team from Germany's Max Planck Institute. Initial setups and checkouts were completed demonstrating the instrument's capability to transmit examples of the kind of data it will collect in flight. Some very important progress was also made by the navigation camera team as they completed testing and calibration at JPL in preparation for next week's delivery to Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado. This camera will be used to provide pictures to the navigators as they make the final course corrections for the cometary flythrough. It will also be the instrument for taking the "up-close-and-personal" images of Comet Wild 2 as the spacecraft cruises some 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) above the now-unknown surface of the comet's nucleus. The team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics also completed some deployment testing on the spacecraft's solar array demonstrating how Stardust will "spread its wings" following launch and separation from the launch rocket. Finally, a test unit of the aerogel collector was reviewed in preparation for using it to test how we will keep it extremely clean during its installation and launch. It is partially loaded with examples of flight-quality aerogel. Photos of the collector, the dust analyzer instrument and navigation camera are available by clicking the "photogallery" button (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/spacecraft.html) on the website. For more information on the STARDUST mission--the first ever comet sample return mission--please visit the STARDUST home page: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov ------------------------------------------------------------------ End MARSBUGS Vol. 5, No. 11