MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 14, 28 May 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) MARSHALL SCIENTIST TO PARTICIPATE IN ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE By Dave Dooling 2) NASA SELECTS INITIAL MEMBERS OF NEW VIRTUAL ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE NASA release 98-84 3) POLICIES NEEDED FOR REPORTING POTENTIAL HAZARDS OF ASTEROID COLLISIONS WITH EARTH National Research Council release 4) SPACEGUARD REVISITED By Sir Arthur C. Clarke 5) BIOSPHERE LESSONS CAN BE APPLIED TO SPACE, FORMER CREW CO- CAPTAIN SAYS Wake Forest University School of Medicine release 6) YALE RESEARCHERS SYNTHESIZE ENZYME THAT MAY HAVE PLAYED KEY ROLE IN FORMATION OF LIFE By Vincent Kiernan 7) MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION 8) THE MARS MICROPHONE: READY TO GO By Greg Delory 9) 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORTS By John McNamee 10) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS By Ken Atkins 11) GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL release 12) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL releases 13) NEW GALILEO IMAGES OF EUROPA JPL release ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— MARSHALL SCIENTIST TO PARTICIPATE IN ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE By Dave Dooling, MSFC 22 May 1998 [Editor's note: the photos described here can be seen in the Word97 version of Marsbugs or at http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast22may98_1.htm] What started as a hobby for a scientist here has become a new line of scientific investigation in the newly formed NASA Astrobiology Institute. Richard Hoover, a solar physicist at Marshall Space Flight Center, is co-investigator on two astrobiology proposals that NASA has selected for funding. [photo caption] The poster depicts Hoover's foray into astrobiology, including Europa (background and top), and a cyanobacteria (center) found deep in the Antarctic (bottom). (links to a 900x1281-pixel, 320K JPG. Photo credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.) Dr. David McKay of Johnson Space Center is principal investigator on a proposal to look for biomarkers in astromaterials: signs of life in soil, rocks, and other materials from outside the Earth. Dr. Kenneth Nealson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. is principal investigator on a proposal on a study of the co-evolution of planets and biospheres. Hoover will be a co- investigator on both proposals. "This is really exciting," said Hoover, whose primary work at Marshall has been developing advanced telescopes to study the sun. "We are going to look at life on Earth in the most extreme environments—hot volcanic vents, deep-ocean ice, and even ancient rocks—and help sharpen our senses when we look for signs of life on Mars, Europa, and other astromaterials." For Hoover, this journey started years ago when he became fascinated by diatoms (below), the "living jewels of the sea." It became a hobby, then a passion, which has earned him international recognition. Most recently, he has applied knowledge gained in this area to the search for preserved microbes in Antarctic ice cores as a model of extraterrestrial life. While Mars has long been thought of as the best chance for life elsewhere in our solar system, recent evidence of liquid water in Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, raises the possibility of life there. In turn, the discoveries over the past few decades of life in hot springs, deep ocean vents, and even Antarctic ice broaden the range of conditions where at least basic life forms may set up housekeeping. In the first investigation, Hoover will work with David McKay who startled the scientific community in 1996 with claims that he had found evidence of microbial fossils in a rock believed to have fallen to Earth from Mars. While the evidence within the Allan Hills meteorite, ALH84001, continues to be debated, pictures and data from the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions have added evidence that Mars once had flowing water. "The primary research that we'll be doing is looking microfossils in ancient rocks," Hoover said. He anticipates analyzing phosphorites from Mongolia, oil shale from Siberia, and other formations dating back about 3.8 billion years. The search for fossils of bacteria and archaea will be of prime importance. [photo caption] Left: Europa, as seen by the Galileo spacecraft, is covered with ice, apparently atop a world ocean, raising the possibility that conditions could be right for life—and similar to those in Lake Vostok, hidden under 3 km (1.8 mi) of Antarctic ice (right). Life is divided into three principal domains, eukaryotes (large cells, like plants and animals), bacteria, and archaea. Archaea, only discovered in 1977, normally thrive in extreme conditions like the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, thermal vents deep underwater in the mid-Atlantic ridge, highly acid and alkaline baths, and deep rocks. These are not normal conditions now, but were more than 3 billion years ago. "It's now looking like the archaea are among the most ancient forms of life on Earth," Hoover said. And the implication is that if life could originate and then thrive under such conditions here, then it could do the same on Mars and Europa—perhaps even volcanic Io—where conditions are considered inhospitable. Under the biosphere evolution study with Nealson at JPL, Hoover will develop methods to fix, prepare, and view samples so that unambiguous indications of life—or non-life—can be obtained. He will use advanced tools such as the Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) and an atomic-force microscope that NASA/Marshall already has for engineering work. "One of the things that's important in preparation techniques is making sure that you get no interference from the substrate in the X-ray spectral analysis," Hoover said. NASA/Marshall's ESEM is especially good at analyzing biological materials without the need for special coatings. The detail revealed by the ESEM offers new challenges. [photo caption] Samples of microbes found by the ESEM in deep ice from the Antarctic. "The most critical thing is getting to the ability to recognize different types of microorganisms in tools such as the ESEM," Hoover said. "It's a very powerful tool, but it shows you things that you don't see in optical microscopes or conventional electron microscopes." That can mean relearning how to recognize creatures that you already know. Recognizing and classifying microbes and bacterial fossils in this manner will be doubly important in a field that has thousands of unnamed microbes. The rule in the international microbiology community is that an organism is not named unless it is grown in a pure culture and is lodged—physically—in a recognized cell bank. "In many cases, these bugs can't be grown in pure culture," Hoover said. Asking a bacterium from a deep ocean vent to grow in a lab culture is like asking a human to breathe a vacuum. It takes more than recreating conditions like water temperatures above boiling (intense pressure keeps that water from boiling). Some creatures only survive with certain neighbors, like one bacterium that releases methane and another that consumes it. [photo caption] At right, Hoover and Dr. S. S. Abyzov of Russia's Institute of Microbiology use the ESEM to probe deep ice from Antarctica for signs of life. (links to a 1,500x1,082-pixel, 576K JPG. Photo credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.) Another challenge will be recognizing life when you see it. Hoover said he was recently stumped by a microsphere with a lot of iron. A colleague told him that it was indeed a bacterium that consumes iron sulfate—FeSO3—to get oxygen. "That tells me that we have to learn the kinds of things that go on inside an electron microscope, and in other tools, with respect to microbiology," Hoover said, "because these are the kinds of tools we'll take to Mars and Europa when we look for life." "It's extremely important that we continue to learn and to develop an enhanced knowledge of microfossils, and of bacteria, eukaryotes, and archaea." ————————————————————————————————— NASA SELECTS INITIAL MEMBERS OF NEW VIRTUAL ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE NASA release 98-84 19 May 1998 NASA has selected 11 academic and research institutions as the initial members of the agency's new Astrobiology Institute, thus launching a major component of NASA's Origins Program. The selected institutions represent the best of 53 uniformly first-class proposals submitted, according to NASA officials. Given that the institute members will remain at their home organizations, the partnership among the members and NASA will be carried out primarily via the Internet. This electronic 'virtual' Institute will bring together astrophysicists, biologists, chemists, physicists, planetologists and geologists to conduct interdisciplinary research on the multifaceted issue of life in the Universe and its cosmic implications. It will also help to train young scientists in this emerging field. "These initial members of NASA's Astrobiology Institute will be at the forefront of the increasingly important link between astronomy and biology, which has been a fundamental interest of mine for the past several years," said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "The 'office hallways' of this virtual institute will be the fiber optic cables of the Next Generation Internet, and the groundbreaking research that this group generates will help guide our space exploration priorities well into the 21st century." The selected initial members of the Institute are: *Universities Harvard University, Cambridge, MA University of California, Los Angeles University of Colorado, Boulder Arizona State University, Tempe Pennsylvania State University, University Park *Research Institutions Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA *NASA Centers Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA NASA has developed the Origins Program with its Office of Space Science to search for signs of life in the Universe, both in our Solar System and beyond. The Astrobiology Institute will foster the interdisciplinary research and training necessary for future exploration of this theme. Funding for the Institute will begin with $9 million in 1999 and $20 million in 2000. This total is expected to grow as research directions are developed and the capabilities of the Next Generation Internet are expanded and fully utilized. The Astrobiology Institute members will conduct a broad range of interdisciplinary and synergistic research on topics including: the formation of organic compounds important to the origins of life, such as from meteorites; the formation and characteristics of habitable planets; the emergence of self-replicating systems and possible pre-biotic worlds; how the Earth and life have influenced each other over time, including the evolution of ancient metabolism and the interplay of evolved oxygen; the evolution of multicellular organisms and the evolution of complex systems in simple animals; organisms in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents; and the identification and development of biomarkers to determine terrestrial and extraterrestrial biosignatures. The selection of the members, encompassing academic institutions and government labs, was based on a competitive evaluation process that began with the release of a Cooperative Agreement Announcement in October 1997. The next solicitation opportunity for new members will take place in about a year. For further information on the Institute and the field of astrobiology, see the following Internet site: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/ The Institute's director and staff will reside at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. NASA Ames will manage the Institute's operations for NASA's offices of Space Science, Earth Science, and Human Exploration and Development of Space at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. ————————————————————————————————— POLICIES NEEDED FOR REPORTING POTENTIAL HAZARDS OF ASTEROID COLLISIONS WITH EARTH National Research Council release 13 May 1998 Recent news of a possible asteroid collision with Earth in 2028 sparked intense scientific and popular interest worldwide. When further data revealed that the asteroid had virtually no chance of hitting this planet, the episode prompted the astronomy community to re-evaluate how they communicate such information to the public. NASA and astronomers should develop protocols for reporting information about asteroids that appear to pose a potential hazard to Earth, says a new report from a National Research Council committee, which began its work before the recent episode. These protocols will be important because several telescope facilities and new instruments now coming into operation will dramatically increase the rate by which scientists are able to discover asteroids and comets whose orbits approach Earth. With the flood of discoveries expected within the next decade also will come the risk of false alarms. Some 400 Earth-approaching asteroids and comets larger than one kilometer in diameter have been discovered so far, but only an estimated 10 percent of the objects this size have been identified. Of the thousands that may be discovered, some initially—for a few days, weeks, or even years—may seem likely to collide with Earth, until enough data have been collected to determine accurate orbits and interpreted to show otherwise. Policies for handling such potentially important information will be needed. International scientific organizations, such as the International Astronomical Union, could play a role in this task, the report says. Most asteroids orbit the sun in a belt between Jupiter and Mars, but thousands have orbits that sometimes take them uncomfortably close to Earth. Geological processes such as erosion tend to erase scars left when asteroids and comets occasionally hit Earth, but there are some notable exceptions, such as Arizona's Meteor Crater. Moreover, there is evidence that an asteroid or comet some five to 10 kilometers in diameter created an enormous crater in Yucatan, Mexico, some 65 million years ago. That event has been implicated in the extinction of dinosaurs and other living organisms. This information, coupled with recent evidence of the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994, has led to increased scientific and public interest in assessing the likelihood that a large object might hit Earth again. Although asteroids and comets are potential hazards to Earth, these tiny worlds offer a trove of clues to the solar system's birth and early history, the report says. Exploration of asteroids also may be used as stepping stones toward manned missions to Mars. Comets are frozen chunks of ice and dust thought to be left from the formation of the planets in the solar system. Asteroids are minor planets, some made from almost pure mixtures of nickel and iron like those at the Earth's core or from minerals similar to those found in the Earth's crust, and others from exotic combinations of carbon compounds. To better understand the scientific opportunities posed by asteroids and comets, the report recommends that priorities be given to the following areas: Telescopic studies. NASA, other government agencies, and private research organizations should further coordinate their programs using ground-based telescopes to search for and study asteroids and comets. Because a typical asteroid or comet is very faint and travels by Earth so quickly, the opportunity to view it may last no more than a few days or a week at most. To conduct the detailed observations that these fleeting objects require, routine or priority access to existing infrared and optical telescopes is needed. Otherwise, telescopes dedicated to characterizing the asteroids and comets discovered by ongoing search programs should be developed. Laboratory investigations. More research is needed to increase understanding of extraterrestrial materials, such as meteorites, which are believed to come from asteroids. Laboratory studies can address, for example, the puzzle of how the environment in space changes the surfaces of asteroids to such an extent that the physical characteristics of the most common varieties of asteroids and meteorites do not match. NASA, other government agencies, and private research organizations should support additional laboratory investigations of samples of these space-borne objects. New analytical instruments, such as those necessary to study very small samples of meteorites, also are needed. Robotic and manned spacecraft missions. Spacecraft that pass by, rendezvous with, or obtain samples from asteroids orbiting near Earth provide important information on the detailed physical characteristics, composition, and geologic histories of planetary bodies that is otherwise unobtainable. Moreover, Earth-approaching asteroids or comets are among the most accessible objects in the solar system. Indeed, some are easier to reach than the moon. NASA's Galileo missions, for example, provided a wealth of information about asteroids Ida and Gaspra orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Last year, a NASA spacecraft made detailed observations of another asteroid, Mathilde. The spacecraft is currently en route to a February 1999 rendezvous with Eros, one of the largest Earth-approaching asteroids. NASA should continue such missions and improve spacecraft technology, such as propulsion and navigation systems, to allow additional low-cost rendezvous and sample-return missions. Should the United States choose to undertake further manned exploration beyond Earth, a strong case can be made for beginning with missions to Earth-approaching asteroids, the report says. Because missions to these asteroids represent deep-space exploration with moderate technical challenges, they would be the least-expensive next step in human exploration of space and could provide the experience and technology needed for fruitful missions to Mars and beyond. Five percent of Earth-approaching asteroids are readily accessible by relatively short space flights. A primary concern would be keeping the length of the mission as short as possible to minimize hazards and risks to which astronauts are exposed, including weightlessness, radiation, meteoroid impact, and equipment failure. Further research should be conducted to study specific technical requirements necessary for a six- to 12-month round-trip expedition. With the anticipated increase in discoveries of Earth-approaching asteroids, there likely will be opportunities for missions to one or more asteroids each year. NASA funded the study. The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, non-profit institution that provides science advice under a congressional charter. Copies of The Exploration of Near-Earth Objects are available from the National Academy Press for $10.00 (prepaid) plus shipping charges of $4.00 for the first copy and $0.50 for each additional copy; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. NOTE: The report cited in this release is available online at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/enter2.cgi?0309060834.html ————————————————————————————————— SPACEGUARD REVISITED By Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Kt., CBE Chancellor, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka 26 May 1998 Convocation Address Less than four years ago, in October 1994, I devoted my Convocation Address to something which probably few people had ever worried about—the danger to our planet of impacts from space. Well, during those four years so much has happened that I make no apologies for returning to the subject. If you spend a few hours at night under a perfectly clear sky— which, alas, I haven't done for years—you are almost certain to see a few meteors sliding silently across the stars; there are times, indeed, when you may see hundreds. One such occasion is due in November 1999: a Space Shuttle launch has been rescheduled, and the owners of communications satellites are already rushing to take out insurance. For though that "shining furrow", as Tennyson called it, is caused by an object not much larger than a pea burning up as it enters the atmosphere, that has enough energy to damage, or even destroy, delicate orbiting equipment costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Tennyson, who a century and a half ago saw "the heavens filled with commerce" could never have imagined that one day this would be literally true. Quite often, one of these cosmic fragments is large enough to survive passage through the atmosphere, and falls to earth. We then call it a 'meteorite'; the word 'meteor' applies merely to the streak of light across the sky. That meteorites did fall—sometimes in large numbers over considerable areas—had been known from time immemorial; indeed, it has been suggested that they were the only source of iron for early man. Yet two hundred years ago, in what has been called the Age of Enlightenment, there was great skepticism about their existence. Thomas Jefferson, widely considered the most brilliant President ever to sit in the White House, once remarked after hearing that a couple of academic gentlemen had witnessed a shower of meteorites: "I would rather believe that two Yankee professors lied, than that stones fell from the sky." Well, now we know that mountains can fall from the sky. The evidence is overwhelming, yet only in the last few decades has this been accepted—as someone once said: "The obvious we see eventually." Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona—a huge hole in the ground more than a kilometer across. Despite the perfectly accurate name that the locals had given to it, for years most geologists argued that the crater was homegrown—some kind of volcanic formation! Now we know that it was produced by the impact some 50,000 years ago of a nickel-iron mass about as large as this building. Once they removed their mental blindfolds, geologists started finding impact craters all over the world. About two hundred have now been identified, and there must be many more hidden in the ocean depths. We live in a very dangerous neighborhood: what has happened countless times in the past will, inevitably, occur again in the future. What did most to focus the attention of the scientific—and non- scientific—community on this fact was a paper published in 1980 by the American physicist Luis Alvarez and his geologist son Walter, suggesting that the extinction of the dinosaurs was linked with the impact of an asteroid on Earth, about 65 million years ago*. The word 'asteroid' is unfortunate, because it means 'small star'— and asteroids are in fact only small planets, most of them between Mars and Jupiter. The largest, Ceres, is just under a thousand kilometers across, but they come in all sizes down to ones that would sit comfortably on the Galle Face Green (what there is left of it.) So where one draws the line between meteorites and asteroids is a matter of definition; they all bits of debris left over from the formation of the Solar System. And so are comets, which are enormously larger but no heavier than asteroids, since they are almost entirely clouds of extremely thin gas, surrounding a small, solid nucleus. When, after many trips round the sun, all its volatile material has boiled off into space, only this core is left—and the comet becomes a normal asteroid. I am proud to say that the International Astronomical Union, which is in charge of such matters, recently named an asteroid (previously known only by a number, 4923) after me. It's about ten kilometers in diameter, and spends most of its time near the orbit of Mars, so I'm afraid its climate is rather chilly. The IAU apologized to me because Number 2001 was no longer available. Apparently it had been allocated several years ago, to somebody named A. Einstein. As far as the resulting damage to planet Earth was concerned, it would not make the slightest difference whether the impactor was a comet or an asteroid. However, because it is such an impressive astronomical object, we could see a comet months before it hit. But an asteroid might give only two minute's warning, when the sky suddenly exploded... This happened over a remote part of Siberia in 1908. Luckily, though a huge area of forest was devastated, there was no loss of human life. There have been several other major events since then, again in uninhabited areas, and in 1972 there was a hair-raising near-miss. On 10 August, a large meteorite streaked half way across the United States and was seen not only by thousands of people, but recorded by many amateur photographers. It came within a mere 58 kilometers of ground level; had its trajectory been slightly different, some American city might have emulated Hiroshima. I'm not sure if this provided any inspiration for my novel Rendezvous with Rama, which opened with the destruction of Northern Italy by asteroid impact in the year 2077. This disaster resulted in the establishment of a warning system, to which I gave the name—SPACEGUARD. Well, fact has followed fiction. When the U.S. House of Representatives asked NASA to study the problem, I was delighted when the resulting 1992 report was entitled THE SPACEGUARD SURVEY, with due acknowledgement. That same year, a senior editor of TIME wrote to me saying that though the magazine had never deliberately published fiction, they'd like me to write a short story for a special issue. The result was The Hammer of God, in which I attempted to answer the question: what could we do to save ourselves if we see a killer rock headed this way? The novel-length version of The Hammer of God appeared in 1993—and just one year later, the whole world had a grandstand view of the most spectacular collision ever observed in our Solar System. The impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in July 1994 made holes in the giant planet's atmosphere larger than the Earth; they could be seen even in the smallest telescope, and the after- effects lingered for months. Only a few weeks ago, there was a great deal of alarm when the initial orbit calculated for the newly-discovered asteroid 1997 XF11 suggested that it might collide with Earth in the year 2028. Luckily, after a hunt through the thousands of photographic plates collected by astronomers over many decades, an earlier image of XF11 was discovered. This made it possible to compute a much more accurate orbit, and we now know that there is no danger from this particular asteroid—at least for millions of years! This rather embarrassing affair—the correction came only a day after the initial report—has triggered a major debate in the astronomical community. A protocol is now being drawn up to reduce the chance of any premature and perhaps inacurate announcement. And I am happy to say that NASA is now in the process of establishing a new office to deal with the problem, with an initial annual budget of $3,000,000. Among the members of NASA's SPACEGUARD Committee is my old friend the Dutch-American astronomer Tom Gehrels, one of the world's leading experts on asteroids. He has visited Sri Lanka on several occasions, hoping to establish an observatory here—so far without success, because of a deplorable lack of interest in astronomy (as opposed to astrology!) This situation, I hope, may be rectified now that the Japanese Government has made an extraordinarily generous gift of a half- million dollar observatory-class telescope, currently located at the Arthur Clarke Centre. Although this is far from being an ideal location, the best observing sites are currently inaccessible and good work can still be done at Moratuwa—if we can find experienced and enthusiastic staff. I might add that most comets and many asteroids are discovered by amateurs working with telescopes considerably smaller than the one we now possess. Some might argue that, in a world already nervous about global warming, poisoned oceans, DIY nuclear bombs, etc. etc., any discussion of protection from asteroids and comets is a massive exercise in irrelevancy. Yet there is much that can—and should—be done, as is proved by the current intense debate among astronomers, space scientists, and under-employed Star Warriors looking for new targets. It is an old idea—going back at least to Andre Maurois' "The War Against The Moon" (1927)—that only a threat from beyond the Earth could unify the quarrelsome human species. So it may indeed be a stroke of luck that such a threat has been discovered, at just the period in history when we can devise technologies to deal with it. Although some suggested cures may sound worse than the disease (Dr Edward Teller has proposed a bodyguard of orbiting H-bombs) there are several plausible alternatives. They all depend on the length of the warning time available. Of the many defenses proposed, the most elegant (and environmentally friendly!) one is to rendezvous with any asteroid on an orbit liable to impact Earth, and to persuade it to make a slight change of course. If there was sufficient warning time, only a modest amount of rocket propulsion would be necessary. This was the scenario I developed in The Hammer of God, which was later optioned by a promising young movie-maker named Steven Spielberg. I don't know how much of my story he has used, but I have a double interest in Deep Impact, as he is calling the film. The role of the first black President of the United States is played by Morgan Freeman, now considered by many to be the finest actor in America. Well, Morgan has just optioned my own Rendezvous with Rama, which started the whole SPACEGUARD business. I can't wait... Meanwhile SPACEGUARD Foundations have been set up in the UK, the US and Australia, to persuade governments to fund a survey which would, for the first time, give us some idea of the real extent of the danger. At the moment, we probably do not know even one tenth of the NEO's—Near Earth Objects—which must exist. In one of his last books, Carl Sagan pointed out that no really long-lived civilization could survive unless it develops space travel, because major asteroid impacts will be inevitable in any solar system over the course of millennia. Larry Niven summed up the situation with the memorable phrase: "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program." And we will deserve to become extinct, if we don't have one. * Luis was a good friend of mine, and I dedicated my 1963 novel Glide Path to him. This work of barely disguised fiction was based on my experiences as an RAF officer when I took over the GCA (Ground Control Approach) radar blind-landing system which "Luie" had invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The main protagonist was modeled on him, and I am very happy that my prediction of his Nobel Prize came true a few years later. ————————————————————————————————— BIOSPHERE LESSONS CAN BE APPLIED TO SPACE, FORMER CREW CO-CAPTAIN SAYS Wake Forest University School of Medicine release 12 May 1998 The experiences of the team of scientists who lived in the Biosphere 2 closed system from 1991 to 1993 can be applied to space travel, according to Sally Silverstone, co-captain of the crew. Long-term space missions will require life support systems similar to the steel and glass structure north of Tucson, Ariz., where eight scientists lived for two years, Silverstone said. Silverstone spoke at symposium on future directions in space life science research at a meeting of the Space and Underwater Research Group of the World Federation of Neurology here today. The meeting is being coordinated by the Stroke Research Center of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Biosphere 2 was sealed and open only to sunlight. The structure had systems that provided water, food, air regeneration, and wastewater recycling. Inside Biosphere 2, a half-acre cropping area produced enough food to meet about 80 percent of the crew's nutritional needs, she said. Biosphere 2 also contained a rain forest, a million-gallon ocean with a coral reef, a desert, a savanna, a marsh, 3,800 species of plants and animals, as well as living quarters for the crew of four men and four women. In future space travel such as a base on another planet, similar "biospheres" may be used that would have a closed environment open to energy from the sun. As with Biosphere 2, nothing but ambient light could pass through the barrier, requiring the base to provide the atmosphere, water and nutrients to keep the operators of the base going. About one fourth of the crew's time was spent on managing the agricultural fields. Food preparation took 12 percent of the crew's time and animal care took 9 percent of their time. Silverstone spoke about the future research specifications for long-term missions, as well. The whole basic concept has been pretty well proved, she said. But there are many areas that need to be studied, she said. Among the research needs are: * How to increase crop production in smaller spaces. * Comparing use of artificial lighting to ambient lighting to see what is missing. * Understanding atmospheric recycling because certain nutrients can get tied up more than others. * Determining recreational needs of the crew in space. Silverstone, who is the vice president of Agricultural and Forestry for Ecofrontieers Inc. and shareholder of Biospheres LLC, a private research and development firm, was the co-captain of the Biosphere 2 crew and manager of agriculture and food systems. She has worked on food and agricultural projects in East Africa, India and Puerto Rico. A native of England, she managed and coordinated the architectural division operations, financial administration and cost control from 1987 to 1991 for Space Biospheres Ventures, the company that built and operated Biosphere 2. In addition to publishing papers on the agricultural systems of Biosphere 2, she has published a cookbook, Eating In: From the Field to the Kitchen in Biosphere 2. ————————————————————————————————— YALE RESEARCHERS SYNTHESIZE ENZYME THAT MAY HAVE PLAYED KEY ROLE IN FORMATION OF LIFE By Vincent Kiernan Copyright © 1998 by The Chronicle of Higher Education 26 May 1998 Researchers at Yale University announced today that they had synthesized a molecule similar to substances that they believe played a key role in the formation of primordial life forms on the earth four billion years ago. The molecule—a hybrid of deoxyribonucleic acid and the amino acid histidine—is an enzyme that destroys messenger ribonucleic acid, genetic material that cells use to transcribe information contained in DNA. The substance was synthesized by Ronald R. Breaker, an assistant professor of biology, and Adam Roth, a postdoctoral research associate. They reported the development in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most organisms store their genetic information in DNA. But some scientists, such as Dr. Breaker, believe that primordial organisms used ribonucleic acid, not DNA, as their storehouse for genetic information. In the view of these scientists, double-stranded DNA—which has a more complex structure than ribonucleic acid— developed later. But organisms based solely on ribonucleic acid and lacking DNA would have needed enzymes that could manipulate ribonucleic acids. Dr. Breaker's experiment did not go that far: It showed only that DNA—not ribonucleic acid—could form enzymes. But DNA and ribonucleic acid are made from many of the same chemical building blocks, so the experiment lends credence to the notion that ribonucleic acid could have formed enzymes on the primordial earth, he says. "Our experiment shows for the first time that that is indeed possible," says Dr. Breaker. ————————————————————————————————— MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION August 13-16, 1998 University of Colorado, Boulder Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of The Case for Mars, would like to invite you to participate in the Founding Convention of the Mars Society. This summer, over 1000 scientists, engineers, visionaries, philosophers, explorers, businessmen, journalists, historians, politicians, and other citizens will join in a historic gathering to found an association committed to the exploration and settlement of Mars by both public and private means. Be there. Sessions Announced! Thirty Six sessions are now planned for the conference. These sessions include: 1. Concepts for Privately Funded Mars Missions 2. Current Plans for Robotic Mars Exploration 3. Mars Meteorite AH84001: Evidence for Life? 4. Latest Findings of the Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Missions 5. The Search for Life on Mars 6. The Contamination Hazard: Fact or Fiction 7. Concepts for Future Robotic Mars Exploration Missions 8. Piloted Mars Exploration Missions 9. Use of Local Resources 10. Methods of Construction on Mars 11. Advanced Propulsion 12. Options for Producing Power On Mars 13. Gaining Access to the Martian Hydrosphere 14. Biomedical Issues in Mars Exploration 15. Space Launch Options for Mars Exploration and Settlement 16. Life Support Technology 17. Human Factors 18. Technologies for Achieving Long Range Mobility on Mars 19. Concepts and Technologies for a Permanent Mars Base 20. The Economics of Mars Colonization 21. Social Aspects of Mars Colonization 22. Timekeeping and Calendar Systems for Mars 23. Mars as a Way Station to Worlds Beyond 24. Terraforming Mars 25. Mars Exploration and American Public Policy 26. International Collaboration as a Path to Mars 27. The Need for Law on Mars 28. Risk and Exploration: How Much is Acceptable? 29. Methods of Public Outreach 30. Mars and Education 31. Mars and the Arts 32. The Role of Women in Exploration and Settlement 33. Potential Philosophical Impacts of Mars Exploration 34. The Human Need to Explore 35. The Significance of the Martian Frontier for Future Human History 36. The Founding Declaration of the Mars Society Conference Registration Fee: $140 before June 30, 1998, $180 afterwards. Call for Papers Papers for presentations at the convention are requested dealing with all matters (science, engineering, economics, and public policy) associated with the exploration and settlement of Mars. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent by 5/31/98 to: Mars Society, Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454 USA Written papers are not required for presentation at the conference. However papers submitted in writing will be published in a series of special issues in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and compiled for publication in book form to be published by Univelt Inc. Co-sponsors Boost Effort The following organizations have stepped forward to co-sponsor the Founding Convention of the Mars Society: The National Space Society The British Interplanetary Society The World Space Bar United Societies in Space Pioneer Astronautics The Boulder Center for Science and Policy Fisher Space Pen Journal Founded! The Mars Society has initiated an electronic magazine entitled, New Mars: The Journal of the Martian Frontier. New Mars will feature news of technical advances, scientific findings, political developments, as well as feature articles discussing scientific, engineering, social, historic, and public policy issues relating to the exploration and settlement of Mars. The editor of New Mars will be Richard Wagner, the former editor of the National Space Society's Ad Astra Magazine. Contributions are solicited. Further information on both the Founding Convention and the New Mars journal can be found at: http://www.nw.net/mars ————————————————————————————————— THE MARS MICROPHONE: READY TO GO By Greg Delory Ever wonder what it sounds like on Mars? When the next lander in NASA's program to explore the Red Planet touches down in 1999, we will all have the chance to find out. Onboard the Mars Polar Lander will be a small recording device, the Mars Microphone, whose job is to sample sound while the rest of the probe studies the soil, weather, and atmospheric dust. The idea for the Mars Microphone started with Janet Luhmann of the University of California, Berkeley and David Juergens of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who proposed to the Planetary Society that a sound-recording device would be easy to include on a Mars mission. Society Executive Director Louis Friedman investigated the possibility of incorporating a microphone in the Mars Polar Lander mission. At that time, mission planners had just selected a Russian instrument to be put aboard the spacecraft (the first Russian instrument included on a US planetary mission). Under the direction of Viacheslav Linkin of the Space Research Institute in Moscow, the lidar will use a laser to study the distribution of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Linkin offered a place on the lidar for the microphone, which could operate without requiring any mass, power, volume, or data-rate adjustments on the lander. Friedman and Society President Carl Sagan then requested NASA approval to include the microphone in the Mars Polar Lander payload, stipulating that there would be no cost to NASA. NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science Wes Huntress agreed. The Planetary Society formed a team with the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley, and together we developed a low-cost implementation plan that enabled us to build the instrument with funding solely by the Planetary Society. The Mars Microphone will be the first instrument funded by a membership organization to fly to another world. It was designed, constructed, and tested under Luhmann's direction at the Space Sciences Laboratory. Are There Sounds on Mars? Given that sound waves need an atmospheric medium through which to travel, many people are surprised to learn that any sounds at all can be heard on Mars. The atmospheric pressure on the surface of the Red Planet is small, amounting to around 0.1 percent of the Earth's sea level pressure. But even at Mars' low pressure, acoustic signals within the frequency range of the human ear can be detected. And while the atmosphere of Mars is very different from Earth's, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, there are similarities between these environments that should make the sound data worthwhile. For example, there is weather on Mars, including winds, sandstorms, and dust devils, which are little tornadoes caused by local weather patterns. The Mars Microphone may be able to hear these winds and perhaps even a type of lightning within sandstorms. The microphone will also record noises made by the lander, such as the sound of the robotic arm digging for soil samples. However, the most exciting sounds are likely to be ones that we don't even know about yet. Experience has demonstrated that whenever a new instrument is developed and flown in space, we learn something new about extraterrestrial environments, and therein lies the true spirit of the Mars Microphone concept. The instrument will bring the public closer to Mars exploration. The sounds picked up by the Mars Microphone will be available on a World Wide Web page during the mission so that anyone will be able to hear for themselves what it sounds like on Mars. Building and Testing on a Shoestring The Mars Microphone is a small device, roughly 5 centimeters on a side and one centimeter thick (2 x 2 x 0.5 inches), weighing less than 50 grams (1.8 ounces) and using a small amount of power, less than 0.1 watt during its most active times. In addition to the microphone, the instrument contains digital electronics to acquire and store sound samples. Because the rate at which we can acquire data will be limited, it will take several days, maybe even a week, to retrieve one 10-second sound clip. The device has internal memory, similar to the RAM in your home computer, which will store sounds for transmission to Earth along with other lander data. In the construction of the Mars Microphone, we relied on commercial, off-the-shelf technology, meaning that very few of the components were developed specifically for this mission. Most are readily available commercially. Our sound processor chip, for example, is also used in talking toys and educational computers that listen and respond to spoken words. The microphone itself is typically used in hearing aids. The entire program, including design, construction, and testing, cost roughly $50,000, a bargain for an instrument on a planetary probe. The Mars Microphone has since passed several tests to show it can withstand the rigors of a planetary mission. Radiation levels in space and on Mars are higher than what we are used to on Earth, and, like humans, the electronic components in the microphone are sensitive to radiation damage. We exposed the microphone and the sound processor chip to levels of radiation that they would receive during the mission, and there were no failures or degradation of performance. We also conducted thermal tests with temperature ranges of -100 to +20 degrees Celsius (about -150 to +70 degrees Fahrenheit), and detected no malfunctions. Finally, we performed pressure tests to ensure that the microphone could actually hear noises at the low pressures of the Martian atmosphere. Although sound level diminishes substantially with decreased pressures, we were still able to hear sounds by increasing the gain of the amplifiers within the microphone. The microphone was integrated onto the Mars Polar Lander last October at Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colorado. We verified that the microphone worked properly on the lander and even listened to the technicians conversing as they tended to the craft. The next phase of testing will occur this summer, when the entire lander plus microphone will undergo thermal and vacuum tests to simulate the journey through space and operations on the Martian surface. During this time the microphone will practice listening to the movements of the lander's robotic arm. For the latest on the Mars Microphone project and more details about the experiment, visit the Mars Microphone home page at http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/marsmic. Greg Delory is a postdoctoral physicist at the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley. ————————————————————————————————— 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORTS By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager 15 May 1998 Orbiter integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule. Mission system testing of the mapping phase is in progress. The Mars Color Imager (MARCI) flight instrument has been removed from the orbiter to allow upgrading of the color filter array. Troubleshooting of the various Pressure Modulator InfraRed Radiometer (PMIRR) anomalies continues. The PMIRR chopper motor is scheduled for removal from the instrument on May 19 for troubleshooting at the vendor (Honeywell). Lander integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule. The lander was moved into the thermal vacuum chamber on May 11 and chamber pump down for cruise configuration thermal vacuum testing will begin on May 16. 22 May 1998 Orbiter integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule. Mission system testing of the mapping phase which involved the execution of the flight mapping sequences was completed successfully. Troubleshooting of the various Pressure Modulator InfraRed Radiometer (PMIRR) anomalies continues and much progress has been made in resolving these problems. None of the PMIRR problems appear to be major obstacles to the launch of the orbiter. Lander integration and test activities have been disrupted due to an anomaly involving the capillary pump loop (CPL) thermal control hardware. The cruise thermal vacuum test was interrupted on May 19 after the test team was unable to keep the CPL's primed and running during the test due to known design deficiencies and artifacts of the test set up. After a thorough review by Lockheed Martin and JPL Project and Off-Project engineers the decision was made to resolve all CPL design issues before proceeding with any further cruise thermal vacuum testing or landed thermal balance testing at Mars ambient. This approach allows the thermal subsystem engineers to focus on solving the core design problem with CPL operation on the pad, during ascent, and in early cruise without the diversion of designing an alternative test set up that could allow completion of the cruise thermal vacuum test objectives in a non-flight configuration. The alternative test set up approach was viewed as too high risk in terms of schedule and potential hardware damage. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit this website: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/ ————————————————————————————————— STARDUST STATUS REPORTS By Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager 15 May 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: ATLO this past week involved harness modifications to achieve a compatible timing interface and grounding for the Navigation Camera scan-mirror motor, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU #2) installation, Attitude Control System interface testing and spacecraft functional testing. The formal ATLO Pre-Environmental Test Review was conducted. The Board concluded that STARDUST is ready to proceed to its environmental test. Aerogel: The ATLO Test Unit (ATU) aerogel trays were installed in the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). The installation procedure was practiced in the SRC Structural/Thermal Model. JPL aerogel team members participated in the aerogel collector inspection and installation. Outreach: After the film "Deep Impact" opening and the announcement of the new round of name collections, the STARDUST home page jumped to a peak of 64,239 hits on May 11, and has been averaging 51,600 hits per day for the week. About 86,000 names have already been collected. There is a link to the Stardust name collection form from the Deep Impact homepage at: http://www.deepimpactmovie.com STARDUST was also the highlighted feature on the Space Day home page at: http://www.spaceday.com/thisweek/index.htm 22 May 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: Activities this past week included the successful first run of the "Aliveness Test." This test confirms all subsystem interfaces are operational and "healthy." Also, one spacecraft side panel (+Y) was folded up to allow installation of the Cometary & Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) sensor. The gold "saxaphone-like" sensor, delivered this week by the German CIDA team, is clearly visible in the video picture from Lockheed Martin. Installation and initial testing went very well. Congratulations to the CIDA team! The silver horn in the picture is the medium gain antenna...a key element of the telecommunications subsystem. Outreach: Public interest in the film "Deep Impact" has continued to improve public awareness of STARDUST by the film-folk's help in facilitating the new round of name collections for the second microchip to be flown in the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). As of May 20, 146,274 names had been collected. This exceeds the total number of names collected for the first microchip. As many, many more interested fans join us... a hearty, "Welcome Aboard." In another familiar setting, the STARDUST Project provided Aerogel for an interesting exhibit in Disneyland's premier of the New Tomorrowland. The Official Grand Opening is this Memorial weekend. On Thursday, there were 109,228 hits to the home page, a new record for STARDUST! Thanks for looking in! We encourage you to browse through the site. You can listen to STARDUST-related music by hitting the jukebox in the STARDUST Cafe (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/info/sd-cafe.html), or you can check out some great coloring work by kids if you click the words "Color me STARDUST" on the "What's New?" page. You can also find out where comet Wild-2 is right now (http://stardust.jpl.nasa/gov/comets/wildnow.html). And for newcomers, certainly don't forget the STARDUST name collection form (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/signup.html). And, as you browse, look for the great links to our partner's sites such as Jason, Challenger Centers, and OmniPlex. 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 ————————————————————————————————— GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL release 14 May 1998 The Galileo spacecraft has spent the week processing and transmitting to Earth pictures and science information gathered during its March 29 flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa. The material had been stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder. Some of the information would have been transmitted last week, but it was delayed in the name of science when the Galileo team gave up some antenna time at the Deep Space Network's 70- meter (230- foot) antenna in Canberra, Australia. The antenna was needed to support radio frequency observations of a newly identified gamma ray burst. Included in this week's batch of information transmitted to Earth by Galileo are two images of a region of Europa notable for its dark spots. Together, these images provide a stereo topographic view of the area. Another observation measures the varying light intensities on Europa, information that helps scientists identify different surface materials. An observation from Galileo's near- infrared spectrometer should provide more information on the materials that make up the region of Europa, which has dark spots and pull-apart wedge sections. The spacecraft is sending back previously recorded information that will beef up knowledge of the interaction between Jupiter's magnetic and electric fields and Europa. Last week, the Galileo team modified the spacecraft's onboard attitude control software. However, the adjustment did not change the gyroscope's behavior as the team had hoped. A second modification was made Wednesday, May 13, and early tests indicate that the procedure was a success. Another gyro performance test is scheduled this Friday, May 15, and the Galileo team expects it will confirm that the attitude control system is now performing as planned. The attitude control system has been behaving anomalously since the spacecraft's closest flyby to Europa last December 16. The Galileo team has been able to operate the spacecraft in such a way that the anomaly has had very little effect on the spacecraft's performance. Nonetheless, engineers continue to analyze the situation, which they believe is related to the spacecraft's repeated exposure to Jupiter's strong radiation. Galileo's next Europa flyby will take place on May 31, 1998, at an altitude of 2,521 kilometers (1,566 miles). The spacecraft successfully completed its primary mission in December 1997 and is now in its two-year extension, the Galileo Europa Mission. Current plans include four more Europa flybys after the May encounter, four Callisto flybys, and one or two of Io, depending on spacecraft health. ————————————————————————————————— THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL releases 18-24 May 1998 With just about two weeks remaining before its next close encounter with Jupiter's moon Europa, Galileo spends this week continuing to process and transmit to Earth science data gathered during its previous encounter in late March. Data processing is interrupted once this week, on Wednesday, to turn the spacecraft to keep the radio antenna pointed toward Earth, and to perform regular maintenance on the spacecraft's propulsion system. Only two observations are on the processing and transmission schedule this week. Both were performed by the spacecraft's camera, or solid state imaging subsystem, and contain science information describing Europa. The first is a high-resolution picture of the Tyre Macula crater region. This region contains a circular feature about 140 kilometers (87 miles) in diameter (about the size of the island of Hawaii) and is thought to be the site where an asteriod or comet hit Europa's ice crust. The second observation contains a region that shows a transition from bright plains to pull-apart wedges. These features suggest that the surface crust has been separated and filled with material from below the surface. Last week, flight team engineers sucessfully identified and corrected a minor error in an update to the attitude control computer's onboard software that had been performed on Sunday, May 3. The original software update had not been performing as expected. Testing performed after this latest update has shown that the software is now performing as designed and the attitude control computer should be able to correct and use the output from the gyroscope that has been behaving anomalously since December 1997. 25-29 May 1998 Galileo spends this week preparing for its next passage through the heart of the Jupiter system. The encounter is scheduled to start this Saturday, May 30, and features a flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa at an altitude of 2516 kilometers (1564 miles). Preparation for the encounter includes completion of processing and transmission to Earth of science information still stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder. The data was acquired during Galileo's previous flyby of Europa in late March. Data processing and transmission is interrupted once this week, on Thursday, when the spacecraft executes the final flight path correction prior to the close flyby of Europa. Five observations remain on the data processing schedule. The first is a global color observation of Europa, performed by the spacecraft's camera. The image will provide information describing the global geology of Europa, specifically the origin, composition, and distribution of materials on the surface. The camera team also returns a global color observation of Ganymede. Similar to the Europa observation, the information returned will describe the radius, shape, color, and composition of Ganymede's surface. The camera team also returns an observation of Io. Acquired while Jupiter eclipsed Io from the sun, this type of data has proved to be the best way to discover and monitor lava temperatures and barely visible interactions between volcanic plumes, Io's atmosphere and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The remaining two observations are returned by the near infrared mapping spectrometer team. One is the second of a set of three distant observations of Europa. The other is a global map of Callisto designed to provide more data describing the materials found on the surface. Don't forget! Galileo's next encounter starts this Saturday, May 30, and with it comes the return of Today on Galileo. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo ————————————————————————————————— NEW GALILEO IMAGES OF EUROPA JPL release 21 May 1998 The following images of Europa taken by the Galileo spacecraft are now available on the Galileo home page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo Europa's Scrambled Ice Inside Europa's Mannann'an Crater A Closer Look At Chaos On Europa Small Craters on Europa A Dark Spot on Europa Topography Within Europa's Mannann'an Crater Europa Imaging Highlights During GEM ————————————————————————————————— End Marsbugs Vol. 5, No. 14