MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 15, 19 June 1998. Editors: David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA, Marsbugs@aol.com or thoma457@uidaho.edu. 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 and astrobiology (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) SURVEYOR DATA REVEAL MORE EVIDENCE OF ABUNDANT WATER, THERMAL ACTIVITY IN MARS' PAST JPL release 2) COMETS PUMMELED EARTH 36 MILLION YEARS AGO From the Planetary Society 3) ANCIENT MYTHS AND TREE RINGS POINT TO GIANT COMET'S VISIT TO EARTH Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council 4) COSMIC CLOUD COULD BURST EARTH'S "BREATHING BUBBLE," NEW BARTOL COMPUTER SIMULATION SHOWS University of Delaware release 5) MARS ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER OBSERVES NORTH POLAR CAP, CLOUDS ON MARS NASA release 98-072 6) MARS SOCIETY CALLS FOR MOBILIZATION TO SAVE MARS 2001 MISSION ROVER Mars Society release 7) MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION GROWING FAST- ABSTRACT DEADLINE EXTENDED Mars Society release 8) BRITISH CHAPTER OF MARS SOCIETY FORMS Mars Society release 9) NEW PHOTOS OF MARS '98 ORBITER AND LANDER NOW AVAILABLE JPL release 10) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES JPL release 11) GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL releases 12) STARDUST STATUS REPORT Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager 13) RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE LIFE SCIENCES: GRAVITATIONAL BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY, AND BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND COUNTERMEASURES NASA research announcement NRA-98-HEDS-02 14) WORKSHOP: "LIFE BEYOND PLANET OF ORIGIN" Ames Research Center release ------------------------------------------------------------------ SURVEYOR DATA REVEAL MORE EVIDENCE OF ABUNDANT WATER, THERMAL ACTIVITY IN MARS' PAST JPL release 27 May 1998 New mineralogical and topographic evidence suggesting that Mars had abundant water and thermal activity in its early history is emerging from data gleaned by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Scientists are getting more glimpses of this warmer, wetter past on Mars while Global Surveyor circles the planet in a temporary 11.6-hour elliptical orbit. Findings from data gathered during the early portions of this hiatus in the mission's orbital aerobraking campaign are being presented today at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Boston. Among many results, the Thermal Emission Spectrometer instrument team, led by Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, has discovered the first clear evidence of an ancient hydrothermal system. This finding implies that water was stable at or near the surface and that a thicker atmosphere existed in Mars' early history. Measurements from the spectrometer show a remarkable accumulation of the mineral hematite, well-crystallized grains of ferric (iron) oxide that typically originate from thermal activity and standing bodies of water. This deposit is localized near the Martian equator, in an area approximately 300 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter. Fine-grained hematite, with tiny particles no larger than specks of dust, generally forms by the weathering of iron-bearing minerals during oxidation, or rusting, which can occur in an atmosphere at low temperatures. The material has been previously detected on Mars in more dispersed concentrations and is widely thought to be an important component of the materials that give Mars its red color. The presence of a singular deposit of hematite on Mars is intriguing, however, because it typically forms by crystal growth from hot, iron-rich fluids. Meanwhile, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument is giving mission scientists their first three-dimensional views of the planet's north polar ice cap. Principal Investigator Dr. David Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, and his team have been using the laser altimeter to obtain more than 50,000 measurements of the topography of the polar cap in order to calculate its thickness, and learn more about related seasonal and climatic changes. These initial profiles have revealed an often striking surface topology of canyons and spiral troughs in the water and carbon dioxide ice that can reach depths as great as 3,600 feet below the surface. Many of the larger and deeper troughs display a staircase structure, which may ultimately be correlated with seasonal layering of ice and dust observed by NASA's Viking mission orbiters in the late 1970s. The laser data also have shown that large areas of the ice cap are extremely smooth, with elevations that vary only a few feet over many miles. At 86.3 degrees north, the highest latitude yet sampled, the cap achieves an elevation of 6,600 to 7,900 feet (1.25 to 1.5 miles or 2-2.5 kilometers) over the surrounding terrain. The laser measurements are accurate to approximately one foot (30 centimeters) in the vertical dimension. In June, the ice cap's thickness will reach a maximum during the peak of the northern winter season. Thickness measurements from April will be compared to those that will be taken in June, contributing to a greater understanding of the Martian polar cap's formation and evolution. In addition, the Global Surveyor accelerometer team, led by Dr. Gerald Keating of George Washington University, Washington, DC, has discovered two enormous bulges in the upper atmosphere of Mars in the northern hemisphere, on opposite sides of the planet near 90 degrees east latitude and 90 degrees west longitude. These bulges rotate with the planet, causing variations of nearly a factor of two in atmospheric pressure, and systematic variations in the altitude of a given constant pressure of about 12,000 feet (four kilometers). Additional information about these findings and other exciting new results from the Mars Global Surveyor mission is available at the following Internet sites: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/ http://emma.la.asu.edu/ http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html After a month-long period during which the Sun was between Earth and Mars and thus degraded communications with Global Surveyor, the spacecraft has resumed taking scientific data in its temporary elliptical orbit. In September, it will once again begin dipping into the upper atmosphere of Mars each orbit in a process called aerobraking. The drag from this procedure will allow the spacecraft to reach a low circular orbit and begin its primary two-year global mapping mission starting in March 1999. ------------------------------------------------------------------ COMETS PUMMELED EARTH 36 MILLION YEARS AGO From the Planetary Society http://planetary.org/articlearchive/headlines/1998/headln- 052198.html Posthumous Paper by Astronomer Gene Shoemaker Details Evidence of Cataclysmic Comet Shower 20 May 1998 Geochemical evidence from a rock quarry in northern Italy indicates that a shower of comets hit Earth about 36 million years ago. The findings not only account for the huge craters at Popagai in Siberia and at Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, but posit that they were but a tiny fraction of the comets active during a period of two or three million years during the late Eocene period. The work provides indirect evidence that a gravitational perturbation of the Oort comet cloud outside the orbit of Pluto was responsible for sending a wave of comets swarming toward the center of the solar system. Shoemaker's Legacy of Discovery In a paper published today in the journal Science, a group from the California Institute of Technology, the United States Geological Survey Flagstaff office, and the Coldigioco Geological Observatory in Italy, report their evidence of a very large increase in the amount of extraterrestrial dust hitting Earth in the late Eocene period. The writers include the husband-and-wife team of Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, well known for their work detecting comets and asteroids. Gene Shoemaker died in a car crash last year while this research was in progress. According to lead author Ken Farley, a geochemist at Caltech, the contribution of Shoemaker was especially crucial in the breakthrough. "Basically, Gene saw my earlier work and recognized it as a new way to test an important question: are large impact craters on Earth produced by collisions with comets or asteroids?" Farley says. "He suggested we study a quarry near Massignano, Italy, where sea- floor deposits record debris related to the large impact events 36 million years ago. He said that if there had been a comet shower, the technique I've been working on might show it clearly in these sediments." Carolyn Shoemaker said that she and her husband went to Italy last year to perform fieldwork in support of the paper. Tracking an Ancient Disaster In geologic samples, the researchers detected a helium isotope known as 3He, which is rare on Earth but common in extraterrestrial materials. This isotope is abundant in the Sun, and some of it is ejected from the Sun as solar wind throughout the solar system. The helium is easily picked up and carried along by extraterrestrial objects such as asteroids and comets and their associated dust particles. Thus, arrival of extraterrestrial matter on Earth's surface can be detected by measuring its associated 3He. And even this material is unlikely to include large objects like asteroids and comets. Because these heavy, solid objects fall into the atmosphere with a high velocity, they melt or vaporize, giving their helium up to the atmosphere. This 3He never falls below very high altitudes, and soon reenters space. But tiny particles entering the atmosphere are another story. These particles can pass through the atmosphere at low temperatures, and so retain helium. These particles accumulate on the sea floor, and sea floor sediments provide an archive of these particles going back hundreds of millions of years. Elevated levels of 3He would suggest an unusually dusty inner solar system, possibly because of a flurry of active comets. Such an elevated abundance of comets might arise when a passing star or other gravity anomaly kicks a huge number of comets from the Oort cloud into elliptical, sun-approaching orbits. Discovery in Italy When Farley took Shoemaker's suggestion and traveled to the Italian quarry, he discovered that there was indeed an elevated flux of 3He-laced materials in a sedimentary layer some 50 feet beneath the surface. Because this region of Italy was submerged in water until about 10 million years ago, the comet impacts and microscopic debris had accumulated on the ocean bed, and this debris was preserved because dying organisms had cooperatively covered the debris over the eons. The depth of the sedimentary layer suggested to the researchers that the 3He had been deposited about 36 million years ago. This corresponds to the dating of the craters at Popagai and Chesapeake Bay. More precisely, the 3He measurements show enhanced solar system dustiness associated with the impacts 36 million years ago, but with the dustiness beginning 0.5 million years before the impacts and continuing for about 1.5 million years after. The conclusion is that there were a large number of Earth-crossing comets and much dust from their tails for a period of about 2.5 million years. In addition to Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker and Ken Farley, the paper was cowritten by Alessandro Montanari, who holds joint appointments at the Coldigioco Geological Observatory in Apiro, Italy, and the School of Mines in Paris. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ANCIENT MYTHS AND TREE RINGS POINT TO GIANT COMET'S VISIT TO EARTH Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council 20 May 1998 Ancient myths, tree ring studies and archaeological evidence all confirm that a rare giant comet may have visited the Earth only a few thousand years ago, raining fireballs and meteors in its wake. Dr. Bill Napier, astronomer at Armagh Observatory, and Dr Victor Clube of Oxford and Armagh Universities, have investigated the doom-laden cosmic myths of early civilization. From the Persian prophet Zooraster, who in 500 BC predicted the end of the world caused by "a huge comet sent by Satan," to the description in the Book of Revelations of a "burning mountain" falling from the sky, early history is full of myths of celestial combat, rains of fire and many-headed dragons, which support astronomers' theories of the existence of a tumultuous night sky. Recent terrestrial research has provided "hard" evidence to support theories of close encounters with comets. Tree-ring studies of Irish oaks at Queen's University, Belfast, show a dramatic climatic downturn around 2354-2345 BC, perhaps caused as the Earth entered the path of a comet's meteor stream. Archaeological digs in Northern Syria reveal, at around the same time, a cataclysmic environmental event accompanied by destruction of mud-brick buildings caused by a "blast from the sky," again pointing to an encounter with a giant comet. Dr. Napier's article, "Comets, dragons and prophets of doom" appears in the second issue of Frontiers, published by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. All material is copyright free. Copies can be obtained from the Publicity Team on tel. 01793 442123, fax 01793 442002 and e-mail PR_PUS@pparc.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------ COSMIC CLOUD COULD BURST EARTH'S "BREATHING BUBBLE," NEW BARTOL COMPUTER SIMULATION SHOWS University of Delaware release 30 May 1998 A colorful new computer animation--created by Gary P. Zank of the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware--shows how even a small cosmic cloud could suddenly burst the "breathing bubble" that protects life on our planet. The simulation, presented today during the American Geophysical Union's Spring meeting, also should help guide the spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, through a series of shock waves and a massive "wall" in space nearly two decades from now, says Zank, an associate professor at Bartol and a leading theoretical astrophysicist. Ongoing studies of Earth's "cocoon" might someday reveal whether close encounters with cosmic clouds cause periodic extinctions, according to Zank, who earned a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1993 and a Zeldovich Medal in 1996. "We're surrounded by hot gas," Zank notes. "As our sun moves through extremely 'empty' or low-density interstellar space, the solar wind produces a protective bubble--the heliosphere around our solar system, which allows life to flourish on Earth. Unfortunately, we could bump into a small cloud at any time, and we probably won't see it coming. Without the heliosphere, neutral hydrogen would interact with our atmosphere, possibly producing catastrophic climate changes, while our exposure to deadly cosmic radiation in the form of very high-energy cosmic rays would increase." Zank's startling computer simulations were initially developed to support the Voyager spacecraft, deployed as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission. Even as the sun rolls freely through wide- open space, he explains, the Earth's ever-changing bubble generates shock waves and an enormous wall of hydrogen gas. The wall, he says, will sweep past Voyager 1 around 2015--several years later than previously estimated. Rather like a lung, the heliospheric bubble breathes, but in a highly arythmic fashion, because of an 11-year periodic cycle of solar wind properties. By simulating this breathing bubble, Zank says, he can predict the location of the boundary between the solar wind and the vast interstellar medium of space, which should help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) prepare Voyager 1. The battery-operated vehicle is running out of power, Zank notes. To make the most of its instruments, NASA researchers must conserve energy, by switching systems on and off. Rowdy Space Clouds Every 66 million years or so, the solar system traces a regular path through the galaxy, oscillating up and down as it sails through "all sorts of environments," Zank reports. Over the past 5 million years, he says, "We've had incredibly smooth sailing" because the sun was lolling through an interstellar medium containing less than one atom per cubic inch of space. That's empty space, indeed: Even wispy clouds are 100 times more dense. Currently, Zank says, the solar system is in a region of space containing between 3 and 4 particles per cubic inch. "Space," Zank notes, "is full of clouds." One particularly troublesome cloud region, located in a star-forming region towards the Aquila Rift, clearly is headed our way, according to Zank. Pushed by galactic wind, the cloud may collide with Earth's protective bubble within the next 50,000 years, he says, and some researchers think we could encounter fluffier knots of gas-- containing 10 to 100 particles per cubic inch of space--far sooner. Our immediate or local interstellar environment is chock- full of gas clusters known as the Local Fluff, Zank points out, and existing instruments aren't sensitive enough to detect extremely small clouds. Consequently, Zank says, "We won't know that our heliosphere is collapsing until we see highly elevated levels of neutral hydrogen and cosmic rays, and a hydrogen wall in the vicinity of the outer planets." Did a rogue cloud wipe out the dinosaurs? In 1939, British cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle suggested that cosmic collisions with clouds may obliterate the heliosphere every now and then. Zank agrees. "The protective solar wind would be extinguished, and cosmic radiation might lead to gene mutations," he says. "Hydrogen would bombard Earth, producing increased cloud cover, leading perhaps to global warming, or extreme amounts of precipitation and ice ages. We can't predict every scenario at this point." A Bon Voyage for Voyagers 1 and 2? Using powerful new number-crunching computers at Bartol, as well as systems at national supercomputing centers, Zank created two animations to show the heliosphere in empty space some 5 million years ago, and in a dense cloud containing 10 particles per cubic inch. In clear space, the sun blows solar wind at supersonic speeds, thereby creating the heliosphere, which Zank describes as "a funny, bullet-shaped bubble." When the interstellar medium crashes into this bubble, he explains, "it suddenly veers upward and around, like water flowing around a rock in the river." The result, he says, is a system of massive shock waves and a hydrogen wall, which could be 50 times thicker than the distance between the Earth and the sun. Undisturbed by clouds, the heliosphere appears to take a breath every 11 years, as fluctuations in solar-wind speeds produce a gentle, arhythmic motion, Zank says. Flowing outward, shock waves push the wall and interstellar boundaries farther into space until at last they break and wane, allowing the boundary to contract. This shifting region between the heliosphere and its boundary may filter hydrogen through a process known as "charge exchange," in which neutral hydrogen and charged particles swap an electron, and so, change identities. Earth's protective bubble seems to gasp spasmodically in a dense cloud, so that it collapses and reforms every 331 days, Zank says. The weight of neutral hydrogen, pressing down on the lighter solar wind, "would drive great rollups of instability," he says. "This well-defined heliosphere structure would disappear and reappear, at times obliterating the hydrogen-filtering region." Understanding Cosmic Evolution Zank's colorful images aren't likely to help us avoid a cloud collision, but they may spark a new appreciation for life. On Earth, he says, "These days, and the last 5 to 10 millioin years, have been extremely benign, in an astrophysical sense, and we need to make the most of them, by learning all we can about this cocoon in which we live." Moreover, Zank says, "We can't predict our future until we understand our cosmic evolutionary history." The new Bartol simulations were obtained by solving an extremely complicated, highly nonlinear system of coupled equations. First, Zank assembled key information about conditions in interstellar space, such as the speed, density and temperature, measured by instruments on the spacecraft, Ulysses, and extrapolated from telescope data. Then, he used that information in his equations, which were fed into computers, along with a second data set describing conditions closer to Earth. Zank's research was supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARS ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER OBSERVES NORTH POLAR CAP, CLOUDS ON MARS NASA release 98-072 27 May 1998 The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument has collected exciting new observations of the north polar regions of Mars during Science Phasing Orbit activities of the Mars Global Surveyor mission. Profiles of topography collected during April 1998 contain unprecedented new information about the relief of the north polar cap of Mars, as well as its surrounding features, including the expansive north polar sand seas. In addition, the instrument obtained the first direct measurements of cloud heights on Mars, with clustered cloud features appearing most prominently near the edge of the north polar cap. During April of 1998 the MOLA instrument acquired 59 passes of data which span a region on Mars that extends from approximately 60 degrees north latitude, over the polar cap, and down to around 15 degrees north latitude. These profiles include over 50,000 measurements of north polar cap elevations. The spatial resolution of the MOLA profile measurements is approximately 1,000 feet (330 meters) and the vertical resolution is approximately one foot (30 centimeters). The MOLA profiles of the northern polar cap show the height of the Martian surface to increase sharply by about 0.5 miles (one kilometer) above the surrounding terrain at the cap edge at a latitude of about 80 degrees north. The elevation of the cap increases toward the pole and achieves heights above the surroundings of 1.25-1.5 miles (2-2.5 kilometers) at the highest latitude sampled, 86.3 degrees. The topographic profiles reveal striking surface topology of canyons and spiral troughs, which cut through the upper portions of the northern polar cap to depths as great as 3,600 feet below the ice surface. Many of the larger and deeper troughs display a staircase structure, which may ultimately correlate with evidence of seasonal layering of ice and dust observed in Viking images of the cap obtained in the late 1970's. The MOLA data also have revealed that large areas of the ice cap are extremely smooth, with elevations that vary by only a few feet over many miles. The profiles across the ice cap will be used to understand the processes that shaped the cap, including the deposition of water and carbon dioxide, and the modification by ice flow, solar radiation, wind and mixing with dust. These observations will ultimately be used to help unravel the history of climatic variations on Mars. MOLA also profiled vast dune fields that surround the polar cap. The dunes are typically 50 to 150 feet (approximately 15-50 meters) tall with crest-to-crest spacings of less than a mile (approximately 1 kilometer) in most cases. Such properties are similar to some forms of terrestrial sand dunes, especially those that form sand seas or ergs in North Africa deserts. Over half of the MOLA profiles revealed the presence of clouds. Reflections from the atmosphere were obtained at altitudes from just above the surface to over nine miles (less than 1 to 15 kilometers). Most cloud detections were made at high latitudes, at the boundary of the ice cap and surrounding terrain. These observations represent the first direct measurement of the heights of clouds in the Martian atmosphere, making MOLA the first planetary atmospheric lidar. The measurements of the thickness and distribution of atmospheric reflections over the course of the Mars Global Surveyor mission will be used to better understand Martian weather patterns, including the transport of dust and water in the atmosphere. MOLA observations of the Red Planet will continue as the second part of the Science Phasing Orbit operational phase of the Mars Global Surveyor mission begins in late May, and will continue until September when aerobraking will resume to place the spacecraft in its intended orbital vantage point around Mars. The principal investigator of the MOLA investigation is Dr. David E. Smith of the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The MOLA instrument was designed and built by the Laser Remote Sensing Branch of Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.. More details about the MOLA instrument and science investigation can be found at: http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html . ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARS SOCIETY CALLS FOR MOBILIZATION TO SAVE MARS 2001 MISSION ROVER Mars Society release For further information about the Mars Society visit our website at http://www.marssociety.org or http://nw.net/mars for our No- Frames site. As a result of the Clinton Administration's pulling of $60 million in committed funds to support the Mars 2001 mission, NASA has canceled plans to fly the "Athena" robotic rover to Mars in that year. Because of greatly expanded science requirements, an extra $60 million was actually needed to fly the two-spacecraft 2001 Mars mission as planned. The administration's decision to subtract $60 million, instead of adding it, was a devastating blow. This decision represents a massive setback to the US Mars exploration program. The Athena rover is a highly instrumented mobile rover capable of traveling tens of kilometers across the Martian surface; imaging, examining the soil chemistry and mineralogy of Mars, drilling beneath the surface, and searching for evidence of life. It is a major scale-up in both size, technology, and overall capability compared to the highly successful Sojourner rover that flew to Mars during the Pathfinder mission of July 1997. It is meant as the precursor to a still more capable rover that would fly to Mars in 2003 to gather samples for the Mars Sample Return mission scheduled for 2005. Canceling the Athena rover or delaying its flight till 2003 (the next mission opportunity) will push back the schedule of the entire Mars exploration program by at least two years. The decision to cancel Athena represents a violation of President Clinton's promise made in August 1996 to "put the full intellectual and technological might of the United States behind the search for life on Mars." It is also a violation of the administration's space policy document released in October 1996 which promised a permanent robotic presence on Mars by the year 2000. It's also just plain nuts. The current JPL robotic Mars exploration program is one of the few organizations within NASA to actually implement NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's call for "faster, better, cheaper" mission design. Recent missions implemented by this group have been carried out at about 1/5th the cost of missions of comparable complexity (such as Cassini, Galileo, Mars Observer, and EOS) implemented elsewhere or earlier by NASA. To stop this extremely productive program dead in its tracks to save $120 million (spread over three years, out of a 13,000 million/year NASA budget) shows an incredible misjudgment of priorities. There are two other components of the Mars 2001 mission that are still scheduled to fly: An orbiter equipped with a gamma ray spectrometer to prospect the chemical composition of the planet, and a lander equipped with experiments demonstrating the ability to make rocket propellant on Mars out of the local atmosphere and for measuring radiation levels on the Martian surface. Both of these components are also vital to the future of Mars exploration. Saving the rover by canceling one of these is not an option. Instead, the $60 million in funds pulled from the program must be restored, and the extra $60 million required added to provide the 2001 mission the full $400 million budget it needs to be done right. The Mars Society calls upon every individual and organization concerned with space exploration to rally to turn this disastrous decision around. You can help by sending e-mail expressing your concern to all of the people listed at the end of this section. And while you're at it, you might also let them know that while restoring the robotic Mars exploration program to fiscal health is absolutely necessary, it's not enough. The American space program overall needs a mission worthy of a $13 billion per year space agency, and that can only be the human exploration of Mars. The Clinton-Gore administration may not be interested in continuing America's pioneering tradition in space, but they owe it to the American people not to deny the person they choose as their next president that option. Starting now, NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) division needs to be funded to prepare human Mars exploration at minimally the same level of funding (about $150 million/year) as the robotic Mars program. This will allow the HEDS group to conduct the critical Phase A planning and key technology demonstration effort that will enable NASA to say to the next President-Elect on the day following the Nov. 2000 election: "Here is our plan. These are our detailed designs, time-lines and cost estimates. We can have people on Mars by 2008, before the end of your second term. The choice is yours." Save the robotic Mars exploration program. Start the human Mars exploration program. Send these gentlemen a message! President Bill Clinton - president@whitehouse.gov Vice President Al Gore - vice.president@whitehouse.gov NASA Administrator Dan Goldin -dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) - senatorlott@lott.senate.gov Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R- GA) - georgia6@mail.house.gov Senator Christopher Bond, Chairman VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee - kit_bond@bond.senate.gov Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee - c/o dave.lesstrang@mail.house.gov ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION GROWING FAST- ABSTRACT DEADLINE EXTENDED Mars Society release The response to the Mars Society call for papers has been overwhelming. With two months to go before the conference, over 80 speakers have been confirmed, and additional abstracts and requests for speaking slots are now coming in at a rate of over 5 per day. As a result, the deadline for submittals of abstracts has been extended to June 30. To present at the conference on any subject bearing on the exploration or settlement of Mars, send a 300 word abstract to mzubrin@aol.com. Written papers are not required for presentation, however those written papers that are delivered by the date of the conference that pass review will be published in a series of special issues of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and subsequently bound and published in book form by AAS/Univelt. For further information about the Founding Convention, see the Mars Society website at http://www.marssociety.org ------------------------------------------------------------------ BRITISH CHAPTER OF MARS SOCIETY FORMS Mars Society release A chapter of The Mars Society has now been started in the UK. It has been set up to enable British people to participate in their own area, lobby their own government and VIP's, and have access to working on projects, research and practical, in their own locality. Activity has already begun and there's a lot to do, and the inaugural conference of The Mars Society UK will be held in September/October 1998. If you are interested in joining and/or participating, please contact Philip Dembo on Tel:0181 569 7967 or e-mail to: Mars@dembo.demon.co.uk First Issue of "New Mars" Published The first issue of "New Mars," the Mars Society's electronic journal containing the latest news and features concerning Mars exploration and settlement has now been published. It is available for viewing through the Mars Society's website at http://www.marssociety.org New Mars is edited by former Ad Astra editor Richard Wagner. If you have an idea for a possible contribution, you can contact him at campr2@javanet.com. If you'd like to be removed from this E-Mail list, please send a note to: marsman@wayback.com We will not be using your E-Mail addresses for any purpose other than this kind of informative mailing. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW PHOTOS OF MARS '98 ORBITER AND LANDER NOW AVAILABLE JPL release 27 May 1998 New photographs of NASA's Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander, now entering the final stages of testing before launch in December 1998 and January 1999 from Cape Canaveral, FL, are available on the Internet. The photographs show the Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter as it was undergoing acoustic testing at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, to simulate conditions that might occur at launch. The lander is shown during deployment and testing of its surface solar panels. The photographs are available on JPL's home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov, NASA's Planetary Photojournal web site at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov, and the Mars '98 project site at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98. The Mars '98 mission is the next set of launches in a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, known as the Mars Surveyor program. The 1998 mission will address the behavior of Martian volatiles, such as water vapor and ground ice, and reveal more about the history of Mars' climate and current resources. The orbiter, tentatively scheduled for launch on Dec. 10, 1998, will conduct a two-year mission to profile the Martian atmosphere and map the surface. The lander, set for liftoff on Jan. 3, 1999, will carry out a three-month surface mission to search for traces of subsurface water in the frozen, layered terrain of Mars' south pole. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The spacecraft are in development at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, NASA's industrial partner in the mission. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES JPL release By Ron Baalke A new image taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is now available on the MGS home page: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/5_24_98_glint_rele ase/index.html The image caption is appended below. Also, fifteen Mars Global Surveyor images used in an article in the March 13, 1998 issue of Science magazine (including the image on the front cover) are available here: http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/science_pap er/index.html Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Low Resolution Images: Opposition Surge: Sunlight Glinting off Mars Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Release: MOC2-48 Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Image ID: 572239403.13601 572239403.13602 P136-01, 02 [Image] Click on image for full resolution JPEG (371 KBytes) You may need to adjust this image for the gamma of your monitor to insure proper viewing. This MOC image is made available in order to share with the public the excitement of new discoveries being made via the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The image may be reproduced only if the image is credited to "Malin Space Science Systems/NASA." Release of this image does not constitute a release of scientific data. The image and its caption should not be referenced in the scientific literature. Full data releases to the scientific community are scheduled by the Mars Global Surveyor Project and NASA Planetary Data System. Typically, data will be released after a 6 month calibration and validation period. CAPTION Mars Global Surveyor was presented with a unique opportunity February 13-18, 1998, to image sunlight glinting off of the surface and atmospheric haze of Mars. Orbits 130-137 were devoted to obtaining MOC images of this effect, also known as opposition surge. During each orbit in mid-February, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft passed close to and through the line between the Sun and the center of Mars. In other words, the phase angle (angle between the Sun's incident light and the direction from the surface to the spacecraft) was near zero degrees. The sunlight reflecting from Mars near the zero phase angle produces the rare sun-glint phenomenon. The size and brightness of the glint depends on the physical properties of the surface (dust, sand, and rock distribution) and the atmosphere (haze/suspended dust). Studies of these images are expected to yield important information that can be compared with thermal emission observations. The picture is a color composite of MOC images 13601 (red wide angle) and 13602 (blue wide angle). The green-color band is synthesized from the red and blue using a relationship well- understood from Viking images of the late 1970s. The large, dark region near the top-center of the picture is Sinus Meridiani. The circular feature at the upper right is the impact basin, Schiaparelli. The opposition surge feature--the sun glint--is centered around 21.0°S latitude, 4.1°W longitude. The two images were taken on Mars Global Surveyor's 136th orbit on February 18, 1998. Orbit 136 was the second-to-last orbit on which MOC obtained images of Mars during the first qerobraking phase (AB-1) of the mission. MOC was off between the end of AB-1 on February 19, 1998, until the start of Science Phasing Orbit-1 phase (SPO-1), which began March 28 and ended April 28, 1998. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. ------------------------------------------------------------------ GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL releases May 29, 1998 The Galileo spacecraft is preparing for its next encounter with Jupiter's moon Europa, scheduled for this Sunday, May 31 at 2:12 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, at an altitude of 2,521 kilometers (1,566 miles). On Thursday, May 28, Galileo completed most of its approach maneuver sequence of commands, but the process was stopped because of an error in the construction of the sequence. The spacecraft aborted the sequence, including the remaining playback of recorded data, and put itself in a "safe mode." That means the spacecraft places itself in a low-activity state until it receives new instructions from the ground. The spacecraft is set to resume its planned activities after a new Europa encounter sequence is radioed to Galileo via the Deep Space Network tonight. Despite the halt in the spacecraft's planned sequence, Galileo's onboard tape recorder transmitted to Earth 97 percent of the pictures and information that had been scheduled for playback during this orbit. The data were gathered during Galileo's flyby of Europa in late March. Galileo's navigation team has determined that the encounter activities, which start on Saturday, May 30, will not be affected significantly by the safing event. This will be the first encounter since December of last year to use the full gyroscope capability. The gyro anomaly has been corrected, and at this point, the attitude control system is believed to be fully functional. Continual calibrations will be needed to maintain this capability. June 5, 1998 The Galileo spacecraft has spent this past week processing and sending to Earth images and science information gathered during its latest Europa flyby, from May 30 through June 1. Data had been stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder and includes camera observations of the Cilix region of Europa, which contains the largest known massif on Europa. A massif is a block of crust, surrounded by faults, that has been displaced without breaking apart. Other images taken by the camera include a very rugged region of Europa east of the Tyre Macula impact crater, with pits, mounds, and a very prominent ridge. The flyby went well, with the spacecraft swooping over Europa at an altitude of 2,516 kilometers (1,563 miles). After the point of closest approach, the gyroscopes switched on as expected, but after about half an hour, the spacecraft turned them off. The Galileo team is currently investigating this minor anomaly. Nonetheless, the gyros have been turned back on. A similar event has happened only once before--on August 28, 1993. A standard gyro performance and calibration test was run on June 3, and results indicate the performance of the gyros is unchanged since the spacecraft's previous Europa encounter in March. The gyro anomaly is expected to have very minimal effect on the data gathered during this latest encounter. ------------------------------------------------------------------ STARDUST STATUS REPORT Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager 5 June 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: Excellent Progress this week by the Flight System & ATLO Team. The flight solar arrays were installed and characterized in less time than scheduled. The navigation camera (NavCam) installation was completed and end-to-end connectivity established and tested. This marks end-to-end check out and testing of all three active science interfaces on the flight system, e.g. dust flux monitor (DFM), cometary & interstellar dust analyzer (CIDA) and NavCam. A fit-check on the NavCam periscope was also completed. Solutions were developed for the waveguide and Power Control Assembly (PCA) interference issues reported last week and are being implemented. A successful exercise of a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) with the software was run and preparations for the upcoming Spacecraft Performance Test #1 progressed well. Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: excellent Progress this week by the Flight System & ATLO Team. The flight solar arrays were installed and characterized in less time than scheduled. The navigation camera (NavCam) installation was completed and end-to-end connectivity established and tested. This marks end-to-end check out and testing of all three active science interfaces on the flight system, e.g. dust flux monitor (DFM), cometary & interstellar dust analyzer (CIDA) and NavCam. A fit-check on the NavCam periscope was also completed. Solutions were developed for the waveguide and Power Control Assembly (PCA) interference issues reported last week and are being implemented. A successful exercise of a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) with the software was run and preparations for the upcoming Spacecraft Performance Test #1 progressed well. On the name collection campaign: as of June 4, more than 200,000 names have been received for the second Microchip. The "Zoom In On the Microchip" section of the Home Page is complete. 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE LIFE SCIENCES: GRAVITATIONAL BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY, AND BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND COUNTERMEASURES NASA research announcement NRA-98-HEDS-02 1 June 1998 This solicitation is available electronically via the Internet at http://peer1.idi.usra.edu Proposals requested by this Announcement may be for ground-based research investigations or space experiments designed for spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle or the International Space Station. Letters of Intent Due: August 3, 1998 Proposals Due: October 1, 1998 Paper copies of this NRA are also available by calling (202) 358- 4180. Please leave a voice mail message and include your full name, address with zip code, telephone number with area code, and the name and number of the NRA you are requesting. Questions regarding this NRA may be addressed to NASA Headquarters, Code UL, Life Sciences Division, Washington, DC 20546, Attn: Dr. Guy Fogleman. ------------------------------------------------------------------ WORKSHOP: "LIFE BEYOND PLANET OF ORIGIN" Ames Research Center release By Christopher P. McKay Dates: June 25-26 1998 Location: NASA Ames Research Center building 245 main auditorium. 9:00 AM Thursday Start Convener: Chris McKay (cmckay@mail.arc.nasa.gov) Coordinator: Ragnhild Landheim (rlandheim@mail.arc.nasa.gov) As you know NASA Ames is taking the lead role in developing the roadmap for Astrobiology. To support this activity Lynn Harper has asked me to organize a small workshop to address one of the Astrobiology "questions" listed in the Cooperative Agreement Notice under which the Astrobiology Institute was selected. The question is: What is the potential for life to survive and evolve beyond the planet of origin? Personally I find this question the most interesting and novel aspect of the Astrobiology program. It represents the first time that NASA is looking seriously at the question of the long-term future of life beyond Earth. Workshop Goals: 1) to determine science background and goals, 2) to characterize mission opportunities and technology readiness/requirements to take advantage of mission opportunities to characterize potential for evolution of life beyond planet of origin. The output of this will provide input to the Astrobiology Roadmap of what can be done. The Roadmap will determine what should be done. The program for the next 5-10 years will evolve from that. I suggest the following list of topics to consider (comments welcome) 1. Natural processes that spread life beyond planet of origin * from Earth to elsewhere * from elsewhere to Earth * Meteorite transport--impacts and mechanics * Biological dormancy/longevity * Long therm survival in amber, in salts, in permafrost, in space 2. Survival challenges in Space (for humans and other living things) * Gravity * Radiation * Artificial environments longevity, stability, and expansion 3. The Case of Mars * Life support systems on Mars * Life in 1/3 g * Life from Earth adapting to Mars * Ecosynthesis, a second biosphere on Mars 4. Spread of life beyond the Solar System of Origin * Natural processes * Artificial processes 5. Missions and Technologies * Space Station * Molecular Biology * Habitat design * How to characterize evolution beyond Earth -Adaptation -Mutation -Genetic changes in population -Species sensitivity ------------------------------------------------------------------ End MARSBUGS Vol. 5, No. 15