MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 18, 27 August 1998. Editors: Dr. David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA. Marsbugs@aol.com or thoma457@uidaho.edu. Dr. Julian Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton Laboratory, Berkshire, RG20 7NN, UK. Julian.Hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk 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 or at the official Marsbugs web page at http://members.aol.com/marsbugs/marsbugs.html. 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. Astrobiology 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 and terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. ------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS 1) AQUARIUM TEST HELPS SCIENTISTS LOOK FOR LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS JPL release 2) RESEARCHERS ASSESS BIOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF MARS, EARLY EARTH AND EUROPA University of Colorado release 3) SEARCHING FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE By Bruce Jakosky 4) UF AIR REVITALIZATION RESEARCH SHOWS PROMISE FOR MANNED MARS MISSION By Aaron Hoover 5) JBIS LIFE ON MARS PREVIEW AND SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCEMENT From the Mars Underground News 6) SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF GIANT CANADIAN RESEARCH BALLOON TO STUDY OZONE LAYER DEPLETION Canadian Space Agency release 7) MARS SOCIETY SPECIAL BULLETIN #7 8) NASA OLMSA RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES HOMEPAGE UPDATE NASA release 9) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 10) 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT By John McNamee 11) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS By Ken Atkins ------------------------------------------------------------------ AQUARIUM TEST HELPS SCIENTISTS LOOK FOR LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS JPL release 20 August 1998 NASA's search for life elsewhere in the solar system is bringing space scientists to the giant kelp forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to test a new scientific probe that might one day look for life in oceans that may exist on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are conducting these first-time engineering tests at the California aquarium as a precursor to an experiment that will place a scientific probe in an underwater Hawaiian volcanic vent later this year. The Lo'ihi Underwater Volcanic Vent Mission Probe will investigate an undersea volcano located 27 kilometers (20 miles) east of the Big Island of Hawaii at a depth of about 1,300 meters (4,250 feet). "The purpose of using the Monterey Bay Aquarium kelp tank is to begin testing the instruments in an aquatic environment that contains some biological material that will stimulate and test the hardware," said JPL's Dr. Lonne Lane, principal investigator for the experiment. "The information to be gathered from these experiments at the aquarium and later in Hawaii will prepare us for future missions to difficult places like Antarctica's Lake Vostok (under 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of ice), and below the surface of Jupiter's ice-encrusted moon Europa." The use of the aquarium also provides a cost-effective, controlled environment for this first experiment. Open ocean opportunities with deep-diving submersibles are extremely limited and often expensive, Lane explained. "As part of JPL's new astrobiology effort, we are bringing new instrumentation and approaches to areas that in the past have been deemed either very difficult or impossible to explore," he said. "The long-range goal of this experiment is a multi-faceted investigation of deep ocean volcanic vents and sea floor cracks from which very hot water flow out into the deep ocean. The foremost question we are trying to answer is: can and do simple biological species exist within the hot water vents? If so, what are the temperature limits for their survival and what are the chemical conditions they need for growth?" Lane said. The search for life and organisms in extreme environments has prompted scientists to examine the thin, gelatinous (jellyfish- like) veils of material that have been previously observed at underwater volcanic hot water vents. Although there have been only a few observations of this material, on at least one occasion the white material has appeared to actually come from the vent throat. Measurements of thermal conditions inside the vents have produced a range of temperatures from near 80 C (176 F) to almost 350 C (662 F). The presence of life forms inside these vents would challenge what scientists believe is the accepted temperature range for life to exist. Currently the accepted temperature range is about -5 C to 110 C (23 F to 230 F), according to Lane. After the August tests in Monterey, the team will take the probe to Hawaii in October. "The goal of the Lo'ihi mission in Hawaii is to develop an instrumented underwater probe that can be placed inside these deep, hot water vents. The probe will determine temperature, chemical state, nutrient supply, the identity of organic material and conduct limited visual imaging," said JPL's Lloyd French, project lead and system architect for the probe mission. "The first experiments will concentrate on temperature and imaging the vent walls, while the chemical and spectroscopic instruments are being developed for the second year deployment. The scientific probe will be placed inside the underwater vent by a robotic arm controlled from within an underwater submersible." The Lo'ihi mission is a joint venture between JPL and the University of Hawaii, with involvement from Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratories and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, is conducting the tests for NASA's Office of Space Sciences, Washington, DC. ------------------------------------------------------------------ RESEARCHERS ASSESS BIOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF MARS, EARLY EARTH AND EUROPA University of Colorado release 25 August 1998 The potential amount of life that could have existed on Mars is tiny compared to the biomass early in Earth's history, say two experts from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Bruce Jakosky of CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Professor Everett Shock of WU's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences modeled geochemical reactions from rock weathering. They also estimated Martian volcanic activity over time and the associated activity of hydrothermal vents. They concluded a surprisingly small amount of life could have been produced through chemical reactions over billions of years. "There has been a revolution in biology that has changed ideas about early life on Earth," Jakosky said. "These new ideas came after recent discoveries of life on Earth in extreme conditions where organisms use geochemistry rather than photosynthesis for energy." Such organisms live on chemical energy obtained from near-boiling water created by mid-ocean rifts and continental hot springs like Yellowstone. "We used this new knowledge as a springboard to estimate the amount of chemical energy available on Mars," said Jakosky, a science team member on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft now orbiting the "Red Planet." "This is the first modern estimate for the potential amount of life on Mars, past or present, and was calculated by using what we know about the planet's geological history," he said. The NASA- funded study will be published in the August 25th issue of the Journal of Geophysics Research. The researchers assumed that life requires water, access to elements like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur to build complex molecules, and a source of energy. The source can be either natural chemical reactions or photosynthesis, and provide energy that organisms can use for metabolism. Earth can produce about 20 grams of organisms per square centimeter of land every 1,000 years because of the powerful forces of photosynthesis, according to Shock, an expert on chemical energy processes on Earth. But it would take Mars four billion years to produce that same 20 grams, assuming the organisms were using chemical energy. This massive difference in the possible biomass produced on Earth relative to Mars is due almost entirely to the occurrence of photosynthesis on Earth, they said. "But there's no evidence of life on Mars yet, much less photosynthesis," said Jakosky, also a professor in geological sciences. Jakosky and Shock estimated the amount of geochemical energy that has been available through time on Mars from evidence involving volcanism, the circulation of water on Mars that once flowed through its hydrothermal systems, and the weathering on the planet's surface and crust. It appears the amount of volcanic rock that has erupted on Mars over its lifetime is several hundred times less than that on early Earth. Therefore, the global amount of energy accessible through hydrothermal vents would likely have been proportionately less on Mars as well, Jakosky said. Within the next decade NASA plans to bring Mars samples back Earth to look for evidence of life. "However, the probable low abundance of life on Mars, if any, will make this difficult," Jakosky said. "The chance of picking up rocks containing fossils or even life during sample-return missions is small. "Our best hope lies in targeting and exploring fossil or active hydrothermal systems, aqueous systems that could be exposed in walls of Mars' deep canyons, or active springs discharging at the surface," he said. Jakosky and Shock also evaluated the potential biomass that could have been created on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Europa gained attention in recent months when Galileo spacecraft scientists discovered what they believe to evidence for liquid water under thick sheets of ice. Jakosky believes if there is even a slim chance for finding life there, it would not be in the water but in rocks underlying the water where internal heat sources may transfer energy for life. They estimate, however, that the energy available on Europa is even lower than on Mars. ------------------------------------------------------------------ SEARCHING FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE By Bruce Jakosky What would it mean to us, as individuals or as a society, to find extraterrestrial life? Finding even simple microbes on another planet would tell us that life has originated somewhere independently of life on Earth. My own view is that the occurrence of even a single example of another life-bearing planet would be as significant as the discovery of intelligent beings elsewhere in the galaxy. Others see the question a little differently. For example, I asked my undergraduate "extraterrestrial life" class last semester what they felt the significance of finding life elsewhere would be. Although not a scientific poll, especially coming at the end of the semester, the results are very enlightening. The types of answers spanned a broad range of views, including: -Finding bacteria elsewhere would be scientifically interesting, but only finding extraterrestrial intelligence would be truly profound (this was the most common theme). -It won't really make any difference nor have much meaning to most people; their lives will go on pretty much as before. -We should solve our own problems on Earth before we even go looking for life elsewhere. -Extraterrestrial intelligence will help us to save the world by solving all of our current problems. -Extraterrestrial intelligence will destroy our civilization, either by intent or by accident. -The existence of extraterrestrial life or intelligence would be inconsistent with the views espoused by modern religions. -Modern religions will adapt to deal with the discovery of life or intelligence elsewhere, as they have in order to deal with other discoveries and societal changes in the past. -We've already discovered extraterrestrial life and the government is hiding it, probably in a hangar in New Mexico (this was the other most common theme). -We may not have discovered it yet, but the government is covering up anyway. Clearly, the imagined impact of finding life depends on the individual, and is a reflection of their personal outlook and beliefs. Is there a difference between scientists and non- scientists? When I started writing this piece, I thought that there would be substantial differences. From the scientific perspective, a very reasonable case can be made that life might be widespread. Several of the relevant scientific advances have made front-page headlines during the last year or two. These include the discovery of planets orbiting around other stars, finding evidence within martian meteorites for possible fossil life there, finding life on Earth that thrives in extremely harsh environments, and finding a potential liquid-water habitat for life on Jupiter's satellite Europa. For scientists, these issues represent only the tip of the iceberg. Over the past two decades, they have been developing the details behind these discoveries. The evidence suggests that the origin of life was both rapid and straightforward on the early Earth, and that similar processes could be expected to have occurred on other planets, either in our solar system or around other stars. Thinking it plausible, though, and discovering that it is true are very different things. Finding proof that life is not unique to the Earth would cement our place in the galaxy as just another result of especially interesting chemistry. This is where I initially thought that various views would begin to diverge. I thought that scientists working in the field of exobiology (the study of life and the potential for life elsewhere) would tend to treat any life the same in terms of its philosophical significance. It would not matter, then, whether the life was microbial or intelligent. Since intelligent life evolved on Earth from microbial life, microbial life on other planets would tell us that life exists elsewhere, that it had had an independent origin, and that there was nothing unique about life on Earth. In contrast, my survey suggests that most non- scientists think that the discovery of extraterrestrial bacteria would be interesting but not terribly exciting, and that it would take the discovery of intelligent beings elsewhere to get the world's attention. We must recognize that, if there is life elsewhere, it is most likely to be bacteria-like. Microbes were the first organisms to evolve on the Earth and the only ones that were present at all for billions of years. Only in the last 1/6 or so of the Earth's history did organisms that were substantially more complicated evolve, and only during the last 0.01 % or so have humans existed. Although it is not yet widely recognized, bacteria may continue to dominate the biosphere today in terms of total numbers of species or organisms or their total mass. We have the highest probability of finding extraterrestrial life in our lifetime on Mars. Mars seems to have (or to have had) all of the ingredients necessary for an origin of life, and possibly for its continued existence today. And, we can send spacecraft there relatively easily. Of course, searching for life on Mars but finding no evidence of it would have significant implications for our understanding of the origin of life on Earth. If there has never been martian life, we would have to seriously question our current views of the origin of life on Earth and the possibility of widespread life in the universe. What about the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence? Regular viewers of Star Trek or the X-Files may suspect that intelligent beings populate the entire galaxy. Intelligence is extremely difficult to define but, as we understand it, has to be described by awareness of self, the capability for abstract thought, and the presence of hopes, dreams, and desires. Physically, though, it is the size of our brain in comparison to our body size that sets humans apart from other terrestrial species, rather than, say, our ability to use tools or to recognize contingencies in our actions. Carl Sagan has argued that increased intelligence would be so advantageous to any species that it is likely to evolve wherever there is life. This result may not be obvious, however. Considering the multitudes of species that have existed on Earth without developing either large brains or enhanced self-awareness, there certainly does not seem to be an automatic imperative toward intelligence. Rather, there seems to be an imperative toward species developing brains that are no bigger than necessary in order to operate their bodies. And, even if large brains were to evolve in a species on another planet, it does not automatically follow that intelligence would result. Even as we debate the many possibilities, we are continuing our exploration. We are sending spacecraft to Mars within the next decade to look for life. The Cassini spacecraft is en route to Saturn where it will explore its satellite Titan to understand the nature of its surface and atmosphere and of its "prebiological" chemistry. We are continuing to search for, discover, and understand the nature of planets that are orbiting around other stars, and we are beginning to develop the technology that will allow us to look for and observe Earth-like planets. In the course of completing this essay, though, and listening to some of the debates on the issues of life elsewhere, it has become clear to me that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is just as important as the search for microbial life. Although microbial life may be more widespread throughout the galaxy, or easier to find in our solar system, the discovery of intelligent life elsewhere would have tremendously profound implications. The real significance of the search for life, however, intelligent or microbial, is the search itself and what it means for us here on Earth. Searching for life says that we as a society want to do more than just get by, more than just survive our day-to-day existence. It means that we want to understand how we fit into the world around us, to understand what it means to be human. As one of my students put it, with several layers of meaning, "We are looking for ourselves". The fact that these questions resonate so strongly with so many people, both non- scientists and scientists, underscores our need to find and understand our place in the universe, whatever the implications might be. It is humbling to realize that we are only at the beginning of our exploration of the Universe. The 5000-year written record of human civilization really spans only about 250 generations! It is impossible to predict what will happen on Earth in the next hundred years, let alone thousand, million or billion years. Likewise, it is impossible to predict what else might be out there--we have to search in order to find out. To paraphrase one intellectual discussing extraterrestrial life, "Either there is life elsewhere or there isn't. Both possibilities are equally frightening." [Bruce Jakosky is a Professor of Geology at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a member of the Mars Global Surveyor science team. Cambridge University Press will publish his book, The Search for Life on Other Planets, this summer. A version similar to this article appeared in the Planetary Report, which is published by the Planetary Society. We are grateful to both the Planetary Society and Dr. Jakosky for allowing us to reproduce this article. --Eds.] ------------------------------------------------------------------ UF AIR REVITALIZATION RESEARCH SHOWS PROMISE FOR MANNED MARS MISSION By Aaron Hoover, University of Florida 20 August 1998 With hermetically sealed walls and numerous life support systems, spacecraft are intended to protect astronauts from deadly conditions outside. But the high-tech cocoons can become dangerous or difficult to work in if the air occupants breathe becomes contaminated. Scientists and engineers have devised methods to guard against the problem on short space flights or aboard space stations, but air revitalization ranks as a major technical challenge for extended missions such as a planned trip to Mars next century. Now, a University of Florida chemical engineering professor is reporting early success with a revolutionary new technology that could one day remove deadly carbon dioxide and other harmful gases from air on a Mars-bound vehicle or on Martian or lunar colonies. "We think there's a lot of potential here," said Ranga Narayanan, a specialist in fluid dynamics and applied mathematics at UF. NASA uses chemical and filtration methods to purify air on space flights, Narayanan said. Space stations also replenish air revitalization equipment with supplies flown in from Earth. A Mars mission requires new technologies because transporting the amount of chemicals and filters needed for the estimated six- to nine-month trip, 500-day stay and six- to nine-month return trip would be impossible or very expensive, Narayanan and NASA officials said. Resupply from Earth, meanwhile, would be impossible. Funded with a $230,000 grant from NASA, Narayanan and several chemical engineering graduate students designed, built and are testing a machine that could revitalize air on long missions or planetary visits without chemicals, Narayanan said. The stainless-steel-and-aluminum machine works by separating gases through "oscillating flow," or moving them back and forth in closed chambers, Narayanan said. Mark Jaeger, a UF professor of physiology, and Ulrich Kurzweg, a UF professor of aerospace engineering, mechanics and engineering science pioneered the concept, he said. The researchers pump precisely measured doses of gases into two sealed aluminum chambers connected by a hollow metal tube. A machine moves the tube back and forth at varying speeds, with the researchers measuring changes in the gases. Narayanan said the device had successfully separated large proportions of carbon dioxide from helium in one chamber and transferred the gas to the other chamber, an indication it could remove carbon dioxide or other gases from air. Any remaining carbon dioxide could then be removed using filters or other technology, he said. "The advantage is you don't need to treat large volumes of diluted gas," he said. "You can now treat lesser volumes of more concentrated gas, so you're saving energy." Much remains to be studied before the technology could ever be used on a Mars mission, Narayanan cautioned. Besides confirming the device will work with air, researchers also must determine how much energy it may require, how heavy it will be and whether it would continue to function in a low-gravity space environment, he said. Negative results on any of these steps could scuttle the idea, he said. Narayanan's machine is one of several air revitalization alternative technologies NASA is pursuing, said Guy Fogleman, lead for advanced human support technology in NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications in Washington, D.C. Fogleman said the office's goal is to cut down the materials and equipment needed for survival in space, reducing the cost of a trip to Mars and making it more practical. "For every pound I send to Mars, I'm going to need 40 pounds in low earth orbit, and it takes a lot of energy to get the 40 pounds up there," Fogleman said. "Our goal is to reduce the overall mass required per person per year by a factor of two or three." New technologies resulting from the NASA office's efforts also could prove useful for the planned International Space Station, Fogleman said. "If I can increase the amount of time needed between resupply missions, it would make the station more self-sufficient," he said. Color or black & white photo available with this story. For information, please call News & Public Affairs photography at (352) 392-9092. PHOTO CAPTION: [http://www.napa.ufl.edu/ufnews/spaceph.htm] Ranga Narayanan, a specialist in fluid dynamics and applied mathematics at the University of Florida, demonstrates a machine that someday could provide breathable air for a manned mission to Mars. Narayanan and several chemical engineering graduate students designed, built and are testing the device, which has shown early success. Space stations currently replenish air revitalization equipment with supplies flown in from Earth. A Mars mission would require new technologies because transporting the amount of chemicals and filters needed for the estimated six- to nine-month trip, 500-day stay and six- to nine-month return trip would be impossible or very expensive. Resupply from Earth, meanwhile, would be impossible. (UF photo by Jeff Gage) ------------------------------------------------------------------ JBIS LIFE ON MARS PREVIEW AND SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCEMENT From the Mars Underground News The 1999 Special Issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society is devoted to "Life on Mars". This issue is based upon the "Life on Mars" symposium to be held at the BIS on November 11th, 1998. Further details about the symposium and/or the JBIS special issue can be obtained from the conference organizers Julian Hiscox (julian.hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk) and Richard Taylor (rlst@cix.compulink.co.uk). Alternatively contact the BIS directly at: bis.bis@virgin.net "Life on Mars" Special Issue. Provisional Contents. Editor: Dr. Julian A. Hiscox Note: Symposium speakers are indicated by *. CHAPTER 1: LIFE ON MARS--A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE *Richard Taylor, Probability Research Group For some centuries now scientists and philosophers have been speculating about the possibility of life on Mars. Before the space age the scientific investigation of Mars was limited to telescopic observation and theoretical modeling. The interpretation for or against life on Mars was hotly contested. These observations and how the inferences drawn from them shaped the Mariner and Viking missions are reviewed. CHAPTER 2: UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH, AND MARS? *Julian A. Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton Laboratory Studies of Earth's earliest biosphere have suggested a close coupling between the evolution of early life forms and the physical and chemical evolution of the planetary surface. From a biological perspective, there were many similarities between early Earth and early Mars. This has led to the idea that life may also have arisen on Mars. Various theories have been advanced to explain the origin of life on Earth. These will be briefly reviewed with relevance to Earth and possibly Mars. CHAPTER 3: ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND LIFE ON MARS B. Lee Lindner, University of Charleston We will show how the composition of the martian atmosphere has changed dramatically and frequently throughout time (much more so than on Earth), and how this change in composition could adversely or positively affect life on the surface of Mars. It is not our intent to have an extended article covering all aspects of this topic, but rather to focus on a few key issues, such as the amount of ozone and carbon dioxide. CHAPTER 4: ON THE INEVITABILITY OF LIFE'S EMERGENCE ON MARS *Michael J. Russell and Allan J. Hall, University of Glasgow Reaction between the reduced mafic Martian crust and water from the Martian ocean in equilibrium with several bars of carbon dioxide would have led inevitably to the onset of geochemical metabolism at hot submarine seepages 4.5 to 4 billion years ago. The co-development of an internally-stored program would have afforded the cellular metabolists the propensity to evolve, eventually to find new energy sources, including solar photons. CHAPTER 5: AN UNDERGROUND MODEL FOR PRESENT DAY LIFE ON MARS Penny Boston, Complex Systems, Inc. The question of extant microbial life on Mars is re-examined in light of the most recent information about the planet and the presence of non- photosynthetic microbial ecosystems on Earth. On Mars, protected subsurface niches associated with hydrothermal activity could have continued to support life even after surface conditions became inhospitable. Geochemical evidence from the SNC meteorites and geomorphological evidence for recent volcanism suggest that such habitats could persist to present day. CHAPTER 6: LIFE IN EXTREME THERMAL ENVIRONMENTS *Don Cowan, University College London Extreme thermal ecosystems carry our deepest insights into earliest life on Earth, and maybe to the origin of life. The study of organisms found within extreme thermal environments can provide pointers as to where to look on Mars for such habitats and the forms of life that may have arisen and the remains they may have left behind. CHAPTER 7: ANTARCTICA AS A MODEL FOR ANCIENT MARS *David Wynn-Williams, British Antarctic Survey Since the evaluation of the Viking landers in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica 25 years ago, hydrological models for Mars suggest four epochs dating from 4.2 Gya: Abundant water, water restricted to ice- covered lakes; water restricted to porous rocks; and present surface desert. These all have current Antarctic analogues which are currently being characterized for functional biomolecules in situ by the novel remote application of far-IR laser FT-Raman spectroscopy, suitable for future landers and micro-spatial analysis of returned Martian samples. CHAPTER 8: PROSPECTING FOR THE OLDEST MICRO-FOSSILS ON EARTH AND THE LESSONS FOR MARS Malcolm Walter, Macquarie University The history of the search for microbial fossils on Earth is crowded with stories of false trails. After more than century of making mistakes, paleobiologists have become skilled and canny, but controversies still rage around the interpretation of key fossils. An essential part of every interpretation is the collecting of information in the field to minimize the chance of mistakes and to maximize the collection of corroborative information, such as that on the environments in which the rocks formed. CHAPTER 9: EXOBIOLOGICAL PROSPECTING ON MARS Jack Farmer, NASA Ames In the case with Mars the scientific starting point for selecting a site for investigation begins with orbital images of the planet’s surface features. This is an area in which our understanding is still limited. A major goal of upcoming missions is to reconstruct the history of volatiles, climate and hydrology of Mars, and using this information, pinpoint potential landing sites that have the best chance of harboring signs of life. CHAPTER 10: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN ALH84001 *Monica Grady, The Natural History Museum On Earth we have samples of the martian geological record, represented in the form of the twelve SNC meteorites thought to have originated on Mars. These have been subject to direct investigation in the laboratory. ALH84001, at nearly 3.9 billion years old is the oldest SNC meteorite discovered and represents a time on Mars when the climate might have resembled the climate on primordial Earth. Indeed there is currently a lively debate concerning the possibility that ALH84001 contains traces on an ancient martian life. Almost two years have past since the initial announcement and all of the interpretations for life have been challenged (or supported) and it is timely to review these new developments. CHAPTER 11: APPLICATION OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY TO EXOBIOLOGICAL PROSPECTING *Howell Edwards, University of Bradford The potential of Raman spectroscopic techniques for the characterization of molecular compounds of geological and biological relevance is assessed. The hostility of the martian environment for extraterrestrial organisms is described and parallels drawn with harsh conditions on Earth. The broad requirements of lander-based Raman spectroscopic systems are outlined with reference to known conditions from observations of the martian atmosphere and surface geology; the stringent criteria of small mass and size, with those of a laser excitation remote sensing system are highlighted. Finally, some examples are shown from our own laboratory-based Raman spectroscopic studies of cryptoendolithic and epilithic lichen communities from Antarctica and the martian Nakhla meteorite. CHAPTER 12: DEVELOPING A SURFACE SCIENCE PACKAGE FOR MARS LANDERS *Ian Wright and *Colin Pillinger, The Open University [to be confirmed] CHAPTER 13: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS: THE ROLE OF MOBILE ROBOTS Carol Stoker, NASA Ames Mobile robots will be a key requirement for future exploration of Mars for evidence of life. The strategy for the search for life divides into four major objectives: 1) understanding the history of the Martian climate in terms of whether conditions on the Martian surface were ever conducive to life, 2) finding evidence of chemical evolution, 3) searching for evidence of past life, 4) searching for evidence of living organisms on Mars. The paper discusses the requirements for mobility, sample manipulation, and science analysis capabilities for mobile robots to achieve these objectives. CHAPTER 14: THE HUMAN EXPLORATION OF MARS--AN ANALYSIS Penny Boston, Complex Systems Inc. An analysis of exactly what are the benefits and drawbacks of human involvement will be assessed. Most discussions of this subject are distinctly partisan, e.g. we must versus we should never. An objective view of the issue will be presented. CHAPTER 15: LOW-COST MISSIONS USING ION PROPULSION *David Fearn, DERA As with any interplanetary mission, the cost of visiting Mars is high owing to the need to provide a very large velocity increment to the spacecraft. This requires the use of a considerable mass of chemical propellant, which must first be launched into Earth orbit. This mass can be reduced by a factor of 10 or more by employing ion propulsion, thereby reducing overall cost substantially. This Chapter describes this technology and its possible application to both manned and unmanned missions to Mars. ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF GIANT CANADIAN RESEARCH BALLOON TO STUDY OZONE LAYER DEPLETION Canadian Space Agency release 24 August 1998 The Canadian Space Agency and Environment Canada, in partnership with universities and industry, successfully launched today a giant research balloon called MANTRA (Middle Atmosphere Nitrogen TRend Assessment) from Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, in an effort to settle major issues about the thinning of the Earth's ozone layer. The MANTRA research project is a collaborative effort between the Canadian Space Agency, Environment Canada, the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology (CRESTech), the University of Toronto, York University, and the University of Denver. Scientific Instrumentation Limited (SIL) of Saskatoon is providing payload and launch support. The science team is led, on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency, by Principal Investigator, Kimberly Strong, of the University of Toronto and Co-Investigator, Tom McElroy, Environment Canada research scientist. The balloon, as tall as a 25-storey building and made of transparent polyethylene as thin as sandwich wrap, is carrying a package of instruments up through the ozone layer to the top of the atmosphere. The 340,000 cubic meter unmanned balloon was launched before sunrise to reach its float altitude of about 40 km in time to allow several of the instruments to track the rising sun. The rest of the day will be spent scanning the Earth's horizon through a range of altitudes, recording spectra of scattered sunlight, which indicate the composition of the atmosphere. Shortly after sunset, the balloon payload will begin its slow parachute descent, allowing the team to recover all of the instruments. The MANTRA balloon system includes a balloon, a parachute, and the "gondola" containing six scientific instruments, three of which were flown on balloons in the 1970s and early 1980s by Environment Canada and three that have been built recently. This approach will allow the team to study changes in atmospheric composition that have occurred over the last 15 to 20 years. The primary balloon launch was accompanied by 10-15 smaller balloon launches as part of an intensive study of the ozone layer over Saskatoon this month. This study will help researchers determine the effectiveness of measures to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals undertaken since the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to protect the ozone layer. This environmental treaty, initiated in 1987 and since signed by over 160 countries, used scientific research to set limits for the worldwide production of ozone-depleting substances to ensure that ozone levels return to normal and do not become threatened again in the future. The extent of global ozone depletion is a cause of concern among scientists, because it is larger than predicted by the research that formed the scientific basis for the Montreal Protocol. About half of the observed ozone loss can be definitely attributed to known human-made ozone depleting chemicals; whether the remaining half is caused by these chemicals or other factors is not yet known. The Government of Canada is working with the international scientific community to determine the extent and causes of atmospheric changes that threaten human health and safety. Sound scientific data is essential to finding effective solutions to problems such as depletion of the ozone layer and climate change. Environment Canada's studies of the ozone layer, which began in the 1930s, support a world-wide research and atmospheric monitoring program. And, through the leadership of the Canadian Space Agency, Canada is also involved in research studying the ozone layer from space. Canadian scientists are world leaders in studies of the atmospheric dynamics involved in ozone depletion. In March 1999, the Canadian Space Agency will fly another Canadian instrument called OSIRIS on Odin, a Swedish satellite. As Odin orbits the earth, OSIRIS will measure ozone around the world. OSIRIS- related instruments were also launched by the Canadian Space Agency on the ACTIVE rocket earlier this year from Churchill, Manitoba, to gather data that will help to analyze the OSIRIS measurements. For more information: Isabelle Hudon Manager, Media Relations Canadian Space Agency Telephone : (450) 926-4350 Cellular : (514) 943-6808 Heather MacKey Communications Environment Canada 416-739-4555 A backgrounder on MANTRA is available at http://www.space.gc.ca/ENG/News_Releases/980824M.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ MARS SOCIETY SPECIAL BULLETIN #7 19 August 1998 For further information see the website at www.marssociety.org Address inquiries to mzubrin@aol.com In this issue: Mars Society Founding Convention a Total Success The Founding Declaration of the Mars Society Australian, Canadian, and German Chapters form Mars Books Available for Sale by Chapters Notes to Chapters, Projects, and Volunteers MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION A TOTAL SUCCESS The Mars Society Founding Convention held August 13-16, 1998 at the University of Colorado at Boulder was a complete success. Over 700 people drawn from 40 countries around the globe were in attendance. There were 180 speakers, covering topics ranging from spacecraft engineering and Mars science to politics, economics, law, and the cultural and ethical issues surrounding Mars exploration and settlement. Every NASA center, every US national lab, and many of America's top universities was represented by the speakers, as was every principal country in Europe, the Far East, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. The conference was covered by much of the world's leading press, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the London Times, ABC news, the Discover Channel, the BBC, the CBC, National Public Radio, Agency France Press, UPI, CBS radio, German Public Radio, WCNN radio, KBCO radio, Discover Magazine, Reason Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Space News, the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post, the Boulder Camera, and many others. As of this writing, the Denver/Boulder papers, the Boston Globe (Aug 16), and the New York Times (August 18) and the CBC, CBS, KBCO and WCNN radio have all run coverage. Discovery News will air a segment on national TV on the evening of Friday, August 21. The conference was opened on August 13 by Dr. Robert Zubrin, the president of the Mars Society, who electrified the plenary audience with his talk explaining how and why humans could be sent to Mars within a decade. Zubrin was followed by Dr. Everett Gibson, of the Johnson Space Center ALH84001 Mars meteorite team, who presented dramatic new evidence buttressing the team's case that the phenomenon observed in the meteorite represents evidence for past Martian microbial life. Gibson was followed by Dr. Pascal Lee, of NASA Ames Research Center, an exobiologist and Arctic explorer, who made the case that the Society should adopt as its first project the construction of a simulated Mars Exploration base in the Canadian Arctic. Lee was followed by Rob Manning, the Chief Engineer of Jet Propulsion Lab's robotic Mars exploration program, who described JPL's plans for future missions. Manning received a solid round of applause when he thanked the assembled conference for the work the Mars Society had done in helping to restore $20 million in funds that had been cut from the 2001 Mars mission. After lunch, Dr. Jacques Blamont of the French CNES explained the possibilities for dramatic exploration of Mars with balloons, and revealed negotiations now underway for a joint US-French program of expanded robotic Mars exploration. Blamont's talk was followed by the division of the conference into five parallel tracks, during which multitudes of speakers addressed audiences on topics ranging from Mars dust cycles, to in-situ propellant production technology, to methods of raising funds to support privately funded Mars missions. These talks were then followed by the reception, which was attended by over 500 people, including former Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle Astronaut John Young. Following the reception, at 8 PM, the ballroom auditorium was filled again to hear a special panel on Mars exploration, led by Prof. Bruce Jakosky, of CU, who laid out the case why Mars must be considered a suspect for life. The panel also included a very incisive talk by Dr. Carol Stoker, of NASA Ames, showing why both humans and robots were absolutely necessary for the proper exploration of Mars. Another very interesting presentation at the panel was given by Larry Lemke, also of NASA Ames, who discussed the possibilities of flying robotic airplanes on Mars and proposed that such a vehicle be dispatched to Mars in 2003 to fly down the slot of the Valles Marineris on the 100th anniversary of the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. Friday's morning plenary session was led by Dr. Mike Griffin, the former Associate Administrator of NASA for Space Exploration, who discussed the Political and Cultural preconditions for a humans to Mars program. Griffin agreed with Zubrin's assertion made on the first day of the conference that all the technology required for a humans-to-Mars program was basically in hand, a point later subscribed to in subsequent talks but other expert speakers including Livermore Lab's Dr. Lowell Wood and Johnson Space Center's John Connolly. Griffin was followed by John Young, currently Associate Director of Johnson Space Center, who roused the audience to cheers with his gung-ho call for aggressively pushing the human exploration of space. The final talk of the morning was by JPL's Dr. Matt Golombek, the Pathfinder mission project scientist, who described the engineering and science results of that mission and then signed copies of his new book "Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet." All 200 copies of Golombek's book available were sold, with the full profit of nearly $4000 donated by the National Geographic Society to the Mars Society. In the course of Friday Afternoon, 45 more speakers addressed 5 parallel tracks on a host of topics. As on Thursday, and right through to the end of the conference Sunday, all of the track talks were well attended, some in fact being so packed that people had to wait on line to get in. Perhaps one of the most remarkable presentations of Friday afternoon was given by Kathleen Bohne, a 12-year-old home-schooled girl from Colorado who gave a brilliantly eloquent talk to the education session on how the prospect of exploring Mars had inspired her. On Friday evening, nearly 500 people gathered to hear and participate in a spirited debate on "the ethics of terraforming," chaired by Dr. Chris McKay, of NASA Ames. The debate generated a lot of heat, but what became evident afterwards, as noted by Dr. Zubrin, was that what was in debate was not terraforming, which nearly all in attendance seemed to support, but the metaphors with which it was described. For some, it was manifest destiny; for others such ideas were disturbing and instead preferred seeing it as giving birth or creating a garden. A healthy diversity of background mental frameworks of the conference attendees, ranging from right to left, and technophile to environmentalist was clearly in evidence, putting real life into the discussion. Saturday morning's session was led by Chris McKay, discussing the possibly of life on Mars both in the past and in the future. McKay was followed by Jim Benson, of the SpaceDev corporation, who put forward his ideas on how Mars exploration could be conducted for profit, and by Rick Tumlinson, of the Space Frontier Foundation, who discussed what the division of roles between the government and private sector should be in space. Basically, according to Tumlinson, the government should leave readily commercial activities in low Earth orbit to private development, and instead, in the tradition of Lewis and Clark, focus its efforts on the far frontier, such as Mars. Tumlinson was followed by Lt. Col. Scott Horowitz, an active duty astronaut, who gave his perspective on a human Mars mission from the point of view of someone who might actually do it. Basically, Horowitz said he and many other astronauts were prepared to accept the risks involved. Horowitz was followed by John Connolly, of NASA Johnson Space Center, who discussed how and why NASA's current robotic space program could and should be used to demonstrate key technologies and acquire knowledge critical to human Mars exploration missions. All Saturday afternoon, numerous talks were given to packed audiences in the parallel tracks, with possibly the track attracting the greatest interest being the session on the biomedical challenges of the human Mars mission. This session culminated in a special expert plenary panel on biomedical challenges of spaceflight chaired by Dr. Jeff Jones, of the University of Texas, Galveston Medical Center. As members of the Jones panel made clear, none of the biomedical hazards sometimes quoted as reasons for avoiding Mars flights are really show stoppers, and we have ways and means for dealing with all the risks involved. The highpoint of the conference was reached on Saturday night, at the banquet, which was attended by 500 people. There, after some good food, and some fun space folk-song entertainment offered by Wendy Savitz, a fine musician from New York, the conference approached its climax. First the Hakluyt Prize was awarded to Adrian Hon, a 16 year old from West Kirby, England, who read parts of his award-winning letter to world leaders advocating humans-to- Mars, and then received, in addition to his conference trip, a well-made 4.5 inch Newtonian telescope provided by the Bushnell Company. Maggie Zubrin was then given the "Dejah Thoris Award"-- flowers and a standing ovation for her work in puling the conference together. Then, after Kathleen Bohne was invited to the podium to give a few short remarks, and British Mars society leaders Philip Dembo and Bo Maxwell gave their report on the growing British organization, Dr. Robert Zubrin read out the Founding Declaration of the Mars Society. This was received with a clamorous standing ovation, after which a vote was taken and the document was unanimously ratified by the Convention. Zubrin then presented the results of the Steering Committee meeting, which had taken place Saturday afternoon. The Steering Committee recommended that the Mars Society; 1. Establish permanent organization with chapter organizations being set up on regional and national bases, as appropriate. 2. That international task forces be established in the areas of outreach, education, technology, private initiatives, political action, and fundraising. 3. That the Mars Society initiate as its first major project to build a Mars simulation base in the Canadian Arctic, as recommended by Pascal Lee on Thursday. The proposed schedule would be to have the base built and operating by the summer of 2000. 4. That this project be followed by a second project flying a payload to Mars, probably as a hitchhiker on a NASA or European Mars mission in 2003. The payload would by determined by competitive selection, with the Mars Society beginning the process by issuing a request for proposals this fall. In addition to obtaining key science or engineering data, the purpose of this project would be to earn the Mars Society sufficient credibility to allow the raising of enough funds to finance a complete robotic Mars exploration mission of its own. This third project would raise the level of credibility and international recognition of the Mars Society still further, allowing a succession of ever more ambitious projects up to and including human Mars exploration. 5. That simultaneously with our private initiatives, that the Mars society begin a political campaign with three components. These are: 5a. Double the funding of US robotic exploration and improve its usefulness by knocking down the firewall currently blocking NASA manned spaceflight (Code M) funds from being used to support Mars exploration. 5b. Campaign in Europe for initiation and expansion of independent European robotic Mars exploration efforts. 5c. Conduct a systematic campaign both in the US, Canada, and Europe, educating politicians and their advisors, to prepare the groundwork for a decision for a government led humans-to-Mars initiative in 2001. 6. That another international convention would be held the following summer, and probably every year from now on. Dr. Zubrin then opened the banquet up into a town meeting to discuss these initiatives, alternative ideas, and means for their implementation. For the next two hours, dozens of Mars Society members stood up to the microphones to add their input to the decision process. The Steering Committee initiatives received strong support, and many creative ideas were advanced for their implementation. In addition, it was suggested and agreed that the Mars Society should undertake an additional initiative, sponsoring a rover contest analogous to the tour-du-sol solar car race. This would spark tremendous creative activity among students, give the Mars society much useful publicity, and show the world how effective Mars is as an inspiration for educational achievement among youth. At 10:30 PM, Zubrin closed the general discussion and placed a viewgraph on the screen depicting a map of the banquet ballroom, which different locations labeled for various countries, regions and states. He then asked those assembled to proceed to the indicated locations to meet the others from their regions to form local chapters. This proceeded forthwith, and within half an hour, dozens state, regional, or international chapters had been founded. When the ballroom closed at 11 PM. most of the chapters moved out onto the patio outside the building and continued to meet and plan into the wee hours of the night. The conference concluded on Sunday, with an opening plenary talk by Lowell Wood on Pilgrims to Mars, followed by numerous track talks. Especially prominent among Sunday's discussions were numerous talks on the significance of the Martian frontier for the development of human society and human culture. At noon, student members from around d the world gathered in the East ballroom to form an international student section, and task force groups also formed, with a large number of volunteers for each task force requested by the Steering Committee. The afternoon was filled with more packed talks and ended with a final plenary at which Pascal Lee gave a report on the already substantial progress of the Arctic base task force. By 5 PM Sunday, the primary requirements had been developed. In addition, Kurt Micheels, an architect drawn from the Mars Society membership had already volunteered to make a set of design sketches for the base and develop a preliminary cost estimate for the project within two weeks. Zubrin then read a beautiful letter by Kristin Boekhoff, a management consultant from New York City, about the meaning of terraforming Mars. "We are the custodians of life," Boekhoff wrote. " This is an awesome power and even greater responsibility. As custodians, we have the responsibility to enhance, preserve, and promote life, and what better way to do it than to revive a dead world." Zubrin then closed the convention with a brief emotional reminisce on the conference and its creation and a reflection on the quality of people who had attended, concluding to a final massive ovation; "We're going to win. Knock em flat!" In a word, the conference was not merely successful; it was epic. FOUNDING DECLARATION OF THE MARS SOCIETY The time has come for humanity to journey to Mars. We're ready. Though Mars is distant, we are far better prepared today to send humans to Mars than we were to travel to the Moon at the commencement of the space age. Given the will, we could have our first teams on Mars within a decade. The reasons for going to Mars are powerful. We must go for the knowledge of Mars. Our robotic probes have revealed that Mars was once a warm and wet planet, suitable for hosting life's origin. But did it? A search for fossils on the Martian surface or microbes in groundwater below could provide the answer. If found, they would show that the origin of life is not unique to the Earth, and, by implication, reveal a universe that is filled with life and probably intelligence as well. From the point of view learning our true place in the universe, this would be the most important scientific enlightenment since Copernicus. We must go for the knowledge of Earth. As we begin the twenty- first century, we have evidence that we are changing the Earth's atmosphere and environment in significant ways. It has become a critical matter for us better to understand all aspects of our environment. In this project, comparative planetology is a very powerful tool, a fact already shown by the role Venusian atmospheric studies played in our discovery of the potential threat of global warming by greenhouse gases. Mars, the planet most like Earth, will have even more to teach us about our home world. The knowledge we gain could be key to our survival. We must go for the challenge. Civilizations, like people, thrive on challenge and decay without it. The time is past for human societies to use war as a driving stress for technological progress. As the world moves towards unity, we must join together, not in mutual passivity, but in common enterprise, facing outward to embrace a greater and nobler challenge than that which we previously posed to each other. Pioneering Mars will provide such a challenge. Furthermore, a cooperative international exploration of Mars would serve as an example of how the same joint-action could work on Earth in other ventures. We must go for the youth. The spirit of youth demands adventure. A humans-to-Mars program would challenge young people everywhere to develop their minds to participate in the pioneering of a new world. If a Mars program were to inspire just a single extra percent of today's youth to scientific educations, the net result would be tens of millions more scientists, engineers, inventors, medical researchers and doctors. These people will make innovations that create new industries, find new medical cures, increase income, and benefit the world in innumerable ways to provide a return that will utterly dwarf the expenditures of the Mars program. We must go for the opportunity. The settling of the Martian New World is an opportunity for a noble experiment in which humanity has another chance to shed old baggage and begin the world anew; carrying forward as much of the best of our heritage as possible and leaving the worst behind. Such chances do not come often, and are not to be disdained lightly. We must go for our humanity. Human beings are more than merely another kind of animal; we are life's messengers. Alone of the creatures of the Earth, we have the ability to continue the work of creation by bringing life to Mars, and Mars to life. In doing so, we shall make a profound statement as to the precious worth of the human race and every member of it. We must go for the future. Mars is not just a scientific curiosity; it is a world with a surface area equal to all the continents of Earth combined, possessing all the elements that are needed to support not only life, but also technological society. It is a New World, filled with history waiting to be made by a new and youthful branch of human civilization that is waiting to be born. We must go to Mars to make that potential a reality. We must go, not for us, but for a people who are yet to be. We must do it for the Martians. Believing therefore that the exploration and settlement of Mars is one of the greatest human endeavors possible in our time, we have gathered to found this Mars Society, understanding that even the best ideas for human action are never inevitable, but must be planned, advocated, and achieved by hard work. We call upon all other individuals and organizations of like-minded people to join with us in furthering this great enterprise. No nobler cause has ever been. We shall not rest until it succeeds. The declaration above was ratified and signed by the 700 attendees at the Founding Convention of the Mars Society, held August 13-16, 1998 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. If you would like to add your name to the list of signatures, you can do so electronically by using the sign-up form on the website at www.marssociety.org. AUSTRALIAN, CANADIAN, AND GERMAN CHAPTERS FORM Among the many chapters of the Mars Society formed at the convention were three new international ones, in Australia, Canada, and Germany. Those interested in participating in the work of these new chapters can contact them through the individuals listed below. Australia, Andrew Hamilton: ahamilto@nsw.bigpond.net.au Canada, Marc Boucher: marc@aterra.com Deutchland/Germany, Michael Bosch: Michael.Bosch@wiwi.uni- regensburg.de A list of US state and regional chapters and other international chapters will be posted on the website at www.marssociety.org shortly. MARS BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR SALE BY CHAPTERS Simon and Schuster has agreed to make copies of "The Case for Mars" by Zubrin and Wagner available to Mars Society chapters at 50% off the retail price of $13 if ordered in lots of 25 or more. Chapters can keep the profit from book sales to help fund local activities or donate it to support Mars Society projects at the international level. Those desiring to order copies should contact Jaime Ariza by phone at 212-632-4910, or via e-mail at jaime_ariza@prenhall.com. Negotiations are currently underway with National Geographic to create a similar arrangement for obtaining the book "Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet," by Raeburn and Golombek. Watch the website for details as they become available. NOTES TO CHAPTERS, PROJECTS, AND VOLUNTEERS Thanks to everyone who is helping form a local Mars Society Chapter or a special Task Force. For those who were not at the convention, a later bulletin will include the list of new Chapters, and advice on forming a chapter if there are none near you. If you offered to be a 'contact person', and have not already done so, please confirm your address and phone with both: Maggie, MZubrin@aol.com, and Bruce, BMackenzie@alum.mit.edu Be sure that you receive a confirmation back from Bruce. The outpouring of volunteers is very gratifying, and overwhelming. We need to match all of you willing to help with jobs needing to be done. In particular, some Chapters and Task Forces still need people to keep track of members, plan projects, or arrange meetings & local publicity. If you want to devote a few hours per month laying groundwork to explore and settle Mars, please join our 'Volunteers' e-mail list. As Chapters and Task Forces develop, their organizers will keep you informed of the status and how you can help. To signup for this 'Volunteers' Mars Society e-mail list, send the following message from your own e-mail account. This message is handled automatically, so do not include personal notes. If you specifically wish to help with the internet web sites, newsgroups, or e-mail lists, also subscribe to the interNet Special Interest Group, by including the last line "subscribe Net- sig", otherwise omit it. Similar e-mail lists are available for various Task Forces and Chapters, but we need volunteers for them before they can be used. (message-header) To: MajorDomo@nw.net Subject: anything (message-body) subscribe Volunteers subscribe Net-sig For further information, see the Mars Society website at www.marssociety.org Address inquiries to mzubrin@aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA OLMSA RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES HOMEPAGE UPDATE NASA release The NASA OLMSA Research Opportunities homepage has been updated to assist potential proposers in responding to NASA Research Announcement 98-HEDS-02 (Gravitational Biology and Ecology, and Biomedical Research and Countermeasures Programs). The first update is the posting of a well-written, complete "example" proposal. This "example" proposal is a modification of a proposal that was previously selected by NASA for funding. Although the proposal has been substantially modified from the original submittal, it effectively illustrates the level of detail required for a successful, organized proposal. The example proposal is in .pdf format, and can be downloaded at: http://peer1.idi.usra.edu/peer_review/nra/life_science/98_H EDS_02_sample.pdf. A second site of interest is a link to the Principal Investigator (PI)-in-a-Box Project homepage. Developed by Dr. Laurence Young of MIT, the purpose of the PI-in-a-Box Project is to improve the quality of scientific investigations through the application of knowledge-based systeMs. Since Astronauts are often required to perform experiments outside their fields of expertise, PI-in-a-Box assists astronauts in conducting such experiments in space. Further information on PI-in-a-Box can be obtained at: http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/org/a/aeroastro/www/l abs/MVL/NEW/MVL/PIHomepage/PIHome.html, or through the "What’s New" section at http://peer1.idi.usra.edu. As a reminder, proposals for the 98-HEDS-02 NRA (Gravitational Biology and Ecology, and Biomedical Research and Countermeasures Programs) are due October 1, 1998. Further information on this NRA can found at http://peer1.idi.usra.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------------ THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 24-30 August 1998 This week Galileo continues on the inbound leg of its orbit around Jupiter, heading towards its next encounter with Jupiter's moon Europa. The encounter is scheduled for late September and will be the sixth of the Galileo Europa Mission. On Monday, the spacecraft executes a small flight path correction. The correction is used to fine tune the spacecraft's orbit as it heads back into the heart of the Jupiter system. Immediately following the flight path correction, flight team controllers will send a command to the spacecraft to pause processing and transmission to Earth of data stored on the spacecraft's tape recorder. This is done to support a real-time observation by the fields and particles instruments of Jupiter's magnetotail region. During this real-time observation, data is gathered from the fields and particles instruments and placed in an onboard memory buffer for packaging, and is then transmitted to Earth. This buffer is also used for processing and packaging of recorded data. Pausing tape recorder playback gives the real-time data exclusive use of this memory buffer, allowing data acquisition to bridge across all or parts of the gaps that exist in Galileo's Deep Space Network antenna schedule. This, in turn, increases the amount and continuity of magnetospheric data that can be returned to Earth successfully. Jupiter's magnetosphere is defined as that part of space where Jupiter's magnetic field dominates the magnetic field of the solar wind. The magnetotail is the part of the magnetosphere that has been "pushed" into a long, streaming tail by the solar wind. Studies of this region were conducted about one year ago, during Galileo's primary mission, to understand how the magnetotail evolves and interacts with the middle and inner portions of the magnetosphere, and with the solar wind. The information obtained during this year's real-time observation will help identify changes in the magnetosphere over the period of the last year, and will add to the understanding of how plasma escapes from the inner portions of the magnetosphere. The fields and particles observation actually spans several weeks. It started about a week ago and will continue into September. This week's tape recorder playback interruption provides enhanced data gathering during a time of great interest. Additional playback interruptions are under consideration, but may be hampered by the need to perform other spacecraft operations. Stay tuned! For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager 21 August 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: Orbiter integration and test activities continue to proceed on schedule. The Pressure Modulator InfraRed Radiometer (PMIRR) instrument continues to operate nominally on the orbiter and has accumulated in excess of 120 operating hours since re-integration. The solar array passive restraint test was conducted very successfully on August 15. This test verifies the insertion and removal of the solar array from a restraint as required each orbit during the aerobrake phase of the orbiter mission. Mission System Testing of the aerobrake phase was conducted successfully on August 19. Mapping phase testing is scheduled for August 22 and a repeat of launch/initialization with fault cases included is scheduled for August 25. The flight batteries were installed on August 21. The orbiter is on schedule for shipment to Kennedy Space Center on September 10. 1900 powered on operating hours have been accumulated on the orbiter as of August 15. Mars Polar Lander: The lander is being assembled into the cruise configuration and is on schedule to begin cruise thermal vacuum testing on September 2. All flight instruments are stowed and are ready for flight. The lander pre-ship review is planned for September 15. Shipment to Kennedy Space Center is planned for October 12. 1325 powered-on operating hours have been accumulated on the lander as of August 15. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit our website at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ STARDUST STATUS REPORTS By Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager 14 August 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: The principal activities this week were completion of pre- environmental test functional testing, frequency survey, dynamic propellant simulation load, and acoustics testing. The frequency survey and the acoustic tests were about checking the spacecraft's ability to avoid any natural harmonics that could damage it, or seeing if any induced vibration (waves) can damage it, respectively. Some of you may recall old film clips showing how a suspension bridge over a river was destroyed when winds excited some unstable natural frequencies in the bridge structure. The vibration caused the bridge to swing and gallop so wildly it crashed. We want to be sure Stardust doesn't have anything like that in its character. So....we test. Then in the acoustics case we want to be sure things like vibrations from the rumbling rocket engines transferring up to where we are riding in the shroud don't shake apart our spacecraft. So... we test. In both cases this week, we were very successful. Our bird looks pretty tough! The flight system continues to show no hardware functional problems as we prepare for the environmental test. The environmental test is when we put the whole system in a big vacuum chamber and simulate just what Stardust will see in the hostile environment of deep space... hot, cold and nothing to breathe. We also had some great work by the Aerogel Team this week. They completed successfully loading the aerogel tiles into the cometary side of the flight aerogel collector. Recall that the collector is a two-layered assembly. A thinner tray holding the aerogel to collect the interstellar particles is attached back-to-back with the thicker tray holding the cometary aerogel tiles. It's sort of like two ice trays in your refrigerator with the bottoms glued together. One of course being much thinner. The team now is working hard on getting the interstellar tray filled. Once that's done they will be ready to ship it to Lockheed Martin in Denver. Outreach: STARDUST Name Count: 1,149,427. This "taking of reservations" has been extremely exciting and lots of fun. We get some great mail from folks asking about things like "in-flight meals" and "luggage handling policies." And we have received some poignant thoughts about the heros who fell in Vietnam. It's an honor for us to provide honor and remembrance. Now we must begin the process of transferring names onto the silicon chip meeting the schedule for us all to get to the "gate" and aboard the Sample Return Capsule. Stay tuned to the web site to keep up on how that process is done and perhaps see some pictures of it. 21 August 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: The principal activities this week were completion of post- acoustic-test functional check out, launch vehicle separation pyro-shock test, checking the Payload Adapter Fitting (PAF) from the Delta rocket, and unloading the simulated propellant (isopropyl alcohol). The PAF is the device that "hooks" us up on the rocket and keeps us there 'til we are ready to get off. It's kind of a "seatbelt" for our rocket ride to space. It has to fit with our adapter ring on the main spacecraft shield. It's important to check the fit ahead of time... because we found out we need some minor adjustments made. So our partners at Boeing will make the fix and we will check it again in a couple of weeks. The use of the isopropyl alcohol as a "stand-in" for the real stuff allowed us to check the dynamics of the propellant load in the tests I described last week. Next we will begin some testing to see how electromagnetic radiation (stuff like static) interacts with STARDUST. The flight system continues to show no hardware functional problems as we continue to prepare for the upcoming environmental test. Outreach: STARDUST Final Name Count: After removal of duplicate names and undesirable/joke words, the name count for the second chip dropped to 1,040,924, and these are now on-line elsewhere on the website. The sorted names were delivered to the laser-etching folks this morning, and they are preparing to write the names to the microchip. For more information on the STARDUST mission--the first ever comet sample return mission--please visit the STARDUST home page at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov ------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 5, No. 18