MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 19, 3 September 1998. Editors: Dr. David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA. Marsbugs@aol.com or davidt@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) EARTH MICROBES ON THE MOON From MSFC Space Science News 2) EARTH WAS COMPLETELY COVERED BY ICE, GEOLOGISTS SAY FIRST LARGE ANIMALS APPEARED AFTER MELTING By William J. Cromie 3) 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT By John McNamee 4) STARDUST STATUS REPORT By Ken Atkins 5) SPACE FRONTIER CONFERENCE VII--"SPACE: THE REVOLUTION IS NOW!" Space Frontier Foundation ------------------------------------------------------------------ EARTH MICROBES ON THE MOON From MSFC Space Science News 1 September 1998 Three decades after Apollo 12, a remarkable colony of lunar survivors revisited. For a human, unprotected space travel is a short trip measured in seconds. What could be worse for would-be space travelers than a catastrophic breach in their protective spacesuits, the high-tech, multilayered fabric blanket that balloons under the pressure of a life-saving flow of oxygen and insulates against the frozen harshness of deep-space vacuum? But for some kinds of microbes, the harshness of space travel is not unlike their everyday stressful existence, the successful execution of ingenious survival tricks learned over billions of years of Earth-bound evolution. Forthcoming anniversary Space historians will recall that the journey to the stars has more than one life form on its passenger list: the names of a dozen Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon and one inadvertent stowaway, a common bacterium, Streptococcus mitis, the only known survivor of unprotected space travel. As Marshall astronomers and biologists met recently to discuss biological limits to life on Earth, the question of how an Earth bacterium could survive in a vacuum without nutrients, water and radiation protection was less speculative than might first be imagined. A little more than a month before the forthcoming millennium celebration, NASA will mark without fanfare the thirty-year anniversary of documenting a microbe's first successful journey from Earth. In 1991, as Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad reviewed the transcripts of his conversations relayed from the moon back to Earth, the significance of the only known microbial survivor of harsh interplanetary travel struck him as profound: "I always thought the most significant thing that we ever found on the whole...Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said [anything] about it." Although the space-faring microbe was described in a 1970 Newsweek article, along with features in Sky and Telescope and Aviation Week and Space Technology, the significance of a living organism surviving for nearly three years in the harsh lunar environment may only now be placed in perspective, after three decades of the biological revolution in understanding life and its favored conditions. As the lunar voyagers answered a similar question more than a century ago, in Jules Verne's classic, From the Earth to the Moon, "To those who maintain that the planets are not inhabited one may reply: you might be perfectly in the right, if you could only show that the earth is the best possible world." The remarkable lunar survivor from Apollo 12 thus gives scientific pause. Three decades, the biological revolution To a biologist, freeze-drying microbes for harsh space travel conjures up rather mundane kitchen science, a simple reenactment of how a yeast packet taken from the freezer can make bread dough rise prior to baking. But to a new breed of biologist exploring the harshest conditions on Earth, how a delicate microbe manages to counteract vacuum, boiling temperatures, burning radiation, and crushing pressures deep in the frozen icecaps is the study of life itself. For example, only now after 30 years of biological progress can scientists begin to scan down the genetic script underlying the causes of malaria, syphilis, cholera and tuberculosis. Within a few years, it is estimated that 50 to 100 complete genomes of living organisms will be entirely deciphered, presenting the first opportunities for deep evolutionary comparisons and insights into exactly the remarkable means by which the common Streptococcus bacterium could revive itself after 2.6 years on the moon. The deep sleep The Surveyor probes were the first U.S. spacecraft to land safely on the Moon. In November, 1969, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft's microorganisms were recovered from inside its camera that was brought back to Earth under sterile conditions by the Apollo 12 crew. The 50-100 organisms survived launch, space vacuum, 3 years of radiation exposure, deep-freeze at an average temperature of only 20 degrees above absolute zero, and no nutrient, water or energy source. (The United States landed 5 Surveyors on the Moon; Surveyor 3 was the only one of the Surveyors visited by any of the six Apollo landings. No other life forms were found in soil samples retrieved by the Apollo missions or by two Soviet unmanned sampling missions, although amino acids--not necessarily of biological origin--were found in soil retrieved by the Apollo astronauts.) How this remarkable feat was accomplished only by Streptococcus bacteria remains speculative, but it does recall that even our present Earth does not always look as environmentally friendly as it might have 4 billion years ago when bacteria first appeared on this planet. Recent biological progress May 1995: Deciphering of the first complete gene of a living organism (1,749 genes of the Hemophilus influenzae bacteria). In the New York Times, Nobel Laureate and co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, James Watson said, "I think it's a great moment in science." September 1995: Deciphering of the smallest known viable genome on the planet, Mycoplasma genitalium, giving the first genetic script of what separates life from non-life. July 1996: Deciphering of the first genome from the third "super kingdom" of life, the Archea, and the organism Methanococcus jannaschii, a deep-sea hot vent microbe, separating bacteria and eukaryotes (such as plants and animals). 1997: Deciphering the genome of the human pathogen, Helicobacter pylori, the ulcer-causing bacteria that dwells in the stomachs of half of the people on Earth. 1998: Deciphering the entire microbial genome of the cause of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. 1998: Deciphering the entire microbial genome of the sulfur- metabolizing Archea, Archaeoglobus fulgidus, the industrial cause of "souring" oil wells. 1998: Deciphering the microbial genome, Deinococcus radiodurans, having the remarkable capacity to withstand massive space-scale doses of over 1.5 million rads of radiation--3000 times the dose that would kill a human in space. Extremophiles: life on the edge When the first bacteria colonized the earth, there was no free oxygen to breathe and no ozone to block out the sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation. Oxygen was a poison gas. Nuclear radiation came from decaying uranium-235, which was about 50 times more abundant then than now. Appropriately referred to as the Hadean Eon (after the Greek underworld), the air was hot and full of noxious chemicals such as sulfurous gases released by volcanoes. However, there are bacteria that can live, even thrive, in a very wide variety of conditions that seem unfriendly to humans. Bacteria can survive unlikely changes of environment, including the growing list of space-hardiness conditions. Vacuum conditions, with bacteria taken down to near zero pressure and temperature, provided suitable care is exercised in the experimental conditions. Pressure, with viable bacteria after exposure to pressures as high as 10 tons per square centimeter (71 tons/square inch). Colonies of anaerobic bacteria have recently been recovered from depths of 7 km (4.2 mi) or more in the Earth's crust. Heat. Bacteria survive after flash heating under dry conditions at temperatures up to 600 degrees C (1112 degrees F). Archaebacteria that can withstand extreme heat have been found thriving in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and in oil reservoirs a mile underground Radiation, including viable bacteria recovered from the interior of an operating nuclear reactor. In comparison to space, each square meter on Earth is protected by about 10 tons of shielding atmosphere. Long preservation, including bacteria revived and cultured after some 25 million years of encapsulation in the guts of a resin- trapped bee. Hitchhiking across the solar system The Streptococcus bacteria on Surveyor 3 might not be the only interplanetary microbial hitchhikers. In 1996, researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center announced that they had found evidence of microfossils in a Mars meteorite recovered from a field of blue ice in the Antarctic. The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules in the Allan Hills meteorite was taken as one sign that objects in the rock are microfossils. Critics claim that the PAHs are contamination from the ice. The recent discovery of a 13th meteorite, apparently from Mars, might help is resolving the issue. "The fact that it was found in the Sahara means that it can't possibly be contaminated with PAHs from ice," said Richard Hoover, an X-ray astronomer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Hoover is part of two investigations that will develop tools and techniques to prepare and examine specimens that may have life forms. He also is planning a trip to Antarctica to look for samples of life thriving under extreme conditions. "We don't know how long this 13th rock has been in the Sahara," Hoover said, "but finding another SNC [Mars meteorite] is a very exciting result." While long associated with rocket propulsion, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center also is deeply involved in space science research. Recently, this has expanded to include astrobiology, the study of life outside the Earth. In addition to Hoover's work, Dr. David Noever, author of this article, is developing a "D'Arcy machine," a program to help computers recognize life forms in electron microscope and other images. [This article came from http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast01sep98_1.htm] ------------------------------------------------------------------ EARTH WAS COMPLETELY COVERED BY ICE, GEOLOGISTS SAY FIRST LARGE ANIMALS APPEARED AFTER MELTING By William J. Cromie, Harvard Gazette Staff 27 August 1998 Seven hundred million years ago, Earth's oceans were completely frozen over. No rivers flowed; no rain or snow fell. Life, limited to simple plants and bacteria at the time, became severely depleted. But inside Earth, the activity that leads to surface volcanism continued. Volcanoes belched carbon dioxide and other gases into the air. Carbon dioxide accumulated for millions of years, preventing heat from escaping into space (the greenhouse effect), and producing a global warming that eventually melted the ice. Between 750 million and 570 million years ago, this icehouse to greenhouse cycle occurred several times. Glaciers turned Earth into a "snowball" that stayed unmelted for millions of years until volcanic gases finally freed it. At least that's what the rocks in southwest Africa tell Harvard geologists. "It's staggering to think that such events are not only possible in theory, but actually occurred at a critical turning point in Earth's history," says Paul Hoffman, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology. "The first diverse fossils of large animals appear soon after the last snowball glaciation. There are reasons to believe that this is no mere coincidence." For three billion years preceding the snowball glaciations, life was confined to algae, bacteria, and other simple organisms. Only the most adaptable of these creatures survived the global freezeovers. Soon after the last ice ages ended, about 565 million years ago, large animals with cells formed into tissues and organs suddenly began to appear. They included the ancestors of many groups of animals still alive. Hoffman spent six summers examining rock formations in Namibia, Africa, where the rock record of ice ages and global warmings is clearly preserved. "Things didn't start falling into place until last December," he recalls. "What excites me about the snowball idea is that it provides a common explanation for many notable geological features in that period of Earth history, any one of which is puzzling when approached in isolation." What do other scientists think about Hoffman's reading of the rocks? "They either love it, or they hate it," he replies. "We've had both support and stiff challenges, both of which have led to a stronger theory. At this point, the remaining questions appear minor compared to all the things that the idea explains." A detailed report of the theory and evidence that supports it appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science. It was written by Hoffman; along with Alan Kaufman, a former Harvard post- doctoral fellow now at the University of Maryland; Galen Halverson, a graduate student working with Hoffman; and Harvard geochemist Daniel Schrag. Do Worms Keep Us Warm? Earth started to freeze over, Hoffman says, due to a lack of carbon dioxide in the air combined with a dimmer sun. Once ice and snow covered much of the land and ocean, a process called the albedo effect--wherein ice and snow reflect the sun's energy back into space--kicked in. The more ice and snow, the higher the albedo and the colder it gets. "Albedo tends to drive global change to one extreme [all ice] or the other [no ice], causing catastrophic change in either direction," Hoffman explains. But for albedo-driven glaciation to start, it must first get cold enough for polar sea ice to expand to the latitude of Boston. During the most recent ice age, 18,000 years ago, land ice reached Cape Cod, but during summers the Atlantic stayed open as far north as Iceland. The sun also radiated less energy 750 million years ago than it does now. Our star works like a nuclear reactor, converting hydrogen to helium and releasing energy. As the proportion of helium grows, the sun produces more heat. Some 750 million years ago, the solar furnace was an estimated 6-7 percent cooler than at present. The sun, however, did not operate alone. "Over most of geological time, varying amounts of carbon dioxide in the air have regulated Earth's climate through the greenhouse effect," Hoffman notes. The gas acts like glass in a greenhouse; it lets light in but prevents heat from escaping into space. Carbon dioxide along with other gases coming from smokestacks, vehicle exhausts, and burning of tropical forests make a major contribution to the present global warming. During the icehouse part of the greenhouse-icehouse transitions, a severe shortage of carbon dioxide in the air came from a loss of carbon, which entered the ocean and got buried with muddy sediments on the ocean floor. These sediments, which were later heated, compressed and uplifted by the shifting of continents and ocean floors, are beautifully preserved as rock layers in Namibia. Chemical testing of these rocks reveals evidence for rapid removal of carbon from the atmosphere before the ice ages, then virtually no removal during the warmings. "At no time since the last snowball event do we observe carbon shifts of such magnitude," Hoffman comments. How come there have been no snowball glaciations since that time? "We think we have worms and snails to thank," laughs Hoffman. They and many other animals that live on the sea bottom constantly churn muddy sediments searching for bits of food. This contributes to the breakdown of organic forms of carbon and its release into the water, then into the air. "With the advent of bottom-dwelling animals, burial of organic carbon became seriously impeded by their feeding activities," Hoffman points out. Before the advent of animals, the rocks in Namibia show thin layers of undisturbed sediment on the sea bottom. After animals appeared, feeding trails, burrows, and other signs of grazing activity disrupted the fossil sediments. But what caused the sudden appearance of such animals? Hoffman notes that a leading theory for the creation of new species involves mass mortality of organisms, disorganization of genetic material among the survivors, then renewed population growth in a different environment. "This is just what happened in the icehouse-greenhouse transitions," Hoffman says. "A succession of global glaciations, each terminated by intense warming conditions, may be just what the biologists ordered" for a sudden evolution of new forms of life. If he is right, that explains one of the greatest mysteries of life on Earth: what caused the first appearance of animal life. Snowball in Hell "Whenever we see the top of deposits laid down by glaciers in Namibia, they are capped with layers of pure carbonate rock," says Hoffman, pointing to a chunk of such rock on his desk. These limestone caps consist of carbon and calcium that precipitated out of seawater. They appear all over the world and have always been a mystery to geologists. Daniel Schrag, the Harvard geochemist, maintains that this unique combination of glacial deposits, sharply capped by carbonates laid down in warm water, can be neatly accounted for by the snowball theory. The high concentrations of carbon dioxide would break the ice's long grip. As the ice receded, rapid precipitation of carbonate from the water would occur. "It was the most extreme and rapid change on record," says Schrag. "Organisms surviving the deep freeze would immediately have to face the heat." But how did the snowballs get rolling in the first place? "For 300 million years before the cycles began," Hoffman explains, "all land was gathered together in a single supercontinent called 'Rodinia.' The name comes from the Russian word, rodit, which means 'to beget.' When Rodinia began to breakup about 750 million years ago, it begot smaller continents which created many new continental margins. These margins are where most of organic matter, including carbon, settles to the ocean bottom and gets buried. The burials speeded up withdrawal of carbon dioxide from the air and begot the whole previously unimagined chain of events." PHOTO CAPTION: [http://www.news.harvard.edu/science/current_stories/ 27.Aug.98/geology.082798.html] The rock held by geologist Paul Hoffman shows that the Earth went from a severe ice age to global warming about 700 million years ago. Glaciers deposited the large, smooth pebbles at the bottom. Thin layers of limestone capping the glacial deposits were laid down later in warm ocean water. Photo by Jon Chase. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor '98 project manager 28 August 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: Orbiter integration and test activities continue to proceed on schedule. Mission System Testing of the launch/initialization phase was repeated very successfully on August 26 with a fault protection case causing a side swap inserted. The Mapping phase test conducted on August 22 was halted midway through the test due to a computer reset. This fault has now been duplicated in the Spacecraft Test Lab for the first time which provides promise that the root cause of this and previous resets will be determined. The orbiter is on schedule for shipment to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on September 10. The only remaining work on the orbiter prior to ship is the dry spin balance in vacuum scheduled for September 5. 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. The backshell and cruise stage are installed and the spacecraft is scheduled to move to the thermal vacuum chamber on August 29. The lander pre-ship review is planned for September 15. Shipment to KSC is planned for October 12. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit our website at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ STARDUST STATUS REPORT By Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager The ATLO team completed the electromagnetic (EM) testing, stray voltage testing, and solar array deployment shock tests. No radiated emissions problems were observed in the EM tests. That means the electrical system will be "quiet" without static causing problems with other things on board. The solar array test was to exercise the components that allow the arrays to unfold automatically in space. Everything worked fine! After the testing, the solar arrays were removed and the spacecraft moved to its handling fixture to start preparations for system thermal vacuum test (STV). That's the picture on the webcam at this writing. The flight system remains very healthy with no functional problems going into environmental test. Launch Vehicle: You may have seen on the news that the inaugural flight of the Delta III rocket failed on August 26. Boeing has initiated a failure investigation. STARDUST is not manifested to ride on the Delta III. We're slated for the Delta II, a rocket system with more than one hundred successful launchings. However, even though STARDUST is manifested on the Delta II launch vehicle, Boeing and NASA must consider and review everything about the Delta II in the context of this failure to ensure exoneration of all Delta II elements before allowing continuation of the Delta II launch schedule. Seven Delta II launches are scheduled ahead of STARDUST. A new STARDUST fact sheet was added to the Web Site at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/welcome/factsheetnew.pdf University of Washington's Professor Don Brownlee, the STARDUST Principal Investigator, completed "STARDUST: The Story", a background account of how the project came about. The story was added to the Captain Comet (Kids) page at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/captaincomet/storyofstardust.html 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ SPACE FRONTIER CONFERENCE VII--"SPACE: THE REVOLUTION IS NOW! " Space Frontier Foundation October 9-11, 1998 Sheraton Gateway Hotel Los Angeles International Airport, CA There is a revolution underway in the opening of the greatest human frontier of all time! If you want to know what's really happening, then join the players who are opening the space frontier this Columbus Day weekend in Los Angeles. This conference is THE EVENT for anyone who wants to understand or become a part of the human breakout into space. This is your chance to hear from a cross-range of NASA and other government representatives, entrepreneurs, financiers, scientists and space media leaders, and to then decide what YOUR role will be in opening the space frontier. The conference is presented by the Space Frontier Foundation and is co-sponsored by: The Foundation for the Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS); ProSpace, the citizen's space lobby; and Rotary Rocket Company, an entrepreneurial space transportation company. A selected list of confirmed speakers includes: "The Washington Connection" * Congressman Dana Rohrabacher: Chairman of the House Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee * Joe Rothenberg: NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight * James Asker: Aviation Week and Space Technology, Washington Bureau Chief * Ralph Moslener: Manager of Space Station Commercialization for Boeing "The Entrepreneurs and Financiers" * Dr. Buzz Aldrin: CEO of Starcraft Boosters Inc. and Apollo 11 Astronaut * Shubber Ali: KPMG Peat Marwick * Joe Carroll: Tether Applications, Inc. * Mitchell Burnside Clapp: Executive Vice President of Pioneer Rocketplane * Charles "Pete" Conrad: Chairman of Universal Space Lines and Apollo 12 Astronaut * Gary Hudson: CEO of Rotary Rocket Company * Mike Kelly: Chairman, Kelly Space and Technology * Richard Smithies: Barclays Capital "The Scientists" * Dr. Alan Binder: Principal Investigator, Lunar Prospector Mission * Dr. Tom Gehrels: Director of Space Watch * Dr. Eleanor Helin: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Mount Palomar Observatory * Dr. John Lewis: University of Arizona & author of "Rain of Iron and Ice" & "Mining the Sky" * Dr. Harrison Schmitt: University of Wisconsin and Apollo 17 Astronaut * Dr. William "Red" Whittaker: Carnegie Mellon University Tele- Robotics "The Storytellers" * David Brin: Hugo Award winner, author of "The Postman" and "Startide Rising" * Dave Brody: "Inside Space, the Sci-Fi Channel * Rene Echevaria: Producer, Deep Space Nine, Paramount Studios * Allen Steele: Hugo Award winner, author of "Clarke County, Space", and "Lunar Descent" * Robert Weiss: Broadway Pictures, Paramount Studios THE CUT-OFF DATE FOR DISCOUNT ADMISSION IS SEPTEMBER 10, 1998. Full price details are: Admission before Sept. 10 after Sept. 10 General Admission* $90 $120 General Admission (student)* $70 $90 Friday luncheon $25 $25 Saturday luncheon $25 $25 Sunday luncheon $25 $25 Saturday Awards banquet $50 $50 Full Registration ** $180 $220 * includes receptions ** includes all events (a $35 and $25 savings, respectively) For a complete list of our speakers and agenda, and to register on-line, see our WWW page at For other info: send email to conference@space-frontier.org or call 1-800-78-SPACE. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 5, No. 19