MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 23, 6 November 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. While we cannot copyright our mailing list, our readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing list. The editors do not condone "spamming" of our subscribers. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editors. 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 Adobe Acrobat PDF 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) UW PREPARES FOR FIRST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ASTROBIOLOGY TO TRAIN THOSE WHO WILL HUNT FOR LIFE IN OUTER SPACE UW release 2) GALILEO TAKES A CLOSE LOOK AT ICY EUROPA From the NASA Space Science News web page 3) ANTARCTIC OZONE DEPLETION SETS NEW SIZE RECORD NASA release 98-178 4) NASA DEVELOPING COMPUTERIZED BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSTIC TOOL NASA release 98-184 5) SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP MANAGE B.C. FOREST FIRES CSA release 6) NASA SPACE SHUTTLE TO CARRY EXPERIMENT BY NC STATE BOTANY STUDENT NCSU release 7) CU-BOULDER CENTER TO FLY HARDWARE, EXPERIMENTS ON OCTOBER 29 SHUTTLE MISSION University of Colorado release 8) GLENN TO PERFORM PURDUE SOYBEAN EXPERIMENT IN SPACE Purdue University release 9) CALLISTO MAKES A BIG SPLASH From the NASA Space Science News web page 10) SPACE TRAVEL INCREASES SOME HEALTH RISKS: INTERIM MIR SCIENCE RESULTS SYMPOSIUM From the NASA Space Science News web page 11) 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORTS By John McNamee ------------------------------------------------------------------ UW PREPARES FOR FIRST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ASTROBIOLOGY TO TRAIN THOSE WHO WILL HUNT FOR LIFE IN OUTER SPACE UW release 30 September 1998 The University of Washington is poised to become the first institution anywhere to launch a doctoral program specifically geared to train scientists to search for life on celestial bodies such as Mars or Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. The astrobiology program will be financed by a 5-year, $2 million grant announced today by the National Science Foundation and supplemented by $500,000 from the university. The highly interdisciplinary curriculum will involve 11 UW degree programs--Oceanography, Astronomy, Aeronautics & Astronautics, Genetics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Atmospheric Sciences, Geophysics, Geological Sciences and History. Graduates can receive degrees in any of those areas, with an endorsement noting an emphasis in astrobiology. The School of Oceanography will provide dedicated laboratory space for students to study organisms that live in extreme conditions. Oceanography professors John Delaney and Jody Deming and associate professor John Baross have closely studied organisms living in high-temperature, high-pressure conditions in ocean environments where little light penetrates. Baross is trying to relate the conditions in which those organisms live now to conditions when life began on Earth 3.5 billion years ago. Two entities outside the university also are participating. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland will offer students a chance to study microbial life in the subterranean basalt formations in Eastern Washington. ZymoGenetics Inc. of Seattle, a subsidiary of Novo Nordisk A/S of Denmark that is interested in enzymes from unusual bacteria, is offering summer internships so students can pursue that work. "We recognize that there is a good possibility that life exists in the solar system outside Earth, but if that life does exist it would be microbial, not the higher forms," said James Staley, a UW microbiology professor who is the principal investigator for astrobiology. Likely sites for such life are Mars, where there is evidence of water, or the ice-clad moon Europa. The key to finding life in such forbidding environments is understanding how life exists in extreme conditions on Earth--such as hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, undersea vents where no sunlight penetrates and temperatures reach several hundred degrees, pools of brine within polar sea ice, and volcanic basalt formations. "We have microbial systems on Earth that are good models for those on Mars or Europa, and those systems are poorly studied," Staley said. He added that such life forms were the precursor to advanced life on Earth, so their presence on other planets could signal the eventual evolution of advanced life there, as well. The idea for an astrobiology program grew out of a special seminar, Planets and Life, offered at the university in 1996 shortly after the discovery of planets orbiting nearby stars and an announcement that NASA scientists possibly had found microbial fossils inside a Martian rock. That claim since has drawn much scientific skepticism, but the success of the seminar--it was attended by 30 graduate students and 20 post-doctoral researchers and faculty, and it sparked much campus excitement--laid a foundation for a program in astrobiology. Woodruff Sullivan, a UW astronomy professor and adjunct history professor, spearheaded the seminar and is an astrobiology co- investigator. He expects about a dozen students when the program begins in the fall quarter of 1999. But there is much to be done before then. Five new courses must be designed to complement existing courses that will be included in the curriculum, Sullivan said. Departments involved will have to devise different ways of testing and grading students involved in astrobiology, since an astrobiology student pursuing a degree in astronomy, for instance, will have significantly different course demands than other astronomy students. One-third of astrobiology course work will be in areas not closely related to the student's home department, so an astronomy astrobiology student might spend a great deal of time studying microbiology. Students also must take part in an annual workshop, three days of work in the field. It could be looking for microbes at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Sullivan said, or using an electron microscope to study comet dust. "Everyone will have to get their hands dirty." Conway Leovy, a UW atmospheric sciences professor and also a co- investigator, expects the program to be an education for faculty members as well as students. But he said the students will be particularly challenged as they blaze a new path, and it will be some time before the first doctoral degrees in astrobiology are awarded. "Astrobiology students will have to learn rigorously as well as more broadly than most other science graduate students," Leovy said. "We probably can't expect to see the fruits of our efforts in the form of many Ph.D. graduates sooner than five years from now." Richard Gammon, who is a UW chemistry and oceanography professor and also is an adjunct professor of atmospheric sciences, helped write a financing proposal for the astrobiology degree program. He believes the approach of breaching traditional barriers between different science disciplines was a key to National Science Foundation support. "All of these efforts are to meet the needs of students of the future, who are going to need training across fields," Gammon said. The UW is one of 17 universities sharing in $40.5 million in National Science Foundation graduate education and research training grants. For more information about the NSF program, visit http://www.nsf.gov/igert/ on the World Wide Web. ------------------------------------------------------------------ GALILEO TAKES A CLOSE LOOK AT ICY EUROPA From the NASA Space Science News web page 2 October 1998 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that the Galileo spacecraft completed a close-up flyby of Europa on schedule and on target. On Friday, September 25, at 8:54 PM PDT, Galileo skimmed over the icy moon at an altitude of only 2,226 miles. The flyby was performed in cruise mode without Galileo's gyroscopes, because the gyros activated a fault protection program last Thursday, September 24. The on board star scanner was used instead as the primary reference for determining the spacecraft's orientation in space. Nevertheless, the flyby was considered a success. Europa is one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system because scientists are increasingly confident that it harbors a deep, underground ocean of liquid water. Europa's icy surface has intrigued scientists ever since the Voyager spacecraft missions flew through the Jupiter system in 1979. At -260øF, the moon's surface temperature could deep-freeze an ocean over several million years, but it's possible that warmth from a tidal tug of war with Jupiter and neighboring moons could be keeping large parts of Europa's ocean liquid. Tidal friction from Jupiter is also thought to be responsible for volcanic activity on Europa's neighbor Io. Images of Europa from the Galileo spacecraft reveal a complicated terrain of grooved linear ridges and crustal plates, which seem to have broken apart and rafted into new positions. That could indicate subsurface water or slush. In the image above, blue tints represent relatively old ice surfaces while reddish regions may contain material from more recent internal geological activity. White splotches are bright material blasted from the young impact crater Pwyll located about 600 miles south (to the right) of this area. [More information on this subject may be found at http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast02oct98_1.htm] ------------------------------------------------------------------ ANTARCTIC OZONE DEPLETION SETS NEW SIZE RECORD NASA release 98-178 6 October 1998 NASA and NOAA satellites show that the Antarctic ozone thinning covers the largest expanse of territory since the depletion developed in the early 1980s. The measurements were obtained this year between mid-August and early October using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard NASA's Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SBUV) aboard the NOAA-14 satellite. "This is the largest Antarctic ozone hole we've ever observed, and it's nearly the deepest," said Dr. Richard McPeters, Principal Investigator for Earth Probe TOMS. Preliminary data from the satellites show that this year's ozone depletion reached a record size of 10.5 million square miles (27.3 million square kilometers) on September 19, 1998. The previous record of 10.0 million square miles was set on September 7, 1996. The ozone level fell to 90 Dobson units on September 30, 1998. This nearly equals the lowest value ever recorded of 88 Dobson Units seen on September 28, 1994, over Antarctica. Scientists are not concerned that the hole might be growing because they know it is a direct result of unusually cold stratospheric temperatures, though they do not know why it is colder this year. The decrease in ozone, however, could result in more acute solar or ultraviolet radiation exposure in southern Chile and Argentina if the ozone hole were to pass over that region. One of the primary concerns with an ozone hole of this size is that as the hole "breaks up," the ozone-depleted air will diffuse and reduce the overall ozone levels in the mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere. Chlorine and bromine compounds released by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons cause these ozone losses. Year-to-year variations of size and depth of the ozone hole depend on the variations in meteorological conditions. Scientists believe that the decrease in Antarctic ozone is attributed to unusually cold (by 5-9 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures in the southern middle and polar latitudes. "This year was colder than normal and therefore enables greater activation of reactive chlorine that ultimately causes more ozone loss and lower ozone levels," said Dr. Alvin J. Miller of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). This decrease in ozone was observed earlier than usual with the hole opening in mid-August about two weeks before a typical year. This is consistent with expectations, since chlorine levels have slightly increased since the early 1990s. As a result of international agreements known as the Montreal Protocol on ozone- depleting substances (and its amendments), chlorine levels from CFCs already have peaked in the lower atmosphere and should peak in the Antarctic stratosphere within a few years. As we move into the next century, chlorine-catalyzed ozone losses resulting from CFCs and other chlorine-containing species will be reduced. "An ozone hole of substantial depth and size is likely to continue to form for the next few years or until the stratospheric chlorine amount drops to its pre-ozone hole values," said Dr. Paul Newman at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD. "The decrease in chlorine in our atmosphere is analogous to using a small air cleaner to recycle all of the air in a large indoor sports stadium--it will take a very, very long time." Scientists and others have a keen interest in ozone depletion, given that the increased amounts of ultraviolet radiation that reach the Earth's surface because of ozone loss have the potential to increase the incidence of skin cancer and cataracts in humans, harm some crops, and interfere with marine life. NASA and NOAA instruments have been measuring Antarctic ozone levels since the early 1970s. Since the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985, TOMS and SBUV have been key instruments for monitoring ozone levels over the Earth. Analysis of TOMS and SBUV data have traced in detail the annual development of the Antarctic "ozone hole," a large area of intense ozone depletion that occurs between late August and early October. Analysis of the historical data indicated that the hole has existed since at least 1979. A Dobson unit measures the physical thickness of the ozone layer at the pressure of the Earth's surface. The global average ozone layer thickness is 300 Dobson units, which equals three millimeters or 1/8th of an inch, and while not uniform, averages the thickness of two stacked pennies. In contrast during these annual occurrences, the ozone layer thickness in the ozone hole is about 100 Dobson units (1/25th of an inch or 1 millimeter thick), approximately the thickness of a single dime. Ozone shields life on Earth from the harmful effects of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. The ozone molecule is made up of three atoms of oxygen; ozone comprises a thin layer of the atmosphere, which absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Most atmospheric ozone is found in a thin layer between 6-18 miles up. TOMS ozone data and pictures are available on the Internet at http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov or through links at http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/ TOMS-EP and other ozone-measurement programs are key parts of a global environmental effort of NASA's Earth Science enterprise, a long-term research program designed to study Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as a total integrated system. Goddard developed and manages the operation of the TOMS-EP for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA DEVELOPING COMPUTERIZED BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSTIC TOOL NASA release 98-184 13 October 1998 A NASA-Stanford University team is in the preliminary stages of developing a smart probe that can be used for breast cancer detection and analysis. The probe is designed to 'see' a lump; determine by its features if it is cancerous; and then quickly predict how the disease may progress. Researchers say surgeons may be able to insert the computerized tool's needle-like tip into breast lumps to make instant diagnoses and long-term cancer predictions. "This device will permit us to make real-time, detailed interpretations of breast tissue at the tip of the needle," said Robert Mah of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. Mah works in the Ames Neuroengineering Laboratory. "The instrument may allow health care providers to make expert, accurate diagnoses as well as to suggest proper, individualized treatment, even in remote areas." "To enable the instrument to recognize cancer and predict its progress, we use special neural net software that is trained and learns from experience," he said. Scientists can teach the breast cancer diagnosis device to predict how aggressive the disease may be. "We hope to use this device not only to detect cancer, but to understand the nature of an individual cancer," said Dr. Stefanie Jeffrey, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Chief of Breast Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA. "This information may help us determine the distinctive features of a malignancy and how the disease may progress; more knowledge about the cancer may guide us to better individualizing treatment." Jeffrey and Mah are working together to develop the new device. The researchers say that, once the smart probe has been adequately tested in the laboratory, Dr. Jeffrey will begin testing the device on human beings, perhaps by early 1999. "Ultrasound will help guide the doctor to properly insert the smart probe into a breast lump," said Dr. Robyn Birdwell, Assistant Professor of Radiology, Breast Imaging Section at Stanford. "The computer software uses pattern recognition to look for tell- tale characteristics of the lump," Mah said. "The same technology used in the portable, smart probe could be used in other instruments to help in diagnosing and treating cancers found in other parts of the body, including the prostate and colon," neuroengineering team computer engineer Alex Galvagni said. The breast cancer tool is a spin-off from a computerized robotic brain surgery assistant that was previously developed by Mah and neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Andrews. The larger brain surgery device is a simple robot that can "learn" the physical characteristics of the brain and may soon give surgeons finer control of surgical instruments during delicate brain operations. ------------------------------------------------------------------ SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP MANAGE B.C. FOREST FIRES CSA release 16 October 1998 MacDonald Dettwiler, Canadian and European Space Agencies will demonstrate the use of satellite technologies in cooperation with the B.C. Forest Service Protection Program. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today that MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has entered into an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the B.C. Forest Service to undertake demo testing of the use of satellite technologies for emergency planning and management of forest fires in the province. The contract has been made possible through the Canada-ESA Partnership Program of the CSA. ESA's Real-time Emergency Management via Satellite (REMSAT) project is focussed on bridging the gap between technology and users. MacDonald Dettwiler and the B.C. Forest Service will work with ESA to provide a pilot demonstration of multiple technologies that prove the value of space data and services for emergency management. The Honorable Raymond Chan, MP for Richmond B.C. and Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) stated that: "This year was particularly bad for forest fires in the province of British Columbia due to the dry weather. The opportunity that Canada's Space Program is providing to MacDonald Dettwiler to advance cutting-edge space technologies is not only good for industry, but will prove instrumental in assisting the B.C. Forest Service in emergency management operations." The Honorable David Zirnhelt, B.C., also expressed enthusiasm for the project. Minister of Forests. "B.C.'s forest protection program is world-class. Together with MacDonald Dettwiller, ESA and CSA, we can demonstrate to the world the necessity and importance of applying satellite technology like REMSAT in fighting forest fires." The B.C. Forest Service Protection Program is tasked with fighting forest fires in B.C. Managing timber resources in an area of over 1 million square kilometers, the Forest Service responds to on average over 3,000 fires annually. B.C.'s timber resources, which represent $15 billion of annual economic activity, must be protected with a reliable emergency management information system. The B.C. Forest Service Protection Program is internationally recognized as one of the world's leading emergency management programs. Teaming with MacDonald Dettwiler and ESA, themselves leaders in the satellite technology markets of the world, it is anticipated that the B.C. REMSAT program will bridge the gap between satellite service providers and emergency management end- users. In addition to enhancing the level of emergency management in B.C. while protecting a primary environmental resource, the program will advance Canada's technology export capabilities. MacDonald Dettwiler has identified several key requirements for more effective emergency management: enhanced local field communications (between fire crews in the field and firefighting control centers), augmented with data, video images and geographic location capabilities; up-to-date position and status information for all resources, including aircraft, heavy equipment and fire crews for fire attack planning; high-speed communications between mobile fire control centers and the B.C. Provincial Fire Center for enhanced management and suppression of large fires; and additional background information on the fire area, in the form of satellite or air photo imagery for aid in fire modeling, prediction and suppression of large fires. The resulting REMSAT-based system will be a model for other emergency management systems, capable of being implemented anywhere in the world. The field simulation and tests are scheduled to be conducted in the summer months, when an average of 25 new fires occur across B.C. each day. On completion of the pilot demonstration and evaluation, the system will be fully tested through deployment to support fighting a major fire. The opportunity for MacDonald Dettwiler to bid on the ESA project is a result of the CSA's cooperative agreement with ESA. The Canada-ESA Partnership Program, managed by the CSA, provides opportunities to Canadian companies to bid for and obtain technology development contracts from ESA and to participate in major European space projects. The competition for the REMSAT project was open to all Canadian suppliers. 1998 marks the 20th anniversary of the partnership between ESA and Canada. For more than 60 Canadian companies and organizations, this co-operative agreement has resulted in over 400 ESA contracts worth in excess of C$250M. In addition to the industrial, economic, and technological benefits of this co-operation, Canada's long-standing participation in ESA programs has provided, and continues to provide, a window into an organization composed of 14 European Member States holding a budget of C$4.9 billion and employing some 1800 people (1996 figures). The Canadian Space Agency is committed to leading the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA SPACE SHUTTLE TO CARRY EXPERIMENT BY NC STATE BOTANY STUDENT NCSU release 21 October 1998 A North Carolina State University junior will send a science experiment into space on NASA's shuttle Discovery, which is slated to lift off on October 29 from Kennedy Space Center. Twenty-six- year-old Reathel Geary of Raleigh is one of a handful of college students nationwide who will have an experiment on the shuttle mission. Geary hopes his experiment--to see whether fractured strands of plant DNA can repair themselves in space--will yield new clues about how weightlessness and other forces encountered in space flight affect plant growth and health. That's important, he says, because for long-distance space flights in the future, NASA proposes growing plants on board for food, to purify water and to help filter carbon dioxide out of the air. Geary's project was selected for the mission through a national competition sponsored by Instrumentation Technology Associates (ITA) of Exton, PA, and the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology. His experiment will be contained in automated research hardware produced by ITA. The opportunity highlights a personal turnaround and a science career in the making for Geary, a former shoe salesman and part-time community college student. Now, he has set his sights on graduate school, possibly for a career in ecology or environmental law. To add hands-on experience to his NC State training, Geary works in the lab of Dr. Dominique Robertson, a member of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) team at NC State. The NSCORT group has a five-year, $5 million grant to study gravitational biology, do secondary school outreach and train all levels of university students. It was in the NSCORT lab that Geary learned about the ITA competition for space experiments. "It's the research opportunity through NSCORT that has provided all the other opportunities," Geary says. "That was the single most important thing that's happened to me so far in college." Only in recent years has Geary become so focused on his goals. After graduating from Atlanta's Henderson High School in 1990, he put off going to college and went to work. He knew he had potential, he says, but he wasn't confident yet about leaping into higher education. A few years later, when he was living in Asheville and working in a shoe store, Geary and his wife, Angie, decided to try their hand at college. Reathel kept his full-time job, and the couple enrolled at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. "For me, the community college system was a really important step in my progress," Geary says. "I had wonderful instructors there; they were very encouraging. I'm a huge supporter now of the community college system. It worked for me." In January of 1998, Reathel and Angie Geary moved to Raleigh and transferred to NC State--he for botany and she for horticultural science. Soon after, Reathel Geary landed a research job in Robertson's NSCORT laboratory. Dr. Sarah Wyatt, a research associate in the lab, hired Geary and later helped him prepare a proposal for the ITA student experiment competition. "He asks good questions," Wyatt says about Geary's scientific skills. "It's important for a researcher to ask good questions. If you don't ask good questions, you'll never find the answer." In the research lab and in his own space experiment, Geary has taken the initiative to get things done, performing extensive background work and seeing projects through from beginning to end, Wyatt says. Geary rose to the challenge of meeting the strict technical parameters of the research hardware and of the space flight environment, she says. In space, microgravity--or extremely low levels of gravity--can affect biological processes. Geary will send into space fractured molecules of DNA, the basic genetic material of all organisms, along with an enzyme that usually repairs, or ligates, DNA on earth. An automatic process is expected to combine the materials in an attempt to ligate the DNA. Geary and some NASA researchers will orchestrate a control experiment on the ground with the same materials. Back at NC State after the shuttle lands, Geary will transform both the space-exposed and control DNA into bacteria, and will then reproduce it. The bacteria should grow if the DNA was successfully ligated. Ligation is an important function for long- term plant growth in space; Geary's hypothesis is that it will be as successful in space as it is on earth. The results could have implications for both plant and animal reproduction in space, says Dr. Chris Brown, associate director of the NSCORT group at NC State. Brown teaches a Space Biology course in which Geary works closely with NASA researchers. With sponsorship from the NSCORT group, Geary will travel to Florida to prepare his experiment and work in Brown's lab at Kennedy Space Center. Sending an experiment into space, working in a top-notch research facility, and meeting NASA scientists will be great opportunities for Geary, Brown says. "I hope Reathel will bring home the excitement of being involved in the space program and communicate to other students that there are opportunities for biological scientific research with the space program," he says. ITA, an entrepreneurial firm that makes and leases space processing hardware to perform microgravity experiments, has sponsored student experiments on NASA shuttles and vehicles since 1991. The student space education program gives young people a unique hands-on learning experience and communicates the benefits of space research. On the current STS-95 shuttle mission, 16 different student experiments will be housed in ITA's automated laboratory. ------------------------------------------------------------------ CU-BOULDER CENTER TO FLY HARDWARE, EXPERIMENTS ON OCTOBER 29 SHUTTLE MISSION University of Colorado release 21 October 1998 A University of Colorado at Boulder-based space center will fly eight experiments on the October 29 mission of NASA's space shuttle Discovery, which marks the return to space of former Mercury astronaut John Glenn. BioServe Space Technologies, a joint venture between NASA, CU-Boulder and Kansas State University, will undertake a variety of industry-driven, life- science experiments on the 10-day space flight of Columbia, said David Klaus of aerospace engineering sciences, BioServe's mission manager for the flight. The experiments will take place inside the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, or CGBA, a suitcase-sized device designed and built at CU-Boulder that has flown on 11 space shuttle missions, including two four-month stints on Russia's Mir Space Station. The CGBA contains hundreds of syringe-like devices for mixing fluids in space, as well as other project-specific devices. One of the most intriguing experiments by the CGBA will be the production of microbial antibiotics, said Klaus. The antibiotics experiment is being flown for the third time on the shuttle in collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb in an attempt to learn why antibiotic production increases in the low-gravity environment provided in space. "This is an exciting project," said Klaus. "Our past two shuttle experiments with Bristol-Myers Squibb have shown that microorganisms produced greater quantities of antibiotics in space. We want to learn how and why this growth stimulation occurs in microgravity, then take that knowledge and apply it to production facilities on Earth." Although previous bacterial growth experiments by BioServe were carried out in test tubes, CU faculty and students have modified the apparatus by adding a new gas exchange fermentation device. "This should provide more optimal growth conditions for microorganisms and provide additional insight into the causes of increased antibiotic productivity," he said. The CGBA also will be used for a wide variety of other biomedical, agricultural and drug development investigations, including water purification. Since bacterial growth is more difficult to control in space, a BioServe experiment has been designed to test a new water purification resin to combat microorganisms that have become resistant to iodine disinfection. Other experiments flying on the CGBA involve research designed to accurately control the growth of protein crystals, as well as experiments on plant fertilization with legumes in an attempt to increase crop yields on Earth. BioServe researchers also will attempt to manipulate growth hormones in plants through gene manipulation to increase the quality of vegetable crops on Earth, and perform unique research on a magnetic species of bacteria that has applications for immunology, Klaus said. Ground-based technological upgrades include a control room in CU- Boulder's aerospace engineering science department to send commands up and receive data from the shuttle directly from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, he said. "We needed to develop this capability to support future payloads now being designed by BioServe that are expected to be in operation onboard the International Space Station in the year 2000." Additional experiments being flown on the BioServe payload include investigations of plant cell tissue cultures, said Klaus. "In microgravity, plants may produce less lignin, which creates their structure in nature," he said. "We want to see whether the available metabolic energy normally used to make the lignin can be channeled into the increased production of secondary compounds that have potential pharmaceutical applications." The CGBA also will carry a number of fish eggs, including those of tilapia--also known as Nile River perch--and killifish, said Klaus. "We flew a payload with brine shrimp eggs on an earlier mission and saw accelerated development from eggs to larvae," he said. "We are hoping to see the same phenomenon with these fish eggs, then determine what causes it in order to mimic these conditions on Earth and perhaps even stimulate increased growth of commercially farmed fish." While shuttle flights already have produced valuable data on the effects of microgravity in life sciences, agriculture and medicine, "it will be a new ball game when we have a permanent presence on the space station," said Klaus. ------------------------------------------------------------------ GLENN TO PERFORM PURDUE SOYBEAN EXPERIMENT IN SPACE Purdue University release 21 October 1998 Rick Vierling may have the oldest and most famous lab assistant in the world when the Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday (10/29). If all goes as planned, 77-year-old John Glenn, current U.S. senator who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the earth, will perform an experiment designed by Vierling to assess the ability of pathogens to incorporate foreign DNA into soybeans in microgravity. The experiment is a modification of a technique that is successfully used on earth. "How many people can say an American hero and U.S. senator is acting as their technician in space?" says Vierling. "John Glenn performing my experiment came as a complete shock to me. If I had written a scenario myself, it would not have been this good." Vierling, an adjunct associate professor of agronomy at Purdue University and director of the Indiana Crop Improvement Association's genetics program since 1992, says the experiment should take 22 hours to complete and is scheduled to begin October 30. Vierling approached NASA's Commercialization Center in Madison, WI, in February 1997, with an eye on a shuttle flight sometime in 2000. "It was just an idea. I didn't even have any preliminary data when I pitched it to the Commercialization Center," Vierling says. In January, NASA told Vierling his experiment had been bumped up and was now listed on the manifest for STS-95, Glenn's historic return to space. That gave Vierling less than six months to get his experiment approved and in a format that would allow the payload specialist (Glenn) adequate time for training. "I had to do two years worth of research in six months to meet the earlier deadline," says Vierling, who was amazed to find his experiment was moved up in such a short period of time. "I didn't know the federal government could move that fast," Vierling says. "It really put me under the gun. I had planned on about 18 to 20 months to get the background information so we could correctly design the experiment." Weightlessness poses unique parameters and problems that had to be overcome. The final experimental design is vastly different from what he had originally envisioned. The abbreviated preparation time has exacted a personal toll on Vierling, who got help from Steve Goldman, a professor of biology at the University of Toledo. Goldman is a key patent holder of related technology. "I've had to spend more than a few nights and weekends to get this project ready to go," Vierling says. "Steve gave me a lot of help. I don't think I could have done all of the preliminary work in my lab alone." Vierling says he hopes the experiment will lay the groundwork for additional experiments on future shuttle flights and perhaps even the space station. "If this shows some positive results, I would hope that I could have an experiment a year on board the shuttle." Vierling says 1,000 soybean seeds, of a variety named after retired Purdue plant pathologist Kirk Athow, will occupy a mid- deck locker about the size of a large safe deposit box (18x12x7 inches). Given the short amount of preparation and the lack of available background information, Vierling says he is cautiously optimistic about the success of the experiment. "Something like this has never been performed in microgravity. There isn't a wealth of background information for us to go to and say this may happen, or this might not happen. Things may not go as we expect, so we can't get too excited yet," he says. The seeds will be returned to Purdue and cultivated in greenhouses. The progeny of those seeds will be analyzed as part of Vierling's experiment next spring. ------------------------------------------------------------------ CALLISTO MAKES A BIG SPLASH From the NASA Space Science News web page 23 October 1998 Until now most scientists thought Jupiter's moon Callisto was a dead and boring moon, an unchanging piece of rock and ice. Data reported in today's issue of Nature could change all that. It appears that Callisto, like another of Jupiter's moons Europa, may have an underground liquid ocean and at least some of the basic ingredients for life. The most distant of Jupiter's Galilean Moons, Callisto shows the highest density of impact craters in the Solar System, but harbors no volcanoes or even any large mountains. It is thought that the surface is billions of years old. The first hint that something interesting might be happening beneath the surface came from Galileo's measurements of Callisto's magnetic field. Dr. Krishan K. Khurana of UCLA and colleagues discovered that the magnetic field fluctuated in time with Jupiter's rotation. The best explanation was that Jupiter's powerful magnetic field was creating electrical currents somewhere within Callisto, and those currents in turn created a fluctuating magnetic field around Callisto. But where could currents flow on Callisto? The icy surface is a poor conductor and the atmosphere is negligible. Dr. Kivelson suggests that "there very well could be a layer of melted ice underneath [the surface]. If this liquid were salty like Earth's oceans, it could carry sufficient electrical currents to produce the magnetic field." Lending further credence to the premise of a subsurface ocean on Callisto, Galileo data showed that electrical currents were flowing in opposite directions at different times. "This is a key signature consistent with the idea of a salty ocean," Khurana added, "because it shows that Callisto's response, like Europa's, is synchronized with the effects of Jupiter's rotation." Callisto is the second moon of Jupiter thought to harbor a sub- surface ocean. The other is Europa. As evidence mounts for at least one and possibly two liquid oceans in the Jovian satellite system, scientists are cautiously optimistic that life could exist there. Europa and Callisto aren't the only places in the solar system where the building blocks of life have turned up. Scientists have recently discovered water on the moon, and right- handed amino acids in carbonaceous chondritic meteorites. If these basic ingredients have indeed combined somewhere in the solar system to produce extraterrestrial life forms, the conditions that they live in are likely to be harsh compared to the gentle climes of Earth. In recent years researchers have discovered a new class of microorganisms here on Earth that can live or, at least remain viable, under very extreme conditions--from volcanic vents deep in ocean trenches, to ice more than 400,000 years old, to Siberian permafrost more than 5 million years old. These microbes called archaeabacteria, or simply "archaea", constitute a third branch of life on Earth, along with prokaryotes (normal bacteria) and eukaryotes (plants and animals). Like prokaryotes, the genetic material of archaeabacteria float freely throughout the cell--they are not contained within the cell nucleus like eukaryotic organisms. However, the DNA of archaeabacteria more closely resemble that of plants and animals than normal bacteria. They are truly in a class by themselves, and if life is discovered elsewhere in the solar system it may be similar to the archaeabacteria of Earth. If the putative oceans on an alien planet are truly salty, then the microscopic life forms that live there might be similar to salt-loving extremophiles here on Earth. The picture [left] shows the nearly-dry lakebed of Owens Lake, California. A bloom of halophilic ("salt-loving") bacteria in the muddy brine causes the pink colors. Conditions in the lakebed, where the water is saturated with salt, are truly harsh. The air temperature at the surface is over 100 degrees F and the water just below the salt crust is 130-150 degrees F. Yet Owens Lake is teeming with life. Dr. David Noever, a member of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, had this to say about the possibility of a salty sea on Callisto: "One way to visualize Callisto's proposed ocean is to imagine a battery, which is run by electrochemistry (meaning charged ions like sodium and chloride), that can generate currents and thus drive magnetic fields. That's the potential physics. As for the potential biology, who knows? All we know is that there are examples of salty brines in warmer spots in the solar system, Earth, that are teeming with life where it is least expected." Europa may still be a better prospect for extraterrestrial life than Callisto simply because it's the warmer of the two satellites. "The basic ingredients for life--what we call 'pre- biotic chemistry'--are abundant in many solar system objects, such as comets, asteroids and icy moons," explains Dr. Torrence Johnson. "Biologists believe liquid water and energy are then needed to actually support life, so it's exciting to find another place where we might have liquid water. But, energy is another matter, and currently, Callisto's ocean is only being heated by radioactive elements, whereas Europa has tidal energy as well," from its greater proximity to Jupiter. The strongest clues to life on Callisto and Europa may lie right here at home. In 1996, radio sounding and altimetry measurements revealed the presence of an underground lake in Antarctica near the Russian Vostok Station. Lake Vostok is overlaid by about 3,710 meters (12,169 ft) of ice and may be 500,000 to 1 million years old. Since the discovery, drilling has gone slowly while procedures are worked out to keep it pristine. No one has seen or sampled the lake--the deepest ice sample is from 100 meters (328 feet) above the liquid surface--nor is anyone sure why it is liquid, hence the scientific curiosity. Scientists are hopeful that Lake Vostok can one day serve as a terrestrial laboratory to help us understand better the oceans on the distant moons of Jupiter. [More information on this subject may be found at http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast22oct98_2.htm] ------------------------------------------------------------------ SPACE TRAVEL INCREASES SOME HEALTH RISKS: INTERIM MIR SCIENCE RESULTS SYMPOSIUM From the NASA Space Science News web page 4 November 1998 Almost a half century after the first human explored space, doctors are still exploring how the human body reacts to space. The latest round of results from those proddings, samplings, and probings were discussed today at the opening session of the third interim science results symposium for the Shuttle-Mir program. "When we planned the first Space Shuttle-Mir docking mission, we saw great potential for science experiments," said Joel Kearns, manager of the Microgravity Research Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, as he spoke at the opening session. During 1996-98, NASA used the Shuttle-Mir program to gain experience in space station operations and how best to conduct experiments under a range of conditions. "Now we look back with great happiness" at the data coming from the program and "we know how much we needed to know to get ready for the International Space Station." High on the list of experiments is the same concern that doctors had when Yuri Gagarin became the first human into space on April 12, 1961. How do the human body and its functions change when gravity is effectively removed? Gravity still holds the space traveler and spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, but the net effect is often called zero-g or microgravity. Gagarin, a Marine Corps pilot named John Glenn, and dozens of other people since quickly demonstrated that space travel poses no immediate threat to your health. But scientists know that serious changes can result from subtle effects, so medical scientists have asked ever more detailed questions of the human body in space. For example, what is the risk of getting a kidney stone as a result of space travel since the body quickly dumps a lot of fluid when gravity is no longer drawing blood down into the legs and the elastic vessels squeeze it upward? The population at greatest risk on Earth is people aged 35 to 50--precisely the age span of most U.S. astronauts. "The greatest risk appears early in flight [in 3 to 5 days] and immediately thereafter," said Dr. Robert Pietrzyk of Krug Life Sciences at Johnson Space Center. Pietrzyk and other researchers assayed urine samples passed by astronauts before flight, during their stays in space, and several times after the return to Earth. They were looking for various compounds of calcium, a metal important to the structure of bones and to the biochemical mechanisms that make muscles contract. Certain calcium compounds can form kidney stones--crystals growing in urine rich in the right chemicals--that block the kidneys or the bladder. In addition to increased risk during flight, Pietrzyk noted that the risk can increase after landing, as noted in increased calcium output as the body readjusts to gravity. To date, though, only three astronauts have developed kidney stones, two preflight and one post-flight. None has appeared in flight. Another important marker is the quantity of proteins lost, said Dr. Peter Stein of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Proteins are the basic machinery of the body, he explained, an important to muscle function, cell structure, immune responses--in fact, he said that the body has no spare proteins. So, the loss of proteins--as measured by certain markers in urine and blood samples--is of great concern. One of the effects he has measured is a 45 percent decrease in protein synthesis as compared to a 15 to 20 percent decrease expected from bed rest studies. "This looks very odd," he said, "it looks too high." After checking several related factors, he said that it appears that one of the keys is the individual's energy balance in space where the energy demand on a person at work can sometimes be less than on a person sitting upright on Earth. "It's not the intake, it's the energy balance that counts," he explained. "Are you taking in enough protein to meet your needs? .The decrease in energy intake explains much of the decrease in protein synthesis." Unraveling the problem will take more detailed study partly because of the human body's remarkable ability to adjust to sharp changes in food. Tomorrow the symposium covers what space life is like if you happen to be the space station: vehicle dynamics and the external environment are on the menu. [More information on this subject may be found at http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad04nov98_1.htm] ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORTS By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager 5 October 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: The Pyro Initiation Unit (PIU) interface reverification was completed successfully. Mars Polar Lander: Planetary Protection inspection and assay tasks were completed. The lander is on the Pathfinder rotation fixture, however mechanical tear down activities required to replace the Power Distribution and Drive Unit (PDDU) and Command and Data Handling (C&DH) boxes have been slowed due to questions regarding safety procedures. Expect these issues to be worked on October 6. 7 October 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: The Deep Space Network (DSN) end-to-end compatibility testing was completed successfully. Procedures to support the mission profile test using Flight Software (FSW) build 8.0.1 are complete. Mars Polar Lander: The lander solar arrays, parachute cone, and bipod assembly were removed as scheduled. 19 October 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: Pyro Initiation Unit (PIU) aliveness testing was conducted and an anomaly discovered when operating side A of the orbiter PIU ATLO Test Unit (ATU) is being investigated. This anomaly is evident only on the Assembly, Test and Launch (ATLO) test unit and not on the flight units and will not delay powered on testing of the orbiter. A full investigation will be conducted when the ATU is replaced by the flight PIU after diode rework on October 28. The flight PIU was examined and 19 cracked diodes and 180 coating defects were discovered (out of approximately 200 total diodes). Mars Polar Lander: Radio frequency testing of the landed and direct links was completed. Flight PIU electrical mate was completed and electrical checkout is in process (with no anomalies as described under the orbiter report) with completion scheduled for tomorrow morning. Science walkdowns prior to closeout are in process. 30 October 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: Orbiter launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility (SAEF-2) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with launch 41 days away. However, several days of schedule margin were consumed due to a problem with flight software build 8.1, which prevented the "B" side of the spacecraft from booting during testing. The cause of the problem was determined and the fix will be incorporated into build 8.2 scheduled for delivery on November 2. Software build 8.0.1 was used to continue electrical testing of the orbiter while waiting for 8.2. The down time caused by this software issue was used to accomplish mechanical closeout tasks required to configure the orbiter properly for launch and to troubleshoot various anomalies which occurred in previous testing. The reworked flight Pyro Initiation Unit was reinstalled on the orbiter and all functions and interfaces will retested and reverified next week. This completes the glass body diode rework effort for both the orbiter and lander vehicles. Mars Polar Lander: Lander launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in the SAEF-2 facility at KSC with launch 65 days away. This was a major week of testing activity on the lander with the following tests completed very successfully: rocket engine module functional test; entry, descent, and landing "plugs out" test; mission profile tests on side "A" and side "B" of the lander using new flight software build 8.0; and attitude control subsystem phasing verification test. In addition, the backshell and harness assembly and cruise stage were installed on the lander vehicle. 6 November 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter: Orbiter launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facilit (SAEF-2) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with launch vehicle 3rd stage mate 18 days away and launch 34 days away. The reworked flight Pyro Initiation Unit functions and interfaces were retested and reverified successfully on the orbiter. Flight software build 8.2.1, the final planned load containing all functionality and fault protection required for the entire mission, was loaded on the orbiter. Attitude Control System (ACS) phasing testing was completed successfully. The final pre-launch test of the launch and initiation flight sequence was completed successfully. Flight ordnance was installed on the orbiter. Mars Polar Lander: Lander launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in the SAEF-2 facility at KSC with launch vehicle 3rd stage mate 39 days away and launch 58 days away. Mission system testing of the launch/initialization phase was conducted successfully. The Deep Space Network End-to-End compatibility test was completed successfully. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit our website at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 ------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 5, No. 23