MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 6, Number 9, 7 April 1999. 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) MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES, IMAGINATION, AND THE BIG PICTURE By A. J. S. Rayl 2) EXPERIMENT LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR "LIVING OFF THE LAND" ON MARS JPL release 3) UQ SCIENTISTS DISCOVER NEW, TINY ORGANISMS University of Queensland release 4) THE PLANETARY SOCIETY INVITES STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN A 2001 MARS ODYSSEY Planetary Society release 5) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 6) DEPLOYED ANTENNA SENDING STREAMS OF NEW MARS IMAGES JPL release 7) NASA'S GALILEO FINDS "BOTTLE BLONDE" CHEMICAL ON EUROPA JPL release 8) GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL release 9) STARDUST MISSION STATUS JPL release ------------------------------------------------------------------ MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES, IMAGINATION, AND THE BIG PICTURE By A. J. S. Rayl From The Scientist (reprinted with permission) On March 4--as the Mars Global Surveyor was locking into the red planet's orbit to begin its mapping mission, and two other spacecraft were hurtling toward Mars on other investigative missions--a multidisciplinary group of scientists, along with teachers, artists, writers, and a theologian, gathered to contemplate the Big Picture. During a long weekend in California's Silicon Valley, an estimated 200 people discussed, listened, and watched as future possibilities and probabilities unfolded in a kaleidoscope of erudite theories, random musings, unbridled concepts, and intriguing artwork from the fields of anthropology, astronomy, biochemistry, genetics, physics, cosmology, linguistics, psychology, planetary science, robotics-- and science fiction. They viewed the Big Picture through many small lenses in a wide range of focuses. The primary theme for CONTACT XVI was using a multidisciplinary approach and imagination in a quest for more knowledge about the universe and its potential extraterrestrial life forms. Although CONTACT conferences may have been more attuned to physical and social sciences in the previous 15 years, life sciences pervaded this year's gathering, March 4­7 at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA, and at a hotel in Santa Clara, CA. For instance, one speaker, biochemist Hy Hartman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), posited his theory of the origin of life on Earth, then brought things full circle with comments about exploring the universe. Hartman countered the long-held theory-- that life gradually developed from a "soup" in the ocean of ancient Earth, with a primordial atmosphere composed of ammonia, hydrogen and methane, and sunlight to energize the necessary reactions--put forth by Russian biochemist Alexander Ivanovich Oparin back in the 1920s and British biologist J. B. S. Haldane in the 1930s. Harold Urey and Stanley Miller conducted experiments in the early 1950s that supported that theory by producing amino acids in laboratory simulations. "When you compare the universe to the Earth, we are fantastically depleted in certain rare gases. This means the atmosphere we have here is an outgas atmosphere. We are also tremendously depleted in hydrogen. That [primordial] atmosphere was basically water and carbon dioxide and nitrogen. [So the atmospheric] environment in which life began was basically CO2, nitrogen, and water vapor... The Urey-Miller experiment is wrong, completely wrong as a historical document," Hartman asserted. "Life does not involve only carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, [and] oxygen. It involves things like iron and magnesium, inorganic systems, nickel, cobalt, [and] transition metals. It involves sodium, potassium, [and] calcium. We have made a fundamental error to think that life is based on carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur," he continued. In terms of the search for life, he maintained that " ...When you're looking for life, if you're good at spending your time looking at organic chemistry, you're going to find it everywhere except here on Earth. On Earth... geochemistry gave you biochemistry, [which] gave you molecular biology, [which] gave you cell biology. So you have to invoke the whole Earth--not just the atmosphere, not just the ionosphere, but the lithosphere." It is a biological perspective that needs to change, according to another speaker. "Rethink the Paradigm" Not a scientist but a science fiction writer, Greg Bear issued a challenge to biologists: rethink the paradigm. Bear, who has almost 20 novels to his credit, has concentrated heavily on biology for the past five years. The author says recent findings regarding the complexity of DNA mark "the beginnings of the end of the modern synthesis of Darwin's successors, if not Darwin himself." He continued, "Things are not as steady as they seem in biology right now. Modern Darwinian synthesis is the sine qua non in biology. But that's patent nonsense. It cannot work that way anymore. The gene system is the Queen's library. It is very, very complex and it is self-directing. It's networked, and to cooperate, genes must be socially attuned. Everything in nature is networked, and everything that is networked [can] advance." Bear told The Scientist, "Biology is approaching a crisis point where a certain innate conservatism is not allowing it to see and put together the facts that it has now gathered about life and how life works. I'm the gadfly, and I can say that it's so obvious there is something wrong with our basic paradigm. I don't have to rely on grants. But it is obvious. When you talk about a gene being able through some system of coordination to produce more than one kind of protein, that's paradigm-shifting right there. That idea shatters all the old simple notions of what genetics was. And," Bear added with a smile, "I've not met a single biologist who has an objection to any of my crackpot theories-- either that or they're humoring me." What's the Connection? So what do biology, biochemistry, and other disciplines have to do with science fiction? In a word, inspiration, according to planetary scientist Chris McKay of NASA Ames: "[Science fiction writers'] input is critical and useful because in some sense, [it] is the foresight of our species. One need only look at Jules Verne. Words I now use in technical papers were first made up in science fiction articles 50 years ago. Science fiction blazes the distant future and illuminates many different possible paths. As a culture, we must choose which way to go. Technology and science are about working out the details. But the dialogue is important." Renowned science fiction author Poul Anderson agrees: "A good deal of people's interest in science was awakened early on by science fiction. We furnish ideas, and tread where scientists cannot or dare not. Our purpose here is to spark ideas, give people things to think about." In the end, regardless of whenever and wherever we might find other life, something about the search allures us, and as conference director Jim Funaro concluded, that may be as biological as cultural. "We are social mammals and our species' need for others of our own on this planet must surely trigger a primordial drive to believe in others of our own kind out there. When we look into space, the mother of all isolation, we feel lonesome. Our most profound and biologically based fear is not fear of the unknown, but of the uninhabited." As new findings have emerged in the biological sciences, the search for extraterrestrial life also has escalated. Talk abounds at the Johnson Space Center about sending first a robot mission to Mars to construct, as McKay puts it, "the robot house on the prairie," and then a human team to take over. "NASA now has the tools and determination to go and search for life and Earth-like planets like we've never been able to before, and Ž at a pace that's millions of times faster than before," McKay points out. "We don't really know yet whether Earth satisfies the Copernican Principle and whether planets like Earth are around and whether they have intelligent life. But there's only one way to find out, and that is to go and look." Why Spend Money Looking For Something Out There? Why spend money looking for something that may or may not be out there when there are so many issues that need attention right here on Earth? It's a question that's often been raised since 1960 with Project Ozma, the first Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project to scan the skies for signals emanating from extraterrestrial civilizations, right up to NASA's recent announcement of a new Astrobiology Institute.1 The Scientist surveyed a cross section of the scientists in attendance at CONTACT XVI to try and answer the question. "As for the issue of money, it's really not much," explained Seth Shostak, public programs scientist for the SETI Institute. "With regard to SETI, we're spending four to five million dollars a year right now and it's all private money. Even when SETI was a NASA program, it amounted to one penny per taxpayer who paid $10,000 a year in taxes. The Astrobiology Institute has just started, and there certainly aren't huge amounts of money being poured into it. Still, this misperception exists." While Shostak targeted the media as the cause for misperception, the media has also stimulated great public interest in finding out whether E.T. is out there. "More than half the people in the United States believe that there is intelligent life somewhere out there, and many believe that life has already visited here," Shostak noted. "The one thing that Mr. and Mrs. Front Porch are most interested in is, 'Can you find not only life, but life that can hold up their part of the conversation?' That's the purpose of SETI." Even so, some people would argue that paying scientists to sit and contemplate extraterrestrial life is tantamount to paying them to daydream. "But daydreams have given us science, and art and poetry, and everything that's great about humanity," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology biochemist Hy Hartman. "The United States is going into space for three reasons: military-- space is the ocean of the military future; economic--you can't even get your credit card validated unless the satellites are working; and scientific. The point is, we are going into space, and that means we're now going into the universe, very far away from home, and we want, and need, to know more about what we're heading into." Virtually everyone cited the potentially far-reaching scientific and medical knowledge to be gained. "Generally, I see it as a fundamental part of what we need to know," said psychologist Albert A. Harrison of the University of California at Davis. "As we address problems we may encounter out there, we learn much more about life on Earth. It also seems to me to be a natural progression in science. We have been looking on Earth and we are looking outward now. This will tie into the Space Age, which is really not that far along. We will return to the moon, set forth for Mars." The bigger scientific picture is another reason to keep up the search. As Reed Riner, professor of anthropology, Northern Arizona University, put it: "For all the biodiversity that we're watching being threatened here on Earth, if not disappearing, ...it's still a sample of one. Even if we don't find another sample within our lifetimes, all of the alternative images of the future that have been considered are kinds of Rorschachs. They can tell us a lot about possibilities and probabilities, but they can also clarify things we know, giving us at the very least a better perspective on our sample of one." Harrison agreed: "In terms of the life sciences, we are dealing with the fundamental issues of the origin and distribution of life, and there will be profound kinds of implications if we discover that the same processes that occur on Earth are replicated other places." Beyond the prospects of practical knowledge to be gained, "the real answer is understanding our place in the universe and answering it is an important goal," said Chris McKay, planetary scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. "When you move into a new neighborhood even though you have a lot of work to do on your house... you still take a little time to walk around... to see who's there. The metaphor is appropriate here. I agree, we need to fix our house, but we need to put some effort into seeing who's in the neighborhood." References 1. S. Bunk, "Astrobiology makes debut under NASA," The Scientist, 12[13]:1, June 22, 1998. A. J. S. Rayl (ajsrayl@loop.com) is a freelance writer in Malibu, CA. (The Scientist, Vol. 13, #7, p. 1, March 29, 1999. Copyright © The Scientist, Inc.) [http://www.the- scientist.library.upenn.edu/yr1999/mar/rayl_p1_990329.html] ------------------------------------------------------------------ EXPERIMENT LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR "LIVING OFF THE LAND" ON MARS JPL release 25 March 1999 NASA engineers have succeeded in a realm often left to alchemists and magicians--creating something valuable "out of thin air." In this case, the thin air was a simulated Martian atmosphere, and the valuable commodity was oxygen. "The concept is to use the resources on Mars to reduce the amount of material that needs to accompany a human mission... to 'live off the land,' " said David Kaplan, principal investigator of the Exploration Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. "Producing oxygen using materials readily available on Mars would be an important step toward reducing the costs and risks of an eventual human mission to Mars." This week's demonstration is an initial test of technology that will be aboard the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, scheduled to launch April 10, 2001, and land on Mars on January 22, 2002. Called the Mars In-Situ Propellant Production Precursor, the experiment will test the feasibility of using the thin Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen for breathing air and propellants. Propellants created on Mars could eventually be used to send samples and astronauts back to Earth. "The oxygen production technology being tested this week is based on sound, straightforward chemistry," said Jerry Sanders of Johnson's Propulsion and Fluid Systems Branch. The primary test involves an experimental device inside a Mars environment chamber that selectively absorbs carbon dioxide from a simulated Martian atmosphere--called "Mars mix"--and converts it to oxygen. This technology also may be used to extract pure oxygen from Earth air for home, medical and military needs. The atmosphere inside the experiment chamber simulates Martian temperatures and atmospheric pressures. The "Mars mix" is 95 percent carbon dioxide, thin (almost 150 times thinner than Earth's atmosphere) and cold (-75°C/-105°F) like a typical Martian night. The mix provides the feedstock for the chemical reaction. A wafer-thin, solid-oxide ceramic disk made of zirconia, about the size of a small cookie, is sandwiched between two platinum electrodes and heated to 750 degrees Centigrade (1,380 degrees Fahrenheit). When carbon dioxide is fed to this unit, the zirconia cell "cracks" the carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. Only the oxygen can penetrate through to the other side of the disk; the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gases are stopped in their tracks. The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander is expected to provide essential insights into how to conduct successful, cost-effective human missions to Mars. The lander's primary science goal is to explore the mineralogy of the landing site, near the Martian equator, by taking visible and infrared pictures of the surrounding terrain and deploying a rover similar to Mars Pathfinder's Sojourner. Other equipment will analyze the Martian soil and surface radiation. The Mars In-Situ Propellant Production Precursor demonstration is part of Johnson's continuing effort to identify solutions to the challenges facing future human explorers of other worlds. The Johnson Space Center is NASA's lead center for the Human Exploration and Development of Space enterprise. Mars Surveyor 2001 is part of the Mars Surveyor Program, a long- term program of Mars exploration managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The laboratory is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. For more information about the Mars Surveyor 2001 mission, visit http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------ UQ SCIENTISTS DISCOVER NEW, TINY ORGANISMS University of Queensland release 20 March 1999 University of Queensland researchers have discovered novel miniature organisms that call into question the minimum size for life as we know it on Earth. At 20 to 150 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in length, the organisms, which they call nanobes, are much smaller than the smallest certified terrestrial bacteria ever found on the planet. Researchers discovered the living colonies of organisms in ancient sandstone retrieved from an oil drilling site 3-5 km below the Australian seabed. The finding has been reported in a recent issue of American Mineralogist. The researchers behind the investigation are senior research fellow Dr. Philippa Uwins and senior research officer Richard Webb of the University's Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (CMM), and Ph.D. student Anthony Taylor of the CMM and Microbiology and Parasitology Department. They believe they may be the only research group in the world with actively growing nano-organisms. While studying sandstone samples from exploration wells several years ago, Dr.. Uwins discovered strange filaments on the rocks. "They were very small--in the nano range, but we didn't know what they were," Dr. Uwins said. In unfunded research, and exercising their scientific curiosity, they performed numerous tests using state-of-the art ultra high- resolution scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and DNA staining. The Lilliputian organisms were in the same size range but distinctly different from controversial fossil nanobacteria reported by NASA scientists in a martian meteorite in 1996 and by other scientists in various rock types on Earth. Testing by the three Australian researchers has shown that the nanobes fulfil many criteria to qualify as biological life. Their colonies grew spontaneously, they contained genetic material (DNA) and their chemical and biological structures were consistent with life. For example, they were composed of biological materials such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, and they were membrane-bound structures surrounding a possible cytoplasm and nuclear area. In true scientific fashion, the scientists tried to disprove themselves by seeing if there could be another, plausible and non- biological explanation for the nanobes. They discounted many non- biological materials such as crystalline minerals, carbonates, fullerenes, carbon nano-tubes and non-living polymers and concluded it was difficult to propose any known non-biological materials which could account for the observed structures. Funding--if only at a shoestring level--was required to advance the project to the next level of investigation. In December, the project received $19,000 Australian Research Council small grant support for further molecular and structural analyses to determine whether the organisms were related to bacteria or fungi, or belonged to a different evolutionary tree altogether. "We will be the first group to perform DNA sequencing on a new life form with important and significant implications in many areas of research including molecular and cell biology, earth planetary sciences, environmental microbiology, medical microbiology, biotechnology, chemical engineering and many others," Dr. Uwins said. "If it is proven beyond doubt scientifically that such small organisms exist, it will be a major contribution to the controversial debate concerning extra- terrestrial life and the origin of life on Earth and other planets." The debate was triggered in 1996 when NASA scientists in Houston reported the existence of fossil nano-organisms in a 4.5 billion- year-old, potato-sized martian meteorite which crashed to Earth in Antarctica about 13,000 years ago. They suggested that the meteorite, known as ALH84001, showed evidence of extra-terrestrial ancient life on Mars. The egg-shaped fossilized objects observed in the Mars meteorite were 20 to 100 nanometers long. The announcement caused U.S. Vice-President Albert Gore and then House Speaker Newt Gingrich to agree on the need for more government spending and put Mars exploration on the front burner. One of the goals of the Mars exploration program now is to determine whether life started on Mars early in its history. Critics of the NASA discovery argued that such nano life forms were too small to exist, because they had insufficient volume to contain the enzymatic and genetic material essential for life. They argued that the small size would not allow the supposed nanobacteria to contain RNA and a cell wall. The same criticisms were leveled at a number of scientists, including geologist Dr. Robert Folk of the University of Texas who in 1993 reported that they could see the fossilized forms of ultrasmall microbes in many rocks and minerals found on Earth. Dr. Folk argued that nanobacteria may have escaped biologists' notice because they eluded the conventional tools used to study bacteria. He said that 200 nanometers was both the smallest size visible with an optical microscope, and the mesh size of the filters commonly used by microbiologists to strain out bacteria from liquids. It became standard microbiological thought, he said, that because no bacteria smaller than 200 nanometers were seen, that none existed. The smallest known bacteria to date are mycoplasmas, minute bacteria that cause a common form of pneumonia, and which can be as small as 200 nanometers. Since their announcement, NASA scientists have searched for living nanobacteria on Earth. Dr. Uwins said until now, there have been no living representatives for the martian nano-organisms or other fossil nanobacteria described on Earth in various rock types. "Therefore it has been hard to convince the scientific community that the fossil martian nanostructures could be remnant life forms," she said. Dr. Uwins said factors that had made a big difference to the University of Queensland investigations had been the multi- disciplinary nature of the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, and access to the $750,000 ultra high resolution Jeol 890 scanning electron microscope. The instrument is capable of one million times resolution, and is one of only a handful of such microscopes in the world. She said while the researchers did not yet have conclusive evidence for reproduction and metabolism in nanobes, and while they had not determined their evolutionary development, their evidence strongly suggested the existence of nanobes as biological organisms. For further information, contact Dr. Uwins, telephone work 07 3365 4694, email p.uwins@mailbox.uq.edu.au [Image caption http://www.uq.edu.au/uni-news-media/Uwins.jpg] Dr. Philippa Uwins with a photo of the nanobes that were first seen through at the ultra high resolution Jeol 890 scanning electron microscope. [NOTE: An image (493KB, 2000 x 2500 pixels) of the nanobes is available at http://photos.cc.uq.edu.au/UWINS/DCS00020.JPG] ------------------------------------------------------------------ THE PLANETARY SOCIETY INVITES STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN A 2001 MARS ODYSSEY Planetary Society release [http://www.planetary.org/news/articlearchive/headlines/1999/headl n-032499.html] 24 March 1999 The Planetary Society, in cooperation with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, invites young people worldwide to submit prototypes for the first student-designed experiment on Mars--a 2001 Mars Odyssey: the Student NanoExperiment Challenge. The Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA) team proposed that a student experiment be incorporated into the MECA experiment package on the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander mission, scheduled to launch on April 10, 2001. Entrants must be pre-college students, 18 years old or younger as of March 1, 1999, to be eligible to enter. Arthur C. Clarke, of the Planetary Society's Advisory Council, said, "When I read Stanley Weinbaum's A Martian Odyssey in 1934, little did I dream that 30 years later I would be involved in an even more ambitious, though still fictional, odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now, 30 years after that, I am happy to send my greetings to all participating in the genuine article, the 2001 Mars Odyssey, which I regard as a tribute to the two Stanleys who died before they could fulfill all their promise." Some of the MECA experiments will test how the Martian environment affects patches of different materials, including spacesuit fabrics. The selected student experiment will be placed with these patches, becoming part of an experiment designed to help us better understand how humans will one day be able to survive on Mars. To enter the Student NanoExperiment Challenge, students must design and build a prototype experiment, and submit it along with a written summary of the experiment that is 350 words or less. Each student must also maintain a journal that documents the development of his/her experiment, which also must be submitted upon request to the Student NanoExperiment Challenge judges. The Student NanoExperiment Challenge judging committee, which is comprised of staff members from the Planetary Society, scientists and engineers from the MECA team, and educators, will select ten finalists from all qualifying entries. The MECA team will then select one or more experiments from among the ten finalists to be constructed for flight-readiness testing. If it passes all mission requirements (detailed in the Challenge guidelines), the experiment selected by the MECA team will be integrated into the MECA experiments on the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander. The Student NanoExperiment Challenge will teach students how great things can come in small packages. Students must construct nanoexperiments, extremely compact designs that can fit within a cylinder that is one (1) centimeter in diameter by one (1) centimeter in height. Total mass allowance is three (3) grams or less. The experiment must also be self-contained, since no power from the lander will be available to power the student experiment. The results of the student experiment must be something that can be observed by the camera located on the robotic arm of the lander. Since the student prototypes will not be flight- qualified, the Planetary Society will fund the building of the actual flight unit, including the cost of materials, construction and testing. The contest deadline is July 31, 1999. Entry forms and complete Challenge guidelines are available from the Planetary Society at 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106 or on the Society's web site at http://planetary.org. For more information or Challenge guidelines, contact Susan Lendroth or Jeffrey Oslick at (626)793-5100 or by e-mail at tps.sl@mars.planetary.org for Susan; nanoexp@planetary.org for Jeff. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 25 March 1999 Four new images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available: Valleys and Lava Flows near Olympus Mons Wind Streaks on Daedalia Planum Melas Chasma Floor Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris The images reside on the Mars Global Surveyor web site at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/index.html The image captions are appended below. The Mars Orbiter Camera will be turned off this weekend in anticipation of the last major episode in the odyssey of the Mars Observer/Mars Global Surveyor to its final mapping mission--the deployment of the primary radio antenna, which will occur Sunday night. Following this deployment, tests of the software and mechanisms that point that antenna towards Earth (and of other components of the spacecraft) will be conducted over a period of about 1 week. The camera will be turned back on and new images acquired beginning the following weekend. Check back to the MGS web site the week of April 8th for more exciting pictures. Valleys and Lava Flows near Olympus Mons MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-102, 25 March 1999 The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft has been documenting a variety of landforms in the volcanic Tharsis region, including these valleys and associated lava flows on the plains southeast of Olympus Mons. Lava flows are visible in the upper left quarter of this image, but meandering valleys with streamlined 'islands' dominate the scene. The valleys might have been carved by running water, but extremely fluid lava or mud might also have flowed through the channels. The exact role of each type of fluid--water, mud, or lava--remains to be determined. Illumination is from the right. The area shown is 7.3 km (4.5 mi) wide by 12 km (7.5 mi) long. Wind Streaks on Daedalia Planum MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-103, 25 March 1999 Daedalia Planum is a broad, wind-swept volcanic plain southwest of the Arsia Mons volcano. Since the 1972 Mariner 9 mission, this region has been known to have many wind streaks formed in the lee of obstacles (i.e., downwind of craters and hills) as wind blows loose sediment through the region. Here, the wind streaks are a combination of bright surfaces (where sand and/or dust have accumulated) and dark surfaces (where sand and/or dust have been removed). The streaks indicate wind blowing from right to left. Other evidence of wind action is found in the form of many parallel ridges and grooves that run diagonally across the scene-- these probably formed by wind erosion at an earlier time when the wind was blowing from a direction different from that indicated by the bright and dark streaks. This picture was taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and is illuminated from the left. The picture covers an area about 7.6 km (4.7 miles) by 9.3 km (5.8 miles). Melas Chasma Floor MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-104, 25 March 1999 The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) continues to provide a stunning array of images that show the red planet to have a very diverse collection of surface textures and properties. This picture shows a 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) by 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) portion of the floor of Melas Chasma. Dark sand dunes spaced 55 to 60 meters (~190 feet) apart dominate the floor of this portion of the Valles Marineris canyon system. Smaller ripples are also visible in the troughs between some of the dunes, perhaps indicating a modern, dynamic eolian (i.e., wind-swept) environment. Illumination is from the upper left. Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-105, 25 March 1999 During its March 1999 operations, the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) captured this stunning wide- angle camera view of the western portions of Melas and Candor Chasms in the Valles Marineris canyon system. This view covers an area that is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide and 220 kilometers (137 miles) long. Melas Chasma is located at the bottom of the image, Candor at the top. Hints of layers in the canyon walls are evident in this image. Color and albedo (brightness) variations on the floors of each chasm indicate the relative distribution of dark sand and brighter sediments and/or rocks. Dark sand on the floor of Melas Chasma was also seen by MOC in March 1999 (see MOC2-104) and bright layered material was observed in Candor Chasma in April 1998 (see MOC2-59). The colors shown here are not true colors as they would appear to the human eye. The MOC has cameras that obtain images in red and blue portions of the visible spectrum; the green portion is synthesized using the combined average values of the red and blue channels (a relationship understood from Viking Orbiter imaging in the 1970s). Illumination is from the upper left. ------------------------------------------------------------------ DEPLOYED ANTENNA SENDING STREAMS OF NEW MARS IMAGES JPL release 29 March 1999 A steady stream of new data from Mars, including high- resolution images, will begin arriving next week at Earth receiving stations following last night's deployment of the Mars Global Surveyor's high-power communications antenna. "Having a deployed, or steerable, high-gain antenna is like switching from a garden hose to a fire hose in terms of data return from the spacecraft," said Joseph Beerer, flight operations manager for Mars Global Surveyor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We now have a steady stream of data." "Up until now, we have been using the high-gain antenna in its stowed position, so during the first three weeks of our mapping mission, we had to stop collecting science data and turn the entire spacecraft periodically to transmit data to Earth," Beerer explained. "Now that the high-gain antenna is deployed and steerable, we have the ability to simultaneously make measurements of Mars and communicate with Earth without turning the spacecraft." The antenna was deployed about 9:30 PM Pacific time Sunday, March 28. It had been stowed since launch in November 1996 to reduce the chances of it being contaminated by the exhaust plume from the spacecraft's main engine, which was fired periodically throughout the mission. The spacecraft entered orbit around Mars in September 1997 and used a technique called aerobraking to gradually lower the spacecraft's altitude to the desired orbit for mapping. The mapping mission began March 9; full-scale mapping begins April 4. Because engineers were uncertain that a device intended to dampen the force of the deployment would work correctly, engineers used the antenna in its stowed configuration for the first three weeks of mapping. This allowed the team to meet the mission's minimum science objectives before risking the antenna deployment. Last night, the 1.5-meter-diameter (4.9-foot) dish-shaped high- gain antenna was deployed on a 2-meter-long (6.6-foot) boom and was pushed outward from the spacecraft by a powerful spring. A damper mechanism cushioned the force of the spring and limited the speed of the deployment, somewhat similar to the piston-like automatic closer on a screen door. With the antenna successfully deployment, Mars Global Surveyor will return a nearly constant stream of observations of Mars for the next two years. Information from the science instruments are recorded 24 hours per day on solid-state recorders onboard the spacecraft. Then the data are transmitted to Earth once a day, during a 10- hour tracking pass over a Deep Space Network antenna. In addition, every third day a second tracking pass is used to transmit data "live" at a very high rate directly to Earth without being put on the spacecraft's onboard recorder. These data, which will contain high-resolution images of Mars, will be transmitted at rates between 40,000 and 80,000 bits per second. Mars Global Surveyor is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, which developed and operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Further information about the mission is available on the Internet at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA'S GALILEO FINDS "BOTTLE BLONDE" CHEMICAL ON EUROPA JPL release 25 March 1999 Hydrogen peroxide--the chemical that can turn a brunette into an instant blonde--appears on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, according to a new discovery by NASA's Galileo spacecraft reported in the March 26 edition of the journal Science. "Hydrogen peroxide is a really weird chemical that reacts strongly with almost everything," said Dr. Robert Carlson, principal investigator for Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer instrument, the device that detected the chemical on Europa. Hydrogen peroxide is formed constantly on Europa as Jupiter's energetic particles smash apart molecules on the surface to produce new chemicals, Carlson said. This process is called radiolysis. "We expect to find more bizarre materials on Europa, because it's constantly bombarded by Jupiter's intense particle radiation environment," Carlson said. Hydrogen peroxide does not appear naturally on Earth's surface, partly because the surface is not hit by enough radiation to initiate the process that creates the chemical. "On Earth, if we want hydrogen peroxide, we have to make it in factories," Carlson said. "Almost as soon as hydrogen peroxide is formed, it starts breaking down," Carlson explained. "It's either destroyed by ultraviolet light or changed by contact with other chemicals, so its life span on Europa is only a few weeks to months." The hydrogen peroxide becomes another reactive chemical called hydroxyl, and can ultimately produce oxygen and hydrogen gas, said Carlson. Because Europa's surface chemicals are constantly being made and destroyed, it's hard to study its long-term chemical history, Carlson said. "On the other hand, we are interested in watching changes in chemical composition over short periods of time. By studying chemical processes on Europa and the other moons of Jupiter, we can learn more about how those moons interact with Jupiter, and how similar processes occur elsewhere in our solar system." Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer works like a prism, breaking up infrared light that is not visible to the naked eye. Since different chemical molecules absorb infrared light differently, scientists can study the light patterns and determine what chemicals are present. In this case, the instrument was used to study infrared light from Europa's surface, and it detected dark areas of hydrogen peroxide. The human eye would not normally see the hydrogen peroxide on Europa, because it is dissolved in surface ice and has no color. Galileo's instruments had previously detected several other chemicals on Europa's surface, including sulfur dioxide, water ice, carbon dioxide, and possibly salt molecules containing water. Carlson and other scientists will have another chance to study the chemistry of Europa's surface when the Galileo spacecraft flies by Europa on November 25. Galileo has been studying Jupiter, its moons and its magnetic environment for more than three years. Its primary mission ended in December 1997, but the spacecraft is in the midst of a two-year extension called Galileo Europa Mission. The Galileo mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Additional information about the Galileo mission is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. ------------------------------------------------------------------ GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL release 26 March 1999 The Galileo spacecraft is operating normally as it continues transmitting to Earth pictures and other science information gathered during its January 31 flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Transmission of the data, which was stored on Galileo's onboard tape recorder, will be completed on April 30. During the next month, data transmission will be interrupted at times because the Sun's position roughly between Earth and Jupiter interferes with radio communications with the spacecraft. Galileo radio scientists are taking advantage of this opportunity to study Galileo's radio signal as the effects of the solar wind distort it. This helps scientists learn more about the solar wind, a powerful flow of electrified particles emitted by the Sun. Before and after the communications blackout, Galileo is transmitting data from various science observations. One of them is a 50-minute-long study by the instruments that gather information about magnetic fields. Scientists hope to learn more about how Europa interacts with Jupiter's vast magnetic field. Other observations will tell scientists more about the surface texture and composition of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, and help them tell the difference between various possible forms of water ice on Europa. The temperature at which the ice formed dictates the shape of ice crystals. Scientists believe Jupiter's icy moons, including Europa, would mostly have either cube-shaped ice crystals or non-crystalline, glassy ice because of the extremely low temperatures on those moons. If ordinary, six- pointed ice--the type found in snow and the freezer section of a refrigerator--is discovered, it could indicate that the ice was formed by the freezing of liquid water spewed out from a geyser. This is an intriguing prospect, because it might be yet another sign of a possible ocean beneath Europa's icy crust. Galileo has gathered a wealth of information about Jupiter, its moons and its magnetic environment during the past three years. The spacecraft is currently halfway through a two-year extended Galileo Europa Mission, a follow-on to the primary mission that ended in December 1997. ------------------------------------------------------------------ STARDUST MISSION STATUS JPL release 22 March 1999 NASA's Stardust spacecraft, launched February 7, 1999 on a mission to intercept a comet and return a sample to Earth, over the weekend sent back engineering data, including more test images from its navigation camera, as the operations team continued shakedown tests of various spacecraft systems. Mission controllers successfully commanded the spacecraft to resume normal operations Friday evening, March 19, after Stardust entered a low-activity "safe" state the night before. Stardust's main computer had indicated it was carrying out an excessive number of functions during testing of the navigation camera and transmission of its images to Earth on Thursday, triggering fault protection software that placed the spacecraft in a low-activity state. When the spacecraft is flown in this "safe" mode, all non- critical activities are halted and the spacecraft points its antenna toward Earth and awaits new commands. Controllers waited until the next telecommunications opportunity on Friday evening to resume contact with Stardust. Communications with the spacecraft were resumed as expected and the spacecraft was commanded to proceed with normal operations. Engineering data was received from the spacecraft, and the team is performing detailed analysis of the data to determine what activities or software could have led the spacecraft computer to trigger fault protection that placed Stardust in its temporary safe state. Last week, the spacecraft successfully exercised the mirror on the navigation camera for the first time, moving the device outward 90 degrees and back. The mirror will allow the navigation camera to gather close-up images of heart of Comet Wild-2 without being struck by debris that will be flying off the comet's nucleus. Stardust encounters the comet in 2004. Mission scientists were surprised and pleased last week with Stardust's exceptionally steady orientation in flight. Data from the navigation camera showed that the spacecraft's "drift," or the balancing adjustments it makes to maintain its orientation in space, was about 10 times less than anticipated. This is good news for scientists using the navigation camera, because the steadier the spacecraft, the clearer its images because there will be less smearing due to motion. The principal investigator for the Stardust mission is Dr. Donald C. Brownlee of the University of Washington. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The spacecraft was built and is operated by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and the Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany, provided its instruments. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 6, No. 9.