MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 6, Number 20, 21 July 1999. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Biology and Chemistry Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. Marsbugs@aol.com or dthomas@lyon.edu Dr. Julian A. Hiscox, School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AJ, United Kingdom. J.A.Hiscox@reading.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) UNISPACE III, AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PEACEFUL USES OF OUTER SPACE ESA release 27-99 2) RETURN TO TUNGUSKA By David Whitehouse 3) PATCH ENSURES SAFE SPACE HABITATION By Jeffrey Bishop 4) POP-UP TAGS TRACK TUNA FROM SPACE Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation release 99/147 5) NASA SCIENTISTS USE SATELLITES TO HELP TRACK A DISEASE AND KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL NASA release 99-81 6) STARDUST CURATION HOME PAGE JPL/JSC release 7) STUNNING NEW MARS SNAPSHOTS SHOW A DIVERSE PLANET JPL release 8) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS JPL releases ---------------------------------------------------------------- UNISPACE III, AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PEACEFUL USES OF OUTER SPACE ESA release 27-99 25 June 1999 The third United Nations conference on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space (UNISPACE III) will be held in Vienna (Austria) from 19 to 30 July 1999. High-level government officials and policy-makers from the 185 Member States of the UN, heads of space agencies and representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations will gather at this international forum to exchange ideas on the direction of space activities, establish professional networks and explore commercial opportunities. Top executives from space-related firms will also attend the event. UNISPACE III aims to foster a greater understanding and better use of space science and technology to assist and stimulate economic and social growth, particularly in developing countries. It is of great importance for the European Space Agency. ESA has, for many years, been a firm advocate for the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and on behalf of its Member States, is the largest contributor to the UN Space Applications program. ESA, together with its Member States, has played a key role in coordinating and securing significant European participation in this event of worldwide relevance. UNISPACE III, an intergovernmental conference, will also feature over 40 workshops and several symposia, seminars and round tables. The opening ceremony is scheduled for Monday 19 July at the Austria Center in Vienna (Hall A, 10:00-12:00 hrs). The Director General of ESA, Mr. Antonio Rodota, will address the audience at the plenary session on Tuesday 20 July (Hall A, 10:00-13:00 hrs). ESA has also coordinated the organization of three workshops on Satellite Navigation, Disaster Management (in cooperation with the Japanese space agency, NASDA) and Intellectual Property and Space Activities. An exhibition featuring global achievements in the field of space technology, current and future development tools, emerging technologies, and ongoing collaborative projects, will be held during the first week of the conference. The ESA stand will host a series of demonstrations, linked to the themes of the conference, with the main emphasis on satellite communication systems and Earth observation data exchange and their applications. The exhibition will start on Sunday 18 July at 11:00. It will be open to the public until Friday 23 July 12:00 hrs, except on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 July, which will be reserved for registered conference participants. On Tuesday 20 July, ESA astronauts will be available at the conference for interviews with the media. More information on the conference and program can be found on the Internet at http://www.un.or.at/OOSA/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- RETURN TO TUNGUSKA By David Whitehouse, BBC News 28 June 1999 Scientists hope to solve the mystery of the greatest cosmic impact of the century by undertaking an expedition to a remote region of Russia. The impact happened on 30 June 1908, at Tunguska in central Siberia. With no warning, a small comet or meteor hurtling through space collided with the Earth and exploded in the sky. It may have been a small comet, made of rock and ice, that was fragile enough to be vaporized in the explosion before it struck the ground. Alternatively it may have been a low-density meteorite. Some scientists believe that large fragments may have reached the ground before the main impact. If the cosmic body was a meteorite, then it may be possible to find these fragments. Full story here at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_380000/ 380060.stm ---------------------------------------------------------------- PATCH ENSURES SAFE SPACE HABITATION By Jeffrey Bishop, Air Force Print News 2 July 1999 Shake it, twist it onto the valve stem, and press the button. In seconds, a tire is sealed and pressurized. That is how many people make quick roadside repairs to punctured tires. As yet, however, there isn't a space-side way to make similar repairs to punctured spacecraft. Captain Ravi Chaudhary, a flight test engineer and NASA graduate fellow, is helping NASA change that by bringing his Air Force perspective and training to a space- based problem that could have international consequences aboard the International Space Station. Teamed with space administration systems engineer Steve Hall, Chaudhary is trying to perfect a patch for puncture holes up to eight inches in diameter. Similar damage, caused by orbiting space junk or small meteors, occurs often to satellites and even the space shuttle, which once landed with a cracked windshield caused by an errant paint chip floating at 44,000 miles per hour. The problem is even more serious for inhabitants of the space station, whose orbiting mobile home will be exposed to space litter for years. A stray screw that punctures the pressurized skin of a module of the station threatens lives. The solution is a patch that space-walking astronauts can quickly apply to the exterior, so that section can resume holding air pressure and astronauts. "It's going to plug the hole up so they can fire things up in the module and then do a more permanent repair later," said Chaudhary, who works at the 339th Flight Test Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, GA. A quick repair will also prevent "the zipper effect," which has its analogy in the homily "a stitch in time saves nine." "Under the stress of motion in orbit, a small hole can quickly become a big tear that is irreparable." Chaudhary said this patch, used in time, may save the entire module. While not as easy to use as a can of flat-fixer, the space patch, developed by engineers at Sverdrup Inc., has to be relatively easy for astronauts to install while floating in zero Gs in a bulky space suit. Chaudhary and other project engineers field-tested the solution to that challenge June 30 through July 2 at the neutral buoyancy laboratory here--a 202-foot-by 102- foot pool that simulates a low-gravity environment. The tests allow NASA astronauts to practice installing the patch on a space-station mock-up that sits at the bottom of the 40-foot deep pool. Installing the patch--called KERMIt, for Kit for Repair of Module impacts--starts with placing a clear plastic plate with a foam gasket ring over the hole. A toggle bolt through the center of the plate holds it in place against the hull, while a metal plate on the inside of this newly created cavity keeps adhesive, which is injected into the space, from flowing into the station module. Tests in the simulated space environment allow astronauts like Linda Godwin, who practiced installing the patch July 1, to provide feedback--positive and negative--on the design. They also act as gatekeepers, giving the OK for continued development of successful designs. Chaudhary, an Air-Force Academy-schooled aeronautical engineer working on his master's thesis in industrial engineering, brings more to the project than book knowledge. His experience with air battle damage repair as a flight test engineer lets him bring a new perspective to the space project. "The Air Force has years of experience repairing battle-damaged aircraft skin quickly--I think there's a T.O. (technical order) for every aircraft in the inventory," Chaudhary said. "We're only just now becoming interested in repairing this type of damage as we leave vehicles in orbit for longer periods of time," added Hall. "The Air Force has a lot of experience in this area." Although the Air Force method of repairing the skin of an aircraft can't be used on space systems--milling out a hole or tear creates more space debris and isn't feasible during space walks--Chaudhary has nonetheless provided inputs that have improved the way astronauts will do repairs. He suggested ways to control the flow of adhesive on the backside of the patch after reviewing numerical data and videotape of patch tests that took place on a KC-135. The jet flew in a parabola to simulate zero G for up to 30 seconds, allowing engineers to see how the adhesive might flow in space. Interested in human systems engineering, Chaudhary was also concerned about the amount of time it took astronauts to twist a large nut--used to secure the patch to the test hull--into place. The result of that concern was the idea to replace the standard nut with a zip nut that can be pushed down the length of the toggle bolt, and then twisted into place. In September of 2000, NASA will field a product that may save astronauts. But Chaudhary said that the Air Force would also benefit from his stint with NASA. "Every new learning experience allows more insight into the needs of the customer," he said. "This creates 'engineering judgment'--something that can't be quantified, but which makes a better engineer." Chaudhary added that his experience has started an information exchange between the Air Force and the space agency that will persist even after his fellowship ends in September. "These relationships withstand the limits of the work," he said. "They will be kept even as I move on." ---------------------------------------------------------------- POP-UP TAGS TRACK TUNA FROM SPACE Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation release 99/147 2 July 1999 Hi-tech satellite tags which automatically "pop-up" and float to the surface are being used for the first time to track southern bluefin tuna. The tags will be used to track the large-scale migrations of the heavily-fished species. The prototype tags combine satellite technology with data-logging capabilities, so that researchers can study the tuna's migration patterns without having to recapture tagged fish, according to John Gunn of CSIRO Marine Research. "Importantly, improving our understanding of the species biology and behavior will allow us to better estimate the probability of the population recovering," says Mr. Gunn. "After monitoring the fishes' movements and behavior every minute for several months, the new-generation tags are designed to release from the fish, float to the surface and relay a summary of this information to a satellite," says Mr. Gunn. "In the past, we have relied on fishers, who catch tagged tuna, to return the tags to us for analysis. This has meant that only a proportion of the tags released are returned, and that a lot of data is still at sea" Mr. Gunn says that CSIRO has had tremendous support in this research, and is still receiving tags from fishers internationally. "But the new technology will allow us to retrieve information on the vast majority of tagged tuna in the future," he says. Made and donated by Wildlife Computers Pty. Ltd. in Seattle, the satellite tags can record a megabyte of information. The first tag was released earlier this month and is programmed to release from the tuna in November this year, which corresponds with the time southern bluefin tuna are known to spawn in the waters between Indonesia and north-west Australia. "With the species at historically low levels, it is important to find out how often adults spawn," he says. "At the moment we do not know whether individual tuna spawn every year, but with the pop-up tag technology we now have the tool to examine this critical question. "The tags will also tell us the depths the fish swam to and the water temperatures it encountered during the four and a half months the tag was attached to the fish." Fishing quotas for southern bluefin tuna are agreed to each year by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), of which Australia is a member. The goal of the Commission is to return the parent stock of the species to pre- 1980 levels by the year 2020. Australia (quota 5265 tons), Japan (quota 6065 tons) and New Zealand (quota 420 tons) all fish for southern bluefin tuna under quotas set by the Commission, based on advice from scientific assessments from the three countries. A large part (4000 tons) of the global catch of SBT is by nations such as Indonesia, Taiwan and Korea that are fishing outside the quota system. Ninety percent of the world's southern bluefin tuna is consumed in Japan where fresh sashimi fetches up to A$100/kg. Fully-grown fish can reach weights of more than 200 kg. More information from: John Gunn 03 6232 5375 Katie Johnson 03 6232 5113 Photos and footage available ---------------------------------------------------------------- NASA SCIENTISTS USE SATELLITES TO HELP TRACK A DISEASE AND KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL NASA release 99-81 15 July 1999 Using weather satellites to spot the early signs of an El Niņo, scientists may be able to help save East Africans and their livestock from Rift Valley Fever, a mosquito-borne disease that can be fatal to humans and animals. NASA and Department of Defense researchers have determined that rising sea-surface temperatures in the western equatorial Indian Ocean, combined with an El Niņo in the Pacific, can lead to abnormally heavy rains in East Africa. These rains create a favorable habitat for the mosquitoes that carry the Rift Valley Fever virus, spreading it to humans and animals. Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, and the Department of Defense-Global Disease Infections System, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC, studied nearly five decades of data to produce these findings. According to their report in the July 16 issue of the journal Science, satellite data can help predict Rift Valley Fever outbreaks up to six months in advance. "In the early 1980s, we discovered a cycle of Rift Valley Fever outbreaks that appeared to depend on rainfall," said Kenneth Linthicum, a Walter Reed entomologist. "There were large outbreaks every seven to ten years, but the virus apparently disappears between outbreaks," he said. Linthicum consulted with Assaf Anyamba, a Goddard geographer who uses satellites to study the effects of El Niņo, a phenomenon that occurs when sea-surface temperatures rise in the eastern Pacific Ocean. They found that some El Niņo episodes over the past five decades led to large Rift Valley Fever outbreaks. During an El Niņo, East Africa often receives more rain than normal, but El Niņo alone does not ensure an outbreak. According to Anyamba, the decisive factor is the warming of the Indian Ocean along with the Pacific, which occurred in two of five El Niņos over the last 17 years. "When the western equatorial Indian Ocean is similar to the East Pacific Ocean in sea-surface temperature, there will likely be a large-scale outbreak of Rift Valley Fever following heavy rainfall over large areas of East Africa," he said. "What's interesting here is that satellite data can provide advance warning of conditions suitable for Rift Valley Fever outbreaks and then identify the actual areas affected," said Compton Tucker, a Goddard biologist who has used satellite data to study vegetation in Africa for over 20 years. Satellites provide synchronous measurements of ocean temperature and vegetation conditions. The close relationship between ocean temperature, rainfall and land vegetation helps scientists determine which areas received the most rain and are greener than normal, making them likely habitats for the mosquitoes that carry the Rift Valley Fever virus. The Rift Valley Fever virus is passed into the eggs of Aedes mosquitoes. The mosquitoes lay their eggs in moist soil when floodwaters recede. The young insects hatch when the area is re-flooded and feed on local livestock. A second kind of mosquito, the Culex, then causes the large outbreaks by contracting the virus from infected livestock and spreading it rapidly. Culex mosquitoes are only prevalent when there are excessive rains. Heavy rains typically hit the area over Eastern Africa only when both oceans are warmer than normal. The virus causes death in livestock populations and produces flu-like symptoms that can be fatal to humans. Linthicum suggests that insecticides placed into the soil months before the mosquito season will stop production of the Aedes mosquitoes. "If you know when the outbreak is going to happen, you can treat areas near domestic animals and human populations," he said. Linthicum said that there are safe ways to treat the soil to prevent the mosquitoes from hatching. There also are vaccines for livestock. NASA research into the El Niņo phenomena and the subsequent study of Rift Valley Fever are part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, DC, dedicated to the long-term study of how human-induced and natural changes affect the global environmental system. Scientists first successfully predicted El Niņo from satellite data in 1997 and helped save the U.S. government billions of dollars by giving officials advance warning of the potential for severe weather. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST CURATION HOME PAGE JPL/JSC release 15 July 1999 The STARDUST Curation Team at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas has created their own web site at http://www- curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/stardust/. STARDUST, a NASA Discovery-class mission, will be first mission to return samples from a comet. Grains from Comet Wild-2's coma--the gas and dust envelope that surrounds the comet nucleus--will be collected as well as interstellar dust. The mission, which launched on February 7, 1999, will encounter the comet on January 10, 2004. As the spacecraft passes through the coma, a tray of aerogel will be exposed, and coma grains will be captured in the aerogel. Following the collection, the aerogel tray is closed for return to Earth in 2006. In the past 5 years, analysis of data from dust detectors aboard the Ulysses and Galileo spacecraft have revealed that there is a stream of interstellar dust flowing through our solar system. These grains will be captured during the cruise phase of the STARDUST mission, as the spacecraft travels toward the comet. A dust impact mass spectrometer on board the STARDUST spacecraft will be used to gather spectra of dust during the entire mission, including the coma passage. This instrument will be the best chance to obtain data on volatile grains, which will not be well-collected in the aerogel. The dust impact mass spectrometer will also be used to study the composition of interstellar grains. The sample return capsule will parachute to Earth in February 2006, and will land in western Utah. Once on the ground, the sample return capsule will be placed into a dry nitrogen environment and flown to the curation lab at Johnson Space Center. This curation lab is also where the Apollo moon rocks and meteorites recovered from the Antarctic are stored. Approximately six months of preliminary investigation by a dedicated team will precede release of the sample to the general analysis community. This preliminary investigation period has the goal of documenting the state of the collected sample, identifying the range of samples present, and assessing the best way to proceed with general sample distribution and analysis. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STUNNING NEW MARS SNAPSHOTS SHOW A DIVERSE PLANET JPL release 19 July 1999 Summer vacation photos were never like this. A new set of photographs taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, that intrepid explorer that has been studying the planet since 1997, reveals a surface rich in detail. "This set of photos shows the diversity of things we've been seeing on Mars during the last several months. We see everything from sand dunes covered with frost, water ice clouds hanging over volcanoes and ancient craters being eroded by high winds," said Dr. Michael Malin, principal investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA. "And they're really pretty!" The images are being released in conjunction with the Fifth International Mars Conference being held this week at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. The images are available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.msss.com Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 25 June 1999 Earlier this week, flight sequence SC006 started with the STARDUST spacecraft at 1.6 AU from the Sun and 0.7 AU from the Earth, increasing about 0.01 AU per day. All subsystems are performing normally. The spacecraft attitude is off-pointed 20 degrees from the Sun, exposing only 20% of the Max Planck Institute Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) collector to the interstellar dust stream. The collector area of CIDA exposed to the stream has been decreasing as the need to point the solar panels more directly toward the sun has increased as the spacecraft recedes from the sun. During flight sequence SC007, the spacecraft will be pointed directly at the sun to collect sufficient energy to operate the spacecraft and the CIDA collector will be totally blocked by the dust shield from the interstellar dust stream. The flight team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics completed testing commands to turn on the High Gain Antenna (HGA) for the first time. Currently communications with the spacecraft have been through the Low Gain (LGA) and the Medium Gain Antennae (MGA) which uses Solid State Power Amplifier 1 (SSPA 1). The HGA uses SSPA 2, which will be powered on for the first time in flight along with the HGA. This means that SSPA 1 will be powered off and will be left off until the next communications session using the MGA next Thursday. SSPA 1 has been powered off previously, during safing and to dissipate trapped charges. SSPA 1 has received attention since its performance has had small, but explained variations during the last few months. The SSPA's have only one commandable gain state, high, which uses about 55 watts of power and draws 1.9 amps of current. Over time, many hours to days, a trapped charge builds raising the temperature of SSPA 1 at which time SSPA 1 protection circuitry drops its current to 1.5 amps, with an associated drop in gain of 2-3 dB. The trapped charge can be dissipated and an annealing process occurs to bring SSPA 1 back to normal operations by powering it off, for many days or more being preferable. It is not known if SSPA 2 will exhibit this same behavior. The drop in gain in SSPA 1, up until recently, has not been a problem. But as the spacecraft continues to journey far beyond the orbit of Mars and as the distance to Earth increases, every dB of gain counts. During last week's commanding of the Solar Array Switching Unit (SASU) changing from series to parallel connections, we had only a margin of 0.5 dB, dangerously close to losing lock on the downlink signal. This has lead the flight team to consider powering off SSPA 1 between communications sessions to dissipate the trapped charges and then turning it back on just before communications start so that the SSPA will stay in its high gain state through the communications pass and provide an extra few dB of margin. The STARDUST Outreach made a presentation to NEWMAST, a national group of K-12 teachers, and also to the San Diego Astronomy Association. 1 July 1999 As normal during cruise mode, there was one communications session with the STARDUST spacecraft during the last week. The session began using the Medium Gain Antenna (MGA) being driven by Solid State Power Amplifier 1 (SSPA 1) at 252 bits per second. Engineering data downlinked indicated all subsystems were performing well. SSPA 1 & MGA were powered down and the SSPA 2 & High Gain Antenna (HGA) were powered on for the first time during flight. After the attitude deadband limits were tightened to 2 degrees, communications were restarted over the HGA at 12,000 bits per second. The backlog of science and remaining engineering were brought down, clearing out data memory space. The spacecraft controllers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) reported all events went exactly as tested and planned. This sequence will be repeated monthly where SSPA 2/HGA will be power on at the beginning of each new sequence to obtain a downlink rate over 50 times the SSPA 1/MGA rate. This will be implemented to bring down all science data and remaining engineering data to keep heap and memory space clean. Without the use of the SSPA 2/HGA and the high data rate, data would accumulate onboard and eventually be overwritten by new data before it could be transmitted to Earth. The kickoff meeting was held for the first trajectory correction maneuver to be performed in mid-October. This maneuver will reduce the magnitude of the Deep Space Maneuver 1 (DSM 1), scheduled for mid-January, by 11 m/s as well as give the operations team excellent experience for the end-to-end process of maneuver design, JPL-LMA interface, command generation and verification, radiation, execution and post-maneuver evaluation. 9 July 1999 Recent communications with the STARDUST spacecraft by Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) shows that all subsystems continue to perform well. Spacecraft commanding included changing the contents of a few telemetry packets and also changing production rates to maximize information content of the telemetry. Development and testing of the Flight Software patches for All- Stellar Attitude control mode by the Star Camera as well as the task priority inversion are going well and it is expected that STARDUST will be in All-Stellar Mode as well as taking Navigation Camera images in approximately one month. Discussion between LMA, JPL and the supplier of the Sold State Power Amplifiers (SSPA's) verified that STARDUST has been properly powering off the SSPA's between usage. Leaving the SSPA powered on much longer could have potentially permanently degraded its performance by 2-3 dB for the remainder of the mission. It is believed that the SSPA's will perform in their high gain state, without the 2-3 dB degradation, during our communication passes which typically last 4 - 5 hours. The project will revisit the use of the SSPA's when communication passes become longer than 16 hours, such as at the Comet Wild 2 flyby in 2004 and the Earth return in 2006, to ensure proper maintenance. 16 July 1999 Recent communications with the STARDUST spacecraft by Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) shows that all subsystems continue performing well. Spacecraft commanding included changing the contents of a few telemetry packets and also changing the production rates to maximize information content of the telemetry. The Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA's), turned off during non-contact periods, were powered on in their high gain states during the last contact period as expected. The Attitude Control System (ACS) determined that 2.2 kg of fuel has been used since launch, below expected usage, and the actual daily expenditure of 3 grams/day continues to be below the allocation of 4 grams/day. Detailed analyses of telemetry and radio tracking navigation data over the last 2 months by LMA ACS and JPL Navigation of the small forces imparted to the spacecraft due to ACS jet firings has led to small parameters value updates used to compute the small forces onboard the spacecraft. The command to update these parameter values in a configuration file has been successfully tested in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory (STL). Development and testing of the Flight Software patches for All- Stellar Attitude control mode by the Star Camera as well as the task priority inversion are going well and it is expected that STARDUST will be in All-Stellar Mode as well as taking Navigation Camera images in approximately one month. STARDUST participated in the JPL project-wide Y2K Drill to demonstrate Y2K compatibility and compliance within the timeline established by NASA Headquarters. The Mars Surveyor Operations Project (MSOP)/Telecommunication and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD) supplied Ground Data System demonstrated the required compatibility and compliance. STARDUST is following the flight activities of Deep Space 1 (DS1) which will encounter the asteroid 1992 KD on July 29. The STARDUST nucleus tracking flight software was derived from the DS1 Autonomous Optical Navigation flight software that will actively control the asteroid flyby trajectory. For more information on the STARDUST mission--the first ever comet sample return mission--please visit the STARDUST home page at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs Vol. 6, No. 20