MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 6, Number 30, 24 September 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 from the official Marsbugs web page at http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/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) NASA'S MARS CLIMATE ORBITER BELIEVED TO BE LOST JPL release 2) THE ROCKY ROAD TO OTHER WORLDS By Larry Klaes 3) YELLOWSTONE PARK IS OLD FAITHFUL STAND-IN FOR JUPITER'S MOON JPL release 4) NASA SEEKS ODD ORGANISMS LIVING AT THE UPPER HEAT LIMIT OF LIFE Ames Research Center release 99-54AR 5) SATELLITES MAP THE BURNING CONTINENTS CSIRO release 6) NASA TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP VICTIMS OF DIABETES NASA release 99-103 7) SPACE POLICY 2000: A PRIMER ON U.S. CIVIL, MILITARY, AND COMMERCIAL SPACE PRIORITIES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON FUTURE MARS MISSIONS Lecture announcement 8) GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL release 9) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 10) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 11) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 12) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release ---------------------------------------------------------------- NASA'S MARS CLIMATE ORBITER BELIEVED TO BE LOST JPL release 23 September 1999 NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter is believed to be lost due to a suspected navigation error. Early this morning at about 2 AM Pacific Daylight Time the orbiter fired its main engine to go into orbit around the planet. All the information coming from the spacecraft leading up to that point looked normal. The engine burn began as planned five minutes before the spacecraft passed behind the planet as seen from Earth. Flight controllers did not detect a signal when the spacecraft was expected to come out from behind the planet. "We had planned to approach the planet at an altitude of about 150 kilometers (93 miles). We thought we were doing that, but upon review of the last six to eight hours of data leading up to arrival, we saw indications that the actual approach altitude had been much lower. It appears that the actual altitude was about 60 kilometers (37 miles). We are still trying to figure out why that happened," said Richard Cook, project manager for the Mars Surveyor Operations Project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We believe that the minimum survivable altitude for the spacecraft would have been 85 kilometers (53 miles)." "If in fact we have lost the spacecraft it is very serious, but it is not devastating to the Mars Surveyor Program as a whole. The program is flexible enough to allow us to recover the science return of Mars Climate Orbiter on a future mission. This is not necessarily science lost; it is science delayed," said Dr. Carl Pilcher, science director for Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. "We have a robust program to explore Mars that involves launching on average one mission per year for at least a decade. It began with the launch of Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor in 1996, continued with Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander and will be followed by more missions in 2001, 2003 and 2005. In fact, Mars Polar Lander will arrive in just over two months and its mission is completely independent of the Mars Climate Orbiter. The science return of that mission won't be affected." Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA and Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, CO will continue their efforts to locate the spacecraft through the Deep Space Network during the next several hours. A special investigation team has been formed by JPL to further assess the situation. Mars Climate Orbiter is one of a series of missions 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE ROCKY ROAD TO OTHER WORLDS By Larry Klaes 24 September 1999 Ten years ago, I wrote an article on the history of robotic Mars exploration which was published in the October, 1989 issue of the EJASA and the August, 1990 issue of Spaceflight. You can read the EJASA article at http://www.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/ejasa/1989/jasa8910.txt I wrote the article in response to the then recent failures of the Soviet Phobos 1 and 2 probes. One thing you will see is that failed Mars missions are not uncommon. Ironically, the Soviets have had better luck landing on the surface of Venus than they ever did on Mars. I take it as part of the price to pay to explore space and the fact that sending probes to other worlds is still far from routine. ---------------------------------------------------------------- YELLOWSTONE PARK IS OLD FAITHFUL STAND-IN FOR JUPITER'S MOON JPL release 16 September 1999 NASA scientists have found that when it comes to teaching educators about volcanoes in the solar system, there's no place like Jupiter's fiery moon Io--except for Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. With its blasting geysers and bubbling thermal vents, "it's almost like being there," said Leslie Lowes of JPL, lead outreach coordinator for NASA's Galileo mission studying Jupiter and its moons. "Yellowstone is the closest we can come to taking teachers to Io without actually putting them on a spacecraft." About a dozen educators, escorted by Lowes and two JPL scientists, Drs. Rosaly Lopes-Gautier and Bill Smythe, will travel to Yellowstone from September 23 through 25 for a workshop on Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system. Once they learn about Io and volcanism in our solar system, they'll hold teacher-training workshops in their own communities. The event is particularly timely because NASA's Galileo spacecraft is gearing up for two close flybys of Io on October 10 and November 25. During the flybys, Galileo's onboard camera will snap the closest, highest-resolution pictures ever taken of Io. These daring flyby adventures have their risks, because Io's orbit is located in a region brimming with radiation from Jupiter. The Galileo flight team is trying to prepare for any problems that may pop up when the radiation bombards the spacecraft's instruments and computer systems. Attending the Yellowstone workshop, coordinated by the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, Alexandria, VA, are Galileo Educator Fellows, who have spent the past year-and- a- half helping teachers understand the mission's discoveries and demonstrating related classroom activities. In addition to the Yellowstone workshop, several other events are planned for educators who want to learn more about Io and the upcoming Galileo encounters. Educator fellows will share the knowledge gained during the Yellowstone event with the educational community at workshops in the United States and Canada. These events will be held on November 3, February 2 and March 1 in the Orlando Science Center, Orlando, FL; October 2 and 9 and November 11 in River Grove, IL, at the Cernan Earth and Space Center; October 13 and November 22 and 30 in Saint Louis, MO schools; October 22 in Wayzata, MN, at the Wayzata High School; December 13 at Concord, NH at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium; on October 29 at a Lubbock, TX teachers' conference; and on November 7 at a science teachers' conference in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada. Regional National Science Teachers Association conferences will feature special Io presentations by educator fellows. Dates include October 22 in Detroit, MI, December 3 in Reno, NV, and December 13 in Concord, MA. Lowes will present the latest findings from Galileo at the California Science Teachers Association meeting on October 9 in Long Beach, CA. The event will also feature an all-day showcase of space missions from JPL and NASA's Ames Research Center. Some 225 educators for grades 7-12 will attend an all-day workshop, "Volcanoes in the Solar System," at JPL on November 12. The event will cover volcanoes on Io, Earth, and Mars. Registration deadline is September 24. The Galileo spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter and its moons for nearly four years. More information on the Galileo mission and the workshops is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. JPL manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NASA SEEKS ODD ORGANISMS LIVING AT THE UPPER HEAT LIMIT OF LIFE Ames Research Center release 99-54AR 16 September 1999 NASA scientists are planning to use 'mini-monster cams' as a bold new step in preparation for the search for extraterrestrial life on moons and planets. On September 17­26, researchers will conduct an experiment at Yellowstone National Park, WY, in an effort to find tiny multi- cellular organisms that may be living in the Hot Springs. Conventional wisdom says that only single-celled life, such as bacteria, could exist in Yellowstone's boiling waters, according to scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. "We are hoping to locate multi-cellular organisms living in Hot Springs at temperatures well above the 150 degrees Fahrenheit that scientists now believe to be the upper limit at which that kind of life can exist," said Jonathan Trent, team leader of the Ames Yellowstone expedition. The main tools Principal Investigator Trent and his team will use to seek "odd" new life forms in the Yellowstone Hot Springs are two special "baitable" salt shaker-size video cameras built by Deep Sea Power and Light, Inc., San Diego, CA. The cameras are in a NASA-designed package including sensors able to detect temperature, acidity, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels as well as depth below the surface. "Part of our ability to anticipate what kind of life may exist on other worlds depends on expanding our knowledge of the ability of Earth life to adapt to extreme conditions," said Trent, an Ames astrobiologist. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the universe. "As far as we know, nobody has baited video cameras to try to attract life forms living within the Hot Springs," he said. "We plan to bait our 'mini-monster cams' with local food, such as insects, algae or leaves -- things that normally fall into the spring." Scientists will stretch a rope across each hot spring they investigate, and then slowly lower the cameras and instruments into the middle of each pool of hot water. Wires will carry computer signals and TV pictures to the surface where scientists will record data and images. In other efforts to prepare to later search for extraterrestrial life forms, investigators across the world have been looking for living things that exist under extreme conditions. Those conditions include extremes of heat and cold. Scientists have found single cell archaea growing at temperatures as high as 234 degrees Fahrenheit. "By increasing our knowledge of the physical and chemical limits that are favorable to life, we'll expand the possibility of predicting where complex extraterrestrial life forms may exist," Trent said. "One of Jupiter's moons, Europa, is very cold, but because of the strong tidal pulls of the huge planet's gravity, there could be a lot of volcanic activity under kilometers of water ice on that moon," he said. "The heat may create conditions that are extreme, yet conducive to some forms of life. These possibilities stimulate the imaginations of astrobiologists in search of complex extraterrestrial life." "If we spot multi-celled life forms in the Hot Springs, we want to know how extreme the conditions are in the immediate vicinity," Trent said. "Without the sensor array, perhaps we could be fooled by a flow of cold water if we were to use just the cameras." Scientists of the Ames Sensors 2000! Project were tasked with developing a probe housing and electronics capable of surviving the boiling water, and yet able to detect and transmit data to the scientists in the field near the Hot Springs. "The real challenge has been to develop a probe that can survive in extreme environments of boiling, acidic water," said Fred Martwick, an Ames Sensors 2000! lead engineer for the Yellowstone project. Trent will usually be available to meet with media representatives at the Grant Village Lodge in Yellowstone after 7 PM MDT each day of the expedition. No media representatives will be permitted in the research area because of safety concerns and possible impact on natural resources. Yellowstone information is on the internet at http://www.yellowstone-park.net/YellowstoneInformation/maps.htm and http://www.yellowstone-park.net/photo- gallery/photo_groups.htm General astrobiology information can be obtained on the internet at http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- SATELLITES MAP THE BURNING CONTINENTS CSIRO release 21 September 1999 CSIRO is taking part in an international study that is monitoring the contribution that fires make to global warming. Using satellite images, researchers are mapping fires around the world so that they can work out their impact on global warming-- both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of trees that soak up carbon dioxide. Fires make a significant contribution to the greenhouse effect--perhaps accounting for 40 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, says Dr. Dean Graetz of CSIRO's Earth Observation Centre. Unlike fossil fuel emissions, at this stage we know comparatively little about where fires are occurring and how much carbon they are releasing. "We need to know where fires are and how severe they are, because if we want to manage the problem of global warming their contribution has to be taken into account," Dr. Graetz says. The project, named World Fire Web, involves scientists from 16 countries. The European Commission's Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit (GVM) in Ispra, Italy is coordinating it. World Fire Web uses satellite images to map and monitor the extent of fires across much of the globe. Each participating country is responsible for monitoring a particular area and the results are then shared over the Internet to produce daily global fire maps. CSIRO's Earth Observation Centre has been charged with tracking fires throughout Australia, New Guinea and parts of Indonesia. The World Fire Web's global fire maps clearly show where most of the world's fires are occurring. "Africa is the burning continent," says Dr. Graetz, "followed by South America, Southeast Asia and Australia." CSIRO has had an additional important task in the project--to help correlate what is seen in satellite images with what is actually happening on the ground. This information is crucial for all of the project's participants. "The satellite images used in the project are continuously processed, most semi-automatically by computers, to detect 'hot spots', or probable locations of current fires," says Dr. Graetz. "But the most difficult task, not just for us, but for all of the project, is to train the computer to automatically recognize and measure burnt areas, while ignoring cloud shadows and other distractions." To help "train" computers to measure the burnt areas, Dr. Graetz and colleagues from CSIRO and the GVM have spent the last few months studying fires in the Northern Territory's Kakadu National Park [Australia]. "Over this year's dry season in Kakadu, we've been making measurements from the ground and from aircraft of fires lit by the park rangers. Back in the laboratory, these measurements, along with satellite images, are helping us develop more accurate methods of detecting burnt areas." Currently, the World Fire Web network covers two thirds of the globe, but the scientists plan to expand it by the end of this year to provide an almost global coverage of fires. [IMAGE CAPTION: http://www.csiro.au/page.asp?type=mediaRelease&id=firemap] [Image 1] A typical ground view of unburnt savanna country of The Top End in June 1999. The grassy fuel is dry and will readily burn. With skillful fire management, this fuel can be safely and patchily burned leaving enough forage for grazing animals while reducing the occurrence of hot uncontrollable fires later in the dry season. This annual grass cover contains about 2-3 tons of carbon per hectare. Cool early dry season fires do not burn the trees. [Image 2] The intensity of a fire is all-important in predicting the outcome for greenhouse. A low intensity fire such as this one, will burn only the grassy fuels and the fine woody litter, and produce a little inert charcoal. A hot fire is more likely to kill trees and generate a large amount of charcoal. CSIRO research is refining the methods of inferring the intensity of fires that are visible to satellites during the day and night. [Image 3] A satellite image of the Top End, in the early afternoon (1430 hours) of June 1, 1999. This image was acquired by the AVHRR sensor (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) on board the NOAA series of polar orbiting satellites which circle the Earth continuously every 100 minutes or so. From satellite images such as this which are acquired daily, the total area and the weight of grassy fuel can be calculated and converted into the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal Greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Because of atmospheric interference, the image colors are false colors but interpretation is still easy. The clouds and the sea retain colors close to natural as does the long plumes of smoke streaming towards the NW. There are at 8 separate active fires visible in the area. The World Fire Web http://www.mtv.sai.jrc.it/projects/fire/home.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- NASA TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP VICTIMS OF DIABETES NASA release 99-103 22 September 1999 Some American diabetics may soon be using NASA virtual- reality technology to peer inside the human body and manage the effects of the disease. Preliminary observations show that artificial- vision technology, used to help pilots train to fly in poor visibility, helps diabetics at risk for nerve damage visualize and control blood flow to the arms and legs. In studies this fall, patients will use "biofeedback"--self- control techniques, including changes in breathing and muscle flexing--to increase their blood flow, which will be measured through sensors attached to their fingertips. The system will use skin-surface pulse and temperature measurements to create a computer-generated image of what is actually happening to blood vessels under the skin. Just as pilots use artificial vision to "see" into bad weather, patients will use this virtual reality device to "see" beneath their skin. The graphics technologies used in the study have been used in cockpit artificial-vision systems to help pilots see in low- or no-visibility situations, and to help designers study air-flow patterns around new aircraft shapes. In this fall's studies, diabetes patients will wear a 3-D virtual-reality headset to "see" the contraction and expansion of their own blood vessels. The studies will be conducted by the Strelitz Diabetes Research Institutes of the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA. "What we have here is an immediate and direct, real-time visual appreciation of what's happening with blood flow," said Dr. Aaron Vinik, professor of internal medicine and director of research at the Strelitz Institutes. Researchers intend patients to use such a device to train themselves to eventually sense and control their blood flow with no device whatsoever. Previous biofeedback methods, trained patients to do this by presenting them with physiological information in simple graphics, sometimes aided by separate mental-imagery training. Virtual-reality technology is proving to be more easily learned and motivating for patients and is expected to be more effective in teaching these skills by helping patients visualize real-time physiological responses. Studies will also begin this fall in the Behavioral Medicine Center at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville, VA, to evaluate the technology for the treatment of other blood-flow disorders. "If tests are successful, this technology may also be used to help sufferers of migraine headaches and other chronic blood-flow disorders," said NASA researcher Alan Pope. Pope and Kurt Severance, of NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, are the inventors of the virtual-reality device. The medical centers signed agreements with Langley's Technology Commercialization Program Office to test the NASA device. The office is part of an active NASA technology transfer program, established to move space-age technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. For more information, check the internet at http://tag-www.larc.nasa.gov/tag/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- SPACE POLICY 2000: A PRIMER ON U.S. CIVIL, MILITARY, AND COMMERCIAL SPACE PRIORITIES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON FUTURE MARS MISSIONS Lecture announcement 21 September 1999 Boston National Space Society (NSS) Meeting Friday October 1, 7:30 PM Ad Astra Editor-In-Chief Frank Sietzen, Jr. gives the latest status of Washington-related space policy activities, including NASA budget prospects for the coming year, the major military space programs, status of pending legislation that would effect commercial and science mission planning, and how the Washington policy community really feels about Mars missions in the next decade. He will tie together how the civil science, military technology, and commercial space capabilities could be used in support of advanced Mars explorations. Please note the special day and location. Location: MIT Building 34-101, Cambridge ---------------------------------------------------------------- GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS JPL release 17 September 1999 Onward to Io! That's the rallying cry now that NASA's Galileo spacecraft has successfully completed its fourth and final flyby of Jupiter's pockmarked moon, Callisto. The Callisto encounters were designed to lower Galileo's orbit to bring it closer to the fiery moon Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system. Galileo will fly by Io in October and then again in November. The spacecraft dipped down to 1,052 kilometers (654 miles) above Callisto's surface Thursday, September 16 at 11:02 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The spacecraft is operating normally, has completed all planned recording, and is now playing back science information gathered during the flyby by the instruments that study magnetic fields and particles. That information was stored on Galileo's onboard tape recorder. In an expected repeat of an occurrence from previous orbits, a minor glitch popped up at 3:39 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, with a computer reset of the non-spinning portion of the spacecraft. Onboard software handled the problem correctly, and recording of data continued without interruption. Currently, Galileo engineers are trying to determine why the spacecraft's ultraviolet spectrometer instrument began malfunctioning during the previous flyby of Callisto in August. They sent a preliminary set of commands to the instrument designed to re-start its microprocessor, which apparently had stopped working. Preliminary results seem to confirm that the microprocessor was restarted successfully for this week's encounter. Engineers will conduct further analysis of the data gathered during this flyby to help assure that the ultraviolet instrument is operating normally. The instrument studies Jupiter's atmosphere and aurora, the surfaces and atmospheres of its moons, and the doughnut-shaped cloud of charged plasma particles in the orbit of the volcanic moon Io. Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter and its moons since December 1995. The spacecraft is approaching the grand finale of its two-year extended Galileo Europa Mission, a follow-on to the primary mission that ended in December 1997. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. ---------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 20-26 September 1999 Galileo spends this week performing a real time survey of the dusk side of Jupiter's magnetosphere (its plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic field environments) while also returning high resolution magnetosphere measurements recorded during last week's encounter. The Fields and Particles instruments made all these measurements. Processing and transmission to Earth of these data is interrupted twice this week. On Monday the spacecraft performs a small flight path correction. On Sunday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its propulsion systems. The Fields and Particles instruments are comprised of the Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Detector, and Plasma Wave Instrument. The data acquired during the magnetosphere survey is not recorded on board, but rather it is returned to the Earth in near real time, sharing the transmission stream with recorded data. During the survey, the instruments take measurements of the plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields. Similar measurements have been taken in previous encounters, thus allowing scientists to study the long-term variations within the magnetosphere. The survey also provides information describing the global context within which high resolution recordings are performed. This particular leg of the survey covers part of the duskward portion of the magnetosphere. The interaction of Jupiter's rotating magnetic field with the solar wind creates differences between the dawn side and the dusk side of the magnetosphere. By studying these differences, scientists will learn about how plasma particles created at Io are ultimately accelerated outward from Jupiter, escaping down the magnetotail in the direction opposite the Sun. The high-resolution recording of Jupiter's magnetosphere was also acquired by the Fields and Particles instruments. The recording was part of a series performed during each encounter of the Perijove Reduction Campaign (Galileo's previous four encounters). The Perijove Reduction Campaign, as its name suggests, reduced the spacecraft's perijove distance, or closest distance to Jupiter for a given orbit, from orbit to orbit. The data captured during these recordings will describe the inner magnetosphere and the Io torus (see Note 1) environment as a function of distance from Jupiter. These data will contribute toward the studies of the dynamic processes that occur within these regions. Note 1. The Io torus is a region of intense plasma and radiation activity, in which there are strong magnetic and electric fields. Constantly replenished by the volcanic activity on Io, it is a vital part of the Jovian magnetosphere. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 16 September 1999 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1044 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 168 days Last Orbit Covered by this Report = 2260 Total Orbits = 4028 Total Mapping Orbits = 2346 Recent events The mm007 sequence is executing nominally and will continue to control spacecraft mapping operations through October 6. HGA anomaly The HGA gimbal is currently operational with full redundancy on side-A. The fault protection threshold for HGA stuck gimbal is at 25 seconds (50 counts). Spacecraft health All subsystems continue to report nominal status. Uplinks There have been 15 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, and instrument command loads. Total command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 3914. Upcoming Events 1) Sequence mm008 development begins Tuesday September 21 and goes active on 10/7/99. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 17 September 1999 The following new images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available: The Mysterious Martian Mountains of Mitchel 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. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. 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 JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera The Mysterious Martian Mountains of Mitchel MGS MOC Release #MOC2-178, 17 September 1999 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image covers an 800 by 300 km (500 by 190 mi) area located deep within the boundary of the seasonal south polar frost cap of Mars. Centered at 70°S, 320°W, this view--taken in early spring when sunlight has just begun to shine on the region for the first time in many months--includes a bright region (diagonal from center-left to lower right) known for nearly two centuries as the "Mountains of Mitchel." This feature was named for Ormsby McKnight Mitchel (1809-1862), an astronomer at the University of Cincinnatio, Ohio, who discovered it while observing Mars through a telescope in 1846. Mitchel noticed that this area is typically "left behind" as a bright penninsula when the rest of the polar cap recedes past this area later in the spring. Mitchel deduced that this area might be mountainous because it seemed analogous to the snow that is left on Earth's mountain ranges in late spring and into summer. Snow can remain on high peaks because the air temperature decreases with elevation (or altitude). MGS Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) observations of this region (e.g., see south polar MOLA topographic map) show the bright "Mountains of Mitchel" to be a somewhat elevated region of rough, heavily cratered southern highlands. However, the "Mountains of Mitchel" do not appear to be "mountains"-- there are other areas nearby at similar elevation that do not retain frost well into southern spring. Part of the Mountains of Mitchel feature includes a prominent, south-facing scarp (at center-left) that would tend to retain frost longer in the spring because it is somewhat protected from sunlight (which comes from the north). The persistence of frost on the Mountains of Mitchel remains mysterious, but new observations from the MGS MOC are helping to unravel the story. Thus far, it seems that the frost here--for whatever reason--tends to be brighter than frost in most other places within the polar cap. This brighter frost reflects sunlight and thus sublimes more slowly than adjacent, darker frost surfaces. This color picture was compiled from MOC red and blue wide-angle images. North is up and sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. The surface does not appear to be white--as might be expected for frost--because of dust both on the surface and in the atmosphere, as well dark sand that was being exposed from beneath the retreating frost at the time that the picture was taken. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 17 September 1999 The Stardust spacecraft continues to operate normally and entered cruise sequence SC009 early this week. The spacecraft is about 2 AU (about 186 million miles or 300 million kilometers) from both the Earth and Sun. There was a successful Kickoff Meeting for cruise sequence SC010 where a consensus was reached on the planned activities. The Flight Team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) turned on the German-supplied Max Planck Institute Cometary and Interplanetary Dust Analyzer (CIDA) and the University of Chicago Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI). CIDA is operating nominally and remains in its cruise configuration. The DFMI operated properly in its calibration mode and encounter mode for about 45 minutes when it began exhibiting a behavior associated with an off-nominal power converter performance. DFMI was commanded off and will be studied to determine which operational modes are possible for the duration of the mission. The Stardust Ground Data System (GDS), provided and maintained by the Mars Surveyor Operations Project (MSOP), continues to work flawlessly. The GDS has, since the beginning of the project, provided all needed capabilities to support spacecraft commanding, the downlink of telemetry data and the health and safety monitoring of the spacecraft and subsystems including the science payload instruments. The Navigation Camera re-test sequence is being tested in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory using the Software Simulation (SoftSim) for the Navigation Camera in preparation for taking star images within the next week or so. 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. 30