MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 6, Number 37, 15 November 1999. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Biology and Chemistry Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. Dthomas@lyon.edu or marsbugs@aol.com 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) MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES REPORT, NUMEROUS NASA ACTIONS UNDERWAY IN RESPONSE NASA release 99-134 2) THE PAYLOAD OF MARS EXPRESS RE-CONFIRMED From ESA Science News 3) AMICO 2000: ASTEROIDS, METEORITES, IMPACTS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES Conference announcement 4) CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UTILIZATION By John-David F. Bartoe 5) FREE EVENING LECTURE BRINGS NASA PHOTOS TO YOUR FINGERTIPS JPL release 6) 200 POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS ASTEROIDS By Brian G. Marsden 7) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 8) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 9) NEW MARS IMAGES SHOW CLOSE-UP VIEW OF GIANT IMPACT CRATER JPL image advisory 10) MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS JPL release 11) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS CLIMATE ORBITER FAILURE BOARD RELEASES REPORT, NUMEROUS NASA ACTIONS UNDERWAY IN RESPONSE NASA release 99-134 10 November 1999 Wide-ranging managerial and technical actions are underway at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, in response to the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter and the initial findings of the mission failure investigation board, whose first report was released today. Focused on the upcoming landing of NASA's Mars Polar Lander, these actions include: a newly assigned senior management leader, freshly reviewed and augmented work plans, detailed fault tree analyses for pending mission events, daily telecons to evaluate technical progress and plan work yet to be done, increased availability of the Deep Space Network for communications with the spacecraft, and independent peer review of all operational and contingency procedures. The board recognizes that mistakes occur on spacecraft projects, the report said. However, sufficient processes are usually in place on projects to catch these mistakes before they become critical to mission success. Unfortunately for MCO, the processes in place in the MCO project did not catch the root cause. "We have mobilized the very best talent at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to respond thoroughly to the specific recommendations in the board's report and the other areas of concern highlighted by the board," said Dr. Edward Stone, director of JPL. "Special attention is being directed at navigation and propulsion issues, and a fully independent 'red team' will review and approve the closure of all subsequent actions. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to maximize the prospects for a successful landing on Mars on Dec. 3." The failure board's first report identifies eight contributing factors that led directly or indirectly to the loss of the spacecraft. These contributing causes include inadequate consideration of the entire mission and its post-launch operation as a total system, inconsistent communications and training within the project, and lack of complete end-to-end verification of navigation software and related computer models. "The 'root cause' of the loss of the spacecraft was the failed translation of English units into metric units in a segment of ground-based, navigation-related mission software, as NASA has previously announced," said Arthur Stephenson, chairman of the Mars Climate Orbiter Mission Failure Investigation Board. "The failure review board has identified other significant factors that allowed this error to be born, and then let it linger and propagate to the point where it resulted in a major error in our understanding of the spacecraft's path as it approached Mars. "Based on these findings, we have communicated a range of recommendations and associated observations to the team planning the landing of the Polar Lander, and the team has given these recommendations some serious attention," said Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. The board's report cites the following contributing factors: * Errors went undetected within ground-based computer models of how small thruster firings on the spacecraft were predicted and then carried out on the spacecraft during its interplanetary trip to Mars * The operational navigation team was not fully informed on the details of the way that Mars Climate Orbiter was pointed in space, as compared to the earlier Mars Global Surveyor mission * A final, optional engine firing to raise the spacecraft's path relative to Mars before its arrival was considered but not performed for several interdependent reasons * The systems engineering function within the project that is supposed to track and double-check all interconnected aspects of the mission was not robust enough, exacerbated by the first-time handover of a Mars-bound spacecraft from a group that constructed it and launched it to a new, multi-mission operations team * Some communications channels among project engineering groups were too informal * The small mission navigation team was oversubscribed and its work did not receive peer review by independent experts * Personnel were not trained sufficiently in areas such as the relationship between the operation of the mission and its detailed navigational characteristics, or the process of filing formal anomaly reports * The process to verify and validate certain engineering requirements and technical interfaces between some project groups, and between the project and its prime mission contractor, was inadequate The failure board will now proceed with its work on a second report due by February 1, 2000, which will address broader lessons learned and recommendations to improve NASA processes to reduce the probability of similar incidents in the future. Mars Climate Orbiter and its sister mission, the Mars Polar Lander, are part of a series of missions in a long-term program of Mars exploration managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. The Board's report is available on-line at ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/reports/1999/MCO_report.pdf Charts used in the briefing today are available on-line at ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/reports/1999/MCO_charts.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE PAYLOAD OF MARS EXPRESS RE-CONFIRMED From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 11 November 1999 The Science Programme Committee of the European Space Agency at its meeting on 9-10 November 1999 re-confirmed the payload of the Mars Express mission as approved in May 1998, with two important additions: * An Infrared channel, which was added to the SPICAM, UV and IR Atmospheric Spectrometer (PI: J.-L. Bertaux). In the light of the loss of NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, the new SPICAM configuration allows the recovery of a good part of the science objectives previously addressed by the Mars Climate Orbiter. * A Super Resolution Channel (SRC), added to the HRSC, High- resolution Stereo Colour Imager (PI: G. Neukum). This new channel will allow the collection of images at unprecedented resolution, which will create a reference database for many years to come. Another important element of the payload was also confirmed. Following the positive outcome of various reviews, both at UK and European level, the UK Mars lander Beagle-2 was considered sufficiently mature, both technically and financially, to commence Phase C/D in January 2000. The confirmation by SPC, as requested by the UK SPC delegation, comes in advance of the previously planned date (February 2000). As a consequence, the development of the entire Mars Express payload, Orbiter and Lander, can proceed in full harmony. Additional links for this story: * Mars Express payload http://www.estec.esa.nl/spdwww/mars/html/instruments.html * Mars Lander Beagle 2 http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress/mex-beagle2.html An image supporting this article is available at http://sci.esa.int/newsitem.cfm?TypeID=1&ContentID=7611&Storytyp e=22 ---------------------------------------------------------------- AMICO 2000: ASTEROIDS, METEORITES, IMPACTS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES Conference announcement http://ecf.hq.eso.org/~ralbrech/amico/ 8 November 1999 Asteroids, Meteorites, Impacts and their Consequences (AMICO 2000) Date: May 16-20, 2000 Place: Nordlingen im Ries, Germany Occasion: The celebration of the tenth anniversary of the "Ries-Krater-Museum" in Nordlingen Organized by: Professor Dr. Hubert Miller (Geologische Staatssammlung, München) for the Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft (DGG) Dr. Michael Schieber, Director of the Ries-Krater-Museum, Nördlingen Professor Dr. Nikolaus Vogt, Nördlingen, for the Astronomische Gesellschaft (AG), Coordinator Scientific Organizing Committees: Astronomy: Dr. Rudolf Albrecht, ESO/ST-ECF Garching Professor Dr. Peter Brosche, Observatorium Hoher List, Daun Dr. Gerhard Hahn, DLR, Berlin-Adlersdorf Professor Dr. Michael H. Soffel, Institut für Planetare Geodesie, Dresden Professor Dr. Heinrich Völk, MPI für Kernphysik, Heidelberg Geosciences: Professor Dr. Lutz Bischoff, Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut, Münster Professor Dr. Alexander Deutsch, Insitut für Planetologie, Münster Professor Dr. Christian Koeberl, Institut für Geochemie, Wien Professor Dr. Klaus Heide, Institut für Geowissenschaften, Jena Professor Dr. Ludolf Schultz, MPI für Chemie, Mainz Professor Dr. Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Geologisches Institut, Karlsruhe The Nordlinger Ries is one of the largest and best-documented impact craters in Europe. Therefore, in 1990 the "Ries-Krater- Museum" was inaugurated in Nordlingen. This museum demonstrates to the public the physics, the immediate effects and long-term consequences of an asteroid impact in a clear, evident and impressive manner, based on the most recent scientific knowledge. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this institution we are planning an international and interdisciplinary conference of astronomers, geologists, palaeontologists, mineralogists and other scientists of related areas for an international and interdisciplinary conference. It will cover the most important aspects of impacts in the solar system, in particular those of small bodies (asteroids, comets) on planets and their satellites, with special emphasis to Earth and Moon. The topic seems to hold growing interest, not only for specialists in natural science, but also for a larger public. Therefore we expect that this conference will also contribute to disseminate new scientific knowledge and recent results into the public on local, national and international levels. Principal Topics: *Small bodies in the solar system: asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust; *Meteorites: origin, age, analysis methods and items related to them; *Impact craters on Earth and other planets: statistics, ages, geologic structures, dating; *Geologic and mineralogic features of impacts: coloured breccia, suevite, shutter cones, tectits (moldavites) and others; *Computer simulations and laboratory experiments on impacts; *History of impact events on Earth and their consequences: massive extintion of species, periodicities etc; *Research on impacts and its importance to human society and for the assessment of mankind's position in the Universe. In addition to invited reviews referring on the above-mentioned topics the conference will also deal with contributions supplied either in form of oral reports or presentations of posters. Parallel sessions should be avoided. A considerable part of the available time should be devoted to interdisciplinary discussions. Posters should also be incorporated in these discussions, scheduling, p.e., special poster sessions. Conference language is English, only events for the public will be in German. Contact: Zieskrater-Museum Noerdlingen Eugene-Shoemaker-Platz 1 D-86720 Noerdlingen Germany Telephone: +49-9081-273 8220 Fax: +49-9081-273 82220 E mail: rieskratermuseum.noerdlingen@donau-ries.de ---------------------------------------------------------------- CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UTILIZATION By John-David F. Bartoe 9 November 1999 Come hear about the exciting research prospects on the International Space Station, and exchange ideas and information with your research colleagues and station personnel! NASA is co-sponsoring the Conference on International Space Station Utilization in Albuquerque, NM on 30 January – 3 February, 2000. Thirty-four sessions containing 160 sessions will cover all of the major research areas to be explored on the Space Station, including biotechnology, biomedicine, gravitational biology, materials science, fluids and combustion research, fundamental physics, space science, earth science, and engineering research. Several sessions on commercial research and service activities, as well as technical presentations on Space Station capabilities, are also included. The complete list of planned papers, as well as registration and logistics information can be found on the web at http://www- chne.unm.edu/isnps/staif/staif2000/staif2000.html We hope to see you there! ---------------------------------------------------------------- FREE EVENING LECTURE BRINGS NASA PHOTOS TO YOUR FINGERTIPS JPL release 9 November 1999 In its more than 40 years of existence, NASA has grabbed hundreds of thousands of snapshots of our solar system and beyond. But this tremendous image resource of knowledge and wonder often seems beyond the reach of both the general public and the science community. Methods for everyone to access NASA's rich library of space images through just a few keystrokes will be the topic of a free lecture on Thursday, November 18, 7 PM, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, and on Friday, November 19, 7 PM at The Forum at Pasadena City College, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd. Seating is first-come, first-served, and parking is free. "Public Access to Mission Data" will be presented by four JPL space image data specialists who will provide an overview of "Welcome to the Planets," an educational CD-ROM encompassing 190 images acquired over approximately 20 years of planetary exploration. An online version containing selected images is available at http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets. Speakers will also describe NASA's Planetary Photojournal, which uses Web technology to support a historical image archive. More than 100,000 users access this site each month. This service, designed to provide users with easy access to publicly released images from various solar system exploration programs, can be accessed at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov. An additional topic will be the Planetary Image Atlas, through which the public can search the vast amounts of primary, raw data collected by numerous planetary missions. Designed to provide access to all of the unprocessed data collected on NASA missions, it permits scientists to search for data on various planetary targets. It can be accessed at http://www- pdsimage.jpl.nasa.gov/PDS/ public/Atlas/Atlas.html. The speakers are associated with NASA's Planetary Data System, which archives and distributes digital data from NASA missions, astronomical observations and laboratory measurements (http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov), and JPL's Multimission Image Processing Lab, which provides science instrument data display, analysis, visualization, archival data record production and photo processing for NASA's planetary missions and for the Planetary Data System (http://www-mipl/MIPS.html). JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. This lecture is part of the von Karman Lecture Series, sponsored by the JPL Media Relations Office. Details: (818) 354-5011, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 200 POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS ASTEROIDS By Brian G. Marsden 11 November 1999 Today saw the announcement of the discovery of the two-hundredth PHA, or "potentially hazardous asteroid". This milestone was reached with 1999 VP11, found on Nov. 7 by LINEAR, the Massachusetts Institute of Techology's Lincoln Laboratory Near- Earth Asteroid Research project. In less than three years this project has yielded more than one-third of all the PHAs, which are asteroids that can pass within 0.05 astronomical unit (5 million miles) of the earth and are intrinsically brighter than absolute magnitude 22 (suggesting that they are more than about 600 feet across). The first PHA, known as Apollo, was discovered in 1932, and all but 15 of the PHAs have been found during the past 20 years. Just half of the PHAs have been discovered since the middle of 1997, with the recent LINEAR contribution supplemented by the University of Arizona's longstanding Spacewatch project, with 12 discoveries; the Near- Earth Asteroid Tracking program of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with six discoveries; the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, with five; and the Lowell Observatory Near- Earth Object Program, with four. The Arizona amateur astronomer Roy Tucker has discovered two PHAs. Mere categorization as a PHA does not imply that an object will pose any danger to the earth during the next tens of millennia and more, but this is a convenient subset of the more inclusive collection of Near-Earth Objects, most of which actually come nowhere near the earth. More than 40-percent of the PHAs have been so extensively observed that there is no way more than one or two of these could conceivably be a threat a half-millennium, say, from now. For another 30 or 40 percent the minimum distances between their orbits and that of the earth are currently too large for there to be any real possibility of an impact within the next half-millennium. Only a fraction warrant any serious examination for a possible impact during the next half-century or so. And that examination is now routinely occurring, thanks mainly to the efforts of the group at the University of Pisa. The number of actual cases found where there has been any conceivable danger during the next half century is remarkably small--four objects altogether. Knowing of these cases in a timely manner then allows special observational efforts to be made, including the search for images of these bodies in the old photographic archives. It should be no surprise that further observations will eliminate these possible dangers--almost all of the time... At least for the intrinsically brighter objects, which include those half a mile across and larger, and thanks to the dedication of an ever- increasing set of observers, professional and amateur, the process is working just fine. Produced at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://cfa- www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/pressinfo/200PHAs.html. E-mail: bmarsden@cfa.harvard.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 8-14 November 1999 Three weeks from its next close flyby of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, the Galileo spacecraft continues to process and transmit to Earth images and science data stored on its onboard tape recorder. The data were acquired during Galileo's previous flyby of Io on October 10 (Pacific Time). Data taken by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) and Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI) during that flyby are returned this week. Data playback is interrupted twice this week. Having performed a relatively large flight path adjustment last week, the spacecraft will fine-tune its flight path on Wednesday, if necessary. On Thursday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its propulsion systems. This week Galileo continues playing back observations from a third pass through the data stored on board. Additional passes through the tape recorder allow replay of data lost in transmission to Earth, reprocessing of data using different parameters, and/or return of additional new data. SSI continues to return images that are likely to be corrupted. They are being returned with the expectation that careful processing will allow important scientific information to be gleaned from some of these images. First on the playback schedule is the return of SSI and NIMS observations of Dorian Mons. Dorian Mons is a mountainous feature whose geological structure, origin and history are presently unknown. Furthermore, Dorian Mons is distinct from other similar features in that it shows greenish colored deposits. Next, SSI and NIMS return moderate resolution images and spectrometer scans of the Amirani, Skythia, and Gish Bar regions. In the final dual observation returned this week, SSI and NIMS return data from a region of Io's surface near the moon's terminator (the imaginary line between day and night). The oblique lighting conditions of the observation are optimal for studying the topography of this region, a region containing the Hi'iaka caldera. NIMS continues on the playback schedule with the return of a regional observation of Io. The observation was designed to study surface composition and detect thermal emissions. SSI returns the last observation of this week. It is a regional mosaic of Io that contains images that will be combined with data obtained in July to produce stereo views of the region For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 4 November 4, 1999 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1093 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 217 days Last Orbit Covered by this Report = 2946 Total Orbits = 4628 Total Mapping Orbits = 2946 Recent events: The mm008 sequence continues executing nominally and will continue execution through November 17. Development of the mm009 sequence has begun. Work has also begun on the development and validation of the mini-sequences required for MR commanding in support of the DS2 microprobes mission on December 3. It was reported last week that the HGA position error counts had stopped. Since then there have been several repeat occurrences of this event. A change has been approved to update the sampling rate for critical spacecraft telemetry that will allow us to more fully characterize and ascertain the cause of these counts. A test to power on the Mars Relay and exercise several of the modes required for support of the DS2 microprobes and the Mars Polar Lander on December 3 and beyond was successfully executed over November 3rd and 4th . A team at Stanford supported the checkout by listening for the MR signal. As of now they are reporting that they were unsuccessful in their attempts to receive a signal. All indications from the MR housekeeping telemetry packets, transmitted in the MOC data, however, indicate that the MR performed as expected. HGA anomaly: The HGA inner gimbal angle continues to decrease and is currently at 72.5 degrees. The inner gimbal angle will continue decreasing, reaching the location of the gimbal obstruction at 41.5 deg in early February. Work continues on the design and implementation of a new mapping data collection and return plan that will maximize the science data return for the remainder of the nominal mapping mission. STL (Spacecraft Test Laboratory) testing of a FSW patch to the HGA auto-track algorithm was successfully tested this week. The updated mapping command blocks have been generated and will be released to JPL early next week so they can begin implementing them in the sequencing software. This will support the start of system level validation in the STL in the next few weeks. Spacecraft health: All other subsystems continue to report nominal status. Uplinks: There have been 26 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 4056. Upcoming events: 1) Validation and uplink of the mm009 sequence November 15. 2) Validation and uplink of the DS2 MR mini-sequences. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NEW MARS IMAGES SHOW CLOSE-UP VIEW OF GIANT IMPACT CRATER JPL image advisory 8 November 1999 NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has taken a close-up look at a Martian impact crater that is three times the size of Earth's well-known Meteor Crater in Arizona. The new image, along with others taken during Mars Global Surveyor's ongoing mapping mission, is available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.msss.com. The detailed look at this impressive Martian feature shows many small windblown drifts, or dunes, in the low areas both within the crater and outside on the surrounding terrain. Some portions of the crater's walls exhibit outcrops of bare, layered rock. Large boulders, some bigger than school buses, have been dislodged from the walls and have tumbled down the slopes to the crater floor. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS JPL release 8 November 1999 Engineers say they are close to resolving a potential problem on NASA's Mars Polar Lander uncovered by the NASA panel appointed to investigate the recent loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter. The NASA investigation board, chaired by Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., found that cold temperatures could affect the performance Mars Polar Lander's descent engine, which begins firing at about 2 kilometers (about 1½ miles) altitude during the descent to Mars surface. As a result of the finding, a team of engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has developed procedures to warm up the engine system prior to firing. In addition, the team has analyzed descent engine performance at a range of temperatures to assess its predicted performance upon arrival. Updated operations plans call for turning on propellant system heaters several hours prior to the spacecraft's entry into Mars' atmosphere. This strategy will increase the expected temperature of the descent engines to 8 degrees Celsius (46.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Analysis indicates that at this temperature, the engines will perform as designed. Ground-based testing of an actual descent engine was conducted last week at the descent engine manufacturer's test facility. The initial test results suggest acceptable engine start-up performance is achieved when the catalyst bed, where engine firing initiates, is at temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit). More ground-based test firings are scheduled to better characterize engine performance at various temperatures. Mars Polar Lander successfully performed its third course correction on October 30, and another maneuver to fine-tune the flight path is scheduled for November 30. The spacecraft remains in good health. On November 1, the spacecraft's landing radar system was turned on for the first time since launch and successfully performed its internal self-test. Test results show the unit's integrity is sound, and all electrical functional test results were within the expected range. The landing radar will not be turned on again until landing day. The radar system is activated just after separation of the lander's heat shield, following parachute deployment, and begins searching for the surface. Once the system recognizes the Martian surface, it must generate data for approximately 60 seconds, providing altitude and velocity measurements to the spacecraft's onboard guidance system for powered descent. Mars Climate Orbiter was lost as it was entering orbit around Mars on September 23. The orbiter and lander are part of a series of missions in a long-term program of Mars exploration managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 12 November 1999 The Stardust spacecraft continues to perform normally in cruise. The Flight Team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) performed minimal housekeeping activities. Some of the planned Deep Space Network communications sessions with STARDUST were released for use by the Mars Polar Lander project. The Flight Team experienced its first event where a command was not successfully received by the spacecraft. A minor Flight Software patch was not received by the spacecraft with the spacecraft notifying the LMA team of this occurrence. The command will be sent again next week during the next planned communication session. A meeting was held at the University of Chicago to determine which test and operational modes the Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI) will be used. The DFMI will be tested in about 6 months in its comet encounter mode and then used in this mode during Earth gravity assist flyby as well as at Comet Wild 2. An additional test may be made to study another operational mode to be implemented at Comet Wild 2 where DFMI would be powered on for short periods of time to provide additional dust information. 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. 37