MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 1, 10 January 2000. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Biology and Chemistry Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. 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 from 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) "THINK MARS": ONLINE PETITION URGES MANNED MISSION From CNN 2) THE FUTURE OF THE GALILEO MISSION JPL release 3) FIRST SALUTE: MARTIAN FLAG FLIES IN SPACE Mars Society release 4) END OF NASA SPACE SCIENCE NEWS By John Horack 5) ACRIMSAT MISSION STATUS JPL release 6) CASSINI MISSION STATUS JPL release 7) GALILEO MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 8) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 9) MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS JPL release 10) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release ---------------------------------------------------------------- "THINK MARS": ONLINE PETITION URGES MANNED MISSION From CNN 28 December 1999 A group of space enthusiasts are pushing ahead with a petition calling for a manned flight to the red planet, undaunted by the failure in recent months of two unmanned missions to Mars. The Mars Petition, which sets 2015 as a goal for humans to set foot on the planet nearest Earth, has received more than 10 thousand electronic signatures since Think Mars, the Mars Society and other space-related web sites launched it earlier this month. Get the full story at http://www.cnn.com/1999/TECH/space/12/28/mars.petition/ Sign the petition at http://thinkmars.net/petition.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE FUTURE OF THE GALILEO MISSION JPL release 3 January 2000 NASA Headquarters has agreed in principle to extend the Galileo mission past its planned January 31 finale. Details of funding and itinerary for the new extended mission, to be called the Galileo Millennium Mission, must still be resolved. A Europa encounter took place January 3, 2000, and is technically still part of the current, extended Galileo Europa Mission. Another Io flyby is planned for February 22, with flybys of Ganymede on May 30 and December 28, and joint observations of Jupiter with the Cassini spacecraft in December 2000. Galileo engineers like to say that the spacecraft has already lived "well past its warranty", surviving radiation exposure more than twice the level it was designed to withstand. Although the radiation has created some problems with spacecraft instruments, Galileo is still functioning well. There's no way to predict how long the spacecraft will remain healthy, but as long as it does, it provides valuable opportunities for exploration. In addition, it will serve as a flying testbed of how electronic parts really survive through high radiation exposure over long periods. [Additional information on this story can be obtained at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast03jan_1.htm] ---------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST SALUTE: MARTIAN FLAG FLIES IN SPACE Mars Society release 5 January 2000 During its brilliantly successful Christmas mission to refurbish and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, the Space Shuttle Discovery carried a martian flag into orbit for the first time. The martian flag carried aboard Discovery was a red, green and blue tricolor, with the vertical red segment closest to the mast, followed by the green, and then the blue. Its form was originally suggested to Mars Society president Robert Zubrin by Mars Arctic Research Station task force leader Pascal Lee during their summer 1999 site selection expedition to Devon Island. The red, green and blue colors derive from stages of Mars' transformation from barrenness to life depicted in the epic "Red Mars," "Green Mars," "Blue Mars" trilogy written by Kim Stanley Robinson. Red, green and blue are also the primary components of the spectrum, symbolizing unity in diversity, as well as light itself, and thus reason and enlightenment. The tricolor form also traditionally represents the republican values of liberty, equality and justice. The flag was sewn by Maggie Zubrin and brought aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery at the invitation of astronaut John Mace Grunsfeld. Astronauts are allowed to manifest several items of special importance on Space Shuttle flights of an official nature. In her book, "The First Salute," the historian Barbara Tuchman wrote, "White puffs of gun smoke over a turquoise sea followed by the boom of cannon rose from the unassuming fort on the diminutive Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the West Indies on November 16, 1776. The guns of Fort Orange on St. Eustatius were returning the ritual salute on entering a foreign port of an American vessel, the Andrea Doria, as she came up the roadstead, flying at her mast the red-and-white-striped flag of the Continental Congress. In its responding salute, the small voice of St. Eustatius was the first to officially greet the largest event of the century--the entry into the society of nations of a new Atlantic state destined to change the direction of history." The martian flag, representing some of the noblest ideals human civilization has to offer, has now been honored by a vessel of the leading spacefaring nation of the Earth. It is fitting that this action occurred when it did--at the dawning of a new millennium--for surely the largest event of the next era will be the birth of the first of humanity's new nations in space. Mars now has a great flag, one that calls for a great new people to fulfill its promise. Three cheers for the red, green and blue! About The Mars Society The Mars Society is a non-profit organization. Our purpose is to further the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. This will be done by: 1. Broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering Mars. 2. Support of ever more aggressive government funded Mars exploration programs around the world. 3. Conducting Mars exploration on a private basis. Starting small, with hitchhiker payloads on government funded missions, we intend to use the credibility that such activity will engender to mobilize larger resources that will enable stand-alone private robotic missions and ultimately human exploration. For more information, contact: Dr. Robert Zubrin The Mars Society Indian Hills, Colorado, 80454 Telephone: 303.980.0890 http://www.marssociety.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- END OF NASA SPACE SCIENCE NEWS By John Horack 7 January 2000 The NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center will no longer support the production and maintenance of the http://science.nasa.gov site, effective 10 January 2000. Archive material that is in the public domain will be available courtesy of Bishop Web Works, at http://spacescience.com. Thank you for your readership over the past three years. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ACRIMSAT MISSION STATUS JPL release 21 December 1999 NASA's Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (AcrimSat)--a satellite designed to measure the total amount of sunlight falling on Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land, and improve predictions of long-term climate change--lifted off at 11:13 PM Pacific Standard Time December 20 aboard a Taurus rocket. The night launch from Space Launch Complex 576 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, begins a five-year science mission to monitor incoming solar radiation and help scientists determine whether an increase in sunlight is contributing to a rise in global temperatures. The Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor sun sensor, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, is the third in a series of missions to measure variations in total incoming solar energy, known as total solar irradiance. The solar-monitoring satellite, a secondary payload riding along with the primary Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite, was deployed 16 minutes after launch, at 11:29 PM, some 90 seconds after the primary satellite was released. Ground controllers at the McMurdo Ground Station in Antarctica acquired AcrimSat's signal about 20 minutes after launch, at about 11:33 PM The 115- kilogram (253-pound) satellite is currently circling Earth from a polar orbit at an altitude of 685 kilometers (425 miles). The satellite operations team will monitor spacecraft health, including AcrimSat's operating temperature, state of battery charging, Sun-pointing performance and the overall condition of all onboard systems in the next two weeks. Once all systems have been checked, instrument checkouts will be conducted to assure normal performance of the sun sensors before science operations begin. The Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor instrument is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Earth Sciences, Washington, DC. Columbia University's Science Computing Facility, Coronado, CA, will oversee science operations. The primary ground station is located at JPL's Table Mountain Observatory, Wrightwood, CA. Orbital Sciences Dulles, MD, built the Taurus launch vehicle and Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor satellite. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CASSINI MISSION STATUS JPL release 20 December 1999 With its odometer marking some 2 billion kilometers (about 1.25 billion miles) of space travel, the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft has just entered the solar system's asteroid belt, the seldom-traversed ring of small rocky bodies that exists between Mars and Jupiter. The Cassini flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, reports that the spacecraft remains in excellent health and on track for its arrival at Saturn in July 2004. The mission is a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Telecommunications with the spacecraft are conducted through NASA's Deep Space Network of large, sensitive antennas located at stations in Spain, Australia and California. Cassini, launched October 15, 1997, passed by Earth in late August, using the pull of Earth's gravity to boost the spacecraft's speed and direct it toward the outer planets on its journey. Several of the spacecraft's science instruments recorded data during the Earth flyby, and preliminary results were presented by investigators last week at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco. The mission and science teams are busy preparing plans for Cassini's four-year orbital tour of Saturn. They are also working on additional opportunities to make observations and test out Cassini's science instruments during the spacecraft's flyby of Jupiter on December 30, 2000, from a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles). Cassini, carrying 12 scientific experiments, will enter orbit around the ringed planet in July 2004, and in November of that year, release the European Space Agency's Huygens probe to descend to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GALILEO MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 3 January 2000 NASA's Galileo spacecraft has kicked off the new year with a successful flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. The spacecraft swooped past Europa at an altitude of 351 kilometers (218 miles) today at 10:38 AM Pacific Standard Time. The spacecraft is operating normally, and it appears that its instruments have completed their observations of the magnetic fields and charged particles around Europa. These observations were designed to detect any magnetic disturbances that may occur because of electrical currents set up in an ocean that may lie beneath Europa's icy crust. The prospect of a liquid ocean on Europa is intriguing, since water is one of the ingredients essential for life. Because Galileo passed behind Europa during the flyby, its radio signal to Earth was blocked for a while. Scientists took advantage of this situation by studying the way the radio signal changed as the spacecraft entered this "silent zone." These radio science experiments teach us more about Europa's ionosphere--the region of charged particles surrounding the moon--and any possible atmosphere. Observations of three of Jupiter's small natural satellites--Amalthea, Thebe, and Metis-- are planned for Galileo this evening, with observations of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io on the spacecraft's agenda for the early morning. All data gathered during this flyby are being stored on Galileo's onboard tape recorder. They will be transmitted to Earth during the coming weeks. 4 January 2000 Engineers say it appears that NASA's Galileo spacecraft has chalked up its first successful encounter of the year 2000. This encounter began when the spacecraft flew over Jupiter's icy moon Europa on Monday morning, January 3, at an altitude of 351 kilometers (218 miles). Galileo then performed observations of three of Jupiter's smaller moons--Amalthea, Thebe and Metis--at 7:30 PM Pacific Standard Time on Monday. The encounter was capped off with several observations of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io at about 4 AM PST Tuesday, January 4. The spacecraft is operating normally, and engineers believe all the observations were successfully recorded on Galileo's onboard tape recorder. The recordings will be transmitted to Earth starting on Wednesday, January 5. During this flyby, it appears that Galileo's instruments completed observations designed to detect any magnetic disturbances triggered by electrical currents set up in a possible ocean lying beneath Europa's icy crust. While Galileo passed behind Europa during the flyby, its radio signal to Earth was blocked. Scientists studied the signal changes to learn more about the moon's ionosphere--a region of charged particles that surrounds it--and any possible atmosphere. Radiation levels during this encounter were about average for the region. The only apparent effects of the radiation were false indications of computer resets onboard the spacecraft, a common radiation-related occurrence during previous Galileo encounters. Onboard software successfully handled these errors, and the flyby continued. Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter and its moons since December 1995, beaming to Earth unprecedented images and other information. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. ---------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 3-9 January 2000 Galileo returns to Europa this week in its first post-GEM (Galileo Europa Mission) encounter. The first of the Galileo Millennium Mission, the Europa flyby occurs on Galileo's 27th orbit around Jupiter since arrival at the gas giant in December 1995. The Galileo Europa Mission, a two-year extension of Galileo's primary mission, began in December 1997 and was comprised of eight flybys of Europa, four flybys of Callisto and two flybys of Io. The last flyby of Io occurred on November 25, 1999. Galileo's time at Jupiter has provided a wealth of science information about Jupiter and its many moons. The spacecraft is beginning to show the effects of 10 years in space and dozens of passages through the radiation belts near Jupiter. The spacecraft is operating and returning valuable data, and the proposed Galileo Millennium Mission will continue Galileo's work at Jupiter into the next millennium. Encounter commands for the Europa flyby began to execute late Saturday night Pacific Time. The start of the encounter brought with it the resumption of the Fields and Particles instruments' survey of Jupiter's magnetosphere. This survey has been performed from orbit to orbit and has allowed scientists to study the long-term variations of the inner portions of Jupiter's magnetosphere. Encounter activities continue through Friday evening, January 7. There are a relatively small number of observations associated with this encounter. This is due to a number of reasons, including having been allocated less antenna time from the Deep Space Network than in the previous two orbits, a decrease in Galileo's orbit period (allowing for less time to prepare commands for the encounter), a desire to return data recorded during the November encounter with Io, and the numerous activities needed to ensure that Galileo's tour will continue at least through another encounter with Io in February 2000. The Europa flyby occurs on Monday, January 3 at 10:00 am PST. Radio signals indicating that the flyby has occurred, however, won't be received on Earth until 39 minutes later, or 10:39 am PST. The time difference is due to the fact that the spacecraft is approximately 697 million kilometers (433 million miles) from Earth and it will take radio signals just under 39 minutes to travel between the spacecraft and Earth. The spacecraft flies over Europa's surface at an altitude of 343 kilometers (213 miles). That is about the same altitude at which the Space Shuttle orbits around the Earth! During the week, two other flyby events are notable. At 7:33 PM PST (8:22 PM PST Earth receive) on Monday night, the spacecraft flies past Jupiter's cloud tops at a distance of 4.8 Jupiter radii (343,000 kilometers or 213,000 miles). Three hours and 23 minutes later, the spacecraft makes its closest approach to Io, at an altitude of 214,000 kilometers (133,000 miles) above Io's surface. The first science activity of the encounter is conducted by the Radio Science team here on Earth. For 45 minutes on either side of the Europa flyby, radio scientists will monitor Galileo's radio signal. The Europa flyby will take the spacecraft behind Europa as seen from Earth. As that occurs, Galileo's radio signal will pass through Europa's tenuous atmosphere, will be weakened and slightly refracted until it is completely blocked by Europa. Signal strength and integrity are reestablished as Galileo emerges from behind Europa. The measurements made by the Radio Science team will allow them to determine how the density of electrons in Europa's atmosphere changes with altitude from Europa's surface. Starting 30 minutes prior to closest approach to Europa, the Fields and Particles instruments begin recording high resolution measurements of the plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields surrounding Europa. 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 recording lasts a total of 60 minutes and its primary purpose is to determine if Europa has an induced magnetic field. Such a field signature would indicate the presence of a conducting layer inside Europa, another piece of circumstantial evidence that liquid water is present beneath Europa's surface. Shortly following the Europa flyby, the spacecraft's Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI) snaps a series of images of Europa. The images are designed to help fulfill three different objectives. The first is to validate some models that have been developed to explain the formation of sharp edge ridges on Europa. The second is to look at the ejecta surrounding a multi-ring impact feature named Callanish in hopes of determining if the impact penetrated into Europa's suspected sub-surface ocean. The third objective is to look at some blotchy-looking, or mottled, terrain in hopes of seeing evidence of ice flows. Toward the end of Monday, SSI turns its attention to three of Jupiter's smaller moons. SSI snaps an image of each of Amalthea, Thebe, and Metis. These images will provide the best resolution views of these moons, almost a factor of 2 better than the best previous images in the case of Amalthea and Metis. This increased resolution should aid scientists significantly in evaluating the shape and surface conditions of these smaller moons. Two more observations are performed on Tuesday, January 4. These take a look at Io. The first is performed by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) and captures a near- global observation of the hemisphere of Io that contains the volcanic region of Loki. SSI also snaps a color series of images of this hemisphere. Outbound from Jupiter, the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUV) makes the final observation of the encounter. Scheduled to last just short of 44 hours starting on Wednesday, January 5, the observation is performed in near-real-time, which means that the EUV data is not stored on the spacecraft's tape recorder, but rather it is directly transmitted to Earth after processing and packaging. The observation takes a look at the Io torus, a doughnut-shaped region with its inner edge bounded by Io's orbit. It is a region of intense plasma and radiation activity, in which there are strong magnetic and electric fields. Similar observations have been performed during Galileo's previous encounters, and the data set will allow scientists to examine long term variations in the torus' size and shape, with the goal of understanding energy transfer between the torus and the overall Jovian magnetosphere. The return of data stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder is initiated on Wednesday, January 5. The data played back this week were acquired during Galileo's November flyby of Io. The Fields and Particles instruments return portions of a 3-hour high-resolution recording of the Io plasma torus. The recording gathered data from six Jupiter radii (429,000 kilometers or 267,000 miles) above Jupiter's cloud tops down to an altitude of 5 Jupiter radii (357,000 kilometers or 222,000 miles), making it the third deepest torus recording of Galileo's entire mission to date. The data acquired during the recording will be used to understand the structure and dynamics of plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields in the torus region. The data will also be important for understanding the overall dynamics of the Jovian magnetosphere. Data playback is interrupted twice this week. On Wednesday, the spacecraft performs a standard test on its attitude control gyroscopes, and a test to slew its scan platform. On Friday, the spacecraft performs a flight path adjustment, if necessary. 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS JPL release 22 December 1999 Flight controllers for Mars Polar Lander are continuing to work through their fault-tree scenarios in their ongoing attempts to communicate with the spacecraft. Chances of recovering the lander remain remote. Team members plan to continue looking for a signal from the lander through mid-January, and at that point they will be in a position of having exhausted all possible recovery modes. Late last week, NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft began an imaging campaign to look for evidence of the lander, parachute or aeroshell. So far, nothing has been detected. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has appointed a special review board to evaluate the apparent loss of Mars Polar Lander and the Deep Space 2 microprobes. The board will attempt to determine the possible root causes for these losses and identify actions needed to assure success in future Mars landings. The 12-member JPL board will be chaired by John Casani and is made up of members from JPL, Caltech, other NASA centers and industry. The findings of the board will be presented in a written report due by March 3, 2000. The board will offer its cooperation and assistance to related NASA efforts including the agency's Mars Program Independent Assessment Team. Mars Polar Lander is part of a series of missions in a long- term program of Mars exploration managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 29 December 1999 In preparation for the Trajectory Correction Maneuver A (TCM-A), the Sample Return Capsule (SRC) backshell was closed. The backshell would act as a flexible body when the 4.45-Newton thrusters are fired if left in its open position, possibly effecting the Attitude Control Subsystem stability. Therefore the backshell will be closed for all TCM's; however it will not be locked. The backshell will remain closed until late February when the Aerogel Collector is deployed for the first inter- stellar dust collection period. The Flight Team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics executed TCM-A flawlessly on December 28, with the spacecraft performing an 11 meter/second burn. The burn was performed in an attitude and configuration needed to perform the much larger Deep Space Maneuver-1 (DSM-1) in about 3 weeks. It appears that the maneuver was very accurate and the operational experience gained represents a major risk reduction for performing DSM-1. The Spacecraft Test Laboratory (STL) testing of the Multi-Firing Flight Software (FSW) patch has started. This patch is scheduled to be installed on the spacecraft on January 3, 2000. After installation, the All-Stellar demonstration will be performed. All-Stellar Mode was successfully demonstrated in October, however, a pre-launch lien (Multi-Firing FSW patch) had not been installed. If all is successful then the transition to All-Stellar Mode will be made on January 5, 2000. 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 Volume 7, Number 1