MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 2, 17 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) MARS PROGRAM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT TEAM BEGINS WORK NASA release 00-6 2) MARS PROGRAM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT TEAM MEETS AT JPL NASA release 3) SPACE STATION RESEARCH SHOULD BE MANAGED BY PRIVATE ORGANIZATION INSTEAD OF NASA National Academy of Sciences release 4) POSSIBLE ASTRONOMICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE- CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS IN THE CIRCUMSTELLAR ENVIRONMENT American Astronomical Society release 5) PLANET SEARCH RESULTS SUGGEST OUR SOLAR SYSTEM MAY BE UNCOMMON By Pam Frost, Ohio State University 6) ASTEROID POPULATION COUNT SLASHED JPL release 7) YALE RESEARCHER FINDS NUMBER OF "NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS" ARE FEWER THAN BELIEVED Yale University release 8) NASA LIFE SCIENCE PROGRAM GETS A NEW NAME NASA release 9) MARS EXPRESS CONSTRUCTION BEGINS From ESA Science News 10) OFFICE OF LIFE AND MICROGRAVITY SCIENCES AND APPLICATIONS AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING PRESENT A SYMPOSIUM ON THE STS- 95 RESEARCH RESULTS NASA release 11) GALILEO FINDINGS BOOST IDEA OF OTHER-WORLDLY OCEAN NASA release 00-7 12) WHEREFORE ART THOU, SCIENCE@NASA? By Tony Philips 13) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 14) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR MISSION STATUS JPL release 15) MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 16) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS JPL releases --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS PROGRAM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT TEAM BEGINS WORK NASA release 00-6 7 January 2000 Sixteen experienced engineers, scientists and executives have been named by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to form the Mars Program Independent Assessment Team. The team is holding its initial organizational meeting today at NASA Headquarters. Chaired by Thomas Young, retired executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Corp., this team has been chartered to review the agency's approach to robotic exploration of Mars in the wake of the recent loss of the Mars Polar Lander mission. The team's participants are: * James Arnold, Deputy Director, Aerospace Directorate, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA * Thomas Brackey, Executive Director for Technical Operations, Hughes Space and Communications Co., Los Angeles, CA * Michael Carr, planetary geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA * Douglas Dwoyer, Associate Director for Research and Technology Competencies, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA * Gen. Ronald Fogelman, U.S. Air Force (retired) * Maj. Gen. Ralph Jacobsen, U.S. Air Force (retired) and president emeritus of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory * Herb Kottler, Associate Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA * Peter Lyman, consultant, Pasadena, CA * Joanne Maguire, Vice President for Group Development, TRW Space & Technology Group, Redondo Beach, CA * Robert Pattishall, Director of Advanced Systems and Technology, National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, VA * Larry Soderblom, planetary scientist, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ * Peter Staudhammer, Vice President for Science and Technology, TRW Inc., Cleveland, OH * Kathy Thornton, Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and retired NASA astronaut * Peter Wilhelm, Director of the Naval Center for Space Technology, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC * Brian Williams, Assistant Professor, MIT Space Systems Laboratory, Cambridge, MA * Maria Zuber, Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, MIT The team will evaluate several recent successful and unsuccessful NASA missions to deep space, including Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander, Deep Space 1 and Deep Space 2. It will analyze the budgets, content, schedule, management structure and scientific organization of these missions. It will then assess how these roles and responsibilities are related to mission safety, reliability and success. It will also review proposed revisions to NASA's existing Mars exploration program architecture as options are developed by a group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. The team will brief the NASA administrator on their findings by mid- March 2000. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS PROGRAM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT TEAM MEETS AT JPL NASA release 13 January 2000 The Mars Program Independent Assessment Team, appointed by the NASA Administrator to review the agency's approach to the robotic exploration of Mars in the wake of the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, has concluded a two and a half day meeting at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. The Assessment Team heard detailed reports from JPL senior management about the Laboratory's overall Mars Program management structure and about the history of the Mars Program. They also heard from members of several Mars projects, including key people from the Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter projects. "Our team is at the beginning of our fact-finding mission. We are asking a lot of questions and JPL is cooperating by giving us detailed answers," said Thomas Young, chair of the Assessment Team. "Our job is to look at NASA's overall approach to the robotic exploration of Mars." The team will evaluate several recent successful and unsuccessful NASA missions to deep space, including Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander, Deep Space 1 and Deep Space 2. It will analyze the budgets, content, schedule, management structure and scientific organization of these missions. It will then assess how these roles and responsibilities are related to mission safety, reliability and success. During the next few weeks, the team will be meeting at Lockheed Martin in Denver and at NASA Headquarters and will return to JPL for follow-up discussions. The JPL Mars Polar Lander Failure Review Board, chaired by John Casani, is meeting concurrently and will present their findings to the Assessment Team. Both the JPL Review Board and the NASA Assessment Team are due to issue their final reports by mid-March 2000. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SPACE STATION RESEARCH SHOULD BE MANAGED BY PRIVATE ORGANIZATION INSTEAD OF NASA National Academy of Sciences release 11 January 2000 A private organization capable of representing the broad interests of the science and engineering research community should be established to manage U.S. research activities on the International Space Station, says a new report from the National Research Council of the National Academies. The proposed organization would focus on supporting the research agenda of the space station, including planning and scheduling experiments, while NASA would continue to manage the station's construction, basic operations, and maintenance. "NASA must act quickly to ensure that the proposed organization is in place and actively involved in coordinating research plans well before the scheduled completion of the space station in 2004," said Cornelius J. Pings of Pasadena, CA, chair of the committee that wrote the report and president emeritus of the Association of American Universities. "The organization itself must have clear authority and adequate funding to fulfill its responsibilities for managing high-quality research." The committee cited areas where a private organization could be more effective than NASA in managing a diverse research portfolio. Chief among these is the ability to better understand and integrate the needs of a broad array of researchers and to foster new directions for research in additional scientific fields. An independent entity outside NASA also would provide the scientific and engineering research community with a single point of contact. NASA should use a competitive process to select an organization or consortium capable of managing space station research, the report says. The chosen institution should have an independent board of directors and a scientific director with extensive experience in managing a complex range of research activities, and be guided by an advisory process that is broadly representative of the research community. The staff should include scientists and engineers who will serve as contacts for investigators who are developing research activities, as well as for scientist astronauts who will reside on the station. One option that the committee evaluated was to keep managerial responsibility for the station's research activities within NASA. The committee did not recommend a continuation of current arrangements, however, because it concluded that the agency should not have to diffuse its traditional roles with the added responsibility of managing long-term research on the station. NASA most likely would not have the work force needed to manage the research and development function as well as the operational responsibilities of the station. In addition, NASA has an excellent track record of successfully handing off established, long-term projects, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, for which a nongovernment consortium manages all scientific activities. The proposed organization should take over from NASA the coordination of any space station research activities that the government is planning to manage for other international partners, the committee recommended. The new entity also should establish and maintain close working relationships with all non-U.S. organizations conducting research on the station. While engaging academic scientists and engineers, the new organization also should be responsible for stimulating commercial research uses of the space station. It should establish clear policies and procedures for protecting proprietary information and serve as an intermediary between NASA and other private sources to fund commercial research, the report says. Since the new organization must focus on start-up activities such as hiring staff and beginning to plan for the first series of research projects after station assembly is complete, there are certain roles that should still be performed by NASA. For instance, NASA should continue to manage the process of soliciting research proposals, conducting peer reviews, and selecting projects to include on the station, the committee said. Other activities that should remain indefinitely under NASA management include coordinating plans with other federal agencies and international partners. Once the station is complete and the proposed organization is in place, NASA would continue to set policy and develop strategy to keep the station operating safely. It is urgent for NASA to move quickly and establish the new organization by 2001, the committee said. Once the entity is in place, implementation of its responsibilities should begin immediately. This would include a period in which the new organization takes the lead in planning research activities for when the station is completed, and a later phase for taking on additional responsibilities and authority. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded the study. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that provides independent advice on science and technology issues under a congressional charter. A limited number of copies of Institutional Arrangements for Space Station Research are available from the National Research Council's Space Studies Board by contacting Claudette Baylor-Fleming at (202) 334-3477. The full report is available for online viewing at http://www.nap.edu/books/NI000236/html/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- POSSIBLE ASTRONOMICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE-CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS IN THE CIRCUMSTELLAR ENVIRONMENT American Astronomical Society release 12 January 2000 Ever since the Miller-Urey experiment in 1953, most scientists have held the view that life arose on the early Earth from simple inorganic molecules. With a suitable energy source (e.g. lightning) and a hospitable environment (e.g. oceans), complex organic molecules such as sugars and amino acids are thought to have originated from methane, hydrogen, and ammonia. These organic molecules then formed the basis of life as we have today. However, recent astronomical observations have discovered that complex organic molecules exist in stellar environments. Using the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, astronomers Sun Kwok and Kevin Volk (University of Calgary) and Bruce Hrivnak (Valparaiso University) have found signatures of organic molecules with aliphatic and aromatic structures in the circumstellar envelopes of old stars. In a paper that they presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting today in Atlanta, they showed that chemical synthesis can occur rapidly. Over a period of only several thousand years, small organic molecules with aliphatic structures are shown to have evolved into large, complex aromatic molecules. They were able to come to this conclusion by comparing the infrared spectra of very evolved red giants, proto-planetary nebulae, and planetary nebulae. Since only a few thousand years in evolutionary time separate these stars, their different infrared spectra give the most direct evidence of chemical synthesis in stars. "Although we do not understand how chemical reactions can occur so efficiently in such a low density environment", said Dr. Kwok, "there is no doubt that such complex molecules exist, and the stars are able to make them with no difficulty". In the last 15 years, Drs. Kwok and Hrivnak have pioneered the study of proto-planetary nebulae, and these stars have turned out to be rich in complex molecules. Since these stars are very short lived, the molecules present in their circumstellar envelopes must have been manufactured recently. The chemical pathway begins with the synthesis of acetylene, which is detected in the envelopes of red giants. Acetylene then serve as the building blocks for aromatic molecules such as benzene and more complicated aromatic hydrocarbons. Since these molecules are eventually ejected into the interstellar medium, it is quite possible that some of them will end up on planets such as the Earth. If this is the case, life on Earth could have an easier start than previously believed. The detection of such complex organic molecules in stellar envelopes also leads to the speculation that even amino acids could be synthesised, although the detection of such molecules is beyond the capabilities of the current generation of space telescopes. Should such molecules one-day be found in the envelopes of old stars, they could provide a pathway such that life could indeed be common in the universe. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and NASA. For more information, please contact Dr. Sun Kwok by telephone at 1-403-220-5414 (office), 1-403- 830-8395 (cell), or by email at kwok@iras.ucalgary.ca. Image caption: [http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~kwok/Image1.jpg] The Water Lily Nebula in the constellation of Ara is one of the proto-planetary nebulae where complex organic molecules with aliphatic and aromatic structures are found. This picture was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera on June 28, 1999. Photo credit: Sun Kwok, Bruce Hrivnak, and Kate Su. --------------------------------------------------------------------- PLANET SEARCH RESULTS SUGGEST OUR SOLAR SYSTEM MAY BE UNCOMMON By Pam Frost, Ohio State University 12 January 2000 An Ohio State University astronomer is helping to answer a question mankind has asked since Copernicus first proclaimed that Earth orbited the sun: could many other stars have planetary systems like ours? The answer may not please those who believe such planetary systems are required for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. "Our results seem to indicate that whatever happened when our solar system formed was not the norm," elsewhere in the galaxy, said B. Scott Gaudi, a graduate student in astronomy at Ohio State. Gaudi has developed a new method for zeroing in on the likelihood that extra-solar planets exist. He and his colleagues at the Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) [http://www.astro.rug.nl/~psackett/NVWS/MicroPLANET.html] collaboration have calculated that less than 45 percent of stars could harbor planets in a configuration similar to our solar system. "While a couple of dozen extra-solar planets have been detected by other collaborations, these systems are very unlike our own, and probably not capable of sustaining advanced life forms," said Andrew Gould, associate professor of astronomy and Gaudi's advisor. "What Scott has shown is that when you look for systems we Earthlings would feel comfortable in, they are not that easy to find." At the biannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Gaudi presented an analysis of two years' worth of PLANET data. The eight institutions that make up the PLANET collaboration, including Ohio State, watch the skies for signs of gravitational lensing--what happens when a massive dark object in space such as a dim star crosses in front of a luminous source star in the background. The dark object bends light rays emanating from the source like a lens or magnifying glass. Here on Earth, we see the star get brighter as the lens crosses in front of it, and then fade as the lens gets farther away. This is what astronomers call a "lensing event." Gaudi explained that the collaboration's data closely matches astronomers' theories of what lensing events should look like. Given that, planets orbiting stars should reveal themselves as a warp in the gravitational lens--a "blip" of extra brightness during a lensing event. Other planet hunters use different techniques that can only detect planets as close to a star as Mercury is to ours, whereas gravitational lensing enables PLANET to see Jupiter-like planets at Jupiter-like distances from stars. They haven't seen any blips yet. In its five years of operation, PLANET hasn't detected any planets. "If you look really hard to find something, and you don't find it, there are two possible reasons why: either you're not looking hard enough, or it's not there," Gaudi said. "The difference between these two possibilities depends on the efficiency with which gravitational lensing should reveal the existence of planets given their size, distance, and angle of alignment with a star as viewed from earth," he continued. Without any detections, PLANET cannot point to an exact number of planets that do exist, but can put an upper limit on the number of such planets that can exist. Based on 23 lensing events that occurred in 1998 and 1999, Gaudi calculated that less than 30 percent of stars could have a Jupiter-like planet at distances between Earth's orbit and Jupiter's orbit. "Radial velocity surveys are finding that about 10 percent of stars have planets close in," said Gaudi. "We can say that most don't have Jupiter-mass planets in the distance between Earth's orbit and Jupiter's. So more often than not there aren't Jupiter-mass planets around these stars at those distances." With the current data, PLANET cannot put limits on how many identical twins of Jupiter exist. But the fact that PLANET hasn't found any planets three times the size of Jupiter or bigger at Jupiter-like distances suggests that Jupiter-like planets in general are not very common, Gaudi said. "You might expect that if we have a Jupiter, then other solar systems probably have Jupiters three or even five times bigger," he said. "But the fact that we're not detecting any planets bigger than Jupiter probably indicates that there aren't many Jupiters out there." "We're going to continue to push that limit down farther," Gaudi said. "Either we'll push it down to 10 percent, or we'll find something." Other PLANET member institutions include: the Kapteyn Institute, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland; South African Astronomical Observatory, Capetown, South Africa; University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Perth Observatory, Bickley, Western Australia; and Canopus Observatory, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. PLANET operates telescopes at many different longitudes around the world, so members can watch the sky at all times, weather permitting. "We like to say the sun never rises on our collaboration," Gaudi smiled. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTEROID POPULATION COUNT SLASHED JPL release 12 January 2000 NASA scientists taking a census of large asteroids in our solar system neighborhood have cut their estimate in half. The revised calculation comes from data gathered by NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking System (NEAT) and published in the January 13 issue of the journal Nature. "Until now, scientists thought the population of large, near-Earth asteroids was between 1,000 and 2,000, but we've downgraded that figure significantly," said Dr. David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, CT, lead author of the article and NEAT co-investigator. "We now believe there are between 500 and 1,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than one kilometer (about 0.6 miles) in diameter. "This newer estimate was made possible by the computerized technology of the NEAT camera," Rabinowitz said. The NASA-funded system began tracking near Earth asteroids and comets in 1995 with a charge- coupled device camera mounted on a 1-meter (39-inch) Air Force telescope atop Mount Haleakala on Maui, HI. The new figures may represent good news in the quest to achieve NASA's stated goal of finding 90 percent of all large, near-Earth asteroids by 2010, according to Pravdo. "Right now we know of 322 large, near-Earth asteroids," he said. "That was a fairly small fraction of the 2,000 asteroids in our previous estimate. With our new calculations of between 500 and 1,000 such objects, this 322 figure represents a large chunk." While stressing that we must learn more about potential hazards from asteroids, Rabinowitz said, "None of the asteroids we've observed will hit Earth anytime in the near future." "This new analysis reduces by half the estimated number of these potential hazards to Earth," Pravdo said. "In the past, we relied on humans poring over photographic plates of the nighttime sky," Rabinowitz said. "The problem was, they didn't know how many asteroids they were missing, because they couldn't see faint objects. People's eyes also became tired and teary and they overlooked some objects. Machines don't get tired." "With this computerized technology, we can find asteroids more easily and count them more accurately," said NEAT project manager Dr. Steven Pravdo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, a co-author of the Nature article. "It's important to know your observational limits, and with that information, we can develop models for what we are not able to see. This makes our estimates even more accurate." Additional co-authors on the Nature article are Eleanor Helin of JPL, NEAT principal investigator, and Kenneth Lawrence, also of JPL. Helin was also principal investigator of the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey, a photographic search program, conducted for almost 25 years until it was discontinued and replaced by NEAT, the electronic detection program, in 1995. Her efforts were key to the organization of the NEAT program. Data gathered by the asteroid tracking system are processed at Haleakala, and then undergo post-processing and analysis at JPL. This latest asteroid estimate is based on data collected between 1995 and 1998. The asteroid tracking system has been on hiatus for the past year, but plans are in the works to re-activate the system in February using an upgraded 1.2-meter (48-inch) Air Force telescope on Haleakala. In addition, later this year, NEAT scientists will begin using the 1.2-meter (48-inch) Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, CA. Additional information on the NEAT project is available at http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov. Information on near-Earth objects is available at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov. The Near Earth Asteroid Tracking System is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- YALE RESEARCHER FINDS NUMBER OF "NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS" ARE FEWER THAN BELIEVED Yale University release 12 January 2000 The number of "near-Earth asteroids" that have a chance, though miniscule, of colliding with Earth this century is half what was originally estimated, a Yale researcher says. "They are the kind of asteroids you hear about in movies that are about two-thirds of a mile in diameter and could easily obliterate a city because they are coming in at cosmic velocities," said Research Associate David Rabinowitz. "The main thing we want to stress is that none of the known asteroids are in imminent danger of falling to earth and no impacts are predicted in the near future." It was previously estimated that there are 1,000 to 2,000 such asteroids in chaotic orbits. Rabinowitz and his fellow researchers estimate that these asteroids actually total half that, or 500 to 1,000. Each has a 0.5 percent chance of colliding with Earth in the next million years, he said in the article published this week in the journal "Nature." "The reduced number doesn't make us feel that much safer, but it does allow us to plan more accurately," Rabinowitz said. "The goal is to find the asteroids hundreds to thousands of years before they even come close." The other researchers were Eleanor Helin, Kenneth Lawrence, and Steven Pravdo, all of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. They made their observations through a U.S. Air Force telescope in Hawaii that was designed to look for artificial satellites. Rabinowitz said smaller asteroids the size of a large house or hotel generally burn up or blow up before they hit the ground. "But an asteroid the size of a city block is more dangerous because it could punch through the atmosphere and raise a lot of dust, which would change the climate of the Earth," he said. "It would be like a nuclear bomb coming in." Efforts are underway around the world to survey this asteroid population because most of the threatening bodies remain undiscovered and their number is uncertain, the researchers said. The observations were made using a large-format, charge-coupled device and a one-meter aperture telescope based on the summit of Haleakala Crater on the island of Maui. Earlier photographic methods required a trained observer to identify asteroids by visual inspection and the accuracy varied according to the skill of the observer. The automated method is more consistent and provides a record of every detectable asteroid. The researchers said that, at the current rate of discovery, about 90 percent of the asteroids probably will be identified in the next 20 years. The goal, however, is to double the current worldwide detection rate to complete the program in 10 years. "If we can find the asteroids in 10 years, that's plenty of time," Rabinowitz said. "If you wait 100 or 1,000 years, that's too much time." Rabinowitz is currently working with Professor Charles Baltay, chairman of the Yale Physics Department, to develop one of the world's largest electronic cameras. It will be used by Yale astronomers and physicists to study the properties of distant galaxies and supernova, and to study the expansion of the universe. The new camera also will be used in cooperation with astronomers at the Jet Propulsion Lab to continue the survey for near-Earth asteroids. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA LIFE SCIENCE PROGRAM GETS A NEW NAME NASA release 13 January 2000 The name of the Gravitational Biology and Ecology (GB&E) Program has officially been changed to the Fundamental Biology Research Program (FBRP). The name change was recommended by OLMSA's Life Sciences Division and has been coordinated with the Life Sciences Advisory Subcommittee and its parent Committee, the Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications Advisory Committee. Based upon consultations with these advisory subcommittees, professional societies, and other representatives of the scientific community, there is consensus that the name Fundamental Biology Research Program better reflects the total scope of this evolving program. This program encompasses areas beyond the effects of gravitational changes on basic biological processes, and includes the biology of evolutionary development. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS EXPRESS CONSTRUCTION BEGINS From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 13 January 2000 Construction of the Mars Express spacecraft can now begin, after final approval for the design was granted on Tuesday. A meeting chaired by Roger Bonnet, ESA's Director of Scientific Programmes, and Jean-Jacques Dourdain, Director for Science Strategy and Technical Assessment gave the approval after hearing a presentation on the findings of the science and engineering review team. The review team had endorsed the Mars Express design last December, after spending a week poring over the plans at the offices of Matra Marconi Space (MMS) in Toulouse. Starsem, the company that is providing the Fregat-Soyuz launcher, and MMS also presented their latest activities yesterday. The meeting brought to an end the process known as the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), which scrutinises all stages of the design phase (Phase B). "The meeting went smoothly and the outcome is that Mars Express moves now full steam into Phase C/D (the construction phase)," said Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager. "The findings of the review team will be taken on board by the Mars Express project and resolved as part of the normal work. This is a very good result and we have been popping a few corks." Useful links for this story Mars Express leaps approval hurdle http://sci.esa.int/missions/newsitem.cfm?TypeID=22&ContentID=8172 [NOTE: An illustration supporting this release is available at http://sci.esa.int/newsitem.cfm?TypeID=1&ContentID=8791&Storytype=22] --------------------------------------------------------------------- OFFICE OF LIFE AND MICROGRAVITY SCIENCES AND APPLICATIONS AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING PRESENT A SYMPOSIUM ON THE STS-95 RESEARCH RESULTS NASA release 14 January 2000 January 27-28, 2000 NASA Headquarters and National Institutes of Health Washington, DC and Bethesda, Maryland You are invited to attend a symposium sponsored by both the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Institute of Aging (NIA) on the results of the STS 95 Shuttle flight. This mission's unique research consisted of over 80 experiments from universities and private industry interested in engineering, space sciences, and life and biological sciences. The OLMSA and NIA sponsored 46 investigations, which encompassed both in-flight and ground based, pre- and post-flight experiments in the field of Microgravity, life and biological sciences. The goal of this symposium is to present the research results to the scientific community and the general public. There was a great deal of interest in the flight, especially in the area of "healthy aging", in large part due to the presence of Senator Glenn, a role model to America's older population. This symposium will discuss the results of American and International experiments aboard the mission that are sponsored by or done in collaboration with OLMSA. To the extent possible within the laws governing disclosure of such research, health and physiology results on the crew will be presented. The symposium will begin on the morning of January 27th at 9:45 AM in the NASA auditorium. There will be a press conference at NASA Headquarters at 1:30 PM with Senator John Glenn and the crew and some investigators. The symposium will continue until about 4:00 PM The crew will present an overview of the mission and show a movie of this exciting mission at 7:30 PM at the Natcher Conference Center at NIH, Building 45, Bethesda, MD. A map to the Natcher Center can be found at http://health.info.nih.gov/forum99/Natcher.jpg. You are also invited to attend the second day of the symposium, January 28th, which will be devoted to individual investigation results primarily in the area sponsored by the Life Sciences Division of NASA in collaboration with the NIA. The sessions will be held in the Masur Auditorium of the NIH Clinical Center, Building 10. The agenda of the symposium will be posted on the web at http://peer1.idi.usra.edu/peer_review/workshop/sts/stsagenda.html. The crewmembers for the STS-95 mission were: Curtis L. Brown, Commander Steven W. Lindsey, Pilot Scott E. Parazynksi, Mission Specialist Steven K. Robinson, Mission Specialist Pedro Duque, (ESA) Mission Specialist Chiaki Mukai, (NASDA) Payload Specialist John H. Glenn, Payload Specialist Pre-mission highlights can be found on the web at http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-95/mission-sts-95.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- GALILEO FINDINGS BOOST IDEA OF OTHER-WORLDLY OCEAN NASA release 00-7 14 January 2000 When NASA's Galileo spacecraft swooped past Jupiter's moon Europa a week ago, it picked up powerful new evidence that a liquid ocean lies beneath Europa's icy crust. As the spacecraft flew 218 miles (351 kilometers) above the icy moon on January 3, its magnetometer instrument studied changes in the direction of Europa's magnetic field. Galileo's magnetometer observed directional changes consistent with the type that would occur if Europa contained a shell of electrically conducting material, such as a salty, liquid ocean. "I think these findings tell us that there is indeed a layer of liquid water beneath Europa's surface," said Dr. Margaret Kivelson, principal investigator for the magnetometer. "I'm cautious by nature, but this new evidence certainly makes the argument for the presence of an ocean far more persuasive." It appears that the ocean lies beneath the surface somewhere in the outer 60 miles (about 100 kilometers), the approximate thickness of the ice/water layer, according to Kivelson, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "Jupiter's magnetic field at Europa's position changes direction every 5.5 hours," Kivelson explained. "This changing magnetic field can drive electrical currents in a conductor, such as an ocean. Those currents produce a field similar to Earth's magnetic field, but with its magnetic north pole--the location toward which a compass on Europa would point--near Europa's equator and constantly moving. In fact, it is actually reversing direction entirely every 5.5 hours." On previous Europa flybys, Galileo identified a magnetic north pole, but did not determine whether its position changes with time. "We wondered, 'Was it possible that the north pole did not move?'" Kivelson said. The new evidence was gathered during a flyby specially planned so that the observed position of Europa's north pole would make it clear whether or not it moves. In fact, Monday's data showed that its position had moved, thus providing key evidence for the existence of an ocean. It is not likely that the electric currents on Europa flow through solid surface ice, Kivelson explained, because ice is not a good carrier of currents. "But melted ice containing salts, like the sea water found on Earth, is a fairly good conductor," she said. There is no other likely current-carrying material near Europa's surface, Kivelson added. "Currents could flow in partially melted ice beneath Europa's surface, but that makes little sense, since Europa is hotter toward its interior, so it's more likely the ice would melt completely. In addition, as you get deeper toward the interior, the strength of the current-generated magnetic field at the surface would decrease." These latest findings are consistent with previous Galileo images and data showing a tortured surface seemingly formed when Europa's surface ice broke and rearranged itself while floating on a sea below. Further theoretical work is under way to analyze the fluid layer and its properties. "It will be interesting to see whether this same type of phenomenon occurs at Jupiter's moon Ganymede," Kivelson said. Galileo is tentatively scheduled to fly by Ganymede twice this year. Kivelson is joined in her magnetometer studies by Drs. Krishan Khurana, Christopher Russell, Raymond Walker, Christophe Zimmer, Martin Volwerk of UCLA, as well as Steven Joy and Joe Mafi, also of UCLA, and Dr. Carole Polanskey of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. Additional information and pictures taken by Galileo are available at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov The Galileo mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- WHEREFORE ART THOU, SCIENCE@NASA? By Tony Philips 15 January 2000 What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The recent announcements about the cancellation of NASA's web site science.nasa.gov (SNG) have been met with dismay and frustration by many readers. I've received an avalanche of email praising our work, asking "why!?", and advocating a change of mind. All of us who contributed to SNG appreciate these messages of support and condolence. SNG was regarded by many as NASA's top education and science news site. Our mission was to bring NASA science research closer to the taxpayer. We tried to do this in innovative ways, by inviting readers to participate in science research through "Partners in Discovery," by means of live events like meteor balloon flights, and through high quality science news stories crafted with the direct participation of NASA scientists. A very popular spin-off of SNG was our Thursday's Classroom web site. [Image caption: Artist Duane Hilton, of Bishop Web Works, produced much of the original art for Science.NASA.gov and related sites, like ThursdaysClassroom.com and SpaceWeather.com. Duane will be a part of the SpaceScience.com team.] In 1999, SNG won the People's Voice Webby Award for science sites [Image] on the internet. It was the only government web site nominated for this prestigious honor. Our web site not only conveyed the latest research news to lay people, but it also alerted scientists to the work of other scientists. As a result of SNG stories, meteorite impacts on the Moon were observed for the first time, extraterrestrial meteoroids were captured in the stratosphere, a global network of scientists monitored the Earth's gravitational field during the August 1999 solar eclipse, and certain materials science experiments were selected for flight on the Space Shuttle. The idea that science communications could actually trigger new science was exciting. Clearly, SNG was an important, redeeming activity, and it shouldn't go away. The SNG tradition of excellence will now continue at SpaceScience.com, which was the official sister site of Science.nasa.gov until two weeks ago. There will still be coverage of NASA news with daily stories, new lesson plans for Thursday's Classroom, live sky events--in short, SpaceScience.com will do everything you've come to expect from SNG. My company, Bishop Web Works, was the prime contractor for SNG web content. We supplied art, supporting *.com web sites, educational lesson plans for Thursday's Classroom, and--along with Dave Dooling and others--original headline stories. All of the Bishop Web Works team will still be involved with SpaceScience.com and we expect contributions from former SNG writers as well. For now, SpaceScience.com will be operated as a private enterprise. This may not be a permanent situation as we hope to attract support from other NASA centers. Indeed, there are already signs that the Marshall Space Flight center may be reconsidering its decision. Meanwhile you can help support our efforts by remaining a subscriber of the SpaceScience.com email news service. Daily updates will continue. If you're already on our mailing list no action on your part will be necessary. If you no longer receive email notices, please visit http://spacescience.com/news/subscribe.htm to resubscribe. Note: In Romeo and Juliet, "Wherefore art thou, Romeo" was a lament that meant, "Why are you Romeo?" [For more information on this story see http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast15jan_1.htm] --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 10-16 January 2000 Galileo continues to orbit around Jupiter this week, traveling away from the heart of the system after completing a close flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa last week. The spacecraft spends the week returning data acquired during its November flyby of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. The data are stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder. Data playback is interrupted on Friday so the spacecraft can perform regular maintenance on its propulsion systems. During data playback, the spacecraft computer retrieves the stored data from the tape recorder, then processes and packages the data, and subsequently transmits the data to Earth. Here on Earth, the large antennas of the Deep Space Network capture Galileo's radio transmissions and send them to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, for ground processing, and, ultimately, delivery to the science community. The large antennas of the Deep Space Network are located near Madrid, Spain, Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, California. The data returned this week are taken from a 3-hour high-resolution recording of the Io plasma torus performed by Galileo's suite of Fields and Particles instruments. 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 gathered data from 6 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 set of torus measurements of Galileo's entire mission to date. The Io torus is a doughnut-shaped region of space with its inner edge bounded by Io's orbit. It contains intense plasma and radiation activity with strong magnetic and electric fields. The torus is believed to be constantly supplied by volcanic activity on Io. The data acquired by the recording will be used to understand the structure and dynamics of the plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields present in the torus region. The data will also shed light on the overall dynamics of the Jovian magnetosphere. 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 GLOBAL SURVEYOR MISSION STATUS JPL release 5 January 2000 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1155 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 279 days Total Mapping Orbits = 3707 Total Orbits = 5389 Recent events The mm010 sequence continues executing nominally the daily science record and playback events. The mm010 sequence runs through January 12. The initial Mars Polar Lander (MPL) landing site imaging campaign has been completed, with 19 targeted scans across the predicted 1-sigma MPL landing ellipse having been executed. Unfortunately no obvious signs of the lander or its parachute has been found at this time. Note that the definition of the landing ellipse continues to change as additional atmospheric data from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) is factored in. As a result, the current landing site imaging mosaic may not reflect the latest landing site knowledge. Additionally there were some gaps in the mosaic due to lost data at the Deep Space Network (DSN) stations. As a result, a second set of imaging scans is being planned to fill in the gaps and to expand the coverage area in response to the latest atmospheric data. In addition to completing the MPL scans, a special targeted opportunity to image the Mars Pathfinder (MPF) landing site was performed Sunday December 26 at 09:18 UTC. Unfortunately due to an error in the coordinate system used to derive the targeted attitude, the wrong site was imaged. A second opportunity to image the Pathfinder landing site occurs on Sunday January 9. The mz034 mini- sequence will be built on January 6 and 7 to perform the MPF and additional MPL landing site imaging, and will execute through January 12. The spacecraft has behaved almost flawlessly in performing all of the imaging scans. High gain antenna (hga) anomaly The HGA inner gimbal angle continues to decrease and is currently at 53.5 degrees. The inner gimbal angle will continue decreasing, reaching the location of the gimbal obstruction at 41.5 deg in early February. Spacecraft Test Laboratory (STL) testing begun for validation of the HGA beta supplement operations plan, which will be used to perform mapping operations for the rest of the nominal mapping mission. Spacecraft health All subsystems are reporting nominal health. As reported previously, battery 2 switched from VT curve 2 to VT curve 1 as a result of performing the MPL scans. This was expected and resulted in slightly higher battery 2 temperatures. Upon completion of the initial MPL and MPF scans, the Battery 2 VT curve was switched back to VT2. Soon after though the flight software autonomously re-commanded battery 2 back to VT1, which is where we will leave it. The trend indicates that battery 1 will shortly switch to VT1 as well. Uplinks There have been 42 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last two weeks, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files and instrument command loads. Total command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 4300. Upcoming events 1) The mm011 sequence is currently in development and is scheduled for uplink Monday January 10, with a sequence start time of January 13 00:00 UTC. 2) The mz034 sequence to continue imaging the MPL and MPF landing sites is scheduled for development on January 6 and 7, to begin execution on Sunday January 9. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 7 January 2000 The Mars Polar Lander flight team continued efforts to contact the spacecraft this week. The main effort this week focused on testing a scenario in which the spacecraft clock got scrambled after touchdown. Commands were sent to place the spacecraft in UHF safe mode, and a number of communications windows using Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) have been scheduled over the next 10 days. This is the last major effort planned to recover the vehicle, and the flight team expects to end the search next week. Mars Global Surveyor continues to perform special targeted observations of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in hopes of imaging the lander or parachute. The project has defined a region of possible landing sites to be imaged, including some within the large crater just to the west of the nominal landing site. MGS has imaged a significant fraction of the possible landing sites, and no evidence of the lander has been observed. Additional images will be acquired over the next few weeks. 14 January 2000 The Mars Polar Lander flight team continued efforts to regain communications with the lander spacecraft. The final set of planned commands were transmitted late last week to place the spacecraft in UHF safe mode. A series of relay communications sessions have been scheduled with Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) over the last week to listen for the lander around the clock. These attempts will end on Monday, January 17, at which time we expect to end our attempts to recover the spacecraft. Mars Global Surveyor continues to perform special targeted observations of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in hopes of imaging the lander or the parachute. The team has started in depth analysis of terrain hazards within the landing footprint in support of the investigation being led by John Casani. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 7 January 2000 The Trajectory Correction Maneuver A (TCM-A) was performed nearly flawless on December 28, with less than one-sigma errors in both maneuver magnitude and pointing. The timeline was followed to the second, and communication was re-established with the spacecraft after the maneuver as planned. All subsystems performed as predicted with the battery discharge being 3% less than predicted. An apparent 3 cm shift in the spacecraft center of mass location from the pre- launch model was observed and is under study. A review of TCM-A was held with independent peer reviewers participating as part of the preparation for Deep Space Maneuver-1 (DSM-1). It was decided to perform this maneuver in three parts, on January 18, 20 and 22. The timeline for DSM-1 was reviewed and the process of exchanging data files between navigation, maneuver and the spacecraft team has begun. The Flight Software (FSW) patch needed to go to All-Stellar attitude was commanded to the spacecraft on January 3, and the spacecraft was placed in Dual Mode and then All-Stellar mode for a few hours to monitor the performance of the FSW patch. A few multiple firings of the Attitude Control System (ACS) jets were recorded which the patch was supposed to fix. Therefore, the spacecraft did not transition to All-Stellar attitude this week, but the flight team will repeat the Dual Mode and All-Stellar tests and Spacecraft Test Laboratory (STL) testing to determine why the patch allowed multiple firings. This will delay going All-Stellar until after DSM-1. 14 January 2000 There were eight Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes in the past week. Three of the eight passes were designated as "ranging only" passes. That is, no telemetry was downlinked in order that the full carrier signal strength could be used to obtain high resolution ranging data for Navigation. During all passes the subsystems performance remained normal. The All-Stellar demonstration was repeated with the collection of high rate attitude telemetry. This involved commanding the spacecraft's Star Camera to Track Mode, followed by 1.5 hours in Dual Mode. After the Dual Mode was completed commands were transmitted to place the spacecraft in All-Stellar mode. During the two hours in All-Stellar mode, no multiple thruster firings were observed. Analysis of the data is ongoing Preparations for Deep Space Maneuver #1 (DSM-1) are well under way. DSM-1 has a magnitude of 159.8 meters/second (m/s) and will be performed in three equal times of 00:33:36. Part A will be performed on Tuesday, January 18 at 11:00 AM PST; Part B on Thursday, January 20 at 0600 AM PST; and Part C on Saturday, January 22 at 1000 AM PST. The spacecraft will be off Sun point and out of contact for approximately 60 minutes for each of the burns. Ms. Jamalee Stone, a Stardust Teacher Fellow, was awarded the 1999 Nebraska Christa McAuliffe Teaching Award. 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 2