MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 5, 7 February 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) FOSSILIZED BACTERIA IN METEORITES By Brig Klyce 2) THE ET WATCHER! By Priya Ganapati 3) SEARCH FOR LIFE From EcoWatch/London Radio Service 4) LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS NSF program announcement 00-37 5) SCIENTISTS KEEP SEARCHING FOR A SIGNAL FROM MARS POLAR LANDER By Dawn Levy 6) MARS PROGRAM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT TEAM RETURNS TO JPL NASA headquarters release 7) INTERNATIONAL MARS GROUP LOOKS FOR FUTURE OPTIONS From ESA Science News 8) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL releases 9) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 10) MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 11) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release --------------------------------------------------------------------- FOSSILIZED BACTERIA IN METEORITES By Brig Klyce http://www.panspermia.org 31 January 2000 At a conference in Denver, July 20-22, 1999, a pair of scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences presented sharp images that look very much like fossilized microorganisms taken from fragments of several carbonaceous meteorites. One of the scientists, Dr. Stanislav I. Zhmur of the Institute of the Lithosphere of Marginal Seas, RAS, writes: "Comparative analysis of bacteriomorphic structures from the carbonaceous meteorites, Murchison, Efremovka and Allende... and morphology of microorganisms of modern and ancient terrestrial cyanobacterial community showed that they are analogous. This gave us reason to consider that these bacteriomorphic structures are fossilized remnants of microorganisms. The lithified remnants... are tightly conjugated with the mineral matrix, removing the possibility that they are contaminants. The selection of microfossils capable of being interpreted as biological is quite wide. Some of them are demonstrated in the pictures." The conference where the photos were first published was "Instruments, Methods and Missions for Astrobiology II," organized by NASA's Richard Hoover, sponsored by the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). The proceedings of the July conference became available in December. With Dr. Zhmur's permission six of those images with captions are published on the Cosmic Ancestry web site, on the web page http://www.panspermia.org/zhmur1.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ET WATCHER! By Priya Ganapati 31 January 2000 Dr. Paul Shuch is probably the closest real-life equivalent that one can find to Fox Mulder from the X-files. Shuch like Mulder believes that there is extra terrestrial life out there. Like Mulder he is searching for the extraordinary, the unexplained and the supernatural. Unlike Mulder, Shuch hauls along some salt and pepper foliage on his chin. But Shuch would rather call himself a cross between Carl Sagan and Tom Lehrer--he's reputed to sing like Sagan and lecture like Lehrer. And for those who are scratching their heads over the names, the late Carl Sagan was a Pulitzer-winning scientist and science popularizer and Tom Lehrer is the Minstrel of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. And Shuch? He's the executive-director of SETI league, an international organisation conducting a scientific search of the heavens to detect evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. On a three-day visit to the IIT Bombay for their annual technology festival, Techfest, Paul Shuch addressed a series of lectures about the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life forms. For the complete story see http://www.rediff.com/computer/2000/jan/31shu.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- SEARCH FOR LIFE From EcoWatch/London Radio Service 31 January 2000 Scientists in various disciplines have formed the UK's Astrobiology Forum, dedicated to looking for life beyond Earth. Listen to this report to learn about the group's ideology and its plans to explore the great unknown. For the full story see http://www.enn.com/enn-multimedia- archive/2000/01/01312000/lrs_9539.asp --------------------------------------------------------------------- LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS NSF program announcement 00-37 1 February 2000 The Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO), Geosciences (GEO), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) announce an opportunity to enhance knowledge about "Life in Extreme Environments" (LExEn) through a highly interdisciplinary, integrated research program. The LExEn research program will explore the relationships between organisms and the environments within which they exist, with a strong emphasis upon those life-supporting environments that exist near the extremes of planetary conditions. In addition, the LExEn program will explore planetary environments in our own solar system and beyond to help identify possible sites for life. Cognizant Program Officer: Polly Penhale, Office of Polar Programs, (703) 306-1033, ppenhale@nsf.gov http://www.sciencewise.com/swalert/nsf/opp/NSF0037.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- SCIENTISTS KEEP SEARCHING FOR A SIGNAL FROM MARS POLAR LANDER By Dawn Levy Stanford University News Service 1 February 2000 Mars Polar Lander, phone home. That was the command researchers issued thrice last week from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. But scientists at the Earth receiving station in Stanford, CA, detected no response from the lander, which had fallen silent Dec. 3 just as it was about to enter the martian atmosphere. This week scientists will continue to study the data collected at the "Dish" radio telescope in hopes that sophisticated computer analysis will locate a signal among all the background noise. Mission officials stress that the recent try is a long shot, and the process of data analysis and confirmation will not yield immediate results. Scientists at Stanford and JPL will continue their sophisticated analysis of the data. In the meantime, commands issued from NASA's Deep Space Network on February 1 and 2 will tell the lander to reset its clock and send a signal to Earth on Friday, February 4. The international scientific community has offered to help confirm any signals. Scientists at radio telescopes in the Netherlands, England and Italy will be listening for a reply, as will scientists at Stanford if they can get time on the Dish, which is booked for another research project. All this effort was spawned by a faint signal detected by the Dish on January 4. "It was the radio frequency equivalent of a whistle," says Ivan Linscott, a senior research associate at Stanford's Space, Telecommunications and Radioscience Laboratory. Akin to the single, narrow tone that accompanies television broadcast tests, the whistle was at the ultra-high frequency (UHF) of 401.5 megahertz--the right place to indicate a possible communication from the lander. Just as the pitch of a train whistle drops as the locomotive approaches, the characteristics of the space whistle changed. "The pitch actually had a little curvature to it, and it was that characteristic that got our attention," Linscott says. Some of the changes in the space whistle came from the Doppler Effect created through the rotation of Mars and the Earth. A much larger effect, however, was produced when temperature- sensitive crystals in the lander's transmitter warmed up, creating a frequency profile that fell, then rose, in a characteristic way, Linscott says. Even though Linscott says scientists are "still hopeful," the search has been frustrating. "It's like having a loved one missing in action," says JPL research scientist John Callas. "You've given up hope, and then there's been a report of a siting and your hopes are raised. Emotionally it's a little bit tough. I think in reality the chances are small, but we want to make sure. We have a responsibility to be sure, and that's why we're here." Detecting a signal, even if one is there, is no easy feat. Space is noisy. "UHF frequencies are a pretty busy place up here," says Linscott. "But we still manage to find quiet places, or at least moments in those quiet places, to listen." The transmitter on the lander has a broadcast power of about 14 watts, says Callas. For comparison, the beacon on the Mars Global Surveyor, which is currently in orbit 380 kilometers (228 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, is weaker--only 1 watt. Boding poorly for the mission is the fact that this week the sensitive Dish detected the weaker signal from the surveyor, but not the stronger signal from the lander. But the main problem is the weakness of the signal. And signals weaken as they traverse the roughly 300 million kilometers (about 180 million miles) from Mars to Earth. "We expect a signal hitting the Dish to be something of the order of one billionth of a billionth of a milliwatt [one-thousandth of a watt] of power," says Callas. "It's extremely tiny. This is equivalent to listening to a cell phone from Mars." More possible woes Scientists may no longer know the exact configuration of the lander, since NASA has sent many commands to exercise different aspects after losing contact with the spacecraft. Also, it is possible that the lander may have been "asleep" when some of the commands were sent. If this were the case, it would be responsive only after it completed a complex "waking-up" process. To help them face these considerable technical challenges, the researchers have a powerful tool on their side: the exquisitely sensitive 150-foot-diameter Dish, which SRI International operates and maintains and the U.S. government owns. From a grassy knoll on the Stanford campus, the parabolic reflector of this radio telescope concentrates electromagnetic waves (radio waves) into an aluminum collecting horn built by SRI's Mike Cousins that Linscott calls "the jewel in the crown." From there, the signal is fed into a transducer, says Cousins, site manager of the Dish. A transducer changes one type of energy into another. Unlike the pressure waves of audio, electromagnetic waves from space need to be manipulated by transducers and fed into computers before scientists can "see" or "hear" the data. Using sophisticated software, Linscott and colleagues search among the weak signals for narrow, single tones. "Because of the processing that's involved in trying to extract them out of the background noise, it's not like we put headphones on and hook in like the now-famous image of [Jodie] Foster's search in the movie [Contact]," Linscott says. "We don't have headphones. What we have are the computers that record the signals from the sky, and more computers to try and analyze those." Even if scientists are able to eventually detect a signal from the lander, will that mean the spacecraft could still serve a useful purpose? "If the lander is there and it's talking to us, that tells us a tremendous amount of information," Callas says. "It tells us it got to the surface of Mars safely or in a reasonably safe configuration and that it's generating power, that its computers are operating, that it can hear us, and that it can use at least part of its UHF system. That would go a long way to understanding what might have gone wrong to put us where we are today." A functional UHF system might even allow scientists a means of reconfiguring the lander and recovering the mission--a possibility that Callas admits is "extremely optimistic." It will take some time to find out the mission's fate. While strong signals can be displayed in real time as spectra when they arrive, weak signals require lengthier processing. Because of the weakness of the signal, it takes "a fair amount of sophistication in the processing of this data using computer software to try to extract the signal," Callas says. "The human eye is an additional aid to the processing because we can make some displays on the computer screen. By looking at them we can recognize patterns a lot more readily than a computer algorithm can." Support for signal processing came in part from the Bosack Foundation, established by Stanford alumni Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, founders of Cisco Systems. Mars mission support comes from JPL. Lockheed Martin Astronautics Inc. of Denver is the agency's industrial partner for development and operation of the spacecraft. Stanford graduate students who helped develop the signal-processing techniques used include Mitch Oslick, who earned his doctorate and now works for Phillips Electronics, and Neza Maslakovic, who will finish her doctoral work this summer. Photos of the Dish are available at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/gifs/Dish.jpg http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/gifs/DishPressConf.jpg --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS PROGRAM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT TEAM RETURNS TO JPL NASA headquarters release 4 February 2000 The Mars Program Independent Assessment Team, appointed by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, returned to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, this week to continue its review of the Agency's program for the robotic exploration of Mars. The team, chaired by Thomas Young, is tasked with examining NASA's approach to future missions to Mars in light of the recent loss of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander. The team spent two and one-half days meeting with JPL's senior managers and program officials. This week's trip focused on actions taken by JPL in response to an internal review of management practices and procedures and examination of the composition and structure of future missions to Mars. In order to hear from a larger number of engineers, scientists, and managers the team split into small groups then reconvened at the end to share what each member had learned. "By hearing from more of the people who worked on these projects, we are able to obtain a broader view of how business has been conducted here at JPL," said Young. "This gives us a better understanding of the lessons learned from both the missions that were successful and those that were not." Young added that JPL managers and technical experts at all levels have been very cooperative with the team and more than willing to share their opinions in a frank manner. "We are beginning to get a clearer picture of the processes in place at JPL, at Lockheed Martin and at NASA Headquarters," Young said. The team's charter is to 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 is reviewing the science objectives, budgets, schedules, management structure, and procedures in place for each of these missions. The review is being coupled with an assessment of how these factors affect mission safety, reliability and success. The Independent Assessment Team began its work on 7 January 2000, and is scheduled to complete its review and present the NASA Administrator with its findings in mid-March. --------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL MARS GROUP LOOKS FOR FUTURE OPTIONS From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 4 February 2000 Over the next five years, four space agencies will be sending spacecraft to Mars, with many others hitching rides. Their representatives converged on the British National Space Centre in London last week for the first meeting of the International Mars Exploration Working Group (IMEWG) since the loss of NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander last year. From 2003 to 2007, ESA, its Member States and Hungary will play a bigger part in the international Mars exploration program than the United States. Nonetheless, NASA's review of its own program in the wake of its recent losses could have far-reaching consequences for the international partners. The outcome of that review will be known by mid-March, Roger Bourke from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory told the meeting. The international program In the current plan at least two spacecraft, including at least one orbiter and one lander, would be sent to Mars in each of 2001, 2003 and 2005. The 2001 spacecraft would both be NASA's. In 2003, ESA will send the Mars Express orbiter and the Beagle 2 lander and NASA would send a lander with rover. Mars Express will conduct simultaneous observations with Nozomi, Japan's orbiter, which is due to arrive at Mars at the same time. In 2005, the French space agency, CNES, will send an orbiter and four small landers (Netlanders), built by a European consortium, for geophysics experiments on Mars from distributed locations. NASA would also send a lander and rover, which will collect samples from the martian surface and insert them into a canister for launch into orbit around Mars. Mars Express would help CNES's orbiter to locate the canister for pick up and return to Earth. This sample return mission is intended as the basis for future, similar more ambitious missions. The four agencies involved have also agreed to adhere to a common communications standard, which will allow all landers to communicate with all orbiters and ground stations on Earth. NASA is considering sending a series of microsatellites to Mars, starting in 2003, to provide communications links. Future possibilities The meeting heard that NASA is unlikely to cancel or postpone its future orbiters, as the reason for the MCO failure is known and can be avoided. But the reason for the MPL loss is proving difficult to identify. "There is no dearth of speculation, but very few facts. To the best of my knowledge [the review teams] have found no suspicious items, so there are many possibilities," said Bourke. If a solvable problem is not identified, NASA may cancel the 2001 lander and shift the emphasis of the 2003 lander towards proving the technology. The 2005 mission could still be sample return, but perhaps less ambitious than originally envisaged. ESA and CNES are proceeding undeterred with their parts in the programme. CNES's 2005 orbiter can deliver the Netlanders and remain in orbit for at least two years should there be a delay to NASA's 2005 sample return mission, according to Richard Bonneville from CNES. Mars Express can also extend its mission to 2007 should it be needed for communications duties on behalf of other missions, or to help retrieve the sample return canister later than expected. Resolving a communications problem Adhering to a common communications standard is proving fraught, however, but the meeting threw up a possible resolution. NASA's 2001 missions do not comply with the standard, as their design was fixed before it was agreed. Beagle 2, the Mars Express lander, however, wants two channels of communication in case one fails. One will be Mars Express and the other could be NASA's 2001 orbiter or the communications microsatellites launched in 2003. Which standard should Mars Express adopt, given that it needs to finalize its communications design by mid-February? Discussions at the meeting, backed up by some trans-Atlantic telephone calls, secured an assurance from NASA that its 2003 and subsequent missions would adopt the common standard. NASA was also willing to investigate the feasibility of writing new communications software for the 2001 orbiter that could be up-loaded in time for Beagle, but after the orbiter had completed its nominal mission. A forum for forging partnerships The meeting was also an opportunity for some of the smaller players in Mars exploration to present their hopes and plans. Canada and Hungary, for example, two countries that have so far had little involvement, said they wanted to bid for future opportunities on the spacecraft of others. Heinrich Waenke, of the Max Planck Institut fuer Chemie and a founding IMEWG member, illustrated how the group could help forge international partnerships when he told of his own experience in building Apex, a small rover, for Mars '96, the Russian spacecraft that failed. "Through IMEWG, APEX became known across the Atlantic," he said and eventually ended up on Mars Pathfinder. The Russians were notable for their absence and the meeting resolved to find the means to invite at least one delegate to future meetings. Carl Pilcher, the current chairman, stepped down and the meeting elected Risto Pellinen from the Finnish Meteorological Institute to replace him. Useful links for this story * IMEWG home page http://sumppu.fmi.fi/PLANETS/IMEWG --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL releases 31 January - 6 February 2000 Galileo heads back toward the heart of the Jupiter system this week after passing through apojove last Friday. Apojove is the farthest distance from Jupiter for a given orbit. The spacecraft continues to return data stored on its onboard tape recorder. This week's playback contains observations made during Galileo's amazing flyby of Io in late November 1999. Data playback is interrupted twice this week. On Wednesday, the spacecraft executes a small turn to keep its antenna pointed toward Earth. On Saturday, Galileo performs standard maintenance on its propulsion systems. During the November flyby, the spacecraft passed within 300 kilometers (186 miles) of Io's surface. That is closer than the altitude at which the International Space Station flies over the Earth's surface! The flyby was also the closest of the three flybys of Io performed so far during Galileo's mission at Jupiter. In addition, the November flyby also offered the spacecraft the only opportunity of the combined prime and Europa missions to view the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Europa at resolution significantly better than exisiting data. The data returned this week were obtained by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), the Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI), and by the Fields and Particles instruments (Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Detector, and Plasma Wave instruments). This is the first pass through these data in Galileo's current orbit, although portions of most of these observations were returned during the previous orbit's playback period. This additional pass is primarily for the return of additional data, but also allows replay of data lost in transmission to Earth, or reprocessing of data using different parameters. First on the playback schedule is NIMS with the return of a regional map of Io's surface. The Fields and Particles instruments then return portions of a 3-hour high-resolution recording of the Io plasma torus. The recording contain measurements taken during the third deepest torus passage of Galileo's mission to date. These measurements will be used to understand the structure and dynamics of plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields in the torus region. SSI follows on the schedule with an image of Amalthea, one of Jupiter's smaller moons. This particular observation will provide scientists with a resolution of 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) per picture element. SSI fills out the remainder of this week's schedule by returning portions of four observations of Europa. The first observation captures Europa's north pole at the highest resolution of the polar region to date. The next image captures a pair of dark bands that were first detected in September 1996. The region is believed to be the site of relatively recent faulting and relative movement of blocks of Europa's crust. Mottled (or blotchy-looking) terrain is captured in the next SSI observation. The appearance of the surface in this observation is believed to be related to ice volcanic flows. The last SSI observation is a 12-frame global mosaic of the icy moon. 7-12 February 2000 The time remaining to play back data stored on Galileo's tape recorder is steadily diminishing as only two weeks remain before the spacecraft returns to inner regions of the Jupiter system and its next satellite encounter. The data returned this week were stored on the onboard tape recorder during Galileo's previous two satellite encounters--Io in late November 1999, and Europa in January 2000. Data playback is interrupted once this week, on Monday, when the spacecraft performs a standard test that allows flight engineers to keep track of the performance of the attitude control system's gyroscopes. Portions of six observations are returned to Earth this week. During data playback, the spacecraft computer retrieves data stored on the tape recorder, processes and packages the data, and subsequently transmits the data to Earth. This week's observations were made by the Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI), the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), and the Fields and Particles instruments. The first four observations of the playback schedule were acquired during Galileo's November 1999 encounter with the Jupiter system. SSI is first up with the return of a 12-frame global mosaic of icy Europa. Although the November encounter featured Io, the spacecraft's trajectory also offered a good view of Europa. NIMS follows on the schedule with the return of two spectral scans of Europa's surface. One of the scans captures an equatorial region of Europa, while the other is global in scale. The final observation from the November observation set is returned by the Fields and Particles instruments. They return parts of a 3-hour high-resolution recording of the Io plasma torus. These measurements will be used to understand the structure and dynamics of plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields in the torus. The measurements contained in this recording will also be important for understanding the overall dynamics of the Jovian magnetosphere. The remaining two observations of this week's playback schedule were acquired during Galileo's January 2000 encounter with the Jupiter system. The Fields and Particles instruments start off with the return of a portions of a 60-minute high resolution recording of the region surrounding the spacecraft's closest approach to Europa. The data contained in this recording will allow scientists to further refine and interpret estimates of Europa's induced magnetic field. The presence of this field was detected shortly after the Europa flyby in real time data received from Galileo during the actual flyby. The field signature is the best evidence yet that supports the existence of a conducting layer, possibly liquid water, below Europa's surface. SSI returns the final observation of this week. In it, the camera captured sharp-edged ridges, a multi-ring impact feature named Callanish, and blotchy-looking, or mottled, terrain on Europa. 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 31 January 2000 Six new images were taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft of various martian sand dunes. The images resides on the Mars Global Surveyor web site at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/index.html The image captions are appended below. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) A Look at "Active" and "Inactive" martian Sand Dunes MGS MOC Releases MOC2-199 to MOC2-204, 31 January 2000 Mars has been known for centuries to experience large dust storms, but it wasn't until the Mariner 9 mission in 1971-1972 that pictures were returned from the planet that showed sand dunes. Dunes are also good evidence that the martian atmosphere is presently capable of transporting loose sediment and depositing it elsewhere. Dunes are, in fact, deposits of sand that have accumulated usually over periods measured in thousands of years. Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images obtained since September 1997 provide new clues about martian dune activity. MOC has found that some dunes appear to be moderately active today, but they do not appear to have moved downwind since the Viking missions more than 20 years ago. MOC also finds some sand dune fields that appear to be inactive because the dunes are either covered by dust and landslide debris, or cemented and eroded into ridged and grooved terrain, or because they have many old impact craters on them. The six sets of pictures presented here show the variety of dunes from recently-active to solidified and cratered. These pictures were taken at various times throughout the MGS MOC mission. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 31 January 2000 Mission managers for Mars Polar Lander report that radio scientists at Stanford University have not detected a signal from the spacecraft in data they collected last week. Stanford will continue to analyze the data and it is still possible that more detailed analysis might reveal a signal. In the meantime, additional radio telescopes around the world have offered their assistance in helping to confirm if the signal picked up by Stanford is from Polar Lander. The project has accepted offers of help from an array of fourteen 25-meter (82-foot) antennas at Westerbork in The Netherlands as well as the 76-meter (about 250-foot) antenna at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, England and an array located near Bologna, Italy. "The international community has shown a real interest in being involved in our search. We appreciate their efforts and I think it shows that Mars is something that captivates everyone's imagination," said Richard Cook, project manager for Mars Polar Lander at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. New commands will be sent to the lander from NASA's Deep Space Network around the clock on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, February 1 and 2. These commands will essentially tell the spacecraft, if it is functioning, to reset its clock and send a signal to Earth. On Friday, February 4, windows will open for the antennas in The Netherlands, England and Italy to begin listening. The antenna at Stanford may also listen during these windows. The one-way light time from Earth to Mars is currently about 16 minutes. Mars is presently about 300 million kilometers (181 million miles) from Earth. 4 February 2000 Radio telescopes in The Netherlands, England and at Stanford University in California have begun listening for a possible signal from Mars Polar Lander today. The array of fourteen 25-meter (82- foot) antennas at Westerbork in The Netherlands as well as the 76- meter (about 250- foot) antenna at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, England have three 30-minute listening opportunities today. The 45- meter (150- foot) antenna at Stanford University is also able to listen during these windows. An array located near Bologna, Italy is not being used today. Mission managers for Polar Lander say it will take each of the stations some time to review their data. "We want to make sure we have checked and double-checked these data before we can confirm whether or not there is a signal," said Richard Cook, project manager for Mars Polar Lander at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "I don't think we'll know anything either way until sometime next week." The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages Mars Polar Lander for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics Inc., Denver, CO, is the agency's industrial partner for development and operation of the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 4 February 2000 There were nine Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes during the past week. All spacecraft subsystems are performing as expected. The All-Stellar performance continues to be nominal although multiple firing are occurring. The fuel usage is approximately 4 grams/day versus a budgeted 5 grams/day. The fuel usage in Gyro Based mode was approximately 3 grams. Analysis continues to determine the reason for the multiple thruster firings. The Cometary Interplanetary Dust Analyzer (CIDA) was powered on and a calibration test was performed. After analysis of the calibration data, CIDA will be returned to its operational state. The Command Loss Timer (CLT) was changed from nine days to fifteen days in preparation for Solar Conjunction that is expected to last about 8 days. After solar conjunction the CLT will be returned to its nominal nine-day period. The Trajectory Correction Maneuver #3 (TCM-3), a clean-up maneuver for Deep Space Maneuver 1, will be delayed to May 24, after interstellar dust collection period 1. TCM-3 is expected to have a magnitude of about 2 meters/second, only a few tenths of a meter/second penalty for the 2 month delay. The kickoff meeting for Cruise Sequence SC015 was completed which included the deployment of the Aerogel Collector and a few Navigation Camera images to help characterize its flight performance. JPL and Lockheed Martin (LMA) Outreach activities continue through participation in the National Science Foundation Parents and Children as Co-Travelers Project (PACCT) with involvement from 10 Challenger Centers as part of a national space exploration information dissemination workshop. Also, Stardust provided the featured speaker for the Christa McAuliffe Teacher of the Year Award Ceremony held at the University of Nebraska. As part of the Technology Transfer effort, a presentation on Gradient Composition Sol-Gel Materials was presented at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrument Engineers Photonis West 2000 Conference. 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 5