MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 8, 29 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) HIGH IN THE SKY, NASA "HEAT HUNTERS" COMBAT URBAN PHENOMENON By Steve Roy 2) URBAN SPRAWL REDUCES ANNUAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC PRODUCTION By Steve Roy 3) TINY HEARTS MONITORED BY NASA TECHNOLOGY LaRC release 00-31 4) GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS JPL releases 5) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 6) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 7) STARDUST MISSION STATUS JPL release --------------------------------------------------------------------- HIGH IN THE SKY, NASA "HEAT HUNTERS" COMBAT URBAN PHENOMENON By Steve Roy GSFC release 00-033 17 February 2000 NASA technology developed for use in the cold reaches of space is helping researchers fight back against sweltering urban heat here on Earth. Dr. Dale Quattrochi and Dr. Jeff Luvall are "heat hunters" for the Global Hydrology and Climate Center, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. For more than three years, they've worked with other NASA centers and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as state and local governments and city planners across the country, to determine ways to make our cities more habitable. Their goal is to create healthy, sustainable environments for current residents and future generations. On Monday, February 21, Quattrochi will take part in a press briefing at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, convening today at the Marriott Wardman hotel in Washington, DC. On Tuesday, he will present a paper on NASA's urban heat research during a conference session titled: "Heat, Smog and Weird Weather: Studying the Effects of Urban Sprawl From Space." Cities often are dominated by asphalt and concrete and contain little natural vegetation to shade buildings, block solar radiation and cool the air. Thus, urban centers get much hotter during the day than rural areas. That heat is stored and released at night, creating hot-air "domes" that can keep temperatures in affected cities up to 10°F warmer at night than in suburbs or neighboring woodlands. The effects are dramatic. Big cities suffer a marked upswing in ozone formation--a major pollutant and health threat to human beings. On sweltering summer days, city power supplies are often taxed by increased air conditioning use, as citizens struggle to beat the heat. And those domes of trapped, heated air can actually create their own weather patterns over urban areas, increasing rainstorms. Equipped with remote sensing technology developed for the space program, the heat hunters fly NASA aircraft over urban areas, documenting patterns of heat formation in large metropolitan centers. This information helps determine strategies to reduce heat islands, such as installation of reflective roofing and paving materials to bounce thermal energy back into the atmosphere. To date, the heat hunters have conducted studies in Atlanta, GA; Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; and Baton Rouge, LA. Further tests in other metropolitan areas are planned. "There has to be a change in the mindset--a new awareness about the environment of our cities," Quattrochi says. "Education is the key." More about the Global Hydrology and Climate Center The Global Hydrology and Climate Center is a joint venture between government and academia to study the global water cycle and its effect on Earth's climate. Jointly funded by NASA and its academic partners, and jointly operated by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Center conducts research in a number of critical areas. Satellite tracking of hurricanes promises to improve global severe-weather forecasting capabilities; research into lightning activity is providing new insight on the formation of tornadoes; and NASA remote sensing technologies explore new ways to improve the health of our cities, aid farm productivity and identify outbreaks of disease. More about the Marshall Center NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, is NASA's premier organization for development of space transportation and propulsion systems, NASA's leader in microgravity research--unique scientific studies conducted in the near-weightlessness of space--and NASA's leader for advanced large optics manufacturing technology. In the past, Marshall played key roles in the development and operation of the Saturn V rocket, Skylab, the Lunar Roving Vehicle, Spacelab and the Hubble Space Telescope. Today, the Center's primary management responsibilities include Space Shuttle propulsion systems; the Chandra X-ray Observatory, future large-scale space optics systems; the X-33 and X-34 rocket planes and X-37 space plane; and all science operations aboard the International Space Station. Marshall also is responsible for developing advanced space transportation systems designed to further humankind's exploration of space while slashing the cost of getting there from today's $10,000 per pound to only hundreds of dollars per pound, or even less. The Center is working to bring a future among the stars closer to reality for the people of Earth. Note to Editors/News Directors: To arrange post-conference interviews with Dr. Quattrochi and Dr. Luvall, or to obtain photos supporting this release, media representatives may contact Steve Roy of the Marshall Media Relations Department at (256) 544-0034. For an electronic version of this release, digital images or more information, visit Marshall's News Center on the Web at http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news. A movie supporting this release is available at http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/video/2000/video00-033.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- URBAN SPRAWL REDUCES ANNUAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC PRODUCTION By Steve Roy GSFC release 00-23 21 February 2000 A study of the impact of urbanization and industrialization over the past seven years using satellites shows that annual photosynthetic productivity can be reduced by as much as 20 days in some areas where urbanization is intense, not unlike turning the lights off in a greenhouse during the growing season. The study also reveals that urbanization may be creating vast heat islands that can actually lengthen the growing season, but do not improve the productivity of the land. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD) researcher Dr. Marc L. Imhoff present[ed] his findings during a news media briefing at the 2000 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel (Washington, DC) on Monday, February 21 at 3 PM in the Wilson Room. According to Imhoff's research, urbanization and industrialization have resulted in the development of mega-cities and urban and suburban sprawl. The environment is altered as a result of replacing land cover with roads, housing, and commercial and industrial structures. "Human survival depends on the ability of the landscape to produce food," said Imhoff. "Food production can be fundamentally linked to primary production or photosynthesis. If the capacity of the landscape to carryout photosynthesis is substantially reduced--then the ability of the planet to support human life must also be diminished." Imhoff said data from the mid-1990's from two different satellite systems were combined with land cover maps and census information on population and housing to study the effect of urbanization on photosynthetic production in the United States. Nighttime images from a Department of Defense satellite, which show a dramatic picture of Earth's city lights, were used to determine which areas and how much land have been converted to urban, suburban, or industrial use. Maps showing urban, peri-urban (suburban), and non-urbanized areas were created from the "city-lights" satellite data. "Using a computer, we combined the city-lights satellite data with another type of satellite data that records a measure of 'greenness' or photosynthetic potential of the landscape over the course of an entire year," Imhoff said. "By merging the satellite data we could examine how urbanization affects the potential of the land surface to carryout photosynthesis by looking at the 'greenness' index inside and outside the urbanized areas for the whole continental United States." Results show that urbanization can have a measurable but variable impact on photosynthetic productivity. Annual photosynthetic productivity can be reduced by as much as 20 days in areas where housing and commercial land use is very dense. "However, we also found that in resource limited regions, human activity can increase productivity by altering the environment," he said. "For example, this was the case for arid and semi-arid areas where lawn irrigation and planting changed the ecosystems from shrub lands and desert to deciduous forests." A most interesting finding according to Imhoff was that urbanization seems to elongate the growing season, yet still reduces the overall productivity of the land. "Vegetation greens up earlier in the spring and takes longer to senesce in the fall, but has lower peak season productivity than similar nearby areas that are not urbanized," he said. "This could be demonstrating a profound urban heat island effect and have implications in climate change, especially in the northern Hemisphere where urban development is most intense." Analysis of the data also found clear evidence that human beings definitely tend to locate themselves on the most productive land and that those lands are being transformed into less productive types. "The results of this study should increase our awareness of the importance of land use planning especially in the context of sustainable growth and development," Imhoff stated. "Human survival depends on photosynthesis. If urbanization and industrialization continue, the capacity of the landscape to carry out photosynthesis is substantially reduced." For supporting images see http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/AAAS --------------------------------------------------------------------- TINY HEARTS MONITORED BY NASA TECHNOLOGY LaRC release 00-31 23 February 2000 The results are in. A NASA technology originally used to measure airflow over airplane wings has been successfully used to develop a portable, non-invasive, easy-to-use fetal heart monitor. The new clinically proven fetal heart monitor takes advantage of aerospace technology to make it more affordable, portable and easy to use by expectant mothers in their own homes. What's more, it "listens, documents and stores" fetal heart-rate data without injecting energy into the womb, making it totally non-invasive. A team of aerospace researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, worked with Veatronics, Inc., of Charlotte, NC, to convert the technology to this innovative medical application. NASA granted the company a license to market one or more commercial products based on the technology. "Because the material we used for wing surface measurements is flexible, it is ideally suited to fit over the curved surface of a maternal abdomen for fetal testing," said Allan Zukerwar of Langley's Advanced Measurement and Diagnostics Branch. Current fetal heart-monitoring devices generally work well but cost many thousands of dollars and can only be used in a clinic or doctor's office. NASA developed the portable technology at the suggestion of a medical doctor in a remote area that suffers from a lack of appropriate health care. For several reasons, when expectant mothers do not receive necessary prenatal care, the result is often increased fetal mortality. In its present form, an at-home patient would strap a wide, soft belt embedded with sensors over her belly, tune a computerized control device to hear the fetal heartbeat and send the signal directly to her doctor's office via the Internet. The device is as easy to use as tuning a radio, which one doctor considers essential to its ultimate success. "I think the portability of this technology will make it very useful," said Dr. Kevin Gomez, a specialist in maternal fetal medicine at Atlanta Perinatal Associates, Atlanta, GA. "Instead of having patients travel to where the technology is, have the technology travel to the patients." Dr. Gomez led a recently completed series of NASA-sponsored clinical trials at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Clinical trials also were sponsored at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, and at Encino/Tarzana Medical Center, Encino, CA. Among other things, the trials are expected to establish that the NASA acoustic monitor meets federal Food and Drug Administration guidelines. Results are being compared to those recorded via Doppler ultrasound and scalp-electrode monitors, and also to standard accepted measurements. The Morehouse trials, along with continuing investigations at Atlanta Perinatal, proved to Dr. Gomez's satisfaction that the technology offers an easy-to-use alternative to visits to the doctor's office. This is especially important, he explained, for high-risk patients who should be examined twice a week or more, or for patients who cannot easily travel. All of Dr. Gomez's patients are considered high-risk, due to maternal complications of pregnancy or fetal abnormalities. Even perfectly healthy patients may not be able to afford the time or money for periodic trips to the doctor--or may find themselves ordered to long periods of bed rest. The new method of checking fetal heart behavior might actually prove to be a better way of monitoring some pregnancies than technologies now in use. In addition, the system could provide objective data to complement information gained from other methods. --------------------------------------------------------------------- GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS JPL releases 22 February 2000 NASA's Galileo spacecraft has scored another success by completing this morning's third and closest flyby of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, dipping to only 199 kilometers (about 124 miles) above the fiery surface. "We're thrilled that this flyby went well. If all continues as planned, this new data will round out our Io photo album and the wealth of information gathered during the Io flybys last October and November," said Galileo Project Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The signal indicating that the flyby took place was received on Earth at 6:32 AM Pacific Standard Time. The spacecraft's camera and other instruments were poised to capture the encounter with images and other observations. If all goes according to plan, the data will be transmitted to Earth over the next several months for processing and analysis. Io lies close to Jupiter in a region bombarded by intense radiation from the giant planet. Because that radiation can wreak havoc with spacecraft instruments, components and systems, each Io flyby has kept Galileo team members on the edge of their seats. Galileo has already survived more than twice the radiation it was designed to withstand. While approaching Io, the spacecraft experienced a radiation-related false reset of its main computer. Onboard software correctly diagnosed this as a false indication, and went ahead with the Io encounter unaffected. During this latest flyby, Galileo's science instruments collected data about the abundant, ever-changing volcanic activity on Io, which will help scientists better understand volcanism on Earth. The flyby took place while Galileo was about 811 million kilometers (504 million miles) from Earth. Additional information about the Galileo mission is available at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. 25 February 2000 NASA's Galileo spacecraft has begun beaming volcano pictures and other science data to Earth, now that it has successfully completed its third and closest-ever flyby of Jupiter's fiery moon Io. Despite intense radiation near Io, the spacecraft completed all its planned activities during the flyby at 6:32 AM Pacific Standard Time on Tuesday, February 22, at an altitude of 198 kilometers (124 miles). Data gathered during the flyby include observations designed to study changes in Io's volcanoes since Galileo's previous flybys of Io in October and November of 1999. There was also a radio science experiment performed while Jupiter was partly blocking the radio path from the spacecraft to Earth. By studying distortions in radio signals in these situations, scientists learn more about Jupiter's atmosphere. While Galileo was approaching Io, radiation did apparently trigger two computer resets, but previously-installed onboard software in essence told the spacecraft they were "false alarms," and the flyby continued unaffected. The resets occurred on February 22 at approximately 1:38 AM PST, and again sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 PM. Nearly two days after the close flyby, a third reset occurred on the spacecraft at 4:45 AM PST on Thursday, February 24. This put the spacecraft in "safing," or standby mode, which temporarily stopped all non-essential operations until further commands were received from Earth. Normally, the same onboard software that took care of the first two resets would have handled that reset. However, the third reset happened when the spacecraft had already completed its Io flyby and had begun playing back data from its onboard tape recorder. During playback, the software that would prevent safing is disabled. Once the flight team diagnosed the problem, normal operations were restored on the spacecraft later in the day, at 9:30 PM. Playback of the Io data will resume on Saturday, February 26. Galileo engineers were somewhat surprised that this third computer reset happened well after the Io flyby, when the spacecraft was quite a distance away from Jupiter (29 Jupiter radii, which is 2.1 million kilometers or 1.3 million miles) and therefore not as close to the most intense radiation. This served as another reminder of the powerful effects of natural radiation in space. Galileo has already survived more than twice the radiation it was designed to withstand, and its experiences will help mission planners design future spacecraft headed for high-radiation environments. Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter and its moons since December 1995. The spacecraft has successfully completed its two-year primary mission and a two-year extended mission, and is continuing its studies under yet another extension, called the Galileo Millennium Mission. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 23-27 February 2000 By the end of this week, Galileo completes all encounter activities, including two observations that remain on the observing schedule, both of Io. As early as Wednesday, however, the spacecraft begins to play back data stored on its onboard tape recorder during the past few days. Data playback is interrupted only once, on Friday, so the spacecraft can perform a small flight path adjustment. The first remaining observation is performed by the Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI) on Wednesday when SSI captures some long exposure images of Io while it is eclipsed from the Sun by Jupiter. The long exposures will provide continuation of an on-going campaign to look for changes in hot spots, atmospheric emissions, and temperatures on Io's surface. The second observation is performed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUV) from Wednesday through Saturday. EUV takes a look at the Io torus, the doughnut-shaped region of intense plasma and radiation activity with its inner edge bounded by Io's orbit. The observation will provide scientists with the most complete data set since early in Galileo's orbital tour, and is expected to be the basis for a long-term comparison with data obtained during Galileo's primary mission. The observation is performed in real-time, which means that the EUV data are not stored on the spacecraft's tape recorder, but rather are directly transmitted to Earth after processing and packaging. Real-time data acquisition allows playback of data stored on the tape recorder to proceed in parallel with the observation. This week's data playback returns portions of four observations. The Photopolarimeter Radiometer (PPR) returns three observations. The first two contain polarimetric measurements of Jupiter's atmosphere. Such measurements will allow scientists to learn more about the vertical cloud structure of Jupiter, including cloud particle shape and size. This observation pair provides the best PPR resolution of Galileo's mission at Jupiter. The third PPR observation provides this encounter's first look at Io. PPR's map of Io's dark side should reveal nighttime thermal emissions on Io and will aid scientists in the development of heat flow models. Toward the end of the week, the Fields and Particles instruments begin to return a 2-3/4 hour high-resolution recording of the Io torus. The recording contains measurements of the plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields within the Io torus, which will be used to increase the knowledge of the structure and dynamics of the fields and particles of the torus region. The data will also broaden the understanding of the general 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 22 February 2000 The following new images were taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft: A High-Resolution Look at the Spring Thaw of the Martian South Polar Cap 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 A High-Resolution Look at the Spring Thaw of the Martian South Polar Cap MGS MOC Release #MOC2-208, 22 February 2000 Over the past six months, the southern hemisphere of Mars has passed through spring and into summer. Spring started in early August 1999 and summer arrived toward the end of December 1999. Mars Global Sureyor (MGS) is in a polar orbit, thus the spacecraft's Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has had an excellent view of the daily changes that have occurred as the south polar frosts sublimed away during spring and into the summer season. Shown here are three views of the same portion the layered terrain near the martian south pole. Together, these three views document changes that occurred between August 1999 and February 2000 for the same small region. Each view is 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide. The differences in orientation of the surface features are caused by the fact that the MGS did not pass directly over the exact same spot in each view. Each view is illuminated by sunlight from the lower right. The wavey, almost parallel lines in the upper half of each picture are exposed layers of the south polar "layered terrain". As the terrain began to defrost in early August 1999, dark spots appeared. Wind occasionally picks up some of the dark material and blows it across the landscape, creating dark streaks. By late September, much of the scene is covered with these dark spots and narrow, dark wind streaks. By February, all of the frost and dark spots were gone, revealing the underlying layered terrain surface. Based upon the extremely cold temperatures measured by the MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) during southern spring at 87°S latitude, the frost seen in the left and middle pictures are probably composed mostly of frozen carbon dioxide--known on Earth as "dry ice". The 1 km scale bar is also equivalent about 0.62 miles; the arrow indicates the general direction of north. Image credits: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST MISSION STATUS JPL release 22 February 2000 NASA's Stardust spacecraft has successfully deployed its aerogel collector, enabling it to begin collecting interstellar dust from a stream of particles that flows through our solar system. Data from the spacecraft indicate that the deployment timeline was followed precisely, and all systems are operating normally. The heat shield on the spacecraft's sample return capsule opened, then a motor moved the aerogel collector out of the capsule. At that point, a second motor extended the collector fully to its collection position. This raised it high enough so that Stardust would be able to collect samples of comet dust when it flies by Comet Wild-2 in 2004. After deployment, however, engineers commanded the spacecraft to retract the collector by about 50 degrees to position it correctly for the current interstellar dust collection. The aerogel collector has two sides--one designed to gather interstellar dust, while the other is for comet dust collection. Engineers can control which side of the collector is exposed to a dust stream by orienting the spacecraft. Right now, Stardust is oriented so that the interstellar dust particles are hitting the backside of the collector. The current interstellar dust collection will continue through at least May 25. After that, it will be returned to its stowed position until mid-2002, when another period of interstellar dust collection is scheduled. After Stardust collects comet dust samples from Wild-2 in 2004, all the samples captured in the aerogel collector will be retracted into the sample return capsule. They will then be returned to Earth via a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range in 2006. Stardust was launched on February 7, 1999. The principal investigator for the mission is Dr. Donald C. Brownlee of the University of Washington. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, built and operates the spacecraft. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Chicago and the Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany, provided Science instruments. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs Volume 7, Number 8