MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 11, 24 March 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) NASA PULLS BACK FROM MARS By David Whitehouse 2) RESEARCHERS DISCOVER EXTRATERRESTRIAL GASES IN BUCKYBALLS NASA Ames Research Center release 00-20AR 3) COLD, DARK, SUB-ICE WATERS OF VOSTOK AND EUROPA MAY HARBOR LIFE, SCIENTISTS SAY By Lori Stiles 4) NEW METHOD OF FINDING NANNOBACTERIA IN RUST COULD BE USED ON MARS ROCKS University of Texas at Austin release 5) HOW THE SEARCH FOR WATER IN SPACE CAN HELP TO FIND AND PRESERVE THE WATER ON EARTH From ESA Science News 6) JPL AWARDS CONTRACTS FOR PLANET-HUNTING MISSION STUDIES JPL release 7) NASA'S RESPONSE TO UPI'S MARCH 21 MARS POLAR LANDER STORY NASA release 00-43 8) WAS MARS SHAPED BY GLACIERS? By Henry Bortman 9) LATEST RESULTS OF ASTROBIOLOGY RESEARCH TO BE UNVEILED AT AMES NASA Ames Research Center release 00-21AR 10) NEW ONLINE ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES By David J. Thomas 11) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 12) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 13) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA PULLS BACK FROM MARS By David Whitehouse, BBC News 17 March 2000 The United States is to abandon its ambitious plans to bring back rocks from the surface of Mars before the end of the decade. It is a decision that could set back hopes of an astronaut landing on the Red Planet by many years. The devastating news was broken to space scientists at this week's annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, by Dr. Carl Pilcher. He is the scientist leading Nasa's planetary exploration program. "The search for life on the Red Planet will have to slow down until people on Earth have worked out how to land on Mars without crashing," he said. Get the full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_681000/681000.stm. --------------------------------------------------------------------- RESEARCHERS DISCOVER EXTRATERRESTRIAL GASES IN BUCKYBALLS NASA Ames Research Center release 00-20AR 20 March 2000 Extraterrestrial gases, including helium, are trapped in "buckyball" molecules in a layer of sedimentary clay found in many places on Earth, according to a paper to be published March 28, 2000, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery provides a new tool for tracing asteroid and comet impacts in Earth's geological and biological records. A University of Hawaii geochemist and her colleagues, including a NASA scientist, found gases that did not originate on Earth inside buckyballs, or fullerene carbon molecules. The fullerene molecule is a hollow, cage-like structure typically made of 60 or more carbon atoms; it is also referred to as a "buckyball," in honor of Buckminster Fuller, designer of the geodesic dome that resembles the molecule. "We discovered extraterrestrial noble gases trapped inside buckyballs in a one-inch thick sedimentary layer of clay that is exposed at several locations on Earth," said Ted Bunch, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "The buckyballs containing the gases arrived on Earth about 65 million years ago during an asteroid impact that scientists theorize ended the age of the dinosaurs. The clay layer that formed from fallout of the impact debris was globally distributed," Bunch explained. Luann Becker, of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI; Robert Poreda, of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; and Ted Bunch of NASA Ames, discovered the extraterrestrial gases in the fullerenes. An advance copy of the article will be posted on the internet on March 21 at http://www.pnas.org "Helium from different sources on Earth, like our atmosphere or the emissions from volcanoes, have a very different isotopic signature from the helium in a meteorite," Becker said. An isotopic signature is the ratio of the isotopes of an element; for example, terrestrial helium consists of a small amount of helium 3 (whose nucleus has two protons and one neutron), and mostly helium 4 that has 2 protons and 2 neutrons. Cosmic helium is mostly helium 3. "The helium we found within the fullerene cages of Australia's Murchison meteorite, for example, is similar to the helium that existed when our Solar System first formed," Becker stated. That finding points to a cosmic source for the fullerenes, the researchers say. In contrast, molecules formed in the high pressure and temperature of an earthly impact or the heat of wildfires that followed would have encapsulated terrestrial helium, according to the researchers. They say the finding also supports the theory that atmospheric gases and organic compounds arrived on the Earth's surface during asteroid and comet strikes early in the planet's history when impacts were very numerous. The discovery relates to previous work by Becker and Bunch, published in Nature in July 1999 that first identified naturally occurring fullerenes in a meteorite. The scientists found significant quantities of very large fullerene molecules, some containing as many as 400 carbon atoms, in samples from the 4.6- billion-year-old Allende meteorite that landed in Mexico three decades ago. The subsequent work examined several Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary clay sediments distributed worldwide, including deposits in Denmark, New Zealand and North America. In each case, the researchers found fullerenes that encapsulated noble gases with unmistakable extraterrestrial and possibly extra-solar isotopic signatures. The scientists examined the one-inch clay layer because it is a well- studied sediment that contains extraterrestrial iridium and highly shocked minerals resulting from an asteroid impact 65 million years ago. A highly shocked mineral is one that has experienced temperatures of more than 2,000 C and pressures of about 400,000 atmospheres from impact shock. The clay layer documents a period of abrupt change in biological evolution, including mass extinction of the dinosaurs, now generally attributed to the impact of a carbonaceous asteroid with the Earth. Becker said [that] she hopes to expand the research to examine other periods of mass extinction such as the even more devastating event that formed the 250-million-year-old Permian/Triassic layer of sediment. She added that she hopes to determine if impacts with Earth trigger global change, including whether fullerenes of extraterrestrial origin delivered gases and carbon necessary to establish life on Earth. "We now have a powerful new tracer to look at sediment layers very carefully," Becker said. "It opens new possibilities in looking at the problem of how planetary atmospheres evolved and maybe even how life evolved on Earth and perhaps on other moons and planets." She said she also hopes to work with astronomers to study the formation of fullerenes. "We have yet to learn why these things are there and what they tell us about carbon in the universe. We need to figure out how to establish their existence and how to search for it." Grants from the NASA Cosmochemistry and Exobiology programs supported the research. --------------------------------------------------------------------- COLD, DARK, SUB-ICE WATERS OF VOSTOK AND EUROPA MAY HARBOR LIFE, SCIENTISTS SAY By Lori Stiles, University of Arizona 20 March 2000 Europa is likelier to harbor life than is Mars, planetary scientist Richard Greenberg says in an article in the April 2000 issue of Wired magazine. Greenberg is a University of Arizona professor and member of the Imaging Team for NASA's Galileo Jupiter-orbiter spacecraft. "I'd bet there's life on Europa," Greenberg told writer Oliver Morton. "I wouldn't bet there's life on Mars. " Morton's article, "Ice Station Vostok," argues the case for scientists who propose to explore pristine Lake Vostok--one of the world's 15 largest lakes--which sits beneath 2 and 1/2 miles of solid ice in east Antarctica. Lake Vostok is Earth's closest analog to the likely sub-surface ocean on Jupiter's moon, Europa. Lake Vostok has been sealed over with ice for 30 million years, but many scientists believe that an indigenous ecosystem endures in the cold, dark waters. The technologies and strategies they would develop to find out would be useful in future missions to Europa, they add. In Wired, Greenberg notes evidence that the ice on Europa is very thin in some places. Water may be close enough to the surface for photosynthesis to occur, if Europa does have a liquid ocean beneath its ice-shell surface. Using Galileo spacecraft images and theoretical modeling, Professor Greenberg and post-doctoral researchers Greg Hoppa, Randy Tufts and Paul Geissler of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory discovered the strongest evidence yet that there is a liquid ocean beneath Europa's bizarre, tortured ice. They reported it six months ago in Science. Europa's unique cycloidal cracks and ridges that run hundreds of miles through the entire lunar surface ice result from Jupiter's pull on Europa's sub-surface ocean, the University of Arizona scientists said. Each arc segment in a cycloidal crack forms in 85 hours, the time it takes the jovian moon to complete an orbit around its planet, they said. The cycloids faithfully record the daily tidal stresses on Europa just as trees faithfully record each growing season in annual rings, they added. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW METHOD OF FINDING NANNOBACTERIA IN RUST COULD BE USED ON MARS ROCKS University of Texas at Austin release 20 March 2000 Two geology professors at The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Robert L. Folk and Dr. Kitty L. Milliken, have demonstrated that iron oxide filaments from a variety of geological periods on Earth are lifelike in form at microscopic levels. They say their research could have implications for martian exploration and the search for some form of life on other planets. Scientists have been debating for a century whether iron oxide, commonly known as rust, results from biological or inorganic processes. The question of whether life forms such as bacteria or viruses play a role in the formation of rocks rich in iron oxide has not yet been settled, Folk said. But Folk and Milliken say the microscopic shapes they found would strongly suggest that living matter is intimately involved in the process. Their findings will be presented at the Geological Society of America meeting on Wednesday (March 22) in Charleston, SC. Milliken is a research scientist in the department of geological sciences. Folk is a Dave P. Carlton Centennial Professor Emeritus in Geology in the department, who has done pioneering work on forms called nannobacteria. Nannobacteria are incredibly small strands, along with spherical and egg-shaped objects found in rocks and minerals and believed by a few scientists to be dwarf forms of bacteria. They are about 1,000 times smaller than normal bacteria. Folk said half a billion nannobacterial cells could fit on a pinhead. Many biologists say no living creature could be smaller than about 0.2 microns because they say that is too small a size to contain the genetic material necessary for life. (A micron is one-millionth of a meter in the metric system.) And other scientists deny the structures represent the presence of life, arguing that the suggestive shapes are merely the result of chemical actions or weathering. Folk and other researchers admit that suspiciously lifelike shape does not necessarily prove or disprove the presence of life. But they believe the forms are fossils of the most primitive and earliest life forms on found on Earth and beyond. Folk discovered the first mineralized nannobacteria in an Italian hot springs deposit about 10 years ago. Folk's nannobacteria web page contains a photo gallery of the mysterious shapes found in fossil form in mineral and rock samples from Italy and from carbonaceous meteorites. The address is http://www.geo.utexas.edu/Illite/. Folk and Milliken's most recent research shows that modern iron oxide deposits (rust) contain these same tiny filamentous structures shaped like very small microbes. The iron oxides also contain a veritable "zoo" of other nano-sized bodies, which Folk said indicate the presence of life. Folk found the same features in both the new forms and the ancient forms of the iron deposits. "Together we worked on iron oxides ranging from those that clog present-day pipes to ancient iron deposits as old as three billion years," Folk said. Folk said in modern oxides "these nano-scale features are clearly organic because they remain in residue after iron oxides have been leached out. Bacteria and nannobacteria leave abundant evidence of their presence in iron oxides in the shapes we see under the microscopes." The scientists used a simple new technique to separate out the nannobacteria. "Slightly dissolving iron oxide with hydrochloric acid reveals the entombed nannobacteria--a method that has not heretofore been used, nor has investigation of the deposits been made at such high magnifications," Folk said. "These dwarf forms of bacteria precipitate the iron oxide in modern rust. The presence of these same forms in iron-rich sediments that are extremely ancient (billions of years) indicates their important role in chemical reactions." Normal-sized iron bacterial filaments are seen best with a 3-D microscope. Very minute nannobacterial cells--cells 50-to-100 nanometers in diameter--are visible only using an electron microscope. These features are easily found in iron oxides of all ages in rocks on Earth by using the new microscope technology. If the research is correct, Folk said the same methods could be useful in evaluation of iron-rich rocks that eventually may be retrieved by martian exploration vehicles. When NASA scientists in 1996 announced that odd formations, resembling terrestrial nannobacteria, appeared to be present in a carbonate vein of a 4.57 billion-year-old martian meteorite recovered in Antarctica some years earlier, they based their announcement on Folk's research on Italian travertines (a type of limestone). Folk said his work on the other carbon- bearing meteorites "implies that minute forms of life may have existed not only on Mars but also on other planets and asteroids, the source of most meteorites." Folk and his nannobacteria research team include Dr. Brenda L. Kirkland of the UT Austin department of geological sciences, Dr. Leo Lynch of the Mississippi State University department of geosciences, Dr. Ian J. Molineux, a professor in the UT Austin department of molecular genetics and microbiology and Dr. Robert J. C. McLean of the Southwest Texas State University biology department. For more information, contact Dr. Robert Folk at the Department of Geological Sciences at (512) 471-5294 and visit the Nannobacteria Home Page at http://www.geo.utexas.edu/Illite/. --------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW THE SEARCH FOR WATER IN SPACE CAN HELP TO FIND AND PRESERVE THE WATER ON EARTH From ESA Science News, http://sci.esa.int 21 March 2000 ESA scientists at the UNESCO forum in The Hague: "Water, a fragile gift from Stars to planets". The water that we drink and that fills the world's oceans comes from the stars, as the detection of huge amounts of water in many regions of the universe by ESA's infrared space telescope, ISO, has recently proved. This fact opened the one-day session on "Water and Space" organized by ESA and UNESCO at a World Water Forum being held in The Hague (NL), where scientists reviewed latest results on the search for water in the Moon and long-standing problems such as what is the precise origin of the water on Earth. Water-related technologies being developed for planetary exploration were also found to be very useful on Earth: for instance machines to extract water directly from minerals and radars to detect underground water at a depth of several kilometers. Participants asked the space agencies to make satellite images of the Earth freely available on the Internet. UNESCO has declared Wednesday 22 March as "World Water Day". The Earth is presently the only "wet" planet in the Solar System, and that is, after all, the reason why we humans are not martians--liquid water is considered essential for life. But the blue planet owes its color to a pure astronomical chance: had the Earth been slightly closer to the Sun it would be like Venus; had it been slightly farther away, it would probably be as dry as Mars is today. This is, scientists say, a sign of the fragility of the system, and also a "warning"--Mars and Venus could reflect the future of our planet. "Water is a gift from the stars. We have been very lucky, but we must be careful if we don't want to make our planet uninhabitable. Both Mars and Venus had plenty of water in the past. Venus became too hot due to an extreme greenhouse effect, and water evaporated. We are following the same path by raising the emissions of green- house effect gasses", explained Marcello Coradini, ESA's coordinator on Solar System exploration and chairman of the session at the UNESCO forum. The wealth of water on Earth is also the source of many questions. For instance, where does it come from? The ultimate answer is that it comes from the stars. Oxygen is produced in the stars' cores and then released into the stars' environment, where it combines with hydrogen under the appropriate conditions, for example during the violent stages of starbirth, when the star spews out gas at high speed and generates a shock wave that heats and compresses the hydrogen and oxygen present in the environment. Water has been detected by ESA's infrared space telescope ISO in many regions: around new-born and dying stars, in the space amid the stars, towards the centre of our galaxy and even in other galaxies, as well as in our own solar system--in the upper atmosphere of the giants planets and Saturn's moon Titan, in the martian atmosphere and in comets. "In the Orion nebula, where many new stars are being born, ISO detected enough water to fill the Earth's oceans 60 times a day", said Alberto Salama, an ESA astronomer on the ISO team. "ISO has allowed us to prove that there's a true 'cycle' of water in the universe". The origin of the oceans' water It is clear then that water was present in the cloud of material out of which the Solar System formed about five thousand million years ago. But is that the same water we find in the oceans today? And, if so, how exactly did it arrive on the planet? To find out, scientists turn to the other "watery bodies" of the Solar System: the comets. Current theories suggest that water on Earth was also brought by icy comets that bombed our planet in the past, but astronomers still lack the data to prove this. They need to study the precise chemical composition of the water in comets and compare it with that of the oceans. More precisely, they will measure the relative amount of a form of hydrogen, the 'heavy hydrogen' or deuterium, as compared to the most common form of this element. "Comets are made of the same material as the Sun and the planets. Logic says that the deuterium/hydrogen ratio should be the same for the Sun, for the comets and for the planets. If there's a different ratio in the planets, we have to find an external phenomenon that has modified the ratio. And external could also mean extrasolar origin, a source different from the comets", explained Gerhard Schewhm, project scientist for ESA's Rosetta mission. Rosetta will probably solve this problem very soon, by becoming the first spacecraft that lands on a comet. In 2003 Rosetta will be launched to Rosetta encounter (in 2011) comet Wirtanen--a small comet about 1.5 kilometres in diameter, orbit very close to its surface for almost two years and finally land on the icy traveller and drill its surface. The data Rosetta will gather about chemical composition will help to write the past history not only of the Earth, but of the whole Solar System. Water in the Moon... and how to use it Although the existence of water-ice in the Moon has not been proved yet, scientists and engineers are already thinking seriously about how to use it. Space Agencies have established an International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) to coordinate the current and next missions to the moon... and also to discuss far-future "science fiction" scenarios. "There are proposals for landers to try to measure the depth and composition of the ices in the craters close to the south pole of the Moon. And people are already thinking about Lunar "robotic villages" to be used for lunar exploration and utilization. One may develop "gas stations" where future spacecraft could take on supplies of fuel (the detected hydrogen in the Moon and abundant oxygen) or water. These stations could even be placed in a precise point between the Moon and the Earth. Considering that putting just one kilogram into a low Earth orbit costs 10,000 Euros, all these ideas would lower considerably the cost of future human expansion projects in the solar system, and even of space tourism, for instance", says ESA's Bernard Foing, chairman of the ILEWG and project scientist for the first ESA mission to the Moon, SMART-1. The "water-on-the-Moon" story was revived back in 1995 with a confirmation of shadowed polar areas and radar tentative detection by the U.S. DoD spacecraft Clementine. In 1998 another NASA spacecraft, Lunar Prospector, again announced indirect evidence of the presence of water-ice in the Moon. Prospector had detected high levels of hydrogen in shadowed craters near the Moon's south and north poles, and that hydrogen, mission scientists said, could be forming water ice. It was in fact estimated that up to six billion metric tonnes of water ice could be buried in the craters. But an attempt to find direct evidence of water by "crashing" the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into a crater near the south pole of the Moon, last July, produced no observable signature of water. "The issue is open. Recent analyses of the Lunar Prospector data fully confirm the presence of high amounts of hydrogen in the poles", says Foing. "Now we have to find out whether the hydrogen is forming water-ice or if it's mixed in the soil. My bet is that it will be probably in both forms". But according to the scientists the detection of the excess of hydrogen is already good news, since it could be artificially combined with oxygen to produce water. Oxygen represents about 45% of the Lunar surface, although it is of course combined with other elements. But devices to extract water from minerals are already being developed. ESA's mission SMART-1, to be launched in 2002, will be the next step in the exploration of the Moon. Although it is mostly a technology mission--to develop more efficient space electric propulsion systems and new instruments--SMART-1 will carry a very sensitive spectrometer to clarify once and for all what's inside the shadowed craters in Moon. Spin-off of space water-related technology "Space agencies should be more active in bringing their spin-off technology to the public", said Coradini in The Hague. "Sessions like this help us to be aware of the needs of society". He was replying to questions from the public: if machines to extract water from solid minerals are already being developed for planetary exploration, could they be used on Earth? "Indeed", Coradini said. "When the machine is ready you could use it in the middle of the desert. There's a prototype already." Another likely example of useful space technology is the radar being developed for the next ESA mission to Mars, Mars Express, aimed at the search for underground water. Its on-board radar will be able to detect water kilometers below the surface. Scientists say that, if used on Earth, it could "see" even deeper. Participants at the ESA/UNESCO session raised the issues of free availability of satellite images of the Earth, a useful resource for the search of water in our planet. Although ESA already guarantees some access to these resources for developing countries, researchers and universities still have to pay. The ESA/UNESCO session at the World Water Conference also covered anthropological link between water and space. Italian anthropologist Paola Antolini gave a wonderful lecture about how the people from the dessert learnt to build and preserve oases. "Their technologies come from the past, but they might also be useful for future planetary exploration. The Earth is, after all, our oasis in the cosmos", said architect Pietro Laureano, from the Italian Research Centre for Local and Traditional Knowledge. Useful links for this story * World Water Forum http://www.worldwaterforum.org/ * World day for water 2000 http://www.unesco.org/science/waterday2000/ Image caption: [http://sci.esa.int/image.cfm?TypeID=1&ContentID=9871&table=ContentTa ble&Storytype=18] The World day for water 2000 logo. --------------------------------------------------------------------- JPL AWARDS CONTRACTS FOR PLANET-HUNTING MISSION STUDIES JPL release 21 March 2000 Creative sparks are flying as four contract-winning teams begin the quest to design Terrestrial Planet Finder, an ambitious mission in NASA's Origins Program that will look for possible life-supporting planets around other stars. Through a three-month competitive process, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, selected the industrial- academic teams, which will spend the next two years developing mission concepts for Terrestrial Planet Finder. The teams are led by Ball Aerospace of Boulder, CO; Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, CA; TRW of Redondo Beach, CA; and SVS, Inc. of Albuquerque, NM. About 75 scientists from 30 universities and research institutions, 16 industrial firms, and two NASA centers are represented on the teams. "We've succeeded in our goal of engaging some of the best minds in the world," said Dr. Firouz Naderi, Origins Program Manager and Terrestrial Planet Finder project manager at JPL. "Now their task is to cover the waterfront on all feasible mission concepts for the Terrestrial Planet Finder, bringing us one step closer to finding out whether life exists elsewhere in the universe." Finding habitable, Earth-like planets doesn't come easy. "The challenge is like trying to locate a firefly next to the beam of a brilliant searchlight," said Terrestrial Planet Finder Project Scientist Dr. Charles A. Beichman of JPL. The solution depends on developing a whole suite of challenging technologies, including those necessary to fly several 3.5 meter (137-inch) telescopes in a formation so precise that we will know their positions to a fraction of a centimeter, even though the space between them will span a few football fields. The mission's success will also depend on the ability to cancel out a star's glare so that a planet one million-times fainter can be seen, and will require instruments so sensitive that they can identify the presence of life- sustaining chemicals on a planet up to 50 light years away from Earth. "We will be looking for warm, water-bearing planets like Earth, and even for signs of primitive life," said Beichman. "To get there, Terrestrial Planet Finder will be built on the technological shoulders of earlier Origins missions, but several leaps in innovation will still be required." That's why the team at JPL decided to establish an innovative approach to mission design and planning. To avoid basing Planet Finder's design on current and potentially "conventional" thinking, JPL threw open the doors to invention by requesting proposals that would reflect the most diverse set of feasible and affordable mission architectures. "We didn't want the design teams to be constrained by existing concepts or so-called 'right answers,'" said Naderi. "This way we'll have the broadest set of concepts to choose from and won't miss out on any opportunity that's too good to pass up." In the first, eight-month phase of the study, the four contract teams will be busy brainstorming options for detecting and characterizing far-away planets. In December 2000, the best two architectures from each team will be selected for further study in the planned, 11-month Phase 2 study, ending in November 2001. Terrestrial Planet Finder is planned to launch in 2012. Over a five-year period, it will take a look at 250 stars to determine which ones may have orbiting, life- sustaining planets. The mission will also advance our understanding of how planets and their parent stars form by making thousands of images, all with a sharpness 10 to 100 times better than those of the Hubble Space Telescope. More information about Terrestrial Planet Finder can be found at http://tpf.jpl.nasa.gov. The Origins Program seeks to understand our cosmic roots by detailing how galaxies, stars, planets, and the chemicals necessary for life formed and developed in the universe. Its other primary goal is to search for the presence of life on distant worlds, answering the question "Are we alone?" Details about the Origins Program can be found at http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov. JPL manages both Terrestrial Planet Finder and the Origins Program on behalf of NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA'S RESPONSE TO UPI'S MARCH 21 MARS POLAR LANDER STORY NASA release 00-43 22 March 2000 James Oberg of UPI claims that NASA knew there was a problem with the Mars Polar Lander propulsion system prior to the December 3 landing attempt and "withheld this conclusion from the public." NASA categorically denies this charge. Here's what NASA did and what NASA said: * The Stephenson report, phase 1, was released to the public on November 10, 1999 during a press conference at NASA Headquarters. * The report made 11 different references to technical issues or concerns involving the propulsion system and the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sequence. * This issue was specifically addressed in the press conference and in "MPL Observation #5" and other public recommendations of the Stephenson Phase 1 report. It was entitled, "Cold Firing of Thrusters," and dealt in detail with the catalyst bed issue cited by Mr. Oberg of UPI in his March 21 story, "NASA Knew Mars Polar Lander Doomed." * Had UPI researched the public documents released on November 10, which have been available online at the NASA Home Page, the reporter would have been able to conclude that NASA did indeed publicly address propulsion issues, and specifically, the propulsion system's "catalyst bed" temperature concern. * Based on this review, NASA knew about the concerns with the propulsion system, NASA took corrective action, and NASA hid nothing from the public. We made our concerns known in early November. * Several failure scenarios have been reported in the press over the last few weeks, including the lander legs microswitch issue. Outlets such as the Denver Post, Space Daily, and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" have covered this angle. There is nothing new in the UPI report relating to this specific issue. The lander legs issue is among the failure modes we are studying. * Both the Stephenson and Casani (John Casani, retired JPL flight programs head and also director of mission assurance) teams have conducted intensive reviews relating to Mars Polar Lander, and their teams have surfaced no evidence relating to thruster acceptance testing irregularities as alleged by UPI. In fact, members of the review teams are using words like "bunk," "complete nonsense," and "wacko," to describe their reactions to UPI's charge. --------------------------------------------------------------------- WAS MARS SHAPED BY GLACIERS? By Henry Bortman From New Scientist, http://www.newscientist.com 22 March 2000 Melting glaciers rather than flowing surface water could have carved out the Red Planet's distinctive valleys. Branching networks of small valleys have led many scientists to conclude that rivers of running water once flowed freely across the surface of Mars. But this would mean that the red planet once had a much warmer climate than it does today and, apart from its valleys, there is no evidence to suggest that Mars was ever warm (New Scientist, 17 April 1999, p 48). But Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, says the answer may be found on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, where he is studying valleys carved by glacial meltwater. "What we've been finding on Devon Island," says Lee, "is a wide variety of valley types, from canyons to little networks of small valleys, that bear an uncanny resemblance to specific counterparts on Mars." In particular, he says, the martian valleys "cut through a desert that otherwise has very little sign of water flowing nearby". The constant width and depth of martian valleys over long distances, their flat floors and steep walls are all distinctive features also found on Devon Island, but uncommon on river networks. Lee believes that other martian landforms, notably some large canyons on the west end of Valles Marineris, could actually have been carved by flowing glacial ice. Devon Island also has canyons like these, he told the 31st Lunar and Planetary Institute Science Conference in Houston, Texas, last week. If Lee is correct, Mars may have had a cold climate, in which snowfall piled up to form glaciers that later melted in the heat generated inside the planet. Mars expert Jim Head of Brown University, Rhode Island, welcomes Lee's work, saying the analogy to Devon Island is helping him visualize how melting snow might have produced valleys on Mars. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LATEST RESULTS OF ASTROBIOLOGY RESEARCH TO BE UNVEILED AT AMES NASA Ames Research Center release 00-21AR 23 March 2000 An internationally recognized cadre of researchers from diverse scientific disciplines will present their latest findings demonstrating the novel, multidisciplinary nature of astrobiology during the First Astrobiology Science Conference at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, April 3-5, 2000. Mission opportunities and technology requirements for astrobiology research--the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the universe--will also be discussed. The conference is organized into six provocative themes that relate to the fundamental questions and research areas within astrobiology: Water--the Sine Qua Non of Life; The Environment; Astrobiology Programs and Mars; Transfer; Detection; and Simplicity and Complexity. The themes will be discussed during oral presentations and in numerous scientific and technical posters. "Astrobiology is a unique and exciting new field that probes into some of humanity's and science's most intriguing questions about the origin and evolution of life in the universe," explained Dr. Lynn Rothschild, an evolutionary biologist at Ames and chairperson of the meeting's local organizing committee. "This conference is our first opportunity to assess the science, discuss the mission opportunities available, and really ignite the field," she added. More information about the astrobiology program and conference is available on the astrobiology web site at http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov. The web site contains the conference agenda, list of speakers, and scientific and technical abstracts. Located in California's Silicon Valley, Ames is NASA's Center of Excellence for Astrobiology, and manages the NASA Astrobiology Institute. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ONLINE ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES By David J. Thomas 24 March 2000 Many new links to online articles have been added to the web-based "Astrobiology, Extreme Environments and Terraformation Index" (http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology. html). A list of the recent additions follows. Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles online (http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articl es1.html) Author unknown, 2000. Water + energy = life? SpaceDaily. J. Achenbach, 2000. Life beyond Earth. National Geographic. P. Ball, 2000. Resurrecting life on Mars? Nature Science Update. A. Boyle, 2000. Mission to Mars: digging for life. MSNBC. P. Gillet, J. A. Barrat, T. Heulin, W. Achouak, M. Lesourd, F. Guyot and K. Benerara, 2000. Bacteria in the Tatahouine meteorite: nanometric-scale life in rocks. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 175(3-4):161-167. B. Klyce, 2000. Bacteria in Murchison/Efremovka meteorites. SpaceDaily. M. Paine, 2000. Fossilized bacteria found in ancient meteorite. Space.com. T. Radford, 2000. Key to life on Mars lies in the soil. Newsunlimited. M. Shwarts, 2000. Jovian radiation could heat up europan soup. SpaceDaily. D. Vergano, 2000. Northern Mars once was wet, researchers believe. Florida Today Space Online. B. P. Weiss, Y. L. Yung and K. H. Nealson, 2000. Atmospheric energy for subsurface life on Mars? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(4):1395-1399. Articles on the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) (http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articl es2.html) L. David, 2000. Search for life takes two women to the depths. Space.com. P. F. Hoffman and D. P. Schrag, 2000. Snowball Earth. Scientific American, 282(1). J. Marchant, 2000. Deep-sea bugs shine from radiation repair. SpaceDaily. Articles on human space exploration and the microgravity environment (http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology_ books.html) National Research Council, 1996. Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations for Selected Airborne Contaminants: Volume 2. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council, 1997. Advanced Technology for Human Support in Space. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council, 1999. Engineering Challenges to the Long- Term Operation of the International Space Station. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council, 1999. Radiation and the International Space Station: Recommendations to Reduce Risk. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council, 1999. A Scientific Rationale for Mobility in Planetary Environments. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council, 2000. Future Biotechnology Research on the International Space Station. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. J. Oberg and B. Aldrin, 2000. A bus between the planets. Scientific American, 282(3):58-60. S. F. Singer, 2000. To Mars by way of its moons. Scientific American, 282(3):56-57. D. Sorid, 2000. Meet me in the airlock... will sex in space fly? Space.com. G. Zorpette, 2000. Why go to Mars? Scientific American, 282(3):40- 43. R. Zubrin, 2000. The Mars direct plan. Scientific American, 282(3):52-55. Do you know of an online article that would be of interest to astrobiologists? Please notify Dave Thomas by e-mail at dthomas@lyon.edu. Articles must be accessible to the general public (no subscriptions needed for online access). --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 20-26 March 2000 Data playback on Galileo is interrupted once this week as the spacecraft flies the outbound leg of its orbit around Jupiter. On Tuesday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its onboard tape recorder. This week's playback schedule includes observations performed by the Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI), Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), and suite of Fields and Particles instruments. The observations were made during the spacecraft's close flyby of Io last month. The Fields and Particles instruments are comprised of the Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Detector, and Plasma Wave instrument. Throughout the week, the Fields and Particles instruments continue to return parts of a high-resolution recording of the plasma, dust, and electromagnetic fields surrounding Io. The recording was performed during the spacecraft's closest 82 minutes to Io. Fields and Particles data are also interleaved with data from any remote sensing instrument observation made during the same 82-minute period. A regular occurrence, this is done so high-priority surface targets are not missed by the remote sensing instruments (NIMS, SSI, Photopolarimeter Radiometer, and Ultraviolet Spectrometer). NIMS starts its share of this week's playback with the return of three observations. The first contains spectral scans of the Chaac Patera region, complementing data returned last week by SSI. The Chaac region is known to be home to Io's "golf courses", so-called because of their greenish color and similar shape. The second observation is a mosaic of several volcanic regions on Io, and the third captures the Prometheus volcanic vent. SSI then returns part of a four-image mosaic of the Tohil Mons region. These images will be combined with an observation of Tohil Mons taken in October 1999 in order to produce stereo views of the region. Tohil Mons is of interest to scientists as it is one of the mountains on Io whose geological structure, origin and history are not well known. SSI also returns part of a color observation of the Prometheus region. SSI and NIMS then return two joint observations. In the first observation, they return data from the Camaxtli Patera hot spot. The SSI portion of this observation will be combined with one of SSI's earlier observations to produce stereo coverage of the Chaac Patera region. The next observation is the last one on this week's playback schedule and contains data covering Io's Amirani volcanic region. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 15 March 2000 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1227 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 349 days Total Mapping Orbits = 4562 Total Orbits = 6165 Recent events The spacecraft continues to operate nominally in performing the beta supplement daily recording and transmission of science data. The mm020 sequence executed successfully from 00-63 (3/3/00) through 00- 72 (3/12/00). The mm021 sequence also successfully executed from 00- 63 (3/13/00) through 00-74 (3/14/00). The mm022 sequence was successfully uplinked on 00-73 (3/13/00) and began execution nominally on 00-74 (3/14/00). Upon completion of the recent four day fixed-HGA mapping campaign performed last week, which resulted in higher than expected MOLA temperatures, the spacecraft team began looking at ways to fix the temperature problem. Additionally in assessing the first fixed-HGA campaign, it was noted that the actual transitions into and out of fixed-HGA mode of operations from the beta supplement mode of operations, were more complicated than anticipated and resulted in a larger than expected loss of science data from the other instruments. The Spacecraft Team presented at the 3/14 Project Mission Planning meeting alternatives to and options for fixing the current fixed-HGA operations. Fixed-HGA operations were to be performed 4-8 days per month for the express purpose of acquiring Radio Science Earth occultation egress measurements, which are prohibited during normal beta supplement mapping operations due to HGA gimbal constraints. From the Mission Planning meeting the favored option was to eliminate the fixed-HGA operations and perform special slews for a specified number of orbits to provide the desired longitudinal planetary coverage for the radio science occultation egress data, similar to the implementation of the MOLA off-nadir polar observations. Final details are in work and will be presented to the Project Change Board next Tuesday (3/21) Spacecraft health All subsystems are reporting nominal health. Battery 2 was successfully commanded back to VT-2 after transitioning back to beta supplement operations. The red alarm high limit for the MOLA temperature has been decreased by 3 degrees (from 35°C to 32°C) after a meeting with the MOLA engineers. Uplinks There have been 20 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, instrument command loads, and the mm021 and mm022 sequences. Two uplinks were missed after the final transition from the fixed-HGA Earth pointed attitude back to nadir pointed beta supplement operations due to a large change in the transponder temperature. The uplink sweeps for the beta supplement orbits are tailored specially for the very short uplink windows and are very sensitive to changes in the MOT temperature. The missing uplinks were successfully re-radiated. Total command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 4515. Upcoming events Planning has begun for a focus calibration of the MOC to be performed in late March. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 17 March 2000 There were two Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes during the past week. All subsystems onboard the spacecraft are performing normally. Recorded engineering and Navigation Camera images were played backed. The aerogel grid was moved toward the open direction approximately 9 degrees. The grid position is adjusted every two weeks to keep the grid perpendicular to the interstellar dust stream. A Navigation Camera meeting was held to discuss the next series of images to provide additional data to monitor the flight performance of the Navigation Camera. Bright star images and calibration lamp images will be taken, some viewing a star through the periscope. The science team members dealing with particles had a meeting at NASA Ames Research Center to discuss the curation plans of the returned particles with Johnson Space Center where the particles will be stored. 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 11