MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 15, 24 April 2000. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Biology and Chemistry Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu Dr. Julian A. Hiscox, School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AJ, United Kingdom. J.A.Hiscox@reading.ac.uk Marsbugs is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editors, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. While we cannot copyright our mailing list, our readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing list. The editors do not condone "spamming" of our subscribers. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editors. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either of the editors. Article contributions are welcome, and should be submitted to either of the two editors. Contributions should include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along with the author(s)' correspondence address. Subscribers are advised to make appropriate inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. Back issues and Adobe Acrobat PDF files suitable for printing may be obtained from the official Marsbugs web page at http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/marsbugs/marsbugs.html. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related fields. This newsletter is not intended to replace peer- reviewed journals, but to supplement them. We, the editors, envision Marsbugs as a medium in which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events. Astrobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may come from the most unexpected places. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: exobiology and astrobiology (life on other planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), ecopoeisis and terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS 1) MARS EXPRESS ON TARGET AND FORGING LINKS WITH JAPAN From ESA Science News 2) HUMMINGBIRD SPACE PROBE By Mark Schrope 3) FIRST PROTOTYPE OF REVOLUTIONARY SETI TELESCOPE UNVEILED AT 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WORLD'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE University of California-Berkeley release 4) STARDUST SPACECRAFT CATCHING DUST IN THE WIND JPL release 5) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXOBIOLOGY AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas 6) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 7) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 8) NEW GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGE SHOWS OLYMPUS MONS JPL image advisory 9) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS EXPRESS ON TARGET AND FORGING LINKS WITH JAPAN From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 17 April 2000 Mars Express on target and forging links with Japan Progress on building the Mars Express spacecraft is proceeding according to plan. "We are following our schedule," Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express project manager, said last week at a science working team meeting attended mainly by scientists who are building payload instruments. Project teams at Matra Marconi Space (MMS) Toulouse, the prime contractor, and at ESA's technical centre, ESTEC, are now at full strength and all sub-contractors have been appointed, said Schmidt. Issues raised at the preliminary design review (PDR) at the end of last year (see earlier news story) have largely been resolved; and potential problems with on-board software have been avoided by reducing the inherent flexibility required of some of the spacecraft's housekeeping. All payload instrument teams reported that they are now moving from the design phase, phase B, into the construction phase, phase C/D. They are on target for delivering EM models of their instruments to MMS after the summer, followed shortly by structural models (SM). The EM models will be used to test the electrical interfaces of each instrument with the spacecraft and the SM models to test physical interfaces. The meeting heard that a potential problem with vibration during launch disappeared with the first two test flights of the Soyuz- Fregat launcher. "We had been concerned that vibration during launch would threaten the survival of some of the instruments," said Schmidt. "But the first two test flights went extremely well." Vibration levels were well below those originally given as an upper estimate by Starsem, the Russian-French launcher company. Representatives from MMS went over the instrument testing procedures for the benefit of the instrument teams and a representative from ESOC, ESA's space operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, summarised their progress and the capabilities of a software tool that will shortly be available to simulate the orbits of Mars Express around Mars. The tool will help instrument scientists to plan when to turn their instruments on and off during each orbit. The teams are preparing to forge closer links with their counterparts in Japan, who are flying instruments on the Nozomi spacecraft which will arrive at Mars shortly after Mars Express. Hajime Hayakawa from ISAS, the Japanese space agency, told the meeting that Nozomi will follow an equatorial orbit which will be complementary to Mars Express's polar orbit. Nozomi's chief interest will be the upper atmosphere--its 14 instruments will record electron density and temperature profiles. Hayakawa proposed that a joint working team be set up and hold its first meeting in Japan in the autumn. IMAGE CAPTION: [http://sci.esa.int/content/image/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=14830&obj ecttypename=news&ooid=14670] Mars Express in orbit. --------------------------------------------------------------------- HUMMINGBIRD SPACE PROBE By Mark Schrope From New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com 19 April 2000 A hummingbird could soon be visiting the heavens--in a manner of speaking. NASA engineers want to build a space probe that behaves like a hummingbird approaching a flower. In other words it will use a touch-and-go landing technique to capture and analyze samples from a comet's central core for the first time. The team, led by Glenn Carle of the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, is hoping to convince NASA chiefs to press ahead with its Hummingbird Comet Nucleus Analysis Mission this summer. The Ames team hopes to launch the probe sometime around 2005, to complement three other NASA comet missions. Comets are at about 100K, and scientists believe they contain deep- frozen material from after the big bang but they would like to be certain. "What I think is the most interesting question to answer is the relationships of comets to material that ended up on the early Earth and took part in the origin of life," says Carle. "We just don't know what we started with." The space probe would be powered by an ion engine. Once it reached the comet, it would orbit for up to a year taking samples of the dust, ice and gases in the comet's atmosphere and analyzing their composition and isotope ratios. During that period, the craft would take detailed images to help the ground team choose a safe touchdown spot. In the next phase of the mission, the craft would advance slowly toward the comet's solid core, or nucleus, stopping frequently for safety checks. But the craft would not land in the conventional sense--only two dangling tethers would make contact with the comet. One tether, equipped with temperature, hardness and contact sensors, would use electronics to sense certain conditions and trigger a new type of sampling mechanism attached to the second tether. The sampler has two counter-rotating carbide wheels with sharpened blades that would grind up the surface of the comets and kick chunks of the material into collection funnels on the spacecraft. A prototype sampler is being built at Honeybee Robotics in New York, and will probably be finished by June. The hummingbird sampling cycle takes less than two seconds, then gas thrusters would fire and send the craft back to analyze its samples as it orbits the comet. Ideally, the craft would repeat this hummingbird maneuver up to six times. As well as taking samples at many points on a comet nucleus, the concept has several advantages. Comets have a tiny gravitational field because their nuclei are only tens of kilometers across, so a normal probe would have to latch onto the comet. The hummingbird probe's "bump sampling" gets round this problem. Cutting down the time at the surface is also safer, since it means the probe spends less time without sunlight and channels of communication. "Almost all the questions we have from 20 years ago still exist," says William Boynton, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "We've flown by comets and taken a peek at them, but we really have not even scratched the surface. It sounds like this mission would scratch the surface literally as well as figuratively." New Scientist issue: 22nd April 2000 --------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST PROTOTYPE OF REVOLUTIONARY SETI TELESCOPE UNVEILED AT 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WORLD'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE University of California-Berkeley release 19 April 2000 In a tree preserve a dozen miles from the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, astronomers today unveiled a prototype telescope that will lead to the development of the world's most powerful instrument for finding signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. On Wednesday, April 19, representatives of the SETI Institute and UC Berkeley introduced the first in a series of prototypes for the One Hectare Telescope, or 1hT. So named because of its total signal "collecting" area (one hectare is 10,000 square meters or 2.47 acres), the 1hT is a partnership between the university and the institute, the world's largest private research organization devoted to the comprehensive search for life beyond Earth. The seven-dish prototype is a precursor to what will eventually be an array of hundreds, perhaps thousands of small backyard-type satellite dishes linked by sophisticated electronics to create an unparalleled SETI observing instrument. The 1hT also will be a premium instrument for conducting more traditional research in radio astronomy, such as examining the formation of stars. "This prototype launches the next generation of SETI research in a bold way," said Dr. Jill Tarter, director of SETI research at the institute. "There is also tremendous potential for other radio astronomy. The 1hT is a fundamentally new way to build radio telescopes, and it's not an overstatement to say that the world astronomy community is paying very close attention to this project." Leo Blitz, director of UC Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory and a professor of astronomy, said the 1hT draws on the laboratory's success in designing, building and operating arrays. "The 1hT is a natural for us. It will be a wonderful tool for discovery." The instrument unveiled today is a prototype and is not intended to conduct SETI or even more traditional radio astronomy. Instead, it will serve as a testbed for solving a variety of scientific and technical challenges associated with the so-called "back end" of the telescope, including the development of signal processing methods for dealing with interference, especially interference from telecommunications satellites. At the same time, scientists will study the feasibility of using those very same satellites to calibrate the array, which would improve the performance of the full 1hT. Using the prototype, scientists will also analyze inexpensive drives and mounts under field conditions and develop a variety of hardware and software for the final array. Included among items to be tested are the array control software and early versions of the digital beamformer, which will allow the 1hT to observe multiple SETI target stars and other radio astronomical sources at the same time. With lessons learned from the first prototype, a second and larger prototype will be built in 2002. That prototype will allow testing of the 'front ends' of the 1hT which are derived from a number of innovative consumer technologies still under development. The final version of the 1hT will be constructed at UC Berkeley's Hat Creek Observatory, located about 290 miles northeast of San Francisco. The Hat Creek Observatory is currently the site of the ten-telescope array now operated by the university, called the BIMA (Berkeley- Illinois-Maryland Association) Millimeter Array. The 1hT is scheduled to be completed and operational in 2005. Once completed, the 1hT will be the world's largest telescope devoted to SETI and among the largest radio telescopes in the world for any purpose. It will be comparable in signal 'collecting' area to the Very Large Array in New Mexico, the premier imaging instrument in the world for radio astronomy. The largest radio telescope in the world is the 1,000-foot telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is currently used on a limited basis by the SETI Institute's Project Phoenix, the world's most powerful and well-known SETI search. Project Phoenix and its scientists are widely held to be the models for much of the 1997 film "Contact," starring Jodie Foster. For SETI observations, dedicated time on large radio telescopes like Arecibo is scarce. The result for SETI is less than optimal; at best, SETI scientists are able to scan only a few hundred star systems per year. The 1hT would expand observations at least a hundred-fold. SETI observations require not only a large collecting area (to find the weak signals expected from a transmitter many light years away) but also highly sophisticated digital receivers to scrutinize billions of radio channels. Unlike conventional radio telescopes, the 1hT is also expandable. By adding new dishes to the array, the 1hT could be made larger at relatively low cost. The 1hT's expandability gives it the potential to grow into the largest radio telescope in the world. The 1hT team will begin the search with 1,000 nearby sun-like stars and gradually move outward to encompass 100,000 and then one million candidate stars in our galaxy. In the Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are an estimated 400 billion stars. The team will search for weak continuous-wave signals--each like radar or radio broadcasts from Earth--at millions of individual frequencies, as well as narrow-band pulsed signals. The SETI computer system will conduct a real-time analysis designed to automatically check out all candidate signals and then alert researchers immediately to signals of interest. At the same time, the pulsar processor and radio astronomy correlator will provide observational data on traditional astronomical sources. Among those participating in the development of the 1hT is Dr. Frank Drake, whose Project Ozma--conducted in April 1960 using an 85-foot radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia--was the world's first scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The following year, Drake was asked by the National Academy of Sciences to prepare an agenda for the first scientific meeting to discuss SETI (participants in that meeting included the young Carl Sagan and the late UC Berkeley Nobel laureate Melvin Calvin). The resulting agenda is the now-famous Drake Equation, which continues to be a widely used framework for estimating the possible prevalence of communicating civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. Drake also proposed the idea for what became the 1hT, sketching out the concept over a series of meetings convened by the SETI Institute in the late 1990s. These meetings featured an international blue-ribbon panel of scientists and technologists charged with mapping out strategies for future SETI science and technology. "This is an exciting day for SETI," said Drake, who is currently president of the SETI Institute Board of Directors and research professor of astronomy at UC Santa Cruz. "In the years since Project Ozma, SETI has evolved from a set of theories into a science that is practiced by eminent astronomers throughout the world. The 1hT is the next logical step in the advancement of that science." Construction of the final 1hT is estimated to cost about $25 million, much less than the cost of building a comparably sized radio telescope using conventional design and methods. Funds for the 1hT are being raised from private sources by the SETI Institute. The Institute's Project Phoenix is currently the world's largest privately supported radio astronomy program, with an annual budget of more than $3 million. The 1hT prototype is located at the Russell Reservation, a 283-acre research station for wildland resource research and teaching owned by the University of California. The site, located in Lafayette, Calif., is also home to Leuschner Observatory, which consists of two automated optical telescopes sitting atop hills above the main reservation. Images and further information on the One Hectare Telescope (1hT), Project Ozma, Project Phoenix, and other SETI programs are available at the SETI Institute Web site. A detailed explanation of the Drake Equation also can be found at http://www.seti.org Information about the University of California-Berkeley Radio Astronomy Laboratory and the Hat Creek Observatory can be found at http://www.berkeley.edu. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST SPACECRAFT CATCHING DUST IN THE WIND JPL release 21 April 2000 Like an excited kid hoping to snag a fly ball at a professional baseball game, NASA's Stardust spacecraft has extended its high-tech "catcher's mitt" to collect a valuable space souvenir--a batch of interstellar dust particles. The dust is contained in a stream of particles that flows through our solar system, and scientists are anxious to study it so they can learn more about the formation of Earth, other planets and life. "We can see this material with the naked eye as a black zone running along the center of the Milky Way," said Dr. Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle, principal investigator for Stardust. "These particles contain the heavy chemical elements that originated in the stars. Since every atom in our bodies came from the inside of stars, by studying these interstellar dust particles we can learn about our cosmic roots." Stardust is equipped with a special collector containing aerogel, a unique substance that can trap the particles and store the precious cargo safely until it's returned to Earth. The aerogel collector has two sides, one designed to gather the interstellar dust and one for comet dust collection, which will take place later in the mission. Engineers orient the spacecraft to control which side of the collector is exposed to a dust stream. Right now, Stardust is oriented so that the interstellar dust particles are hitting the backside of the collector. This collection began on February 22, when the spacecraft's sample return capsule opened and the aerogel collector was moved out of the capsule. It will remain in this configuration until May 1, when the collector will return to its stowed position for safe storage until mid-2002, when another period of interstellar dust collection is scheduled. "The project's name, 'Stardust,' reflects the importance of this event," said Stardust Project Manager Dr. Kenneth Atkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "It's the first time anyone has attempted to catch anything like this and bring it home. After all the design, building, testing, and now the flying of this spacecraft over the past four years, the moment of truth for the collector is here. These tiny particles zip by at 20 to 25 kilometers per second (about 45,000 to 56,000 miles per hour) relative to the spacecraft. The aerogel must slow them to a stop in fractions of an inch." In late December 2003, the collector will be deployed again in preparation for the gathering of comet dust samples when Stardust flies by Comet Wild-2 on January 2, 2004. Once the samples of both interstellar dust and comet dust are tucked safely inside the aerogel collector, it will be retracted into the sample return capsule. Stardust will begin the return trip to Earth and make a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range in 2006. The sample canister will be taken to the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. The samples will be carefully extracted and then examined by scientists. "I'm thrilled at the thought of being able to look at and study these particles firsthand," Brownlee said. More information on the Stardust mission is available at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/. Stardust was launched on February 7, 1999. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, built and operates the spacecraft. Science instruments were provided by JPL, the University of Chicago and the Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXOBIOLOGY AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas 24 April 2000 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles online http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html M. Schrope, 2000. Touch and go [comet sampling]. New Scientist. Articles on human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html M. Chown, 2000. Gastronauts savour the black bean chilli. New Scientist. National Research Council, 1998. Report of the Workshop on Biology- based Technology to Enhance Human Well-being and Function in Extended Space Exploration. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council, 1998. A Strategy for Research in Space Biology and Medicine in the New Century. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 17-23 April 2000 This week, Galileo continues to return science data acquired during its February flyby of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. The data are stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder. During playback, the spacecraft's main computer retrieves data from the tape recorder, processes the data with the help of the attitude control computer, and then packages and transmits the data to Earth. Data return is interrupted once this week. On Tuesday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its tape recorder. This week's playback is comprised of data from a second pass through the data stored on the tape recorder. Additional passes provide scientists with the opportunity to return new data, replay data lost in transmission to Earth, and/or reprocess data with new parameters. On the playback schedule, we find four observations. Two of the observations are returned by the Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI), one is returned by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) and one by the Photopolarimeter Radiometer (PPR). First on the return schedule are the observations performed by SSI. SSI returns portions of a mosaic of the Shamshu volcanic region. The observation was made while the region was near Io's terminator (the line dividing day from night). The lighting near the terminator provides conditions that are optimal for studying the topography of the region. Next, SSI returns part of a mosaic of Io's south polar region. NIMS enters the playback picture with the return of a regional scan of Io's surface. The scan will be used to provide context for other high-resolution observations of Io's surface. PPR closes out the week's playback with the return of temperature measurements of Io's Shakuru region. The data will be used to determine the temperatures of sulfur frost which is created as sulfur erupted in Io's plumes condenses and falls to the surface. 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 17 April 2000 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1260 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 384 days Total Mapping Orbits = 4992 Total Orbits = 6595 Recent events The spacecraft continues to operate nominally in performing the beta supplement daily recording and transmission of science data. The mm030 sequence executed successfully from 00-104 (4/13/00) through 00-107 (4/16/00). The mm031 sequence also successfully executed from 00-108 (4/17/00) through 00-110 (4/19/00). The mm032 sequence was successfully uplinked on 00-108 (4/17/00) and will begin execution on 00-111 (4/20/00). A retry of the two missed MOC focus star scans is scheduled for 4/28 and 4/30. The second attempts will utilize an updated scan attitude to account for the gyro bias error propagated when the IMU is switched from low rate to high rate mode for the slews. Spacecraft health All subsystems are reporting nominal health. Uplinks There have been 11 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, instrument command loads, and the mm032 and mm033 sequences. Total command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 4592. Upcoming events A bistatic radar experiment, in which the Spacecraft signal will be reflected off the martian surface to Earth, is on schedule for execution on 5/14/00, upon Project approval expected next week. The implementation of the first Radio Science occultation egress scans, replacing the previous fixed-HGA periods for obtaining occultation egress data, are also on schedule for execution on 5/20- 5/22/00. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGE SHOWS OLYMPUS MONS JPL image advisory 20 April 2000 A new image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars, shows a close-up view across the summit of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano known in our solar system. Olympus Mons is not an active volcano and the image shows that the area around the summit is covered by fine dust and pocked by small impact craters. It is roughly the height of three Mount Everests and is nearly 550 kilometers (340 miles) across. Despite its great height, the slopes of this volcano are only a few degrees--a person would not really climb Olympus Mons, but simply walk uphill toward its summit. The Global Surveyor image is available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/new http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs or http://www.msss.com. Mars Global Surveyor is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 21 April 2000 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass during the past week and the spacecraft performance remains normal. Cruise flight sequence SC016 is currently active and sequence SC017 will go active next week which includes the next aerogel grid position update, moving the grid to its full open position. Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) participated in a pilot program with the East Los Angeles Community College instructor staff to impart knowledge of NASA's planetary exploration program into the college classroom. 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 15. 2