MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 17, 8 May 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 ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE MEMBER GEORGE WETHERILL HONORED NASA release 00-34 2) MICROBES ON EARTH MAY BE KEY TO IDENTIFYING LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign release 3) SCIENTISTS SEEK COLD-LOVING MICROBES AND METEORITES IN ANTARCTICA From NASA Science News 4) MARS AT THE EGS: NEW TECHNIQUES FOR AN OLD PLANET From ESA Science News 5) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 6) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS JPL releases --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE MEMBER GEORGE WETHERILL HONORED NASA release 00-34 28 April 2000 Dr. George W. Wetherill, a member of NASA's Astrobiology Institute and a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, will receive the National Academy of Sciences' J. Lawrence Smith medal on May 1, 2000. The award, which is presented every three years for "recent original and meritorious investigations" of meteorites, is being given to Wetherill for his contributions to radiometric dating of events in the history of the Earth and meteorites, and understanding the formation and orbital dynamics of bodies in the solar system. "We are extremely pleased and honored that our colleague and collaborator at the Institute received this important award," said NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) Director Dr. Baruch Blumberg, a 1976 Nobel Laureate. The Carnegie Institution is one of 11 members of the NAI. Formed in 1997 to foster development of a community of astrobiologists based on peer-reviewed investigator-initiated research and to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration using information technology tools, the NAI is located at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. Ames, situated in California's Silicon Valley, is NASA's Center of Excellence for Astrobiology, the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. While working at the Carnegie Institution during the 1950s, Wetherill was a member of a small group of scientists who made major advancements in techniques that permitted determination of the ages of ordinary igneous and metamorphic rocks. Later at UCLA, he applied these techniques to show that all the major classes of the most common type of meteorite had the same age as the Earth--4,500 million years. In 1975, Wetherill returned to the Carnegie Institution of Washington as director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. There he continued successful theoretical studies of the orbital evolution of asteroids and meteorites and started investigations of the formation and evolution of our solar system. The results of these theoretical approaches included, among other things, the likely location of "habitable zones" in other planetary systems, and the important role that Jupiter may have played in the development of advanced life on Earth. The gas giant's gravitational field could protect Earth from being bombarded by a great number of very large comets. Established by Sarah Julia Smith in memory of her husband, J. Lawrence Smith, the National Academy of Science's medal has been presented since 1988. The Carnegie Institution of Washington is a private nonprofit organization with five research departments: Terrestrial Magnetism, Plant Biology, Observatories, Embryology and the Geophysical Laboratory. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MICROBES ON EARTH MAY BE KEY TO IDENTIFYING LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign release 2 May 2000 Evidence of life in martian meteorites or future rock samples from the Red Planet may be easier to identify thanks to microbes living in hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. "The existence of life itself can change the physical and chemical attributes in an environment of deposition," said Bruce Fouke, a geologist at the University of Illinois. "By studying the effects of microbial metabolism on the chemistry of the water and on the way minerals are deposited in Earth environments, we can better interpret samples from other planets for signs of life." For example, various carbonate features--including tiny, rod-shaped calcite crystals--found in the martian meteorite ALH84001 could have been formed by either organic or inorganic means. To help interpret whether such shapes are indicative of life, Fouke has established a systematic model for the deposition of travertine by actively flowing hot springs at Angel Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs. "Travertine is a crystalline form of calcite that forms where subsurface waters erupt, cool, de-gas and precipitate calcium- carbonate minerals with a variety of crystal morphologies and chemical compositions," Fouke said. "In this setting, we are examining the environmental feedback mechanisms that exist between water, microbes and the precipitation of travertine." Mammoth Hot Springs, near the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park, is one of the world's largest sites of travertine accumulation. The travertine deposits at Mammoth Hot Springs are approximately 8,000 years old, 73 meters thick and cover more than 4 square kilometers. "Yellowstone is an ideal laboratory because of the high precipitation rates and the abundance of microbes," Fouke said. "By documenting where we find certain calcite shapes in the spring system, we can link those shapes with a particular water flow, chemistry and microbe. With that environmental context, we can start to decipher the geological record and to reconstruct ancient environments." Geochemical evaluation of the spring water and underlying travertine has suggested that inorganic processes such as carbon dioxide de- gassing, temperature decreases and possibly evaporation are the primary environmental controls on travertine mineralogy, Fouke said. "So the environmental context could be the key to determining whether or not a particular feature is an entombed microbe." On Earth, microbes also can be found trapped in fluid inclusions in ancient calcite crystals. Fouke is working with UI microbiologist Abigail Salyers to develop techniques to liberate the microbes and isolate, extract, amplify and sequence their DNA. "The genetic analysis will provide additional information about the microbes' metabolism," he said. "We will incorporate this information into our depositional model to help link the presence of ancient life with suspect, calcium-carbonate depositional features and chemical compositions." Fouke published his findings in the May issue of the Journal of Sedimentary Research. Funding was provided by NASA, the National Research Council and the UI Critical Research Initiative. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SCIENTISTS SEEK COLD-LOVING MICROBES AND METEORITES IN ANTARCTICA From NASA Science News http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast03may_1m.htm 3 May 2000 Imagine going on summer vacation to a resort where the sun never sets, the temperature never rises above -10°C, and all the sun worshipers are short, well-insulated waterfowl. It may not sound like a dream vacation, but to Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, it was just what the doctor ordered. In January 2000, Hoover joined an eight-member team of explorers on an expedition to search for exotic microbes in one of the harshest environments on our planet--the frozen, windswept continent of Antarctica. It was all part of Hoover's continuing research to find hardy microorganisms on Earth that could be similar to life forms that might exist in places like martian permafrost and beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa. The 18 day expedition, conducted near the middle of Antarctica's summer when the sun was above the horizon 24 hours a day, allowed Hoover and his colleagues to collect a treasure trove of microbial and meteoritic samples for analysis at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "This research expedition called Antarctica 2000 was sponsored by the Planetary Studies Foundation in Chicago", said Hoover "and it included a search for meteorites as well as the search for microorganisms that inhabit the snow, ice and frozen rocks." The Antarctica 2000 team included Planetary Studies Foundation president Paul Sipiera, Apollo 13 mission commander Jim Lovell, and astronaut Owen Garriott. Other members of the Expedition were Dave Butts, Jim Pritzker, Bill Gruber and Fox News journalist Amanda Onion and photographer Adam Petlin. Sharon Hooper, a Chicago area junior high school science teacher, beamed expedition reports and data back to her students in Rolling Meadows, IL. Antarctica, we have a problem... Hunting for tiny microbes in a big place like Antarctica sounds like a daunting task. Fortunately, thanks to Hoover's experience with cold-loving extremophiles, the expedition knew just where to look. But first they had to get there. The group took off on January 5th, 2000 from Punta Arenas, Chile on a 7-hour flight to the team's base station at Patriot Hills on the Antarctic continent. The first attempt at landing there was aborted due to low clouds, high winds and whiteout conditions from blowing snow. This forced the aircraft to turn back to Chile just before landing-and former astronaut Jim Lovell took some good-natured teasing about uncompleted missions during the return trip. Finally, on January 9, clearing weather permitted a successful flight. They landed on a slick wind-swept blue ice runway at Patriot Hills, Antarctica, and the team settled in for two days of ice core sampling and collecting melt-water specimens from small kettle ponds on local hilltops and from water in bubbles trapped in the glacial ice. Although they arrived in Antarctica during the continent's mildest season--austral summer--the scientists had to endure extreme conditions by normal workaday standards. "Summer or not, it was a harsh work environment," says Hoover."Outdoor work temperatures at Patriot Station ranged from -30°C (-17°F) to -10°C (14°F), and even the interiors of the expedition's tents hovered at about -10°C. One member of the team, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott, suffered frostbite of his toes while searching for meteorites on the ice fields." A cold and windy workplace On January 11th, the team flew a ski-equipped DC-3 aircraft to the blue ice fields near the Moulton Escarpment in the Thiel Mountains, less than 300 miles from the South Pole. There they struggled to set up a tent camp at an altitude of almost 8,000 feet with temperatures ranging from -10°C to -35°C. Despite wind gusts up to 60 mph that drove wind chill factors to -80°C, they succeeded in setting up camp. "We searched for meteorites five to six hours a day for three days." Hoover related. "The strong Katabatic winds are hard to work in, but they were an advantage for our research because they sweep the ice clear of snow and reduce the ice depth through evaporation and sublimation. Meteorites actually sit on the surface or are just below it." The team collected 20 meteorites ranging from small marble-sized specimens to a large 2 kg sample. Hoover said, "None of the meteorites were touched by human hands in order to avoid contamination and some were recovered partially encased in ice." "The microbial extremophiles in the Arctic and Antarctic glaciers and permafrost represent analogues for microbes that may someday be found in the permafrost or ice caps of Mars or on other icy bodies of the solar system," Hoover explains. "Ancient microbes can remain viable through cryopreservation, becoming dormant and then resuming metabolic activity upon thawing after being frozen in glacial ice or permafrost for thousands to millions of years. These ancient cryopreserved microbiota may hold clues to the origin and evolution of life on Earth and the distribution of life in the cosmos." To the South Pole On January 16th, the team flew to South Pole Station to visit U.S. personnel stationed there and to gather more samples. "We at the South Pole stayed for three days" Hoover said, "and we received a very warm welcome in large part thanks to the presence of astronauts Owen Garriott and Jim Lovell on the team, who gave interesting lectures at the Amundsen-Scott Station. Jim Lovell's stories of Apollo 13 and other space flights were especially welcomed. The South Pole was a much different environment than the glacier ice and rocks we had been examining, with deep snow covering the whole area. We took snow samples from outside the station to study as part of our research." Leaving the South Pole on Jan 18th, the expedition returned to Patriot Hills for another week of microbe and meteorite hunting. While they were there, Hoover reports that the team was able to gather some very special samples of ice bubbles. "These are bubbles in solid ice, sometimes in strings like a diver's air bubbles," he says, "and in the summer, when the sun shines continuously a liquid films form on the inside of the bubbles forming 'micro-Edens' where microbes can grow." They also gathered dark rocks trapped in the ice. These harbor "cryoconite communities". Hoover noted that "cryoconite ecosystems in polar glacial ice are very exciting. They afford clues to the types of microbes that might be able to survive in water pockets that might exist on Mars or on other solar system bodies." The Antarctica 2000 team, along with their precious cargo of meteorites and microbe samples, left the Patriot Hills on January 27th, returning to Chile and then on home to the U.S. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS AT THE EGS: NEW TECHNIQUES FOR AN OLD PLANET From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 3 May 2000 Where to land? If you're going to send a lander to look for life on Mars, you need to choose a landing site with a good chance of harboring life-- preferably a place where water once deposited layers of sediment. "But even with MOC data (MOC is the high-resolution camera on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor), we don't know exactly which kind of environment we're going to meet," Gian Ori from the Universita d'Annunzio, Pescara, Italy told a session of the European Geophysical Society's millennium conference in Nice, France, last week (25-29 April 2000). In collaboration with NASA's Ames Laboratory, he and a colleague are working on a proposal to send a reconnaissance mission to search for suitable landing sites. The Scout mission, consisting of a flotilla of tiny spacecraft, would reduce the risk of sending sophisticated and expensive landers to relatively uncharted territory. It was just one of several new ideas for future Mars exploration presented to the EGS General Assembly. Scout would probably be too late to help Beagle 2, the lander on board Mars Express, with its choice of landing site: Beagle 2 will arrive at the red planet at the end of 2003. But Scout could be sent in advance of future landers, such as those under consideration by ESA for flight on the flexible mission MASTER, or on a future spacecraft in NASA's Mars Surveyor series. MASTER, a mission that would drop a lander on Mars en route to an asteroid, is progressing through the selection procedure for ESA's next flexible missions, F2 and F3. The final selection will be made in September 2000. To save costs, the lander would probably be a copy of Beagle 2 or one of the French space agency's (CNES) Netlanders. The search for life However, a team of scientists convened by ESA's Spaceflight and Microgravity Directorate has also drawn up plans for a more ambitious lander that would carry 35 kg of instruments compared with 10kg on board Beagle 2. "Our task was to develop and design a package to optimize the search for life on Mars," Andre Brack from the Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS, Orléans, France and chairman of the group told the conference. The main aims of the package are to take microscope images of underground soil and rock samples and to measure the ratio of C12 to C13, which is higher if life is or has been present. Many of these aims will be met by Beagle 2, which Brack described as "the most complete integrated package within such a small mass budget". The greater weight of instruments allowed on a future exobiology lander, however, gives it scope for more sophisticated imaging, including Raman microscopy, and the possibility of drilling down to 1.5m for samples. Because of its low weight, Beagle 2 cannot support a drill to take deep core samples from solid rock. Instead, it will use a "mole" to burrow down through soft soil or sediment and a grinder and small drill (supplied by a dentist in Hong Kong) to take samples from just below the weathered rind of hard rock. With the later exobiology lander "we hope to drill through the oxidised layer and then core. But if we can't--because it's difficult to core with robots--then we'll take chips of rock," said Brack. New ideas on geology and climate The meeting also heard of new ideas for learning more about the geology and climate history of Mars. The MEEM proposal, for example, would build on experience gained with Marsis, the ground penetrating radar on board Mars Express, to mount a synthetic aperture radar on board a future orbiter. P. Paillou from the Observatoire Astronomique de Bordeaux, France, told the meeting that MEEM would operate at shorter wavelengths than Marsis and thus penetrate only a few tens of meters to reveal the shape of the martian crust underneath obscuring sand and dust deposits. Marsis will penetrate a few kilometers underground to search for water. Several participants at the meeting were looking forward to flying gamma ray spectrometers around Mars because they would reveal the elemental composition of the surface. Omega, the infra red spectrometer that will fly on Mars Express, will reveal the mineral composition. Yet others wanted to sound the martian atmosphere with microwaves to study water vapor. However, the meeting was not entirely devoted to missions yet to leave the drawing board. Agustin Chicarro, Mars Express project scientist, chaired a session in which the Principal Investigators on several of the spacecraft's instruments gave updates on their instruments' progress. They are all in an advanced state of development, within allocated masses and on schedule. Briefings were also given on the Japanese spacecraft, Nozomi, with which Mars Express is collaborating, and the French space agency's Netlander mission. Members from some of the instrument teams on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, the only spacecraft now in orbit around Mars, summarized some of their latest findings. These are demonstrating almost daily how a carefully designed and well-executed spacecraft can reveal what an intriguing place Mars is. IMAGE CAPTION: [http://sci.esa.int/content/image/index.cfm?aid=9&cid=32&oid=18625&ob jecttypename=news&ooid=18530] Ancient channel of the Nile, revealed by radar The bottom image, taken with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from the Space Shuttle, shows the ancient channel of the Nile which is hidden under sand in the top image taken with a conventional camera. The MEEM proposal, discussed at the EGS, would use SAR to reveal structure hidden under martian sand. (source: JPL/NASA). --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 26 April 2000 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1267 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 391 days Total Mapping Orbits = 5078 Total Orbits = 6681 Recent events MGS reached the 5000 mapping orbit milestone on 00-111 (4/20/00) at 12:31:55 UTC. The spacecraft continues to operate nominally in performing the beta supplement daily recording and transmission of science data. The mm032 sequence executed successfully from 00-111 (4/20/00) through 00-114 (4/23/00). The mm033 sequence also successfully executed from 00-115 (4/24/00) through 00-117 (4/26/00). The mm034 sequence was successfully uplinked on 00-116 (4/25/00) and will begin execution on 00-118 (4/27/00). The mz050 mini-sequence, containing the retry of the two missed MOC focus star scans on 4/28 and 4/30, is scheduled for uplink on 00-118 (4/27/00). Spacecraft health All subsystems are reporting nominal health. Uplinks There have been 19 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, instrument command loads, and the mm033 and mm034 sequences. Total command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 4611. 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. The implementation of the first Radio Science occultation egress scans, replacing the previous fixed-HGA periods for obtaining occultation egress data, is also on schedule for execution on 5/20-5/22/00. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORTS JPL releases 28 April 2000 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass during the past week and spacecraft performance remains normal. Flight cruise sequence SC017 is now active. The next tracking pass includes the final aerogel grid position update, which will move the grid to its full open position. Commands were transmitted to the spacecraft to increase the telemetry reporting of the number of valid stars that the Star camera sees. The camera usually sees about ten stars but lately has seen as few as three. Data indicates no change in Camera performance. This fluctuation appears to be a function of spacecraft pointing during Sun pointing. The increased telemetry production will provide some insight into this fluctuation. The first interstellar dust collection campaign will end next week on May 1. The aerogel collector will be retracted and the Sample Return Capsule (SRC) will then be closed. STARDUST has been collecting interstellar dust since February 22, 2000. 5 May 2000 There were four Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes during the past week. The spacecraft performance remains normal. On Monday, May 1, the first Interstellar Particle (ISP) Collection campaign ended when the aerogel grid was successfully stowed. Telemetry from the spacecraft verified the Wrist, Shoulder, and Hinge motors all performed as expected. The Sample Return Capsule heat shield (cover) is in the cruise position; closed, but not locked. This was performed with the Inertial Measurement Unit's (IMU) controlling the spacecraft attitude, since the torque imparted by the cover movement exceeds the body rate capability of the All Stellar mode. Preparations are underway for our upcoming trajectory maneuver (TCM- 3) on May 24, and the acquisition of Navigation Camera images on May 25 while the IMU's are still on. Since this will be a small maneuver, the SRC cover will be opened to demonstrate that a TCM can be performed in this state, as will be required for the final two maneuvers at encounter with Comet Wild-2 in 2004. This will provide performance data for those maneuvers when the grid will be deployed. 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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_arti cles1.html New Scientist, 2000. Under the ice [Europa]. New Scientist. G. J. Taylor, 1999. 30th lunar and planetary science conference: some highlights. Planetary Science Research Discoveries. G. J. Taylor, 2000. Analyzing next to nothing. Planetary Science Research Discoveries. Articles on the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_arti cles2.html A. Onion, 1999. An expedition to the most Mars-like place on Earth. Fox News. G. J. Taylor, 1996. Life underground. Planetary Science Research Discoveries. Articles on human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_arti cles3.html C. Fox, 2000. Mars in 2018: travel light. The Scientist, 14(9):15. Astrobiology and extreme environments book list http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiolog y_books.html J. E. Brandenburg and M. R. Paxson, 2000. Dead Mars, Dying Earth. Crossing Press. ------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs, Volume 7, Number 17.