MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 37, 2 October 2000. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Math and Science 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://welcome.to/marsbugs. 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) SEASONED SPACE VETS CONTINUE TO MAKE MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS NASA release 00-147 2) ORIGIN OF SALTS IN THE “DRY VALLEYS” OF ANTARCTICA PROVIDE CLUES TO ATMOSPHERIC DEPOSITION ON MARS University of California-San Diego release 3) IT’S “2001 MARS ODYSSEY” FOR NASA’S NEXT TRIP TO THE RED PLANET NASA release 00-155 4) NASA CREATES NEW ENTERPRISE FOCUSING ON BIOLOGY NASA release 00-158 5) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas 6) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 7) ISS STATUS REPORT JSC release --------------------------------------------------------------------- SEASONED SPACE VETS CONTINUE TO MAKE MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS NASA release 00-147 26 September 2000 You can take the rocket scientists into retirement, but you can’t turn off the inventive skills retired NASA professionals carry with them. Retired engineers and scientists who helped make history at the dawn of the Space Age are now applying their skills to the world of medicine. These enterprising space veterans from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, are now helping doctors and patients with expertise forged in the world of space technology. “We may look like seniors, but our professional skills are still in high gear and our creativity never dies,” said Herman Bank, space engineering veteran and founder and director of Volunteer Professionals for Medical Advancement. He and his brainy 65- to 85- year-old retired NASA colleagues, Bank said, “are just too young to retire.” By working with Bank’s volunteer group these JPL retirees donate some of their time to work closely with doctors and other medical professionals to brainstorm, research and develop new medical technologies. The organization’s purpose is to provide hospitals with free services that such facilities could otherwise not afford. The hospitals, in turn, find that with the retired space professionals, they get top-notch brainpower and reliable assistance. The accomplishments of this retiree organization have brought its members state and national honors. The group has been responsible for a number of medical advancements, including: * Preliminary design of an automated oxygen-enrichment system for premature babies. Working with Los Angeles County & USC Medical Center, retired volunteers and doctors are working to remove the inaccuracies of manually controlled oxygen systems, which can affect the infants’ eyesight, brain and lung development. * Solving a blood-clot problem found with a stent that could cause heart attacks. Retired professional volunteers introduced a special electropolishing process to provide a super-smooth stent surface. The electropolishing process, developed in the aerospace industry, is not well known by doctors. The resulting electropolished stent practically eliminated further blood-clot formation with the device. * Creation of an advanced-database, private computer network for pediatricians. Working with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, retired professionals are helping pediatricians nationwide to correspond about children’s illnesses using JPL’s method of data management. This database will provide a depository for historical data of diagnoses, research, treatments and results. Doctors estimate that extended medical use of the computer database systems could reduce health care costs by 20 to 30 percent. With each project, these retirees find the rewards are numerous. “Results of the project clearly show that volunteers have made major contributions to medical advancement,” said Bank. “Doctors and hospital staff are very appreciative of this volunteer professional assistance, which they can seldom find or afford.” He went on to note, “Retired professionals find interest and satisfaction in challenges which do not interfere with retirement activities.” Bank said, that as a young man, he always wanted to go into the field of medicine. Unable to afford medical school at the time, he decided to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering and found himself at JPL. Bank proves it’s never too late to pursue one’s aspirations. “I decided after doing 20 years of space I wanted to do something here on Earth to advance medicine,” added Bank. Embarking on their tenth year as an organization, these retirees are looking forward to future challenges in medicine, which includes encouraging other retired engineers and scientists to look for volunteer consulting opportunities. “The expansion of this activity nationally should help medical advancement considerably without cost, while using a skilled manpower resource,” said Bank. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Contacts: Michael Braukus Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1979 Gabrielle Birchak-Birkman Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-393-4359 --------------------------------------------------------------------- ORIGIN OF SALTS IN THE “DRY VALLEYS” OF ANTARCTICA PROVIDE CLUES TO ATMOSPHERIC DEPOSITION ON MARS University of California-San Diego release 27 September 2000 Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that the mysteriously high salt concentrations in exposed soils of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys are due in large part to biological sulfur emissions in the oceans surrounding the continent. Writing in the September 28 issue of Nature, the UCSD scientists said they discovered an unmistakable chemical signature in soil samples from this Mars-like region that suggested that atmospheric deposition of sulfates from sulfur-emitting marine algae is a significant contributor to the high salt concentrations in that region. For decades, researchers have speculated that the high salt concentrations were due primarily to an ancient sea that once covered the region, to sea salt carried to the continent by fierce Antarctic winds, to biologically produced sulfates, to the weathering of rocks or to hydrothermal activity. The UCSD chemists shed light on this question by discovering an oxygen-isotope anomaly in the sulfates they chemically retrieved from the soils of this region, located near the main U.S. Antarctic station, McMurdo, and unique to Antarctica because portions of it are perennially devoid of ice and snow cover. Their discovery enabled them to conclude that the sulfates came from sulfur gases that had undergone chemical reactions in the atmosphere and were transported into the Dry Valleys. Because Antarctica is thousands of miles from sources of man-made sulfur gases due to fossil fuel burning, the scientists were further able to conclude that these sulfates came largely from sulfur-producing algae abundant in the ocean surrounding the continent. “This provides the first concrete evidence that a major portion of the salt in the Dry Valleys came from biological activity,” said Huiming Bao, a geochemist at UCSD and the principal author of the paper. “It looks like wind-blown sea salt, sea-water intrusions, chemical or physical weathering of the local rocks, or hydrothermal activity are not all that important.” Other co-authors of the paper were UCSD chemists Douglas A. Campbell and Mark H. Thiemens, and James G. Bockheim, a soil scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who obtained the soil samples under the auspices of the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is managed by the National Science Foundation. The study was financed by the NSF and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The scientists discovered that in areas of the Dry Valleys closer to the coast, the biologically produced sulfates constituted a smaller fraction of the total salt content, but that further inland, the biologically produced fraction increased substantially. The researchers said this suggested that wind-blown sea spray played a larger role in the overall salt content closer to the coast, but that further inland, biologically produced sulfates were the major contributor. The scientists also found that digging more deeply into the soil of the Dry Valleys yielded substantially higher concentrations of biologically produced sulfates. Bao says this may be due to the fact that the salts from sea spray are larger in size and are unable to migrate through the soil as far or fast as the smaller biologically produced sulfates. Such observations have important implications in the search for evidence of past or present life on Mars, as well as on understanding the chemical interactions between the Martian atmosphere and the red planet’s surface. “What this tells us is that when we go to Mars to retrieve soil samples, we’re going to have to go beneath the surface to retrieve samples, because these sulfates may migrate,” said Thiemens, a professor of chemistry and dean of UCSD’s Division of Physical Sciences. “By studying the soil of the Dry Valleys, you really have a good glimpse of what can happen on Mars,” he added. “The conditions of the Dry Valleys are about as close as you’re going to get on Earth to the conditions on Mars. So if you really want to understand in a controlled fashion what can happen in an extreme environment like Mars, this is it.” “Studying processes like this on Earth is very important because it gives us clues to how similar processes may have worked on Mars when there was more liquid water available,” said Scott Borg, who manages NSF’s Antarctic geology and geophysics program. “It is also very important in helping us to design experiments for spacecraft that may one day visit other planets.” Photo Captions: [Image 1, http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/images/ucsdpanorama.jpg] [Image 2, http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/images/uscdclouds2.jpg] Two views of the Taylor Valley show the exposed soil in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where the high salt content has been shown by UCSD chemists to be due largely to biologically produced sulfates. One photo shows the tents of researchers at the National Science Foundation’s Lake Hoare camp. The other photo shows an aerial view of the Taylor Valley. Credit: Peter West, National Science Foundation. Contacts: Mark Thiemens, (858) 534-6882, mthiemens@ucsd.edu Huiming Bao, (858) 534-6053, hbao@ucsd.edu Media Contact: Kim McDonald, (858) 534-7572, kimmcdonald@ucsd.edu Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/09/28/mars.antarctic.reut/index.ht ml http://www.msnbc.com/news/468653.asp --------------------------------------------------------------------- IT’S “2001 MARS ODYSSEY” FOR NASA’S NEXT TRIP TO THE RED PLANET NASA release 00-155 28 September 2000 As NASA’s next spacecraft to the red planet begins a crucial round of testing in preparations for launch next year, the mission has been given a new name: 2001 Mars Odyssey. “The year 2001 has a special significance to many of us who recall the thrill of reading the book and watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. We looked forward to the exciting future of space exploration that the year 2001 promised,” said Scott Hubbard, Mars Program Director at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. “NASA’s next mission to Mars, launching in the year 2001, represents the start of a new wave of exploration at the red planet,” said Hubbard. “It seemed fitting to name the mission 2001 Mars Odyssey not only in honor of the story and the movie, but also to herald the start of our new long-term journey to explore Mars.” Hubbard added that Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, enthusiastically endorsed the new mission name. The orbiting spacecraft is designed to find out what Mars is made of, detect water and shallow buried ice and study the radiation environment. The spacecraft begins thermal vacuum testing this week at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, CO, where it was designed and built. “It’s exciting to have a new name for the mission, and going into the thermal vacuum testing chamber is the next big step for the spacecraft,” said George Pace, project manager for 2001 Mars Odyssey at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. “We will simulate the full range of temperatures that the spacecraft will be subjected to during its entire mission, from the coldest to the warmest.” “We have done several things in response to the NASA review board recommendations to ensure mission success, like adding additional staff and transitioning development personnel to operations. I’m confident we have a solid mission,” Pace added. The orbiter will study the kinds of minerals on the surface and measure the amount of hydrogen in the shallow subsurfaces of the planet, which will give scientists clues about the presence of water, either past or present. It will also provide information on the structure of the Martian surface and on the geological processes that may have caused it. Finally, the orbiter will take all-important measurements of the planet’s radiation environment so potential health risks to future human explorers can be evaluated. To do this, the spacecraft carries three science instruments: The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). 2001 Mars Odyssey is scheduled for launch on April 7, 2001, on a Delta II launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. The space explorer is scheduled to arrive at Mars in October 2001. In August, NASA announced plans to launch twin rovers which will land on Mars in 2003, and later this fall, will announce details of the multi-year Mars exploration program plan. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Office of Space Science. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, is JPL’s industrial partner. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Contacts: Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1727 Mary Hardin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0344 --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA CREATES NEW ENTERPRISE FOCUSING ON BIOLOGY NASA release 00-158 29 September 2000 NASA today announced a restructuring of the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLSMA) to strengthen the agency’s ability to meet the challenges brought about by the growth in areas such as molecular biology, nanotechnology, information technology and genomics. The reorganization is consistent with NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin’s vision to create an interdisciplinary research program focused on biology, bringing together physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. “Through this new enterprise, the best and brightest from across the sciences and across the country, can focus their talents on meeting the challenges NASA faces in our future missions,” said Goldin. It will build and further strengthen academic community involvement in all of NASA’s scientific and technology missions and, in addition, will establish the organization needed to facilitate effective use of International Space Station facilities for targeted scientific and technology research in a microgravity environment. The new enterprise will also establish the organization needed to transfer scientific and technological research results for Earth benefits. “There is a new urgency in understanding long-term human health in space,” said Goldin. “Given these daunting challenges, NASA must develop and exploit revolutionary technology to maintain crew health and make space-based clinical care truly space based. Enhancing our understanding of human health is critical.” Under the new plan, OLMSA will be renamed the Office of Biological and Physical Research (BPR) and enhanced to form a separate enterprise focusing on scientific research. Previously, OLMSA was a part of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise (HEDS). The new BPR office will work closely with HEDS to facilitate long-term exploration of space. NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Kathie L. Olsen will be acting Associate Administrator for the new enterprise, and will return to her position as Chief Scientist once a permanent Associate Administrator is named. Dr. Julie Swain will serve as acting Deputy Associate Administrator. BPR will include a wide spectrum of scientific research, including basic, applied, biological, physical, chemical, and biomedical. BPR will increase the academic community’s involvement in NASA’s science and technology missions. BPR will be made up of five divisions: * The Physical Sciences division will be structured to promote cross-disciplinary physical, chemical, biological and theoretical research. * Fundamental Space Biology will be established at the division level to apply the revolutionary changes in molecular biology and genetics to a space-based environment. * Biomedical and Human Support Research will also be established at the division level and will integrate fundamental and clinical research to prioritize crew health, medical and environmental technology issues. It will focus research on critical crew health, safety and performance issues. * The Division of Research Integration will focus on cross- discipline research and resource integration within BPR and across NASA. * The Division of Policy and Program Integration will not be changed under the reorganization. Goldin noted that advances in biological sciences are opening new opportunities for the space program. Just recently, NASA entered into an agreement with the National Cancer Institute to work on nanotechnologies with a dual purpose—to develop revolutionary technologies for early detection of cancer in patients here on Earth and early detection of illness in astronauts up in space. “By combining NCI’s expertise in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology and clinical medicine with NASA’s expertise in physical micro-systems and biotechnology, we can develop the fundamentals for an entirely new technology discipline,” said Goldin. The new enterprise will create an infrastructure that integrates research and technology, broadens NASA’s peer-reviewed research programs to strengthen ties with universities, and provides answers to questions fundamental for the future. Contacts: Peggy Wilhide/Renee Juhans Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1712 --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas 2 October 2000 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles online http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html B. E. DiGregario, 2000. Russian scientist finds organic pigments on Mars. SpaceDaily. Articles on the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html Reuters, 2000. Antarctic study paves way for search for martians. CNN. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 25 September – 1 October 2000 Galileo spends another week playing back science data stored on its onboard tape recorder. Playback is uninterrupted by engineering activities, and limited only by the amount of time available to Galileo on the 70-meter (230-foot) diameter antennas of the Deep Space Network. That diameter is just short of the current world record for men’s discus held by Jurgen Schult of East Germany! One of three 70-meter antennas used by Galileo is located in Canberra, Australia, not far from this year’s Olympic games. This week’s observations were recorded during the spacecraft’s May flyby of Ganymede. Ganymede is Jupiter’s largest moon, and the only one known to have an internally-generated magnetic field, and thus, its own magnetosphere. Of the Galilean moons, Ganymede is the third closest in distance from Jupiter. It is preceded by Io and Europa, and followed by Callisto. This week’s playback is from a second pass through the data stored on the tape recorder. This additional pass through the tape recorder allows for the return of additional data, replay of data lost in transmission to Earth, and/or reprocessing of data using different parameters. Portions of thirteen observations are returned this week. Ten of those are returned by the Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI), two are returned by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), and the remaining one comes from the Fields and Particles (F&P) instruments. The Fields and Particles instruments are the Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Detector, and Plasma Wave instrument. The SSI observations returned this week are from a campaign of five high-resolution and five medium-resolution image mosaics designed to provide scientists with information regarding questions of how different features and terrains came to exist on Ganymede’s surface. For each medium-resolution mosaic of a given region, there is a corresponding high-resolution mosaic of an area within said region. The medium resolution will provide the geologic context for the high- resolution samples. In addition, the motion of the spacecraft along its flight path while these images were taken will allow stereo images of the regions to be produced by combining data from the two image sets. The five regions observed during this campaign contain combinations of smooth bright terrain, embayed grooved terrain, transitions between bright and dark terrains, pristine dark terrain, terrain with smooth, “plank-like” appearance, and terrain containing caldera-like features. The NIMS observations are also of Ganymede. In the first, NIMS obtains a spectral map of a dark crater, surrounding ice, and background dark regions. The map will allow scientists to determine [whether] there are any differences in the composition of these different types of terrains. In the next observation NIMS performs a scan just off of Ganymede’s limb. The observation should allow scientists to learn more about Ganymede’s tenuous atmosphere. The F&P instruments continue the return of their 60-minute high- resolution recording of the plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic fields surrounding Ganymede. The recording is designed to provide evidence of Galileo’s penetration through magnetic field lines that both originate and close on Ganymede’s surface. This will allow scientists to obtain a far more complete understanding of how the magnetic field lines and magnetospheres of both Ganymede and Jupiter interact with one another. 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.jhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISS STATUS REPORT JSC release 27 September 2000 On its own again following Atlantis’ visit, the International Space Station is orbiting the Earth in excellent health and is one step closer to becoming a permanent home to astronauts and cosmonauts. After Atlantis departed a little more than a week ago, station flight controllers returned to the routine of cycling the many electricity- generating batteries to maintain their health. Also, controllers have already begun preparing for Discovery’s first ever visit to the station scheduled to begin with launch from the Kennedy Space Center a week from now at 8:38 PM CDT on October 5. With no time to spare in the processing of Discovery, managers okayed the inclusion of additional electronics equipment for the batteries. Those components include two charge-discharge units and one current converter. These items will be stored aboard the station and will serve as extra inventory in the event they are needed. Carrying a mass of almost 70 tons now, the ISS is nearly fully outfitted with all the creature comforts required by the first expedition crew scheduled to launch October 30 atop a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ahead of that, however, Discovery’s seven astronauts will deliver 25,000 pounds of external hardware that will be installed using the shuttle’s robotic arm with final connections to be completed during four space walks. The STS-92 mission, labeled 3A, will carry the Z1 Truss and a second shuttle docking port that will be used for the first time on the next visit of a shuttle in late November. The Z1 will add the capability for the station’s position in space to be controlled by gyroscopes rather than propellant, and deliver communications equipment that eventually will allow conversations, data, voice and television to be transmitted through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network. As with all shuttle visits to the station, controllers soon will begin turning on heaters to begin warming up the Unity module in anticipation of the seven-member crew’s arrival. With a launch on Thursday, Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the station. Now in an average orbit of 236 statute miles (380 km), the 70-ton, 143-foot long International Space Station can easily be seen from the ground under proper lighting conditions. To see when the station is visible, check the human space flight web site at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/. For updates on all aspects of human space flight, visit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. --------------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs, Volume 7, Number 37. 2