MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 41, 30 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) FINDING WORLDS LIKE OUR OWN-INCREASINGLY PRECISE TECHNIQUES ARE CONVINCING PLANET-HUNTERS THAT EARTH-LIKE PLANETS ORBIT OTHER SUNS By Diane Ainsworth 2) NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) FOR SPACE LIFE SCIENCES FUNDAMENTAL SPACE BIOLOGY NRA 00-OBPR-01 3) FRANCE TO JOIN U.S. IN MARS EXPLORATION MISSION From Reuters and Space.com 4) MARS REALITY CHECK: THE HIGH COST, AND HOPES, OF EXPLORATION By Leonard David 5) NEW RESULTS ON MARTIAN METEORITE SUPPORT HYPOTHESIS THAT LIFE CAN JUMP BETWEEN PLANETS Caltech release 6) NASA OUTLINES MARS EXPLORATION PROGRAM FOR NEXT TWO DECADES JPL release 7) ASTRONAUTS TO SET UP HOME ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FOR FIRST TIME ESA release 68-2000 8) MICROBES FROM THE MOON? By Brig Klyce 9) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas 10) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 11) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 12) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 13) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release --------------------------------------------------------------------- FINDING WORLDS LIKE OUR OWN-INCREASINGLY PRECISE TECHNIQUES ARE CONVINCING PLANET-HUNTERS THAT EARTH-LIKE PLANETS ORBIT OTHER SUNS By Diane Ainsworth, Public Affairs University of California-Berkeley 18 October 2000 Debra Fischer is no stranger to the twinkling orbs of light dotting the Milky Way 100,000 light years into space. Roughly 200 billion stars rest in the spiraling arms of this celestial pinwheel and at least 12 billion solar systems harbor planets, not unlike the gaseous giants and terrestrial worlds of our own planetary neighborhood. Night after night, atop Mount Hamilton's summit near San Jose, CA, Fischer uses a Lick Observatory telescope to scour the heavens in search of Earth-like worlds. Fischer is advancing the immature science of planet-hunting, along with pioneering planet-hunters Geoff Marcy, an astronomer in the College of Letters and Science at Berkeley, and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC, with brand new observations of planets the size of Jupiter and Saturn. These are the signposts of Earth-worlds that may have given rise in the past or, perhaps, in the present to elementary forms of life. "The rate at which we are discovering new planets in other solar systems is beginning to overtake us," said Fischer, an astrophysicist and postdoctoral fellow who works down the hall from Marcy in Campbell Hall. "Every time we publish a paper, we've got five new discoveries lined up for the next publication," Marcy concurs, while scrolling through screens of data-celestial plots of stars and their locations-and fielding phone calls in his office, situated one floor beneath a rooftop telescope. In the five years since the slight jitter of a distant star-51 Peg, located in Pegasus, a constellation 40 light years away-first betrayed the presence of a planet, several astronomy teams have brought the count of worlds outside Earth's solar system to 54. As the Doppler technique for measuring the stellar motion of distant planets is perfected-now down to within plus or minus 10 feet per second, which is like measuring the motion of a star moving at the speed of a casual bicyclist 30 light years-planet-hunters are beginning to detect planets faster than they can report them. Some of them are smaller than the Jupiter-sized spheres recently observed. In March, Butler, Marcy and Fischer discovered two planets about the size of Saturn, following the discovery more than a year before of the first triple-planet system, Upsilon Andromedae, with three gaseous worlds circling a common sun. Another breakthrough in August of this year-the team's detection of a planet crossing in front of the glare of its own sun-sent the scientific community reeling in star-studded bliss; many realized that stars are prolific planet factories and that life in some elementary form must pervade other galaxies. Finding the Holy Grail "This is like finding the Holy Grail in astronomy," said Marcy, who uses Hawaii's Keck Observatory telescopes for his work. "For the first time in history, we've been able to prove that there are many planets orbiting other suns and there are probably many Earth-like analogs that have liquid water and atmospheres. There's no question that there are oceans and lakes out there. No question that the universe is teeming with life." A young science, extrasolar planet-hunting is likely to take off in the next several years. Marcy estimates there are 12 billion planetary systems in the Milky Way alone. "And that's probably on the low side," he said. The detection of more planets smaller than Saturn will add validity to the theory that planets form in dusty disks around sun-like stars, with several sibling planets. "A common theme in nature would have it that there are probably more low-mass planets like Earth than high-mass planets like Jupiter, just as there are more grains of sand on the beach than boulders," said Fischer. "We have been limited in our ability to observe these smaller planets up until now because our techniques for detecting planets were limited." Stars with multiple planets In fact, two multi-planet systems have been detected: Upsilon Andromedae, 44 light years away in the constellation Andromeda, and HD 83443, which is 141 light years away in the constellation Vela. The Berkeley team announced its discovery of the three-planet Upsilon Andromedae a year and a half ago. Still more fascinating are the observations of extrasolar planets almost next door to our solar system. Another team recently discovered a planet only 10.5 light years from Earth. The planet is similar to Jupiter in its distance from its star, its orbital period and its mass. It may be a while, though, before definitive proof exists that stars commonly form with several planets. Until a telescope network that creates one huge array in space is launched in 2008, astronomers must perfect their ground-based techniques, Marcy said. By then, they are likely to have a sizeable inventory of planets around nearby stars and the engineering marvels of a giant orbiting observatory to search for water-rich worlds something like our own. Image caption: [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2000/10/18/planetdi.html] Professors Geoff Marcy and Debra Fischer in front of the Campbell Hall rooftop observatory. Noah Berger photo. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) FOR SPACE LIFE SCIENCES FUNDAMENTAL SPACE BIOLOGY NRA 00-OBPR-01 20 October 2000 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a solicitation for scientific research proposals. The release date for the NRA is October 20, 2000. Proposals requested by this announcement are for ground-based research investigations only. This NRA does not solicit flight research. Research emphases include Molecular Structures and Physical Interactions, Developmental Biology, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Organismal and Comparative Biology, Gravitational Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. This solicitation will be available electronically via the Internet at http://peer1.idi.usra.edu/peer_review/nra/00_OBPR_01.html beginning October 20, 2000. Notices of Intent Due: November 17, 2000 Proposals Due: January 19, 2001 Paper copies of this NRA are available to those who do not have access to the Internet by calling (202) 358-4180 and leaving a voice mail message. Please leave your full name and address, including zip code, telephone number with area code, and the name of the NRA you are requesting. Questions regarding this NRA may be addressed to NASA headquarters, Code UL, Fundamental Space Biology Division, Washington, DC 20546, Attn: Dr. David Liskowsky. --------------------------------------------------------------------- FRANCE TO JOIN U.S. IN MARS EXPLORATION MISSION From Reuters and Space.com 24 October 2000 France's Research Ministry said on Tuesday it had signed a "statement of intent" with the U.S. space agency NASA for joint cooperation in its Mars exploration program. A ministry statement said details of the agreement with NASA would be made public Thursday. Industry officials told Reuters the agreement would probably name the European Ariane 5 rocket as the launch vehicle for a Mars mission in late 2003 or early 2004 to dig up martian soil to test for organic or other life-related chemical compounds. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/news/spaceagencies/mars_france_001024_wg.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS REALITY CHECK: THE HIGH COST, AND HOPES, OF EXPLORATION By Leonard David 25 October 2000 By using synthetic gases, the Red Planet could be returned to the habitable state it once was billions of years ago. Certain insects and plants would flourish. Liquid water would run freely. Even pine trees could take root and dot Mars' surface too. Moreover, this remake of Mars could be accomplished within 50 to 100 years. Future travelers to Mars could walk underneath martian skies, outfitted with only a simple breathing mask that spews out fresh oxygen. That's the vision of Chris McKay, NASA space scientist from Ames Research Center. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/think_mars_001025.h tml. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/001024162153.9sia9gr3.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW RESULTS ON MARTIAN METEORITE SUPPORT HYPOTHESIS THAT LIFE CAN JUMP BETWEEN PLANETS Caltech release http://broccoli.caltech.edu/~media/Press_Releases/PR12087.html 26 October 2000 According to one version of the "panspermia" theory, life on Earth could originally have arrived here by way of meteorites from Mars, where conditions early in the history of the solar system are thought to have been more favorable for the creation of life from nonliving ingredients. The only problem has been how a meteorite could get blasted off of Mars without frying any microbial life hitching a ride. But new research on the celebrated Martian meteorite ALH84001 shows that the rock never got hotter than 105°F during its journey from the Red Planet to Earth, even during the impact that ejected it from Mars, or while plunging through Earth's atmosphere before landing on Antarctic ice thousands of years ago. In the October 27 issue of the journal Science, Caltech graduate student Benjamin Weiss, undergraduate student Francis Macdonald, geobiology professor Joseph Kirschvink, and their collaborators at Vanderbilt and McGill universities explain results they obtained when testing several thin slices of the meteorite with a new state-of-the- art device known as an Ultra-High Resolution Scanning Superconducting Quantum Interference Device Microscope (UHRSSM). The machine, developed by Franz Baudenbacher and other researchers at Vanderbilt, is designed to detect microscopic differences in the orientation of magnetic lines in rock samples, with a sensitivity up to 10,000 times greater than existing machines. "What's exciting about this study is that it shows the Martian meteorite made it from the surface of Mars to the surface of Earth without ever getting hot enough to destroy bacteria, or even plant seeds or fungi," says Weiss, the lead author of the Science paper. "Other studies have suggested that rocks can make it from Mars to Earth in a year, and that some living organisms can live in space for several years. So the transfer of life is quite feasible." The meteorite ALH84001 has been the focus of numerous scientific studies in the last few years because some scientists think there is tantalizing evidence of fossilized life within the rock. The issue has never been conclusively resolved, but Weiss says the matter is not important to the present result. "In fact, we don't think that this particular meteorite brought life here," says Weiss. "But computer simulations of ejected Martian meteorites demonstrate that about one billion tons of rocks have been brought to Earth from Mars since the two planets formed." Many of these rocks make the transit in less than one year, although ALH84001 took about 15 million years. "The fact that at least one out of the 16 known Martian rocks made it here without heating tells us that this must be a fairly common process," says Kirschvink. The sample the Kirschvink team worked with is about 1 mm thick and 2 cm in length and somewhat resembles the African continent, with one side containing a portion of the original surface of the meteorite. Using the UHRSSM, the team found that the sample has a highly aligned and intense magnetic field near the surface, which is to be expected because the surface reached a high temperature when it entered Earth's atmosphere. The reason this is important is that any weakly magnetized rock will reorient its magnetization to be aligned with the local field direction after it has been heated to high temperatures and cooled. This critical temperature for any magnetic material is known as the blocking temperature. Thus, the outer surface layer of meteorite ALH84001 reached a high temperature well above the blocking temperatures of its magnetic materials, which caused the materials at the surface to realign with Earth's magnetic field. However, the interior portions of the slice were found to have randomly oriented magnetization, which means that some of the materials inside the meteorite never reached their blocking temperatures since sometime before they left the martian surface. Further, when the researchers gently heated another slice taken from the interior of the meteorite, they discovered that the interior of the rock started to demagnetize at temperatures as low as 40 degrees Celsius-or 105 degrees Fahrenheit-thus demonstrating that it had never been heated even to that level. Thus, a radiation-resistant organism able to survive without energy and water for a year could have made the journey from Mars to Earth. Examples of such hardy organisms, like the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Deinococcus radiodurans, are already well known. "Realistically, we don't think any life forms more complicated than single-celled bacterial spores, very tough fungal spores, or well- protected seeds could have made it," Kirschvink says. "They would also have had to go into some kind of dormant stage." Though the study does not directly address the issue of life in meteorites, the authors say the results eliminate a major objection to the panspermia theory-that any life form reaching Earth by meteorite would have been heat-sterilized during the violent ejection of the rock from its parent planet, or entry into the atmosphere. Prior studies have already shown that a meteorite can enter Earth's atmosphere without its inner material becoming hot. "ALH 84001 has stimulated a remarkable amount of research to test the hypothesis that life exists elsewhere than on Earth. The present study indicates that the temperature inside the meteorite could have allowed life to persist and possibly travel to Earth from Mars," says Nobel Prize-winning biologist Baruch Blumberg, who is director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute. The results also demonstrate that critical information could be lost if rocks brought back from Mars by a sample return mission were heat- sterilized, as has been proposed. Thermal sterilization would destroy valuable magnetic, biological, and petrological information contained in the samples. If life ever evolved on Mars, it is likely to have jumped repeatedly to Earth over geological times. Because the reverse process-the transfer of Earth life to Mars-is dynamically much more difficult, it may be more important to instead protect any Martian biosphere from Earthly microbes. According to Kirschvink, "The martian biosphere, if it ever evolved, would most likely have been brought to Earth billions of years ago, and could have participated in the evolution and diversification of bacterial life here. So there is at least a chance that we are in part descended from Martian microbes." The ALH84001 research was funded in part by NASA's Astrobiology Institute, an international research consortium involving academic, non-profit and NASA field centers, whose central administrative office is located at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. A group from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, which sponsored the Caltech research, is one of the 11 lead teams of the institute. Contact: Robert Tindol, 626-395-3631 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/meteorite_survival_ 001025.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA OUTLINES MARS EXPLORATION PROGRAM FOR NEXT TWO DECADES JPL release 26 October 2000 By means of orbiters, landers, rovers and sample return missions, NASA's revamped campaign to explore Mars, announced today, is poised to unravel the secrets of the red planet's past environments, the history of its rocks, the many roles of water and, possibly, evidence of past or present life. Six major missions are planned in this decade as part of a scientific tapestry that will weave a tale of new understanding of Earth's sometimes enigmatic and surprising neighbor. The missions are part of a long-term Mars exploration program which has been developed over the past six months. The new program incorporates the lessons learned from previous mission successes and failures, and builds on scientific discoveries from past missions. The NASA-led effort to define the program well into the next decade focused on the science goals, management strategies, technology development and resource availability in an effort to design and implement missions that would be successful and provide a balanced program of discoveries. International participation, especially from Italy and France, will add significantly to the plan. The next step will be an 18-month programmatic systems engineering study to refine the costs and technology needs. In addition to the previously announced 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter mission and the twin Mars Exploration Rovers in 2003, NASA plans to launch a powerful scientific orbiter in 2005. This mission, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, will focus on analyzing the surface at new scales in an effort to follow the tantalizing hints of water from the Mars Global Surveyor images and to bridge the gap between surface observations and measurements from orbit. For example, the Reconnaissance Orbiter will measure thousands of martian landscapes at 20-to-30-centimeters (8-to-12-inch) resolution, good enough to observe rocks the size of beach balls. NASA proposes to develop and to launch a long-range, long-duration mobile science laboratory that will be a major leap in surface measurements and pave the way for a future sample return mission. NASA is studying options to launch this mobile science laboratory mission as early as 2007. This capability will also demonstrate the technology for accurate landing and hazard avoidance in order to reach what may be very promising but difficult-to-reach scientific sites. NASA also proposes to create a new line of small "Scout" missions that would be selected from proposals from the science community, and might involve airborne vehicles or small landers, as an investigation platform. Exciting new vistas could be opened up by this approach either through the airborne scale of observation or by increasing the number of sites visited. The first Scout mission launch is planned for 2007. In the second decade, NASA plans additional science orbiters, rovers and landers, and the first mission to return the most promising Martian samples to Earth. Current plans call for the first sample return mission to be launched in 2014 and a second in 2016. Options that would significantly increase the rate of mission launch and/or accelerate the schedule of exploration are under study, including launching the first sample return mission as early as 2011. Technology development for advanced capabilities such as miniaturized surface science instruments and deep drilling to several hundred feet will also be carried out in this period. Mars missions can be launched every 26 months during advantageous alignments-called launch opportunities-of the Earth and Mars, which facilitate the minimum amount of fuel needed to make the long trip. The agency's Mars Exploration Program envisions significant international participation, particularly by France and Italy. In cooperation with NASA, the French and Italian Space Agencies plan to conduct collaborative scientific orbital and surface investigations and to make other major contributions to sample collection/return systems, telecommunications assets and launch services. Other nations also have expressed interest in participating in the program. "We have developed a campaign to explore Mars unparalleled in the history of space exploration. It will change and adapt over time in response to what we find with each mission. It's meant to be a robust, flexible, long-term program that will give us the highest chances for success," said Scott Hubbard, Mars Program Director at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "We're moving from the early era of global mapping and limited surface exploration to a much more intensive approach. We will establish a sustained presence in orbit around Mars and on the surface with long-duration exploration of some of the most scientifically promising and intriguing places on the planet." "The scientific strategy developed for the new program is that of first seeking the most compelling places from above, before moving to the surface to investigate Mars," said Dr. Jim Garvin, NASA Mars Exploration Program Scientist at Headquarters. "The new program offers opportunities for competitively selected instruments and investigations at every step, and endeavors to keep the public informed on each mission via higher bandwidth telecommunication on the web." "NASA's new Mars Exploration Program may well prove to be a watershed in the history of Mars exploration," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science. "With this new strategy, we're going to dig deep into the details of Mars' mineralogy, geology and climate history in a way we've never been able to do before. We also plan to 'follow the water' so that in the not-to-distant future we may finally know the answers to the most far-reaching questions about the red planet we humans have asked over the generations: Did life ever arise there, and does life exist there now?" JPL manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Images of the Mars Exploration Program can be downloaded at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/solar/marsexploration. An animation of the Mars "Smart" Lander can be downloaded at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/smartlander (Quicktime 4.0 plugin required). Contacts: Mary Hardin (JPL), 818-354-0344 Don Savage (NASA HQ), 202-358-1727 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/10/26/mars.announce.02/index.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_2005_mars_0010 26.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0010/26marsfuture/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- ASTRONAUTS TO SET UP HOME ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FOR FIRST TIME ESA release 68-2000 27 October 2000 The first crew to reside aboard the International Space Station will be launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday 31 October at 08:53 Central European Time (CET). Their arrival on the Space Station two days later will mark the start of the human presence aboard the outpost. The Expedition 1 crew will spend the next four months setting up and testing the new Space Station. The three crewmembers-Space Station commander Bill Shepherd (US), Soyuz commander Yuri Gidzenko (Russia) and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev (Russia)-have been training for the mission since late 1996, both in the US and in Russia. When they arrive, the Space Station will consist of three modules: the service module Zvezda, which serves as living quarters and onboard control center initially; the cargo block Zarya, which provides supplementary power and propulsion; and Node 1, a connecting module that provides the attachments points for future segments. An ESA-developed, on-board central computing system called the Data Management System performs guidance, navigation and control for the Space Station complex. European scientific experiments are also already on the Space Station, waiting for research to begin. The first European will visit the Space Station as of next year. ESA astronaut Umberto Guidoni (Italy) will be on board Space Shuttle mission STS-102 scheduled to carry the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module and nine tons of fresh cargo to the Space Station in April 2001. ESA, representing 10 European countries, is one of five partners in the International Space Station. The others are the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada. For information on ESA and the International Space Station, please see http://www.estec.esa.int/spaceflight. For information on the 1st expedition crew and their mission, please see http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001029preview/. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MICROBES FROM THE MOON? By Brig Klyce 27 October 2000 Russian biologists examining returned samples of lunar regolith have noticed that some particles are fossilized microorganisms. Stanislav Zhmur and Lyudmila Gerasimenko made the discovery when they took a careful new look at Moon material returned in the 1970s by missions of the Soviet Union's unmanned Luna program. The analysis was first published in December 1999, in the proceedings of an astrobiology conference (1). At the same conference, these biologists reported fossilized microorganisms in carbonaceous meteorites, and on 27 January, we publicized that finding (3). Today, no one doubts that the meteoritic fossils are biological. But it turns out that meteorites can easily become contaminated after contact with the ground, so mainstream science now suspects that all fossilized microorganisms in meteorites are the remains of recent contaminants. The fossilized microorganisms from the Moon, however, were delivered to Earth in sealed containers that were opened only in laboratories. They can hardly be contaminants. One striking circular fossil collected by Luna 16 bears an unmistakable resemblance to modern spiral filamentous microorganisms like Phormidium frigidum. Other particles returned by Luna 20 plainly resemble fossils of modern coccoidal species like Siderococcus or Sulfolobus. These fossils are solid evidence for ancient life beyond planet Earth. References: 1. S. I. Zhmur and L. M. Gerasimenko. "Biomorphic forms in carbonaceous meteorite Alliende and possible ecological system- producer of organic matter hondrites" in Instruments, Methods and Missions for Astrobiology II, Richard B. Hoover, Editor, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 3755 pp. 48-58 (December 1999). 2. O. D. Rode, A. V. Ivanov, M. A. Nazarov, A. Cimbalnikova, K. Jurek and V. Hejl. Atlas of Photomicrographs of the Surface Structures of Lunar Regolith Particles, Prague, 1979. 3. "Fossilized Bacteria in Murchison and Efremovka," The Cosmic Ancestry web site, 27 January 2000. [This news was announced at the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) National Convention and Exhibition in Kissimmee, Florida, 27 October 2000.] For the full story with three photos and links to references, see "Microorganisms from the Moon" at http://www.panspermia.org/zhmur2.htm. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 30 October 2000 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles online http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html R. R. Britt, 2000. Life on earth could have come from a Mars rock. Space.com. L. David, 2000. Mars reality check: the high cost, and hopes, of exploration. Space.com. Reuters, 2000. France to join U.S. in mars exploration mission. Space.com. B. P. Weiss, J. L. Kirschvink, F. J. Baudenbacher, H. Vali, N. T. Peters, F. A. Macdonald, and John P. Wikswo, 2000. A low temperature transfer of ALH84001 from Mars to Earth. Science, 290(5492):791-795. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 19-25 October 2000 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, October 25th. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/. Activities this week included the completion of the fifth instance of the 5-Day Repeating Template for Jupiter observations, Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) sensor power on, uplink of a Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) flight software patch and Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) load, Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) Memory Readout (MRO), Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem (AACS) High Current MRO, and an SSR Management Strategy Update. The final approval meeting was held for Cruise 23. This sequence will be uplinked next week and will activate in early November. The processing of Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) Jupiter data has resumed with four sets of downlinked data (950 images) processed and delivered to the ISS Team Leader in Arizona in about four hours. Selected ISS images are now being displayed on monitors at JPL. Analysis of the data acquired during the first Jupiter templates in C22 using a reconstructed C-kernel indicates that the spacecraft pointing was excellent and "right on" for the RADAR activities. Based on these evaluations, there will be no need to make any pointing changes to planned RADAR activities for C25. System Engineering team members supported the kick-off a DSIE (AMMOS Delivery and Installation System Engineering) meeting this week. This is a new forum, which is intended to provide overall coordination of multiple-SSM deliveries and assist with overall system engineering within Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD)/ Deep Space Mission System Services (DSMS). Telemetry, Command & Data Management (TC&DM) software version 25.2 for HP machines has been tested for Distributed Object Manager (DOM) and Navigation support. Testing results indicate nominal performance. Cassini Outreach personnel exhibited at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science meeting and made a well received poster presentation of classroom demonstrations and activities. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 23-29 October 2000 This week Galileo finishes playing back science data gathered during its May flyby of Ganymede and then embarks on a campaign by its fields and particles instruments to collect a continuous survey of the Jovian magnetosphere. Galileo's schedule this week also includes other engineering and navigation activities. On Thursday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its onboard tape recorder. On Friday, Galileo executes a small flight path adjustment. And on Saturday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its propulsion systems. On Thursday, the spacecraft will also perform a test to determine the status of the Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) instrument. UVS has been turned off for several months now. Electronics that control the position of the instrument's grating appear to have been damaged by some combination of Jupiter's severe radiation environment and over 10 years spent in the harsh space environment. Engineers have been hoping that time will allow the damaged electronics to anneal, restoring the instrument to a working state. Annealing is the process in which defects in a material (in this case, radiation damage to a semiconductor) migrate toward the edges of the affected component, thus restoring the material to something closer to its original, undamaged state. The fields and particles campaign initiated this week is designed to obtain a 100-day survey starting from the solar wind, into the Jovian magnetosphere, and back out again. Galileo has been mapping portions of the Jovian magnetosphere since arrival at Jupiter in December 1995, but this particular portion of the survey is part of a joint investigation with the Cassini spacecraft, which is now approaching Jupiter and will pass by in December enroute to arrival at Saturn in 2004. The dual-spacecraft observations will allow scientists to observe both the solar wind and the interior of the magnetosphere at the same time. With these unique simultaneous measurements, they can begin to see, for the first time, how changes in the solar wind can affect the interior of the Jovian magnetosphere. In addition, the Galileo effort marks the second of three planned transits through a poorly-mapped region of the magnetosphere. The Fields and Particles instruments are the Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Detector, and Plasma Wave instrument. But why, you might be asking, is it necessary to halt data playback to perform the survey? Hasn't the spacecraft always been able to share playback with the fields and particles survey? This was true for Galileo's Prime Mission (i.e., its first 11 orbits) at Jupiter. But Galileo's survey data are collected at low rate and stored in onboard data buffer, which holds only about seven hours worth of data. The data are then transmitted to Earth whenever Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas are scheduled for Galileo's use. Now that Galileo is on its second mission extension, and given the large number of other spacecraft that are currently in flight, Galileo does not always receive its choice of DSN antenna time. When DSN antennas can't be scheduled frequently enough, Galileo's data buffer can't be emptied. It then overflows, and the survey data are lost. The solution to this data loss problem is to record the contents of the data buffer to the tape recorder. The data then remain stored on the tape recorder until more DSN time can be made available. It is very complicated to juggle between data playback and data recording, so data playback is halted to implement this plan. Galileo will perform this operation for the next month or so. A similar strategy was used after Galileo's May encounter with Ganymede. Some of those data are being played back during the first half of this week. Speaking of playback, this week's playback plans are part of a third pass through science observations stored on the spacecraft's tape recorder during Galileo's May encounter with Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. Multiple passes through the tape recorder allow playback planners to replay data lost during previous transmissions. In addition, new, additional data can be returned, or data can be processed using different parameters and re-transmitted. The Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) returns six observations this week. The first is a spectral scan of Ganymede's limb, which should provide insight into Ganymede's tenuous atmosphere. Next is a high-resolution spectral map of Ganymede's entire disk. The next three observations are part of series of ten scans of Jupiter's north polar region designed to capture auroral activity on Jupiter. The last NIMS observation is one of three observations designed to map a substantial proportion of Jupiter's atmosphere. Next, the Fields and Particles instruments return portions of a month-long, low-resolution survey of Jupiter's magnetosphere. The lengthy survey contains information on the inner and outer regions of Jupiter's magnetosphere and its transition out into the solar wind. These data were recorded using the same method Galileo will be using in the next few weeks to ensure survey data continuity. The Solid-State Imaging camera (SSI) returns the remaining observations on this week's playback schedule. First, a portion of an image of Jupiter's main ring is returned. Next, SSI returns parts of seven images contained in three observations of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Finally, SSI returns part of an observation consisting of a set of global images through different color filters that captured Europa while eclipsed from the Sun by Jupiter. 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 18 October 2000 Launch / Days since Launch = November 7, 1996 / 1442 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 566 days Total Mapping Orbits = 7,217 Total Orbits = 8,820 Recent events The spacecraft continues to operate nominally in performing the beta- supplement daily recording and transmission of science data. The mm078 sequence executed successfully from 00-286 (10/12/00) through 00-288 (10/14/00). The mm079 sequence has performed well since it started on 00-289 (10/15/00). It terminates on 00-292 (10/18/00). The mm080 sequence, successfully uplinked on 00-291 (10/17/00), begins executing on 00-293 (10/19/00). MGS successfully completed twelve Radio Science Occultation Egress Scans on 00-287 (10/13/00) and 00-288 (10/14/00). They were part of the mz061 mini-sequence. Spacecraft health All subsystems report nominal health. Uplinks There have been 13 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, instrument command loads and the sequences cited above. There have been 4,917 command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch. Upcoming events The mm081 background sequence will be uplinked on 00-294 (10/20/00). The next set of specialized science observations occurs in November. MOLA Polar Scans, contained in the mz062 mini-sequence, will be performed on 00-316 (11/11/00) through 00-319 (11/14/00). Radio Science Occultation Egress Scans, scheduled for 00-322 (11/17/00) through 00-325 (11/20/00), will be commanded by the mz062 mini- sequence. --------------------------------------------------------------------- STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 27 October 2000 There were two Deep Space Network tracking passes during the past week. During the first pass, the star camera reported that there were a few periods of several minutes in which it could only find three stars. If the camera can detect two or fewer stars for more than three minutes, safe mode will be invoked. In order to avoid entering safe mode, the decision was made to transition from all- stellar to gyro-based attitude determination. This increased the time to two hours and allowed the star camera to detect less than three stars. Once in gyro-based mode, the number of stars detected increased to five and remained there. Commands were successfully sent to the spacecraft to take eight images with the star camera and transmit them to Earth. Early analysis of the images showed normal performance of the star camera. These images contained many extra objects that are not in the on- board star catalog, including some of the bright stars in the Pleiades and the planet Saturn. The investigation for the low number of stars is continuing. After taking the images, the spacecraft was commanded back to all- stellar mode. This will help preserve the inertial measurement unit's limited life, about 3-9 months' margin over the expected usage for the remainder of the mission. Even though the longest outage was only twenty seconds, the star camera outage timer was increased to 5 minutes, thus providing an additional safety margin. The investigation into the cause of the previous safe mode entry on October 4 has been traced to a flaw in the code that handles the communications between the star camera and the flight software. This can easily be corrected by a flight software patch, which is being designed. The Stardust Principal Investigator, Don Brownlee, made a presentation on the Stardust Project to the engineering departments at the University of Washington. The Stardust Outreach team supported the Division of Planetary Science Conference with a Thematic Small Bodies display that included MUSES-CN, Stardust, Deep Impact, Comet Nucleus Sample Return, Contour and NEAR. The Discovery Program Office presented a poster on the its education and public outreach efforts, including Stardust. An article in the Times-Star, titled "NASA/JPL Stardust Mission Training" and authored by a participant in the JPL Ambassadors Program, described the positive educational experiences gained from a recent web-chat training session with Stardust. 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 41.