MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 43, 13 November 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) ARE YOU MALE, AGED 25 TO 45 AND NEED A REST? From ESA News 2) CHINA PUSHING AHEAD WITH PLANS TO PUT ITS ASTRONAUTS IN SPACE By Patrick Baert 3) FOURTH MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT INTERPRETATION TUTORIAL By Kenol Jules 4) MARS SAMPLE RETURN PLAN CARRIES MICROBIAL RISK, GROUP WARNS By Richard Stenger 5) SCIENTISTS EXAMINE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY By Leonard David 6) BIOSPHERE 2—SCIENCE UNDER GLASS By Leonard David 7) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARE YOU MALE, AGED 25 TO 45 AND NEED A REST? From ESA News http://www.esa.int 1 November 2000 ESA is looking for volunteers to participate in a 3-month bed-rest experiment in Toulouse, France, in early 2001. The main purpose of the experiment is to improve the rehabilitation of patients and evaluate the consequences of long space flights. Candidates should be male, EC citizens and aged from 25 to 45. In addition they must be between 165 and 185 cm tall, in good health, not overweight and not under medical treatment; most of all, they must be highly motivated. The research is being undertaken by ESA together with the national space agencies CNES, France and NASDA, Japan. A team of international scientists will investigate muscular function, bone changes, physical fitness, cardiovascular system changes, sleep patterns, and blood and urine parameters. If you are interested more details and information on how to apply is available from the Directorate of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity web site at http://www.spaceflight.esa.int/file.cfm?filename=bedrest. Related Links: * Bed-rest study http://www.spaceflight.esa.int/bedrest * Spaceflight home page http://www.spaceflight.esa.int [Image 1] http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/GGGORPVTGEC_index_1.html ESA astronaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré returned to earth on Saturday 28 August after a six-month stay on board the Russian space station Mir. He landed in Kazakhstan, bringing to an end the fifth French-Russian mission named Perseus and making him the non-Russian astronaut to have spent the longest time in space during one spaceflight. During the flight (20 February - 28 August 1999), Haigneré carried out scientific research on behalf of the French space agency CNES. He made one spacewalk) outside Mir on 16 April to collect experiment samples. Photo credit: ESA / CNES - S.Corvaja [Image 2] http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/GGGORPVTGEC_index_1.html#subhead1 Studies are carried out to assess the impact of long space missions on the health of astronauts. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CHINA PUSHING AHEAD WITH PLANS TO PUT ITS ASTRONAUTS IN SPACE By Patrick Baert From SpaceDaily 7 November 2000 China is determined to succeed with its fledgling space program and is planning to build a space station capable of carrying out both civil and military research, experts here said Tuesday. Visitors to the hall showcasing China's aerospace industry at the Third Zhuhai Air Show in this southern Chinese city are first confronted with China's space ambitions in the form of two huge Long March Rockets. One of the rockets carries the Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) space capsule that orbited the earth 14 times last November in an unannounced flight, the first unmanned test flight of China's untried manned space program. Now another newer version of the Shenzhou, weighing less than 100 kilograms (220 pounds), is expected to be launched soon and will also serve as preparation for the first-ever Chinese manned space flight scheduled for “early in the 21st century”. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china- 00zzn.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/china_astronauts0011 06.html http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/11/06/space.china.reut/index.html http://www.cosmiverse.com/space110604.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- FOURTH MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT INTERPRETATION TUTORIAL By Kenol Jules 7 November 2000 It is my pleasure to invite you to attend the fourth annual Microgravity Environment Interpretation Tutorial (MEIT) sponsored by the Principal Investigator Microgravity Services (PIMS) project, March 6-8, 2001, at the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) located near the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This microgravity tutorial is geared towards Project scientists and principal investigators to help them better understand the microgravity environment their experiments will be exposed to and how to quantify and analyze the impact of such environment on their experiments. The main focus of this fourth annual MEIT will be on the International Space Station, but the space shuttle and other microgravity platforms will be covered as well. Since seating is limited, priority will be given to project scientists and principal investigators whose experiments are scheduled for flight within the next four years on either a space shuttle mission or to the International Space Station. The deadline for registration is January 12th, 2001. Those who are selected will be notified by January 22nd, 2001. There are no registration fees associated with the tutorial. However, all expenses associated with travel, lodging and miscellaneous are the sole responsibility of the attendees. All training material will be provided free of charge. For on-line registration go to http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/MMAP/PIMS/MEIT/meitmain.html. For further information, I can be reached at 216-977-7016 or email me at jules@schnellest.lerc.nasa.gov. I can also be reached by fax at 216-433-8660 (Attention: Kenol Jules / PIMS). Please feel free to distribute this information throughout your organization so that all your project scientists and principal investigator teams can become aware of this training opportunity. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS SAMPLE RETURN PLAN CARRIES MICROBIAL RISK, GROUP WARNS By Richard Stenger From CNN 7 November 2000 Should NASA bring back Mars soil or rock to Earth? While the space agency hopes to accomplish that feat within the decade, the International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR) warns it could infect Earth with an interplanetary plague... ...ICAMSR, a group of professional scientists and amateur space enthusiasts [founded by Barry DiGregorio], thinks there is a chance that earthlings might find more than they bargained for. A Mars microbe could wreak havoc on terrestrial species, which would have no natural defenses against the alien invaders... ...”NASA is taking the necessary precautions,” said John Rummel, NASA's planetary protection officer. The returned samples will be “kept in a controlled environment with as many precautions as possible...” ...Many are skeptical of DiGregorio, but fellow ICAMSR members include a handful of prominent scientists, like Chandra Wickramasinghe, one of the first to put forward the increasingly accepted theory that complex organic molecules riddle deep space. Another is Gilbert Levin, who designed experiments to detect life for Russian and U.S. Mars missions. Get the full story at http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/11/07/mars.sample/index.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SCIENTISTS EXAMINE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY By Leonard David From Space.com 8 November 2000 There is no doubt that future Red Planet explorers will be more than a little weak-in-the-knees after a round-trip jaunt lasting some three years. Research shows that exposure to microgravity weakens muscle, causes bone loss and plays havoc with a person's balance and coordination. But a team of scientists and engineers here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Man-Vehicle Laboratory are tackling the problem with experiments in artificial gravity... ...”There's the growing notion that we must get away from a large and expensive-to-build spinning wheel and get down to something considerably smaller,” said MIT's Laurence Young, professor of aeronautics and astronautics. Young and his colleagues are hard at work on investigating use of a personal centrifuge. Just a few yards (meters) in radius, the device is too small to live in. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/artgravity_spindrs _001107.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- BIOSPHERE 2—SCIENCE UNDER GLASS By Leonard David From Space.com 8 November 2000 Sprawled across three acres of sun-drenched high desert sits the eclectic ambiance of Biosphere 2. This huge glass and metal frame edifice is a product of New Age thinking, doubling as the world’s largest test tube for research into Earth’s future... ...Biosphere’s first mission was straightforward, but grand: probe for new ideas of recycling; better understand the workings of Earth’s biosphere; and provide clues on how best to build similar habitats on the Moon and Mars... ...Breathing new life into Biosphere 2 is Columbia University of New York City. In 1994 the decision was made to change the goals and objectives from human habitation inside the closed facility to an Earth systems research application. “We’re taking this in a different direction,” said John Adams, associate director for public outreach. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/biosphere2_00111 0.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 13 November 2000 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html L. E. Orgel, 2000. Self-organizing biochemical cycles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(23):12,503-12,507. Articles on human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html L. David, 2000. Biosphere 2—science under glass. Space.com. L. David, 2000. Scientists examine artificial gravity. Space.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs, Volume 7, Number 43.