MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 7, Number 47, 8 December 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) EVIDENCE OF MARTIAN LAND OF LAKES DISCOVERED NASA HQ/JPL release 2) THE PHANTOM TORSO: TESTING THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON SPACE TRAVELERS By Leonard David 3) ADVANCED ALIENS: WHY ET WILL BE MORE ADVANCED THAN HUMANITY By Seth Shostak 4) MARS ROCK FORMATIONS MAY CONTAIN FOSSILIZED LIFE By Andrew Bridges and Robert Roy Britt 5) NASA PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS NEW COMMERCIAL TECHNOLOGIES NASA release 00-191 6) ESA TAKES FURTHER STEPS IN CARING FOR THE EARTH ESA release 7) CATASTROPHE, MOTHER OF EVOLUTION: LIFE SURVIVED EARLY BOMBARDMENT By Robert Roy Britt 8) A STILL HIGHER DESTINY IN THE DISTANT FUTURE—THE COSMIC CATASTROPHE SURVIVAL STRATEGY By Worth F. Crouch (Talako) 9) VOYAGE OF THE SPACE VEGGIES By Mark Schrope 10) SCIENCE REPORT: SEDIMENTARY ROCKS ON MARS MAY SUGGEST AN ANCIENT LAND OF LAKES American Association for the Advancement of Science release 11) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY, EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND TERRAFORMATION INDEX By David J. Thomas 12) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 13) GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS JPL release 14) ACRONYM LIST FOR SPACE AND ASTRONOMY By Mark Bradford --------------------------------------------------------------------- EVIDENCE OF MARTIAN LAND OF LAKES DISCOVERED NASA HQ/JPL release 4 December 2000 In what ultimately may be their most significant discovery yet, Mars scientists say high-resolution pictures showing layers of sedimentary rock paint a portrait of an ancient Mars that long ago may have featured numerous lakes and shallow seas. “We see distinct, thick layers of rock within craters and other depressions for which a number of lines of evidence indicate that they may have formed in lakes or shallow seas. We have never before had this type of irrefutable evidence that sedimentary rocks are widespread on Mars,” said Dr. Michael Malin, principal investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and head of Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), San Diego, Calif. “These images tell us that early Mars was very dynamic and may have been a lot more like Earth than many of us had been thinking.” Such layered rock structures where there were once lakes are common on Earth. The pancake-like layers of sediment compressed and cemented to form a rock record of the planet's history. The regions of sedimentary layers on Mars are spread out and scattered around the planet. They are most common within impact craters of Western Arabia Terra, the inter-crater plains of northern Terra Meridiani, the chasms of the Valles Marineris, and parts of northeastern Hellas Basin rim. The scientists compare the rock layers on Mars to features seen in the American Southwest, such as the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert of Arizona. “We caution that the Mars images tell us that the story is actually quite complicated, and yet the implications are tremendous. Mars has preserved for us, in its sedimentary rocks, a record of events unlike any that occur on the planet today,” said Dr. Ken Edgett, staff scientist at MSSS and co-author of the Science paper. “This is changing the way we think about the early history of Mars—a time perhaps more than 3.5 billion years ago.” “On Earth, sedimentary rocks preserve the surface history of our planet, and within that history, the fossil record of life. It is reasonable to look for evidence of past life on Mars in these remarkably similar sedimentary layers,” said Malin. “What is new in our work is that Mars has shown us that there are many more places in which to look, and that these materials may date back to the earliest times of Martian history.” Malin added, “I have not previously been a vocal advocate of the theory that Mars was wet and warm in its early history. But my earlier view of Mars was really shaken when I saw our first high- resolution pictures of Candor Chasma. The nearly identically thick layers would be almost impossible to create without water.” As an alternative to lakes, Malin and Edgett suggest that a denser atmosphere on early Mars could have allowed greater amounts of windborne dust to settle out on the surface in ways that would have created the sedimentary rock. “We have only solved one little piece of a tremendous puzzle,” Malin said. “There is no illustration on the box to show us what it is supposed to look like when it is completed, and we are sure most of the pieces are missing.” “These latest findings from the Mars Global Surveyor tell us that more study both from orbit and at the surface is needed to decipher the tantalizing history of water on Mars,” said Dr. Jim Garvin, Mars Exploration Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters. “Our scientific strategy of following the water by seeking, conducting in-situ studies, and ultimately sampling will follow up on these latest discoveries about Mars, and adapt to the new understanding.” “Mars seems to continually amaze us with unexpected discoveries,” said Dr. Edward Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science at NASA Headquarters. “This finding just might be the key to solving some of the biggest mysteries on Mars, and it also tells us that our new Mars exploration program needs the flexibility to follow up in a carefully thought-out manner.” “The finding of layered sedimentary deposits is something that biologists have been hoping for,” said Dr. Ken Nealson, director of the Center for Life Detection at JPL. “Perhaps the favorite sites for biologists to search for fossils or evidence of past life on Earth are layered lake or oceanic sediments such as in these sites Malin and Edgett describe.” The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems built and operates the camera system on Mars Global Surveyor. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, developed and operates the spacecraft. Images for this release are available at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/mars http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/dec00_seds/ Information on Mars Global Surveyor is available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs. Contact: Mary Hardin Phone: 818-354-0344 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/mars_lakes001204.htm l http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1054000/1054621.stm http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04dec_2.htm?list52260 http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/04marslakes/ http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001204/sp_mars.html http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/120400/mars.sml http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/nasa_mars_discovery _001204.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_sediment_pics_ 001205.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-00n.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PHANTOM TORSO: TESTING THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON SPACE TRAVELERS By Leonard David From Space.com 4 December 2000 International Space Station crewmembers will be joined by a spooky- looking visitor next year. You could say it’s the anatomy of a science experiment. NASA scientists call it the Phantom Torso. This part-dummy, part-dosimeter-imbedded torso is a mock-up of a human’s upper body, minus a set of arms. The sensor-laden Phantom Torso is built to determine the effects of radiation on the human body. Dosimeters are mounted at spots where critical organs are located: the head, the heart, the liver and kidneys, for example. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/phantom_torso_001201.ht ml. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ADVANCED ALIENS: WHY ET WILL BE MORE ADVANCED THAN HUMANITY By Seth Shostak From Space.com 4 December 2000 Movie aliens are often like distant relatives: they resemble us in an unpleasant sort of way... But appearances aside, cinema aliens have another implausible attribute: they’re nearly always at our level of technical sophistication. We frequently trade gunfire with them or chase them around in dogfights. This is silly, of course. Any beings capable of bridging the vast distances between the stars would be able to clean our clock when it comes to science and engineering. Visitors from other worlds—should any appear—would be enormously ahead of us from a technological viewpoint. It may surprise you to learn that the same is true for any aliens we might tune in with our SETI experiments. Why is that? Why will our listening experiments—if they succeed—find only highly advanced aliens? The reason is this: our chance of detecting societies that are sending high-powered radio signals or intense laser beams our way depends on their average longevity—how many years they stay “on the air.” Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_001204.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARS ROCK FORMATIONS MAY CONTAIN FOSSILIZED LIFE By Andrew Bridges and Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 5 December 2000 The layers upon layers of rock formations seen in newly unveiled images of Mars may contain beds of fossilized martian life ripe for the picking by future missions to the Red Planet, scientists said. The beds of rock may have formed as sediments settled to the bottom of primordial seas or lakes—bodies of water that once may have teemed with Martian life in the planet’s ancient past. As such, the bands of rock may contain evidence that life is not unique to Earth. “This is where you would go to look for life or for a record of life,” said Michael Malin, the principal investigator on the camera aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft used to make the discoveries. “There is no argument these would be great candidates for that purpose.” Malin and fellow scientist Ken Edgett, both of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, presented their findings on Monday during a hastily arranged press conference held at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/fossil_life_mars_00 1205.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS NEW COMMERCIAL TECHNOLOGIES NASA release 00-191 5 December 2000 A breast cancer detection system and a personal search-and-rescue beacon represent the range of NASA's 42 most recently commercialized products featured in the 2000 issue of Spinoff, the annual publication that highlights commercial products benefiting from NASA technology. Spinoff informs the American public of the benefits of NASA's commercial partnerships with private industry. The results of these partnerships are commercial products that utilize NASA technology, known as spinoffs. Since 1976, over 1,200 of these products have been highlighted in Spinoff, illustrating the down-to- earth benefits of the space program. The publication also covers NASA research-and-development activities and serves as a reference resource to the agency's commercial technology network available at http://www.nctn.hq.nasa.gov. Since NASA's inception in 1958, technologies resulting from the space program have introduced Americans to hundreds of new or improved products. The 2000 edition describes the latest products and their possible economic and social impact in the areas of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, computer technology, manufacturing technology, consumer/home/recreation, and environment and resources management. Online versions of Spinoff, beginning with the 1996 issue, are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto. The Spinoff web site also contains contact information for companies interested in featuring their product in Spinoff or simply in requesting the latest issue. Contact: Michael Braukus Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1979 --------------------------------------------------------------------- ESA TAKES FURTHER STEPS IN CARING FOR THE EARTH ESA release 6 November 2000 At the end of November, the European Space Agency took further steps to enhance Europe's capacity to predict the evolution of the Earth's environment, under the influence of both natural variability and man's activities. Five new candidate space missions have been selected to undergo preliminary feasibility studies. This reflects the importance of Earth Observation from space in our everyday life as it can provide the globally coherent data, which are the essential complement to ground-based, airborne and ship-borne measurements. To be at the forefront of these activities, in 1999 the European Space Agency launched the Living Planet program, which funds many of the Agency's Earth Observation activities, including the Earth Explorer missions. These are research/demonstration missions intended to advance understanding of the Earth's environment, which can also be used to demonstrate new observing techniques. There are two complementary types of Earth Explorer Mission: Earth Explorer Core Missions—large research/demonstration missions led by ESA; Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions—smaller research/demonstration missions not necessarily ESA-led. In June this year the European Space Agency issued a call for ideas for the next Earth Explorer Core Missions. Ten proposals were received, spanning the interests of the whole Earth science community and involving some 180 scientists from ESA member states and Canada, plus countries such as Japan and the USA. The ten missions proposed were: ACE—atmospheric chemistry explorer CARBOSAT—a mission dedicated to monitoring of the carbon cycle CLOUDS—a cloud, aerosol, radiation and precipitation explorer EarthCARE—Earth clouds aerosol and radiation explorer GeoSCIA++—a passive remote sensing experiment assessing the impact of regional tropospheric pollution on global change LICODY—laser interferometry for core and ocean dynamics SPECTRA—surface processes and ecosystems changes through response analysis WALES—water vapor LIDAR experiment in space WATS—water vapor and wind in atmospheric troposphere and stratosphere W_WISE—atmospheric windows and clouds, water vapor, ozone, carbon dioxide, infrared spectral radiation explorer. All ten proposals have been evaluated by the Earth Sciences Advisory Committee, who assessed them and selected five for preliminary studies, but also made specific recommendations to ESA for furthering all ten missions. The five proposals retained were (in alphabetic order): ACE, EarthCARE, SPECTRA, WALES and WATS. On 20 November 2000, ESA accepted the recommendations of the Earth Sciences Advisory Committee and work has now started on all five missions in anticipation of a Workshop to be held in Granada, Spain, during the week of 29 October 2001. During this meeting all five missions will be presented to the user community for comment and reaction as a prelude to their further assessment, to decide which should go forward for further studies and implementation. These proposals follow four other studies that were completed in late 1999 and led to the selection of the first two Earth Explorer Core Missions to be implemented: the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Mission and the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission. The Gravity and Steady State Ocean Circulation Earth Explorer Core Mission will help to advance knowledge of the Earth's interior structure and provide a much better reference for oceanographic and climate studies. Specifically, it will focus on the use of better knowledge of the Earth's gravity field for studies in Solid Earth physics, oceanography, ice sheet dynamics, geodesy and sea level change. The Atmospheric Dynamics Earth Explorer Core Mission will for the first time provide direct observations on a global scale of atmospheric wind profiles over the depth of the atmosphere. With these data it will be possible to increase understanding of atmospheric processes for climate studies, particularly in tropical regions, while advancing the performance of numerical models used in weather forecasting. Opportunity missions In parallel with the work on the Earth Explorer Core Missions ESA has also initiated considerable activity on the Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions front. A call for proposals was issued in July 1998 and 27 proposals were received in response. These were subjected to peer review by the Earth Sciences Advisory Committee and consideration by the Earth Observation Programme Board. The first Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission selected for launch is Cryosat, followed by SMOS. Cryosat is being designed to measure variations in the thickness of the polar ice sheets and the thickness of floating sea ice. Its data will be used to study the mass balances of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, to investigate the influence of the cryosphere on global sea level rise and to provide important observations of sea ice thickness for use in Arctic and global climate studies. Cryosat is scheduled for launch in 2003. SMOS is intended to demonstrate the observation of two key variables of the Earth system, namely soil moisture over land and salinity over oceans and soil moisture over land, to advance the development of climatological, meteorological and hydrological models. In addition, the mission should provide new insights into snow and ice structure, so helping to advance understanding of the cryosphere. SMOS is scheduled for launch in 2005. For further information, please contact: ESA Media Relations Christopher Readings Communication Department ESA/ESTEC ESA Head Office, Paris Phone: +31 71 565 5673 Phone: +33 1 5369 7713 Fax: +31 71 565 5675 Fax: +33 1 5369 7690 --------------------------------------------------------------------- CATASTROPHE, MOTHER OF EVOLUTION: LIFE SURVIVED EARLY BOMBARDMENT By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 7 December 2000 Mounting evidence from seafloor critters to ancient soil and even Moon rocks suggests that life on early Earth survived heavy bombardment from space rocks, pointing to an earlier origin for terrestrial life and opening wider the window of possibilities for where life might exist in the cosmos. Early Earth was a lousy place to live. The young solar system was teeming with comets and asteroids; many ended their travels by slamming into our fledgling planet, destroying entire continents and kicking up deadly clouds that circled the globe. The chaos ended about 3.8 billion years ago. And some scientists have long held that only after things quieted down did life get going. But while others have argued for years of fossilized evidence that life existed as far back as 3.5 billion years ago, efforts to pin down an exact date for the origin of life on Earth have so far proved elusive. In one recent study, scientists found signatures of biological activity in rock estimated to be 3.85 billion years old. While not a discovery of life, or even fossils, the finding is among the oldest evidence that life was around back when things were rough. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/life_on_earth_001205_MB.html. --------------------------------------------------------------------- A STILL HIGHER DESTINY IN THE DISTANT FUTURE—THE COSMIC CATASTROPHE SURVIVAL STRATEGY By Worth F. Crouch (Talako) 7 December 2000 The development of space flight and nuclear explosive technology seem to verify the argument that there is an upward spiral of intellectual evolution on Earth. Although some terrestrial animals exhibit a degree of intelligence only human beings can build machines capable of interplanetary flight, and have invented nuclear weaponry that can be designed to temporarily protect the Earth from catastrophic cosmic bombardments. Moreover, since October 1996 technological societies have learned how symbiotic life is by utilizing the enclosed laboratory Biosphere 2, operated by Columbia University outside Tucson Arizona. While living in the Biosphere it was discovered that humans can not exist long in an isolated environment without many of Earth’s living organisms, or for that matter nonliving variable factors to sustain them in an ecosystem (1). Moreover, in order to avoid extinction from minor cosmic catastrophes mankind can use actualized scientific knowledge to protect its’ world by sending rockets with nuclear warheads to intercept incoming asteroids. However, animal and plant populations must eventually be dispersed to other planets, or space habitats, that have been terraformed, to avoid major cosmic catastrophes and extinction. As has been demonstrated in Biosphere 2, hospitality of these new environments to the different population genetics of Earth’s living things is a necessity to accomplish the long time symbiotic survival of human beings. If populations are not significantly dispersed and our planet is bombarded by giant cosmic particles, like those of Shoemaker-Levy 9 that fragmented and slammed into Jupiter in July 1994 (2), the chance of a successful defense of the Earth would be minuscule. Demonstrating this, a martian meteorite (ALH84001) seems to have been blasted off that planet by an asteroid impact about 16 million years ago. This event must have been a major catastrophe, probably significant enough to extinguish martian life if it existed, and the existence of martian life is not out of the question. Rod-shaped structures found on the meteorite have been interpreted as tiny fossilized bacteria by some. Moreover, Simon Clemett of Lockheed Martin at NASA's Johnson Space Center reported on the presence of magnetite in meteorite ALH84001. “About 25 percent of the magnetite crystals found inside globules of carbonate rock in the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite from Antarctica seem to resemble crystals grown by an Earthling bacteria known as MV- 1. Since the crystals were formed before the meteorite was blasted free of Mars in a giant collision, only Martian bacteria could have made them—if they are biologically made crystals at all, that is.” Clemett presented work by a team led by his colleague Kathie Thomas- Keprta at the August 30, 2000 Meteoritical Society meeting in Chicago. Furthermore, NASA has found indications of climatic change and the signs that previously Mars had liquid water and a warmer, thicker atmosphere (3). This evidence further indicates that on Mars there once might have evolved simple forms of life that were blown into space and possible extinction by a giant cosmic collision, and it is safe to conclude that a similar event could occur on Earth. Important mechanisms insuring the continuation of life’s existence are adaptation, dispersion, and reproduction. Coupled with these mechanisms is life’s prime motive, which is survival. Mankind’s survival motive compels him to defend Earth from cosmic catastrophe unless the threat is overwhelming. If the threat is overwhelming mankind can then disperse its kindred symbiotic life forms to live in or on habitats off the Earth. When this is done, humankind will have increased its chances of surviving a catastrophic cosmic collision, because people can then colonize the designed hospitable environment populated with living things that complement human existence. Consequently, since mankind has intellectually evolved so as to acquire the ability to protect the Earth from minor cosmic catastrophes, and can expedite the dispersal of life to other planets if needed, these are uniquely fundamental survival roles in animal/human evolutionary development. In fact only humans have ever occupied the biological niche that is the playing of these roles and can be known as planetary lifesavers. The life on any planet will probably become extinct over time, if for no other reason than the death of the planet’s sun. Therefore, unless interplanetary travel is used to disperse living things from this world, life from it will probably dead-end. The only evident design capable of assuring multiple and highly evolved species survival, through time and cosmic catastrophe, is the evolution of intelligent beings working in various specialized teams and functioning as a creative unit. It also seems evident that the beings must have at least the capability of developing a nuclear defense and interplanetary flight; thus they can occupy a unique biological niche and act as planetary lifesavers. Consequently, intelligent beings capable of interplanetary flight and nuclear technology have evolved by way of natural selection, and as a result of life’s prime motive, which is survival. It therefore seems evident that intelligent beings capable of space flight and nuclear explosive technology may not have evolved on this world, or possibly others, to just survive as a planet bound species. Instead it is probable that people have evolved to perpetuate the survival of evolved life by way of planetary protection and interplanetary dispersion. If this is not the case, then the human race is destined for a planet-bound extinction, either by its own doing or through some other disaster as has been the case for all of Earth’s previous dominant species. Eventually, another species more capable than Homo sapiens will have an opportunity to develop, and the protection and dispersion of life from this world may take place. If not, life will probably dead-end on this planet as it might have on Mars. As Darwin prophetically remarked in his last paragraph of Descent of Man, “Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future.” In the late 1970’s evidence to support the theory that an asteroid or comet caused catastrophic destruction of the environment leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs was discovered by Luis and Walter Alvarez. Working with a team of scientists from the University of California they were making a study of the rocks around the K-T boundary in Gubbio, Italy. In particular, they were looking at a layer of clay at the boundary point that contained an unusual spike of the rare comet-enriched element, iridium. This spike revealed that the levels of iridium contained in the clay were roughly 30 times normal. Later, comet- enriched material from the impact's explosion was found distributed all over the world. With radiometric dating it was also found that the time of the comet’s impact and the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago occurred almost simultaneously (4). Evidence then suggests that the superbly successful dinosaurs became extinguished in a fiery cosmic catastrophe, because they did not have the intelligence to either protect the Earth or disperse life to other planets. Consequently, the evolution of intelligent space traveling nuclear explosive capable beings is life’s cosmic catastrophe survival strategy. As Darwin hoped, this strategy seems to be Mans, “higher destiny” and is essential for the survival of evolved species from this planet. In the broadest context imaginable, mankind must go forth and multiply. Biological evolution In 1871, in Descent of Man, Charles Darwin wrote, “It seemed worth while to try how far the principle of evolution would throw light on some of the more complex problems in the natural history of man.” Later in the same work he wrote, “Now when viewed by the light of our knowledge of the whole organic world, their meaning is unmistakable. The great principle of evolution stands up clear and firm...” Currently it is believed that male/female (sexual) reproduction seems to be an indisputable factor facilitating the genetic evolution of animals and plants. Combinations, permutations, and random mutations, along with other and unknown concepts, influence coded DNA information delivered to offspring by two opposite gender parents. Thus, offspring produced from males and females have greater differences from their parents than offspring from a single (asexual) parent. The children then have a greater ability to adapt in ways that will increase or decrease their chances to survive and reproduce in a changing environment. Those that better adapt and most often survive and reproduce will pass on their different inherited genetic characteristics to their offspring. Thus, there is change or evolution, and if the advantageous adaptation is markedly different, species characteristics may be modified greatly over time. These are arguments validating Charles Darwin’s theories and also some of the reasons, following the development of sexual reproduction, that there has been an increase in the speed of biological evolution on Earth. Cosmic evolution It seems evident that another kind of evolution takes place when energy/matter has changed or evolved through time to form particles. The particles sometimes seem to change and further increase in mass. To explain this, it is theorized that matter evolved or changed from energy when subsequently related strings, or maybe multiple quarks, emerged as matter’s constituents following the big bang, which seems to be the first event in cosmic history. Afterward protons, electrons, and neutrons were fashioned from matter's constituents along with antimatter, other particles, and possibly even more things not yet considered. However, it is better understood that hydrogen and helium probably would have been the primary products of the big bang. Later some of the gasses were concentrated and compressed by their own gravity, forming stars, and the heavier elements were created by fusion reactions in those stars or supernovae. Consequently, energy and matter seem to be naturally changing in a kind of cosmic evolution, and although energy can be transformed, it cannot be created or destroyed. According to Einstein’s most famous equation, E = mc2, it is apparent that matter and energy are fundamentally interrelated. This being the case, energy seems to be the original stuff of matter’s cosmic evolution. Life might or might not be the ultimate result of the cosmic evolution of matter from energy. However, life in the universe is a fact and a consequence of cosmic evolution, because without the required elements created by star fusion there would be no materials to make life. Adapt or perish Living things that are better-adapted to their environment have an advantage over their competitors. The better-adapted probably will have a greater chance to survive. Successful reproduction is necessary to facilitate adaptive change; otherwise the change will have great difficulty being introduced into a gene pool. Furthermore, dispersion of matter increases the chances that life will develop in different places in the universe. Also dispersion of life on a planet, or in the universe, is preferable so life will not easily be obliterated by local or cosmic catastrophe. Thus, forms of life will have a greater chance to survive a catastrophe and produce offspring. Organisms that incorporate changes in genetics, life style, and habitat resulting in successful adaptation, dispersion, and reproduction tend to increase their chances of survival over competing organisms not changing. Therefore, organisms better at adapting, dispersing, and reproducing will be the probable progenitors of future generations occupying a similar biological niche. In the long run, when the environment is in a constant state of change, as it seems to be in our universe, biological evolution is fundamentally essential to the ongoing existence of life itself. This is because, in a constantly changing environment, forms of life that can not adapt to change probably become extinct, if for no other reason than the death of their sun, which would be the ultimate cosmic catastrophe. These brief fundamental principles are essential in order to understand the evolution of Homo sapiens as a species capable of protecting and/or dispersing life on/or from the Earth. Human intelligence and learned behavior Human continuance is based on mankind’s evolution, which has obviously been a result of successful cosmic and biological evolution resulting in successful adaptations, reproduction, and the ability to disperse humans around and off the Earth. To insure survival, human reproduction is essential so that successful characteristics will pass to future generations. To bring this about, mankind’s reproductive drives are internal and powerful, because they significantly insure survival of the species. Consequently, it might seem to follow that if there is meaning for human life, as with life in general, it is to be found in successful adaptation, dispersion, and reproduction. In the human situation reproduction is sexual. Albeit not always thoughtful, many aspects of human life are motivated by sexual reproductive drives. In fact, from Descent of Man Charles Darwin wrote, “Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses, cattle, and dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his own marriage he rarely, or never, takes any such care. He is impelled by nearly the same motives as the lower animals, when they are left to their own free choice, though he is in so far superior to them that he highly values mental charms and virtues.” It seems that human sexual drives are optimally designed so that reproduction will primarily be successful and plentiful, as is the case with most animals. Moreover, it is indisputable that human sexual drives significantly motivate mankind’s behavior by increasing the human population beyond rational numbers. The increased human population then motivates increased environmental adaptation and dispersion. Only recently have some technological cultures been able to control their reproductive proclivity so that a greater share of resources can be given to their people and significant social/economic prosperity achieved. However, world human overpopulation has already occurred and most societies are at risk. The totality of the evolutionary process involved in creating humankind, and all life, is more than just biological evolution. It is the combination of cosmic and biological evolution and the combination seems to propel all matter, and life. Thus, the original energy of the universe relentlessly directs humankind, along with everything else, through time, and space using the mechanism of universal evolution. Cosmic evolution, which gave rise to matter and the subsequent biological evolution of mankind, has inherently created within people the basis of human behaviors. Humankind’s ability to thoughtfully adapt, disperse, and recently, in some cultures, even thoughtfully reproduce has helped people better fit into changing environmental situations and survive. Consequently, intelligence is an obvious successful evolutionary adaptation and survival strategy for humans. Without intelligent planning and the ability to team together and form a society of various capabilities which, as a unit, competes with natural forces, mankind would be no better than an isolated genius or a colony of bees. Neither has been able to develop space flight, either because of isolation or due to a lack of intelligence. Natural selection has determined that Homo sapiens adapt to the environment in many ways, but significantly, intellectual adaptation has allowed humans to prosper over competing animals. Somewhere within the last two million years there has been a shift to cooperative hunting and gathering, with accompanying requirements for a high level of intelligence and social organization, which attended the rise of the modern human species (5). Consequently, people are found walking upright to better use their hands and weapons; they have opposable thumbs so tools can be fashioned; they organize in teams to hunt or gather food; and they explore the unknown with their “mind’s eye” so they can invent something to give them an edge. Most other animals have specialized anatomies designed to do many things better than humans, but to allow mankind the abilities that give them the edge the human brain has evolved to be more powerful than that of other animals. Therefore, with thoughtful adaptation, dispersion, the ability to reproduce wisely, and the ability to team together, mankind exists with relative success. However, partly due to human sexual drives, that are not always thoughtful, people have overpopulated the Earth, fought countless terrible conflicts, and placed great stress on the resources necessary for their survival. Darwin’s comments on overpopulation were evident even in 1871: “Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his present high condition through a struggle for existence consequent on his rapid multiplication; and if he is to advance still higher, it is to be feared that he must remain subject to a severe struggle.” Darwin confirmed this again by writing, “Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence; consequently he is occasionally subjected to a severe struggle for existence, and natural selection will have effected whatever lies within its scope.” In a hostile environment, composed of increasing numbers of competitive human identities, mankind has survived best by using intelligent specialty teams working as a creative unit. Historically most people have been forced to struggle militarily, economically, personally and in countless other ways to survive. Eventually, in the struggle for resources and dominance, societies developed advanced specialty teams. Among the more important are: educational, scientific, artistic, military, economic, agricultural, governmental, and industrial specialty teams. In the twentieth century, the more creative specialty teams generally helped advance a greater understanding of the world and the universe. Governmental organizations today have the ability to protect the planet, and disperse its life when threatened by cosmic catastrophe. In no small part this is a direct result of the scientific advances brought about by creative specialty teams employed by governments during two World Wars and the Cold War (6). In 1871, although man’s intelligence had not yet propelled him into space, Darwin concluded on the final page of Descent of Man, “...with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” In the twenty-first century, although mankind seems to have invented interplanetary flight and nuclear explosives, the lowly origin of the species, reflected in the human appearance and evolutionary history, might in some ways prevent greater accomplishments. Darwin’s prophetic conclusion could result in humankind not being as important as it projects itself to be, or maybe humans will succeed in their unique biological niche and Man’s, “...god–like” intellect will overcome... his lowly origin.” References cited 1. “Environment,” Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. ©1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. 2. “Shoemaker-Levy Comet,” Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. ©1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. 3. “Mars (planet),” Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. ©1993- 1996 Microsoft Corporation. 4. “Dinosaur,” Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. ©1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. 5. “Evolution,” Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. ©1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. 6. “World War II,” Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. ©1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. Mr. Crouch can be reached by e-mail at doagain@jps.net. --------------------------------------------------------------------- VOYAGE OF THE SPACE VEGGIES By Mark Schrope From New Scientist 7 December 2000 We're a curious lot. Always looking for new stuff to do. Always looking for new places to go. Maybe that's why we feel it's our destiny to travel to other planets. And not just to drop in, dig around, grab some rocks and catch a ride home on the next feasible trajectory, but to settle in, maybe even build a colony. Doing that will almost certainly require growing plants in space. Plants are the only option we have for food, beyond what we take with us. They're also natural water purifiers, oxygen generators and carbon dioxide scrubbers. In short, little life-support machines. But what kind of plants should we take into space? Some cereals, a few salad leaves and something pretty to spruce up the capsule? Probably not. It's true that plants have been doing a bang-up job of keeping this planet habitable for aeons, but conditions in space suggest that what grows here is not a good guide to what's needed out there. With this in mind, an eclectic band of scientists recently converged on a quiet 210-year-old inn just outside Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Their objective was to begin the process of redesigning plants to fulfil the needs of future space settlers. The group included specialists in nanotechnology, genomics, cell biology, engineering and botany. On the agenda: how to take living plants and turn them into programmable life-support machines for space—bionic plants, if you will. Their vision is a complete re-engineering of plants—from the ground up, so to speak. And from the ground down, for that matter, since root systems are just as important. When they're done, they hope to have plants that can survive, or even thrive, in the dramatically different conditions found off Earth. That will mean writing new, heritable traits into the plants' genetic code. In the process they would also like to add a few tricks to allow humans to control plant metabolism remotely. And for good measure, they envision implanting minuscule electronic sensors to collect data on the plants' health, so humans can intervene before something goes drastically wrong. It is a tall order, but the group has some time to work it all out. The research is funded by NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), which supports work not expected to come to fruition for 10 to 40 years. And the group reckons it can be done. “It's not so far-fetched to think that we can make plants that are adapted,” says team member Nina Allen, a plant cell biologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “If you don't start dreaming about these things they are not going to happen.” NASA already has a list of plants it thinks could one day cut the mustard in space. Given NASA's current priorities, Mars seems the likeliest first destination for bionic plants. Probably not on the first crewed missions—at three years or so, these would be short enough to take along everything the travelers needed. But for longer trips plants would be useful, maybe even indispensable. Team leader Chris Brown, a senior research scientist at environmental technology firm Dynamac of Durham, North Carolina, who is also a botanist at North Carolina State University, reckons the minimum requirement would be a mission longer than five years. It's really a question of whether bionic plants can compete economically with mechanical life-support systems, he says. Assuming that the sums do work out, the next question is how to grow bionic plants on Mars. Nobody imagines that it'll just be a matter of running a hoe through the regolith and waiting for the harvest moons. Conditions on Mars are just too harsh. Temperatures regularly drop to -125°C. Sunlight is only about half as intense as on Earth. And though the atmosphere is 95 per cent CO2—the raw material for photosynthesis—atmospheric pressure is less than 1 per cent that on Earth. That means bionic plants would have to be housed in enclosed spaces such as converted caves or greenhouses. One idea is an inflatable greenhouse that could be maintained at a slightly elevated pressure to keep the structure simple and light, with enough heating to keep temperatures around 5°C and enough lighting for the plants to photosynthesize. This might be built by an advance party of robots laying the groundwork for colonists. Even inside this protective cocoon, bionic plants would have to be adapted for low pressure, dim light and relatively cool temperatures. There are plants on Earth that can handle the cold, but none has ever had to evolve for low pressure. Could traits be programmed in even if they're not available on Earth? Chris Somerville, a plant molecular biologist at Stanford University in California, thinks they can. “What's called genetic engineering right now is really just genetic tinkering,” he says. We splice genes from one plant or animal to another, transferring traits that already exists in nature. But Somerville believes it won't be long before molecular biologists can sit down and design genes from scratch. Like human genomics, plant genomics is ploughing onward. The genome of Arabidopsis, the laboratory workhorse of plant genetics, will be completely mapped soon, and gene functions should follow in short order (New Scientist, 2 December, p 36). “I'm pretty confident that in the 10 to 40-year time frame we're going to have a lot of control over every aspect of plants,” says Somerville. When that happens, plants could be designed to grow in all sorts of planetary environments. They could also be given useful new traits. One possibility, Somerville says, is to get rid of the rigid cell walls that evolved to allow plants to stand up in Earth's gravity. On Mars, or anywhere else with a weaker gravitational pull, those wouldn't be much use. Eliminating the cell wall would also make plants easier to digest. Another idea is to turn the plants into mini sewage systems. They already take in dirty water and clean it through the process of transpiration. This water could be harvested in greenhouses simply by using cooled coils to capture it, just like a dehumidifier. There are limits to the dirtiness of the water plants can process, but increase their tolerance to urea, for example, and they could thrive on the colonists' urine. The researchers are also looking to give plants new attributes to make them grow more efficiently. Distant colonies might be so far from the Sun that plants could never hope to gather enough sunlight to meet their energy needs. Even on Mars, it's likely that the Sun would be too weak. One solution might be to grow the plants under artificial lights. But this would put a huge strain on the colonies' precious energy resources, so the light sources would have to be as close as possible to the plants' light-harvesting system to minimize losses. Taking this idea to its logical conclusion could mean giving plants their own internal light source. The scenario goes something like this. A plant's genome would be manipulated to grow molecular lamps, possibly built of bioluminescent proteins from deep-sea fish, near its photosynthetic apparatus. Similar genes from jellyfish are already routinely spliced into plants and other organisms as a tag. These light sources could garner their energy in entirely new ways. For example, molecular devices could be designed to absorb parts of the electromagnetic spectrum not normally used by plants, such as ultraviolet or infrared, and convert them to useful wavelengths. Or there might be some way to fuel these devices by providing energy through something other than light, such as chemical or electrical means. It depends on what's available. Bionic plants could even be engineered to grow in the dark. After all, photosynthesis is just a fancy way of moving electrons around. If those electrons could be injected into the plant's energy-gathering system by some other means, they could flourish without the need to turn any of the colony's precious energy into light. The next step would be to gain fine control over the plants' metabolism. This could allow people to turn photosynthesis on or off to generate oxygen, or tell the plants to produce a new plastic or drug. Team member Ray Wheeler, who works on the Advanced Life Support Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, says that another intriguing option might be shifting plants' output from standard carbohydrates to an oil, for instance. This would increase their CO2 demands without raising oxygen output, allowing colonists to fine-tune the atmosphere. But how on Earth (or elsewhere) could we take control of a plant's metabolism? Team member Eric Davies, a plant physiologist at North Carolina State University, says we should remember that plants already have extensive communication skills. When bugs start to munch on their leaves, for instance, they can use chemical, electrical and other means to warn the rest of their anatomy to begin producing a repellent. Some plants can send warnings to other individuals (New Scientist, 22 February 1997, p 16). They also detect and respond to changes in light levels, such as those associated with season shifts. Plants react to these various signals by turning genes on and off, which is exactly what the NIAC team wants to do. So, once researchers figure out exactly how these mechanisms work, it's not hard to imagine a centralized control unit that sends instructions to the plants via chemicals, light or some other means. “You would be using a pre-existing communication system,” says Davies, “but changing the outcome by having genes that you wanted activated rather than genes that the plant wanted.” Sending these instructions would have to be done remotely if bionic plants were part of an advance party for a human colony. The unit would have to obey radio signals from Earth, but NASA has already proved it can do something similar—on the 1997 Pathfinder mission to Mars, the Sojourner Rover was radio controlled. If a human colony were relying on plants for food, air and water, it's safe to say that there would be a deep and abiding interest in their health. This leads to the final component of the bionic plant vision: feedback from plants to people. Plants could be fitted with sensors for vital indicators of health, such as pH, or for early- warning signals such as superoxides, which many plants produce in response to pathogens, wounds and other insults. The sensors would flag the onset of a problem before any visible signs appeared. “These sensing systems will all be molecule size with their own telemetry,” says Troy Nagle, a sensor expert at North Carolina State University who is also a group member. The sensors might send information to a computer system that would analyze the data and sound the alarm when problems arose. The computer system could also be programmed with information on how to respond to problems so, as Nagle puts it, “astronauts don't have to become plant biologists to survive in space”. For monitoring, the group discussed the possibility of using nanomachines embedded in just a few plants to give an approximation of the health of a whole crop. Eventually they envisage engineering some sort of heritable sensing apparatus. Looking further ahead, some of the discussions even delved into the concept of designing entirely new cellular organelles to perform most of the control tasks. But that's a long way off. However, some spin-offs from the project could be put to use long before people start colonizing space. Nagle and Nina Allen have already developed small plant sensors that measure pH and detect chloride and potassium ions. These can be inserted into a plant's tissues, or placed on its roots, to measure its condition and whether enough nutrients are available to it. Right now the sensors are a few millimeters wide and almost a centimeter long, but the ultimate goal is nanoscale devices that could be implanted in cells. Farmers could fit just a few plants in their crops with sensors and use the data to monitor the crop's progress. In space, too, plants could be put to use straight away. Greenery seems to offer a psychological benefit when humans are cooped up, as evidenced by the popularity of the greenhouse at the South Pole research station. So don't worry about those lonely space travelers. They'll always have some plants to talk to. Mark Schrope is a science writer based in Virginia. This feature appears in New Scientist issue 9 December 2000 (http://www.newscientist.com). UK Contact: Claire Bowles claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk Phone: 44-0-207-331-2751 US Contact: New Scientist Washington office newscidc@idt.net Phone: 202-452-1178 --------------------------------------------------------------------- SCIENCE REPORT: SEDIMENTARY ROCKS ON MARS MAY SUGGEST AN ANCIENT LAND OF LAKES American Association for the Advancement of Science release 8 December 2000 Layered geologic outcrops on Mars, described in today's issue of the journal Science, may be composed of sedimentary rock that dates from the earliest span of martian history, between 4.3 and 3.5 billion years ago. Images of these sedimentary rock exposures, captured by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), suggest that parts of ancient Mars may have resembled a land of lakes, and that the geology of early Mars was much more dynamic than previously suspected. If life existed on Mars during this time period, researchers believe that the fossil remnants of that past life may be sandwiched within the sedimentary rock layers, just as they are on Earth. The martian outcrops, in some cases a few kilometers thick, appear to be made of fine-grained materials deposited in horizontal layers, the hallmark of sedimentary rock. These outcrops are found inside craters, between craters, and within chasms, said Michael C. Malin and Kenneth S. Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California. The Science researchers identified three main outcrop types from the MOC images: layered units, massive units, and thin mesa units. Layered units, as their name suggests, consist of relatively thin rock beds—some only a few meters thick—stacked on top of one another in distinct groups. Massive units appear as one bulky rock layer with no clearly defined horizontal bedding. In a few cases, these types appear together, with the massive unit always perched on top of the bedded unit like a thick, indistinct coat of frosting on a layer cake. Thin mesa units, with surfaces ranging from smooth to pitted to ridged and grooved, are almost always found on top of eroded massive or layered sedimentary rock. While sediments can be deposited in a variety of ways—including wind, water, volcanic activity, and even cosmic impact—the prevalence of the martian sedimentary outcrops within basin-like features suggests that they were deposited by water, perhaps in lakes that formed within the craters and chasms, said Malin and Edgett. Under this scenario, sediments may have been transported into the lakes in regular, swift pulses, building up thin layer units. Massive units may have been deposited when the lake became stagnant or deep enough to cause sediments to sift down through the water over longer intervals. “Some of the MOC images of these outcrops show hundreds and hundreds of identically thick layers, which is almost impossible to have without water,” said Malin. The sedimentary units show no telltale signs of wind deposition, and the researchers concluded that explosive volcanic eruptions and impact cratering probably could not have produced enough sediment to create the large-scale and geographically widespread outcrops seen on the martian surface. Although Malin and Edgett favor water as the sedimentary suspect, they also offer an alternative model that involves changes in atmospheric pressure on early Mars. They suggest that periods of relatively high atmospheric pressure—caused by fluctuations in the amount of solid carbon dioxide on the planet's surface—could have increased the atmosphere's ability to carry dust produced by heavy cratering. To confuse matters, the Science researchers don't know where the original sediments came from, or how they were transported to their final resting places, since there are no traces of gullies or streams or other channels associated with the outcrops. They think that erosion may have wiped out both the source of the sediments and their travel routes. In some cases, sedimentary rock has eroded out of the crater in which it formed, also vanishing without a geologic clue. To Malin, the history of martian geology looks like a jigsaw puzzle. “In the center of the puzzle, we have these layered rocks, which are good evidence of an extremely dynamic environment. On either side of this well-developed puzzle piece, we have mysteries.” In any case, Mars' sedimentary rocks suggest a very active early history for the planet. “This makes Mars more complicated and more exciting. This record is going to tell us a lot about what early Mars was like, and maybe the early Earth as well, since we don't have a lot of rocks on our own planet from this time period,” said Edgett. This research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through Contract #959060 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Contact: Ginger Pinholster 202-326-6421 gpinhols@aaas.org Additional information on this article is available at: http://www.eurekalert.org/E- lert/current/public_releases/scipak/malin.html http://www.eurekalert.org/E- lert/current/public_releases/scipak/malinimages.html http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/aaas-french-srs120100.html (in French) http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/aaas-german-srs120100.html (in German) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 8 December 2000 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html A. Bridges and R. R. Britt, 2000. Mars rock formations may contain fossilized life. Space.com. R. R. Britt, 2000. More images: martian sediment layers explained. Space.com. R. R. Britt and A. Bridges, 2000. Mars home to ancient lakes. Space.com. L. David, 2000. Looking for life 'out there' draws upon inner need to explore. Space.com. M. Mendoza, 2000. Astrobiology field draws researchers. Space.com. SpaceDaily, 2000. Sedimentary rocks suggest an ancient land of martian lakes. SpaceDaily. K. Silber, 1999. Planet discoveries raise questions about life. Space.com. Articles about the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html D. Billi, E. I. Friedmann, K. G. Hofer, M. G. Caiola and R. Ocampo- Friedmann, 2000. Ionizing-radiation resistance in the desiccation- tolerant cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(4):1489-1492. D. Billi, D. J. Wright, R. F. Helm, T. Prickett, M. Potts and John H. Crowe, 2000. Engineering desiccation tolerance in Escherichia coli. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(4):1680-1684. G. Clark, 1999. They thrive in the Arctic, why not on Mars? Space.com. M. L. Skidmore, J. M. Foght and M. J. Sharp, 2000. Microbial life beneath a high Arctic glacier. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(8):3214-3220. A. Teske, T. Brinkhoff, G. Muyzer, D. P. Moser, J. Rethmeier and H. W. Jannasch, 2000. Diversity of thiosulfate-oxidizing bacteria from marine sediments and hydrothermal vents. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(8):3125-3133. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html L. David, 2000. The phantom torso: testing the effects of radiation on space travelers. Space.com. Articles about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html G. Gonzalez, 2000. Alien intelligence? Think again. Space.com. S. Shostak, 2000. Advanced aliens: why ET will be more advanced than humanity. Space.com. K. Silber, 1999. SETI scientists buoyed by planet discovery. Space.com. D. Sorid, 2000. Alien investigators: a look at the SETI Institute. Space.com. D. Vakoch, 2000. Growing up with ET. Space.com. M. Weinstock, 2000. SETI: celebrating 40 years of watching the skies. Space.com. Articles about primordial evolution and prebiotic chemistry http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html R. R. Britt, 2000. Catastrophe, mother of evolution: life survived early bombardment. Space.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 4-10 December 2000 With about a month before its next encounter, Galileo completes another week of a 14-week long continuous survey of the Jovian magnetosphere. In addition, the spacecraft is playing back data from the survey which were recorded earlier in the survey period on Galileo's onboard tape recorder. One engineering activity is executed this week. On Thursday, the spacecraft performs a standard test on its gyroscopes. Galileo's survey of the Jovian magnetosphere is being performed by its Fields and Particles instruments. The spacecraft's tape recorder is being used to ensure continuity of the data being gathered during the survey. Part of the reason these data are expected to be so useful is that they are part of dual-spacecraft observation campaign together with instruments on the Cassini spacecraft. Currently, Cassini is approaching Jupiter, and is “upstream” in the solar wind. The joint flyby offers scientists a unique opportunity to examine data describing the solar wind, as captured by Cassini, and data describing the outer edges and interior of the Jovian magnetosphere, as captured by Galileo. Galileo uses its tape recorder eight times this week to store survey data, and is able to play back data for approximately 80 hours (out of an available total of 168 hours). 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS JPL release 7 December 2000 NASA's Galileo spacecraft completes its fifth year of orbiting Jupiter today, continuing to send home new information after enduring more than twice the time in orbit and three times the radiation dosage that it was originally planned to withstand. It is heading back toward Jupiter after the most elongated of its 28 loops around the planet since entering orbit on December 7, 1995. As it moves closer to Jupiter, Galileo is making a 14-week continuous study of the planet's magnetosphere, a vast bubble of magnetic force that surrounds the planet and contains its dangerous radiation belts. The study began in October while Galileo was still outside the magnetosphere. The information being collected as Galileo re-enters it will be paired with measurements taken as the craft exited the magnetosphere last spring. The study is also part of collaborative research with NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is flying past Jupiter this month for a gravity assist to reach Saturn. From a position outside of Jupiter's magnetosphere, Cassini is monitoring the solar wind of particles streaming away from the Sun. “The data we're collecting right now are part of a collaboration with Cassini to understand how the magnetosphere of Jupiter responds to changes in the solar wind,” said Dr. Duane Bindschadler, Galileo manager of science operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Initial science results from Galileo's May 20 flyby of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, will be presented at the Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, beginning December 15, in San Francisco. On December 28, Galileo will fly by Ganymede once again, this time while the moon is in eclipse behind Jupiter. Galileo's flight team is preparing for more studies of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in 2001 and other possible encounters in a further extension of the mission. Several instruments and subsystems have suffered some damage during the mission, but Galileo is still able to collect valuable scientific information. “Galileo is showing some signs of battle fatigue, but it is still a capable spacecraft,” said Jim Erickson, project manager. Most of the degradation resulted from cumulative radiation damage, particularly during Io flybys in 1999 and 2000, he said. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Galileo for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ACRONYM LIST FOR SPACE AND ASTRONOMY By Mark Bradford 21 October 2000 This list is offered as a reference for translating commonly appearing acronyms in the space-related newsgroups. If I forgot or botched your favorite acronym, please let me know. Also, if there's an acronym not on this list that confuses you, drop me a line, and if I can figure it out, I'll add it to the list. I have changed the web location of the list, to a place where it's easier for me to tweak and update it. I have made a number of revisions that had accumulated during the past couple of years; thanks especially to Bill Owen of NASA and Robin Hill of BAE Systems. No doubt several corrections have slipped through the cracks; please alert me if this is the case. The canonical version of this list is the HTML form, available at http: //www.surly.org/tla. From that, I generate the text form for USENET posting. Note that this is intended to be a reference for frequently seen acronyms, and is most emphatically not encyclopedic. If I incorporated every acronym I ever saw, I'd soon run out of disk space. All comments regarding this list are welcome; I'm reachable at tla@surly.org. Note that this just tells what the acronyms stand for—you're on your own for figuring out what they mean. Note also that the total number of acronyms in use far exceeds what I can list; special-purpose acronyms that are essentially always explained as they're introduced are omitted. Further, some acronyms stand for more than one thing; these acronyms appear on multiple lines. Thanks to everybody who's sent suggestions since the first version of the list, and especially to Daniel Fischer (p515dfi@mpifr- bonn.mpg.de), who is maintaining a truly huge list (over 800 at last count) of acronyms and terms, mostly in German (which I read, fortunately), and Ken Hollis at NASA, who has sent me copies of NASA's own tomes of TLAs. A&A: Astronomy and Astrophysics AAO: Anglo-Australian Observatory AAS: American Astronomical Society AAS: American Astronautical Society AAVSO: American Association of Variable Star Observers ACE: Advanced Composition Explorer ACRV: Assured Crew Return Vehicle (or) Astronaut Crew Rescue Vehicle ADFRF: Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (now DFRC) (NASA) AFAIK: As Far As I Know AGN: Active Galactic Nucleus AGU: American Geophysical Union AIAA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics AIPS: Astronomical Image Processing System AJ: Astronomical Journal ALEXIS: Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors ALPO: Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers ALS: Advanced Launch System ANSI: American National Standards Institute AOA: Abort Once Around (Shuttle abort plan) AOA: Angle Of Attack AOCS: Attitude and Orbit Control System Ap.J: Astrophysical Journal APL: Applied Physics Laboratory (at Johns Hopkins) APM: Attached Pressurized Module (a.k.a. Columbus) APU: Auxiliary Power Unit ARC: Ames Research Center (NASA) ARC: Astrophysical Research Consortium ARTEMIS: Advanced Relay TEchnology MISsion ASA: Astronomical Society of the Atlantic ASI: Agenzia Spaziale Italiana ASP: Astronomical Society of the Pacific ASRM: Advanced Solid Rocket Motor ATDRS: Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite ATLAS: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science ATM: Amateur Telescope Maker ATM: Apollo Telescope Mount (on Skylab) ATO: Abort To Orbit (Shuttle abort plan) AU: Astronomical Unit AURA: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy AW&ST: Aviation Week and Space Technology (a.k.a. AvLeak) AXAF: advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility BAe: British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) BATSE: Burst And Transient Source Experiment (on CGRO) BBXRT: Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope (ASTRO package) BDB: Big Dumb Booster BEM: Bug-Eyed Monster BH: Black Hole BIMA: Berkeley Illinois Maryland Array BIS: British Interplanetary Society BMDO: Ballistic Missile Defense Office (was SDIO) BNSC: British National Space Centre BTW: By The Way CARA: Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica C&T: Communications & Tracking CATS: Cheap Access To Space CCAFS: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station CCAS: Cape Canaveral Air Station (now once again CCAFS) CCD: Charge-Coupled Device CCDS: Centers for the Commercial Development of Space CD-ROM: Compact Disc Read-Only Memory CFA: Center For Astrophysics CFC: ChloroFluoroCarbon CFF: Columbus Free Flyer CFHT: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope CG: Center of Gravity CGRO: (Arthur Holley) Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (was GRO) CHARA: Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy CIRRIS: Cryogenic InfraRed Radiance Instrument for Shuttle CIT: Circumstellar Imaging Telescope CM: Command Module (Apollo spacecraft) CM: Center of Mass CMBR: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation CMCC: Central Mission Control Centre (ESA) CNES: Centre National d'Etude Spatiales CNO: Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen CNSR: Comet Nucleus Sample Return COBE: COsmic Background Explorer COMPTEL: COMPton TELescope (on CGRO) COSTAR: Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement CRAF: Comet Rendezvous / Asteroid Flyby CRRES: Combined Release / Radiation Effects Satellite CSM: Command and Service Module (Apollo spacecraft) CSTC: Consolidated Space Test Center (USAF) CTIO: Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory CV: Cataclysmic Variable CXBR: Cosmic X-ray Background Radiation DC: Delta Clipper DCX: Delta Clipper eXperimental DDCU: DC-to-DC Converter Unit DDTE: Design, Development, Test, and Evaluation DFRC: Dryden Flight Research Center DFRF: Dryden Flight Research Facility (was ADFRF, now DFRC) DMSP: Defense Meteorological Satellite Program DOD: Department Of Defense (sometimes DoD) DOE: Department Of Energy DOT: Department Of Transportation DRS: Data Relay Satellite DRS: Direct Receiving Station DSO: Deep Sky (or Space) Object DSCS: Defense Satellite Communications System DSN: Deep Space Network DSP: Defense Support Program (USAF/NRO) EAFB: Edwards Air Force Base ECS: Environmental Control System EDO: Extended Duration Orbiter EGRET: Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (on CGRO) EJASA: Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic ELV: Expendable Launch Vehicle EMU: Extravehicular Mobility Unit EOS: Earth Observing System ER: Eastern Range (was ETR) ERS: Earth Resources Satellite (as in ERS-1) ESA: European Space Agency ESIS: European Space Information System ESO: European Southern Observatory ET: (Shuttle) External Tank ETLA: Extended Three Letter Acronym ETR: Eastern Test Range EUV: Extreme UltraViolet EUVE: Extreme UltraViolet Explorer EVA: ExtraVehicular Activity FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions FAST: Fast Auroral SnapshoT explorer FFT: Fast Fourier Transform FGS: Fine Guidance Sensors (on HST) FHST: Fixed Head Star Trackers (on HST) FIR: Far InfraRed FITS: Flexible Image Transport System FOC: Faint Object Camera (on HST) FOS: Faint Object Spectrograph (on HST) FOV: Field Of View FRC: Flight Research Center (old name for DFRC) FRR: Flight-Readiness Review FTL: Faster Than Light FTP: File Transfer Protocol FTS: Flight Telerobotic Servicer FUSE: Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer FWHM: Full Width at Half Maximum FYI: For Your Information GAS: Get-Away Special GBT: Green Bank Telescope GCVS: General Catalog of Variable Stars GEM: Giotto Extended Mission GEM: Galileo Europa Mission GEO: Geosynchronous Earth Orbit GDS: Great Dark Spot GHRS: Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (on HST) GIF: Graphics Interchange Format GLOMR: Global Low-Orbiting Message Relay GLOW: Gross Lift-Off Weight GMC: Giant Molecular Cloud GMRT: Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope GMT: Greenwich Mean Time (also called UT) GOES: Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite GOX: Gaseous OXygen GPC: General Purpose Computer GPS: Global Positioning System GR: General Relativity GRB: Gamma Ray Burster GRC: Glenn Research Center (NASA) GRO: Gamma Ray Observatory (now CGRO) GRS: Gamma Ray Spectrometer (on Mars Observer) GRS: Great Red Spot GSC: Guide Star Catalog (for HST) GSFC: Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) GTO: Geostationary Transfer Orbit HAO: High Altitude Observatory HD: Henry Draper catalog entry HEAO: High Energy Astronomical Observatory HeRA: Hermes Robotic Arm HF: High Frequency HGA: High Gain Antenna HLC: Heavy Lift Capability HLV: Heavy Lift Vehicle HMC: Halley Multicolor Camera (on Giotto) HOTOL: HOrizontal TakeOff and Landing (a proposed SSTO craft) HR: Hertzsprung-Russell (diagram) HRMS: High Resolution Microwave Survey HRI: High Resolution Imager (on ROSAT) HSP: High Speed Photometer (on HST) HST: Hubble Space Telescope HTH: Hope This Helps HTHL: Horizontal Takeoff Horizontal Landing HTVL: Horizontal Takeoff Vertical Landing HUT: Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (ASTRO package) HV: High Voltage IAPPP: International Amateur/Professional Photoelectric Photometry IAU: International Astronomical Union IAUC: IAU Circular ICE: International Cometary Explorer IDA: International Dark-sky Association IDL: Interactive Data Language IGM: InterGalactic Medium IGY: International Geophysical Year IIRC: If I Recall Correctly IMHO: In My Humble Opinion IMO: International Meteor Organization IOTA: Infrared-Optical Telescope Array IOTA: International Occultation Timing Association IPS: Inertial Pointing System IR: InfraRed IRAF: Image Reduction and Analysis Facility IRAS: InfraRed Astronomical Satellite IRFNA: Inhibited Red Fuming Nitric Acid ISAS: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (Japan) ISM: InterStellar Medium ISO: Infrared Space Observatory ISO: International Standards Organization ISPM: International Solar Polar Mission (now Ulysses) ISPP: In-Situ Propellant Production ISS: International Space Station ISY: International Space Year IUE: International Ultraviolet Explorer IUS: Inertial Upper Stage JEM: Japanese Experiment Module (for SSF) JGR: Journal of Geophysical Research JILA: Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics JPL: Jet Propulsion Laboratory JSC: Johnson Space Center (NASA) KAO: Kuiper Airborne Observatory KPNO: Kitt Peak National Observatory KSC: Kennedy Space Center (NASA) KTB: Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary (from German) L: Lagrange (as in Lagrange points L1 through L5) LANL: Los Alamos National Laboratory LaRC: Langley Research Center (NASA) LDEF: Long Duration Exposure Facility LEM: Lunar Excursion Module (a.k.a. LM) (Apollo spacecraft) LEO: Low Earth Orbit LeRC: Lewis Research Center (NASA; now GRC) LEST: Large Earth-based Solar Telescope LFSA: List of Frequently Seen Acronyms LGA: Low Gain Antenna LGM: Little Green Men LH: Liquid Hydrogen (also LH2 or LHX) LITVC: Liquid Injection Thrust Vector Control LLNL: Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory LM: Lunar Module (a.k.a. LEM) (Apollo spacecraft) LMC: Large Magellanic Cloud LN2: Liquid N2 (Nitrogen) LOX: Liquid OXygen LPO: La Palma Observatory LPV: Long Period Variable LRB: Liquid Rocket Booster LSR: Local Standard of Rest LTP: Lunar Transient Phenomenon M: Messier (as in M31, M13, M57, etc.) MACRO: Monopoles, Astrophysics, and Cosmic Ray Observatory MB: Manned Base MCC: Mission Control Center MCD: Minimum Cost Design MECO: Main Engine CutOff MGS: Mars Global Surveyor MMH: MonoMethyl Hydrazine MMT: Multiple Mirror Telescope MMU: Manned Maneuvering Unit MNRAS: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society MO: Mars Observer MOC: Mars Observer Camera (on MO and MGS) MOL: Manned Orbiting Laboratory MOLA: Mars Observer Laser Altimeter (on Mars Observer) MOMV: Manned Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle MOTV: Manned Orbital Transfer Vehicle MPC: Minor Planets Circular MPEC: Minor Planets Electronic Circular MPL: Mars Polar Lander MRSR: Mars Rover and Sample Return MRSRM: Mars Rover and Sample Return Mission MSFC: (George C.) Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA) MTC: Man Tended Capability NACA: National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (became NASA) NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASDA: NAtional Space Development Agency (Japan) NASM: National Air and Space Museum NASP: National AeroSpace Plane NBS: National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) NDV: NASP Derived Vehicle NEAR: Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (now named NEAR Shoemaker) NERVA: Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application NGC: New General Catalog NICMOS: Near Infrared Camera / Multi Object Spectrometer (HST upgrade) NIMS: Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (on Galileo) NIR: Near InfraRed NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology (was NBS) NLDP: National Launch Development Program NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAO: National Optical Astronomy Observatories NORAD: NORth American aerospace Defense NRAO: National Radio Astronomy Observatory NRO: National Reconnaissance Office NS: Neutron Star NSA: National Security Agency NSF: National Science Foundation NSO: National Solar Observatory NSSDC: National Space Science Data Center NTR: Nuclear Thermal Rocket(ry) NTT: New Technology Telescope OAO: Orbiting Astronomical Observatory OCST: Office of Commercial Space Transportation OMB: Office of Management and Budget OMS: Orbital Maneuvering System OPF: Orbiter Processing Facility ORFEUS: Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer OSC: Orbital Sciences Corporation OSCAR: Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio OSSA: Office of Space Science and Applications OSSE: Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (on CGRO) OTA: Optical Telescope Assembly (on HST) OTHB: Over The Horizon Backscatter OTV: Orbital Transfer Vehicle OV: Orbital Vehicle PAM: Payload Assist Module PAM-D: Payload Assist Module, Delta-class PDS: Planetary Data System PI: Principal Investigator PLSS: Portable Life Support System PM: Pressurized Module PMC: Permanently Manned Capability PMIRR: Pressure Modulated InfraRed Radiometer (on Mars Observer) PMT: PhotoMultiplier Tube PPM: Positions and Proper Motions (catalog) PSF: Point Spread Function PSR: PulSaR PV: Photovoltaic PVO: Pioneer Venus Orbiter QSO: Quasi-Stellar Object RAS: Royal Astronomical Society RASC: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada RCI: Rodent Cage Interface (for SLS mission) RCS: Radar Cross Section RCS: Reaction Control System REM: Rat Enclosure Module (for SLS mission) RF: Radio Frequency RFI: Radio Frequency Interference RFNA: Red Fuming Nitric Acid RIACS: Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science RMS: Remote Manipulator System RNGC: Revised New General Catalog ROTFL: Rolling On The Floor Laughing ROSAT: ROentgen SATellite ROUS: Rodents Of Unusual Size (I don't believe they exist) RSN: Radio SuperNova RSN: Real Soon Now RTG: Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator RTLS: Return To Launch Site (Shuttle abort plan) SAA: South Atlantic Anomaly SAGA: Solar Array Gain Augmentation (for HST) SAMPEX: Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle EXplorer SAO: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory SAR: Search And Rescue SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar SARA: Satellite pour Astronomie Radio Amateur SAREX: Search and Rescue Exercise SAREX: Space Amateur Radio Experiment SAS: Space Activity Suit SAS: Space Adaptation Syndrome SAT: Synthetic Aperture Telescope S/C: SpaceCraft SCA: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft SCT: Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope SDI: Strategic Defense Initiative SDIO: Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (now BMDO) SEDS: Students for the Exploration and Development of Space SEI: Space Exploration Initiative SEST: Swedish ESO Submillimeter Telescope SETI: Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence SID: Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance SIR: Shuttle Imaging Radar SIRTF: Space (formerly Shuttle) InfraRed Telescope Facility SL: (Comet) Shoemaker-Levy SL: SpaceLab SLAR: Side-Looking Airborne Radar SLC: Space Launch Complex SLS: Space(lab) Life Sciences SMC: Small Magellanic Cloud SME: Solar Mesosphere Explorer SMEX: SMall EXplorers SMM: Solar Maximum Mission SN: SuperNova (e.g., SN1987A) SNR: Signal to Noise Ratio SNR: SuperNova Remnant SNU: Solar Neutrino Units SOFIA: Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy SOHO: SOlar Heliospheric Observatory SPAN: Space Physics and Analysis Network SPDM: Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator SPOT: Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre SPS: Solar Power Satellite SR: Special Relativity SRB: Solid Rocket Booster SRM: Solid Rocket Motor SSF: Space Station Fred (er, Freedom) (Superseded by ISS) SSI: Solid-State Imager (on Galileo) SSI: Space Studies Institut SSME: Space Shuttle Main Engine SSPF: Space Station Processing Facility SSPS: Sky Survey Prototype System SSRMS: Space Station Remote Manipulator System SSRT: Single Stage Rocket Technology SST: Spectroscopic Survey Telescope SST: SuperSonic Transport SSTO: Single Stage To Orbit STIS: Space Telescope Imaging Spectrometer (to replace FOC and GHRS) STS: Shuttle Transport System (or) Space Transportation System STScI: Space Telescope Science Institute STSDAS: Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System SWAS: Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite SWF: ShortWave Fading TAL: Transatlantic Abort Landing (Shuttle abort plan) TAU: Thousand Astronomical Unit (mission) TCS: Thermal Control System TDRS: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite TDRSS: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System TEA: Torque Equilibrium Attitude TES: Thermal Emission Spectrometer (on Mars Observer) TIROS: Television InfraRed Observation Satellite TLA: Three Letter Acronym TOMS: Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer TOPS: Toward Other Planetary Systems TPS: Thermal Protection System TSS: Targeted Search System TSS: Tethered Satellite System TSTO: Two Stage To Orbit (also 2STO) UARS: Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite UBM: Unpressurized Berthing Mechanism UDMH: Unsymmetrical DiMethyl Hydrazine UFO: Unidentified Flying Object UGC: Uppsala General Catalog UHF: Ultra High Frequency UIT: Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (Astro package) UKST: United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope USAF: United States Air Force USMP: United States Microgravity Payload USNO: United States Naval Observatory UT: Universal Time (a.k.a. GMT, or Zulu Time; cf UTC) UTC: Coordinated Universal Time (subtly different from UT) UV: UltraViolet UVS: UltraViolet Spectrometer VAB: Vehicle Assembly Building (formerly Vertical Assembly Building) VAFB: Vandenberg Air Force Base VEEGA: Venus-Earth-Earth Gravity Assist (Galileo flight path) VHF: Very High Frequency VLA: Very Large Array VLBA: Very Long Baseline Array VLBI: Very Long Baseline Interferometry VLF: Very Low Frequency VLT: Very Large Telescope VMS: Vertical Motion Simulator VOIR: Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar (superseded by VRM) VPF: Vertical Processing Facility VRM: Venus Radar Mapper (now called Magellan) VTHL: Vertical Takeoff Horizontal Landing VTVL: Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing WD: White Dwarf WFF: Wallops Flight Facility WFPC: Wide Field / Planetary Camera (on HST) WFPCII: Replacement for WFPC WIYN: Wisconsin / Indiana / Yale / NOAO telescope WR: Western Range (was WTR) WSF: Wake Shield Facility WSMR: White Sands Missile Range WTR: Western Test Range WUPPE: Wisconsin Ultraviolet PhotoPolarimter Experiment (Astro package) XMM: X-ray Multi Mirror XUV: eXtreme UltraViolet YSO: Young Stellar Object Z: Zulu (see UT) --------------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs, Volume 7, Number 47.