MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 17, 7 May 2001. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, 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, the biology of terrestrial extreme environments, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. _____________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) HUMAN EVOLUTION PUNCTUATED BY COSMIC IMPACTS From SpaceDaily 2) GENETICALLY MODIFIED EARTH PLANTS WILL GLOW FROM MARS-- UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SCIENTISTS HOPE TO SEND SMART PLANTS INTO SPACE By Paul Kimpel 3) REFLECTIONS FROM A WARM LITTLE POND By David Pacchioli 4) LPSC 2001: A MARTIAN ODYSSEY By Bruce Moomaw 5) PUBLIC INVITED ON A SPACE ODYSSEY JPL release 6) MARS: A WORLD RIVEN BY H2O OR CO2 By Bruce Moomaw 7) SPACE WEATHER ON MARS By Tony Phillips 8) NASA CONFERENCE TO COMMEMORATE 40 YEARS OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT NASA note N01-28 9) FIRST EXPERIMENTS FROM NASA COMMERCIAL SPACE CENTERS GET STARTED ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NASA/MSFC release 01-158 10) THE PHANTOM TORSO By Karen Miller 11) UNPUZZLING PROTEINS By Leslie Mullen 12) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 13) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 14) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 15) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ HUMAN EVOLUTION PUNCTUATED BY COSMIC IMPACTS From SpaceDaily 24 April 2001 The theory of gradual and uninterrupted human evolution has been called into question after two researchers found that human evolution has been repeatedly punctuated by large-scale cosmic catastrophes. One of the biggest problems that has puzzled researchers for generations is the question why almost all hominids, i.e. the 14 known species of human ancestors, have become extinct during the last 5 million years. ...In recent years, however, researchers have become aware that the fossil record does not show gradual but rather abrupt change. Neither the causes for the sudden gaps in the fossil record nor the underlying dynamics of hominid extinctions have been determined yet. Dr. Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University and Michael Paine, an impact researcher from the Planetary Society in Australia, have come up with new findings that may help to solve this puzzle. Peiser and Paine have calculated that the most likely cause of hominid extinctions may be associated with the more than 20 globally devastating catastrophes that occurred over the last 5 million years. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid- 01e.html. _____________________________________________________________________ GENETICALLY MODIFIED EARTH PLANTS WILL GLOW FROM MARS--UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SCIENTISTS HOPE TO SEND SMART PLANTS INTO SPACE By Paul Kimpel 26 April 2001 In what reads like a story from a 1950s science fiction magazine, a team of University of Florida scientists has genetically modified a tiny plant to send reports back from Mars in a most unworldly way: by emitting an eerie, fluorescent glow. If all goes as planned, 10 varieties of the plant could be on their way to the Red Planet as part of a $300 million mission scheduled for 2007. The plant experiment, which is funded by $290,000 from NASA's Human Exploration and Development in Space program, may be a first step toward making Mars habitable for humans, said Rob Ferl, assistant director of the Biotechnology Program at UF. Ferl and a team of molecular biologists chose as their subject the Arabidopsis mustard plant. They picked it, Ferl said, because of three attributes that make it ideally suited for the Mars mission: Its maximum height is 8 inches, its life cycle is only one month and its entire genome has been mapped. Moreover, in December 2000 it became the first plant to have its genetic sequence completed. To create the glow, the team will insert "reporter genes" into varieties of the plant, which will express themselves by emitting a green glow under adverse conditions on Mars. Each reporter gene will react to an environmental stressor such as drought, disease or temperature. For example, one version will glow an incandescent green if it detects an excess of heavy metals in the Martian soil; another will turn blue in the presence of peroxides. In fact, one of the reporter genes itself is somewhat otherwordly, having come from the depths of the ocean. "What makes the plants glow blue is a protein derived from an incandescent jellyfish whose DNA is spliced into the mustard plant," Ferl said. "The implanted DNA then synthesizes the iridescent blue protein in the plant, which expresses itself under stress." Ferl's team, in collaboration with Andrew Schuerger, a manager of Mars projects at the Kennedy Space Center-based Dynamac Corp., is competing with other biologists to receive the NASA contract for the Mars trip. But both men, who also are professors at UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, have worked with NASA before. In 1999, Ferl sent 40 reporter-gene plants into orbit aboard the space shuttle. On that flight, gravity had an adverse effect on the plants' ability to utilize water, a condition called "space adaptation syndrome." The scientists are using that experience to engineer smarter plants. "Just like humans, plants must learn how to adapt to a new environment," Ferl said. "We are using genetics to create plants that have the ability to give us data we can use to help them survive." The 2 1/2-year Mars mission--nine months traveling 286 million miles each way and one year stationed on the planet--would work like this. The seeds of the plant would make the trip aboard a spacecraft similar to NASA's Mars Odyssey, which was launched April 7. Upon arrival, the landing vehicle's robot would scoop up a portion of Martian soil, and the scientists will analyze it using the robot and a specialized camera. After modifying the soil with fertilizers, buffers and nutrients, the scientists will germinate the seeds and grow the plants in a miniature greenhouse on the landing vehicle. Despite working with alien soil they know little about, the biologists are optimistic about the experiment. "I'm confident we can grow plants if we know the pH levels and the oxidizing agents in the Martian soil," Schuerger said. "We'll test the soil before planting, and then we can raise or lower pH, flush excess salts and add nutrients as needed." As for long-term plans, Ferl and Schuerger have worked together on a concept called "terraforming" or "ecosynthesis," which would use plants to reduce the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere and produce oxygen for life processes. Although the plants are genetically engineered to detect--and then adapt to--certain environmental stressors, terraforming presents additional obstacles. Schuerger said that on Mars, daily temperatures range from a high of 45 degrees Fahrenheit at noon to a low of minus 170 degrees at night. Also, the planet's moisture content is 0.3 percent, which is extremely low. But Ferl, Schuerger and the rest of the team are taking all bettors. "I have no doubt that we can get plants to survive on Mars," Ferl said. "When we do, we will have shown that Earth-evolved life is capable of thriving in distant worlds, and we will have set the stage for human colonization." [Image--http://news.ifas.ufl.edu/print/2001/planetaryplants.html] Rob Ferl, molecular biologist with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, examines various strains of genetically engineered mustard plants, Wednesday, April 25th. The tiny plants, which may be sent on a NASA mission to Mars in the near future, can provide scientists with information about soil conditions on the Red Planet. Plants in distress will emit a fluorescent glow. (Photo credit: Eric Zamora, University of Florida/IFAS). Contacts: Paul Kimpel, (352) 392-1773, pakimpel@mail.ifas.ufl.edu Rob Ferl, (352) 392-1928, ext. 301, robferl@ufl.edu Andrew Schuerger, (321) 476-4261, schueac@kscems.ksc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ REFLECTIONS FROM A WARM LITTLE POND By David Pacchioli, Pennsylvania State University From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 28 April 2001 Back in 1953, Jim Kasting said, scientists thought they had the origin of life figured out. Chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey at the University of Chicago had simulated that crucial instant around 3.9 billion years ago when a batch of simple inorganic molecules, zapped by a bolt of lightning (or maybe just the sun's warmth during a break in the clouds), fell together to form the prototypes for the complex organic compounds that life is made from. Now that was a moment. Remember it on Star Trek? The muddy puddle of ooze on the edge of Nowheresville? The awful humidity? The onset of bubbling? Before, everything was dead as Play-doh. After came a chain of eye-popping events that just keeps unfolding, across the eons, into alligators and astronauts, puppies and banana figs, mosquitos and lichens and particles of ebola virus... In their lab, Miller and Urey shot flashes of lightning, in the form of cascades of sparks, through a flask containing an "ocean" of liquid water and an "atmosphere" of strongly reduced (that is, hydrogen-rich) gases - methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water vapor. After a couple of days, they tested what was left. "They had formed all sorts of compounds," Kasting said, "including large quantities of amino acids," the molecules that join to form proteins. This simple experiment seemed to corroborate a vision Darwin (and not Gene Roddenberry) had described a hundred years earlier, of life emerging "in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, etc., present." But the Miller-Urey experiment, important as it was, had a flaw. Urey had based his primitive-Earth atmosphere on astronomical data just then coming in, the first spectra from the giant planets in our Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These characteristic bands of color showed that the giants were swathed in atmospheres rich in methane and ammonia, thought to be left over from the planets' formation. At the time, people thought all of the planets had once shared a "primordial" atmosphere, the result of their common birth. Because of their stronger gravity, the giants were believed to have retained this early atmosphere, while the atmospheres of Earth and the other, smaller planets had lost some of their lighter gases, hydrogen among them, to space. Thus, Urey reasoned, an early Earth atmosphere, before its hydrogen had escaped and the life-driven process of photosynthesis had boosted its oxygen, would have been a lot like a present-day giant's. Shortly after the Miller-Urey experiment was published, however, geologists came up with new findings on Earth's volcanic emissions-- and threw the old reasoning for a loop. "What comes out of volcanoes is not methane and ammonia," Kasting said, "but about 80 percent water vapor, 15 to 20 percent carbon dioxide, and traces of carbon monoxide and molecular hydrogen." James C. G. Walker, one of Kasting's graduate advisers at the University of Michigan during the 1970s, took these emissions data and balanced them against the rate at which hydrogen would be expected to escape from a planet with Earth's gravity. ("He did all this stuff on the back of an envelope," Kasting said.) What Walker came up with was a much different picture of Earth's early atmosphere: an oxygen-rich mix of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor. The catch is that oxygen, although an absolute necessity for multicellular, advanced life, is poison to pre-biotic synthesis. Do a Miller-Urey experiment in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, Kasting said, and "you don't form things like amino acids. There are too many oxygen atoms in there." So, over the years, "enthusiasm for the warm little pond theory has waned." Two competing theories have emerged instead. The discovery of microbes and other small organisms living in and around hydrothermal vents--underwater hot springs boiling from the ocean floor--has led to the idea that life may have started at the bottom of the sea. Sharp differences in temperature and oxygen concentration at the boundaries around these vents make good catalysts for chemical reactions, Kasting said. "The problem with this theory is that the complex organic compounds likely to form life cannot remain stable for long at such high temperatures." Amino acids, instead of joining up, would tend to break down. The other scenario has life first coalescing in the frigid climes of outer space--specifically, within the cold dark hearts of interstellar dust clouds. "Long, complex organic molecules can be made when ionizing radiation leads to ion-molecule reactions," Kasting explained. "The intense cold prevents them from breaking down." In this so-called "seeding from space" model, these complex molecules are brought to Earth by incoming meteorites and comets. The weak link here is that most of a meteor is vaporized on impact with our atmosphere. "The survival potential for organisms is low. They get pyrolized: Burned to a crisp." Kasting, for his part, is not ready to give up on the warm little pond. Using computer models of light-triggered atmospheric processes, he is working to reconcile Darwin's vision with the constraints imposed by a relatively oxygen-rich atmosphere. "My idea," Kasting said, "is that this atmosphere did contain some methane: just enough to allow for the formation of hydrogen-cyanide molecules, one of the key starting materials for making both amino and nucleic acids. Ten to 100 parts per million would be enough." Present-day life, he explained, requires three types of molecules: DNA, to store the genetic information that allows cells to replicate; RNA, which transfers that genetic information from the nucleus to the rest of the cell; and the proteins that catalyze these reactions. "It's a very complicated system." Yet in 1989, molecular biologists Thomas Cech of the University of Colorado and Sidney Altman of Yale shared a Nobel prize for showing that under some circumstances RNA can replicate on its own. Not only that, but it can store genetic information. RNA, in other words, can do it all. "Early life is now believed to have passed through a stage in which only RNA was present," Kasting said: the so-called "RNA world." All you need for life, besides those crucial amino acids, are the ingredients for RNA: ribose, a sugar; phosphate, a salt; and the four bases - adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil (the last replaces the thymine in DNA). The question is, can you get these molecules in an atmosphere where significant oxygen is present? The answer, Kasting said, is yes--assuming there's a little bit of methane around. Ribose, Kasting explained, "is simply five molecules of formaldehyde strung together," and formaldehyde is easy to make where there is carbon dioxide and light. Phosphate occurs routinely with the weathering of rocks. And all four bases, A, C, G, and U, can be synthesized from hydrogen cyanide, for which you need that sprinkling of methane. "So the key to making Darwin's little pond," Kasting said, "is to figure out if there was a good source for methane in the early atmosphere." That source, he suggests, is under the sea, in the volcanic activity that fires up those super-hot hydrothermal vents. Currently, the carbon released from the vents run about 99 percent carbon dioxide, he said, and about one percent methane, a slightly different mix than what comes from volcanoes on land. "And there are good geochemical reasons to believe that the Earth's mantle 3.9 billion years ago was much more strongly reduced than it is today, which means the methane component of these emissions would have been that much higher." Plenty high enough to allow for the formation of organic molecules. That's not to say this is the way life sparked into being, Kasting quickly added. But it's a plausible scenario. And if it did happen that way here, what's to stop the same process from repeating itself, around the universe, wherever conditions happen to be the same? Produced by the Office of Research Publications at Penn State with funding from the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center; the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium; the Education Office of the NASA Astrobiology Institute; Pfizer Inc.; and the Eberly College of Science. More information on this article is available at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?page=warm_pond. _____________________________________________________________________ LPSC 2001: A MARTIAN ODYSSEY By Bruce Moomaw From SpaceDaily 1 May 2001 The 32nd Annual Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference--held in Houston from March 12 through 16--like all the LPSCs before it, was a major scientific powwow at which scientists from the world over presented hundreds of papers and posters on the geology, meteorology and chemistry of the other worlds and objects in our Solar System, from giant planets down to meteorites. ...As to be expected a major theme of this year's LPSC was the ongoing debate as to just how much liquid water Mars had on or near its surface during its earliest days, and how much it has now. The relevance of this to the question of whether ancient Mars had microbial life--and even whether Mars may still have some, buried deep beneath its savagely hostile present-day surface--is obvious. And the debate is still as furious as ever. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunarplanet- 2001-01a1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ PUBLIC INVITED ON A SPACE ODYSSEY JPL release 1 May 2001 Once a year, thousands of people from around the country get a chance to go behind the scenes at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA's lead center for robotic space exploration. JPL's annual open house, held on Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and May 20, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, will take visitors on an adventure with this year's theme, "JPL 2001: A Space Odyssey." This free, fun-filled, family event has a little of everything for space enthusiasts, from virtual flying lessons to building your own spacecraft and having your picture taken in infrared light. For non- space buffs, it offers the chance to see inside a NASA center and discover more about some of the latest technological advancements. Everyone will have the chance to meet with scientists and engineers who will staff booths to answer questions about current and future missions. Structured around the themes of technology, Earth, Mars, solar system, and stars and galaxies, visitors will see and learn more about how missions come together. See for the last time at JPL the full-size Galileo spacecraft model and learn about active volcanoes on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. Watch 15 student-built robots compete, or see an android head and robotic arm come to life. Learn about the devices scientists use to explore our planet, from the ground below to the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere. Or follow the water to the Mars Yard--a simulated Martian surface for test- driving robotic rovers destined for Mars. JPL is located at 4800 Oak Grove Drive in Pasadena, off the 210 (Foothill) Freeway at the Berkshire Avenue/Oak Grove Drive exit. Parking is free and available near the Oak Grove main gate and on the eastern boundary of JPL, accessible from Windsor Avenue via the Arroyo Boulevard exit off the 210 Freeway. Trams will run non-stop between all lots and JPL's main gate. Air-conditioned buses with tour guides will move people to and from different locations around the facility. JPL will feature a live webcast on Saturday, May 19 from 11:00 AM to noon, PDT, accessible at ww.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/openhouse. More information, pictures, maps and directions are available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/openhouse/index.html, or call (818) 354-0112. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. Contact: Carolina Martinez, 818-354-9382 ____________________________________________________________________________________ MARS: A WORLD RIVEN BY H2O OR CO2 By Bruce Moomaw From SpaceDaily 1 May 2001 There are now so many puzzles and contradictions in the most popular interpretation of a watery Martian history that a radical new alternative--proposed by Nick Hoffman of Latrobe University in Australia--is starting to catch on among a growing number of planetary geologists over the last few years (although it's still clearly a minority viewpoint). This is the "White Mars" model, which totally rejects the view of early Mars as a relatively warm and friendly place for microbial life. In Hoffman's view, early-day Mars --most of the time--was even more savagely hostile than modern Mars, simply because it was even colder and more airless. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunarplanet- 2001-01a4.html. _____________________________________________________________________ SPACE WEATHER ON MARS By Tony Phillips From NASA Science News 1 May 2001 Future human explorers of Mars can leave their umbrellas back on Earth, but perhaps they shouldn't forget their Geiger counters! A NASA experiment en route to the Red Planet aims to find out. Alien planets have alien weather. Take Mars, for example. A morning weather report on the Red Planet might sound like this. "Good morning, Martians! It looks like another solar storm heading our way. An X-class solar flare exploded this morning and proton counts have soared 1000-fold. More of the deadly particles are en route, so don't leave shelter today without your radiation suit!" "Coming up next, the sunspot report, right after this word from our sponsor: Levi's Relaxed Fit Lead Pants." It doesn't sound much like the forecasts we hear on Earth, which feature rain and the daily pollen count. On Mars--a world that's desert-dry, Antarctic-cold, and possibly lifeless--human colonists will have a different set of weather concerns. The Red Planet is substantially exposed to the harshest elements of space weather. Unlike Earth, which sits inside a protective magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere, Mars does not have a global magnetic field to shield it from solar flares and cosmic rays. Scientists aren't sure why, but Mars' internal magnetic dynamo turned off about 4 billion years ago. After that, the solar wind gradually eroded the Martian atmosphere until, today, it is less than 1% as thick as Earth's. No global magnetic field and a very thin atmosphere--those are the two factors that render Mars vulnerable to space radiation. Does such exposure mean Mars is lifeless? Not necessarily, say scientists. Indigenous life forms could be radiation resistant, like the terrestrial microbe Deinococcus radiodurans. Tiny Martians might also live in rocks or soil, substances that provide natural protection against radiation. Nor is Mars necessarily uninhabitable for humans. If we learn how to shelter ourselves from the planet's unique brand of weather, humans can explore and perhaps even live on Mars. That's why NASA is sending a radiation monitor to the Red Planet--to find out how much protection we humans might require. MARIE, the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment, blasted off April 7th with the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. MARIE is one of three scientific instruments on board--the other two will search for signs of water and interesting minerals on Mars. If all goes as planned, MARIE (along with the rest of Odyssey) will arrive in October and spend at least two years circling the Red Planet. "MARIE can detect charged particles--electrons, protons, and atomic nuclei--with energies between 15 MeV and 500 MeV," says Gautam Badhwar, the experiment's principal investigator at the Johnson Space Center. "There have never been any measurements of this kind from Mars orbit," he added. (1 MeV equals one million electron volts.) Space radiation can be electromagnetic, like x-rays and gamma-rays, or particulate, like protons and electrons. Particulate radiation poses the greater threat to humans. Most charged particles in our solar system come from two sources: solar flares, which produce a rain of dangerous protons, and distant supernova explosions, which accelerate atomic nuclei--called "cosmic rays"--to nearly light speed. "Both can be hazardous, but from the standpoint of crew health, solar flares are the greater concern," says Badhwar. Solar flares produce particles with relatively low energies (~70 MeV). "Such protons lose energy in tissue at a much higher rate than faster-moving particles like cosmic rays," he added. Cosmic ray nuclei, carrying typically 300 to 500 MeV per nucleon, zip through the human body so quickly there's not enough time to dump their energy into the surrounding tissue. Solar protons passing through humans ionize molecules along their tracks. "The ionization creates free radicals," explains Badhwar, "which can be very damaging." Sometimes protons will modify or even break DNA strands within cells. If the cell survives it can become cancerous-- a long-term health risk of radiation exposure. Mars' thin atmosphere does little to protect the planet from energetic protons. The air density at Martian "sea level" is roughly equivalent to that of Earth's atmosphere at 70,000 feet altitude! Fortunately, astronauts can find the protection they need indoors; shelter walls made of lightweight materials provide adequate shielding. But future explorers won't want to spend all their time inside shelters. They'll need to know how to handle radiation levels outdoors in the "Martian wilderness"--an environment MARIE will probe from Mars orbit. Although MARIE won't reach Mars for another six months, the instrument is already hard at work. "We turned it on last week," says Badhwar. "All the engineering data look good." By monitoring radiation levels during Odyssey's cruise phase, Badhwar and colleagues will discover what sorts of hazards await travelers in transit from Earth to Mars. Radiation hazards... tissue damage... broken DNA. Space sounds like a dangerous place! Nevertheless, MARIE is an optimistic experiment. Its underlying assumption is that humans will eventually cross the divide between our planet and Mars. Thanks to MARIE and future experiments like it, Mars explorers will know how to survive and prosper when they get there. More information on this article is available at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01may_1.htm. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA CONFERENCE TO COMMEMORATE 40 YEARS OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT NASA note N01-28 1 May 2001 Forty years ago Alan Shepard's 15-minute flight ushered in a new era for Americans, one in which they came to view themselves, the Earth and the Universe in fresh, new ways. On Tuesday, May 8, 2001, NASA, in collaboration with the Space Policy Institute at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, will sponsor a one-day symposium to commemorate the 40th anniversary of human space flight. The conference, "Looking Backward, Looking Forward," will reflect on the significance of human space flight to American society over the past forty years and its likely role over the next four decades and beyond. Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, will provide opening remarks. Speakers will include current and former astronauts, authors, historians and academics studying various aspects of human space flight. The program is available at http://history.nasa.gov/40hsconf.pdf. The symposium will be held in the university's Dorothy Betts Marvin Theater at 800 21ST St., NW, Washington, DC. The theater is between H and I ("Eye") Streets near the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro station and is handicapped accessible. The proceedings will be broadcast on NASA Television, available on satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz and audio of 6.8 MHz. Attendance is free of charge, but seating is limited. Members of the public should contact the Space Policy Institute at spi@gwu.edu to reserve a place. Media representatives should contact Eric Solomon in the university's Media Relations Office on 202-994-3087 to confirm attendance. The American Astronautical Society and the National Space Society also provided support for the conference. Contact: Sarah Keegan Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1902 _____________________________________________________________________ FIRST EXPERIMENTS FROM NASA COMMERCIAL SPACE CENTERS GET STARTED ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NASA/MSFC release 01-158 3 May 2001 Three new commercial experiments are getting started on the International Space Station, marking a major milestone for NASA's Commercial Space Centers--17 centers across the United States that help industry conduct space experiments. The experiments were launched into orbit on April 19 on the Space Shuttle Endeavor on the STS-100 mission, Space Station Flight 6A. The Space Station Expedition Two crew is setting up the three commercial payloads and beginning experiments. These experiments will remain on board the Station until the end of Expedition Two, at the end of July, when the Space Shuttle Discovery will return them to Earth. The three experiments slated for Space Station Expedition Two explore areas of the fast-growing fields of biotechnology and agriculture. One experiment is growing plants aboard the Space Station. Another examines why antibiotic production by microbes is enhanced in microgravity. A third is testing a new piece of equipment for crystallizing more than 1,000 biological samples. NASA's commercial partners have been busy preparing for the flight. During the mission, some of them will work in new remote control centers set up with NASA's help. From these ground control centers, students, teachers and industry partners will be able to communicate with the crew and send commands to their experiments on the Space Station--233 miles above Earth. Investigators at these telescience centers can talk with the crew and send experiment commands through NASA's Payload Operations Center at the Marshall Center. "Industry investment in space remains high," said Mark Nall, manager of NASA's Space Product Development Program at the Marshall Center. "We assist companies developing experiments and help them explore how space research can contribute to the growth of their businesses." Industry funds the research, pays for a portion of launch costs, and brings resulting products or services to market. Because a company pays for the research, it has the opportunity to commercialize products that may be developed as a result of the research. Bristol-Myers Squibb--a New York-based international pharmaceutical company--is sponsoring the antibiotic experiments being conducted in the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA) during Expedition Two. These experiments study the effects of microgravity --the near weightless environment inside an orbiting spacecraft--on bacterial growth processes used to produce medicines. The company has flown experiments aboard three Space Shuttle flights. Initial study results indicate that space flight has a stimulating effect on microbial antibiotic production, with increases in specific productivity of up to about 200 percent compared to ground control samples. "Our collaboration with NASA not only puts our researchers in the forefront of science, but also gives us the opportunity of being first in our field to develop major new technologies and products," said Ray Lam, senior principal scientist of the natural products department at Bristol-Myers Squibb's research facility in Wallingford, CT--part of the company's pharmaceutical research institute. Based on these successful, preliminary results, the company recently funded a research program on the International Space Station. Space Station flights are much longer than Shuttle flights, allowing the company to determine if these stimulating effects continue over time as exposure to space is increased from under two weeks to more than two months. Information gained from the space research could be used to enhance research that increases the efficiency of drug production in ground-based facilities. To fly the experiment in space, Bristol-Myers Squibb works with one of NASA's Commercial Space Centers--BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado in Boulder. BioServe built the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, which has been flown on several Shuttle missions. BioServe set up and opened a remote ground control site for monitoring experiments and collecting data at the University of Colorado. NASA has helped establish Commercial Space Centers, like BioServe, with specialized areas of technical expertise. These centers are located across the United States. Eleven are managed by the Space Product Development Program, are jointly funded by NASA, industry and academia, and must meet stringent review requirements for commercial space flight research. Most of the centers are located on university campuses and work closely with other academic and government research institutions. The centers have agreements with almost 200 firms, including Bristol- Myers Squibb, ALCOA, Amgen, DuPont, Eli Lily and Company, Space Explorers Inc., Monsanto Company and Polaroid. Another experiment being delivered to the Space Station this month-- the Advanced Astroculture™--will allow companies interested in agriculture and agribusiness to conduct long-term plant research. Starting with Space Station Expedition Two, industry will be able to grow plants in space over an entire life cycle--from seeds to plants to seeds. For the Expedition Two experiment, scientists will grow Arabidopsis, a member of the Brassica plant family that includes cabbage and radishes. The Space Station provides an ideal laboratory for growing plants and studying the influence gravity has played as plants evolved on Earth. This is particularly important for studying the way a plant's traits, such as disease resistance and nutrition, are determined genetically. Space Explorers Inc., of De Pere, WI, is the commercial partner for this experiment. The company will use data from the experiment to develop the commercial curricula called Orbital Laboratory. This Internet-based multimedia software program allows students to design, conduct and analyze a Space Station experiment. The Advanced Astroculture™ was built by the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR), a NASA Commercial Space Center located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It will be monitored and operated by WCSAR staff working at a remote ground center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Astroculture™ plant growth chamber, a precursor to the Advanced Astroculture™, has flown on six Space Shuttle missions and on a long-duration Shuttle/Mir mission, growing plants such as wheat, mustard and potatoes. The third Expedition Two commercial experiment is the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth--High Density experiment sponsored by the Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This new Space Station experiment holds 1,008 samples, while previous Shuttle hardware contained only 128 samples. The ability to carry more samples is crucial to investigating the conditions that encourage these biological solutions to form crystals. If the crystals form in an orderly fashion, their structure can be analyzed on Earth. By determining the structure of these biological substances, scientists can learn how they work in humans, animals, and plants, including what roles they play in diseases. The Space Station provides a platform for growing crystals that are difficult to grow on Earth and require longer periods of microgravity than have been available on shorter Shuttle missions. NASA has manifested more commercial experiments for upcoming Space Station expeditions. To learn more about these experiments and for a complete list of NASA's Commercial Space Center Web sites, visit http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/background/facts/SPDinfo.htm On the Web * Space Station fact sheets http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/factchron.html * Space Product Development of Space http://www.spd.nasa.gov/ * Commercial Development of Space http://commercial.nasa.gov/ Images supporting this release are available at http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/photos/2001/photos01-158.htm. Contact: Steve Roy Media Relations Department Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL Phone: 256-544-0034 E-mail: steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ THE PHANTOM TORSO By Karen Miller From NASA Science News 4 May 2001 Fred has no arms. He has no legs. His job is keeping astronauts safe. Fred is the Phantom Torso, an approximately 95-pound, 3-foot- high mockup of a human upper body. Beneath Fred's artificial skin are real bones. Fred's organs--the heart, brain, thyroid, colon and so on--are made of a special plastic that matches as closely as possible the density of human tissue. Fred, who's spending the next four months on board the International Space Station (ISS), will measure the amount of radiation to which astronauts are exposed. High-energy particles that pass through the human body can disrupt the way cells function. Although no astronaut has ever been diagnosed with space radiation sickness, excessive exposure could lead to health problems. "We believe the current dose [of radiation to the crew of the ISS] is too small to be of concern," says Dr. Gautam Badhwar, the study's principal investigator at the Johnson Space Center. "The one possibility for radiation sickness might be an EVA situation during a solar event, if perhaps a crew member couldn't be brought back inside safely." But there's still lots to learn, he added, and that's where Fred can help. The Phantom Torso is designed to do three things, explains Badhwar. First, it will determine the distribution of radiation doses inside the human body at various tissues and organs. Second, it will provide a way to correlate these doses to measurements made on the skin. "In the past we've typically recorded doses only on the skin," explains Badhwar, "whereas the risk to crew members is established by exposure to internal organs.” Finally, the Phantom will help check the accuracy of models that predict how radiation moves through the body. Three types of radiation can endanger astronauts in space. The most energetic are Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs)--the nuclei of atoms accelerated by supernova explosions outside our solar system. Cosmic ray nuclei can be as light as hydrogen, as heavy as iron, or almost anything in between. Because they lack their surrounding coat of negatively-charged electrons, GCRs are positively charged. The heavier nuclei carry the greatest charge, explains Badhwar. "As the charge increases, the amount of energy that the particle can deposit in tissue increases as well." The other forms of particulate radiation consist mostly of protons. Most high-energy protons in the solar system come from the Sun. Although their charge is not great and they are less energetic than GCRs, solar protons can still be dangerous when they come in intense bursts known as solar flares. The third kind of radiation, which surrounds Earth in areas known as Van Allen belts, consist mostly of decayed products from galactic cosmic ray interactions that have been trapped by Earth's magnetic field. Some of this trapped radiation is confined to a region above the coast of Brazil, known as the South Atlantic Anomaly. "The Space Station goes through that Anomaly roughly five times a day," says Badhwar. The passage takes, at most, 22 or 23 minutes. That's good, he says. "If you go through the trapped radiation belt in less than twenty minutes or so, then for the next seventy minutes the body has time to do some repair to the damage done by the radiation.” The radiation from solar flares can actually do more harm, he says, simply because it comes at a rate that doesn't give the body time to recover. In order to measure space radiation as it propagates through Fred's body, Badhwar and his team have sliced Fred horizontally into 35 one- inch layers. In each section they've made holes for radiation detectors called dosimeters. The torso carries 416 lithium-crystal based passive dosimeters, which simply record the total radiation dose received throughout the mission. Fred is also equipped with 5 active detectors. These, placed at the Phantom's brain, thyroid, heart, colon, and stomach, can track the times that the radiation exposures took place. "With the active detectors, we can correlate the time the radiation was received with the position of the spacecraft," explains Badhwar. "We can separate out quite reliably when we were in the Anomaly and when we were in the Galactic Cosmic Ray region.” This kind of split makes radiation models derived from such data applicable to interplanetary missions, too. To assess astronaut exposure on a trip to Mars, for example, "we'll just switch off the Van Allen Belt particles,” says Badhwar. Radiation models devised by Badhwar and colleagues will be able to estimate how much radiation reaches an astronaut's internal organs simply by looking at the dose on his or her skin. That's important, because while the permissible radiation limits are based on internal exposures, practically speaking, all that can be measured is what occurs on the skin. Such models are also scalable. Rather than giving a blanket risk assessment for all crewmembers, they can be customized to each individual in terms of height, weight, and even personal histories: how the astronaut flies an aircraft, or what medical tests he or she might have taken. All this contributes, says Badhwar, to total radiation exposure. Even our internal bacteria rate a careful look. If a crewmember gets too much radiation, it could kill the digestive bacteria essential for breaking down food. Space station crewmembers will be sending data from the Phantom's five active dosimeters back to Earth about every ten days. When the device returns to Earth next fall, Badhwar and his team will be able to examine results from Fred's passive detectors as well. "The thing that we're really going after is to get as good a handle as we can on what the organ exposures really are.” he says. The goal is to make sure that the crew is exposed to the least amount of radiation possible. More information on this article is available at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast04may_1.htm?list52260. _____________________________________________________________________ UNPUZZLING PROTEINS By Leslie Mullen From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 4 May 2001 Thanks to a new supercomputer, scientists may be a step closer to understanding one of nature's more difficult puzzles. Scientists at NASA Ames Research Center are using the SGI 512-processor Origin 3000, the most powerful parallel supercomputer of its kind, to try to determine the structure of proteins. Proteins play a fundamental role in living cells, acting as catalysts for all chemical reactions. Proteins also act as a kind of "nervous system" for a cell, transmitting signals from the outside environment. They assist in transporting nutrients into the cell, and also help convert that food into energy. The function of a particular protein is determined by its shape. A protein consists of a rigid backbone of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen atoms. Loosely attached to this backbone are chains of amino acids (the link between each amino acid is called a peptide bond). [This isn't quite correct. The backbone of C, N and O is due to the linked amino acids themselves. Amino acids are not attached to a separate structure. DJT] This chainlike molecule, which may contain from 50 to several hundred amino acids, is called a polypeptide. Some proteins only consist of one polypeptide chain, while others consist of several chains held together by weak molecular bonds. These chains of amino acids determine the shape of the protein. "Starting with information about the amino acid sequence, it should be possible, using computational methods, to discover the structure of a protein from the sequence alone," says Andrew Pohorille, a scientist at the Ames Research Center. But scientists have found it very difficult to determine the structure of a protein even when they know the sequence of its amino acids, because each amino acid can have five possible different orientations. Because proteins contain at least 50 amino acids, even the shortest proteins can have amino acids arranged in thousands of different possible combinations. Chains of amino acids loop about each other in a variety of ways, folding into a distinctive shape. How they fold into each other determines both the structure and function of the protein. The difficulty in determining the structure of a protein from its constituent amino acids is known as "the protein-folding problem." Pohorille says there are a variety of computational methods that try to address the protein-folding problem. The most direct method tries to determine the series of small steps that led to the protein being folded into a certain shape. This method is extremely time- consuming, however, because there are approximately a thousand trillion steps. A computer capable of calculating one million of these steps per second would have to work round-the-clock for 32 years to complete this task. The largest computer simulations performed so far have extended to only a trillion steps. "We hope that by a combination of new, powerful computers, efficient parallel programming and novel algorithms, we will be able to achieve our goal," says Pohorille. "The techniques of 3D visualization and structure manipulation that are being developed by Chris Henze and his group should greatly aid our efforts." "What used to take a year to calculate on a single processor might be done in less than a day on a 512-processor machine," says Henze, another scientist at Ames who is working on the simulations of protein formation with Pohorille. "Nevertheless, with current supercomputer power it'll take months or years of calculations to simulate how even a small protein molecule folds into a certain shape." This research is a part of a broader project funded by NASA's Astrobiology Institute to build laboratory models of protocells (ancestors of the first cells) through a combination of experimental and computational studies. The proteins in modern cells are much more complicated than they would have been in the primitive protocells. Since protocells do not exist today, the only way to understand how they might have worked is to reconstruct them in a laboratory. "One of the goals of astrobiology is to understand the origin of life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe," says Pohorille. "Undoubtedly, proteins played an important role in this process. So far, attempts to construct simple, but still functional proteins have been largely unsuccessful. We want to design such proteins." What next? Pohorille and his team are collaborating with the Harvard Medical School on a new experimental technique to create proteins. Pohorille says the Harvard researchers have developed small proteins that perform certain desired functions. The research results will be published in an upcoming issue of Nature. "However, the structure of this new protein remains unknown," says Pohorille. "We want to be able to fold this protein and other, similar proteins that will be evolved soon." Pohorille is also working on a project that involves modeling a small protein. This protein is capable of inserting itself into the cell membrane and forming channels that transport protons into the cell. Such proton transport is an essential step in converting energy to drive the cell's chemistry. "We already gained some understanding how this protein works--it was a subject of a short article in New Scientist last year," says Pohorille. "However, to make it useful for protocells, the protein needs to be somewhat redesigned. The new computer should make it possible." More information on this article is available at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?page=proteins. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 7 May 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html B. Moomaw, 2001. LPSC 2001: a Martian odyssey. SpaceDaily. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html K. Miller, 2001. The phantom torso. NASA Science News. A. A. Potapov, 2001. Chronicles Of Martian exploration. SpaceDaily. T. Phillips, 2001. Space weather on Mars. NASA Science News. Articles about evolutionary biology and chemistry http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html SpaceDaily, 2001. Human evolution punctuated by cosmic impacts. SpaceDaily. Astrobiology and extreme environments book list http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology_b ooks.html E. J. Chaisson, 2001. Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. D. Darling, 2001. Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology. Basic Books, New York. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 26 April - 2 May 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday May 2. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the spacecraft's position and speed can be viewed on the "Present Position" web page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/. This week marked the end of the Jupiter Science subphase and the beginning of the Quiet Cruise subphase, which will continue to the end of C32 in July 2002. Recent spacecraft activities included the uplink and start of the C26 sequence, automatic repair of the Solid State Recorders (SSRs), two Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver (HFR) calibrations, a high water mark clear, and a Reaction Wheel Assembly unload. Instrument Expandable Blocks for Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS), Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), and RPWS were uploaded to the spacecraft, and a test of the RPWS trigger was performed. Additional instrument activities include power-on of the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) followed by a boresight alignment, and a pattern calibration of the High Gain Antenna (HGA). Personnel from System Engineering (SE), Instrument Operations (IO), Spacecraft Office (SCO), Uplink Operations (ULO), Mission Support & Services Office (MSSO), and Deep Space Mission System (DSMS) supported an RSS System Assessment Meeting in preparation for the Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE) system test. The GWE system test began later in the week, starting with transmission of two commands to cycle the Ka-band Translator (KaT) power. The GWE system test will continue into next week, and is intended to begin characterization of the newly-built Radio Science instrument and to produce real data products for the GWE investigators that will allow them to create and refine their analysis processes. Operations training sessions in support of Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) personnel from the Max Planck Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany, and other Project personnel concluded this week with presentations by various Cassini Teams. Presentations included a Spacecraft, Planet, Instruments, C-matrix, and Events kernels (SPICE) tutorial by the Cassini SPICE Development Team and a demonstration and hands-on session with the Science Opportunity Analyzer tool being developed by Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD). The ground system development team held a review of development schedules to ensure understanding of priorities and drivers and alignment of schedule dates for GWE, Space Science, Approach Science and Tour. The Mission Planning team reviewed the high-level timeline of events for late cruise and early Tour in the Mission Planning Forum, with specific attention on events required for readiness for Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI), Probe Relay, and the Titan-3 flyby. Additionally, Mission Planning personnel completed element-specific reviews of Mission Plan Guidelines & Constraints and presented Mission Planning Roles & Responsibilities at the Cassini Design Team meeting in a "Question & Answer" format. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. _____________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 6 May 2001 The Soyuz 2 crew successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) late Saturday night U.S. time, and landed safely on the Central steppes of Kazakhstan Sunday morning to complete its mission to deliver a fresh Soyuz return capsule to the Expedition Two crew. The Soyuz capsule, which first brought the Expedition One crew to the ISS last November, undocked from the aft docking port of the Zvezda Service Module at 9:21 PM Central time as the ISS flew over Eastern Russia. About two and a half hours later at 11:47 PM Central time, the Soyuz' engines were fired for a little over four minutes in the deorbit maneuver to enable the capsule to drop out of orbit for its descent back to Earth. Russian flight controllers confirmed that the landing of the Soyuz 2 crew occurred at 12:42 AM Central time Sunday morning. With its new Soyuz vehicle safely docked to the nadir port of the Zarya module, the Expedition Two crew will take a day and a half off on Sunday and Monday before resuming its activities Monday afternoon. The International Space Station continues to orbit the Earth in good shape at an altitude of 245 statute miles (395 km). The next ISS Status Report will be issued Wednesday, or earlier, if developments warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 4 May 2001 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass this past week and all subsystems are performing normally. The Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) CCD and mirror motor heaters were powered off. The CCD temperature dropped from +9 degrees C to -38 degrees C in approximately twelve hours. When the CCD temperature reached its cold state, another two images were successfully taken. These pictures showed no degradation in quality, implying that no recontamination of the camera's optics had taken place, at least since the camera reached its cold operating temperature. Weekly images will be taken until mid-June to monitor the image quality with the NAVCAM in its normal operating environment. The Cometary Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) continues to observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal spacecraft attitude when not in communications with Earth. The Safe Mode Recovery Plan was updated to reflect 2 years of flight experience. The plan was reviewed and would be implemented if the need ever arises. The STARDUST Outreach team participated in the 38th National Space Congress in Cocoa Beach, Florida which drew 4,000 participants from industry, educational institutions, the general public as well as foreign participants. As part of the NASA Small Bodies Working Group, the Outreach team also supported the Women in Science Conference, held in Cheyenne, Wyoming, sponsored by the National Weather Broadcast Service. The Boy Scouts of America will have a national learning and research activity, involving 50,000 scouts, focused on Stardust. For more information on the Stardust mission--the first ever comet sample return mission--please visit the Stardust home page at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov. _____________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 8, Number 17.