MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 18, 14 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) MARS SOCIETY CONVENTION UPDATE By Maggie Zubrin 2) HUMANS TO MARS IN 20 YEARS OR LESS, NASA CHIEF SAYS By Deborah Zabarenko 3) ENGINEERING ET: THE PATH TO ALTERNATE LIFE FORMS By Robert Roy Britt 4) NASA SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY GOES DOWN ON THE FARM NASA release 01-62 5) NASA TECHNOLOGY HELPS IN SEARCH FOR "HEAVENLY COFFEE" NASA release 01-90 6) LIFE'S BABY STEPS By Leslie Mullen 7) COLLAPSE OF SIMPLE LIFE FORMS LINKED TO MASS EXTINCTION 200 MILLION YEARS AGO University of Washington release 8) TEAMING UP ON SPACE PLANTS By Patrick L. Barry 9) INSURANCE PLANS FOR HUMANITY'S SURVIVAL By Leonard David 10) ITALIAN TEAM CLAIMS TO HAVE REVIVED METEORITE BACTERIA From Space.com 11) RAISING BABY TUBEWORMS From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 12) DESPITE EXPERTISE, RUSSIA CAN'T AFFORD TRIP TO RED PLANET By Simon Saradzhyan 13) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 14) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 15) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL releases 16) MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS JPL release 17) STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ MARS SOCIETY CONVENTION UPDATE By Maggie Zubrin 7 May 2001 Here is the latest on the upcoming Mars Society convention, to be held at Stanford University in Stanford, California, August 23-26th, 2001. Planning for the convention is well underway. The Northern California chapter has organized into groups for dealing with various critical tasks, the venues have been selected and the menu decided upon. Because the Devon Island Hab field season overlaps with the convention planning period, we are attempting to get most of the details handled well in advance of the convention date. Anyone wishing to help with the convention planning or work as a volunteer at the convention should contact the Northern California chapter. A link to their site is provided through our main web site (http://www.marssociety.org/). Conference registration Registration at the web site is fast and simple. A downloadable form is also available at the web site, for those who prefer to mail or fax in their registration. Remember that the regular price of registration includes either membership or renewal of membership. Registrations have been coming in steadily and the pace is beginning to pick up. We have invited space enthusiasts in several western states to the conference through large mailings and The Mars Society will be featured in the June issues of Scientific American and Popular Science. Once again, banquet seating will be limited to 500. Students and seniors who wish to be guaranteed a seat at the banquet should purchase a ticket in advance. Banquet cost for adults is $50 and for children under twelve is $25. This year the dinner will be served buffet style. Dormitory reservations You may also reserve your dorm room through the secure registration link or by fax or mail. We have already received reservations for over 60 of the 300 beds allotted to us. There are about 40 of the lower-cost, double-bed rooms still available, but plenty of single rooms at this point. We will need to close dorm room registration about a month before the conference in order to finalize the numbers with the University. Conference program The plenary line-up promises to be fresh and compelling this year. We will have the latest news on the search for life in Martian meteorites, extensive reports from our FMARS research teams, news from the German Mars Balloon team and an expanded panel discussion from the Green Team, featuring K. S. Robinson. It's the beginning of May and time to get your abstracts in for review and scheduling. We hope to hear from teachers, writers, engineers, students, researchers, philosophers and everyone in between. Deadline is June 30th. Please submit your abstracts via email (preferred) or regular mail to: Maggie Zubrin (mzubrin@aol.com) P.O. Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454 Hakluyt Prize The Hakluyt Prize, which consists of an all expense paid trip to the conference and a high quality Bushnell telescope, is in danger of going unclaimed this year. I have yet to receive a single entry. In a year when the United States government has cut all funding for research into manned Mars programs, there is certainly plenty of opportunity for budding activists to get involved. Again, this contest is open to all young people from the ages of 15 to 22 years old, in any location. The entry should consist of the text of a letter of advocacy plus a list of names the letter has been mailed or emailed to. Teachers, have your classes participate. College students, add just one more writing assignment to your year-end workload. Deadline is May 30. Email or mail to me at the address above. Silent auction The first donations have been pledged for the silent auction, which will be held during the conference. Items range from limited edition art prints to collectible pottery to Mars Society memorabilia. We are actively soliciting goods and services for this event. If you have an item or service that you would like to donate for the auction, drop me an email. Donors will have the opportunity to display a card or logo with the donated item and will be listed in the conference program. And, of course, all donations are tax deductible. In addition to the regular program for the conference, we will once again have a few surprises in store. I look forward to sharing a fun and informative four days with you. _____________________________________________________________________ HUMANS TO MARS IN 20 YEARS OR LESS, NASA CHIEF SAYS By Deborah Zabarenko From Reuters/Space.com 8 May 2001 Humans could venture to Mars in 20 years or less, NASA chief Daniel Goldin said on Tuesday, in comments that made orbital spaceflight sound positively last-century. "We have been locked in Earth orbit for too long, but we are going to break out," Goldin told a symposium on the 40-year history of U.S. human spaceflight. "Let's burn into our brains that this civilization is not condemned to live on only one planet," he said. "Let's burn it into our brains that in our lifetimes, we will extend the reach of this human species onto other planets and to other bodies in our solar system, and build the robots that will leave our solar system to go to other stars, then ultimately to be followed by people." He detailed NASA's plans to launch a precision lander spacecraft toward Mars in 2007, with Martian samples to be collected and returned to Earth between 2009 and 2011. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/goldin_mars_wg_010509.h tml. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010509063324.phx7xydz.html. _____________________________________________________________________ ENGINEERING ET: THE PATH TO ALTERNATE LIFE FORMS By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 8 May 2001 Cloning, move over. The powerful and potentially dark force that would give you a "mini-me" may soon be knocked off genetic engineering's center stage by an emerging laboratory effort to create life that is decidedly not as we know it. In two separate research efforts, scientists have altered the very nature of nature by creating cells that break a cardinal rule of biology, incorporating an entirely new basic building block into their cellular structures. It is a first step on a path of neogenesis--the creation of alternate life forms. In several interviews, experts said the work will help scientists study our own terrestrial evolution and also investigate how life might have developed in unknown ways on other worlds. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/neogenesis_scitu es_010501-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY GOES DOWN ON THE FARM NASA release 01-62 8 May 2001 Some of the people closest to the land will be the first to benefit from a new global positioning technology developed to make NASA satellites more efficient and cost-effective. Farmers will soon get the chance to put the new system to the test through a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, and NavCom Technology Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Deere & Company, Moline, IL. Tractors will be equipped with receivers providing instant location information, which is vital for precision farming. The technology will allow farmers to navigate fields at night and when visibility is poor. More importantly, with soil sensors and other monitors, it will let them calculate and map out precisely where their fields may need more water, fertilizer or weed control, saving both time and money. The system combines software developed by JPL and real-time global positioning system (GPS) data from the NASA Global GPS Network to produce corrections to the GPS orbits and clocks. These corrections are broadcast to people using communication satellites operated by NavCom, which has licensed the Internet-based Global Differential GPS software from JPL's parent institution, the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and plans to market the system this summer. "NASA's Earth Science Enterprise supports pioneering exploration and discovery of our home planet, while providing America and the world with practical societal benefits from our research," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for the Office of Earth Sciences, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "Our agreement with NavCom will accelerate NASA's ability to develop, test and demonstrate the utility of global, real-time, precise GPS positioning for scientific and public applications," said John LaBrecque, Manager, Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program, NASA's Office of Earth Sciences. While existing GPS data can be used to locate a position within a few meters, the new Global Differential GPS system provides an instantaneous position to within 10 centimeters (4 inches) horizontally and 20 centimeters (8 inches) vertically anywhere on Earth. No other system provides the same combination of accuracy and coverage. In space, the new technology may enable improved performance by NASA's Earth-observing satellites. Since the satellites will have precise information on their position, the information may make onboard data processing more efficient and reduce the time needed to transmit the data to the ground. NASA also expects this new positioning technology to open the possibility for new airborne exploration techniques through more accurately controlled flights of airborne sensors. "In the area of natural hazard monitoring, real-time data from radar and ground networks of GPS receivers might provide the ability to monitor volcanic activity precisely and in real time, like the motion before, during and after major earthquakes," said Dr. Yoaz Bar-Sever, Task Manager of the NASA global differential GPS demonstration at JPL. The system's ability to provide precise positioning information in real time has a variety of potential commercial applications in aviation, marine operations, land management, transportation and agriculture. The Commercial Technology Office at JPL is responsible for the collaboration between JPL and NavCom, which will provide NASA with a continuous, GPS differential-correction signal and also will invest in improving the NASA GPS infrastructure. This collaboration is just one of several JPL programs designed to bring the benefits of the space program to American industry. NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, DC, funds the development of the Global Differential GPS system. The Enterprise is a long-term research effort dedicated to understanding how human- induced and natural changes affect our global environment. Contacts: David E. Steitz Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1730 Rosemary Sullivant/Carolina Martinez Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0474, -9382 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/11farm/ http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/jpl_farm_010511.ht ml _____________________________________________________________________ NASA TECHNOLOGY HELPS IN SEARCH FOR "HEAVENLY COFFEE" NASA release 01-90 8 May 2001 A NASA research mission will use an unpiloted aircraft, known as an "Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle" or "UAV," to aid Hawaiian coffee growers by providing the growers with spectral (or color) images of their crops. From this information the growers will know, down to the day, the best time for harvesting the beans, bringing the best flavor to consumers. Part of NASA's UAV-based science demonstration program, these flights will show the ability of this type of aircraft to carry Earth-viewing scientific payloads in long-duration missions at altitudes exceeding the endurance of a pilot in a traditional aircraft. These capabilities will benefit both U.S. scientific and commercial objectives well into the new millennium. Coffee is the leading agricultural commodity traded on world markets, and Hawaiian coffee is some of the finest in the world. A key to producing excellent coffee is knowing the right time to harvest the beans. The research team will use the Pathfinder-Plus aircraft, a high-flying solar-powered UAV built by AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, CA, to loiter for long periods over crop fields during the harvest season. Researchers hope the craft's unique capability will provide data the growers can use to select the best time to harvest the beans. After flights over the largest coffee plantation in America, the Kauai Coffee Company plantation, the research team led by Clark University, Worcester, MA, will brief coffee industry officials on its findings. The mission will allow NASA to provide sound science to a multi-billion dollar American industry. This demonstration is just one potential agricultural-management application using UAVs. "This mission is both scientifically exciting and commercially appealing. While validating this new breed of aircraft we're also providing sound science with real-world, practical applications to the American people," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for Earth Sciences, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. This mission is one of two projects selected from 45 proposals received in response to a solicitation issued by NASA in 2000. The solicitation requires that the missions be managed in "Principal Investigator" mode: Each mission's lead investigator is responsible for choosing the UAV best suited for the experiment, and then managing all aspects of the mission for NASA. NASA has identified approximately $8 million to fund two UAV missions over a period of four years. The mission is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research effort aimed at understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our global environment, while providing practical societal benefits to America today. The Earth Science Enterprise provides the sound science needed by policy and economic decision- makers to assure responsible stewardship of the global environment. Contact: David E. Steitz Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1730 _____________________________________________________________________ LIFE'S BABY STEPS By Leslie Mullen From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 9 May 2001 Billions of years ago, amino acids somehow linked together to form chainlike molecules. This linkage was a vital step in the development of proteins, which are found in all living systems today. Now Robert Hazen and Timothy Filley of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Glenn Goodfriend of George Washington University have discovered what may be a key step in this process--a step that has baffled researchers for more than a half a century. Their work, supported by NASA's Astrobiology Institute and the Carnegie Institution, is reported in the May 1, 2001, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The molecular structure of all but one amino acid is an asymmetrical arrangement of atoms grouped around carbon. This arrangement means that there are two mirror-image forms of each amino acid; these forms are designated left-handed (L) and right-handed (D). All of the chemistry of living systems is distinguished by its selective use of these L and D, or chiral, molecules. Most scientists believe the first self-replicating organisms used L-amino acids, and today all living systems have proteins with only L-amino acids. Non-biological processes do not usually distinguish between L and D variants. For a transition to occur between the chemical and biological eras, some natural process had to separate and concentrate the left- and right-handed amino acids from each other. This step, called chiral selection, is crucial to forming chain-like molecules of pure L-amino acids. Hazen and his collaborators performed a simple experiment. They immersed a fist-sized crystal of the common mineral calcite, which forms limestone and the hard parts of many sea animals, in a dilute solution of the amino acid aspartic acid and found that the left-and right-handed variants of the acid molecules adsorbed (attached) preferentially onto different faces of the calcite crystal. "Aspartic acid has a negatively charged group of atoms called the 'side group' that binds strongly to calcite, probably to the positively charged calcium atoms on calcite's surface," says Hazen. "This same binding is critical to the strength of many shells, such as clam and snail shells, which are complex composite materials of calcite and proteins." Most minerals are centric, that is their structures are not handed. However, some minerals display pairs of crystal surfaces that have mirror relationships to each other. Calcite is one such mineral. It is common today, and was prevalent during the Archaean Era some four billion years ago, when life on earth is believed first to have emerged. This study suggests a plausible process by which the mixed D- and L-amino acids in the very dilute "primordial soup" could have been both concentrated and selected on a readily available mineral surface. "I can imagine cycles of wetting and drying in a tidal pool," says Hazen. "Each time the calcite crystals are exposed to the amino- acid-rich ocean, they adsorb D and L amino acids selectively. Each time the crystal dries out, the amino acids link up to form homochiral polymers. Eventually, one of these polymers is autocatalytic--it makes copies of itself. This idea closely parallels similar scenarios that have employed clay minerals, which don't perform the chiral selection trick." Hazen says that the organic synthesis of amino acids has proven to be fairly easy. The problem, he says, has been that the pre-biotic soup was a diverse array of both right- and left-handed molecules. This study points to a mechanism that could have selected and organized the left- and right-handed molecules. "Calcite, or some other mineral surface, seems like a good candidate for the crucial steps of selecting molecules from the complex prebiotic soup, and then organizing them into larger chain-like structures--including proteins--that are crucial to life's origin," says Hazen. This study highlights how geology could have interacted with other elements of the Earth to form life. But according to Hazen, this study also suggests that life could emerge on other worlds that have carbonate rocks and liquid water. "Our study tries to link key steps in life's origin--whether here or elsewhere--with plausible prebiotic planetary conditions," says Hazen. "Surface studies of Mars and the Martian meteorites, for example, provide evidence for both water and carbonates, as well as organic molecules." On Earth, proteins are only made up of L-amino acids. But on other worlds, proteins might have formed from D-amino acids. This seemingly minor difference could have led to unique and unimagined forms of life elsewhere in the universe. "The calcite mechanism I suggest would have formed both left-handed and right-handed chains," says Hazen. "I'm suggesting--as have many other workers in the field--that the ultimate success of left over right was pure chance. On other worlds, right-handed amino acids may prevail." What next? Hazen says this initial study opens many avenues of research. Not only are there dozens of potential minerals that could have selected and organized amino acids, but there are 20 different amino acids that occur in living systems. In addition, Hazen says there are many other factors that still have to be tested. "There's so much to do!" says Hazen. "We have to study effects of temperature, pH, salinity, and concentration on the adsorption. Then there are all the studies of polymerization on calcite surfaces--can we simulate wetting and drying cycles to make homochiral chains of amino acids? We also have to understand this adsorption on an atomic scale. We're beginning atomic force microscopy studies to image the adsorbed molecules, and will attempt to model this adsorption process." More information on this article is available at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?page=key_step. _____________________________________________________________________ COLLAPSE OF SIMPLE LIFE FORMS LINKED TO MASS EXTINCTION 200 MILLION YEARS AGO University of Washington release 10 May 2001 A mass extinction about 200 million years ago, which destroyed at least half of the species on Earth, happened very quickly and is demonstrated in the fossil record by the collapse of one-celled organisms called protists, according to new research led by a University of Washington paleontologist. "Something suddenly killed off more than 50 percent of all species on Earth, and that led to the age of dinosaurs," said Peter Ward, a UW Earth and space sciences professor. Evidence indicates the massive die-off was linked with an abrupt drop in productivity, the rate at which inorganic carbon is turned into organic carbon through processes such as photosynthesis. The waning productivity coincided with a sharp decline in radiolaria (included among protists), which was the focus of the new research. One example of productivity, Ward explained, occurs in the spring when fertilizer washes into waterways and triggers large algae blooms. The processes at work in that scenario were reversed 200 million years ago, he said. There is no definitive evidence yet on what caused the demise of so many species, Ward said. However, the suddenness of the event is similar to two better-known mass extinctions--one 250 million years ago at the end of the Permian period that killed some 90 percent of all species, the other 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period that sent the dinosaurs into oblivion. The extinction 200 million years ago, at the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods, killed the last of the mammal-like reptiles that once roamed the Earth and left mainly dinosaurs, Ward said. That extinction happened in less than 10,000 years, in the blink of an eye, geologically speaking. Ward is the lead author on a paper detailing the evidence, published in the May 11 edition of the journal Science. Others participating in the research are James Haggart and Howard Tipper of the Geological Survey of Canada in Vancouver, British Columbia; Elizabeth Carter, a researcher at Oregon's Portland State University; David Wilbur, a UW oceanography research scientist; and Tom Evans, a UW junior in chemistry and Earth and space sciences. The evidence from the extinction was gathered at two sites in the Queen Charlotte Islands, off Canada's British Columbia coast. "These sites are among the most remote places in the world," Ward said. "There are no roads anywhere close by. The forests are virgin old growth, and the wave action is such that you can't get there by boat." Samples from a spot called Kennecott Point, in the northern Queen Charlottes, and from Kunga Island, about 100 miles to the southeast, showed a sharp decline in the presence of organic carbon, even at places where levels of inorganic carbon rose. The organic carbon decline correlated with the decline of radiolarians, one-celled organisms that serve as a food source for a number of marine species. "These provide the best record of how nasty the extinction was at this boundary," Ward said. The mass extinction 200 million years ago occurred just before the breakup of Pangea, which contained all the land on Earth in one supercontinent. At the time, the Queen Charlotte Islands--which now lie between 52 and 54 degrees north latitude--were probably on the equator or in the southern hemisphere, Ward said. "These are tropical fossils. There are many kinds of fossils in these rocks," he said. And they tell a story of a calamity that came on with stunning swiftness. "This is the first time ever that we can see how sudden this event was," he said. "It was very quick, not a long protracted episode." Ward now has done research on the last three of the Earth's mass extinctions (scientists know of five) and has found that each happened quite quickly. Bolstered by a recent astrobiology grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, he plans to lead researchers back to the Queen Charlottes this summer to look for more clues in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, including potential causes. For more information, contact Ward at (206) 543-2962 or argo@u.washington.edu. Additional information on this article is available at http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/2001archive/05- 01archive/k051001.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/13extinct/ http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/tj_extinction_01051 1-1.html _____________________________________________________________________ TEAMING UP ON SPACE PLANTS By Patrick L. Barry From NASA Science News 10 May 2001 "When are we ever going to use this stuff?" Teachers often struggle to give a satisfying answer when their students ask that perennial question. Because of a collaborative project with NASA, the answer for 600 science teachers around the U.S. is easy: "Right now!" This week, astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) will activate the Advanced AstrocultureTM plant growth chamber-- delivered to the ISS in April by the space shuttle Endeavour. A nutrient solution will inundate a bed of inorganic "soil," germinating the seeds buried there. Meanwhile, back on Earth, thousands of students will begin growing their own batches of the plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, a flowering weed better known as thale cress. A comparison of the sprouting plants on Earth with those in Earth orbit will help students and scientists understand how plant lifecycles are affected by free-fall. "To be able to compare their experiment with one that's actually up in space--this is one of those things that (my students) think is really neat and cool," said Terri Cole, an eighth grade science teacher participating in the project at Echols Middle School in Northport, Alabama. It engages students' interest in a way that standard textbook lessons do not. Such research is important to the future of space exploration, because plants will likely provide food and even replenish air and water supplies for future spacefarers. Long stays in space will require several generations of plants to grow reliably, so scientists must understand the seed-to-seed behavior of plants grown in space. "You can read in a textbook about the lifecycle of a plant, and students may think it really isn't that big of a deal," said Eric Brunsell, one of the principal investigators for the project and director of education programs at Space Explorers, Inc. (SEI), the commercial company based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that is developing the curriculum for the schools. "But when you can watch a plant grow through those different lifecycles and know that a similar experiment is taking place on the International Space Station, it just adds another dimension of excitement to it," Brunsell said. The students' plants will serve as a "control group" for the experiment--a reference point of "normal" growth and reproduction against which the ISS plants can be compared. As the experiment progresses, students will see the differences between their plants and the plants in space by daily video and data updates available through the Web. Zachary Upton, a 14-year-old student in Cole's science class, has one theory about how the ISS plants might differ. "The plants on the Space Station might not fall over," speculates Upton. "Some of our flowers, the stems and stuff are falling over because of the pull of gravity. They might not do that in space." To date, only two space-based experiments have managed to complete a whole lifecycle, notes Weijia Zhou, principal investigator for the project and director of the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR). An experiment with wheat completed a lifecycle on Mir, but produced only empty seed heads (due to a significantly elevated ambient ethylene concentration). The other experiment successfully produced multi-generation seeds on Mir, but the experiment used a hardy species that's not representative of most food crops. The current experiment's nearly 8-week stay aboard the ISS will allow enough time for one complete generation, ending with the production of new seeds. A host of measurements will be made as the plants grow, from stem height and seed count to temperature and CO2 levels. This broad range of data should paint a clear picture of how Arabidopsis responds to the conditions in Earth orbit. To understand the role of both genetics and environmental conditions in the experiment's outcome, WCSAR will conduct DNA and RNA analyses when the plants return to Earth. The plants grown on the ISS will be genetically compared to Earth-bound plants grown using an apparatus similar to the one on the Space Station. The ISS growth chamber is a totally enclosed, automated "greenhouse" developed by WCSAR and co- sponsored by NASA's Space Product Development Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Markedly different gene "expression" (i.e., activation of genes during plant functioning) in the ISS plants would mean that scientists will to need to look more closely at whether multiple generations of crops grown in space will remain viable. Arabidopsis thaliana is a small, flowering plant widely used by researchers as a "model organism" for studying plant biology. It is a member of the Brassica family, which includes species such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and radish. It is an excellent subject for scientific research because of its rapid life cycle (about 6 weeks from seed to seed), easy cultivation in small spaces, prolific seed production, and fully-sequenced genome (a map of all its genes). "We have a section that we deal with in biology that goes into genetics, so this is going to fit right into that," Cole said. The collective store of data and video will continue to be used for a commercially-available science curriculum even after the ISS experiment returns to the ground. SEI will assemble the data into a Web-based curriculum called Orbital Laboratory, which will have versions geared for each grade from kindergarten through high school. Data gathered by the students, which they will submit to on-line databases via the Web, will also contribute to the scientific outcome of the experiment by adding to the statistical robustness of the results. "It's exciting to think that we're actually helping," said 14-year- old Kaitlyn Killion, one of Cole's students. More information on this article is available at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast10may_1.htm?list52260. _____________________________________________________________________ INSURANCE PLANS FOR HUMANITY'S SURVIVAL By Leonard David From Space.com 10 May 2001 Move it, or lose it. The long-term survival of our species may depend not only on negating menacing asteroids and comets that threaten Earth, but colonizing free space, the Moon and Mars, researchers said at a recent conference at Princeton University. Their idea of an "insurance plan" to first protect and then proliferate humanity into the cosmos involves taking up residence in large 10,000-person habitats, positioned between Earth and the Moon at first, and later spreading out to other niches within our solar system. But first, we must make sure that life is not wiped out by a passing space rock. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/mass_drivers_010510 .html. _____________________________________________________________________ ITALIAN TEAM CLAIMS TO HAVE REVIVED METEORITE BACTERIA From Space.com 11 May 2001 An Italian team reportedly has found and revived bacteria harbored in an ancient meteorite, a finding that points to the existence of extraterrestrial life but has yet to pass scientific muster. Bruno D'Argenio of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Naples and Giuseppe Geraci of the University of Naples discovered the bacteria, called "cryms" or cristallomicrobi, within the crystalline structure of space rocks found in several parts of the world, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. The bacteria could be 2 billion years old and resisted the extreme pressures and temperatures of entering Earth's atmosphere while inside the meteorite, the researchers say. They publicized their findings at a press conference to the Italian Space Agency in Rome, Reuters reported earlier this week. The bacteria bear DNA chemistry identical to that within Earth-based life, reproduce normally and are sensitive to antibiotics, the researchers say. In addition, the reports indicate the cryms were found in several other Earth rocks--which could contradict the claim of extraterrestrial origins. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/italian_bacteria_010511.html. _____________________________________________________________________ RAISING BABY TUBEWORMS From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 14 May 2001 For nearly 25 years, scientists have wondered how giant red-tipped tubeworms and other exotic marine life found at hydrothermal vents on the deep sea floor get from place to place and how long their larva survive in a cold, eternally dark place. Now Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Lauren Mullineaux and colleagues have helped answer those questions. In a paper published May 3 in the scientific journal Nature entitled "Larval Dispersal Potential of the Tubeworm Riftia pachyptila at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents", Mullineaux and colleagues provide the first direct answer to the questions "How long can a vent larva live?" and "How far can it disperse?" Their work is part of the LARVE Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, to understand how vent species maintain their populations in changing vent environments, how they colonize new vents, and what controls their distributions over regional and global scales. The Nature paper is co-authored by Adam Marsh of the University of Southern California, Mullineaux, Craig Young of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, and Donal Manahan of the University of Southern California. "Larval dispersal has been one of the major questions in understanding how vent organisms colonize sites," Mullineaux says of the study. "Hydrothermal vents are constantly changing because of frequent volcanic and tectonic activity related to the formation of the earth's crust. Although we have known for a while that larvae can colonize new vent sites tens to hundreds of miles apart very quickly, we've never understood how the larva of these animals disperse to do that, or how long they can survive. Now we have some answers." Mullineaux and her colleagues studied the larvae of the giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila, a red-tipped worm that can grow several feet in length and which lives in a white plastic-like tube about an inch and a half in diameter. Specimens were collected from the eastern Pacific at several locations. The team then successfully reared embryos of the giant tubeworm to the larval stage under deep- ocean temperatures and pressures and followed their early development using custom-designed culture systems. They measured the metabolic rates of the larva at conditions like those at the deep-sea vents, 2 degrees Celsius (about 36 F) and 250 atmospheres of pressure. They found that a typical larva of Riftia pachyptila could potentially survive for 38 days, just long enough it appears to get to another active vent many miles away and colonize it before running out of food. But knowing the potential life span was only part of the puzzle. How far could the larva go and survive? The answer, it turns out, depends on where the vent is. At active vents, such as one of the experiment sites at 9°50' North on the East Pacific Rise off Mexico, the hot waters mix with seawater to form buoyant plumes that rise until they cool to neutral buoyancy at a distance of 175-200 meters (about 575- 650 feet) above the ocean bottom. Many of the early life stages of hydrothermal vent animals have been found trapped in this neutrally buoyant plume. Local currents may then carry the plume great distances, a sort of larval highway. In August 2000, a Japanese team found the first vents in the Indian Ocean. A team aboard the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Research Vessel Knorr has just concluded the first U.S. expedition to explore hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean. The Knorr team has reported finding species of animals that appear to be similar to those found in both the Atlantic and Pacific, but many others that may be new species, raising the question again about how these animals disperse or move around the globe. Although no tubeworms have been found at the Indian Ocean vent sites, Mullineaux says that could be because the larvae can't get there, or the Indian Ocean sites aren't suitable, or perhaps that vents with tubeworms just haven't been found there yet. Animal populations at different vent sites, in appears, may have different dispersal limits based upon the local currents. Mullineaux's team says the life span of this species can now be used to predict dispersal under the current conditions at other hydrothermal vent sites. "That's a major step forward," she adds." And it demonstrates the importance of scientists from many disciplines working together to answer some very basic but fundamental questions about how marine life on our planet survives." The LARVE Project (Larvae At Ridge VEnts) is a component of the RIDGE (Ridge Inter-Disciplinary Global Experiments) Initiative, a coordinated, interdisciplinary program aimed at understanding the geology, physics, chemistry and biology of processes occurring along the global mid-ocean ridge system. Additional information on this article is available at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?page=baby_tubeworms. _____________________________________________________________________ DESPITE EXPERTISE, RUSSIA CAN'T AFFORD TRIP TO RED PLANET By Simon Saradzhyan From Space.com 14 May 2001 Sending humans to Mars with return tickets is technically and medically possible, but Russia cannot muster up the funds and resources necessary for such a costly program on its own, officials and experts said. "There are no obstacles that cannot be overcome from the medical point of view. Problems exist, but there are approaches toward solving them," Anatoly Grigoryev, director of the Moscow-based Institute for Biomedical Problems, told SPACE.com. In a statement issued to SPACE.com on Thursday through his press service, Grigoryev noted that Russia has already acquired expertise in keeping human beings in space long enough for a voyage to Mars and back. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/russians_to_mars_010510 -1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 14 May 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html H. Bortman, 2001. It's time to seed life on Mars, scientist says. Space.com. H. Bortman, 2001. A rusty old rose. SpaceDaily. H. Bortman, 2001. Roses for the Red Planet. NASA Science News. Space.com, 2001. Italian team claims to have revived meteorite bacteria. Space.com. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html P. L. Barry, 2001. Teaming up on space plants. NASA Science News. S. Saradzhyan, 2001. Despite expertise, Russia can't afford trip to Red Planet. Space.com. SpaceDaily, 2001. Humans could set foot on Mars by 2020: NASA chief. SpaceDaily. D. Zabarenko, 2001. Humans to Mars in 20 years or less, NASA chief says. Reuters/Space.com. Articles about evolutionary biology and chemistry http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html R. R. Britt, 2001. Engineering ET: the path to alternative life forms. Space.com. D. H. Erwin, 2001. Lessons from the past: biotic recoveries from mass extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 98(10):5399-5403. SpaceFlight Now, 2001. Collapse of simple life forms linked to mass extinction. SpaceFlight Now. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS JPL release 3-9 May 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Monday May 7. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. (Subsequent to the time period covered by this report, the Cassini spacecraft entered safing. The cause is well understood; the spacecraft is in a completely safe state, and recovery efforts are underway. Details will be included in next week's report.) 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/. Recent spacecraft activities include characterization and power-off of Solid State Recorder (SSR)-A. The characterization tests included a memory test, data formatter test and module controller interface tests. Also performed was a procedure to patch the Command & Data Subsystem (CDS) Flight Software (FSW) in the SSR-B non-default partition with an update for the Magnetometer Subsystem (MAG) replacement heater Solid State Power Switch (SSPS) algorithm. The procedure included reloading CDS-B with the newly patched FSW, and patching CDS-A FSW running in RAM with updates for the MAG heater and the Low Gain Antenna (LGA). All activities executed nominally. Additional spacecraft activities included the a Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver (HFR) calibration, a high water mark clear, and uplink of an Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) and execution of a sensor mode checkout minisequence for Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS). The Radio Science (RSS) team concluded the Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE) system test #1 this week. About 40 hours of Ka-2 coherent data, 60 hours of Ka-1 coherent data, and over 100 hours of X-band data were collected. Additionally, the team collected about 60 hours of media calibration data that will be processed into path delay files for each of the DSN tracks. The system test also provided further information for characterization of the Ka-band Translator (KaT). The RSS team, with assistance from the DSS-25 Upgrade Task, developed a new Ka-band acquisition template crucial to this effort. The template was used for all DSS-25 tracks. Science planning tool user scenarios were presented at the Cassini Design Team meeting by the Science Planning team, and ground software tool classifications and related requirements were reviewed at the System Engineering Round Table working group. The Cassini Mission Plan has been reorganized by the Mission Planning Team in support of a new delivery of the document at the end of May. A review of the maneuver strategy and maneuver timeline of events was held in the Mission Planning forum, and the updated Consumables Report was released. Mission Assurance has updated the process by which anomalies are reported for Cassini to more accurately reflect current operations. An updated Anomaly Reporting Plan has been distributed for flight team review. The new process will be presented to the Cassini Design Team for approval and implementation. Mission Assurance has also begun tailoring a prototype, web-based Risk Management Tool developed for Cassini, to be consistent with the Program's risk management process. The tool is expected to be released for use within the next month. The Instrument Operations (IO) Team developed an Event Kernel (EK) web query tool prototype and released it for evaluation by members of the EK working group. This prototype will help the EK development team further refine the requirements for EK data and an interface to that data. The Cross-Discipline Workshop (CDW) report was published, which summarized the results of the Tour segmentation done by the Tour Splinter Groups formed during the workshop. The Atmospheres Working Group held a teleconference to work on atmospheric occultation requirements. A group of students operating the Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) in coordination with the Cassini RADAR team presented their results to JPL and NASA staff this week. Attending the presentation were RADAR Team Leader and JPL Director Charles Elachi and Cassini Program Manager Bob Mitchell, with Administrator Dan Goldin, U.S. Representative Jerry Lewis (Redlands, CA) and GAVRT/Cassini Coordinator Scott Bolton attending via telecast from NASA HQ. The GAVRT team observed the long-term and short-term variability of Jupiter's synchrotron emission to provide a solid baseline of Jupiter's radiation belts behavior at the time of the Cassini Jupiter flyby. Working as science partners with the Cassini RADAR team, the GAVRT team's observations will be used to calibrate the Cassini RADAR instrument. Their observations confirmed the state of Jupiter's radiation belts at the time of the experiment, and provided a unique contribution by observing before and after the flyby. Cassini presentations were made to the Young Astronauts program on May 2nd and 3rd in Spokane, WA. The Young Astronauts webcasts are broadcast to elementary school children across the U.S. Students phone in with questions at the end of the program. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. _____________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL releases 7-13 May 2001 This week sees a modest collection of engineering activities occupy Galileo's attention, in addition to the continuing playback of data from the tape recorder. On Thursday, the spacecraft performs an Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM), a rocket engine burn used to fine-tune the path of the craft, and line it up for the next flyby of Callisto 15 days later. This is the 94th such maneuver planned for the orbital mission since Galileo first went into orbit around Jupiter in December 1995. Typically, three such engine burns are planned during each orbit. The first comes 3 to 4 days before the planned satellite flyby, and is used to fine-tune the placement of the spacecraft at closest approach. The second is usually executed 3 to 4 days after the flyby and is used to clean up any errors seen in the flyby and to begin to shift the spacecraft towards the next encounter. The final maneuver occurs near apojove, the farthest point from Jupiter, when a relatively small expenditure of fuel can effect a relatively large change in postion at the next perijove, or closest point to Jupiter. On long orbits such as this one, which has lasted nearly 5 months, an additional maneuver is planned 10 to 15 days before the flyby to remove any residual errors in the trajectory. The Thursday OTM is one such additional maneuver. On Friday the spacecraft is turned about 4.5 degrees to keep the communications antenna pointed towards Earth. In addition, standard maintenance is performed on the propulsion system. Even though the propulsion system is used for both the OTM and the turn, any given activity does not necessarily exercise all of the different engine nozzles and valves. These periodic maintenance activities assure the engineers responsible for maintaining the health of the system that each of the parts works correctly, so that they are available when they are needed. The playback of science data consists of the calibration observations recorded two weeks ago. This week the Solid State Imaging (SSI) team expects to see the results of their flat-field calibration, a series of images that were taken of the Photometric Calibration Target (PCT). Its main purposes are to assess the overall response of the camera to a light source of known brightness and spectral properties, as well as to characterize any spatial variation (i.e., variation from one pixel to the next) in sensitivity over the entire area of the CCD. 14-21 May 2001 As Galileo closes in on Callisto, preparations heat up. On Monday, a standard test of the on-board gyroscopes is performed. These gyroscopes seem to show the most sensitivity of any of the spacecraft systems to the accumulated radiation dose that the spacecraft has received over the years. The test will determine if software parameters related to this sensitivity need to be updated prior to the flyby. Following this test a new sequence of commands begins operating the spacecraft. This sequence updates already planned activities to account for changes in the availability of ground communication antennas, and to change telecommunications parameters to account for the effects of solar conjunction. Solar conjunction is when the spacecraft appears to pass behind the Sun as seen from Earth. Since the Sun is now near the maximum in its activity cycle, the noisy and highly dynamic solar atmosphere can wreak havoc on the radio signal trying to reach Earth. Changing the way the spacecraft modulates the signal that it transmits improves the chance of properly receiving and decoding that signal when it finally reaches the ground. On Thursday, the spacecraft closes to within a distance of 60 Jupiter radii (4.3 million kilometers, 2.7 million miles) of the giant planet. At this point the Magnetometer instrument is reconfigured to provide better sensitivity to measure this portion of the magnetosphere which lies closer to the planet. And while all this is going on, playback of previously recorded data continues. This week we expect to see the conclusion of the calibration data that was recorded three weeks ago. The last of these data are from the Solid State Imaging camera, and were pictures taken of the Photometric Calibration Target plate mounted on the spacecraft. Following the calibration data, we will pass one final time completely through the tape, collecting bits and pieces of data that were not properly received the first time we tried to play them back. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS JPL release 9 May 2001 This morning, flight controllers for NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory successfully tested the ability of the high-gain communications antenna to send and receive commands. Since launch, the spacecraft has been receiving commands over its low-gain antenna and transmitting signals via its medium- gain antenna. Today's test showed the high-gain antenna is working well, and engineers will begin using that link regularly at the end of the month. Last Friday, May 4, engineers conducted a thruster calibration test designed to measure the small velocity changes that occur when the spacecraft fires its attitude control thrusters. Navigators report that the test went extremely well and that the data are consistent with performance that was predicted before launch. Odyssey is currently about 9.5 million kilometers (5.8 million miles) from Earth and traveling at a speed of about 30 kilometers per second (about 67,700 miles per hour) relative to the Sun. The Mars Odyssey mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Odyssey spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO. An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html. _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT JPL release 11 May 2001 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass this past week and all subsystems are performing normally. The weekly Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) images taken while the camera was cold (with the heaters off) were successfully taken on Monday May 7, and showed no degradation in quality from their previous improvement. The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) continues to observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal spacecraft attitude when not in communication with Earth. The principal investigator for CIDA has requested that the instrument be returned to its positive ion mode. Sufficient data has been collected in the negative ion mode to provide a comparison between the two modes. The instrument will remain in the positive mode for the remainder of this interstellar collection period. Preparations are underway to take images of the two guide stars that will be used for optical navigation on approach to the encounter with Comet Wild-2. On June 4th, the spacecraft will be in the same position as it will be during the Wild-2 encounter in December 2003. The spacecraft's +X axis will be pointed in the direction of the guide stars, and will take several images through the periscope for analysis of the camera performance. The spacecraft will then be commanded to take images of the guide stars off the periscope. The quality of the two sets of images will be compared, to determine the best method to perform optical navigation during the approach to Wild-2. The project held its quarterly review with JPL and NASA management and reported that the project status was excellent. The Stardust Outreach team is planning the Stardust team's participation in the JPL Open House, which will be May 19 and 20. 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 18.