MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 23, 18 June 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) NEWLY-FOUND METEORITE MAY POINT TO WATER UNDER MARTIAN SURFACE From SpaceDaily and Agence-France Press 2) UA SCIENTISTS FIND EVIDENCE FOR GEOLOGICALLY RECENT SHALLOW GROUND ICE AT MARS' EQUATOR By Lori Stiles 3) NASA SELECTS FIRST MARS SCOUT CONCEPTS FOR FURTHER STUDY NASA release 01-122 4) UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON ASTROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE University of Washington release 5) HIDDEN OCEANS COULD STILL SUPPORT LIFE SETI Institute release 6) MICROBES AND THE DUST THEY RIDE IN ON MAY POSE HEALTH RISK NASA release 01-120 7) IN SEARCH OF ALIEN LASERS By Seth Shostak 8) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 9) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 10) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 11) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ NEWLY-FOUND METEORITE MAY POINT TO WATER UNDER MARTIAN SURFACE From SpaceDaily and Agence-France Press 12 June 2001 A meteorite found in the western Sahara contains water that may have come from below the surface of Mars, French researchers said Tuesday. The rock, weighing 104 grams (three and a half ounces), was discovered by French meteorite hunters last December. It is the fourth meteorite to be identified as a nakhlite, a Martian mineral, the National Institute for Sciences of the Universe (INSU) said, confirming a report in the daily Le Monde. INSU scientists carried out research into the ratio of deuterium and hydrogen in the meteorite, a figure that varies according to whether the rock was exposed to water and indicates the origin of that water. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010612160555.cs3jd2m3.html. _____________________________________________________________________ UA SCIENTISTS FIND EVIDENCE FOR GEOLOGICALLY RECENT SHALLOW GROUND ICE AT MARS' EQUATOR By Lori Stiles, UA News Services University of Arizona release http://uanews.opi.arizona.edu/cgi- bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=3817 13 June 2001 New high-resolution images from the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) show evidence of ground ice on Mars as recently as 10 million years ago. More striking is that the signs of geologically recent ground ice deposits are near Mars' equator, where ice was probably no deeper than 5 meters (15 feet) below the surface, University of Arizona scientists say. "If ground ice was present within 5 meters of the surface only a few million years ago, it is very likely to persist today within about the upper 10 meters," said UA planetary sciences Professor Alfred S. McEwen. "This is especially interesting because it is an equatorial region of Mars, more accessible to exploration." Peter D. Lanagan, McEwen and Laszlo P. Keszthelyi of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and Thorvaldur Thordarson of the University of Hawaii have discovered clusters of tens to many hundreds of small "rootless" cones in MOC images of the Cerberus plains, Marte Valles, and Amazonis Planitia region near Mars' equator. The Martian cones are similar both in morphology and size to rootless cones in Iceland, features that form when surface lava interacts explosively with near- surface groundwater. "The Martian cones sit on pristine lava surfaces, and the cones are generally close to fluvial (water-carved) channels. The lavas do not appear to have been modified since they were emplaced, and some of the channels appear to be similarly pristine," Lanagan said. Using crater counts and other geologic evidence seen in the detailed new MOC images, William K. Hartmann of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson and others recently determined these lava flows to be as young as 10 million years. "We consider recent fluvial recharge to be the most likely origin for the shallow ground ice," the UA/Hawaii team conclude this week in Geophysical Research Letters. "If shallow ground ice in these regions was present less than 10 million years ago, deposits of shallow ground ice probably persist in the vicinity of the cone fields to the present day." Rootless cones, or pseudocraters, do not form over volcanic vents. Thordarson concludes from years of fieldwork that in Iceland, rootless cones form where molten lava flows over marshy terrain. A crust forms over the lava flow, while molten lava continues to pump through tubes or pathways beneath the crust. As lava is shoved through the tubes, it mixes with some of the underlying water-rich sediment, and in the process of mixing, the water is heated by lava until it flashes to steam. When the steam pressure exceeds the pressure of the lava above it, there's a "phreatomagmatic"--or groundwater and magma--explosion. The result of several such sustained explosions is a cluster of cones associated not with any deep fault or fissure but with a network of lava tubes over the marshy area. "We see many hundreds of similar cones in the Mars scape, and they appear to be associated either with low plains areas or with recent outflow channels," Lanagan said. Water would flow to low areas, pond and percolate in low plains during the floods, recharging ground ice. "If the terrestrial rootless cone analogy is extended to Mars," he added, "lava flows erupted over surfaces with ground ice--probably at a depth of less than 5 meters--where they melted the ice to form a water-rich slurry which mixed with the tube-fed lavas. The process likely would have resulted in a series of phreatomagmatic explosions, which formed cones on the top of the chilled lava crust. "The Martian cones are close to outflow channels, so the cones formed in regions that were probably water- or ice-rich. Also, the Martian cones generally are seen to sit on platy-ridged lavas similar to Icelandic 'rubbly pahoehoe' lava flows, where lavas delivered through tube networks breaks the hardened, chilled crust of the flow and move the resulting pieces around like a pulled-apart jigsaw puzzle. This suggests that the Martian cones formed over lava flows fed by lava tubes, similar to rootless cones in Iceland." Researchers debate whether the shallow ground ice that exploded to create the cones is relic ice leftover from the planet's formation, recondensed water vapor from the soil-atmosphere water vapor exchange, or recharge from surface flooding events. "It is unlikely that relic ground ice has survived for 4 billion years in equatorial regions of Mars," the UA/Hawaii team concludes. The argument that equatorial ground ice could be recharged by an exchange of water vapor between the ground and the atmosphere--as Arizona State University scientists have modeled--is perhaps more plausible, the team wrote. "However, because these cones appear to be near outflow channels, we think that the water the formed the cones is probably recharge from floods," Lanagan said. Scientists studying Viking imagery in the late 1970s and 1980s noted structures they interpreted to be rootless cones. Most of these were twice the size of the largest terrestrial cones, however, and it was unclear if some of these rested on actual volcanic surfaces. The UA researchers looked at some of these areas again, this time using high-resolution MOC images, but still could not tell if the cones sit on volcanic surface because the terrain is either heavily mantled by dust or significantly eroded, Lanagan said. "The structures observed by MOC are the first clearly identified Martian cones having dimensions, morphologies, and geologic settings similar to terrestrial rootless cones," the team wrote in GRL. Contacts: Peter Lanagan 520-621-1594 planagan@lpl.arizona.edu Alfred McEwen 520-621-4573 mcewen@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu Laszlo Keszthelyi 520-621-8284 lpk@lpl.arizona.edu Copies of the figures published in the GRL article, "Rootless cones on Mars indicating the presence of shallow equatorial ground ice in recent times" are available from the web site, http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~planagan/papers/grl_01a/. Addresses for jpgs and tiffs of the figures are as follows: http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~planagan/papers/grl_01a/fig1.jpg (284k) http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~planagan/papers/grl_01.tif (513k) http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~planagan/papers/grl_01a/fig2.jpg (187k) http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/papers/grl_01a/fig2.tif (1.3M) Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_ice_signs_0106 14.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010614015820.gybo51ht.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsice/ _____________________________________________________________________ NASA SELECTS FIRST MARS SCOUT CONCEPTS FOR FURTHER STUDY NASA release 01-122 13 June 2001 The ten most promising mission concepts of the 43 proposed to NASA for possible launch to Mars in 2007 were selected today to receive funding for six months of continued studies. Included in the ten concepts selected for study are missions to return samples of Martian atmospheric dust and gas, networks of small landers, orbiting constellations of small craft, and a rover that would attempt to establish absolute surface ages of rocks and soils. NASA plans to evaluate the ten innovative concepts using rapid six- month studies as a means for jump-starting the identification of new Mars Scout missions that will compete for a possible launch in 2007. The proposals were submitted to NASA's Mars Exploration Program in the Office of Space Science in Washington, DC, in response to a call for proposals in March 2001. Those selected will receive up to $150,000 each for the study. "These Scout concepts embody the spirit I first thought about more than one year ago, and will enable us to explore the diversity of Mars in new ways," said Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science. Weiler selected the ten winners on the basis of overall scientific merit and potential for implementation under a total mission cost cap of $300 million. "All of us in the Mars Program are thrilled with the response by the community with such incredible ideas," said Dr. Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for the Mars Exploration Program. "These ten mission concepts provide revolutionary new vantage points and tools for exploring the new Mars that has emerged from the observations of the Mars Global Surveyor." Next year, NASA plans to initiate a competition for small "Scout" missions to the Red Planet to broadly involve the scientific and aerospace communities in the Mars Exploration Program. "We have used this opportunity to be as inclusive as possible to engage the broadest possible cross-section of the community," said Orlando Figueroa, Mars Program Director. The ten concepts selected today will not be given any advantage in that competition. The selected mission concepts, and the Principal Investigators, are: * SCIM (Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars): Professor Laurie Leshin, Arizona State University, Tempe. This innovative mission would sample atmospheric dust and gas using aerogel and use a "free-return trajectory" to bring the samples back to Earth. * KittyHawk: Professor Wendy Calvin, University of Nevada-Reno. A mission involving three gliders would explore the composition and stratigraphy of the walls of Valles Marineris in ways not possible for orbiters and landers. * Urey: Dr. Jeff Plescia, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ. A surface rover would allow the absolute ages of geological materials to be remotely determined for the first time on any planet. * MACO (Mars Atmospheric Constellation Observatory): Professor Robert Kursinski, University of Arizona, Tucson. A network of micro- satellites as a constellation around Mars would characterize the 3-D structure of the atmosphere, giving a new look at Martian climatology. * Artemis: Professor David Paige, University of California, Los Angeles. Three small landers and micro-rovers on the Martian surface, with two directed to the polar regions, would explore the surface and shallow subsurface for water, organic materials and climate. * MEO (Mars Environmental Observer): Dr. M. Janssen, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. This science orbiter would intensively explore the role of water, dust, ice and other materials within the Martian atmosphere to understand parts of the hydrologic cycle. * Pascal: Dr. Rob Haberle, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. A network of 24 weather stations on the Martian surface would provide more than two years of continuous monitoring of humidity, pressure and temperature and other measurements. * Mars Scout Radar: Dr. Bruce Campbell, Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC. An orbiter mission would use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging to map the surface geomorphology and very shallow subsurface (three to five meters deep) to detect buried water channels and other features. * The Naiades: Dr. Bob Grimm, Blackhawk GeoServices, Golden, CO. Four landers will explore for subsurface liquid water using a novel low-frequency sounding method. * CryoScout: Dr. Frank Carsey, JPL. This mission, designed to use heated water jets to descend through Martian polar ice caps, could potentially probe to depths of tens to hundreds of meters while measuring composition and searching for organic compounds. Contacts: Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Mary Hardin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0344 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/mars_scout_update_01061 3.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsscout/ _____________________________________________________________________ UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON ASTROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE University of Washington release 13 June 2001 [Note that the early registration deadline for this conference is 20 June. DJT] Sunday - Wednesday, 5-8 August 2001, Crystal Mountain, Washington The University of Washington's Center for Astrobiology and Early Evolution is hosting an exciting conference at the dawn of the new field of Astrobiology. The purpose of this conference is to bring together experts to discuss Astrobiology's fundamental principles, past accomplishments, latest scientific results, and future research and technological directions. Rather than the usual proceedings, the conference will produce a graduate student level textbook invaluable to the overall development of the field, Astrobiology: The University of Washington Lectures. The book will be a high-level, interdisciplinary introduction to the origin and evolution of life on Earth, the geological, physical and chemical conditions that have spawned and sustained life, and the detection of extant and extinct life on other planets and moons. The invited talks (35-40 minutes long) and resultant chapters are designed to be two-thirds background tutorial for those who are not in the field of the particular topic, with the remainder more technical and ephemeral; chapters should still be usable in five years and perhaps longer. There will be no contributed oral papers, but poster sessions will be held. All-inclusive conference fees range from $300 to $550 (see link below), depending on room occupancy and grad student status. The meeting room is limited in size, so attendance may have to be limited (in which case we will return your entire registration fee); please send your registration form and fee as soon as possible; the absolute deadline is 10 July. The conference will be held at Crystal Mountain ski area, in the beautiful Cascade Mountains of Washington State, just northeast of Mt. Rainier National Park and within three hours' drive of Mt. Saint Helens. Although in the wilderness, Crystal Mountain is only a two-hour drive from Seattle airport. If you wish, you can take our shuttle bus service to and from, or for greater freedom you can of course rent a car. August is the ideal month for the Cascades: the high snows have largely melted, wildflowers are peaking in the Alpine meadows, weather is fair and in the high 70s F, and twilight remains until about 9:00 PM. In addition, you are invited to participate in a concurrent, informal Summer Institute in Astrobiology on the UW campus in Seattle for any portion of the three-week period Monday 30 July through Friday 17 August. Further details are available at http://depts.washington.edu/astrobio/activities/AB_Conf.html. Astrobiology Conference Program Welcome: J. Baross & W. Sullivan I. HISTORY 1. History of astrobiology (W. Sullivan, UW) II. THE PHYSICAL STAGE 1. Origin of planets, elements, comets, asteroids, meteorites (D. Brownlee, UW) 2. Early Earth history, habitats, biogeochemical markers (D. DesMarais, Ames) 3. History of the Earth's atmosphere (R. Gammon, UW) III. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 1. The origin of life: the crucial issues (R. Shapiro, NYU) 2. Metabolic cycles and the origin of life (G. Cody, Carnegie) 3. The origin of proteins and nucleic acids (S. Benner, Florida) 4. The first cell--assembling the parts (D. Deamer, UCSC) IV. ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF CELLS AND COMMUNITIES 1. The origin and evolution of bacteria and archaea (D. Stahl, UW) 2. The origin and evolution of metabolic pathways (J. Staley, UW) 3. The origin and evolution of eukaryotes (M. Sogin, MBL) 4. Extremophiles and the limits of life (J. Deming/J. Baross, UW) V. LATER EVOLUTION 1. The fossil record (S. Awramik, UCLA) 2. Mass extinctions--resetting the clock (P. Ward, UW) VI. POTENTIALLY HABITABLE PLANETS AND MOONS 1. Mars (B. Jakosky, Colorado) 2. Europa (C. Chyba, SETI Inst.) 3. Titan (J. Lunine, Arizona) 4. Extra-solar planets (P. Butler, DTM) VII. SEARCHING FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE 1. Spacecraft instrumentation (W. Zimmerman/P. Conrad, JPL) 2. Ethical issues in astrobiology (M. Race) 3. Planetary protection: issues regarding sample return (J. Rummel, NASA) 4. SETI (F. Drake, UCSC) VIII. SUMMARY (C. Chyba, SETI Inst.) More information is available at http://depts.washington.edu/astrobio/activities/AB_Conf.html. _____________________________________________________________________ HIDDEN OCEANS COULD STILL SUPPORT LIFE SETI Institute release http://www.seti-inst.edu/general/press_release/hiddenoceans.html 14 June 2001 Could life thrive where the Sun never shines? The answer to this unorthodox question bears directly on the tantalizing possibility that life exists in the hidden, perpetually dark oceans that are thought to shroud some of Jupiter's moons, most prominently Europa. Recent work by Christopher Chyba (SETI Institute) and Kevin Hand (Stanford University) suggests that there may be ways to nourish biology on watery environments where the Sun's rays don't penetrate. The two researchers have published their work in the June 15 issue of Science. "Most surface life on Earth--on land or in the seas--depends on photosynthesis," notes Chyba. "The first link in the food chain is chlorophyll's conversion of sunlight into chemically stored energy. But imagine an ocean on Europa, a huge, bottled-up body of water capped with miles of ice. Photosynthesis isn't going to work there. Nonetheless, there are other ways to make a metabolic living in those dark seas." Recent results from NASA's Galileo spacecraft have strongly suggested the presence of subsurface oceans not only on Europa, but also its sister moons, Callisto and Ganymede. Since liquid water is usually considered a prerequisite for the development of life, these nearby worlds are intriguing locales to search for extraterrestrial biology. However, more than water is required. An energy source is necessary to support life. Chyba and Hand point out that this is usually obtained by oxidation-reduction reactions in which two substances (for example, carbon and oxygen) bond to share an electron, releasing energy during the reaction. An important oxidizing agent in Earth's oceans is molecular oxygen (O2), the product of photosynthesis. But one would expect this to be in short supply in the inky abysses of the Jovian moons. However, Chyba and Hand note that Europa's icy exterior is routinely bombarded with high-speed particles accelerated in Jupiter's magnetosphere. When they slam into the Europan ice, they form oxidants such as H2O2 and O2. If, as could be the case, this surface food supply eventually gets churned into the ocean below, it could provide sustenance to a substantial biomass. "We can't be certain at this point whether the oxidants would actually make it into the water, even over geological time scales," says Chyba. "But if not, there are other mechanisms that might be a source for molecular oxygen in the oceans." One of these is the radioactive decay of a potassium isotope 40K, which would be present in both the ice crust and the liquid water. The decay splits water molecules and produces O2. Although the quantity of oxidant produced in this way is less than could be supplied by the surface effects of charged particles, it would still be enough to support a biosphere. "Obviously, we don't know if life exists on these moons," Chyba emphasizes, "but at least we can say that if the oceans are there, the compounds that could supply energy for life seem likely to be present." Contact: Christopher Chyba, SETI Institute Phone: 650-961-6633 E-mail: chyba@seti.org ____________________________________________________________________________________ MICROBES AND THE DUST THEY RIDE IN ON MAY POSE HEALTH RISK NASA release 01-120 14 June 2001 Potentially hazardous bacteria and fungi catch a free ride across the Atlantic, courtesy of North African dust plumes. NASA-funded researchers who made the discovery believe the stowaway microbes might pose a health risk to people in the western Atlantic region. Dale Griffin, Virginia Garrison, and Eugene Shinn of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Jay Herman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, outline their findings in a paper titled "African Desert Dust in the Caribbean Atmosphere: Microbiology and Public Health." The paper will be published June 14 in the journal Aerobiologia. "The National Institute of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases identifies airborne dust as the primary source of allergic stress worldwide," stated Shinn. "The identification of microbes in transported dust is important as they may be a source of respiratory stress and disease above and beyond that caused by exposure to particulate matter." African dust has produced red-tinged sunsets in south Florida for years. The dust comes every year during northern Africa's dry season, when storm activity in the Sahara Desert region generates clouds of dust. The dust, originating from fine particles in the arid topsoil, is transported into the atmosphere by winds and may be carried more than 10,000 feet high into the atmosphere by easterly trade winds. Typically, it takes 5 to 7 days for the dust clouds to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach the Caribbean and Americas. "The dust events are cyclical," Griffin said. "Studies by other researchers have shown that from February to April, the winds bring an estimated 280,000 tons per event to 13 million tons per year to the Northeastern Amazon Basin. From June to October the winds shift and typically bring dust to North and Central America and the Caribbean." During the peak of the dust season in July 2000, Garrison collected samples of airborne pollutants and dust daily on the island of St. John in the Virgin Islands and sent them to the USGS laboratory in St. Petersburg, FL, for microbial analysis by Griffin. He compared his results with satellite observations tracking dust clouds from North Africa. The air samples with high levels of microbes were collected on the days that NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer satellite instrument observed the African dust sweeping into the region, indicating that the microbes had been transported from Africa. "In the week it takes for North African dust to cross the Atlantic some of the microbes die because of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays of the Sun," said Griffin. "However, microbes in the cracks and crevasses of dust particles may be shielded from UV. We also believe that the upper altitudes of the dust clouds deflect harmful UV rays, shielding microbes at lower altitudes as they are transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, when dust clouds move over open water in lower latitudes, the moderate temperatures and high humidity are known to enhance microbial survival." Florida receives more than 50 percent of all microbe-laden African dust that reaches the United States. Over the last 25 years, dust quantities reaching Miami have increased during periods of African drought. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says these tiny dust particles can penetrate deep into your airways and react with lung tissue. Herman said. "During major dust episodes reaching Florida, there could be a correlation with increased respiratory problems." In addition to the dust itself, even small concentrations of fungal spores can trigger allergic reactions. A study by M. E. Howitt of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados documented a 17-fold increase in asthma attacks in Barbados between 1973 and 1996, corresponding with the increase in African dust transport to the region. Fungi and bacteria that survive the trans-Atlantic journey in dust include bacterial or fungal cultures that do not produce disease mixed with species that do produce disease in both humans and plants. NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Environment and Health Program at Goddard, a cooperative program with local, state, and federal and international institutions funded this research. The initiative uses NASA remote-sensing satellites and other data to investigate the connections between the world's environmental conditions and human health. More information about this research and images can be found on the Internet at: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/toms/microbes.htm http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/african_dust/ Contacts: David E. Steitz Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1730 Cynthia M. O'Carroll Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Phone: 301-614-5563 Carolyn Bell U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA Phone: 703-648-4463 _____________________________________________________________________ IN SEARCH OF ALIEN LASERS By Seth Shostak From Space.com 14 June 2001 Could galactic civilizations be pulsing our planet with high-powered lasers? The idea of communicating with flashes of light may sound archaic, conjuring up visions of cowboys signaling with hand-held mirrors or sailors wielding ship-to-ship telegraphs. And indeed, schemes for using bright lights to establish cosmic contact date back a while. In the mid-nineteenth century, both Karl F. Gauss, the famous German mathematician, and the French polymath, Charles Cros, suggested projects for getting the attention of Martians using lanterns and mirrors. In fact, what makes a beam scheme attractive today is the possibility of using intensely powerful, pulsed lasers. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have built a laser capable of putting out light pulses with a power of 1,000 trillion watts, although the pulses are brief: only a trillionth of a second long. It is called Nova, and it’s not your daddy’s laser pointer. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_lasers_010614.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 18 June 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html M. Paine, 2001. Life's rocky road between planets. SpaceDaily. Articles about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html S. Shostak, 2001. In search of alien lasers. Space.com. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 7-13 June 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Tuesday, June 12. 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/. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) team successfully completed four tests of modified flight software (FSW) on the instrument testbed using the VIMS Ground Support Equipment. Commands from the four tests were translated into a single set of commands for testing in the Integration and Test Laboratory (ITL). That testing exercised 73 combinations of parameters while doing regression and new capability testing. Results were posted on the Telemetry Delivery System for use by Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) during their testing of VIMS Ground Software in MIPL. Those results are under analysis. An Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) flight software glitch related to the numbering of Instrument Expanded Blocks led to powering down the instrument as a precautionary measure. A patch will be uploaded as part of a planned mini-sequence next week. The ISS team completed analysis of ITL tests with the ISS engineering models to verify documented IEB load sizes and other behavior. The results will be influence the current FSW upgrades and will aid in documenting the ISS response to certain conditions. Modifications and tests of the new ISS flight software continue on the IO instrument testbed. The Sequence Team held both a simulation coordination meeting and simulation walk-through in support of ITL testing for C27, and the tests executed successfully later in the week. There was also a preliminary Sequence Change Request approval meeting in support of the C27 Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation phase. An Atmospheres Working Group teleconference was held to discuss the possible trajectory changes proposed by the Huygens Recovery Task Force. An Apoapsis Splinter Group teleconference was held to work the integration issues associated with the apoapsis periods in the Tour. System Engineering (SE) distributed the Verification and Validation plan for review pending signature. The Mission Planning Team delivered the Mission Plan, Revision M, to the Cassini Electronic Library, and reviewed trade studies across all Cassini elements in the Mission Planning forum to organize, prioritize and assign responsibility for those studies to the appropriate element. Cassini Uplink Operations supported the X2000/Advanced Technology and Autonomy for the Future program, providing a large test file for testing of a new "smart" board X2000 is testing for onboard processing or routing of command files. X200 needed a file with a large number of Command Link Transmission Units to check performance, which Cassini was able to supply. Mission Support & Services Office (MSSO) is working with Cassini Security, JPL Security, and Building 230 Management in developing a Remedy-based tool for Space Flight Operations Facility (SFOF) access status. MSSO is collecting information and requirements from Building 230 Management and will do the same with JPL Security at a later date. Cassini benefits from participating in this activity by helping to define and understand the rules and requirements for SFOS access with the goal of minimizing building access delays and improve physical security monitoring. MSSO ACE command procedure has been updated to reflect the Program's dependence upon institutionally- provided AFS servers. This update includes an advisory message for users of the system. The SE team presented the Ground System software inventory and classification status at the Cassini Design Team meeting. All the Ground System software classifications have been reviewed, with the majority of the program classifications accepted and further discussion planned for the few remaining programs. The required types of documentation for each classification level was discussed, and initial coordination made for reviewing the documentation for each program. Outreach personnel represented Cassini at a workshop in Charleston, South Carolina that focused on the use of existing and future NASA materials in classrooms for the visually and hearing impaired. Cassini Outreach also spoke to 225 students, teachers, and parents participating in the U.S. Aerospace Challenge rocketry competition in Holland, Michigan. 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. _____________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 13 June 2001 Launch/Days since Launch = November 7, 1996/1680 days Start of Mapping/Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999/804 days Total Mapping Orbits = 10,129 Total Orbits = 11,812 Recent events The spacecraft is operating nominally in performing the beta- supplement daily recording and transmission of science data. The mm146 sequence executed successfully from 01-158 (6/7/01) through 01- 160 (6/09/01). The mm147 sequence has performed well since it started on 01-161 (6/10/01). It terminates on 01-164 (6/13/01). The mm148 sequence, successfully uplinked on 01-163 (6/12/01), begins executing on 01-165 (6/14/01). Nine more Roll Only Targeted Observations (ROTOs) were performed since the last report. MGS has completed 126 ROTOs to date. Spacecraft health All subsystems report good health and status. Uplinks There have been 18 uplinks to the spacecraft during the past week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, instrument command loads, the background sequences cited above, and ROTO mini-sequences mz107 & mz108. There have been 5,437 command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch. Upcoming events DOY 01-172 (6/21/01) marks the end of the beta-supplement phase and the beginning of the nominal mapping phase of the mission. Planetary and orbital geometry will allow the HGA to auto-track the Earth without impacting the HGA boom. Nominal mapping sequences will not be as command intensive as the beta-supplement sequences. Therefore, 28-day background sequences will be the norm instead of the 3- and 4- day beta-supplement sequences. Another MGS Mars Relay On-orbit UHF Test will be conducted with Stanford University between 01-177 (6/26/01) and 01-179 (6/28/01). MOLA Polar Scans are scheduled for 01-193 (7/12/01) and 01-194 (7/13/01). _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 15 June 2001 The Stardust spacecraft is in excellent health. There was one Deep Space Network tracking pass this past week and all subsystems are performing normally. The Navigation Camera and the Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) continue to provide excellent observations of their targets. CIDA continues to observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal spacecraft attitude when not in communication with Earth. The Comet Wild 2 encounter background star images were downlinked and are being analyzed for geometric accuracy and stray light. At this distance from the Sun and at this attitude, no stray light is expected in the short exposures used for Comet Wild 2 flyby. A final non-contaminated image will be taken in early July, ending the navigation camera's characterization. The camera's performance is excellent. A flight software patch to increase the message queue size for the science instrument software was successfully installed on the spacecraft. 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 23.