MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 24, 25 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) A PREGNANCY TEST FOR MARS By Roberta Friedman 2) DUTCH MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE A GREAT SUCCESS Mars Society release 3) MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION TO DEBUT AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Mars Society release 4) EUROPA: CHEWY OR CRUNCHY? By Lee Siegel 5) NASA SELECTS RESEARCH PROPOSALS IN CELLULAR AND MACROMOLECULAR BIOTECHNOLOGY NASA release 01-126 6) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 7) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 8) ISS STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 9) MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 10) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ A PREGNANCY TEST FOR MARS By Roberta Friedman From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 18 June 2001 The test that tells women they are pregnant might also be able to find signs of living organisms on Mars. Dave McKay at the Johnson Space Center and British environmental microbiologist Andrew Steele-- both are members of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)--together with their collaborators, are eager to test the feasibility of this method for finding life's footprints on the Red Planet. As presented by Steele and his colleagues at this year's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, the approach, which depends on the ability of the immune system to detect invaders, would involve a tiny biochip packed with thousands of antibodies that could be launched on a flight to Mars. The antibodies would recognize molecules of living organisms, the way that home pregnancy tests have harnessed antibodies to detect the hormones produced when a human embryo implants in the womb. The proposal for the Mars Immunoassay Life Detection Instrument (MILDI) includes crosschecks to screen for potential contaminants from Earth or even from rocket fuels that could cloud the results. It's also conceivable that the proposed instrument could result in a false negative: it could miss forms of life different enough from terrestrial life that we simply can't imagine how to design a detector for them. Steele thinks such a result is unlikely. The project, he says, is based " on the assumption that Mars has the same prebiotic chemicals as Earth." Therefore, Steele contends, "you would expect that there would be some parallels in simple chemistry of any Martian organism" to that of terrestrial organisms. The proposed instrument will use antibodies that recognize what astrobiologists propose are the most likely molecular signatures of life. This will include not only signatures of organisms alive today, but fossil remnants of past life as well. In experiments performed here on Earth, antibodies are able to sniff out the presence of extremely stable chemical fragments left from simple ancient life forms. Antibodies are experts at detecting the shapes of molecules, says Steele. The match of the shapes of the foreign antigen to the body's sentinel antibodies allows the two to stick together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. In Steele's experiment, the antibodies are designed to fluoresce when they encounter a matching antigen. Scientists can design custom, highly targeted antibodies, called monoclonals, to many molecules these days. The key to finding out if Mars contains life now or did so in the past is to figure out what molecules are likely to be present in any living thing. Porphyrins are one such group of molecules, says Steele. Life anywhere "is going to have some sort of electron transport or energy harnessing system. The common ones on Earth are based on porphyrins," which have very specific shapes. "No life on this planet can do without porphyrins," Steele says, "they are an unambiguous marker for life and essential to metabolism. The carbon-based ring of a porphyrin carries oxygen in the bloodstream as part of the hemoglobin molecule, and also allows plants to capture sunlight's energy with their chloroplasts. Even rudimentary bacteria swarming in the seas on Earth contain the porphyrin ring." The specifics of porphyrin-like molecules could be different on Mars, he adds, but their shapes should be conserved and should be detectable by the appropriate panel of antibodies. Citing another example, Steele says, "it does not matter what chemicals an extraterrestrial organism has chosen for its genetic makeup, as long as it forms a double helix of the same proportions we can potentially get a positive reaction with an Earth-based antibody." Hopanes, a remnant of cell walls left behind by ancient bacteria that lived on Earth up to 2.7 billion years ago, would be another class of molecules to scan for with the antibody panel, Steele says. "It's a fossil" left in the petrochemical deposits within Earth, "a geological biomarker for life." To perform the test, samples of Martian soil gathered by a lander could be extracted and applied to the chip, which would be illuminated by a UV laser light and read by a small camera. Numbered spots containing fluorescent antibodies would tell if sought-for substances were present. Up to 10,000 test spots per square inch can be applied with the technology, which is presently being used to study the Earth's genomes. The entire detector could be ten by ten centimeters. Other tests, some included on the spacecraft, some kept back on Earth, would use independent methods, including some not based on antibodies, to verify the MILDI's reports. Potential and pitfalls Greg Schmidt, head of the Astrobiology Integration Office at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, says the approach "has enormous potential, provided that it is sensitive enough. They clearly have a plan of testing this in relevant environments. I think it is the right approach." Schmidt speculates that such an instrument might fly on the Mars suite planned for 2007. Schmidt cautions that the samples might need to be drilled from below the Martian surface, and there is no agreement yet on how deeply to drill. "Oxidants in the upper part of Martian soil would likely destroy most organics that happen to be there," Schmidt notes. Pamela Conrad, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Center for Life Detection in Pasadena, California, says that with the antibody strategy, "you can think about what life is, and what life does... what products life makes, and how you can recognize them." Yet there still is no consensus among astrobiologists on what molecules to look for to determine life, Conrad emphasizes. Antibody detectors are just one of a number of strategies under investigation. "I advocate as many approaches as possible," Conrad says, and while she thinks the antibody approach is worth investigating, she emphasizes that NASA needs to be developing other methods to detect life as well. "I'm interested in seeing that we avoid Earth-centric bias" as to what will constitute life elsewhere than on Earth, Conrad says. She is confident that astrobiologists can find "the least common denominator" of life, and it will be "something arranged some way in three dimensions." As compared to a rock, or water, or the gases of a planetary atmosphere, she says, "the chemistry that makes up life is going to look different." Firouz Naderi, the Mars Exploration Program Manager at JPL, says that the Mars Immunoassay is part of NASA's objectives to look for life on Mars in multiple ways, both on the planet itself, and in samples brought to Earth. "We may be looking for water, either ancient or present," or minerals as an indicator of water, and NASA also plans to bring Martian soil samples back to Earth by the end of the decade. "But also, we will invest some in in-situ life detection... [with] small enough laboratories that are flyable to the surface of Mars." What's next The Mars immunoassay project is now going to begin proof of concept. Steele is collaborating with Victor Parro at the Spanish astrobiology group, Centro de Astrobiologia, who have developed a DNA and protein array maker and reader. Along with Mary Schweitzer at Montana State University and at Portsmouth University in the UK, the team is putting proposed antibodies through testing against samples of pristine fossil bacterial biofilms already characterized by other methods. Oceaneering Space Systems in Houston is engineering the proposed instrument. Once verified, the antibodies will be put into an array. The team then intends to test whether the assay can detect the life forms present in extreme environments on Earth. These tests would include microbes from the geothermal hot springs at Yellowstone and the frozen terrain of Antarctica. Steele encourages interested collaborators to suggest available antibodies that would be appropriate to include on a mission to Mars. More information on this article is available at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?page=pregnant_mars. _____________________________________________________________________ DUTCH MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE A GREAT SUCCESS Mars Society release 18 June 2001 Mars--Living Planet, the first symposium organized by the Dutch chapter of the Mars Society, was a tremendous success. Around 150 people gathered in the Auditorium of Delft University of Technology on June 2nd 2001. Visitors came from all over the country and also from Belgium and from as far as Poland. Erwin Kroll, the Dutch National weatherman, started the series of lectures with a Martian weather report. Mauro Messerotti gave a further introduction to the Red Planet, by means of his animations and stills. The highlight of his talk was a movie previously shown on Italian television, which was accompanied by music generated by the conversion of the used digital Elevation Models. Messerotti also offered a peek in the kitchen by simulating a session rendering a three dimensional view of the Mars surface with VistaPro software and Viking data. Other renderings done by Kees Veenenbos, with Terragen and Global Surveyor data, were shown during breaks. John Karemaker, researcher at the University of Amsterdam, gave an in-depth and somewhat disquieting account of all hazards long distance Space travelers are confronted with: by zero-gravity health effects. The only real solution, it seems, is in creating artificial gravity, like the tether-system proposed in the Mars Direct plan. After lunch, attention focused on the European efforts to study Mars. Don McCoy, responsible for the assembly, integration and verification of Mars Express, Europe's first interplanetary probe, spoke about the general objectives of the project and the techniques used to achieve them. The ESA-spacecraft, scheduled for launch on June 1st 2003, has a wide variety of instruments on board, such as a High Resolution Stereo Camera, an Infrared and Visible Spectrometer and a Sub-surface Sounding Radar/Altimeter. Mars Express also carries a British lander, the four leaf clover-shaped Beagle 2, that should touch down in Isidis Planitia to look for signs of water and life. Con McCarthy, principal system engineer for the Beagle 2, spoke about the experiments to be carried out on board that little spacecraft. The most noticeable instrument aboard the Beagle 2 is a mole, designed to take samples from nearby rocks. The third ESA- speaker, Didier Schmitt, head of the organization's Life Sciences Unit, talked about the European plans for planetary research beyond 2003. Those ideas, though still in a schematic phase, are quite ambitious and include a sample return mission and even research in preparation for a manned mission to Mars. Following the ESA speakers, Robert Zubrin presented Mars Direct, his proposal for a cost-effective manned Mars mission. Chris McKay, working at NASA Ames Research Center, then talked about "Life on Mars--past and future". According to McKay, there's strong evidence that Mars once was a warm and wet planet, much like Earth in its early days. Life, either related to terrestrial life forms or representing a true "second genesis" may have flourished there. Research in the Antarctic and other cold and dry locations on Earth may provide clues to how that life might have survived the change in Martian climate. A question of equal importance is whether it might be possible to restore habitable conditions on the Planet. The whole series of lectures took more than one hour longer than foreseen but the attention of the audience never wavered. "Mission control", the symposium taskforce of the Dutch chapter, looks back at a very inspiring event, after which organizing the 2002 European Mars Society Convention definitely looks feasible. The symposium caused a wave of attention for Mars in both old and new media. John Karemaker, one of the speakers, was interviewed in NCRV's "Plein Publiek" on radio AM 747 and Mars Society Netherlands board member Artemis Westenberg appeared in AVRO's "1 in de middag" on radio 1. During the symposium-day most of the speakers were interviewed by the Dutch World Service. Among the major National and regional newspapers that paid attention to the event were De Volkskrant, the Haagsche Courant and Het Parool. The Haagse Courant borrowed our slogan "Voorwaarts Mars!" (on to Mars) as a headline. Govert Schilling wrote an extensive article for the front page of De Volkskrant's science section of June 2nd. Schilling, who in the past often criticized human Space flight, this time wrote an almost poetic review about Zubrin's and McKay's dreams: "Mars will be a living Planet. A dream? Still. But you've got to start somewhere." Apart from web sites specializing in Space flight and science, like Astronet and Astronova, also major internet-portals like Planet internet and World Online picked up the story of "Mars--Living Planet"; the latter even published the complete Founding Declaration of the Mars Society. Another new media that during the weeks before the symposium attracted the attention of the public to the Red Planet were the large master-screens in the Shopping Gutter, Rotterdam's famous shopping Mall. More than a million shoppers were treated to animation composed of renderings by Kees Veenenbos. ________________________________________________________________________________ MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION TO DEBUT AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Mars Society release 18 June 2001 The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) will be exhibited at Kennedy Space Center visitor's complex this summer, prior to being moved to a permanent location in the American Southwest. The MDRS represents the second in a planned series of four analog stations that will be used for research into Mars mission operations and for outreach to the general public. Along with the hab itself, The Mars Society has prepared an extensive exhibit detailing tools and concepts for exploration of Mars. Space Artist Bob Murray has created an inspirational mural to enhance the exhibit, illustrating the transformation of a first human outpost into a true Mars settlement. The exhibit will also include a Mars base diorama, created by noted space modeler Kevin Atkins, and include interactive exhibits, such as one offering visitors the opportunity to attempt mechanical assembly while wearing simulated spacesuit gloves. As a special attraction, for an hour once a day the communication center in the exhibit tent will give visitors the opportunity to communicate with the Mars explorers who will be operating out of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island this summer. All communication will include time delays precisely matching those that would be involved in radio transmissions to Mars' current position. Mars Society member volunteers and personnel from the sponsoring unions will staff the exhibit. The Mars Society exhibit will run from July 1st through the Labor Day weekend. The Kennedy Space Center visitor's complex is open from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM every day. In addition to the Mars Society exhibit, the center provides a fascinating tour of rocket and space related history. The visitor's center receives up to 12,000 visitors per day, so we are thrilled to be a part of this exciting venue. For more information on the MDRS exhibit, contact mzubrin@aol.com. To become a sponsor of the Mars Desert Research Station, contact Dr. Robert Zubrin, The Mars Society Inc., P.O. Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454. Construction of the MDRS has been sponsored by the Mars Society, the International Pipe fitters Union and the Musk Foundation. The Mars Society is proud to welcome its newest sponsor, the Sheet Metal Worker's International Association. ________________________________________________________________________________ EUROPA: CHEWY OR CRUNCHY? By Lee Siegel From the NASA Astrobiology Institute 22 June 2001 For geophysicist William B. Moore, the question of whether life exists on Jupiter's moon Europa boils down to whether the moon's center is chewy or crunchy. Many scientists doubt life can exist on Europa's surface because of extreme cold, lack of liquid water, the tenuous atmosphere and intense bombardment from Jupiter's radiation belts. Moore believes distant Europa receives too little sunlight to provide the energy needed for organisms to thrive on its apparently icy surface. Others argue the chemical energy needed for life is created when charged particles bombard Europa to produce oxidants. Nevertheless, says Moore, Europa's surface "would be a very difficult place to make a living." If Europan life exists at all it would most likely be found within an ocean beneath the ice, where organisms could get energy and mineral nutrients from eruptions of seafloor volcanoes, says Moore, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, and member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. If Europa has a hot, "chewy" center--that is, relatively low viscosity--it would be similar to the soft, partly molten interior of Jupiter's moon Io, which is the most spectacularly volcanic body in the solar system. So Moore says a "chewy" Europa likely would have seafloor volcanoes producing conditions conducive to life--just like the undersea volcanoes and hydrothermal vents along Earth's mid-ocean ridges. If Europa has a cold, "crunchy" center--with high viscosity- -it would be rigid and volcanically dead like Earth's moon. Undersea volcanoes and life would be improbable, says Moore. Moore argues Europa must either be chewy or crunchy--and nothing in between-- because of the way it orbits Jupiter and interacts with Io and Ganymede, two of the three other major moons discovered independently in 1610 by astronomers Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius. Radioactive decay is one potential source of internal heat for planetary and lunar bodies. But, Moore says, it is inadequate to cause volcanism in a body as small as Europa, which at 3,138 kilometers (1,950 miles) in diameter is a bit smaller than Earth's moon. Still, internal melting and volcanism could be triggered by tidal forces, namely, the gravitational pull from Jupiter, Io and Ganymede. Moore plans to conduct computer simulations of the rates at which Europa and the other Galilean moons orbit Jupiter to find out if the orbits are consistent with a chewy or crunchy center for Europa--and thus with possible life or no life. "I anticipate in the next three to six months we will have some pretty solid results," said Moore, who is working on the project with UCLA postdoctoral researcher Ferenc Varadi and graduate student Susanna Musotto. If the simulation uses a crunchy Europa, and the result looks like the existing orbits of Jupiter's moons, that would tend to confirm Europa indeed is crunchy or volcanically dead, Moore says. The same would be true if a simulation with a chewy Europa resulted in orbits radically different than seen today, he added. If, however, a computer simulation with a chewy Europa results in orbits that resemble reality, "then we just don't know" what it means, Moore says. So he says his experiment is a negative test-- able to identify a Europa that is crunchy and thus volcanically dead, but not capable of proving it is chewy and volcanically active. Indeed, if simulations using either a chewy or crunchy Europa both resulted in orbits that looked like reality, it would raise questions about the extent to which the orbits were influenced by Europa's internal viscosity. "In principle, what he [Moore] is saying makes sense," says Hal Levison, staff scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO. Whether the viscosity of Europa's center "has a big enough effect to be measurable or not remains to be seen. But it's a great experiment to be doing." Moore doubts there is life on Europa, but "I don't have good science to back myself on that yet. That's what I'm trying to do." Along with Mars and Saturn's moon Titan, Europa long has been considered one of the most likely places for life in our solar system, largely because of the ocean believed to exist under its icy outer shell. But Moore contends the presence of seafloor volcanism as a source of energy and nutrients is far more important than water in determining if Europa might harbor life. Europa, Io and Ganymede are influenced by tidal forces because their orbits around Jupiter are slightly oval-shaped or "eccentric" instead of perfectly circular. Those moons orbit Jupiter in what is called a Laplace resonance, which means "every time Ganymede goes around once, Europa goes around twice and Io goes around four times," Moore says. "This means they keep meeting up at the same place over and over again." Tidal forces from that resonance tend to "pump" the orbits of Ganymede, Europa and Io so they become more oval-shaped. It is "just like if you push a kid on swing at the high point of his swing," Moore says. "He keeps going higher and higher because you are pushing at the time you can speed him up." The moons tend to return to more circular orbits by wobbling to dissipate tidal energy internally, which produces heat. Tides occur not only in oceans, but also in solid rock--even on Earth. Moore says other researchers have estimated that Europa gets only seven percent of the tidal "squishing and squeezing" that Io receives because Europa is farther from Jupiter. How well that tidal energy heats up Europa's interior depends on the viscosity of material within Europa. "The chewier [less viscous] something is, the more efficiently this squishing and squeezing turn into heat," Moore says. In contrast, Earth's moon "is getting squished and squeezed by tides due to the Earth, but it is not volcanically active," he adds. "It is not dissipating tidal energy [as heat] because it's a cold, crunchy [viscous] object." Although tidal forces on the moon are smaller than tidal forces on Europa, Moore says the amount of force exerted on each moon is not the critical factor. Rather, a chewy object like Io will warm up due to tidal "squishing and squeezing" while a crunchy object like the moon will not, he says. Previous pencil-and-paper mathematical calculations of the orbits of Jupiter's moons assumed a solid or crunchy interior for Europa--with little heating due to tidal forces. Moore says his computer simulations will try to determine if those assumptions are valid. "Hopefully, the results can either say definitively that Europa is crunchy, or they say nothing," he says. Moore says his computer simulation will be more complex, with fewer assumptions, than previous mathematical calculations. For example, earlier calculations assumed lunar orbits were perfectly elliptical; his computer simulations will include minor "bulges" in those ellipses induced by the fact gravity from more than two objects is involved. But "the major difference will be that I will try out this alternative case--a chewy Europa--that simply was skipped before," he adds. A crunchy Europa should produce orbits that resemble reality and earlier calculations; a chewy Europa should be closer to circular to stay in resonance with Io and Ganymede, and thus would not resemble reality. Moore's effort to use computer modeling to determine whether Europa is crunchy and dead or chewy and perhaps volcanically active "is subject to a lot of uncertainty" and unlikely to give a definitive answer, says planetary scientist Paul Geissler of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. One uncertainty is how any silicate rock beneath Europa's presumed ocean behaves when squeezed by tides. Another is the possibility that there are changes over time in how Io, Europa and Ganymede "push" on each other--changes that could make Europa's rocky interior either hot or cool, Geissler adds. "Computer modeling is the best we can do right now," Geissler says. "But in the long run, the answer is going to come from further observation." What's next NASA hopes to launch a Europa Orbiter mission in 2008, with the primary goal of determining if there indeed is a global, subsurface ocean. But as far as whether Europa is chewy, volcanic and conducive to life, "it won't be able to determine much," Moore says. "The Europa Orbiter is stuck on the outside looking in. The ice blocks observation of the rocky interior, and the ocean prevents you from sensing much about the interior" because it allows the rocky interior and icy shell to move independently under tidal forces. Geissler, however, says the Europa Orbiter's radar sounding device should be able to detect a reflected radar echo from an ice-ocean boundary if the ice is only a few miles thick. If Europa is volcanically dead, the ice should be tens of miles thick. But Geissler believes a thin shell of ice would be evidence of heat rising from a volcanically active seafloor, preventing formation of thicker ice. More information on this article is available at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?page=chewy. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA SELECTS RESEARCH PROPOSALS IN CELLULAR AND MACROMOLECULAR BIOTECHNOLOGY NASA release 01-126 22 June 2001 NASA has selected 43 researchers to receive grants totaling approximately $27 million over four years to conduct biotechnology research on Earth and in space. This research will create knowledge in important areas of biotechnology such as tissue engineering, gene expression and biosensor technology. Sponsored by NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research, this research offers investigators the opportunity to take advantage of the low-gravity environment of space and develop experiments for the International Space Station. Twenty-three of the selected proposals are to conduct research in cellular biotechnology including projects on tissue engineering, gene expression and bioanalytical technologies. Twenty of the selected proposals are to conduct research in macromolecular biotechnology including projects on challenging problems in structural biology, artificial biomembranes and membrane proteins. Fourteen of the selected proposals are for the continuation of work currently being funded by NASA, but the majority (29) represent new research efforts. NASA received 225 proposals in response to its research announcement in this research area. These proposals were all peer-reviewed by scientific and technical experts from academia, government and industry. A list of the selected principal investigators, institutions, and research titles (by state) can be found on the Internet at ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-126a.txt. Contact: Renee Juhans Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1712 _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 25 June 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html C. F. Chyba and K. P. Hand, 2001. Life without photosynthesis. Science, 292(5524):2026. SpaceDaily, 2001. Hidden oceans on Jupiter's moons could support life. SpaceDaily. Articles about the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html NASA Science News, 2001. Mobile homes for microbes. NASA Science News. National Research Council, 1990. The Search for Life's Origins: Progress and Future Directions in Planetary Biology and Chemical Evolution. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html SpaceDaily, 2001. Xybernaut's wearable computers to be trialed for Mars explorers. SpaceDaily. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 14-20 June 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, June 20. 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/. Recent spacecraft activities included two clears of the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem (AACS) high water mark, a Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) Low Energy Magnetospheric Measurement Subsystem exercise, and a Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) high frequency receiver calibration. A Periodic Engineering Maintenance activity was also conducted, which included exercising the Engine Gimbal Assembly and routine maintenance on both the Reaction Wheel Assembly #4 and Backup ALF Injector Loader. Additionally, a test of the Huygens Probe S-Band transmitter was performed, which included checking performance of both the A and B chains of the Probe Support Avionics. The Sequence Virtual Team has begun preparations for sequence testing in the Integration Test Laboratory in support of the C27 Probe mute test. The Cassini Program Science Group began a week-long meeting in Oxford, England. In addition to science discipline working group meetings and instrument reports, topics of discussion include progress of the Huygens Recovery Task Force and Science Operations Plan development. The Mission Planning team began a detailed assessment of Titan flyby minimum altitudes. Use of reaction wheel and thruster control, and the resulting hydrazine consumption are among the topics to be considered. 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. _____________________________________________________________________ ISS STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 20 June 2001 After an extensive engineering analysis, International Space Station Program managers Tuesday gave the green light to proceed with the launch of Atlantis no earlier than July 12 to deliver the 6.5-ton Joint Airlock to the orbiting complex. The decision to launch Atlantis in July came after several reviews in which teams of engineers from NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and its prime robotics contractor--MD Robotics--concluded that a communications error between the Canadarm2's shoulder pitch joint and the arm's main computer commanding unit was attributable to an intermittent problem with a computer chip in the joint's electronic system and not a problem with joint itself. As a result, Canadian engineers are completing the development of a software patch to be uplinked to Canadarm2 which will "tell" the arm to ignore similar erroneous communications from the chip which might occur as the arm moves the Airlock from Atlantis' cargo bay for its installation onto the Unity module. The arm is, in reality, functioning perfectly in both its prime and redundant modes for all seven joints since the one and only communications dropout occurred several weeks ago in the shoulder pitch joint's redundant string of electronics. Expedition Two Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms are scheduled to complete a second dress rehearsal of the Airlock installation task Thursday using the arm in its prime mode. The arm performed perfectly in its backup mode last week during an initial dry run. With the arm having been declared in good shape and ready to support Airlock installation operations, Shuttle Program managers ordered Atlantis to roll to Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday morning. The rollout today was postponed due to lightning in the area overnight. Managers will meet at KSC on June 28 in the traditional Flight Readiness Review to set a firm launch date for Atlantis. Discovery, also in the Vehicle Assembly Building, remains on track to roll out to Launch Pad 39-A next week to support a launch no earlier than August 5 on the STS-105 mission to deliver the Expedition Three crew to the ISS and to bring food, clothing and logistical supplies to the outpost. Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev, Voss and Helms continued a variety of science investigations this with more than 17 hours of experiment work budgeted for the crew. Oversight from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, except for the Human Research Facility, which is monitored and controlled from the Telescience Support Center (TSC) at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. For details on ISS science, visit the http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov. The International Space Station is orbiting at an altitude averaging 240 miles (385 km). The next ISS Status Report will be issued Wednesday, June 27, or as mission events warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 18 June 2001 NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is in excellent health as engineers continue to check out and evaluate the performance of its systems and science instruments during its early cruise phase. Friday morning, June 15, flight controllers successfully conducted a visible imaging calibration test of the thermal emission imaging system by pointing the instrument at a star, Menkent, and taking several pictures. Those data were transmitted to Earth during the weekend. Also last week, engineers began a process of heating the gamma ray spectrometer detector in order to erase radiation damage that has naturally occurred to the detector thus far during cruise. The detector will then be in an optimal state to collect science data once the gamma sensor head door is opened later this month. Earlier this month, engineers successfully tested the UHF radio system by sending and receiving data via the 46-meter UHF antenna at Stanford University in California. The team is continuing to review the data from those tests and plans to conduct additional tests this week. The Deep Space Network has taken several measurements using the delta differential one-way range measurement, a technique that uses two ground stations to determine the angular position of the spacecraft relative to the known position of a quasar. The measurements provide the navigation team with an additional source of information, adding confidence to their estimates of the Odyssey flight path. Currently, Odyssey is 26.6 million kilometers (16.5 million miles) from Earth, traveling at a speed of 27.6 kilometers per second (about 61,900 miles per hour) relative to the Sun. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Odyssey mission 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. The thermal emission imaging system is provided by Arizona State University, the gamma ray spectrometer is provided by the University of Arizona. Contact: Mary Hardin, 818-354-0344 ________________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 22 June 2001 The Stardust spacecraft continues in excellent health. There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass this past week on June 14, and all subsystems are performing normally. The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) instrument continues to observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal attitude when the spacecraft is not communication with the Earth. Ten of sixteen encounter Guide Star images, taken on June 8, were downlinked during our pass on June 14. The image quality remains excellent and there is no sign of re-contamination. Last November's solar flare prompted a re-examination of the impacts if the spacecraft remains in Sun coning for an extended duration. The analysis showed that after approximately fifteen days the Sun could drift off to where maintaining power would be a concern. A new block, correcting this, was sent to the spacecraft during the DSN pass. This block (STU) will determine if the spacecraft is in Sun coning due to safe mode entry. If that is the case, the block will cause re-entry into safe mode after fifteen days, which will result in the Sun knowledge being updated. The Stardust Outreach Office is in the process of negotiating Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with Space Explorers, Inc. in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for use of aerogel in the upcoming November launch of the Space Shuttle to the Space Station. Aerogel will be used as insulation in an electronic cooling device that will allow 600 to 700 students from Chicago and Wisconsin areas to conduct biological experiments. Stardust Outreach also attended and supported the 2001 Travis Air Show at Travis Air Fore Base in Vacaville, California June 15-17. Approximately 200,000 were in attendance at the air show. The San Gabriel Valley Boy Scouts have selected the Stardust spacecraft and mission as the best representation of their area chapter. The group developed an arm patch for their uniform that will be "traded" at the National Jamboree in July in Washington DC, in which 40,000 boy scouts from throughout the United States will participate. Area troops will conduct presentations on the Stardust mission to local and state chapters. Nike Corp. recently contacted Stardust regarding uses of aerogel. Nike is considering exploring the possibilities of using aerogel in products as an insulator. Terrance Mason of the Commericalization Office and Steve Jones are meeting with Nike development personnel to discuss possibilities. 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 24.