MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 34, 10 September 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 monthly 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) BIOLOGICAL VON NEUMANN MACHINES By Ivo Renkema 2) EARTH'S BECOMING A GREENER GREENHOUSE NASA release 01-178 3) MARS SOCIETY LAUNCHES TRANSLIFE MISSION PROJECT Mars Society release 4) HUMAN HABITATS AT MARS: DEFENDING AGAINST CONTAMINATION By Leonard David 5) WHY MICROBES MATTER By David M. Warmflash 6) WIDE AWAKE IN OUTER SPACE By Karen Miller 7) MIRCORP REACHES AGREEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORLD'S FIRST PRIVATE SPACE STATION MirCorp release 8) CONFERENCE AND EXHIBIT ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UTILIZATION - 2001 NASA release 9) RNA BASED LIFE CONFERENCE Indiana University release 10) ANTARCTIC PLANTS RESIST OZONE HOLE From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 11) DEVON ISLAND EXPERIMENT UNLOCKS SECRETS OF LIVING ON MARS By Leonard David 12) MORE SUPPORT FOR LIFE ON MARS? By Fraser Cain 13) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 14) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 15) ISS STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 16) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ BIOLOGICAL VON NEUMANN MACHINES By Ivo Renkema 4 September 2001 Let us consider the following dates, where t is time in years: 1. birth of the universe, t = 0 2. birth of first generation stars, t = 1x109 2. super-nova’s of first generation stars enrich the interstellar space, t = 1x109 + 1x106 3. birth of our sun and the planet earth, t = 7x109 4. birth of life on earth, t = 9x109 5. birth of science and technique, t = 12x109 6. travel in space, t = 12x109 + 2,500 7. building the Von Neumann machine, t = 12x109 + 3,500 8. Von Neumann machine colonizes the first planet t = 12x109 + 4,500 9. building the first derivative Von Neumann machine, t = 12x109 + 5,000 10. building the second derivative Von Neumann machine, t = 12x109 + 10,000 Based on current scientific theories, a concise report on the universe, the origins of life and intelligence: 12 billion years ago the universe apparently had a very limited size (the Big Bang), and while expanding, cooled to a point where protons and electrons coupled to form atoms: hydrogen and helium. Besides hydrogen and helium, no other atoms were formed at this stage. As the expansion continued, the circumstances for stellar birth came into existence. The first stars were born out of hydrogen and helium clouds. The giants of these stars exploded as supernovae in about a million years after birth. Their supernova explosions enriched interstellar space with atoms such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. We assume that life without carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen is impossible, and that life is not possible without earth-like planets. On the observation that 99.7% of the torque of our sun and planetary system is in the rotation of the planets, we assume that all sun-like have planetary systems, and that a fair amount has earth-like planets, capable of harboring life. We therefore suppose that planets like earth are abundant in our galaxy. We observe that the first second generation G-stars (with planets that could harbor life) will have come into existence after 1 billion years. They needed to be born from interstellar space that was already enriched with carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. However, our sun was born about 7 billion years after the origin of the universe. This 6 billion years gap is crucial in our theory, for reasons I will explain below. We know that life has evolved on our planet, and that it took around 3 billion years to evolve into intelligent life. Science has flourished only recently (approx. 300 years) and we are capable of limited space travel as we speak. Let us look at the future of space travel. Firstly, space is overwhelmingly spacious. Secondly, the conditions of space are very hostile to evolved, intelligent life forms. Therefore, it remains doubtful whether we will ever be able to travel space to another earth-like planet. Von Neumann came up with the Von Neumann machine. In this context, I will refer to it as the classical, mechanical Von Neumann machine--a machine that is capable of interstellar travel. Upon arrival on a planet, the Von Neumann machine will mine for the materials it is made of. It will then duplicate itself, say 10,000 times. These 10,000 Von Neumann machines will then be launched into space, each in a different direction, searching for new planets to "procreate". The number of Von Neumann machines in the galaxy would grow exponentially with time. In this way, the entire galaxy/universe could be colonized in a fairly limited time, probably thousands rather than millions of years. However, even as science progresses, it remains doubtful whether building a Von Neumann machine will prove possible. Another observation casts doubts on the possibility to ever build a Von Neumann machine. Earth-like planets that could harbor life will have been born 6 billion years before earth. If life originated on these planets, we may suppose that on some these planets, life evolved similar to life on earth. This means that about 3 billion years later (at t = 4.109), intelligent life might build the first Von Neumann machine. If the first Von Neumann machine was build around t = 4.109, it would take only a very limited time (say, one million years) to colonize the entire galaxy. At the present moment, t = 12.109, one might expect the universe to be teeming with Von Neumann machines, and we should be frequent witnesses of the arrival of Von Neumann machines on earth. I suppose that such an event would be hard to either miss or mistake. Casting flying saucers aside, I believe that Von Neumann machines are not currently visiting us. This implies that one of the below suppositions is not true: - life is born on other (earlier) planets than earth, - life evolved into intelligent life, - intelligent life eventually succeeds in building Von Neumann machines. This is in an interesting observation in itself, and it invites us to either come up with a theory why (intelligent) life would not originate for 6 billion years on other planets, and then suddenly originate on earth. Or we can assume that, even with the advances of science, it will remain impossible to build Von Neumann machines. This may be a matter of taste, but to me neither of the solutions is appealing. However, there is a way out: the theory of the biological Von Neumann machine. Suppose that we succeed in building a space ship capable of traveling to another planetary system. In fact, we have already done so with the Voyager space ships. Suppose that we would equip these ships with capsules containing the most basic life forms, which would find it substantially easier than humans to survive the trip. If the biological Von Neumann machine would simply drop these capsules on every planet it encounters, it would thus "fertilize" the planet, and set off an entire evolution of it’s own, after about 3 billion years resulting in intelligent life. It may be possible that our earth thus was fertilized by a biological Von Neumann machine. Of course, this intelligence would be wondering how "on earth" it got there, since it seems impossible to "leave a card". But eventually some-one might come up with the idea of a Von Neumann machine, subsequently a biological Von Neumann machine. Since the time between 2 generations of biological Von Neumann machines is some 3 billion years, this theory fits the aforementioned time-gap of 6 billion years best. We may have originated from a 3rd generation biological Von Neumann machine. It might be our cosmic duty to build biological Von Neumann machines. Contact: Ivo Renkema Singel 94, 1015 AD Amsterdam, the Netherlands E-mail: ivo@capitalholding.nl _____________________________________________________________________ EARTH'S BECOMING A GREENER GREENHOUSE NASA release 01-178 4 September 2001 NASA satellite data suggest that for more than two decades there's been a gradual greening of the northern latitudes of Earth. Researchers confirm that plant life seen above 40 degrees north latitude, which represents a line stretching from New York to Madrid to Beijing, has been growing more vigorously since 1981. One suspected cause is rising temperatures possibly linked to the buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Over this same time period, parts of the Northern Hemisphere have become much greener and the growing season has increased by several days. Further, Eurasia appears to be greening more than North America, with more lush vegetation for longer periods of time. The results of this NASA- funded research will appear in the September 16 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research--Atmospheres. "When we looked at temperature and satellite vegetation data, we saw that year-to-year changes in growth and duration of the growing season of northern vegetation are tightly linked to year-to-year changes in temperature," Liming Zhou of Boston University said. The area of vegetation has not extended, but the existing vegetation has increased in density. The authors also looked at the differences in vegetation growth between North America and Eurasia, since the patterns and magnitudes of warming are different on the two continents. The greenness data from satellites were strongly correlated with temperature data from thousands of meteorological stations on both continents. The Eurasian greening was especially persistent over a broad area from central Europe through Siberia to far-east Russia, where most of the vegetation is forests and woodlands. North America, in comparison, shows a fragmented pattern of change notable only in the forests of the East and grasslands of the upper Midwest. Dramatic changes in the timing of both the appearance and fall of leaves are recorded in these two decades of satellite data. The authors report a growing season in Eurasia that is now nearly 18 days longer. Spring arrives a week early and autumn is delayed by 10 days. In North America, the growing season appears to be as much as 12 days longer. The researchers used a temperature data set developed from the Global Historical Climate Network. Dr. James Hansen, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, developed this data set and said, "The data were compiled from several thousand meteorological stations in the United States and around the world. The stations also include many rural sites where the data are collected by cooperative private observers." Scientists believe the results indicate a greener greenhouse. "This is an important finding because of possible implications to the global carbon cycle," said Ranga Myneni of Boston University. "However, more research is needed to determine how much carbon is being absorbed, and how much longer it will continue." Carbon dioxide is a main greenhouse gas and is suspected of playing a role in rising global temperatures. If the northern forests are greening, they may already be absorbing carbon--a process that can impact global temperature changes. Researchers used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to help determine the "greening" of plant life. Dr. Compton Tucker, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, is a co-author of the report and developed NDVI to analyze spectral data collected by orbiting weather satellites. This work was made possible through funding by NASA Headquarters' Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research program dedicated to understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our global environment. Additional information is available on the Internet at: http://cybele.bu.edu http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010904greenhouse.html Contacts: David E. Steitz Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1730 Lynn Chandler Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Phone: 301-286-2806 Harvey Leifert American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC Phone: 202-777-7507 Colin Riley Boston University, Boston, MA Phone: 617-353-5386 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast07sep_1.htm?list52260 http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/09/04/greener.earth/index.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/624087.asp http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01t.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0109/05greenhouse/ _____________________________________________________________________ MARS SOCIETY LAUNCHES TRANSLIFE MISSION PROJECT Mars Society release 4 September 2001 At its Stanford convention, the Mars Society resolved to commit its resources to initiate the Translife Mission as its first spaceflight mission project. The Translife mission will consist of a Mars-level (0.38 g) artificial gravity spacecraft carrying a crew of mice (and possibly other animals and plants) in low Earth orbit for a period of roughly two months. During this period, the mice will be allowed to reproduce and the young will develop into adults. The spacecraft will then be brought down to Earth, and both the original crew and their progeny will be examined. The mission will: 1. Validate the miniature artificial-gravity spacecraft and life support system for further missions. 2. Establish whether Mars-level artificial gravity can serve as an effective countermeasure for mammals against the physiological deterioration that accompanies long-duration spaceflight in zero gravity. Answering this question is key for planning human expeditions to the Red Planet. 3. Establish whether mammals from Earth can be born and develop into proper adults in Mars gravity conditions. Answering this question is key to establishing whether humans and other life from Earth can ultimately settle Mars, and by implication, other planets with gravity substantially less than that of the Earth. Follow-on missions could include flights into deep space, possibly as far as the orbit of Mars. Individuals or organizations willing to volunteer talent, hardware, or cash in support of the Translife mission should write the Translife Project, Mars Society, Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454. All donations are tax deductible. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/09/03/astromice.mars/index.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/621237.asp _____________________________________________________________________ HUMAN HABITATS AT MARS: DEFENDING AGAINST CONTAMINATION By Leonard David From Space.com 4 September 2001 With the prospects for finding life at Mars looking up, proponents of elaborate human settlements there are ready to defend themselves against charges of contaminating what's possibly already thriving there. And so-called terraforming advocates already have some scientists on their side, offering up data and theories that can be used to bolster the case for transforming the Red Planet into an Earth II. Tantalizing images returned in the past 18 months from robotic probes have shown Mars to be an astounding planet. Liquid water may have been active in recent geologic times, suggesting that past and even present life on Mars is a decent bet. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_terraform_0109 04-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ WHY MICROBES MATTER By David M. Warmflash 4 September 2001 One of the most frequent questions that I have encountered when talking with people about astrobiology is, "If there are microorganisms on Mars, so what? Why should I be interested in the Martian equivalent of bacteria?" Here is my answer: The discovery of extraterrestrial life of any size would likely be one of the most significant events in the history of humanity. Such a finding, particularly if within our own Solar System, would suggest that life is common throughout the universe and that the terrestrial biosphere is not a hopelessly rare phenomenon. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zf1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ WIDE AWAKE IN OUTER SPACE By Karen Miller From NASA Science News 4 September 2001 Astronauts sleep poorly in space. And it's no wonder. Just consider: the excitement of blasting off on a powerful rocket, the strange sensations of floating in free-fall, the novelty of mornings that return every 90 minutes. Who could sleep through all that? On some space shuttle missions up to 50% of the crew take sleeping pills, and, over all, nearly half of all medication used in orbit is intended to help astronauts sleep. Even so, space travelers average about two hours sleep less each night in space than they do on the ground. That deficit adds up, says Dr. Ken Wright, Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Neuroscientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Research performed on Earth suggests that some of them, after a week or two on this restricted sleep schedule, are performing at the level of someone who's been awake for 24-plus hours.” Fatigue, on Earth or in space, is a serious problem. It affects performance, increasing irritability, diminishing concentration, and decreasing reaction time. And it increases the risk of accidents. On Earth, sleep can be disrupted by anything from a crying baby to tomorrow's exam. In space wakefulness can come from noise and excitement--and, possibly, the disruption of the circadian rhythms that ensure a good night's sleep. Sleep is, in large part, managed by our body's master clock, which is located in the brain's hypothalamus. This clock regulates the body's daily production of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone, and cortisol, a hormone that promotes wakefulness, and is also associated with stress. The clock also manages a multitude of other physiological cycles, including body temperature, growth hormone production, heart rate, and urine production. The circadian clock generates these cycles all on its own. But there's a problem. Free- running, the master clock produces cycles that average about 24.2 hours--slightly longer than Earth's day. So the clock must be reset. It needs to be adjusted daily to ensure that the biological day and night don't get out of sync with the environment. On Earth, it's reset automatically, simply by our exposure to the high intensity light of day. But in space, the right cue isn't so easily provided. The space shuttle orbits Earth every 90 minutes. So, instead of receiving the Terran pattern of 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of dark, astronauts on the shuttle's flight deck experience 45 minutes of light succeeded by 45 minutes of dark. This rapid-fire exposure might disrupt--or as sleep researchers say, "disentrain"--the astronauts' circadian cycle. It's important that the cycle be entrained: that the astronaut's biological day matches the environmental one. "The circadian system is set so that you're best prepared to be alert and awake during the biological day, and to sleep at [biological night],” says Wright. If the body is required to perform activities at the wrong biological time, he explains, it will not function optimally. For that reason NASA sometimes deliberately shifts the astronauts' cycles before sending them into space, making sure that their biological day coincides with the crucial period of launch, according to Dr. Bette Siegel, a scientist in the Bioastronautics division at NASA headquarters. Effecting the shift is easy: astronauts are exposed to high intensity light at key times for three to ten days before liftoff. By the time the shuttle is ready to leave Earth, the crew is bright-eyed and alert. Once in orbit the biological clocks of astronauts might need to be adjusted further to align with another critical time--the moment of landing. It's done by requiring the crew to wake up earlier and earlier each day. Researchers still aren't sure exactly what happens to the circadian clocks of astronauts under such circumstances. To help find out, astronauts wear an actiwatch--a wrist device that tracks astronaut sleep patterns along with their light exposures. "We have models,” says Wright, "where we can take their sleeping history and their light exposure history and predict what's going to happen to their [internal] clock.” The actiwatch, along with sleep diaries kept by the astronauts, will help researchers figure out which factors--such as light exposure, temperature, or ambient noise in the close confines of a spacecraft--affect sleep most during spaceflight. But even with this information, scientists still need to answer some basic questions in order to develop countermeasures against unwanted wakefulness. For instance, what exactly controls the master clock? What intensity of light will trigger it--and which colors? Does gravity itself provide a cue? All these questions will grow in importance as humans move farther into space. Take the exploration of Mars, for example. On Mars, daylight is primarily yellowish-brown. On Earth, it's blue-green. How will the human clock respond to the unearthly color of Martian skies? Some research indicates that it could make a difference. Melatonin production, for example, is suppressed more by some wavelengths of light than by others. Of more concern, perhaps, is the length of the Martian day: 24 hours and thirty-nine minutes. "That is significantly different than the period of the clock in humans,” notes Wright. It's possible, he says, that the human clock might not be able to adapt to Mars. Ongoing research addresses this question by exploring countermeasures--for example, different patterns of light exposure-- that will entrain the human clock to a longer day. Learning to manage the circadian clock is critical to exploring space. But astronauts are hardly the only ones with sleep problems. "The space environment," says Wright, "provides us with a unique opportunity to understand something more about the functions of sleep." Part of the research involves trying to understand ways to promote wakefulness for shift workers, or people suffering jet lag, or simply for the many people who don't get enough sleep. "It's an exciting topic,” says Wright, "because it affects everyone.” Indeed, countermeasures that Wright and his colleagues devise for astronauts in space might well provide a more restful night for those of us remaining on Earth. More information on this article is available at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast04sep_1.htm?list52260. _____________________________________________________________________ MIRCORP REACHES AGREEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORLD'S FIRST PRIVATE SPACE STATION MirCorp release 4 September 2001 MirCorp today announced it has reached an historic agreement for the design, development, launch and operation of the world's first private space station. The MirCorp orbital facility, currently named Mini Station 1, will accommodate three visitors for stays of up to 20 days at a time. It is to have a lifetime of more than 15 years, and will be serviced by both Soyuz manned transports and unmanned Progress cargo re-supply spacecraft. Start-up of commercial operations is expected in 2004. The accord is a blueprint for MirCorp's plans to fully develop the commercial exploration of space--a market it pioneered through the commercial lease of Russia's Mir space station in February 2000 and the signing of Dennis Tito to a commercial flight contract in June 2000. With the de-orbiting of Mir earlier this year, Tito was transferred to the International Space Station and became the first space tourist. "MirCorp's Mini Station 1 agreement creates the first commercial space infrastructure--offering multiple flight opportunities under our control to a destination that will be fully supported by the private sector," MirCorp President Manber explained. "It is not enough to talk about sending people to space: you need an assured means of transport, and you need a destination where the commercial customer is the first priority--not a secondary concern. MirCorp will have all of this, at very accommodating environment." The pioneering commercial orbital facility will be developed by Russia, pending government approval, using the country's more than 30 years of manned space station experience. The station will be based on proven technology developed by MirCorp's shareholder, RSC Energia, and its subcontractors. MirCorp is holding extensive discussions with a range of commercial customers for its space station, and the company will work with NASA, the European Space Agency and the other International Space Station (ISS) space agency partners to send users to ISS until the mini- station is operational. "MirCorp understands that the International Space Station is dedicated to world-class science and belongs to multiple governments," Gert Weyers, MirCorp senior vice president, explained. "We have shown there is a market for a different type of customer, whether a tourist, a commercial scientist, a filmmaker or anyone who is healthy and has a dream of space travel. MirCorp's mini-station answers this market need." Under the planned scenario, MirCorp Soyuz manned transportation vehicles will visit both Mini Station 1 and the International Space Station. On a typical flight, the Soyuz would go first to Mini Station 1, where it will be docked for the two-week commercial mission. It then would fly to the ISS, where the Soyuz crew will transfer to the older Soyuz already docked to the international station. The crew would return in this Soyuz, leaving a newer spacecraft for the next space transportation cycle. Manber said in this scenario, commercial activities would help the Russian Federation fulfil its commitment to support the International Space Station. "We are very, very grateful of how hard everyone worked at Energia and Rosaviakosmos, including the personal involvement of Yuri Semenov and Yuri Koptev to reach a complex agreement that allows us to fully develop this commercial market and support ISS at the same time," Manber said. "This is a great agreement for ISS, its partners and everyone who dreams of flying to space." According to a senior Russian official, Mini Station 1 does not require complex international, long-term coordination, as opposed to the ISS. This provides additional flexibility in responding to commercial customer requirements. Manber added that MirCorp appreciates its supporters and investors, including the original Gold & Appel and Kathuria Holdings, who continue to believe in the company's long term potential and who have worked to bring about this agreement and continue to believe in the company's long term potential. MirCorp public relations contact: Jeffrey M. Lenorovitz The InfoWEST Group Telephone (U.S.): 703-448-5669 International GSM telephone (France): +33 (0)6 80-85-86-25 E-mail: jleno@infowestgroup.com More information on this article is available at http://www.mirstation.com/pressrelease_4.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1525000/1525156.stm http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/09/04/space.tourists.russia.reut/i ndex.html http://www.cosmiverse.com/space09040106.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/623978.asp http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/mini_station_010904.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01zb.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0109/05ministation1/ _____________________________________________________________________ CONFERENCE AND EXHIBIT ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UTILIZATION - 2001 NASA release 4 September 2001 Come hear about the exciting past, present and future research, and commercial initiatives on the International Space Station, and exchange ideas and information with your research colleagues and station personnel! NASA and Boeing are co-sponsoring the Conference and Exhibit on International Space Station Utilization - 2001 in Cape Canaveral, FL on 15-18 October, 2001. Forty-two sessions containing over 250 presentations and papers will cover all of the major research areas to be explored on the Space Station, including biotechnology, biomedicine, gravitational biology, materials science, fluids and combustion research, space science, earth science, fundamental physics, and engineering research. Each session will include presentations by both the users and the providers of ISS. There will be several sessions on commercial research, commercial services and other initiatives. Technical presentations on Space Station capabilities, processes, and new technologies for experimenters, are also included. Key Speakers will include: Dr. Kathie Olsen, NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Roger Crouch, Senior Scientist, Office of Space Flight, NASA Mr. Tommy Holloway, ISS Program Manager, NASA Johnson Space Center Mr. Brewster Shaw, VP and General Manager, ISS Program, The Boeing Company Gen. Roy Bridges, Center Director, NASA Kennedy Space Center And many researchers who have already conducted investigations on- board ISS. The Exhibit Hall will include all of the major U.S. research facilities under development for ISS, as well as industrial "provider" booths. A separate ISS Hardware and Services Show-and- Tell session will allow the display of new technologies, equipment, software, and other technical services. Display spaces are provided for the "Show-and-Tell". To reserve one, call or email Craig Seabrook at 256-726-6141, craig.seabrook@tbe.com or Jim Fountain at 256-461-3634, jim.fountain@boeing.com. The Conference is administered by AIAA. The complete list of planned papers, as well as registration and logistics information can be found on the web at http://www.aiaa.org/calendar/index.hfm?cal=1 (scroll down to October). _____________________________________________________________________ RNA BASED LIFE CONFERENCE Indiana University release 4 September 2001 Indiana University November 15-18, 2001 http://ernie.chem.indiana.edu/celf/RNALife.html Scientific goals and objectives of the conference The central goal of this gathering is to provide an interdisciplinary context within which to advance the discussion on a simple question: "How viable is life based on RNA?" Presentations will be in the form of Keynote addresses, Plenary lectures, posters, and lectures chosen from among the submitted abstracts. Biology is humbling to those of us who would model its origins or its inner workings, or who would seek to re-engineer how the pieces are put together. By combining the four approaches outlined below-- biochemistry, cell biology, molecular medicine and genomics--this conference seeks to discover whether we can create and exploit RNA- based life now to biomedical or other advantage, and whether ribo- organisms may have once been in the oceans of Earth, under the rocks of Mars, or beneath the ice of Europa. The Conference will emphasize four areas: * The expanding functional repertoire of RNA in vitro. This is a Golden Age for basic RNA research. In vitro selection approaches such as SELEX demonstrate the chemical versatility of nucleic acids, from catalyzing a wide array of chemical reactions (these RNAs are known as "ribozymes") to forming elegant binding pockets for diverse molecular targets (these RNAs are known as "aptamers"). Crystal structures and biochemical analyses of the ribosome suggest that it is a ribozyme that uses RNA catalysis to direct peptide bond formation. Directed evolution and molecular engineering can be used to confer new functions to ribozymes and aptamers isolated by other means. Together, these various approaches have shown that RNA and DNA chains can be used to build molecular machines with remarkably diverse activities, and they have brought an unprecedented level of experimental scrutiny to RNA World hypotheses for the origin and early evolution of life. The conference will highlight some of these recent advances both in vitro and as they apply inside cells. Modern organisms use an astounding array of protein biocatalysts. Do ribozymes have the catalytic vigor and diversity of activity to replace protein enzymes? Can they be assembled into complex, self- sustaining, "living" systems in vitro? * Effects of expressing in vitro-engineered RNAs inside cells, both on RNA function and on cell metabolism. Many RNAs that function predictably in vitro behave differently in real physiological settings, while others continue to bind their designated targets or carry out their catalytic reactions. The design of therapeutics based on RNA aptamers or ribozymes is critically dependent on understanding the parameters that govern the success of their intracellular application. At the same time, RNA World theories that postulate ribo-organisms require that it be possible to sustain life through RNA-catalyzed processes. The conference will examine the interplay among cell physiology, RNA molecular biology, and the biochemical function of engineered RNAs. What happens to an aptamer or a ribozyme that was originally selected in vitro when it is suddenly placed into the context of a cellular interior? What happens to a cell when its survival depends on the activity of ribozymes or aptamers? What are the biological constraints to RNA- based life? * Biomedical applications and therapeutic potential of expressed aptamers and ribozymes. RNAs and modified polynucleotides developed through in vitro manipulations have been used to kill pathological cells, to rescue transgenic animals with genetic deficiencies, and to reveal the underlying molecular mechanisms of basic biology. They are in clinical or preclinical trials to fight cancer, HIV-AIDS, pulmonary inflammatory diseases, hepatitis C, post-angioplastic restinosis, and other ailments. The conference will showcase how the biomedical community has already found ways to exploit aptamers and ribozymes to redirect the inner workings of cells and will explore the prospects for further advances in these areas. * Computational and genomic approaches. If life as we know it evolved from within a complex RNA World, some of the structural RNAs from that era may still lurk within the non-protein-encoding regions of extant genomes. Comparative genomics has identified several highly conserved transcripts of unknown function that do not encode proteins, and each newly sequenced genome brings with it new mysteries of non-coding RNAs. Some of these transcripts may even serve as ribozymes for essential biochemical reactions. The conference will include talks from several speakers who are using innovative computational approaches to extract information on the things that RNA molecules do in living organisms besides encode proteins. Who knows, perhaps WE are the very RNA-based life forms whose plausibility we seek to determine. Questions or comments can be addressed to the Chair or to the other organizers: Donald H. Burke Indiana University Department of Chemistry Bloomington, IN 47405 Phone: 812-856-4977 Fax: 812-855-8300 administrative assistant Toni Lady, 812-855-4817 _____________________________________________________________________ ANTARCTIC PLANTS RESIST OZONE HOLE From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 5 September 2001 The unique flora of Antarctica appears to be resisting damage from the ozone hole over the South Pole far better than anyone expected, Dutch scientists say. The hole has triggered fears that Antarctica's fragile plants could suffer severe DNA damage as they are exposed to higher intensities of ultra-violet light, which is normally filtered out by the ozone layer in the stratosphere. But a team led by Daniela Lud from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Yerseke says many plant species seem to have a repair kit that enables them to fix any damage almost overnight, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue. Mosses, liverworts and other Antarctic plants produce sunscreen pigments and carotenoids in response to higher ultra-violet levels. These block out UV and mop up harmful oxygen radicals stimulated by the light that can damage cells. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010905180024.maa5o9yo.html. _____________________________________________________________________ DEVON ISLAND EXPERIMENT UNLOCKS SECRETS OF LIVING ON MARS By Leonard David From Space.com 6 September 2001 A human journey to the Martian wilderness is moving toward reality thanks to simulated practice runs at Mars analog sites here on Earth. A shakeout of tools, equipment and people skills needed to live and work on the Red Planet is under way at Devon Island in Northern Canada-–all ingredients that could spur the building of hardware and an esprit de corps for colonizing the Red Planet. Situated near the Arctic Circle, the remote, crater scarred and desolate island is a partial lookalike to Mars. Devon Island is barren but welcome territory for a "Mars force" of scientists, engineers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and a growing clique of ready-to-travel advocates. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_next_step_0109 05-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ MORE SUPPORT FOR LIFE ON MARS? By Fraser Cain From Universe Today Hungarian scientists believe they've found evidence of life on Mars by looking through some of the photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. Three scientists think that dark blue spots visible in the photographs are patches of organisms living beneath the ice. A warning on the Mars Global Surveyor page cautions people from jumping to any conclusions about the spots, though, and the team's theory has been met with skepticism from many members of the scientific community. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/09/07/mars.hungary.life/index.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_organisms_010907.html _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 10 September 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html L. David, 2001. Human habitats at Mars: defending against contamination. Space.com. D. M. Warmflash, 2001. Why microbes matter. SpaceDaily. K. Than, 2001. Hungarian scientists claim to have found traces of life on Mars. Reuters/Space.com. Articles about the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html Agence France-Presse, 2001. Antarctic plants resist ozone hole. SpaceDaily. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html A. Boyle, 2001. Millionaires take aim at Mars. MSNBC. L. David, 2001. Devon Island experiment unlocks secrets of living on Mars. Space.com. L. David and L. Rains, 2001. First commercial space station planned by MirCorp and Russians. Space.com. J. Foust, 2001. MirCorp announces plans for private space station. Spaceflight Now. K. Miller, 2001. Wide awake in outer space. NASA Science News. SpaceDaily, 2001. MirCorp plans first space hotel. SpaceDaily. SpaceDaily, 2001. Three months in bed will be a taxing test. SpaceDaily. R. Stenger, 2001. Of mice and men, and babies, in space. CNN. _____________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 3-9 September 2001 This week the focus for the Galileo spacecraft is playback of the recorded data that was acquired during the August 5 flyby of Io and Jupiter. There are two observations scheduled to be returned this week, both from the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer instrument (NIMS), and both of regions on Io. The first observation is a map of the Amirani hot spot and the Maui region in Io's northern hemisphere, looking for temperature variations, sulphur dioxide distribution, and a study of an uncharacterized spectral absorption feature that occurs near a wavelength of 1 micron (1 micrometer). The origin of this spectral feature is unknown, although many minerals containing iron have absorptions in this region. There is more of this absorber near the south pole of Io than elsewhere. Scientists may be able to more closely constrain the possible mineral compositions of the absorber if we can resolve its relationship to hot spots and sulphur dioxide deposits. The second observation is a regional scale map which covers most of the sunlit portion of Io that was seen by the spacecraft beginning aproximately an hour and fifty minutes after closest approach. The main regions of interest in this view are Prometheus and Emakong, which are near Io's equator. Prometheus is one of the larger and more active volcanoes on Io, and was one of the active features first seen by the Voyager spacecraft during their flybys in 1979. In keeping with the ever-changing nature of this active moon, a new volcanic region was seen in this area by Galileo during our previous flyby in late May. This new area is also scrutinized by this observation. 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 _____________________________________________________________________ ISS STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 5 September 2001 After completing a three-day holiday weekend of light activities that provided time to settle into their new home, members of the International Space Station crew this week began a busy slate of scientific work, performed some minor repairs and maintenance, and prepared for the continued expansion of the orbiting complex with the upcoming launch of a new Russian module. Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are in the fourth week of a four-month stay aboard the station. Much of their time was devoted to experiment work this week, uninterrupted by any station system problems. Some minor repairs were accomplished by the crew and included a check of wiring that proved a treadmill is usable for exercise sessions onboard; tightening of a connection in a station air conditioning system that stopped a minute freon leak; and the installation of a new videotape recorder in the Destiny Laboratory, replacing a recorder that had failed. Early this morning, flight controllers assisted the crew as the station's orientiation was changed slightly to allow the Sun to continue to fully shine on the complex's solar arrays. As the seasons change, the angle of the sun relative to the station also changes. The sun had previously been fairly low to the southern horizon relative to the station, and the complex was oriented so as to point the arrays south toward the sun. The sun has grown higher in the sky relative to the station now and the complex today was moved back to an orientation that has the arrays perpendicular to the station's direction of travel, a more naturally stable orientation that is preferred for the complex when possible. Such orientation adjustments are performed regularly to optimize power generation. Later today, Culbertson maneuvered the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm into position to allow its television cameras to focus on a dump of waste water from vents on the Destiny Lab that is planned to be performed on Friday. About five gallons of water will be dumped overboard in 10 minutes, and the behavior of the expelled water crystals will be recorded. The crew also will document station surfaces with both television and still photography both before and after the water dump. Water has been dumped from the Destiny vents before, but Friday's activities will allow engineers to better characterize how well the jettisoned water clears the vicinity of the station. Scientific work on the station this week has been highlighted by the completion of a human cell culture experiment that has grown colon, kidney and ovarian cancer cells in space to be used in medical research when returned to Earth late this year. The crew also installed equipment in preparation for a series of tests to characterize a vibration isolation system that will dampen disturbances to very sensitive experiments aboard the station. In addition, the crew continued to gather data from a host of investigations of the radiation environment in orbit and monitored the status of other studies. Flight controllers and the crew are preparing for the continued assembly of the station next week with the planned launch of a new Russian station component from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff of a Soyuz rocket carrying the Pirs Docking Compartment, a Russian airlock and docking port, is planned for about 6:35 PM CDT September 14. The Pirs compartment, which is the Russian word for pier, is planned to dock with the station at about 8:08 PM CDT September 16, attaching to an Earth-facing port on the station's Zvezda living quarters module. Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Details on ISS science operations can be found at the center's web site (http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov). The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km). Sighting opportunities from the ground for many cities around the world can be viewed at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/. The next ISS status report will be issued Wednesday, September 12, or earlier if events warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 7 September 2001 There were two Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes in the past week. All subsystems onboard the spacecraft are healthy. Two Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) and four Star Camera images were taken. All images were excellent, showing no degradation in performance. National Geographic interviewed the Stardust Project Manager, Tom Duxbury, for the Human Experience of Space program. The program will air on September 23. The 1/4th and 1/10th scale spacecraft models have been sent to the model maker for repairs. The 1/10th scale model will then be sent to the Newark Science Center for use in a 2- year exhibit on NASA's exploration of Small Bodies. Stardust has begun planning an educator workshop training for October - November time frame in Maui and Hawaii. Training will be in partnership with the NEAR, Contour, CNSR and Deep Impact missions and sponsored by Litton, Inc. A total of 8 virtual trainings will be held during a two-day period at the Maui High Tech Center. Additional public lectures are being planned at the Bishop Museum, Onizuka Science Center, the University of Hawaii, the Hilo Astronomy Club and the Maui Community Center. Tours of the Keck Observatory are also being considered. This effort is expected to reach the students in 271 schools. 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 34.