MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 36, 24 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) LATEST CLAIMS OF MARTIAN LIFE ARE ERRONEOUS SAYS USGS SCIENTIST By Timothy N. Titus 2) FROM RED CENTRE TO RED PLANET By Jennifer Laing 3) TRANSLIFE MISSION CORIOLIS FORCE FEASIBILITY EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL Mars Society release 4) HOW TO GROW FOOD IN SPACE By Fraser Cain 5) MONTANA GRAIN GROWERS HARNESS THE POWER OF NASA THROUGH MSU TECHLINK From SpaceDaily 6) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 7) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 8) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 9) LATEST IMAGES FROM MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR NOW ONLINE NASA/JPL image advisory 10) MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 11) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ LATEST CLAIMS OF MARTIAN LIFE ARE ERRONEOUS SAYS USGS SCIENTIST By Timothy N. Titus, USGS Astrogeology Team From SpaceDaily 20 September 2001 Speculations about life on Mars have always caused great interest and controversy. Recently, several Internet articles have been posted describing the discovery of Martian surface organisms in the south polar region of Mars. As a research scientist working on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) Team, I have spent the last four years analyzing data from this Martian region. The data reveal a region active with interesting and intriguing physical phenomena, but does not suggest the existence of life. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life- 01h.html. _____________________________________________________________________ FROM RED CENTRE TO RED PLANET By Jennifer Laing From SpaceDaily 20 September 2001 Mars Society Australia announced today that an Australian scientific team will travel to outback South Australia and the Northern Territory on October 27 to examine suitable sites for a Mars analogue research facility. The head of the Mars Society in the United States, Dr. Robert Zubrin, said earlier this year that Australia could be the recipient of U.S. hardware to build the facility, and the expedition will scout for potential locations in some of the most Mars-like terrain on our planet. "This site survey expedition called Project Jarntimarra, lays important groundwork for the Mars Society Australia's innovative analogue research program," said President Guy Murphy. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-base- 01c.html. _____________________________________________________________________ TRANSLIFE MISSION CORIOLIS FORCE FEASIBILITY EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL Mars Society release 20 September 2001 An experiment conducted at Pioneer Astronautics for the Mars Society has demonstrated that the Coriolis forces that mice will be exposed to during the Translife Mission will not be excessive. Coriolis forces are a secondary byproduct of rotating artificial gravity systems. Advocates of zero-gravity space travel have long argued that such forces would prove disorienting to astronauts, especially at rotation rates above 4 revolutions per minute. The Mars Society's Translife Mission will place a group of mice in low Earth orbit for about 50 days in a rotating spacecraft that will supply them with artificial gravity at Mars levels, 38% that of the Earth. During this time, the mice will be allowed to reproduce and the young will grow up in Martian gravity. Subsequently, the capsule will be recovered and the mice and their descendants studied. The mission will thus serve as a key experiment to determine whether artificial gravity at Mars levels can be used as a countermeasure against the well-known debilitating effects of zero-gravity space flight, and to determine whether mammals from Earth can develop satisfactorily if conceived, born, and raised in Mars gravity. This question is central to the issue of whether humans can ever settle Mars, or any other planet with gravity substantially less than that of the Earth. In order to keep the size of the Translife spacecraft small, the rotation rate must be high. In particular, for the one-meter diameter capsule currently under consideration, the rotation rate must be about 25 rpm. This has caused some to raise concerns that the Coriolis forces would be so excessive as to disorient the mice and ruin the experiment. In order to resolve these concerns, an experiment was constructed consisting of a mouse habitat positioned on the edge of a turntable rotating at 25 rpm. This system thus creates 0.38 g in the outward direction, which combines with a 1 g downward acceleration imposes a total g-load of 1.07 g's on the mice. While this is different from the 0.38 g they would experience in this system on orbit, the Coriolis force is the same. The system was started on Wednesday, August 30, 2001. Behavior of the mice immediately after start up was observed to be completely normal, that is to say, indistinguishable from their behavior before the cage was rotated. The experiment has continued since that time, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The mice have been observed to forage, groom, drink, eat and sleep. As of September 18, their behavior is still normal and their health is fine. Commenting on the experiment, Mars Society president Dr. Robert Zubrin said, "These results clearly show that the concerns raised by zero-gravity space flight advocates over Coriolis forces have been greatly overdrawn. They show that small low-cost long-duration artificial gravity experiments with mammals are completely feasible. Given the consistent record of failure to find adequate counter measures to debilitation of bone and muscle systems during zero gravity, these results underscore the need for expanded research in artificial gravity space flight systems. Humanity is not going to the stars in zero gravity. We need to find alternatives. The Translife Mission will show the way." A movie showing the mice living happily in their 25 rpm home can be viewed on the Mars Society web site at www.marssociety.org. ____________________________________________________________________________________ HOW TO GROW FOOD IN SPACE By Fraser Cain From Universe Today 20 September 2001 Scientists have been trying to get plants to grow in the weightlessness of outer space since the beginning of the space program--with mixed results. The 1990s were more successful, as cosmonauts on board Mir used a special greenhouse to grow radishes, lettuce and wheat. Now the astronauts on the International Space Station will hope to take this research to the next level, to conduct long-term plant research in space. Additional information on this article is available at http://www.universetoday.com/index.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/09/20/space.crops.reut/index.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010920/sc/food_space_dc_2.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ MONTANA GRAIN GROWERS HARNESS THE POWER OF NASA THROUGH MSU TECHLINK From SpaceDaily 20 September 2001 Montana's high tech farmers are looking at their fields with new "eye in the sky" technology this summer, thanks to NASA and the MSU TechLink Center. In its first comprehensive remote sensing evaluation project, the Precision Agriculture Research Association (PARA) is comparing different types of imagery as a real-time decision aid to help determine when and where to apply fertilizers, pesticides, and nutrients to their crops. The aim of the project is to produce a business plan and commercialize the technology that is most cost-effective for wheat and barley producers in the high plains. "In today's Montana agriculture, one can't hire someone to be in the field on an entire farm on a weekly basis," said Chuck Merja, PARA board member. "This technology helps get eyes on each field each week during the growing season." Remote sensing is an efficient way to cover all of a farm's acres and help producers budget physical visits and inputs for specific areas of need. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/farm-01c.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 24 September 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html T. N. Titus, 2001. Latest claims of Martian life are erroneous says USGS scientist. SpaceDaily. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html A. Mudeva, 2001. Space crops may solve Earth problems. CNN/Reuters. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 13-19 September 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, September 19. 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 instrument activities include the conclusion of a detailed solar wind study by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, two Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibrations, a Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) decontamination activity, and the first part of a CDA noise evaluation study. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include a calibration of the Stellar Reference Unit and a periodic engineering maintenance activity that exercised both the Engine Gimbal Actuator and backup Reaction Wheel Assembly. Real-time commands were uplinked to the spacecraft to clear the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) high-water marks. A Command Approval Meeting was held to seek approval for uplink of the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) Flight Software (FSW) version 4.2 to the Solid State Recorder and to load it into the instrument. The FSW was successfully uplinked and loaded on September 20. The C29 Sequence Team process began this week with delivery of the first stripped subsequence Spacecraft Activity Sequence Files (SASFs) and integrated sequence files. The kickoff meeting was held, and each team is currently in the process of completing and reviewing their detailed subsequence SASFs. C29 will feature the first use of "cyclics", which use a call from the background sequence to run an external program multiple times, conserving sequence space by not having to expand the program for each occurrence. This capability will be essential for the tour. The C30 Science Planning Team development process began this week and is preparing for the Program briefing next week. An all-day Titan Orbiter Science Team (TOST) meeting was held this week. The TOST started integrating the plans for Titan encounters T11 through T22 outside of the +/- 30-minute period around Titan closest approach. The period within +/- 30 minutes for all the remaining Titan flybys was also worked. The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) team completed the initial implementation of ISS FSW upgrades. The first basic tests have begun on Electronic Ground Support Equipment, and a full Acceptance Test Plan is being prepared. Developers for the Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) ground software package have drafted a final plan for basic MSS D8.0 infrastructure, including support for the UNIX Sun Solaris 2.7 operating system and a new command database that includes Command & Data Subsystem version 9 and ACS version 8 FSW. Outreach is taking delivery of its new educational poster, "Cassini Unveils the Myth" this week. The front of the poster features a mural painted by middle school artists showing Kronos unveiling Saturn, while the back provides classroom lessons for teachers. The poster will be available by request to the Cassini Program and from the nationwide Educator Resource Center Network and NASA CORE. 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 19 September 2001 Launch / Days since Launch = November 7, 1996 / 1778 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 902 days Total Mapping Orbits = 11,327 Total Orbits = 13,010 Recent events The spacecraft is operating nominally in performing daily recording and transmission of science data. The mm153 sequence has performed well since it started 01-156 (9/13/01). It terminates on 01-290 (10/17/01). MOLA Diagnostic Test #4 was performed on 01-256 (9/13/01). The MOLA team is in the process of analyzing the resulting data. Roll Only Targeted Observations (ROTO) were temporarily suspended pending investigation of the C-Mode entry root cause. MGS entered C-Mode on 9/6/01 because the STAREX star processing software could not converge on a good inertial attitude following a ROTO. The ROTO did not cause the C-Mode entry, but STAREX performance may impact how we perform ROTOs in the future. MGS has completed 198 ROTOs to date. Spacecraft health All subsystems report good health and status. The spacecraft team continues to investigate the STAREX anomaly that caused the 9/6/01 C- Mode entry. The MOLA instrument team is still investigating the MOLA anomaly of 01-181 (6/30/01). The MOC instrument required a hardware reboot to recover from an anomaly that temporarily prevented it from returning properly formatted science data. Uplinks There have been 28 uplinks to the spacecraft during the past week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, TES instrument turn- on, MOC instrument re-boots, and standard instrument command loads. 5,755 command files have been radiated to the spacecraft since launch. Upcoming events Delta-DOR experiments are scheduled for 01-267 (9/24/01) and 01-269 (9/26/01). _____________________________________________________________________ LATEST IMAGES FROM MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR NOW ONLINE NASA/JPL image advisory 21 September 2001 New pictures of the south polar cap on Mars and a global view of the dust storm occurring there have been released by the imaging team for NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Marking the four-year anniversary of its arrival at Mars, Global Surveyor's camera took a wide-angle view of the Martian south polar region on September 12, 2001. Several dramatic dust storms that began a few months ago are also seen in the image. One is located near the Martian equator, and the other is shown northwest of the Ascraeus Mons volcano. The images are available at these Web sites: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mars http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/dust_9_01/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/spolar_9_01/ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs Mars Global Surveyor is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The camera system is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA. _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 17 September 2001 NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft performed its third trajectory correction maneuver last night to fine-tune its flight path for arrival at Mars next month. At 4:06 AM Universal time on Monday, September 17 (9:06 PM Pacific time, Sunday, September 16), Odyssey fired its small thrusters for 12 seconds, which changed the speed and direction of the spacecraft by 0.45 meters per second (1 mile per hour). Odyssey will arrive at Mars at 0230 Universal time October 24 (7:30 PM Pacific time October 23). "This was the first maneuver to target our final aim point for Mars orbit insertion. Early indications are that the maneuver was right on the money," said David A. Spencer, Odyssey's mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. During the past several weeks, the flight team has been troubleshooting occasional problems with its star camera. Flight controllers use the star camera to determine Odyssey's orientation in space. During most of cruise, the star camera has been shaded from the sun by the high gain antenna. When the spacecraft has been rotated so that the star camera is no longer shaded, the images from the star camera have been saturated by sunlight. An internal shade within the star camera is supposed to prevent image saturation. Engineers determined that part of the problem was reflected light from the open door of the gamma ray spectrometer instrument. The door was closed on August 31. A subsequent checkout of the planned spacecraft orientations for the rest of the mission showed that the star camera should provide valid images during these critical periods. Also on August 31, the flight team transitioned the spacecraft to a new orientation for the remainder of its cruise. The new orientation is designed to limit the number of times Odyssey needs to fire its small thrusters to de-spin the reaction wheels as they build up momentum. On September 6, the flight team performed a checkout of the spacecraft telecommunications subsystem for Mars orbit insertion. During the checkout, the spacecraft was turned to the planned orientation for the large burn, and the radio signal from the spacecraft was monitored. All systems performed as expected. Today, Odyssey is 10.8 million kilometers (6.7 million miles) from Mars, traveling at a speed of 24 kilometers per second (52,700 miles per hour) relative to the Sun. The 2001 Mars Odyssey mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, built the Odyssey spacecraft. Arizona State University, Tempe manages the thermal emission imaging system, and the University of Arizona, Tucson, manages the gamma ray spectrometer. NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, built and manages the Martian radiation environment experiment. Arizona State University, Tempe manages the thermal emission imaging system, and the University of Arizona, Tucson, manages the gamma ray spectrometer. _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 21 September 2001 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass in the past week. All subsystems onboard the spacecraft are performing normally. Currently, Stardust is 2.3 Astronomical Units from the Sun and is continually moving further out. The solar panel usage is at approximately 83% when communicating; therefore the spacecraft has sufficient power from the panels to communicate continuously if needed. Within the next month when the spacecraft is its furthest distance from the Sun, the solar panel usage is expected to reach 100% while communicating, and the battery will be used to supply the additional power needed. At this time our communications will be limited to about 2 hours before the battery would need to be re- charged. 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 36.