MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 39, 15 October 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) LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE--LIVE WEBCAST FROM EUROPE'S LEADING RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS European Southern Observatory release 21/01 2) THE TOP 3 REASONS TO COLONIZE SPACE By Robert Roy Britt 3) SBIR CONFERENCE From NASA Tech Briefs Insider 4) MARS WEEK 2001--MIT, OCTOBER 26-28 Mars Society release 5) SPACE RESEARCH PROVIDES NEW EVIDENCE ON THE ROLE OF GRAVITY IN FERTILIZATION NASA release 01-196 6) PHYSICAL AND LIFE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS "TESTED" IN ABSENCE OF GRAVITY European Space Agency release 53-2001 7) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 8) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 9) GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 10) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 11) ISS STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 12) MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 13) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE--LIVE WEBCAST FROM EUROPE'S LEADING RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS European Southern Observatory release 21/01 http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/pr-21-01.html 8 October 2001 Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? Are we alone? These questions have always fascinated humanity and for more than 50 years, physicists, biologists, chemists, cosmologists, astronomers and other scientists have worked tirelessly to answer these fundamental questions. And now this November via webcast, all the world will have the opportunity to see and hear the latest news on extraterrestrial life from the most prestigious research centers and how for the past three months, European students have had the chance to jump into the scientists' shoes and explore these questions for themselves. The event is being sponsored by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in cooperation with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE). "Life in the Universe" is being mounted in collaboration with the Research Directorate-General of the European Commission for the European Week of Science and Technology in November 2001. "Life in the Universe" competitions are already underway in 23 European countries to find the best projects from school students between 14 and 18. Two winning teams from each country will be invited to a final event at CERN in Geneva on 8-11 November 2001 to present their projects and discuss them with a panel of International Experts at a special three-day event. They will also compete for the "Super Prize"--a free visit to ESA's and ESO's research and technology facilities at Kourou and Paranal in South America. Students participating in the program are encouraged to present their views on extraterrestrial life creatively. The only requirement is that the views be based upon scientific evidence. Many projects are being submitted just now--among them are scientific essays, pieces of art, theatrical performance and CD-Roms. The best of these will be presented worldwide during the "Life in the Universe" webcast live from CERN on November 10th at 7:00 PM CET (1800 UT). The webcast--during which the "Super Prizes" for the two best works will be announced--will also feature interviews, video clips and animations on the latest scientific findings on the subject of extraterrestrial life. The webcast is truly an around-the-world event that will actively engage even geographically distant audiences. During the webcast, anyone on the planet can send questions via e-mail to the real experts with live connections in European laboratories who will answer live during the broadcast. Tuning in is easy too. All people have to do is enter http://www.lifeinuniverse.org into their browser and they will get full instructions on how to connect up. The home base of "Life in the Universe"-- http://www.lifeinuniverse.org--is a vibrant web space where details of the program can be found. It has a wealth of information and links to the national web sites, where all entries will be posted. Is there other life in the Universe? We do not know--but the search is on and you'll know much more about it by just following the webcast! More information and related links may also be found on the dedicated "Life in the Universe" web page at the ESO Outreach web site. _____________________________________________________________________ THE TOP 3 REASONS TO COLONIZE SPACE By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 8 October 2001 Legendary physicist and ET speculator Freeman Dyson thinks dead planets need a human touch. Author and astrophysicist J. Richard Gott, III calls it a simple matter of survival. And author Sid Goldstein figures settling other worlds is all about economics and environmentalism. It's time to leave this planet, they all agree... ...Here are the top reasons [to colonize space] suggested by those interviewed: * To Spread Life and Beautify the Universe * To Ensure the Survival of Our Species * To Make Money and Save the Environment Get the full story at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/colonize_why_011008-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ SBIR CONFERENCE From NASA Tech Briefs Insider 9 October 2001 The National Science Foundation will sponsor the fall 2001 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Conference October 23-26 in Rapid City, SD. The event is designed to help business owners, venture capitalists, and university R&D managers to tap into the $1.3 billion in annual SBIR awards from federal agencies. The SBIR program provides early-stage funding to U.S. firms with 500 or fewer employees to perform cutting-edge R&D in a wide range of fields. The small business retains the rights to any resulting intellectual property. Since the program was initiated in the early 1980s, thousands of new products have been brought to market through SBIR grants. For more information about the upcoming conference, visit http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20011009A9. ____________________________________________________________________________________ MARS WEEK 2001--MIT, OCTOBER 26-28 Mars Society release 10 October 2001 Register at http://web.mit.edu/mars/marsweek/ "Mars Week 2001", a three-day conference about the exploration of Mars, will be held at the MIT campus in Cambridge on October 26-28. Mars Week is an annual conference discussing the engineering, scientific, political and social aspects of Mars exploration. Topics will include present and future missions, including the prospects for the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. The event will kick off with the arrival of NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft at Mars on Tuesday, October 23. The MIT chapter of the Mars Society will monitor the spacecraft's entry into Mars orbit from the MIT campus. This will provide an informal start to the Mars Week 2001 program. The main program begins on Friday, October 26 with an evening reception and introductory speakers. Saturday, October 27, will be a full day of Mars-related activity. Sunday, October 28, will include several activities for children, and continue the program of speakers and technical conferences. Mars Week attracts scientists, engineers, astronauts, students, political activists and business leaders from throughout the United States. Technical events will include discussion of two possible spacecraft with MIT participation. The "Translife" mission recently announced by the Mars Society will fly mice, and possibly other animals, in space for two months under conditions that simulate Martian gravity. A second possible spacecraft mission would return a small quantity of rock and soil from the surface of Mars for laboratory study. This year's sponsors include the Mars Society, MIT's Undergraduate Association, MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The student-run conference is organized by the MIT Mars Society, a chapter of the Mars Society, an international organization founded in 1998 to further the goal of human spaceflight to Mars through public outreach and technical research. One example of the Mars Society's research program is the new Translife space mission. Another example is the Mars Arctic Research Station in the Canadian Arctic, a simulation of a manned Mars base under conditions as closely resembling Mars as is possible on our planet. http://web.mit.edu/mars/marsweek/ marsweek@mit.edu To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org _____________________________________________________________________ SPACE RESEARCH PROVIDES NEW EVIDENCE ON THE ROLE OF GRAVITY IN FERTILIZATION NASA release 01-196 12 October 2001 NASA researchers have uncovered evidence that gravity, or the lack thereof, may play an important role in the development and evolution of life. The study suggests fertilization is gravity-sensitive and works differently in the near-weightless environment of space than it does here on Earth. Using sperm from tiny sea urchins, the research team conducted both ground- and space-based experiments to examine the impact gravity has on the reproduction process. According to a paper authored by Dr. Joseph Tash, a NASA researcher and a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, scientists found gravitational changes may influence a species' ability to reproduce. His team's findings were published in a recent issue of Biology of Reproduction. "The research shows that fertilization is altered in a microgravity environment," said Tash. "Such alterations have implications for reproduction of plant and animal food and for long-term space habitation by humans. This research will be essential for prolonged space exploration." The experiments were conducted under a grant from NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research in Washington. The research program provides investigators with the opportunity to use microgravity or low-gravity environments to investigate the role this fundamental physical force and other space-flight factors have on biological and ecological systems. "All life is influenced by the pull of Earth's gravity. NASA scientists are conducting research to explore the role of gravity at all levels of biological processing," said Dr. Kathie Olsen, Acting Associate Administrator for Biological and Physical Research at NASA Headquarters. "Without the presence of Earth's gravity, we are able to pursue answers to questions of how living organisms develop." The research team used sperm and eggs from the tiny marine creatures to study motility and interaction during periods of increased gravity and near weightlessness. Studies conducted during space shuttle missions showed changes in cell proteins, which stimulated and increased the activity of the sperm cells. However, by spinning the cells in a slow-speed centrifuge to increase gravity, sperm activity was decreased, suggesting fertilization may be inhibited by exposure to increased levels of gravity. Other members of the team included Shane Kim and William Kinsey from the University of Kansas Medical Center, and Marianne Schuber and Dieter Seibt from the German Aerospace Center, Koln, Germany. More information on NASA's Biological and Physical Research Program is available at http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov. Contact: Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington Phone: 202-358-1726 _____________________________________________________________________ PHYSICAL AND LIFE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS "TESTED" IN ABSENCE OF GRAVITY European Space Agency release 53-2001 12 October 2001 On 16 October the Airbus A-300 "Zero-g" will take off from Bordeaux- Mérignac airport in France for the first of three parabolic flights designed to carry out experiments in weightlessness before they are conducted in real spaceflight. Parabolic flights are practically the only terrestrial means of reproducing weightlessness with human operators on board. During a parabolic flight, the Airbus A-300 "Zero-G" pilot--flying at an altitude of approximately 6000 meters, usually in a specially reserved air corridor above the Bay of Biscay- -first performs a nose-up maneuver to put the aircraft into a steep climb (to 7600m). This generates an acceleration of 1.8g (1.8 times the acceleration of gravity on the ground) for about 20 seconds. Then the pilot reduces engine thrust to almost zero, injecting the aircraft into a parabola. The plane continues to climb until it reaches the apex of the parabola (8500m), when it starts descending. This descent lasts about 20 seconds, during which the passengers in the cabin float in the weightlessness resulting from the free fall of the aircraft. When the angle below the horizontal reaches 45 degrees, the pilot accelerates again and pulls the aircraft back up to steady horizontal flight. The maneuvers are repeated 30 times per flight. During the 15-19 October parabolic flight campaign, the 31st organized by ESA, preparations will be made for experiments to be conducted later on a Russian Foton satellite and on board the International Space Station. The campaign will focus on physical sciences, life sciences and biology. Ten experiments proposed by international teams of investigators, five in physical sciences, three in human physiology and two in biology, including one from a group of students, will be performed. In the physical sciences field, one of the experiments is related to fluid physics, a combustion experiment will study diffusion flames, another experiment will investigate plasma and the last two will study interactions of cosmic and atmospheric particle systems in the framework of an international research program. In life sciences, three experiments will measure physiological parameters in human subjects and two biology experiments will investigate movements of plants and fish. All these experiments have been reviewed and selected by peers prior to flight. The next (32nd) ESA parabolic flight campaign is scheduled for spring 2002 and will have a mixed complement of experiments in life and physical sciences, including experiments proposed by students. Further information on ESA parabolic flights can be found on ESA's special parabolic flight internet pages at http://www.spaceflight.esa.int/users/file.cfm?filename=miss-parafl Contacts: Vladimir Pletser ESA/ESTEC Directorate of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity Phone: 31-71-565-3316 (33-(0)5-56-34-05-99 during the campaign) Fax: 31-71-565-3141 E-mail: Vladimir.Pletser@esa.int Anna Brueck ESA/ESTEC Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity Phone: 31-71-565-5445 Fax: 31-71-565-4499 E-mail: Anna-Brueck@esa.int _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 15 October 2001 Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html R. R. Britt, 2001. The top 3 reasons to colonize space. Space.com. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 4-10 October 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Sunday, October 7. 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 third in a series of Cosmic Dust Analyzer noise evaluations, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer being placed in sleep mode, two Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibrations and an RPWS Periodic Instrument Maintenance activity. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include an autonomous Command & Data Subsystem Solid State Recorder Memory Load Partition Repair and further Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) deadband testing, which will provide more data for a trade study on hydrazine consumption for two different Reaction Control Subsystem deadband settings. Sequence development for C29 is proceeding on schedule. The Sequence Team Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation phase continued with two meetings held last week to review simulation coordination and preliminary sequence change requests. The Huygens Probe team has submitted inputs for the Probe Relay test in C29 and the corresponding minisequences are now in development. The Project Science Group (PSG) met this week at JPL. Principal items of discussion were Discipline working group activities, Target Working Team status and progress, and Saturn dust models. In addition to the PSG science planning work, Cassini JPL personnel are using this opportunity to meet with the PSG science teams to work out various scheduling and support issues. The Instrument Operations team coordinated with several other groups to provide training to Program personnel this week, especially for out-of-town science team members who were present for the PSG meetings anyway. Tutorials on the Planetary Data System and Events Kernel were held, and the Spacecraft Operations Office (SCO) supported an overview of the ACS. The Uplink Operations (ULO) office also completed the week-long workshop for users of the newest versions of the Pointing Design Tool and Science Opportunity Analyzer software. ULO hosted a third meeting on Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) D8 priorities, with good support from SCO, Mission Support & Services Office (MSSO), and Science Planning. Significant progress has been made in defining the user needs and associated work to meet those needs. System Engineering and MSSO examined how to best distribute science- planning tools to the science team Co-Investigators. Various options have been discussed with some of the science teams, and the comments from that discussion are being integrated into an overall plan. 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. _____________________________________________________________________ GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 12 October 2001 NASA's durable Galileo spacecraft will skim close to the south pole of Jupiter's moon Io next week in search of new insight about that moon's volcanic surface and molten interior. The flyby at 0123 Universal Time on October 16 (6:23 PM October 15, Pacific Daylight Time), is taking the Jupiter-orbiting spacecraft back inside the hazardous environment of Jupiter's intense radiation belts. Io is the innermost of the giant planet's four major moons. An engine burn to fine-tune the trajectory on October 13 is planned to send Galileo about 181 kilometers (112 miles) above Io's surface. This would be Galileo's closest approach to Io so far. The spacecraft has made five previous swings near Io since it reached Jupiter's neighborhood in 1995. "Io is always changing, so we're eager to learn what Galileo might show us this time," said Dr. Eilene Theilig, project manager for Galileo at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Maybe it will surprise us as much as it did in the last flyby." When Galileo flew near Io's north pole in early August, scientists were watching for a gassy plume that a volcano named Tvashtar had been spraying seven months earlier. Instead, Galileo found an even taller eruption from a site where there hadn't even been a volcano before, she said. The polar routes were chosen to position the spacecraft for magnetic field measurements that can provide hints about the moon's interior. The flight path will also provide good opportunities for studying several of Io's interesting volcanic features, including a recently discovered hot spot in the far south and Loki, the most powerful volcano in the solar system. While the spacecraft travels through the inner portion of the Jupiter system in the days surrounding the Io flyby, scientists will also be using Galileo's instruments to examine changes and details in clouds on Jupiter itself and to measure the radiation belts created by Jupiter's magnetic field. Yesterday, the Galileo team sent the spacecraft its detailed instructions for the encounter. The sequence of commands was transmitted from JPL's Deep Space Network facility near Madrid, Spain, one of three network sites worldwide with dish antennas 70 meters (230 feet) across that are used for communicating with Galileo. Earlier, engineers sent new software to the spacecraft's camera, designed to lessen chances for a repeat of radiation-induced malfunctioning that has affected the camera on several occasions since the middle of last year. Electronic components in the camera and elsewhere in the spacecraft have been degraded by repeated exposure to energetic-particle radiation near Jupiter. Galileo has endured more than three times the cumulative dose of radiation it was designed to tolerate. It has performed in orbit nearly three times as long as its original two- year mission. Galileo is running low on the propellant it uses both for tweaking its trajectory and for adjusting its orientation to point its antenna. After one last flyby of Io in January 2002, the spacecraft will be on a trajectory that will take it through Jupiter's inner radiation belt and near the small inner moon Amalthea in November 2002, then out for one more long loop ending with a plunge into the crushing pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere in September 2003. Additional information about Galileo, Io and Jupiter is available online at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. _____________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 8-14 October 2001 In this final week before the next Io flyby, the pace of activities picks up considerably. On Monday, four more optical navigation frames are shuttered. These images frame the satellite Callisto and several stars. By comparing the relative positions of Callisto and the stars, ground navigators can help refine the position of the spacecraft, supplementing the usual radiometric tracking data used for orbit determination. Two additional such frames are shuttered on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Magnetometer instrument changes its configuration, preparing for the more intense magnetic environment as the spacecraft nears Jupiter. On Thursday, the sequence of commands that will govern Galileo's activities during next week's flyby will be transmitted to the spacecraft. These commands will be sent from the 70-meter diameter Deep Space Network tracking station located at Robledo, near Madrid, Spain. There are two other such antennas that support the Galileo mission, located at the Goldstone tracking station in the Southern California desert, and also at Tidbinbilla, near Canberra, Australia. For more information about these communications complexes, please visit http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/. Friday sees the end of playback of the tape-recorded data acquired during the last Io flyby on August 5. This week's data return consists of collections of fragments of observations which were lost in transit during previous playback attempts. Once playback has concluded, routine maintenance of the tape recorder is performed on Saturday, to prepare for the new recording. Also on Saturday, the final targeting maneuver is executed. This motor burn will fine-tune the trajectory of the spacecraft to reach the desired aim-point 181 kilometers (112 miles) above the surface of Io next Monday. Then at 7:41 PM PDT the commands sent to the spacecraft on Thursday take charge, and the encounter is under way! First up is configuration of the Fields and Particles instruments, and the start of twelve days of continuous real-time data collection for those instruments. The six instruments on Galileo which measure the particles and electromagnetic fields that surround Jupiter and its satellites are the Dust Detector Subsystem, the Energetic Particle Detector, the Heavy Ion Counter, the Magnetometer, the Plasma Subsystem, and the Plasma Wave Subsystem. On Sunday, the tape recorder is moved to the correct position to start recording for the encounter. Also, the attitude control software is configured to rely on sightings of a single bright star to determine the spacecraft orientation. Ordinarily, three or more stars are used for this determination. However, when Galileo approaches Jupiter, high levels of radiation create electronic noise in the star detector, and only very bright stars can be seen reliably. It then becomes a challenge to find a star that is sufficiently bright and also falls within field of view of the star scanner. During the 48 hours surrounding the closest approach to Jupiter and Io, we will be viewing the star Achernar (Alpha Eridani), which is the sixth brightest star in the catalog we maintain for use by Galileo. Take a deep breath, we're about to get really busy! 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 8 October 2001 The assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) passed another major milestone today as two Russian cosmonauts executed a 4 hour, 58 minute spacewalk outside the complex to begin to outfit the Station's newest module. With Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson coordinating activities from inside the ISS, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin opened the hatch on the Pirs Docking Compartment for the first time at 9:23 AM Central time (1423 GMT) to hook up telemetry and data cables between Pirs and the Zvezda Service Module to which it linked up to three weeks ago, and to install handrails, an access ladder, a cargo crane, a docking target and a automated navigational antenna. It was the 27th spacewalk in support of the assembly of the ISS totaling 172 hours, 22 minutes, the third spacewalk staged out of the Station itself, the first external spacewalk from the ISS without the presence of a visiting Space Shuttle and the 100th spacewalk in Russian spaceflight history. It was Dezhurov's sixth spacewalk spanning two flights and the first for Tyurin, who is midway through his first flight into space. Moving with ease, Dezhurov and Tyurin worked leisurely and methodically through their timeline as television cameras on the Canadarm2 Station robotic arm and a camera in the Soyuz return vehicle captured spectacular views of the spacewalk. Because the spacewalk ran slightly longer than predicted, Dezhurov and Tyurin were unable to complete one task--a test of the rigidity of the Strela cargo crane, using Tyurin as a mock payload. Russian flight controllers said the task would be conducted on a future spacewalk by the Expedition Three crew. With all of the other work successfully completed, the hatch to Pirs was closed at 2:21 PM Central time (1921 GMT) and the new compartment was repressurized. A second spacewalk by Dezhurov and Tyurin is planned for Oct. 15 to mount a series of experiments to the exterior of Zvezda designed to gather data on the effect of exposure to the space environment on engineering materials. A third spacewalk by Culbertson and Dezhurov is scheduled for November 5 to complete the exterior outfitting of Pirs. The new Docking Compartment will be used for the first time on October 19, when the Expedition Three crew temporarily leaves the Station and boards its Soyuz rescue craft to relocate it from its current docked position on the nadir port of the Zarya module to the Pirs. The undocking and redocking of the Soyuz is expected to take about 30 minutes to complete. That will set the stage for the launch of a fresh Soyuz return craft on October 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A taxi crew consisting of Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere representing CNES, the French Space Agency, will arrive at the station October 23 for an eight-day stay and will return to Earth on October 31 aboard the Soyuz currently at the Station. With all of its systems operating in good shape, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km). For additional information, including sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, visit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/. The orbiting trio also plans a variety of scientific investigations this coming week as they move into the second half of their four-month stay on orbit. 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. the Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center. Details on ISS science operations can be found at http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov. The next ISS status report will be issued on Wednesday, Oct. 10, or earlier, if events warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 12 October 2001 Following last night's final planned course correction, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is now on target to enter Martian orbit later this month. At 04:00 Universal time on Friday, October 12 (9:00 PM Pacific time, Thursday, October 11), Odyssey fired its small thrusters for three seconds, which changed the speed and direction of the spacecraft by 0.077 meters per second (0.17 miles per hour). Odyssey will arrive at Mars at 0226 Universal time October 24 (7:26 PM Pacific time October 23). "This was a tiny maneuver, designed to change our altitude at arrival by just a few kilometers. The burn went exactly as planned," said David A. Spencer, Odyssey's mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. On Monday, October 15, the flight team will uplink the sequence of commands that pre-programs the spacecraft to fire its main engine and allows the spacecraft to be captured by the planet's gravity and enter orbit around Mars. Today, Odyssey is 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Mars, traveling at a speed of 23 kilometers per second (51,800 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. The Odyssey spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver. The thermal emission imaging system is managed by Arizona State University, Tempe, and the gamma ray spectrometer is managed by the University of Arizona, Tucson. NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, built and manages the Martian radiation environment experiment. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-odyssey-01f.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-odyssey-01g1.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0110/13odyssey/ _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 12 October 2001 There were two Deep Space Network tracking passes in the past week and all subsystems are performing normally. Commands were successfully sent to the spacecraft to record power data every fifteen minutes. The power subsystem engineers are updating their power model to better predict the power usage next April, when Stardust reaches 2.7 AU from the Sun. Presently, the recorded data provides limited telemetry since a complete snapshot of the spacecraft power measurements occurs only every four hours. By recording the data every fifteen minutes over the next week, the power subsystem engineers will be able to obtain a more accurate picture of the spacecraft loads and thus update their model to provide better power predictions at the 2.7 AU distance. The Stardust and JPL Solar System web sites highlighted a spotlight article focusing on the recent milestone where Stardust became the farthest ever spacecraft from the Sun using only solar power. Stardust will continue to extend this record daily for the next six months. 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 39.