MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 41, 29 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) SAILING TO MARS--A VIABLE LONG TERM OBJECTIVE By Julian A. Hiscox and Richard Taylor 2) NASA SELECTS RESEARCH PROPOSALS IN ADVANCED HUMAN SUPPORT TECHNOLOGIES NASA release 01-203 3) BOOK REVIEW: SPACE ACCESS AND UTILIZATION BEYOND 2000 By Julian A. Hiscox 4) OUR GALAXY SHOULD BE TEEMING WITH CIVILIZATIONS, BUT WHERE ARE THEY? By Seth Shostak 5) TAKE IT EASY From NASA Tech Briefs Insider 6) CONSTRUCTION TEAM VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION Mars Society release 7) MARS ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND ASTROBIOLOGY (MACA) WORKSHOP NASA/JPL release 8) WEIGHTLESS IN BED FOR THREE MONTHS. WANT TO VOLUNTEER? ESA release 60-2001 9) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 10) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 11) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 12) SPACE STATION MARKS HUMAN PRESENCE MILESTONE NASA release 01-205 13) MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL releases 14) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ SAILING TO MARS--A VIABLE LONG TERM OBJECTIVE By Julian A. Hiscox and Richard Taylor 23 October 2001 One of the current mission scenarios to Mars that is in vogue at the moment is based on the "Mars Direct" direct template, which offers significant savings and benefits for the short term aim of getting humans to Mars before 2019 and includes some dual function hardware. The idea is to generate the rocket fuel for the return journey to Earth on Mars using carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hydrogen that has been brought from the Earth. However, the strategy still retains a large measure of the "use-once-only-and-throwaway" habits. These were at first an essential part of the early years of the development of space technology, however one alternative that should be considered for future Martian exploration and transport of materials to Mars orbit is solar sailing. How do solar sails propel a spacecraft? In essence the idea is disarmingly simple. It is to make use of a small part of the vast flood of energy released by the nuclear reactions within the Sun and which radiates away into space, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, in all directions. Solar radiation is made up of a stream of photons, each of which carries momentum, and which exert a small but measurable pressure on any surface they hit. If the surface on which they impinge is a perfect mirror the pressure generated on that reflector is the maximum attainable for a given intensity of incident radiation. The radiation pressure generated is quite small. For a mirror directly facing the Sun it is proportional to the intensity of the incident radiation and inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the Sun. Because the pressure exerted by light is small the mirror that makes up a solar sail has to have a very large surface area and be of very low mass if it is successfully to propel a spacecraft. These requirements call for the use of the thinnest possible "sailcloth" no thicker than 2.0 microns and perhaps as much as an order of magnitude thinner for high performance space sails. The principal advantages of using solar sailing craft for the exploration of Mars are economic factors. These include the elimination of propellant cost for flight between Earth/Mars and Mars/Earth. Complete reusability and long operating life of space sailing ships allows their capital cost to be amortized over a period of years or decades--that is over many flights. The virtual elimination of non-reusable hardware components also reduces greatly general operating costs. Together these and other factors contribute to a high capacity, low capital and low operating costs, space transportation system. Aerobreaking entry in to the Martian atmosphere for a sailing ship delivered module would require only a small mass of onboard propellant. Fuel for the return to Mars orbit could manufactured on Mars, either in the same manner, but on a smaller scale, as proposed in the "Mars Direct" scenario, of from the electrolysis of Martian water. For the long term exploration of Mars, perhaps leading eventually to the permanent settlement of the planet space sailing ships win hands down offering potential operating cost reduction of approximately 80%. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA SELECTS RESEARCH PROPOSALS IN ADVANCED HUMAN SUPPORT TECHNOLOGIES NASA release 01-203 23 October 2001 NASA has selected 10 researchers to receive grants to develop advanced technologies needed to produce food, recycle water and air, and monitor spacecraft environments required for long-term human space exploration. The grants, totaling approximately $5.4 million over three years, will create a vital knowledge base in these important areas. NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research funds multi- disciplinary research that uses the space environment to address fundamental scientific questions and helps prepare for further human exploration of space. These grants will lead to technologies that can be used in low Earth orbit, on the International Space Station and for future human exploration of the solar system. Four of the grants are for new technologies in advanced environmental monitoring of spacecraft habitats, one proposal addresses water processing technology, and the five others address plant growth in space. NASA received 50 proposals in response to its research announcement in this research area. These proposals were all peer- reviewed by scientific and technical experts from academia, government, and industry. A list of the selected principal investigators, institutions and research titles (by state) can be found on the Internet at http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov. Contact: Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington Phone: 202-358-1726 _____________________________________________________________________ BOOK REVIEW: SPACE ACCESS AND UTILIZATION BEYOND 2000 By Julian A. Hiscox 23 October 2001 Space Access and Utilization Beyond 2000 Edited by Yoji Kondo, Charles Sheffield and Fredrick C. Bruhweiler Publisher: American Astronautical Society, Univelt. ISBN: 0-87703-476-1 Conference proceedings can be a bit daunting for the non-initiated, that's why biologists tend to stick to biology, engineers to engineering and physicists to physics. However, space science requires an understanding of many different subjects especially given the overriding preoccupation with searching for life or its origins in the solar system. Europa provides a good example of this, without the physics, Voyager and Galileo would not have been able to navigate the marvels of orbital dynamics to return images of a cracked surface, and data that when interpreted, paints a picture of a liquid water interior and allows biologists to speculate that conditions maybe suitable for life. Space Access and Utilization Beyond 2000 is a rather nifty proceeding written without the use of technical jargon that presents a broad overview of space exploration and development from the Japanese, European, Russian and American perspectives, from Mars exploration to expendable launch vehicles. One of my favorite chapters was entitled, "New Directions for National Security Space Programs", written by the Deputy Director for Command and Control, Headquarters, U.S. Air Force Space Command. The chapter highlights the need for microsatellites and spaceplanes reminiscent of the old Dyna-Saur (X20) concept, which was probably the best spaceplane never to have been built. To illustrate the richness of the book, the stark realities of this chapter can be contrasted with, "Sampling the Solar System" by Edward C. Stone of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which, as the name suggests, gives a brief overview of future planetary exploration to places like Mars and Europa. As with many of these books an index would have been very useful, but that is a minor criticism. This book will provide a fascinating reference work and source of useful information. _____________________________________________________________________ OUR GALAXY SHOULD BE TEEMING WITH CIVILIZATIONS, BUT WHERE ARE THEY? By Seth Shostak From Space.com 25 October 2001 Is there obvious proof that we could be alone in the Galaxy? Enrico Fermi thought so--and he was a pretty smart guy. Might he have been right? It's been a hundred years since Fermi, an icon of physics, was born (and nearly a half-century since he died). He's best remembered for building a working atomic reactor in a squash court. But in 1950, Fermi made a seemingly innocuous lunchtime remark that has caught and held the attention of every SETI researcher since. (How many luncheon quips have you made with similar consequence?) ...Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy. Within ten million years, every star system could be brought under the wing of empire. Ten million years may sound long, but in fact it's quite short compared with the age of the Galaxy, which is roughly ten thousand million years. Colonization of the Milky Way should be a quick exercise. So what Fermi immediately realized was that the aliens have had more than enough time to pepper the Galaxy with their presence. But looking around, he didn't see any clear indication that they're out and about. This prompted Fermi to ask what was (to him) an obvious question: "where is everybody?" Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/shostak_paradox_011024.html. _____________________________________________________________________ TAKE IT EASY From NASA Tech Briefs Insider 25 October 2001 Would you like to stay in bed all day to help NASA? How about for 30 days? NASA's Ames Research Center is looking for volunteers willing to spend a month in bed as part of a Johnson Space Center study on how long-term space flight affects the human body. The study will begin in January 2002, and will require that volunteers lie in beds tilted head-down at a six-degree angle for 24 hours a day for one month. Bed rest in this position is considered the best Earth model to simulate the effects of prolonged microgravity on the human body. The position induces many of the physiological changes similar to those in space flight, according to Fritz Moore, the Ames project manager for the Countermeasures Evaluation and Validation Project. "These effects include cardiovascular deconditioning, muscle atrophy, decreased bone strength, and shifts in fluid and electrolyte balance," he added. Male and female volunteers between the ages of 25 and 55 can apply. You must be a non-smoker in good health and not participating in a highly competitive or rigorous exercise program. Participants will be housed in Ames' Human Research Facility in northern California for 45 days; 30 of those days will be spent in bed. For more information on how you can be part of this study, contact Heather Wilson of NASA Ames at hwilson@mail.arc.nasa.gov. _____________________________________________________________________ CONSTRUCTION TEAM VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION Mars Society release 25 October 2001 Lend a hand for Mars! Hard working volunteers skilled in the use of hand and power tools are needed to assist in the construction of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). The MDRS, which was visited by approximately 100,000 people while on display at Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex this past summer, is now in Denver for structural upgrades. It will be shipped to southern Utah in mid November, and built in the desert there during the period running from November 15 to December 7. Station operations, which will support research in Mars field exploration techniques, will begin shortly afterwards. A call for volunteers for crew slots in the operational station will be sent out next week. But the task now before us is to get the station built. If you have the skill, and have the will, please step forward and pitch in. Those wishing to volunteer should contact Frank Schubert, therub9@aol.com. Selected volunteers will have their transportation and housing expenses paid for during the construction period. Salaries will not be paid. To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org. _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND ASTROBIOLOGY (MACA) WORKSHOP NASA/JPL release 25 October 2001 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA December 17-19, 2001 The California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are hosting a multi-disciplinary workshop to identify what observations of the composition of the Mars atmosphere would allow the detection of extant subsurface life, remnants of life, or signatures of past climate supportive of life. A key question is how to distinguish between actual biosignatures and atmospheric composition resulting from volcanic emissions and other non- biological natural processes that might be occurring on Mars. Members of the scientific community are invited to participate in plenary session discussions and present poster talks. The proceedings of the workshop will be published. Further information may be found at the workshop web site (http://www.gps.caltech.edu/meetings/MACA). Registration will be through this web site. The NASA Astrobiology Institute will entertain requests for travel support. See the workshop web site for additional details. _____________________________________________________________________ WEIGHTLESS IN BED FOR THREE MONTHS. WANT TO VOLUNTEER? ESA release 60-2001 29 October 2001 Space is the only true weightless environment. On Earth, where experiments can be performed more easily, models are designed to simulate the weightless environment as accurately as possible. Simulation models provide significant knowledge and are crucial in ongoing research. Current research aims are to gain knowledge that will protect astronauts' health while living in space for longer than six months. Long-duration bedrest study is one of the means available on the ground to simulate the effects on the human body experienced in a weightless environment. The technique of anti-orthostatic (-6° head-down tilt), bedrest has been used in Europe, the United States, Russia and Japan since 1960 for different lengths of time. The ongoing study in the MEDES Space Clinic in Toulouse is the first ever of such complexity and duration to be carried out in Europe. The whole study is being conducted under French biomedical research law. For the first phase of this study, 14 volunteers (selected in June) began the 3-month bedrest in August and will continue until completion in December. The European Space Agency, in association with CNES and NASDA, the French and Japanese space agencies, is now calling for candidates interested in taking part in the second three- month phase of the study at the MEDES Space Clinic in Toulouse starting in March 2002, for which 14 new volunteers will be needed. They will have to be available for 4 months altogether. What are the selection criteria? You must be: · a citizen of the European Union · male* · aged between 25 and 45 · between 165 and 185 cm in height · not overweight · a non-smoker · in good health · under no medical treatment · covered by health insurance · highly motivated The volunteers for this experiment will be exposed to a large number of different scientific and medical examinations, performed by an international team of scientists. The examinations will be in the areas of: · muscle performance and capacity, · change in bone tissue, · cardiovascular control systems (heart and circulation), · sleep, · changes in blood and urine composition. The main objective of the campaign is to study the effects of immobilization and/or activity on bone and muscle tissue. In this particular campaign, certain techniques to counteract deterioration in muscle and bone tissue will be studied. In addition, the results of the study are expected to help improve the treatment and recovery of hospitalized or bedridden patients, especially with regard to muscle and bone status. Phase one of the study is ongoing at this time, and the mid-point of the study has been passed. All volunteers are coping well and can now count down till the end of the study, which for the first two will be on 3 December. For further information about the criteria and details of how to apply, call +33 62 19 28 97 for answers in English and +33 5 62 19 28 96 for answers in French. If you meet the criteria, you can apply directly on the bedrest web site at http://www.medes.fr; online applications will be treated more rapidly. You can also send us a short letter with your name, address, date and place of birth, your height, weight, and a short explanation of why you would like to take part. The address is: MEDES BP 4200 31031 Toulouse cedex 4 France We will send you an application file as soon as we receive your letter. *Due to the small size of the subject group, gender variability has had to be eliminated to ensure significant statistical analysis. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 29 October 2001 Articles about the biology of extreme environments (on Earth) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html L. L. Jahnke, W. Eder, R. Huber, J. M. Hope, K-U. Hinrichs, J. M. Hayes, D. J. Des Marais, S. L. Cady and R. E. Summons, 2001. Signature lipids and stable carbon isotope analyses of Octopus Spring hyperthermophilic communities compared with those of Aquificales representatives. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 67(11):5179-5189. B. D. Lanoil, R. Sassen, M. T. La Duc, S. T. Sweet and K. H. Nealson, 2001. Bacteria and Archaea physically associated with Gulf of Mexico gas hydrates. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 67(11):5143- 5153. Articles about human space exploration and the microgravity environment http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html J. R. Pedicino, 2001. The lure of Mars. SpaceDaily. Articles about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html S. Shostak, 2001. Our galaxy should be teeming with civilizations, but where are they? Space.com. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 18-24 October 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, October 24. 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 a Cosmic Dust Analyzer measurement of Jovian dust stream particles, the continuation of an eight-day decontamination sequence for the Imaging Science Subsystem, and two Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibrations. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include the conclusion of the final in a series of Attitude Control Subsystem deadband tests. A minisequence was uplinked to overlay the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) Momentum Bias commands from the background sequence with new updated values produced by the ACS team. C29 Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation (PSIV) phase has continued with the release of version "C" sequence products to be reviewed during the upcoming PSIV approval meeting. All required waivers for the sequence have been reviewed and signed off, and three minisequences have been generated to support the fourth Probe Relay Test, which is planned for C29. These minisequences are currently being validated using the High Speed Simulator, and will require a final SIV phase with the release of version "D" products to accommodate several minor changes to the sequence. The Solid State Recorder (SSR) Management Operations Concept was reviewed, with particular attention paid to the plan for multiple play-backs of certain science data from the SSR to the DSN, and data carry-over on the SSR from one play-back to the next. These items are being carefully reviewed due to their impact on the design of the SSR Management Tool and the planning of tour science observations. The Cassini Functional Design Description document has been updated to include the comments made at the Ground Data System (GDS) and Downlink Critical Design Reviews earlier this year. Changes included revised diagrams of the GDS and updated requirements to the GDS and Downlink Operations Concepts. The Uplink Operations and System Engineering teams held a Delivery Coordination Meeting for the Cassini Information Management System (CIMS) version 1.4.1 This latest release includes added functionality to the time-ordered-listing algorithm, which outputs science planning data from the CIMS database. The Cassini Education and Public Outreach planning committee held a teleconference with its outside planning partners to present the draft Education and Outreach plan for review. In addition, Outreach held workshops to present classroom activities at the western regional National Science Teachers Association meeting in Salt Lake City and at the California Science Teachers Association meeting. 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. _____________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT NASA/JSC release 23 October 2001 Two Russian cosmonauts and a French researcher arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) this morning, delivering a fresh Soyuz return vehicle for the residents on board to begin eight days of joint operations and research. Russian taxi crew Commander Victor Afanasyev, rookie Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere docked the Soyuz TM-33 craft to the nadir docking port of the Zarya Control Module at 5:44 AM CDT (10:44 GMT) as the Soyuz and the ISS sailed 240 statute miles over Eastern Asia. The successful docking came two days after the crew was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In the ISS, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin monitored the docking and prepared for the opening of hatches between the Soyuz and Zarya after leak checks are completed to greet their first visitors since they took over station operations back in August. Afanasyev, making his fourth flight into space, and Haignere, who is in her second flight, are veterans of previous flights on the Mir Space Station. This is Kozeev's first flight in space. Haignere is flying for ESA, but representing CNES, the French Space Agency, under a commercial contract with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. In addition to helping deliver the new Soyuz to Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin, she will be conducting a host of scientific experiments while she and her crewmates spend eight days aboard the ISS. Within hours after the docking, the visiting crewmembers were scheduled to receive a safety briefing on station systems from Culbertson, before Haignere begins to activate and conduct initial experiments in materials research, life sciences and meteorological phenomena. The taxi trio is scheduled to depart the station next Tuesday night at 7:41 PM CDT (1:41 GMT on October 31) in the Soyuz TM-32 craft which arrived at the ISS in April and which is now docked to the new Pirs Docking Compartment. The taxi crew will land in the steppes of Kazakhstan several hours later. The Expedition Three crewmembers are scheduled to return to Earth in December after their Expedition Four replacements arrive on board during the STS-108 mission aboard the Shuttle Endeavour. The shuttle is targeted for launch November 29. With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (395 km). For additional information, including sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, visit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/. The Expedition Three crew will continue its scientific investigations this coming week in concert with the work being performed on board the ISS by the taxi crew. Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. The Johnson Space Center manages the Human Research Facility. Details on ISS science operations can be found at the center's web site, http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov. The next ISS status report will be issued on Tuesday, October 30, after the Soyuz taxi crew departs the station, or earlier, if events warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ SPACE STATION MARKS HUMAN PRESENCE MILESTONE NASA release 01-205 25 October 2001 The International Space Station marks a milestone in space history next week--one full year of continuous international human presence in orbit. It's a year that has seen the space platform become the largest, most sophisticated and most powerful spacecraft ever built. The International Space Station has grown from a 70-ton, efficiency apartment-sized foothold in orbit to a space laboratory of unprecedented capability. The station is now a 150-ton orbiting complex with more volume than a three-bedroom house. Three crews, made up of four American astronauts and five Russian cosmonauts, have called the space outpost home. The Expedition One crew first opened the hatch November 2, 2000, for a trailblazing shakedown mission. The successive expeditions have played a vital role in the station's rapid construction and have expanded its operational and scientific research capabilities. "During the past year, NASA has flown a series of missions as complex and challenging as any ever executed, and they have resulted in an outstanding station now in orbit," International Space Station Program Manager Tommy Holloway said. "The teams on the ground worldwide and in space have performed to a standard of operational excellence as high as any achieved in NASA's history, including the landings of astronauts on the lunar surface," added Holloway. "Their achievement this year must be recognized as one that has expanded the envelope of human technology, ingenuity and daring." Fourteen spacecraft have visited the International Space Station in the past 12 months, including four different types of space vehicles. Additions to the station during that time include the largest solar arrays ever built, the U.S. Destiny space laboratory, a new generation of Canadian space robotics called Canadarm2, and airlocks that accommodate both American and Russian spacesuits, enhancing the station's self-sufficiency. "The station is the largest international engineering project ever undertaken in space, and it is the first truly global space exploration effort," Holloway said. "Its unprecedented scale in orbital size and capability will be matched in the future by the scale of the benefits its research will bring to lives on Earth." Equipment and experiments from the major station partners--the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency--have been launched to the complex. A total of 79 visits by space fliers to the station so far have included men and women representing six different nations. Almost 50,000 hours of station operations and scientific experiments have been conducted, with investigations controlled by astronauts in space and remotely by scientists on the ground. Since the beginning of the station's construction, 28 assembly spacewalks have been performed. This represents more than one- quarter of all American spacewalks carried out in NASA's four-decade history. In the past year alone, 18 spacewalks have been completed, which is more than in any previous 12-month period in the history of human space flight. More information about the International Space Station, an archive of its operations for the past year, and associated images are available on the Internet at http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/year1. Contacts: Kyle Herring NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-4504 James Hartsfield/John Ira Petty Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX Phone: 281-483-5111 _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL releases 23 October 2001 The United States returned to Mars tonight as NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey fired its main engine at 7:26 PM Pacific Time and was captured into orbit around the red planet. At 7:55 PM Pacific time, flight controllers at the Deep Space Network station in Goldstone, CA, and Canberra, Australia, picked up the first radio signal from the spacecraft as it emerged from behind the planet Mars. "Early information indicates everything went great," said Matt Landano, the Odyssey project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "The orbit insertion burn went off just as we planned and we will now begin the three-month long aerobraking phase." Through tonight and the early morning hours tomorrow, the flight team will be analyzing the information they are receiving from Odyssey. This will help them evaluate the health and status of the spacecraft and determine the precise orbit geometry. Tonight's firing of the main engine slowed the spacecraft's speed and allowed it to be captured by Mars' gravity into an egg-shaped elliptical orbit around the planet. In the weeks and months ahead, the spacecraft will repeatedly brush against the top of the atmosphere in a process called aerobraking. By using atmospheric drag on the spacecraft, flight controllers will reduce the long, highly elliptical orbit into a shorter, 2-hour circular orbit of approximately 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) altitude for the mission's science data collection. The aerobraking phase is scheduled to begin on Friday, October 26. "Orbit insertion is our single most critical event during the mission, and we are glad it's behind us," said David A. Spencer, Odyssey's mission manager at JPL. "But we cannot rest on our laurels. The aerobraking phase will be a demanding, around-the-clock operation, and it requires the flight team to react as the atmosphere of Mars changes." Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1616000/1616683.stm http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/10/23/mars.odyssey.arrives/index.h tml http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24oct_1.htm?list52260 http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/odyssey_mars_011023 .html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-odyssey-01m.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-odyssey-01n1.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html 24 October 2001 Flight controllers for NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission report the spacecraft is in excellent health and is in a looping orbit around Mars of 18 hours and 36 minutes. "Odyssey flawlessly achieved last night's one-time critical event of Mars orbit insertion. Hundreds and hundreds of things had to go right, and they did," said Matt Landano, Mars Odyssey project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We are all excited about our success and I am proud of all the members of our team." The navigation proved to be equally precise. "We were aiming for a point 300 kilometers (186.5 miles) above Mars and we hit that point within one kilometer (.6 miles)," reports Bob Mase, the Mars Odyssey lead navigator at JPL. "Because of the excellent main engine burn, we will not need to do any more maneuvers to adjust the orbit before we begin aerobraking on Friday." In the weeks and months ahead, the spacecraft will be literally surfing the waves of the Martian atmosphere, in a process called aerobraking, which will reduce the long elliptical orbit into a shorter, 2-hour circular orbit of approximately 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) altitude. This morning, the team turned on the electronics for the gamma ray spectrometer subsystem and began taking data with the high-energy neutron detector and the neutron spectrometer instruments. These detectors may help scientists locate water near the surface of Mars, if it exists. On Sunday, October 28, scientists will take the first picture with the thermal emission imaging system. That image is expected to be a wide-angle view of the southern hemisphere taken when Odyssey is farthest away from Mars. The primary science mission will begin in January 2002. JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Principal investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, operate the science instruments. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, will provide aerobraking support to JPL's navigation team during mission operations. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-odyssey-01o.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/011024moi.html _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 26 October 2001 There was one Deep Space Network tracking pass in the past week and the spacecraft is performing as planned at 2.43 AU (about 225 million miles) from the Sun. Commands were successfully transmitted to the spacecraft that redefined the definition of deep space from 2.5 AU to 2.4 AU (from 232 million miles to 223 million miles.) This will affect how the spacecraft will respond if it goes into a safe mode at this distance from the Sun where power is low. Based on the new definition, Stardust will remain in deep space until October 2002. The 2001 Mars Odyssey mission had a tremendously successful Mars Orbit Insertion on October 23. Stardust will apply the well tested and implemented operational processes and lessons learned at the Comet Wild 2 encounter in 2004. 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 41.