MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 44, 19 November 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) THE SURVIVAL BENEFITS OF EVOLVING AFTER A MASS EXTINCTION From SpaceDaily 2) MASS EXTINCTIONS MAY BE A MYTH, CLAIM SCIENTISTS From SpaceDaily 3) DECODING E.T.: ANCIENT TONGUES POINT WAY TO LEARNING ALIEN LANGUAGES By Doug Vakoch 4) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 5) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 6) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 7) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORTS NASA/JSC releases 8) FIRST THEMIS INFRARED AND VISIBLE IMAGES OF MARS NASA/JPL release 9) MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 10) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ THE SURVIVAL BENEFITS OF EVOLVING AFTER A MASS EXTINCTION From SpaceDaily 12 November 2001 An evolutionary group has a significantly better chance of surviving for a long time in the geologic record if it first appears right after a mass extinction. University of Cincinnati geologist Arnold Miller [presented] his findings Tuesday morning November 6 during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Boston. Professor Miller used a database of marine fossil genera compiled by J. John Sepkoski to examine longevity trends throughout the Phanerozoic (the last 540 million years). In four separate cases, he found that genera first appearing following mass extinctions survived for longer periods of time, on average, than those that first appeared at other times... ...Miller said that the trend is apparent no matter what the ultimate cause was of each mass extinction. Genera that were more widespread, might have fared better over the long run because of a kind of "safety in geography." If a catastrophe decimated the individuals living in one region, then a genus could still survive if individuals belonging to the genus also lived in other regions. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zs.html. _____________________________________________________________________ MASS EXTINCTIONS MAY BE A MYTH, CLAIM SCIENTISTS From SpaceDaily 13 November 2001 Catastrophic mass extinctions, such as the one that saw the demise of the dinosaurs, could be a myth according to the findings of recent research into 100 million-year-old marine fossils. It is widely believed that there has been about a dozen mass extinctions during the history of life on Earth, the most devastating of which saw 84% of the planet's species disappear. But research by geologist Professor Andy Gale of the University of Greenwich and palaeontologists from the Natural History Museum, published recently in the American journal Paleobiology, is now casting doubt upon whether these mass extinctions took place. "Large gaps in the fossil record are often cited as evidence of mass extinctions. But there are other explanations for this lack of fossil evidence which do not point to a catastrophic annihilation of large numbers of species, says Professor Gale. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zp.html. _____________________________________________________________________ DECODING E.T.: ANCIENT TONGUES POINT WAY TO LEARNING ALIEN LANGUAGES By Doug Vakoch From Space.com 15 November 2001 The modern Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is based on the premise that a systematic search of the cosmos may reveal artificial signals, transmitted either intentionally or, somewhat like the leakage of TV and radio signals from Earth today, as electromagnetic noise. But will these signals, if we ever detect them, be more than simple beacons telling us that we are not alone? What if the signals bear messages from an alien civilization, attempting to describe the universe from the perspective of an intelligent species evolved completely independently of humankind? ...How would we go about deciphering such messages? SETI researchers have long contended that the content of messages intentionally beamed toward Earth would likely be heavy on math and science—at least in the early stages. These scientists reason that if extraterrestrials are intelligent enough to build radio telescopes or lasers capable of interstellar communication, they will also be familiar with many of the same principles of mathematics, physics, and chemistry that we use on Earth. And while that may be true for the initial steps in an interstellar codebook, how might extraterrestrials convey something about the more unique aspects of their world—such as their culture and history? Anthropologists Ben Finney and Jerry Bentley of the University of Hawaii suggest that we might gain clues to decoding more complex extraterrestrial messages by examining past attempts to decode languages right here on Earth. But these scholars warn that we need to be cautious about which examples to use for our case studies. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_decode_011115.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 19 November 2001 Articles about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html D. Vakoch, 2001. Decoding E.T.: ancient tongues point way to learning alien languages. Space.com. Articles about evolutionary biology and chemistry http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html SpaceDaily, 2001. Mass extinctions may be a myth, claim scientists. SpaceDaily. SpaceDaily, 2001. The survival benefits of evolving after a mass extinction. SpaceDaily. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 8-14 November 2001 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, November 14. 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 two Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibrations, the conclusion of the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) radiator test, VIMS set to sleep mode, and the Ka-Band Exciter and Ka-Band Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier powered off. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include an autonomous Command & Data Subsystem Solid State Recorder Memory Load Partition Repair, a transition from Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) to Reaction Control Subsystem control and an RWA unload. A minisequence was uplinked in preparation for the upcoming, four-day Probe Relay test. The Radio Science Subsystem supported a Ka-Band Uplink Exciter/Transmitter demo track this week. The new Ka-band acquisition template was used to uplink to the spacecraft, and the Ka-Band Translator successfully locked onto the signal. Later in the week, the Cassini Radio Science Ops Team accompanied the JPL Principal Investigator for the Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE), Dr. John Armstrong, to the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (DSCC) and briefed the station operators on the GWE. While there, the Cassini DSS-25 Upgrade Task manager led a tour of the new facilities at the DSCC for the Radio Science team. The first delivery of products to the Icy Satellite Science and Uplink Verification activity occurred this week. These products will be merged and delivered to the Attitude Control Subsystem team for detailed analysis with the Kinematic Prediction Tool/ Inertial Vector Propagator software. Imaging Science Subsystem anomaly investigation continued with complete documentation of the C28 results being sent to the JPL Observational Systems Division contamination engineers. The delivery schedule for the Mission Sequence Subsystem D 8.0 delivery has been reassessed due to complications with some telemetry commands. The planned delivery has been slipped out just over a week, but there is potential to regain the original date as a result of reduced dependency on other software deliveries. 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. _____________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 12-18 November 2001 Routine maintenance activities dot the schedule for the Galileo spacecraft this week. On Monday the on-board tape recorder takes a break from playback to perform some high-speed slews from end to end on the tape. This monthly exercise helps keep the tape from sticking to the heads. On Friday the propulsion system gets a small workout as a tiny amount of propellant is flushed through the lines to keep it flowing smoothly and prevent corrosion in the system. On Saturday a readout of engineering data from the Solid State Imaging camera (SSI) will keep engineers apprised of the health of the instrument. While the Magnetometer, Dust Detector, and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer continue their slow but steady collection of data, playback of recorded data from the October 15 flyby of Io occupies the bulk of the week. This week sees the completion of the playback of the recording made by the Fields and Particles instruments while the spacecraft passed through the torus of particles that coincides with Io's orbit. This playback is followed by the return of a 1.5-hour recording made by the Fields and Particles instruments centered on the closest approach of Galileo to Io. This recording provides an intensive study of the detailed interactions in the environment near this extremely active satellite. Since this flyby occurred at a far southerly latitude of nearly 79 degrees, these data will provide an excellent contrast with data acquired on previous flybys over the equatorial regions. Combining all of this data should give scientists a more complete picture of the full three-dimensional structure of the magnetospheric region that surrounds Io. The Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer data expected this week come from thermal maps of the Pele and Loki volcanos, taken while those features were in the dark. These NIMS images and the SSI pictures of the Pele region should show the glowing hot-spots of recent and current volcanism and help scientists pin down the locations of currently active regions. 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 _____________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORTS NASA/JSC releases 12 November 2001 Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson and Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov completed the external outfitting of the Pirs Docking Compartment on the International Space Station (ISS) this evening, conducting a 5 hour, 4 minute spacewalk outside the orbital outpost. Culbertson, making his first spacewalk, and Dezhurov, completing his third spacewalk of this Expedition and his eighth overall, opened the hatch on the Pirs compartment at 3:41 PM CST (21:41 GMT) and went right to work, successfully hooking up seven telemetry cables between Pirs and the Zvezda Service Module to complete the installation of the Kurs automated rendezvous system, which will be used to guide approaching Russian vehicles for docking to the Pirs in the future. Pirs serves as both a docking port and an airlock for spacewalks out of the Russian segment of the ISS. Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who conducted two previous spacewalks in October with Dezhurov, monitored tonight's activities from inside the ISS and operated the Canadarm2 robotic arm, providing television views for flight controllers in Houston and Moscow and lighting for the spacewalkers as they conducted their tasks. Standing in foot restraints on the Zvezda, Culbertson and Dezhurov also conducted an inspection of a solar array panel on the service module, which failed to deploy properly during its launch on July 12, 2000. The stuck panel has had no impact on station operations or the electrical capability of the Russian segment. Culbertson snapped a number of pictures of the array for analysis by Russian engineers. Culbertson and Dezhurov wrapped up the spacewalk by testing the capability of the newly installed Russian Strela cargo crane, which was attached to Pirs back on October 8. They used a crank to extend the Strela to its fully extended length of some 30 feet, then raised and lowered the crane from an operator's post at the base of the boom. Strela will be used to maneuver cosmonauts and cargo around the Russian modules of the ISS during future spacewalks. Finally, the spacewalkers reentered Pirs and closed the hatch at 8:45 PM CST (2:45 GMT Tuesday) to complete the 29th spacewalk in support of ISS assembly and the fifth conducted from the station itself. In all, ISS assembly spacewalk activity has now spanned 183 hours and 18 minutes. The crewmembers plan to relax on Tuesday before resuming a busy schedule Wednesday as they start to pack up all of their gear for their return to Earth in December on the shuttle Endeavour at the conclusion of the STS-108 mission, which will bring their replacements, the Expedition Four crew, to the ISS. Science work aboard the station will resume this week as well following tonight's spacewalk. 15 November 2001 After completing the final space walk planned for Expedition Three, the crew of the International Space Station this week begins to get ready for the arrival of a cargo vessel, a space shuttle and a replacement crew later this month. Engineers at the Mission Control Center outside of Moscow conducted a series of tests and verified that the exterior connections made by Commander Frank Culbertson and Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov during Monday's space walk had successfully brought the Pirs Docking Compartment's automated Kurs telemetry system to full functionality. With the help of Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, they spent Wednesday cleaning up, servicing and storing the Orlan spacesuits they had used on the 5-hour, 4-minute space walk. They also spent about 20 minutes answering questions posed by middle school students in Texas and Kansas as part of a regional education conference. With those activities complete, the trio of space researchers began getting ready for a series of comings and goings, and packing for their impending return home. The Progress 5 resupply craft currently docked to the Zvezda service module is scheduled to undock Nov. 22; it later will be commanded to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere where it will burn up along with refuse being stored inside by the crew this week. Another supply vehicle, Progress 6, is scheduled to launch November 26 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and dock with the station November 28. All preparations for the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour and the Expedition Four crew--Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz--are on schedule for launch at 6:42 PM CST November 29. Mission managers will meet at Kennedy Space Center this Thursday to review all preparations for launch; an official launch target is expected at the conclusion of that meeting. The shuttle crew--Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani--joined the new station crew in Florida for a final dress rehearsal of the launch last week. While visiting the station, the shuttle crew will conduct a space walk to install insulation blankets on the beta gimbal assemblies for the station's large solar array wings. These large swivels, which allow the solar arrays to track the Sun's rays and provide maximum power generation, appear to be experiencing adverse effects related to the extreme temperature swings that occur as the station moves in and out of direct sunlight. These multi-layer insulation blankets are expected to reduce the temperature swings and allow normal operation of the solar arrays. Meanwhile in Florida, the next major component to be launched to the space station has successfully completed acceptance testing and been moved to a work platform for final closeouts. One last software test remains, and that will be completed in January. The S-zero truss, which will serve as the base section of a framework connecting more large solar array wings, is scheduled for launch on STS-110 in March 2002. With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km). For the latest information on launch dates and times, as well as sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, visit the Web at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. Science work aboard the station continues with emphasis on human physiology experiments as the crew nears the end of its time on orbit, and with autonomous microgravity materials research. Overall coordination of the research is the responsibility of 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 station science operations can be found on the Web at http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov. The next status report will be issued on Wednesday, November 21, or earlier, if events warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ FIRST THEMIS INFRARED AND VISIBLE IMAGES OF MARS NASA/JPL release http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/polaricecaps/PIA03461.html 12 November 2001 This picture shows both a visible and a thermal infrared image taken by the thermal emission imaging system on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft on November 2, 2001. The images were taken as part of the ongoing calibration and testing of the camera system as the spacecraft orbited Mars on its 13th revolution of the planet. The visible wavelength image, shown on the right in black and white, was obtained using one of the instrument's five visible filters. The spacecraft was approximately 22,000 kilometers (about 13,600 miles) above Mars looking down toward the south pole when this image was acquired. It is late spring in the Martian southern hemisphere. The thermal infrared image, center, shows the temperature of the surface in color. The circular feature seen in blue is the extremely cold Martian south polar carbon dioxide ice cap. The instrument has measured a temperature of minus 120 degrees Celsius (minus184 degrees Fahrenheit) on the south polar ice cap. The polar cap is more than 900 kilometers (540 miles) in diameter at this time. The visible image shows additional details along the edge of the ice cap, as well as atmospheric hazes near the cap. The view of the surface appears hazy due to dust that still remains in the Martian atmosphere from the massive Martian dust storms that have occurred over the past several months. The infrared image covers a length of over 6,500 kilometers (3,900 miles) spanning the planet from limb to limb, with a resolution of approximately 5.5 kilometers per picture element, or pixel, (3.4 miles per pixel) at the point directly beneath the spacecraft. The visible image has a resolution of approximately 1 kilometer per pixel (0.6 miles per pixel) and covers an area roughly the size of the states of Arizona and New Mexico combined. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington DC. The thermal-emission imaging system was developed at Arizona State University, Tempe, with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, Santa Barbara, CA. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, 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. Image credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Arizona State University. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/odyssey_image_01111 4.html http://spacedaily.com/news/011114201642.qzcaa14h.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/011113firstvis.html _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 13 November 2001 NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft has now entered the main aerobraking phase of the mission. "The initial phase of aerobraking has gone exceedingly well. By skimming through the upper reaches of the Mars atmosphere during each orbit, we have reduced our orbital period by more than three hours in the past two weeks," said David A. Spencer, the Odyssey mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. Odyssey's orbital period, the time required for the spacecraft to complete one revolution in its orbit around Mars, is currently 15 hours. The spacecraft's closest approach to the planet, known as the orbit's periapsis, has been carefully lowered to 110 kilometers (68 miles) above the Martian surface. "This closest approach occurs over the north polar region on Mars, in a relatively low density region surrounded by strong winds like the jet stream on Earth," said Dr. Richard Zurek of JPL, who chairs the aerobraking advisory group. "Like Earth, Mars has distinct seasons, and this low density area, called the polar vortex, develops each fall and will persist until spring, long after Odyssey has finished aerobraking." NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is monitoring the lower atmosphere of Mars, observing the entire planet each day to watch for dust storms and weather events that could affect the upper atmosphere. If needed, Odyssey could also use its own instruments to watch for dust storms. To that end, flight controllers have completed the calibration and testing of the thermal emission imaging system. The imaging team at Arizona State University, Tempe, took the first visible wavelength image of the planet on November 2, which complements the thermal infrared image that was taken earlier. The aerobraking phase is planned for completion in late January 2002. At that point, Odyssey will be in its desired circular orbit, and the science mapping mission will begin sometime in early February. 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, is providing 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-01q.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/011113aerobrake.html _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 16 November 2001 There were two Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes during the past week and all subsystems are normal. Stardust is currently 2.49 AU (231 million miles) from the Sun. Stardust is 3.35 AU (311 million miles) from the Earth, so the time it takes for a signal from Earth to reach the spacecraft is almost 28 minutes. Stardust will reach its maximum distance from Earth on January 7, 2002 when it will be 3.59 AU (almost 334 million miles) from Earth. The solar panels continue to generate better than predicted power, so the battery has yet to be needed to support a DSN pass. There was a slight battery discharge due to heater usage meaning that upcoming DSN passes will probably start relying on the battery to supplement direct solar array power. The last test of the heat shield PICA (Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator) material was completed at the Ames Research Center Arcjet Laboratory. This test was to validate the expected margin in the thermal environment inside of the sample return capsule during the 2004 descent to the Utah Test and Training range. Test data analyses will continue for the next few 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 44.