MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 9, Number 12, 25 March 2002. 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. Information concerning the scope of this newsletter, subscription formats and availability of back-issues is available from the Marsbugs web page at http://welcome.to/marsbugs or http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/marsbugs/marsbugs.html. _____________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) URI SCIENTISTS STUDY LIFE BURIED DEEP BENEATH THE OCEAN FLOOR University of Rhode Island release 2) MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REACHES NEW EXTREMES: SCIENTISTS CONDUCT FIRST DNA FIELD TESTS ON ANTARCTIC SOIL MICROBES University of Delaware release 3) HUMAN BIOLOGY PROFESSOR SEEKS PARTICIPANTS FOR NASA HYPERGRAVITY EXPERIMENT By Mark Shwartz 4) SEX AND SOCIETY ABOARD THE FIRST STARSHIPS By Tariq Malik 5) RESEARCHERS FIND NEW CLUE WHY MARTIAN WATER IS FOUND ON THE NORTH POLE, NOT THE SOUTH California Institute of Technology release 6) STUDENTS BEGIN EXPLORING MARS WITH NASA'S MARS ODYSSEY SPACECRAFT NASA/JPL release 7) WORLD'S PUREST WATER CAN BE EXPLORED WITHOUT CONTAMINATION By Michael Field 8) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 9) CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 10) THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 11) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORTS NASA/JSC release _____________________________________________________________________ URI SCIENTISTS STUDY LIFE BURIED DEEP BENEATH THE OCEAN FLOOR University of Rhode Island release 18 March 2002 Over the past 15 years, studies of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) cores have consistently identified abundant bacteria in deeply buried oceanic sediment. Microorganisms have been recovered from depths as great as a half-mile below the seafloor and have been estimated to constitute one-tenth to one-third of Earth's living biomass. URI oceanographers Steven D'Hondt, Scott Rutherford, and Arthur J. Spivack are studying the activity of bacterial life deep in the sediments at the bottom of the ocean. The most recent issue of Science reports that they use the chemistry of the water in deep-sea sediments to show that these abundant organisms respire at far slower rates than organisms living at Earth's surface. Most visible animals breathe in free oxygen, gain energy by using the oxygen to oxidize the organic matter that they eat, and then breathe out carbon dioxide and water. However, oxygen is rare in marine sediments, so the bacteria that live in those sediments must rely on other chemicals for this process. Most microbial communities that are buried deep in marine sediments use sulfate, a common dissolved salt, instead of oxygen, to oxidize their food and garner energy. The recent URI study relied on this knowledge to identify two broad oceanic provinces of deeply buried microbial activity. One province covers most areas of the open ocean. In this province, total microbial activity is very low and sulfate is abundant throughout the buried sediment. The second province occurs along continental margins. In this province, the total rate of microbial activity is high beneath the seafloor, so sulfate is destroyed at shallow sediment depths and the concentration of methane, a hydrocarbon gas, builds up to high levels at greater sediment depths. The URI study showed that deep in the sediments of the open-ocean province the respiration rate of individual microorganisms may be more than 10,000 times slower than the respiration rate of bacteria that inhabit Earth's surface. It also showed that the highest rates of microbial activity beneath the seafloor occur in a narrow zone along continental margins where the deeply buried methane comes into contact with the shallowly buried sulfate. In this narrow zone, the rate of microbial activity beneath the seafloor can be as high as the total rate of microbial activity at the sediment surface. Contact: Lisa Cugini Phone: 401-874-6642 E-mail: lcugini@gso.uri.edu Additional information on this article is available at http://www.news.uri.edu/releases/html/02-0318-03.html. _____________________________________________________________________ MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REACHES NEW EXTREMES: SCIENTISTS CONDUCT FIRST DNA FIELD TESTS ON ANTARCTIC SOIL MICROBES University of Delaware release 19 March 2002 Equipped with a portable lab kit, a generator, a small tent, and plenty of warm clothes, an international team of scientists recently conducted genetic tests of the bacteria that thrive in one of the driest, coldest places on Earth--Antarctica's "Dry Valleys." This is believed to be the first time DNA fingerprinting of soil microbes has been performed in the field on the Earth's frozen continent. The two-week research mission, conducted in February, marked the first in a series of expeditions to assess the diversity of microorganisms that inhabit Antarctica. The effort was led by scientists Don Cowan from the University of Western Cape Town in South Africa and Roy Daniel from the University of Waikato in New Zealand with support from Antarctica New Zealand, and by marine biologist Craig Cary from the University of Delaware in the United States. Cary's participation was made possible through a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Graduate students Sarah Hawkins from the University of Waikato and Samantha Whiting from University College, London, also participated in the project. Unlike most of Antarctica, the Dry Valleys are not covered in snow and ice. This vast region of exposed soil and rock, punctuated here and there by icy lakes, forms a frigid desert. In fact, some scientists believe that no rain has fallen in the Dry Valleys for over 4 million years. Learning more about the microscopic life that can survive these demanding conditions appeals to Cary, Cowan, and Daniel, who typically study bacteria that live in much hotter surroundings. Previously, Cowan and Daniel had worked primarily with the bacteria that inhabit hot springs on land, while Cary's focus had been on the microbes that live at underwater hot springs called hydrothermal vents found over a mile deep in the ocean where new seafloor is being formed. "While vent microbes set the upper end of the temperature scale in the marine environment, the polar regions set the lower limit in the terrestrial environment," says Cary, who is a marine biologist at the University of Delaware. "Past research has shown that the soils of the Dry Valleys support a diverse assemblage of microorganisms. Yet how they survive and what they are doing remains largely unknown." Figuring out what makes polar microbes tick is important for a number of reasons, according to Cary. "Research on heat-loving vent bacteria has yielded enzymes that can be used as industrial catalysts in certain high-temperature operations like pharmaceuticals manufacturing," he says. "In examining polar microbes, scientists might identify new biotechnological tools and products for use at extremely cold temperatures, as well as shed light on the possibility of life on other planets." To determine if they were succeeding in collecting a diversity of polar microbes in their sampling operations, the scientists needed to be able to examine the tiny life at the genetic level. "Getting to these remote areas of Antarctica is very costly, and every effort must be made to collect the valuable samples needed for study," says Cary. "Rather than randomly collect samples, as has been done in the past, we decided to see if it was possible to run some preliminary diagnostic experiments in the field to get an idea what we were sampling before returning home to our laboratories. This had never been attempted before in Antarctica and really had to be tested before we could propose a dedicated effort in this area in the future," he notes. To conduct the DNA tests, the scientists used the Mobile Molecular Laboratory, made by MJ Research, Inc., and donated to the expedition by Geneworks of Adelaide, Australia. They relied on a small Honda generator to power their operations. The researchers would sit cross-legged on the floor of the tent or on the first aid box doing delicate genetic tests including DNA extractions, electrophoresis, and PCR analyses as the wind howled around them. "It was definitely warmer inside the tent than outside of it," Cary says, "but never above 0°C unless we had some heating device. At best, we could get the temperature inside the tent up to 10°C, so at least the pipettes worked and the buffers were liquid, instead of frozen." The scientists worked in the field for nearly two weeks. Every few days, they were helicoptered to new sampling locations in the Dry Valleys, only returning to Scott Base, New Zealand's research outpost on Antarctica, to catch their flight back home. At the end of 13 days of field work, the scientists had run six successful experiments that provided valuable information on the samples they were collecting. "The beauty of doing this testing on site is that we can be sure that we get the diversity of microbes we came for instead of collecting samples and then confirming what we got--or didn't get--weeks later back in the lab," says Cary. "Sure, this time, it was primitive, cramped, and cold," he notes smiling, "but next time, we will bring a dedicated and more spacious laboratory structure, with a table, folding chairs, a heater, and a coffee machine--a little luxury in the Dry Valleys!" Contact: Tracey Bryant Phone: 302-831-8185 E-mail: tbryant@udel.edu Additional information on this article is available at http://www.udel.edu/PR/experts/antarcticdna.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/antarctic-02f.html. _____________________________________________________________________ HUMAN BIOLOGY PROFESSOR SEEKS PARTICIPANTS FOR NASA HYPERGRAVITY EXPERIMENT By Mark Shwartz Stanford University release 19 March 2002 If you've ever wanted to experience the sensation space shuttle astronauts feel during liftoff and landing--or if spinning around in circles all day inside a large NASA centrifuge is your idea of a good time--then Malcolm Cohen wants to hear from you. A consulting professor in Stanford's Department of Human Biology and chief of NASA's Human Information Processing Branch, Cohen is looking for participants in a groundbreaking study to determine the extent to which people can tolerate prolonged exposure to increased gravitational force--or hypergravity. "The human body has evolved and adapted to G forces that are relatively constant, except for brief periods of acceleration in planes, cars, merry-go-rounds and so forth," Cohen said. "But there has never been a comprehensive study of the long-term effects of hypergravity on humans." To remedy this lack of data, Cohen and his colleagues at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., are seeking men between the ages of 18 and 35 who are willing to experience G forces up to two times greater than those normally found on Earth. The study begins in July and will run about nine weeks for each participant. Evaluations of G-tolerance levels in women are expected to be the subject of future experiments. Those selected for the study will have to endure long hours sitting, and occasionally standing, inside NASA Ames' 20-G centrifuge--a 58- foot-long spinning machine featured in the film Space Cowboys. The centrifuge simulates increasing levels of hypergravity as it rotates faster and faster. For example, to experience the effects of 2 G-- twice Earth's gravitational force--a passenger is spun at nearly 15 revolutions per minute. Gravity shapes life A physiological psychologist, Cohen began studying the effects of hypergravity on military jet pilots in the 1960s. He joined the staff of NASA Ames in 1982--the same year he began teaching a course titled "Astrobiology and Space Exploration" in the Human Biology Program at Stanford. "Gravity shapes life," Cohen observed. "It defines the character of the nervous system, our reflexes and our bones. Interesting things happen to astronauts when they are weightless for long durations. They become de-conditioned--that is, their tolerance for G forces is reduced." Astronauts returning from space sometimes experience fainting spells when they try to stand up--the result of a sudden drop in blood pressure caused by the failure of the cardiovascular system to provide an adequate supply of blood to the brain. Some space travelers are unable to stand for long periods of time when they return to Earth, while others undergo leg muscle atrophy--a classic case of "use it or lose it," Cohen noted. During a typical shuttle flight, astronauts spend less than a half- hour in hypergravity conditions--up to 3.2 G during takeoff and 1.4 G on re-entry. Most of their journey is spent weightless as they orbit the Earth. According to Cohen, if astronauts were exposed to hypergravity while in space, they might have an easier time re-adjusting to gravity on Earth--or on other planets--without suffering bouts of muscle atrophy, fainting and other common side effects. "Is it possible that if you're exposed to increased gravity over time, your ability to cope with hypergravity could be enhanced?" he asked. "That's one question our centrifuge experiment will try to address." In the next few decades, space travelers are likely to spend long periods of time exploring Mars, where the gravitational force is 0.38 G--or about 40 percent of Earth's gravity. Instead of remaining weightless during their long trip to the Red Planet, Cohen said that astronauts may have a better chance of adjusting to the Martian environment if they are exposed to artificial gravity en route--in this case, 0.38 G or even higher. Life in the centrifuge Those willing to join the NASA study must be willing to ride up to 22 hours nonstop inside one of three experimental cabins on board the centrifuge. Because the passenger cab is just 7.6 feet long and 6 feet wide, NASA only will accept applicants who are 5-foot-8 or shorter. The experiment will consist of seven habitation sessions in the centrifuge--five of which will last 22 hours. The sessions will be spread over several weeks and could total 188 hours. Test subjects will be paid an hourly rate to be determined later. The centrifuge cab will be equipped with food, water, a cot, a toilet and a television set. During the daylong sessions, participants will conduct normal routines, such as eating, excreting, sleeping, reading and watching TV. Closed-circuit video cameras will monitor all activities. Each passenger will be fitted with a specially designed biosensor vest to measure his heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels. Urine samples will be collected and analyzed at a later date. NASA warns that in addition to motion sickness, participants may experience a number of "inconveniences, discomforts and risks": blackout, fainting, cardiac arrhythmias, disorientation and dizziness, among others. Loss of vision and consciousness The experiment will begin with a pretest to determine the subject's G-tolerance limit. Each man will be fitted with an EKG on his chest to record heartbeat and a Doppler sensor on his forehead to measure blood-flow velocity through his temporal artery. The centrifuge then will be rotated at a gradually accelerating rate to produce an increase of 1 G per 15 seconds. "The increased force will tend to pull blood from your head and cause it to pool in your gut and your lower limbs," Cohen warns each candidate. "When the force is sufficiently strong, it will overcome the ability of your heart to pump blood to your head, and you will temporarily lose peripheral vision as your visual field begins to dim. The level of G at which this occurs will define your tolerance limit." To determine that limit, a pair of lights will flash in the centrifuge cab as it rotates faster and faster. The lights will appear in the passenger's peripheral visual field and will be moved closer together as the G force increases. The centrifuge will be stopped when the lights are about 40 degrees apart--the point at which peripheral vision begins to dim--or when the Doppler sensor indicates that the passenger has undergone a significant reduction in blood flow to his eyes. People tend to lose peripheral vision between 3 and 5 G, so the pretest should last one minute or less. However, as G forces increase, subjects face of the risk of losing consciousness because of a lack of blood flow to the brain. For that reason, even if there are no symptoms, the pretest automatically will be stopped at 90 seconds, when the gravitational force reaches 7 G. Spin control When the pretest is completed, participants will undergo five 22-hour sessions and two shorter multi-hour sessions once a week for seven consecutive weeks. As a control, the first 22-hour session will be conducted at 1 G--Earth's normal gravitational force--while the centrifuge arm is at rest. During the next two sessions, the centrifuge will rotate nonstop for 22 hours to simulate higher levels of gravitational force at 1.25 and 1.5 G. If these tests are successfully completed, the subject will undergo a 12-hour session at 1.75 G the following week, then 1.75 G for 22 hours a week later, followed by a six-hour session at 2 G, and finally, a 22-hour session at 2 G. Subjects will spend most of their time sitting or lying on a cot in a cabin with a specially built floor that tilts back on an angle to accommodate increasing G forces. Every four hours, participants will be required to perform three-minute sitting, standing and reclining exercises while their cardiovascular response is evaluated. "At any time, and for any reason, participants will be able to terminate the session by pressing a button, or simply by asking the medical monitor to stop the session," Cohen noted. A laptop computer with electronic games, questionnaires and behavioral tests loaded onto its hard drive also will be on board. "Your use of this computer will be completely at your discretion," Cohen tells candidates. At the end of each session, participants will take another test that is identical to the pretest, and then undergo a neurological and cardiovascular examination to determine if they are medically fit to return home for the week. "This is not a benign test," Cohen observed. "I try to discourage candidates when I meet them, because I don't want people to participate unless they really want to do it." In addition to providing much-needed data on the health effects of long-term space travel, Cohen said that the experiment could provide new insights into treating motion sickness--and even help athletes improve their performance. "Perhaps if they train in hypergravity, athletes will feel more comfortable lifting weights or running around the track at normal gravity," Cohen explained. "It's like a batter who swings three or four baseball bats when he's on deck. When he or she goes to the plate, a single bat will seem very lightweight and easier to swing." Those interested in participating in the experiment can contact Abigail Bautista at the NASA Ames Research Center: e-mail abautista@mail.arc.nasa.gov or telephone 650-604-5464. Photos of the NASA 20-G Centrifuge can be downloaded at: http://newsphotos.stanford.edu/centrifuge_1.jpg http://newsphotos.stanford.edu/centrifuge_2.jpg http://newsphotos.stanford.edu/centrifuge_3.jpg http://newsphotos.stanford.edu/centrifuge_4.jpg Video is available from Victoria Kushnir, NASA Ames Research Center, 650-604-0176 or vkushnir@mail.arc.nasa.gov. Relevant Web URLs: * http://lifesci.arc.nasa.gov/cgbr/20g_centrifuge.html * http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4213/contents.htm * http://www.stanford.edu/class/humbio107/ Contacts: Mark Shwartz, News Service Phone: 650-723-9296 E-mail: mshwartz@stanford.edu Malcolm M. Cohen, Human Biology Phone: 650-604-6441 E-mail: mmcohen@mail.arc.nasa.gov An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0203/25centrifuge/. _____________________________________________________________________ SEX AND SOCIETY ABOARD THE FIRST STARSHIPS By Tariq Malik From Space.com 19 March 2002 Humans will begin a voyage to the nearest star this century, a NASA researcher says. And the crew might more resemble a tribal society than the chain of command of traditional space missions. Procreation would be required: The crew that arrived would be descendents of those that left. Geoffery A. Landis, of NASA's Glenn Research Center, predicts the first star trek aboard a laser-powered sail ship could begin within 50 years as new methods of space travel put interstellar flight within the grasp of our grandchildren. "I think that ultimately we’re going to do it, it’s just a question of when and who," Landis told SPACE.com. "Interstellar travel, actually colonizing space and terraforming a planet, this is the exploration that everybody seems to want to do." Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/star_voyage_0203 19-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ RESEARCHERS FIND NEW CLUE WHY MARTIAN WATER IS FOUND ON THE NORTH POLE, NOT THE SOUTH California Institute of Technology release 20 March 2002 When astronauts finally land on Mars, a safe bet is that they'll head for northern climes if they intend to spend much time there. That's because nearly all the available water is frozen as ice at the north pole. Planetary scientists have been aware of this for some time, but they now have a new clue why it is so. In the March 21 issue of the journal, Nature, California Institute of Technology researcher Mark Richardson and his colleague John Wilson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveal that the higher average elevation of the Red Planet's southern hemisphere ultimately tends to drive water northward. Their evidence is based on a computer model the two have worked on for years (Wilson since 1992, Richardson since 1996), coupled with data returned by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. "We've found a mechanism in the Martian climate that introduces annual average hemispheric asymmetry," explains Richardson, an assistant professor of planetary science at Caltech. "The circulation systems of Mars and Earth are similar in certain ways, but Mars is different in that water is not available everywhere." The key to understanding the phenomenon is a complicated computer modeling of the Hadley circulation, which extends about 40 degrees of latitude each side of the Martian equator. A topographical bias in circulation pretty much means there will be a bias in the net pole- to-pole transport of water, Richardson explains. A plausible explanation is that water ice is found at the north pole and carbon dioxide ice is found at the south for reasons having to do with the way the sun heats the atmosphere. As the Martian orbit changes on time scales of 50,000 years and more, these effects tend to cancel, with no pole claiming the water ice cap over geological time. It has been suggested that topography determines where carbon dioxide forms, and hence, where water ice can form, but the processes controlling carbon dioxide ice caps are poorly understood. However, the mechanism Richardson and Wilson describe is independent of this occasional realignment of the pole's precession and the planet's eccentric orbit. The mechanism means that, while there is never a time in the past when water ice can be discounted at the south pole, one is more likely to find it more frequently at the north pole. The importance of the study is its furthering of our understanding of the Martian climate and Martian water cycle. A better understanding of how water is transported will be particularly important to determining whether life once existed on Mars, and what happened to it if it ever did. The Web address for the journal, Nature, is http://www.nature.com. The Web address for the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech is http://www.gps.caltech.edu/. Contact: Robert Tindol, media relations Phone: 626-395-3631 _____________________________________________________________________ STUDENTS BEGIN EXPLORING MARS WITH NASA'S MARS ODYSSEY SPACECRAFT NASA/JPL release 20 March 2002 A group of small, unnamed craters in the Martian southern hemisphere is the first site captured by a group of middle school students who are operating the camera system onboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft this week. The acquisition of the image marks the beginning of the Mars Student Imaging Project, a science education program funded by NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, and operated by the Mars Education Program at Arizona State University, Tempe. The project gives thousands of fifth to twelfth grade students the opportunity to do real-life planetary exploration and to study planetary geology using Odyssey's visible-light camera. "It was incredible to watch their faces. They really understood and appreciated what they were doing and that they were the first people on Earth to see that place on Mars," said Dr. Philip Christensen, the camera system's principal investigator at Arizona State University. The Mars student imaging project began with Christensen, who wants to give students a chance to participate in the fun of exploration. The group of 11 sixth and seventh graders, visiting Arizona State from the Olympia School District in central Illinois, watched as commands were sent to the camera onboard Odyssey from the university's planetary imaging facility this week. Though imaging scientists hit the keys, the commands that told the camera to take a visible light picture at a precise set of Martian coordinates were directed by the students, who chose the study site. Later, the students were watching as data came back from the spacecraft and appeared as a raw image on the screen in the facility's auditorium. The image, showing a set of smaller, unnamed craters at eight degrees south Martian longitude, 337 degrees west latitude, is the most detailed image ever obtained of the features in that area. (To see and download the image, go to http://clasdean.la.asu.edu/news/images/msipix/) "It's been great--so great," said an enthusiastic Lisa Behrens, age 13, shortly after the image was downloaded. "When the image came up, we had been waiting for that for like three, four months, and it was like, finally! And we hit the target right on! We can't wait to analyze it!" After the data were received, the students processed the image and tried their hands at finding new information in the Martian geography it revealed. The main crater in the image is apparently a relatively young crater with sharp sides. The students got more from the visit than a new picture of Mars. They also got the chance to develop a new enthusiasm for science. "They just don't want to stop with this," commented Olympia coordinator Fred Shears, who accompanied his students on the trip. "They want to keep studying Mars long-term. I was surprised by them this morning when they wanted to come in early to work on Powerpoint presentations of their research--how often do you see that?" "The student imaging program is a cool idea--something that I always thought would be really neat to do when I was a kid," said Christensen. "We talked to a lot of teachers, and one of the things that really excited them was the thought that 'Wow, my class could actually be actively involved in exploring Mars rather than just standing on the outside watching!'" "I think this is great because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we can be like really old and we'll still have this to look back on," said Jessica Lloyd, age 13. "It's great being able to find our own crater on Mars and to be able to analyze it. It might help us learn about the materials that Mars is made of. That would be so cool!" JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, DC. Principal investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson and the Johnson Space Center, Houston, operate the science instruments. Additional science investigators are located at the Russian Space Research Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico. 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. For information about participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program go to http://msip.asu.edu. Additional information about the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission is at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/. Contacts: Mary Hardin, JPL Phone: 818-354-0344 James Hathaway, Arizona State University Phone: 480-965-6375 An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0203/24studentodyssey/. _____________________________________________________________________ WORLD'S PUREST WATER CAN BE EXPLORED WITHOUT CONTAMINATION By Michael Field From SpaceDaily 24 March 2002 American scientists studying a hidden Antarctic lake say they can sample waters believed to be the world's purest without contaminating what environmentalists say should remain untouched. Lake Vostok in Antarctica has spent 15 million years under four kilometers (13,000 feet) of ice and scientists believe it contains life--but ecologists fear drilling into it could destroy it. The 14,000 square kilometer (5,600 square mile) body of water, 1,300 kilometers (806 miles) from the South Pole, is one of the worlds largest lakes. Its waters have been sealed from light and air for up to 35 million years under the huge pressure of the continental ice sheet. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) said the lake is thought to be home to unique habitats and microorganisms. Now a team of scientists led by Robin Bell of Columbia University's Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory say that the hydrodynamics of the lake may make it possible to search for life in the ice layers on the lake's eastern shore. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/antarctic- 02h.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/antarctic-02g.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 25 March 2002 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html University of Dayton, 2002. Geologist recreates 'life on Mars' evidence in laboratory. Spaceflight Now. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html M. Field, 2002. World's purest water can be explored without contamination. SpaceDaily. SpaceDaily, 2002. Exploring Lake Vostok without destroying it. SpaceDaily. SpaceDaily, 2002. Scientists conduct first DNA field tests on Antarctic soil microbes. SpaceDaily. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html T. Malik, 2002. Sex and society aboard the first starships. Space.com. Stanford University, 2002. Test subjects wanted for hypergravity experiment. Spaceflight Now. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI WEEKLY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 14-20 March 2002 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, March 20. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/. Activities this week included two Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibrations, and the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) Narrow and Wide Angle Cameras (NAC and WAC) going to sleep mode. Both the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) and RPWS instruments were successfully loaded with new flight software, and the final round of tests for the new command system took place, with the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex (DSCC) successfully uplinking a series of test commands to the Cassini spacecraft. The Sequence Team has continued with the C32 sequence development process, with the Subsequence Generation Sequence Change Request meeting being held this week. No major changes have been identified for the C32 background sequence, and the detailed sequence generation is proceeding normally. The C33 Science Planning Team cruise sequence development kicked off on Monday, March 18. This sequence starts the Space Science Cruise period. In support of Saturn Tour planning, the Titan Orbiter Science Team (TOST) met last week to finish up the detailed integration of the Titan-9 encounter. The TOST also held a half-day meeting later in the week to resolve the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) issues arising out of the Titan-6/7 swap, which was a result of the latest Tour modifications made in order to manage Saturn ring plane crossings. Mission Assurance presented a paper, "Managing Risk for Cassini During Mission Operations and Data Analysis" at a well-attended session of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, in Big Sky, Montana. In addition, Mission Assurance supported a JPL workshop entitled "Ensure Mission Success." This workshop brought together the various JPL flight projects in a discussion of operations practices to successfully manage mission risks. Cassini Jupiter science was featured again recently on the CNN Space web site, at http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/03/16/jupiter.mystery.ap/index.htm l 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. _____________________________________________________________________ THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 25 March - 21 April 2002 Cruise activities continue for Galileo during our long, nearly 10 month period between encounters. During this time, the distance from the spacecraft to Jupiter increases from 290 to 320 Jupiter radii (20.7 million to 22.9 million kilometers or 12.9 million to 14.2 million miles). This breaks our previous distance record of nearly 290 Jupiter radii set in September 2000 during our 28th orbit of the giant planet. The third of five cruise sequences of commands will be transmitted to the spacecraft on April 1, and these commands will control the activities on the spacecraft until June 2. Routine hardware maintenance activities for the spacecraft this month include two exercises of the propulsion thruster system on March 29 and April 19, and an exercise of the tape recorder on April 12. Tape playback of the final bits of data recorded during the January Io flyby and during the recent calibration activity should be complete by the April 12 tape maintenance. At the end of this activity, the tape recorder will be parked with the read/write heads near the center of the tape. This minimizes the stress on the spring that maintains the correct tension on the tape, and allows the tape to sit quietly and safely for long periods without moving. Except for monthly exercises of the tape to check its status, there are no further plans to use the tape recorder until the November Amalthea flyby. On April 3 a test of the on-board gyroscopes is performed. These gyroscopes provide the spacecraft with information about its attitude in space when we perform turns and maneuvers. The electronics associated with the gyros have shown significant degradation over the years of exposure to the harsh radiation environment near Jupiter. However, when the spacecraft spends time farther away from Jupiter, the electronics have shown some tendency to heal themselves somewhat from these radiation effects, or anneal. This test will provide engineers with data about how much self-healing takes place after 2- 1/2 months far from the radiation damage. On April 11 the spacecraft will turn in place by 2.4 degrees to keep the communications antenna pointed towards the Earth. With the spacecraft well outside the magnetosphere of Jupiter on the sunward side of the planet, continuous data collection by the Magnetometer, the Dust Detector, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer instruments provides scientists with information about the interplanetary medium during this time. 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 release 19 March 2002 An unpiloted Russian Progress resupply craft undocked from the International Space Station today to set the stage for this weekend's arrival of a new Progress cargo vehicle. On command from Russian flight controllers, the Progress 6 vehicle undocked from the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 11:43 PM. CST (1743 GMT). Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko watched the undocking from the Pirs Docking Compartment and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz monitored the departure from the Destiny Lab's robotics workstation. The Progress' engines performed the first of two separation maneuvers within minutes of undocking. Flight controllers plan to deploy a small Russian student science satellite from the Progress later today before the resupply craft is commanded to deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, preparations are complete for Thursday's launch of the new Progress 7 spacecraft, which will carry several tons of food, fuel and supplies to the ISS. The Progress 7 craft will link up to the ISS on Sunday afternoon. 21 March 2002 An unpiloted Russian Progress resupply craft was successfully launched today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to bring food, fuel and supplies to the residents on board the International Space Station. The Progress 7 spacecraft lifted off on a Soyuz booster rocket at 2:13 PM CST (2013 GMT) and less than 10 minutes later safely settled into orbit. Automatic programmed commands enabled its solar arrays and navigational antennas to deploy. At the time of launch, the ISS and the Expedition Four crew, Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, were traveling over Africa out of the line of sight of the launch itself. A series of rendezvous burns from the new Progress' engines over the next three days will result in a docking by the craft to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on Sunday at 2:55 p.m. CST (2055 GMT) over Central Asia. That port was vacated on Tuesday when the previous Progress resupply vehicle undocked and was deorbited to a destructive re-entry back into Earth's atmosphere. Information on the crew's activities aboard the space station, future launch dates, as well as station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available on the Internet at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. Details on station science operations can be found on an Internet site administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, at http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov. The next ISS status report will be issued March 24 following the docking of the Progress 7 resupply vehicle, or sooner, if developments warrant. _____________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 9, Number 12.