MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 9, Number 20, 3 June 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) MARS ODYSSEY QUENCHES RESEARCHERS' THIRST FOR WATER DATA Los Alamos National Laboratory release 02-057 2) ODYSSEY'S ICY DISCOVERY WARMS UP CONTROVERSIAL THEORIES By Leonard David 3) THREE NATIONS AGREE TO SHARE ICE CORE THAT MAY YIELD CLUES ABOUT NATURE OF LAKE VOSTOK National Science Foundation release 02-47 4) IS LIFE THE RULE OR THE EXCEPTION? THE ANSWER MAY BE IN THE INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS From ESA Science News 5) WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE IN COMMON WITH ALIENS? Royal Society of Medicine release 6) "MADE IN CHINA" PROGRAM PREPARES 14 YUHANGYUANS FOR SPACEFLIGHT By Wei Long 7) DUPONT TO LAUNCH SOYBEANS INTO SPACE DuPont Corporation release 8) NASA SELECTS 28 PARTICIPATING SCIENTISTS FOR MARS ROVER MISSION NASA release 02-100 9) AMEC 2002--"EXPLORING THE RED PLANET" Australian Mars Society release 10) GRAVITY MATTERS ESA release 39-2002 11) MARS EXPRESS HAS THE SOPHISTICATED SCIENCE TO FIND THE WATER ICE ON MARS From ESA Science News 12) MARSQUAKE DETECTION SENSORS WILL TAKE SEARCH FOR WATER UNDERGROUND Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine release 13) NASA AND BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY ORGANIZATION EXPANDING BIOTECH COOPERATION IN SPACE NASA release 02-102 14) INTELLIGENT ALIENS? By Seth Shostak 15) BREAKING THE SURFACE: HOW SCIENTISTS COULD USE MARS' WATER-ICE By Leonard David 16) NASA AMES TO HOST "MAGNETITE ON MARS" MEETING NASA/ARC release 02-68AR 17) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 18) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES: SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE POLYGONAL PATTERNED GROUND NASA/JPL/MSS release 19) ODYSSEY FINDS WATER ICE IN ABUNDANCE UNDER MARS' SURFACE NASA release 02-99 20) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 21) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY QUENCHES RESEARCHERS' THIRST FOR WATER DATA Los Alamos National Laboratory release 02-057 28 May 2002 Researchers with the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory have determined that Mars has enough water to sustain human exploratory missions. A neutron spectrometer, designed and built at Los Alamos and flown aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey, has been mapping the Red planet for the past three months for hydrogen, an indicator of water-ice. This week Bill Feldman, Los Alamos' principal investigator for the neutron spectrometer, unveils data and detailed maps of the hydrogen-rich Martian terrain at the American Geophysical Union conference in Washington DC. The results also appear in the May 31 issue of Science magazine. "The surface soils of Mars are rich in hydrogen," said Feldman. "Soil extending 60 degrees from the Martian poles contain from 35 percent to 100 percent of water-ice buried beneath a shallow overburden of hydrogen-poor soil. Although scientists have known that water ice is stable close to the surface in these regions, our new measurements are the first to give the amount of near-surface water on Mars. "The amount of water present on Mars is sufficiently large that it can support future human exploration activities," Feldman continued. "We have anticipated these results for 17 years and are excited that all of our wishes and hard work have been fulfilled." The neutron spectrometer maps show that the large region that extends from the poles to within about 50 degrees of the equator contains Mars' most abundant reservoirs of hydrogen, or water ice. The large expanses at low to middle latitudes of Mars also contain significant amounts of hydrogen, which are most likely deposits of chemically and/or physically bound water and/or hydroxyl radicals--one hydrogen atom bound to one oxygen atom. The neutron spectrometer data are supported by simultaneous measurements made using Mars Odyssey's gamma-ray spectrometer, operated by the University of Arizona. Los Alamos' neutron spectrometer began mapping the Martian surface while it was summer in the south and winter in the north. It revealed the extent to which the northern and southern polar caps are covered in a thick layer of carbon dioxide, or dry ice. During winter, the carbon dioxide layers extend from the poles to within about 60 degrees of the equator because the dry ice frost settles out of the atmosphere when temperatures fall about 186 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. During the warmer summer the carbon dioxide layer evaporates completely in the north but remains as a thick cover of the residual polar cap in the south. The first successful attempt to measure the global distribution of neutrons about a planetary body was made using a similar neutron spectrometer aboard Lunar Prospector. Comparisons between the lunar and Martian neutron spectrometer data reveal that Mars' soil is richer in hydrogen than is the moon's soil by more than several factors of 10 to several factors of 1,000. Los Alamos' neutron spectrometer will continue to measure neutrons that leak outward from the upper meter of the Martian soil for several more years. Mars Odyssey's orbit is such that the entire planet's surface is sampled in four-degree longitudinal increments weekly. Scientists will use these data not only to determine the amount of water on Mars, but to map the basaltic lava cover, measure the seasonal variation of dry-ice frost that covers both poles during their winter months and help interpret data from the gamma-ray spectrometer to determine the quantity and composition of the most abundant elements on the planet. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission. Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring safety and confidence in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction and improving the environmental and nuclear materials legacy of the cold war. Los Alamos' capabilities assist the nation in addressing energy, environment, infrastructure and biological security problems. Photographs for news use are available online at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/MarsOdyssey.html. Contact: Shelley Thompson, Public Affairs Office Phone: 505-665-7778 E-mail: shelley@lanl.gov An additional article on this subject appears in the project reports section of this issue. Additional articles are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/05/30/coolsc.mars.ice/index.html http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/28may_marsice.htm?list52260 http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_ice_020528.htm l http://spacedaily.com/news/020528220148.504qwhu5.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0205/30marshistory/ http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0205/28marshumans/ http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0205/28marsice/ _____________________________________________________________________ ODYSSEY'S ICY DISCOVERY WARMS UP CONTROVERSIAL THEORIES By Leonard David From Space.com 28 May 2002 The NASA spacecraft Odyssey's measurements of the planet Mars' huge cache of subsurface ice is yet another piece of data shoring up a controversial claim based on information found by the dual Viking landers in the 1970s. Not only is water ice an elixir for Martian life, it will help support human explorers of the future. Touching down in 1976, two Viking landers each carried an array of instruments in a bold search for life. One of those instruments--the Labeled Release experiment--yielded intriguing information suggestive of microorganisms buried in the Martian soil. Gilbert Levin, now CEO of Spherix Incorporated in Beltsville, Maryland, is long-time advocate that his Viking experiment did find Mars life. Levin has also long supported a view that liquid water exists on the surface of Mars. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/odyssey_viking_0205 28.html _____________________________________________________________________ THREE NATIONS AGREE TO SHARE ICE CORE THAT MAY YIELD CLUES ABOUT NATURE OF LAKE VOSTOK National Science Foundation release 02-47 28 May 2002 Scientists from the United States, France and Russia will equally share samples of an 11.7-meter (38.5-foot) ice core taken from the ice sheet above Lake Vostok, deep in the Antarctic interior, under the terms of an agreement worked out among representatives of the nations' Antarctic research programs. Glaciologists, geochemists and biologists will use the lower portions of the Vostok ice core, which was drilled in 1998, to learn more about the subglacial lake known to exist under the ice at Russia's Vostok Station, high on the polar plateau. Joint investigative protocols will allow scientists to explore some intriguing questions about the lake while insuring the compatibility and consistency of individual investigations. Major questions will provide the framework for future research on the ice core. How is the ice formed and what is its age? What does the geochemistry of the ice reveal about the lake and its origin? What kinds of organisms are present in the lake and how did they get there? The agreement was reached at a meeting of U.S., French and Russian scientists held in April at the National Science Foundation (NSF) headquarters in Arlington, VA. Participants included the directors of the U.S., French and Russian Antarctic programs as well as scientists and program managers who support or conduct research on the Vostok ice core. NSF funds and manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, which supports almost all U.S. research on the continent and in surrounding waters. The ice samples were drilled at Vostok Station under the terms of a U.S., French and Russian scientific collaboration that has made important contributions to the understanding the last 420,000 years of the Earth's climate. Research on these samples has delivered valuable insights for understanding the forces that drive climate change. The samples governed by the agreement were left at Vostok Station until the 2001-2002 austral summer, when arrangements were made to bring out some of the remaining ice from a storage trench. They represent roughly the bottom 12 meters of the ice core and are thought to have formed from accretion, the process by which water from the lake freezes onto the base of the ice sheet. This ice is different from the core that provided the Vostok climate record. A plan developed at the NSF meeting will allow the three nations to cooperate and share the samples in such a way as to maximize the scientific return and ensure an accurate comparison of results. Most notably, participants devised a plan to use a piece of the accretion ice for comparative study of ice-decontamination methods for biological studies. This procedure will ensure that research results obtained in different laboratories can be compared without undue concern about sample contamination. Existing collaborations between French and Russians scientists and among U.S. scientists will continue and will allow analyses of the shared core to begin in the very near future. Scientists from the U.S., France and Russia will continue to examine the ice after a review of research proposals submitted to the nations' Antarctic programs. Plans for a future subglacial lake exploration and research are scheduled for discussion at an upcoming meeting in Shanghai, China in July. Contacts: Peter West Phone: 703-292-8070 E-mail: pwest@nsf.gov Julie Palais Phone: 703-292-8030 E-mail: jpalais@nsf.gov Polly Penhale Phone: 703-292-8030 E-mail: ppenhale@nsf.gov _____________________________________________________________________ IS LIFE THE RULE OR THE EXCEPTION? THE ANSWER MAY BE IN THE INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 28 May 2002 Is life a highly improbable event, or is it rather the inevitable consequence of a rich chemical soup available everywhere in the cosmos? Scientists have recently found new evidence that amino acids, the "building-blocks" of life, can form not only in comets and asteroids, but also in the interstellar space. This result is consistent with (although of course does not prove) the theory that the main ingredients for life came from outer space, and therefore that chemical processes leading to life are likely to have occurred elsewhere. This reinforces the interest in an already "hot" research field, astrochemistry. ESA's forthcoming missions Rosetta and Herschel will provide a wealth of new information for this topic. Amino acids are the "bricks" of the proteins, and proteins are a type of compound present in all living organisms. Amino acids have been found in meteorites that have landed on Earth, but never in space. In meteorites amino acids are generally thought to have been produced soon after the formation of the Solar System, by the action of aqueous fluids on comets and asteroids--objects whose fragments became today's meteorites. However, new results published recently in Nature by two independent groups show evidence that amino acids can also form in space. Between stars there are huge clouds of gas and dust, the dust consisting of tiny grains typically smaller than a millionth of a millimeter. The teams reporting the new results, led by a United States group and a European group, reproduced the physical steps leading to the formation of these grains in the interstellar clouds in their laboratories, and found that amino acids formed spontaneously in the resulting artificial grains. The researchers started with water and a variety of simple molecules that are known to exist in the "real" clouds, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. Although these initial ingredients were not exactly the same in each experiment, both groups "cooked" them in a similar way. In specific chambers in the laboratory they reproduced the common conditions of temperature and pressure known to exist in interstellar clouds, which is, by the way, quite different from our "normal" conditions. Interstellar clouds have a temperature of 260°C below zero, and the pressure is also very low (almost zero). Great care was taken to exclude contamination. As a result, grains analogous to those in the clouds were formed. The researchers illuminated the artificial grains with ultraviolet radiation, a process that typically triggers chemical reactions between molecules and that also happens naturally in the real clouds. When they analyzed the chemical composition of the grains, they found that amino acids had formed. The United States team detected glycine, alanine and serine, while the European team listed up to 16 amino acids. The differences are not considered relevant since they can be attributed to differences in the initial ingredients. According to the authors, what is relevant is the demonstration that amino acids can indeed form in space, as a by-product of chemical processes that take place naturally in the interstellar clouds of gas and dust. Max P. Bernstein from the United States team points out that the gas and dust in the interstellar clouds serve as "raw material" to build stars and planetary systems such as our own. These clouds "are thousands of light years across; they are vast, ubiquitous, chemical reactors. As the materials from which all stellar systems are made pass through such clouds, amino acids should have been incorporated into all other planetary systems, and thus been available for the origin of life." The view of life as a common event would therefore be favored by these results. However, many doubts remain. For example, can these results really be a clue to what happened about four billion years ago on the early Earth? Can researchers be truly confident that the conditions they recreate are those in the interstellar space? Guillermo M. Muñoz Caro from the European team writes "several parameters still need to be better constrained... before a reliable estimation on the extraterrestrial delivery of amino acids to the early Earth can be made. To this end, in situ analysis of cometary material will be performed in the near future by space probes such as Rosetta..." The intention for ESA's spacecraft Rosetta is to provide key data for this question. Rosetta, to be launched next year, will be the first mission ever to orbit and land on a comet, namely Comet 46P/Wirtanen. Starting in 2011, Rosetta will have two years to examine in deep detail the chemical composition of the comet. As Rosetta's project scientist Gerhard Schwehm has stated, "Rosetta will carry sophisticated payloads that will study the composition of the dust and gas released from the comet's nucleus and help to answer the question: did comets bring water and organics to Earth?" If amino acids can also form in the space amid the stars, as the new evidence suggests, research should also focus on the chemistry in the interstellar space. This is exactly one of the main goals of the astronomers preparing for ESA's space telescope Herschel. Herschel, with its impressive mirror of 3.5 metres in diameter (the largest of any imaging space telescope) is due to be launched in 2007. One of its strengths is that it will 'see' a kind of radiation that has never been detected before. This radiation is far-infrared and submillimeter light, precisely what you need to detect if you are searching for complex chemical compounds such as the organic molecules. The results of the laboratory experiments were published in the 28 March issue of Nature: * Amino acids from ultraviolet irradiation of interstellar ice analogues by G. M. Muñoz Caro (Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands) et al. * Racemic amino acids from the ultraviolet photolysis of interstellar ice analogues by Max P. Berstein (SETI Institute, United States) et al. Links * What is life, and how do we look for it? http://sci.esa.int/content/doc/55/30037_.htm * Astrochemistry: the laboratory is in the stars http://sci.esa.int/content/doc/5c/30044_.htm * More about Rosetta http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/ * More about Herschel http://sci.esa.int/herschel [http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=1&cid=12 &oid=30039&ooid=29964] Did the main ingredients for life come from outer space? Amino acids, the 'building blocks' of life, may form in dust grains in the space between the stars. _____________________________________________________________________ WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE IN COMMON WITH ALIENS? Royal Society of Medicine release 28 May 2002 Do aliens exist, and if so, what common culture might we share with them? What is special about our universe that life has been able to evolve in it? On 29 May, The Astronomer Royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, will look at these questions and give his view on our cosmos and its future. He will also discuss: * What astronomers will be able to tell us twenty years from now about life on planets in other solar systems. * The long-range future for human life, perhaps beyond the Earth. * Whether there could be multiple universes, where "what we call the laws of nature would be no more than local bylaws". "Our biophilic universe and its future" is a joint meeting of the RSM and the RSA to be held at the RSM in Wimpole Street. Notes: There are no more press places left for this meeting. However, the full text of Sir Martin's lecture is available for download in PDF form. To request a plain text copy please contact Rosamund Snow on 020 7 290 2904 (rosamund.snow@rsm.ac.uk). Martin Rees is a Royal Society Research Professor and a fellow of King's College at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and also Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University. He is the author or co- author of nearly 500 research papers, mainly on astrophysics and cosmology, as well as six books, the most recent of which for general readership is Our Cosmic Habitat. The RSA exists to encourage the development of a principled, prosperous society. It does this through a program of projects and events and with the support of a network of influential Fellows from every field and background. With a mission to encourage creativity, innovation and good practice, it seeks to educate and agitate for change in all its fields of interest: business, design, education, the arts and the environment. Visit the RSA web site at http://www.theRSA.org. * Press Information page http://www.rsm.ac.uk/new/prbody.htm * See the full program http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/013-astronomer.htm * Download the text of the lecture (in PDF format) http://www.rsm.ac.uk/new/rees02talk.pdf For abstracts, or more information about these or other speakers please contact: Rosamund Snow External Relations Manager The Royal Society of Medicine 1 Wimpole Street London W1G 0AE Phone: +44 (0) 20 7290 2904 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7290 2992 E-mail: rosamund.snow@rsm.ac.uk _____________________________________________________________________ "MADE IN CHINA" PROGRAM PREPARES 14 YUHANGYUANS FOR SPACEFLIGHT By Wei Long 28 May 2002 Fourteen young yuhangyuans ("astronauts") continued their intense training to contend the assignment to the historic first manned mission in the Chinese space program, Wen Hui Bao in Shanghai reported on May 21. The newspaper reported that on last Monday (May 20) a space official revealed more details on the tightly guarded yuhangyuan training program in a public lecture held in Shanghai as part of the weeklong National Science and Technology Week. Meanwhile the media widely reported a day earlier (May 19) the manned space project updates that two space officials provided in Beijing. The officials pronounced that the manned space project, including the design and construction of the Shenzhou spacecraft, was wholly "Made In China". Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-02zo.html. _____________________________________________________________________ DUPONT TO LAUNCH SOYBEANS INTO SPACE DuPont Corporation release 29 May 2002 Tomorrow, in the first space experiment of its kind, DuPont will begin space exploration designed to discover new scientific research about one of the most consumed crops in the world today--soybeans. Continuing its extensive history with NASA, DuPont has partnered with the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR)--a NASA Commercial Space Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison-- to conduct an unprecedented exploration of soybean development by launching and growing soybean plants in space during NASA's space shuttle flight scheduled for takeoff Thursday, May 30. The research will determine whether plants grow differently in space and examine the effects of zero-gravity on plant growth and development. The soybeans-in-space launch is the first initiative to grow a complete soybean crop in space--from planting the seed to harvesting the grain. DuPont subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and WCSAR will study the harvested seed from soybean plants grown in space to find out if they have improved oil, protein, carbohydrates or secondary metabolites that could benefit farmers and consumers. According to the United Soybean Board, soybeans are the largest single source of protein meal and vegetable oil in the human diet. Domestically, soybeans provide 80 percent of the edible consumption of fats and oils in the United States. In 2000, 54 percent of the world's soybean trade originated from the United States with soybean and product exports totaling more than $6.6 billion. The world's largest seed company, Pioneer, is the brand leader in soybeans with more than 100 product varieties on the market. As part of the initiative, scientists will plant Pioneer-brand soybean seeds in a specialized tray within a growth chamber developed by WCSAR. The chamber will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) from the space shuttle flight. During the 70-day experiment, the soybean plants will germinate, grow and produce seeds. Scientists will monitor the process via video and data sent from the space station. The plants and harvested grain will be returned to Earth this summer by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Seeds exhibiting unique and desirable qualities will be planted by Pioneer researchers to determine if the traits can be inherited in future generations. Pioneer will identify the genetics of those traits and use that information to further improve the soybeans' efficiency and profitability for farmers. DuPont, which marks its 200th anniversary in July, has a long history of space initiatives, dating back to NASA's origination 33 years ago. For example, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969, he wore 25 separate layers--23 of those layers were DuPont materials. In 1984, Pioneer corn seeds were on board a Challenger shuttle launch. The seeds, which were not planted while in space, were used in science-based initiatives after returning to Earth. "For 200 years, innovation has been the cornerstone of DuPont," said Dr. Thomas M. Connelly, Chief Science and Technology Officer for DuPont. "As a science company, we realize that future opportunities don't always come where you found your last opportunities. The discovery process often requires exploring in new areas--like soybeans growing in space--to unleash the next wave of innovation." "This is an incredible scientific opportunity for us and our partners," said Dr. Tom Corbin, DuPont researcher on the project. "Studying the effects of soybean plants grown in space will help us expand our knowledge of soybeans and facilitate continued improvement of soybean germplasm for farmers." The joint initiative builds on ADVANCED ASTROCULTURE(tm) technologies developed by WCSAR that have proven successful in growing other plants in space. ASTROCULTURE(tm) controls the input of variables and conditions necessary for plant growth such as temperature, water, humidity, light, atmospheric conditions and nutrients. "This program also provides an exciting opportunity for students throughout the world to learn more about the future of basic plant growth through an educational outreach program called Space Explorers, Inc.," Corbin said. Space Explorers, Inc., will facilitate an information exchange between K-12 students throughout the U.S. and the ISS. As students grow their own soybean plants in the classroom, they will compare their results to those of the plants growing simultaneously in space. Students will have the opportunity to view and monitor the actual payloads on the ISS, chat with program scientists and share information with other schools through an online database. A privately held company based in Green Bay, WI, Space Explorers, Inc., has a mission of providing innovative, standards-based education programs delivered via the Internet in order to educate the public about the science of space. WCSAR makes space available to industry in the interest of development and commercialization of new products and processes. It provides controlled environment technologies and facilities, plant genetic transformation technologies, enhanced biosynthesis technologies, as well as robotic and automated technologies. During 2002, DuPont is celebrating its 200th year of scientific achievement and innovation--providing products and services that improve the lives of people everywhere. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, DuPont delivers science-based solutions for markets that make a difference in people's lives in food and nutrition; health care; apparel; home and construction; electronics; and transportation. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a subsidiary of DuPont, is the world's leading source of customized solutions for farmers, livestock producers, and grain and oilseed processors. With headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer provides access to advanced plant genetics, crop protection solutions and quality crop systems to customers in nearly 70 countries. ADVANCED ASTROCULTURE(tm) is a trademark of the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics. Images supporting this release are available at http://www.dupont.com/corp/news/releases/2002/nr05_29_02.html. Contact: Anthony Farina Phone: 302-774-4114 E-mail: Anthony.R.Farina@usa.dupont.com _____________________________________________________________________ NASA SELECTS 28 PARTICIPATING SCIENTISTS FOR MARS ROVER MISSION NASA release 02-100 29 May 2002 NASA has selected 28 scientists for participation in the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission. The mission consists of two separate, though identical, rovers scheduled for launch in mid-2003 and arrival at separate destinations on Mars in early 2004. The selected proposals were judged to have the best science value among 84 proposals submitted to NASA last December in response to the Mars Exploration Rover Announcement of Opportunity. Each selected investigation will work with the MER Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., and will become full MER science-team members, joining previously selected scientists as part of the Athena science team. "The breadth, scope, and creativity of the scientists selected is very encouraging," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science, Headquarters, Washington. "By directly participating in NASA's next mission to the surface of Mars, they will help bring us closer to the long-term objective of our Mars Exploration Program--understanding Mars as a planet and determining whether life ever existed there." The MER mission science objectives include: (1) study rocks and soils for clues to past water activity; (2) investigate landing sites that have a high probability of containing evidence of the action of liquid water; (3) determine the distribution and composition of minerals, rocks and soils surrounding the landing sites; (4) determine the nature of local surface geologic processes; (5) calibrate and validate data from orbiting missions at each landing site; and (6) study the geologic processes for clues about the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present, and whether those environments were conducive for life. Selected investigators * Johannes Brueckner; Max Planck Institut fur Chemie, Mainz, Germany; Investigation of elemental composition of Martian soils and their relationship to global surface chemistry. * Nathalie A. Cabrol; SETI Institute, Moffett Field, CA; Aqueous sedimentary processes at the MER sites. * Wendy M. Calvin; University of Nevada, Reno; Mini-TES investigation for surface mineralogy and surface/orbit constraints on TES. * Benton C. Clark; Lockheed Martin Corporation, Littleton, CO; Chemical alteration processes on Mars: investigations and implications. * Larry S. Crumpler; New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque; Field geology and micro-surface characteristics at MER investigation sites. * Jack D. Farmer; Arizona State University, Tempe; Integrated studies of surface geology and mineralogy to explore for past aqueous environments. * William H. Farrand; Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO; Major and minor components of the surface layer of Mars: an investigation using the MER pancam and mini-TES. * William M. Folkner; JPL; Measurement of Mars rotation changes with the Mars Exploration Rovers. * Matthew P. Golombek; JPL; Directing long range rover traverses using orbital surface predictions and MER ground truth. * John A. Grant; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Constraining the geologic setting and evolution of the MER landing site(s). * Ronald Greeley; Arizona State University, Tempe; Mars Exploration Rover: study of aeolian features and processes. * John P. Grotzinger; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Geological analysis of Martian sediments and sedimentary rocks. * Stubbe Hviid; Max Planck Institut fur Aeronomie, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany; Investigation of the production and composition of Martian soils and dust and their effect upon the Martian atmosphere. * Jeffrey R. Johnson; U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ; Spectrophotometric observations of surface materials at the MER landing sites. * Geoffrey A. Landis; Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland; Study of solar energy and dust accumulation on MER. * Mark T. Lemmon; Texas A & M University, College Station; Investigation of the properties of Martian atmospheric dust and its effect on the illumination of the Martian surface. * Rongxing Li; Ohio State University, Columbus; Surface image-based high-precision near real-time landing site mapping and long-range rover localization for MER 2003 mission. * Scott M. McLennan; State University of New York, Stony Brook; Sedimentary petrology at the MER sites. * Douglas W. Ming; NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston; Identification and processes of formation for phyllosilicates, sulfates, and other chemical weathering products on Mars * Jeffrey E. Moersch; University of Tennessee, Knoxville; A search for aqueous minerals with the Mars Exploration Rover mini-TES experiment. * Timothy J. Parker; JPL; Sedimentary stratigraphy and geomorphology of the MER A and B landing sites. * James W. Rice; Arizona State University, Tempe; MER geomorphic and sedimentological investigations. * Lutz Richter; DLR Institut fur Raumsimulation, Koln, Germany; Mars soil mechanics investigations using MER rover locomotion system engineering data. * Michael D. Smith; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD; Retrieval of atmospheric properties using mini-TES spectra. * Peter H. Smith; University of Arizona, Tucson; The dust cycle monitored from MER. * Robert Sullivan; Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.; Physical and mechanical properties of Martian soils along MER traverses. * Michael J. Wolff; Space Science Institute, Martinez, GA; Aerosol studies and the boundary layer: things are looking up. * Albert S. Yen; JPL; Soil formation without liquid water: an assessment of the meteoritic contribution to the Martian surface. Contact: Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 _____________________________________________________________________ AMEC 2002--"EXPLORING THE RED PLANET" Australian Mars Society release http://www.marssociety.org.au/amec2002.shtml 29 May 2002 The 2nd Australian Mars Exploration Conference University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering 12-14 July 2002 Introduction Mars Society Australia will be holding its annual conference--the Australian Mars Exploration Conference--in Sydney on July 12-14, 2002. Conference proceedings will take place at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney. Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist Dr. Harrison Schmitt will speak at a gala dinner to be held at the Corus Hotel Sydney on Friday 12 July and open our conference on the morning of Saturday 13 July. AMEC 2002 will draw together some of Australia's leading scientists and engineers and provide the general public with an interest in Mars exploration, research or science the chance to learn of the latest activities in Australia and overseas. The theme of the conference is "Exploring the Red Planet". Keynote speakers will include: * Apollo 17 Astronaut Dr. Harrison Schmitt, University of Wisconsin. * Emeritus Professor Stuart Ross Taylor, Department of Geology, Australian National University--"Formation & Crustal Evolution of Mars". * Dr. Maurice Castro, Software Engineering Research Centre, RMIT University--"Information Technology Support for Mars Research Missions" * Professor David Green, Department of Geology, Australian National University. * Professor Rod Boswell, Space Plasma & Plasma Processing, RSPhySE, Australian National University--"To Mars and Beyond: Plasma Thrusting into the Future". * Dr. Rob Hart, Department of Medical Imaging Science, Curtin University of Technology--"Musculoskeletal Deconditioning in Space". Conference tracks will include: * Australian Mars Analogue Research * International Mars Analogue Research * Robotics and Engineering * Mars, The Human Perspective * Understanding the Martian Environment * Mars Society Australia - The Road Ahead Other activities include: * Discussion Panel: Lessons for Mars Missions from Apollo; featuring scientists who analyzed the original lunar samples. * "An Evening with an Apollo Astonaut"--A gala three-course dinner with Dr. Harrison Schmitt (Register before June 12th to secure your ticket). * Workshops on Mars related issues covering numerous disciplines, plus more! Registration is now open! Download the AMEC2002 Registration Pack from the URL, above. Registration Fees are as follows: Full - $85 MSA Member - $65 Student Concession - $65 MSA Member & Student Concession - $50 Register before June 12th to enter the draw for a special piece of space memorabilia. Full papers are due by 12 May 2002 (if wish to have reviewed) or 12 June 2002. We are looking for speakers from a variety of disciplines, including geology, astrobiology, psychology/human factors, biomedicine, engineering and robotics. Papers should focus on aspects of your research, which have direct or potential application to a future human mission to Mars. Papers will be reviewed upon request, and our review panel consists of: * Professor Malcolm Walter, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University. * Dr. Nick Hoffman, Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne. * Dr. Jonathan Clarke, Department of Geology, Australian National University. * Dr. Graham Mann, School of Information Technology, Murdoch University. Undergraduate prize for best paper submission: entries due 12 June 2002. A cash prize of $300 will be awarded to the best paper submitted to AMEC 2002 by an undergraduate student in the opinion of our review panel. The panel's decision will be final. The winner will be invited to attend AMEC and have their award presented by Dr. Harrison Schmitt. Papers should discuss issues that have direct or potential application to a future human mission to Mars or Mars related research. Papers must be between 2,500 and 5,000 words and should conform to the abstract and paper submission guidelines. Undergraduate students wishing to enter this competition should note this when submitting their paper on the submission form. Airfares We are pleased to announce that Qantas has been appointed official airline for AMEC 2002. As a special conference fare has been negotiated for AMEC delegates, we suggest you contact Qantas Association Sales (details below) to avail yourself of this offer. A discount of up to 40%* off the full economy airfare (excluding taxes) at the time of booking has been negotiated for this conference. These discounts are valid on Qantas domestic scheduled services subject to group class availability at the time of booking. Should the 40% discount economy fare not be available on a required flight, the fare may be upgraded to the next available economy class conference fare: 30% and 10% discounts. The Qantas Association Sales telephone number for Australian delegates is 1-800-684-880. Please quote your offer code, which is "2936911", destination and date of conference when making your reservation. Please note that the applicable discount is available for domestic travel within Australia only and is subject to payment and ticketing conditions. International delegates can contact their local Qantas office for the best available fare of the day. Conference Airfares are not available on Qantaslink (Sunstate Airlines) to/from the following ports: Thursday Island, Whitsunday Connections (South Molle, Daydream, Shute Harbour, Hayman Island). Qantas is proud to be a part of AMEC 2002 and know that you will enjoy flying with them! Accommodations The official hotel for AMEC 2002 will be the Corus hotel Sydney. The hotel has an ideal city location within easy walking distance of all major tourist attractions, including the Rocks and Circular Quay, shopping, restaurants, theatre and the commercial districts, the hotel has a range of amenities including 268 bedrooms, "Features" Restaurant, Lobby bar, Gymnasium, 50 parking spaces. We have negotiated a special rate on hotel rooms for our delegates and speakers as follows: * $154.00 Single executive deluxe room including fully cooked breakfast in Features Restaurant. * $165.00 Double executive deluxe room including fully cooked breakfast in Features Restaurant. * $132.00 Executive deluxe room (room only) Terms & conditions: The above rates all include GST & rates are only valid by booking direct to the hotel and are not commissionable. For bookings, contact: Penny Crewe, Sales Executive, Corus hotel Sydney, Phone: 612-9274-1319 E-mail: pcrewe@corushotels.com.au Exhibition area There will be limited space available for display of material and information to delegates during AMEC 2002. Please contact Michael West for information on prices and availability. Media center A limited number of media passes to AMEC2002 will available. Please contact Jennifer Laing for more details. Media releases will be available shortly. _____________________________________________________________________ GRAVITY MATTERS ESA release 39-2002 29 May 2002 The ESA-sponsored Life Sciences Symposium, which opens on 2 June at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, will present the benefits of ongoing space research to Earth-bound medical researchers. The Symposium is a triennial event and this is to be devoted to the results of ESA's Microgravity Applications Programme. The symposium is aptly subtitled Life in Space for Life on Earth: it will provide an opportunity for physicians and physiological scientists around the world to share in the work done aboard the International Space Station and its predecessors. Experiments--and long-term human experience--in the unique, weightless environment of an orbiting space station can provide surprising insights into the nature of muscular and skeletal development, and may well reveal new ways to treat and cure some very earthly ills. In weightlessness, the human body undergoes some quite startling adapations very quickly. These alterations, which include muscle tissue changes and bone loss, make the ISS a very special laboratory in which to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of human growth and decay right down to the cellular level. The ways in which astronauts adapt to microgravity might seem a specialized area of space science. In fact, the microgravity environment offers new insights into human physiology, with very real applications here on Earth. Take osteoporosis, for example. A bone- wasting ailment that afflicts many millions of elderly women in particular, its mechanisms can be examined at an accelerated rate in the healthy bodies of weightless astronauts. And the physiological changes brought about by the absence of gravity give useful clues to more mundane--but more widespread--problems, such as lower back pain. The Symposium will bring together researchers from all over the world, from such countries as Australia and Brazil. Among the leading participants will be five astronauts--two Europeans, Claudie Haigneré and Ulf Merbold, two Americans and a Russian--recounting their own experiences of medium- and long-term spaceflight. Topics under discussion will range from the space-oriented--how future astronauts will be protected from the long-term consequences of microgravity--to the fundamental: how genes and gravity combine to shape our bodies. Further information on the symposium itself is available at http://www.spaceflight.esa.int/users/symposium. Journalists wishing to attend the symposium should contact Michel van Baal, ESA/ESTEC Corporate Communication office, phone: +31.71.565.3006, e-mail: Michel.van.Baal@esa.int. The proceedings will be accessible on the Internet. Journalists wishing to attend the virtual symposium should contact Rebecca Forth to obtain instructions and a login and password, e-mail: Rebecca.Forth@esa.int. For more information, please contact: Michel van Baal ESA/ESTEC Corporate Communication Office Phone: +31.71.565.3006 Fax: +31.71.565.5728 _____________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPRESS HAS THE SOPHISTICATED SCIENCE TO FIND THE WATER ICE ON MARS From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 30 May 2002 "The presence of such a large amount of water ice under Mars's surface is very surprising. Especially so close to the surface!" says Gerhard Schwehm, Head of the Planetary Missions Division at ESA. The team working on ESA's Mars Express, the next mission to the Red Planet, is thrilled by NASA's Mars Odyssey detection of hydrogen-rich layers under the Martian surface. This hydrogen indicates the presence of water ice in the top surface of the Martian soil in a large region surrounding the planet's south pole. ESA's Mars Express, ready for launching in June 2003, has the tools for searching much deeper below the surface, down to a few kilometers. "Mars Express will give a more global picture of where the water is and how deep," says Patrick Martin, ESA deputy project scientist for the Mars Express mission. The radar sounder on board Mars Express, MARSIS, will map the subsurface structure from a depth of about a hundred meters to as much as a few kilometers. This is in contrast with the Mars Odyssey, which can sense surface compositions to a depth of only one meter. The cameras on Mars Express will map the minerals at a very high resolution and report how they are distributed on the Martian surface. This kind of data is crucial to understand the distribution of subsurface water. The other four instruments on board Mars Express (seven in total) will observe the atmosphere and reveal processes by which water vapor and other atmospheric gases could have escaped into space. Knowing about the water distribution on and under the surface of Mars is essential, since water is needed for the appearance of life. Also, water distribution will help understand the geological history of the planet, and ultimately provide new clues about formation of our Solar System and evolution of Earth. Moreover, the presence of water puts mankind a step closer to the human exploration of the Red Planet. In its exciting Aurora program, ESA is considering systems that could be used in future extraterrestrial human colonies or stations. Search for life Mars Express will also deploy a lander on Mars, called Beagle 2. Beagle 2 will parachute down to the Martian surface, probably close to the equator, and is especially equipped to look for signatures of life. It will do so both on and below the surface, since Mars's harsh atmosphere would almost certainly have destroyed any evidence for life on the surface. Beagle 2 will use a "mole" to retrieve samples of soil to a depth of 1.5 meters, and will become the first lander to look directly for evidences of life on the Red Planet since NASA's Viking in 1976. Contact: Clovis De Matos ESA Science Programme Communication Service Phone: +31 71 565 3460 E-mail: Clovis.De.Matos@esa.int * Europe to identify underground water on Mars http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=9&cid=32&oid=28192 * More about Mars Express http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress * More about Beagle 2 http://www.beagle2.com/ * Aurora: a European roadmap for Solar System exploration http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/onstation/onstation8/aurora.pdf Image 1 [http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=9&cid=12 &oid=30077&ooid=28904] Mars Express will search for water and ice in the top several kilometers of Martian crust. If underground aquifers like this really do exist, Mars Express has a good chance of finding them. The implications for human exploration and eventual colonization of the Red Planet would be far-reaching. Image 2 [http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=9&cid=12 &oid=30077&ooid=29640] Instruments on the Mars Express orbiter can observe selected areas of the Martian surface. 1. MARSIS: ground penetrating radar to locate, for example, water and ice. 2. HRSC: providing accurate and detailed images of the surface and atmosphere. 3. OMEGA: mapping the surface composition of Mars. 4. SPICAM: finding out why the Martian atmosphere is so oxidising. 5. PFS: studying the composition of the atmosphere. 6. ASPERA: looking at how the solar wind erodes the Martian atmosphere. 7. MaRS (no corresponding hardware): using data transmission for science. 8. Beagle 2: searching for evidence of past or present life. An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0206/02esamars/. _____________________________________________________________________ MARSQUAKE DETECTION SENSORS WILL TAKE SEARCH FOR WATER UNDERGROUND Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine release 30 May 2002 Researchers at Imperial College London have just begun a 5-year project to design and build tiny earthquake measuring devices to go to Mars on the 2007 NetLander mission. Unlike the instruments on next year's European Mars Express/Beagle II mission, the Marsquake sensors will be the first to look deep inside the planet. The internal structure of Mars is a key to understanding some fundamental questions about the planet including whether life ever existed there. The sensors are capable of detecting liquid water reservoirs hidden below the surface, where life could possibly survive on Mars today. The recent discovery by the Mars Odyssey orbiter of large amounts of ice at the poles opens up the possibility of liquid water existing in the warmer conditions underground near the Martian equator. Dr. Tom Pike, of Imperial College London, is designing the heart of the sensor, a two-centimeter square of silicon. "We're micromachining a near-perfect spring and weight from a single piece of silicon. We'll be able to detect the weight shuddering in response to a Marsquake from anywhere on the planet," he said. The 2007 NetLander mission, led by the French space agency, CNES, will land four modules across the surface of Mars, each containing instruments to look at the structure and weather of Mars on a global scale. All four will be near the equator. "The network of instruments will help us to pinpoint each Marsquake by triangulation," said Dr. Pike. "We'll look at how the vibrations from Marsquakes travel through the planet and work out what's going on deep inside. If these vibrations hit liquid water under the landing sites, we should see a distinctive signature. That's when the search for life on Mars will move underground." Dr. Pike is currently building up the team at Imperial College to develop the sensors under a contract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, is providing the fabrication facilities. The Marsquake instrument consortium includes Imperial College, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the Institute de Physique du Globe in Paris and ETH, Zurich. Pictures of the sensors are available from contacts below. For further information please contact: Dr. W. Thomas Pike Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Imperial College London Phone: +44 (0)20 7594 6207 Mobile: +44(0) 790 560 8265 E-mail: w.t.pike@ic.ac.uk Tom Miller Imperial College Press Office Phone: +44 (0)20 7594 2624 Mobile: +44 (0)7803 886248 E-mail: t.miller@ic.ac.uk * Electrical and Electronic Engineering web site http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/ * NetLander Mission home page http://ganymede.ipgp.jussieu.fr/GB/projets/netlander/ _____________________________________________________________________ NASA AND BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY ORGANIZATION EXPANDING BIOTECH COOPERATION IN SPACE NASA release 02-102 30 May 2002 NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) President Carl B. Feldbaum today signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation between NASA and the biotechnology industry. "NASA currently supports cutting-edge basic and commercial biotechnology research and development," said Administrator O'Keefe. "We recognize the importance of biotechnology as an expanding industry with increasing significance for health care, agriculture, our economy and space exploration. This partnership helps NASA further the commercial use of space." Citing NASA's participation at BIO conferences and meetings, Feldbaum said, "This agreement underscores the existing convergence of space technology and biotechnology. We've already seen biotech research underway in space. This agreement will promote investment by the biotechnology industry in commercial space development for the benefit of patients, consumers and our economy." The memorandum builds on an already strong partnership by establishing three goals of collaboration: enhanced communication between NASA and industry; expanded commercial biotechnology space research and development; and formal and informal education of industry and the public regarding biotechnology and space research. Biotechnology research already plays an important role in space. The upcoming launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station (ISS) will transport a biotechnology company's experiment to the station that will compare human liver-cell function in space with that on Earth. This research could aid in the development of treatments for people in need of liver transplants. NASA will utilize space as a laboratory to test the fundamental principles of chemistry and biology, and BIO will provide the industry support needed to maximize both the research and potential commercial opportunities. BIO represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S. states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. Additional information on NASA commercialization activities and BIO can be found at: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov http://commercial.hq.nasa.gov http://www.bio.org Contacts: Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1726 Dan Eramian Biotechnology Industry Organization, Washington, DC Phone: 202-962-9200 _____________________________________________________________________ INTELLIGENT ALIENS? By Seth Shostak From Space.com 30 May 2002 There may be a lot of life in the universe. If so, it's a safe bet that most of it will score lower on the SATs than you. Just consider the situation on one planet: ours. There are millions of species on Earth. Millions. Among this protoplasmic plentitude, how many species are smart enough to be interesting on the telephone or able to help you with Sunday's crossword? Well, there's Homo sapiens, and then there's... nobody. Is this a momentous fact or not? Is the circumstance that we can look around and find we're the brainiest boffins on the planet merely a trivial result of being the first species able to notice? Or is there some reason to think that intelligence is actually a rare and unlikely evolutionary development, and Homo sapiens has lucked out? Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/shostak_intelligent_020530.html. _____________________________________________________________________ BREAKING THE SURFACE: HOW SCIENTISTS COULD USE MARS' WATER-ICE By Leonard David From Space.com 30 May 2002 On Mars, water ice may be both biological buried treasure and a rich resource for future Mars explorers. NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found enormous quantities of subsurface water ice. Scientists using the spacecraft's gamma ray spectrometer instrument have detected hydrogen in the upper three feet (one-meter) of soil. That hydrogen is believed likely to be in the form of water ice. The spacecraft spotted enough Mars water ice to fill Lake Michigan twice over in what may be a "splash" of data, with the deluge yet to come... ... [William] Boynton said there's much more work needed before dispatching astronauts to the red planet. But knowing an ample supply of underground water ice exists on Mars ahead of time clearly primes the pump, so to speak, he said. "There's enough water there that astronauts don't have to worry about bringing water along with them," Boynton said. "All you have to do is heat it up and the water is going to run out. You just put it through a filter... nothing any more elaborate than the kind of filter you'd use on your coffee pot," Boynton said. "My guess is that it would be clean enough to drink right like that," he said. Boynton added, however, that astronauts would have to be on their guard not to drink contaminated water. "If you melted the ice and you found too much bacteria... well, actually that would be great news. It means you've got life on Mars," he said. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_nextphase_0205 30.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA AMES TO HOST "MAGNETITE ON MARS" MEETING NASA/ARC release 02-68AR 31 May 2002 Researchers from around the world will convene at a 'Magnetite on Mars' meeting on June 4 and 5 to review recent findings that support or refute the biological origin of magnetite crystals in the ALH84001 Mars meteorite. The meeting will be held in the Space Sciences Auditorium, Building N245, at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. Scientists will examine the potential consequences of magnetic bacteria on early Mars and consider whether the magnetic environment necessary for the existence of the magnetite mineral was present on Mars 3.9 billion years ago. They also will discuss whether magnetite's presence on early Mars can give us important clues about the planet's current environment. Scientists from the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany and Spain will present more than 20 papers during 20-minute talks. "We have to go beyond the current controversy over whether the magnetite in the Mars meteorite is of biological or non-biological origin, and consider what the implications are if the hypothesis is true," said conference organizer Dr. Chris McKay of NASA Ames. "If it is true, the implications are that we may have to readjust the chronology of early life on Mars and even redesign future Mars missions." The June 4 session begins at 8:15 AM PDT. Session I, chaired by McKay, will discuss: "Is the magnetite of non-biological or biological origin?" Session II, which begins at 2:00 PM PDT, will discuss "Does magnetite on Earth provide insight into the biogenic magnetite on Mars?" and is chaired by Dr. Ken Nealson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, and the University of Southern California. Session II, titled "Could magnetotaxis have developed on Mars?" begins at 9:00 AM PDT on June 5 and is chaired by Dr. Richard Frankel of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA. Magnetotaxis is the orientation of magnetic bacteria along a magnetic heading, like a compass. There will be a media interview opportunity from noon to 12:45 PM PDT on June 5 in Conference Room 141 in Building 245, featuring McKay, Nealson, Dr. David McKay of NASA Johnson Space Center, Dr. Imre Friedmann of Ames, Dr. Joseph Kirschvink of the California Institute of Technology, and others. Between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM PDT, a closing panel will sum up the workshop findings. A meeting agenda is posted on the Internet at http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/pages/pubnot.html. Media representatives planning to attend should pre-register by contacting Kathleen Burton in the NASA Ames Media and Community Relations Office. NASA Ames is the agency's lead center for astrobiology, the search for the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe, and the location of the central offices of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, an international research consortium. Information about NASA's astrobiology programs may be obtained at http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov and at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/. Contact: Kathleen Burton NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-1731 or 604-9000 E-mail: kburton@mail.arc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 3 June 2002 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html Agence France-Presse, 2002. Vast quantities of water on Mars renew hopes of detecting past life there. SpaceDaily. L. David, 2002. Breaking the surface: how scientists could use Mars' water-ice. Space.com. L. David, 2002. Odyssey's icy discovery warms up controversial theories. Space.com. ESA, 2002. Europe's Mars Express will also search for water ice. Spaceflight Now. Lunar and Planetary Institute, 2002. Crater measurements show Europa has thick ice shell. Spaceflight Now. NASA, 2002. Abundance of water ice found under Mars' surface. Spaceflight Now. NASA, 2002. Found it! Ice on Mars. NASA Science News. Reuters, 2002. Search for life on Europa is on ice. CNN. M. Walton, 2002. Mars discoveries key to future exploration? CNN. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html B. J. Campbell, C. Jeanthon, J. E. Kostka, G. W. Luther III and S. C. Cary, 2001. Growth and phylogenetic properties of novel bacteria belonging to the epsilon subdivision of the Proteobacteria enriched from Alvinella pompejana and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 67(10):4566-4572. V. P. Edgcomb, D. T. Kysela, A. Teske, A. de Vera Gomez and M. L. Sogin, 2002. Benthic eukaryotic diversity in the Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vent environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99(11):7658-7662. D. Emerson and C. L. Moyer, 2002. Neutrophilic Fe-oxidizing bacteria are abundant at the Loihi Seamount hydrothermal vents and play a major role in Fe oxide deposition. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 68(6):3085-3093. K. Kashefi and D. R. Lovley, 2000. Reduction of Fe(III), Mn(IV), and toxic metals at 100°C by Pyrobaculum islandicum. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(3):1050-1056. K. Kashefi, D. E. Holmes, A.-L. Reysenbach and D. R. Lovley, 2002. Use of Fe(III) as an electron acceptor to recover previously uncultured hyperthermophiles: isolation and characterization of Geothermobacterium ferrireducens gen. nov., sp. nov. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 68(4):1735-1742. V. J. Orphan, C. H. House, K.-U. Hinrichs, K. D. McKeegan and E. F. DeLong, 2002. Multiple archaeal groups mediate methane oxidation in anoxic cold seep sediments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99(11):7663-7668. A.-L. Reysenbach, K. Longnecker and J. Kirshtein, 2000. Novel bacterial and archaeal lineages from an in situ growth chamber deployed at a mid-atlantic ridge hydrothermal vent. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(9):3798-3806. S. M. Sievert, T. Brinkhoff, G. Muyzer, W. Ziebis and J. Kuever, 1999. Spatial heterogeneity of bacterial populations along an environmental gradient at a shallow submarine hydrothermal vent near Milos Island (Greece). Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 65(9):3834-3842. K. Takai, T. Komatsu, F. Inagaki and K. Horikoshi, 2001. Distribution of Archaea in a black smoker chimney structure. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 67(8):3618-3629. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html W. Long, 2002. "Made in China" program prepares 14 yuhangyuans for spaceflight. SpaceDaily. Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2002. Probe quenches researchers' thirst for water data. Spaceflight Now. Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html S. Shostak, 2002. Intelligent aliens? Space.com. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html ESA, 2002. Is life the rule or the exception? The answer may be in the interstellar clouds. ESA Science News. D. J. Thomas, 2002. Interstellar panspermia reconsidered again: in defense of life's evolution on Earth. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 55(5/6):200-201. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES: SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE POLYGONAL PATTERNED GROUND NASA/JPL/MSS release http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/polygons_5_02/index.html 29 May 2002 Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Southern Hemisphere Polygonal Patterned Ground MGS MOC Release #MOC2-315, 29 May 2002 (a) E09-00029 (b) E12-02319 (c) M11-01795 On Earth, periglacial is a term that refers to regions and processes where cold climate contributes to the evolution of landforms and landscapes. Common in periglacial environments on Earth, such as the arctic of northern Canada, Siberia, and Alaska, is a phenomenon called patterned ground. The "patterns" in patterned ground often take the form of large polygons, each bounded by either troughs or ridges made up of rock particles different in size from those seen in the interior of the polygon. On Earth, many polygons in periglacial environments are directly linked to water: they typically form from stresses induced by repeated freezing and thawing of water, contraction from stress induced by changing temperatures, and sorting of rocks brought to the surface along polygon boundaries by the freeze-thaw processes. Although not exclusively formed by freezing and thawing of water, that is often the dominant mechanism on Earth. Polygons similar to those found in Earth's arctic and antarctic regions are also found in the polar regions of Mars. Typically, they occur on crater floors, or on intercrater plains, between about 60° and 80° latitude. The polygons are best seen when bright frost or dark sand has been trapped in the troughs that form the polygon boundaries. Three examples of Martian polygons seen by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) are shown here. Each is located in the southern hemisphere: (a) Polygon troughs highlighted by frost as the south polar cap retreats during spring. The circular features are the locations of buried craters that were originally formed by meteor impact. This image, E09-00029, is located at 75.1°S, 331.3°W, and was acquired on 1 October 2001. (b) Summertime view of polygons, highlighted by dark, windblown sand, on the floor of a crater at 71.2°S, 282.6°W. The image, E12-02319, was obtained on 21 January 2002. (c) Polygon troughs highlighted by the retreating south polar frost cap during southern summer near 80.7°S, 70.4°W. This picture, M11- 01795, was taken by MOC on 13 January 2000. Some Mars researchers assume that polygons on the Red Planet are key indictors that ground ice is present or was present in the recent past. However, whether these polygons actually required water ice to form is, in fact, unknown, since dry processes are also known on Earth for form similar polygons. Image credits: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems. Other MGS MOC Examples of Martian Polygons: * Indications of Subsurface Ice: Polygons on the Northern Plains, 19 July 1999 * South Melea Planum, By The Dawn's Early Light, 11 May 1999 Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. _____________________________________________________________________ ODYSSEY FINDS WATER ICE IN ABUNDANCE UNDER MARS' SURFACE NASA release 02-99 28 May 2002 Using instruments on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, surprised scientists have found enormous quantities of buried treasure lying just under the surface of Mars-enough water ice to fill Lake Michigan twice over. And that may just be the tip of the iceberg. "This is really amazing. This is the best direct evidence we have of subsurface water ice on Mars. We were hopeful that we could find evidence of ice, but what we have found is much more ice than we ever expected," said William Boynton, principal investigator for Odyssey's gamma ray spectrometer suite at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Scientists used Odyssey's gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite to detect hydrogen, which indicated the presence of water ice in the upper meter (three feet) of soil in a large region surrounding the planet's south pole. "It may be better to characterize this layer as dirty ice rather than as dirt containing ice," added Boynton. The detection of hydrogen is based both on the intensity of gamma rays emitted by hydrogen, and by the intensity of neutrons that are affected by hydrogen. The spacecraft's high-energy neutron detector and the neutron spectrometer observed the neutron intensity. The amount of hydrogen detected indicates 20 to 50 percent ice by mass in the lower layer. Because rock has a greater density than ice, this amount is more than 50 percent water ice by volume. This means that if one heated a full bucket of this ice-rich polar soil it would result in more than half a bucket of water. The gamma ray spectrometer suite is unique in that it senses the composition below the surface to a depth as great as one meter. By combining the different type of data from the instrument, the team has concluded the hydrogen is not distributed uniformly over the upper meter but is much more concentrated in a lower layer beneath the top-most surface. The team also found that the hydrogen-rich regions are located in areas that are known to be very cold and where ice should be stable. This relationship between high hydrogen content with regions of predicted ice stability led the team to conclude that the hydrogen is, in fact, in the form of ice. The ice-rich layer is about 60 centimeters (two feet) beneath the surface at 60 degrees south latitude, and gets to within about 30 centimeters (one foot) of the surface at 75 degrees south latitude. "Mars has surprised us again. The early results from the gamma ray spectrometer team are better than we ever expected," said R. Stephen Saunders, Odyssey's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "In a few months, as we get into Martian summer in the northern hemisphere, it will be exciting to see what lies beneath the cover of carbon dioxide dry-ice as it disappears." "The signature of buried hydrogen seen in the south polar area is also seen in the north, but not in the areas close to the pole. This is because the seasonal carbon dioxide (dry ice) frost covers the polar areas in winter. As northern spring approaches, the latest neutron data indicate that the frost is receding, revealing hydrogen- rich soil below," said William Feldman, principal investigator for the neutron spectrometer at Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico. "We have suspected for some time that Mars once had large amounts of water near the surface. The big questions we are trying to answer are, 'where did all that water go?' and 'what are the implications for life?' Measuring and mapping the icy soils in the polar regions of Mars as the Odyssey team has done is an important piece of this puzzle, but we need to continue searching, perhaps much deeper underground, for what happened to the rest of the water we think Mars once had," said Jim Garvin, Mars Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington. Another new result from the neutron data is that large areas of Mars at low to middle latitudes contain slightly enhanced amounts of hydrogen, equivalent to several percent water by mass. Interpretation of this finding is ongoing, but the team's preliminary hypothesis is that this relatively small amount of hydrogen is more likely to be chemically bound to the minerals in the soil, than to be in the form of water ice. JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Investigators at Arizona State University, Tempe, the University of Arizona, Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, operate the science instruments. The gamma-ray spectrometer was provided by the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, which provided the high-energy neutron detector, and the Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, 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. Additional information about the 2001 Mars Odyssey and the gamma-ray spectrometer is available at /is available on the Internet at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/ and http://grs.lpl.arizona.edu. Contacts: Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Mary Hardin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0344 Heather Enos University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Phone: 520-621-8279 _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 27-31 May 2002 * Noctis Labyrinthus/Valles Marineris transition (Released 27 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020527a.html * Becquerel Crater Deposit (Released 28 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020528a.html * Mangala Fossa (Released 29 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020529a.html * Surface Composition Differences in Martian Canyon (Released 29 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020529b.html * Mars Surface Layers in Infrared (Released 29 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020529c.html * Floor of Juventae Chasma (Released 30 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020530a.html * Lava Flows in Eastern Tharsis (Released 31 May 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020531a.html All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. Dr. Philip Christensen leads the THEMIS investigation at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey 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. _____________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 31 May 2002 There was one Deep Space Network tracking pass this past week and all spacecraft subsystems are performing normally. The spacecraft is currently 328 million kilometers (203 million miles) from Earth and has traveled over 2.2 billion kilometers (1.4 million miles) around the Sun since its launch in February 1999. The upgrade to the Spacecraft Test Laboratory has been completed. Testing has begun on the software for the star field pattern matching and windowing to prepare for the Comet Wild 2 encounter. The second interstellar dust collection is scheduled to begin on July 22. At that time, the sample return capsule will be opened and the aerogel collector will be extended out of the capsule to capture interstellar particles. 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 9, Number 20.