MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 9, Number 38, 14 October 2002. Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu Contributing Editor: Julian A. Hiscox, Ph.D., 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 effectively 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/. _____________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) TEXAS SPACEPORTS, MARS COLONIES ON DRAWING BOARD AT UH; UH SPACE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM PROVIDES BLUEPRINTS FOR EXPLORATION University of Houston release 2) THE LITTLE PLANKTON THAT COULD... MAYBE By Vivien Marx 3) SMALL ASTEROID IMPACTS MAY OCCUR LESS FREQUENTLY THAN EXPECTED From SpaceDaily 4) SHADOW MOONS: THE UNKNOWN SUB-WORLDS THAT MIGHT HARBOR LIFE By Robert Roy Britt 5) WORLD-FAMOUS PLANET HUNTER TO GIVE AARONSON PUBLIC LECTURE AT UA NOVEMBER 1 By Lori Stiles 6) LOOKING FOR CARBONATES IN DRY PLACES By Lee J. Siegel 7) NASA ASTROBIOLOGISTS TO STUDY EXTREME LIFE AT EARTH'S HIGHEST LAKE NASA/ARC release 02-109AR 8) CHALLENGES OF LANDING ON ALIEN WORLDS From ESA Science News 9) DALTON NAMED ASTROBIOLOGY DEPUTY NASA/ARC release 02-110AR 10) NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE CONGRATULATES ANOTHER NOBEL PRIZE WINNER NASA/ARC release 02-110AR 11) STATION RESIDENT WHITSON DESCRIBES LIFE IN ORBIT By William Harwood 12) WHEN DID LIFE ON EARTH BEGIN? ASK A ROCK By David Tenenbaum 13) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 14) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 15) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 16) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SCIENCE OPERATIONS STATUS NASA/MSFC release 02-254 17) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 18) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ TEXAS SPACEPORTS, MARS COLONIES ON DRAWING BOARD AT UH; UH SPACE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM PROVIDES BLUEPRINTS FOR EXPLORATION University of Houston release 7 October 2002 Construction of commercial spaceports in Texas and plans for the first human settlement on Mars have University of Houston architecture faculty and students focused on the future of the nation's space program. The critical first step for the successful commercial development of space is to lower the cost of access to space, says Larry Bell, director of the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture, or SICSA, a research and education center in the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture. Since the center's establishment in 1987 with a $3 million gift provided by the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, SICSA faculty and students have been developing comprehensive plans for transporting and maintaining humans in space. Bell and his SICSA colleagues are key consultants to the Texas Aerospace Commission as the state moves forward with plans for spaceports in three areas of the state. Commercial spaceports would offer a less expensive and less time-consuming alternative to satellite developers and other potential users from industry who want options for access to space other than launching from government-run facilities, Bell says. "There's a large emerging market for smaller satellites, and satellite developers, including the military, who want very inexpensive launches," Bell says. "They don't want to have to wait for a year or more to launch out of a large government facility. There is some competition among several states to create spaceports and attract launch providers." Bell has been working with a spaceport development corporation in West Texas to plan the first demonstration launches from a site in Pecos County, which took place October 5. The site is currently undeveloped. Balloon payloads carried small balls filled with experiments by school children, and a sub-orbital rocket also was launched. The U.S. Air Force paid for the launches. SICSA has a contract with the Pecos County/West Texas Spaceport Development Corp. to aid in the development of the West Texas site. SICSA's role is to prepare plans for facility requirements, including facilities for vehicle preparation and payload processing, flight control and monitoring, emergency services and security. In addition, SICSA is looking at future ancillary facilities such as restaurants, hotels and other aspects that may attract businesses to the future spaceport. Educational facilities for high-school and college students that provide curriculum support and hands-on experiences also are part of the plan. In addition to his work on the spaceport in West Texas, Bell will be discussing issues surrounding planetary exploration and settlement, such as the first Mars outpost and the technologies needed to get there, during the World Space Congress 2002 October 10-19 in Houston. More information about SICSA and Bell's presentations are on the Web at http://www.sicsa.uh.edu/. Bell describes the role of a space architect as more than just an interior designer for NASA. "Architecture, whether applied on earth or to dynamic space missions, must take into account all of the elements and consider all the issues involved in a particular project," Bell says. "Just as designing a building must take into account the ventilation systems, code requirements, materials and construction, financing, and the interior layout, an extended mission in space has multiple elements." While an engineer may address only certain aspects of a mission, the space architect takes a very holistic view, planning for propulsion systems, design of transport and habitat modules, risk assessment, social aspects of long-duration flights and health concerns, among others. "All these elements are totally interdependent and changes in one affect plans for another. This is the realm of the space architect," Bell says. To help the next generation of space explorers address these issues, Bell has proposed an M.S. program in space architecture through the UH College of Architecture, which would be the first of its kind in the world, he says. The proposal is still in the approval stages and Bell says it has been favorably received by the college and the Texas Aerospace Commission. Currently, undergraduates in UH's five-year architecture program can take space architecture courses beginning in their fourth year of the bachelor's program. Bell says a graduate program in space architecture would attract scientists and engineers in the aerospace sector who want to expand their vision to look at the total mission- planning picture. "This place is really marvelous and unique," he says. "Many of our graduates already work in aerospace fields continuing projects they started here. When you're talking about going to the moon or Mars or beyond, you're really talking about taking risks, stretching your horizons. The dynamic problem solving aspect of our program is what makes it truly fun, and I believe the people who come through our program are going to make a difference in our future. It's like a whole bunch of people jumping into the deep end of the pool together and we all have to learn how to swim. It's a wonderful learning experience." In SICSA's plans for the first Mars outpost, for example, Bell says they've come up with a good overall view of the key issues and elements and the interrelationships among those elements. Among the considerations for a Mars mission that groups of SICSA students are working on: * How do you make a settlement self-sufficient so that minimal supplies must be transported from Earth? Plans may include extracting oxygen from the carbon dioxide on Mars, which could be used both for life support and in propellants to lift off from Mars. How much mass you initially take on a mission also has implications for the type of propulsion system you'll need, as well as for the size and design of transport and habitat modules. * How might the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, fit into the exploration equation? Resources on the moons might be utilized to provide an interplanetary "gas station." * If people are to go beyond Mars on longer-duration missions, artificial gravity becomes a more important consideration for the health of astronauts. Bell and his colleagues are exploring an artificial gravity project that works by using a system of tethers. Another consideration for a Mars mission is radiation. The sun and galactic radiation sources are particularly dangerous to humans beyond the protection of earth's atmosphere. "Radiation is a potential show-stopper for long missions, including Mars," Bell says. "We need to find out a lot more about radiation effects. This issue has implications for the type of astronauts we send--women have different vulnerabilities to radiation than men do, for example--as well as for the amount of risk we're willing to accept. What kind of medical equipment and personnel should we take along on a mission? How willing are we to risk lives to expand science?" About the University of Houston The University of Houston, Texas' premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 34,400 students. A publication-quality photo of UH researchers with a solar cell device is available at http://www.uh.edu/newsroom/wsc2002/wscbell102002.html. Contacts: Edgar Bering Phone: 713-743-3543 E-mail: eabering@uh.edu Amanda Siegfried Phone: 713-743-8192 E-mail: asiegfried@uh.edu An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spaceport-02b.html. _____________________________________________________________________ THE LITTLE PLANKTON THAT COULD... MAYBE By Vivien Marx From Scientific American 7 October 2002 Slowing global warming is a big job. But some researchers and companies say that job could be done by enlisting the help of small but fantastically numerous--and collectively mighty--marine unicellular organisms called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton makes up the chlorophyll-bearing canopy at the base of the marine food web. As part of the natural biogeophysical cycle, phytoplankton absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas implicated in global climate change. Some of the carbon is buried when phytoplankton die and settle to the sea bottom. In theory--one strengthened by some experiments, including one early in 2002--fertilizing phytoplankton could accelerate this natural process, sinking carbon in gigaton quantities. The scientific jury is out on whether such a grand-scale experiment with complex atmospheric processes would work to pull out additional carbon--and if it did, whether the cascade of subsequent effects would ultimately wreak more environmental havoc than the excess carbon would in the first place. But those uncertainties haven't stopped entrepreneurs from developing plans to deliver fertilizers to phytoplankton, in case they ever get a green light to do so. Get the full story at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID= 000A5750-8AC2-1D9C-815A809EC5880000 _____________________________________________________________________ SMALL ASTEROID IMPACTS MAY OCCUR LESS FREQUENTLY THAN EXPECTED From SpaceDaily 7 October 2002 Early in the morning of June 30, 1908, in the Tunguska region of Siberia about 1,000 km (600 miles) north of Irkutsk, an asteroid about 60 meters (200 ft) in diameter entered the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in an immense explosion, centered about 8 km (5 miles) above the forest below. Trees were flattened over an area about 50 km (30 miles) in diameter, several times larger than the area encircled by the Beltway around Washington, DC. It exploded with energy in the range of a modern nuclear missile warhead, about 10 megatons, or about 500 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. While there were few, if any, casualties from this event, if such an event were to occur in a more populated area it would be a major natural disaster, comparable to a major flood, earthquake or volcanic eruption. For this reason there is considerable interest in assessing just how often such an event might be expected to occur. Since the last one was about a century ago, it has often be supposed that the answer is "about once a century," but this is not necessarily so. Get the full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact- 02v.html. _____________________________________________________________________ SHADOW MOONS: THE UNKNOWN SUB-WORLDS THAT MIGHT HARBOR LIFE By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 8 October 2002 Mounting discoveries of planets around other stars are fueling anticipation among most astronomers that our solar system is a reasonable model for the kinds of objects that probably exist around many stars. If they are right, then the galaxy could be loaded with billions of planets--and a far greater number of moons. Some of these satellite worlds could have the ingredients for life and the ability to support it, said experts interviewed by SPACE.com. These presumed extrasolar moons are hidden in the scientific shadows of their planetary companions. None have been found, so none can be studied. Few top researchers theorize about them. Scientific literature on the topic is thin. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/shadow_moons_021008-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ WORLD-FAMOUS PLANET HUNTER TO GIVE AARONSON PUBLIC LECTURE AT UA NOVEMBER 1 By Lori Stiles University of Arizona release 7 October 2002 An astronomer who in June co-discovered the first solar system like our own and who in September was in on the discovery of the 100th planet outside our solar system will lecture on "The Prospects for Planets and Life in the Universe" at the University of Arizona Friday, November 1. The search for extra-solar planets that may harbor life has captured public imagination more than perhaps any other scientific endeavor. Geoffrey W. Marcy of the University of California Berkeley helps lead the search for solar systems and planets like our own. ARE there more out there? Science is getting a handle on one of the most profound questions humans ask, thanks to astronomers like Marcy. Marcy will give the 2002 Marc Aaronson Memorial Lecture at 7:00 PM in Room 120 of the Integrated Learning Center on the UA campus. It is free and open to the public. Teamed with Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Marcy confirmed the detection of the first extra-solar planet, or "exoplanet", in 1996. Since, he and his colleagues have discovered more than 50 planets using a method that Marcy developed. The technique measures with extreme precision how much a star "wobbles" when tugged by its unseen planet. Last month, Marcy and collaborating British, Australian and American astronomers announced they had detected the 100th known exoplanet, using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. Last June, Marcy and Butler announced the first observational evidence that Earth's solar system is not unique. Marcy has enthusiastically shared these discoveries of new and exotic solar systems in interviews with the world's top print and broadcast media, in his university classes, and in public astronomy lectures like the one he'll give at the UA. "We have the first sign of a planetary system that has an architecture qualitatively similar to our own solar system," Marcy said at the announcement news conference. "Clearly, finding another solar system like our own begs the question, are there other Earths, Earth-like planets in this system?" The Marc Aaronson Memorial Lectureship and accompanying cash prize was established in 1989 by family, friends and colleagues of the late Marc Aaronson. Marcy was invited to give the 10th Aaronson Lecture because of his long years of patient work that preceded his success in finding planets, said UA astronomer Ed Olszewski. Marcy's work has added to astronomers' understanding of how stars and planets form, and of the origin of our own solar system, Olszewski said. Aaronson (1950-1987) was a gifted astronomer on the UA faculty, where his research focused on some of the most important problems of observational cosmology--the cosmic distance scale, the age of the universe, the large-scale motion of matter, the distribution of invisible mass in the universe, and the evolution of stars and galaxies. He died in 1987 in an accident while observing at Kitt Peak, AZ. Contacts: Lori Stiles, UA News Services Phone: 520-621-1877 Ed Olszewski Phone: 520-621-1973 E-mail: edo@as.Arizona.edu Geoff Marcy Phone: 510-642-1952 E-mail: gmarcy@etoile.Berkeley.edu _____________________________________________________________________ LOOKING FOR CARBONATES IN DRY PLACES By Lee J. Siegel From Astrobiology Magazine 9 October 2002 Liquid water often is considered a requirement for life, on Earth or beyond. And until recently, the presence of extraterrestrial carbonate chemicals--believed to form only in water--was thought to be a reliable indicator of the past or current presence of water. That belief took a big hit earlier this year when Ciska Kemper, an astronomy doctoral student at the University of Amsterdam, published a study in the journal Nature identifying fine grains of carbonates in the dry dust surrounding two dying stars. Kemper and colleagues say water could not exist there. Not enough time has passed for new water-rich planets to form since the expanding stars vaporized any previously existing planets. And they say the volume of carbonates around the stars is far more than could have been produced by any vaporized planets. If Kemper's findings are confirmed, scientists may have to re-examine their assumptions about how soon water was present after our solar system formed. But not everyone agrees that Kemper has, indeed, found carbonates. Carbonates--a foolproof divining rod? Carbonates are minerals that form when negatively charged carbonate ions (a carbon atom and three oxygen atoms) combine with positive ions such as calcium, magnesium or iron. The conventional reaction occurs in solution, and carbonate crystallizes out of the liquid-- sometimes with help from marine organisms that incorporate the carbonates into their shells. The most common carbonates on Earth are calcite--also known as limestone or calcium carbonate--and dolomite, which is made of carbonates of calcium and magnesium. These are the carbonates Kemper claims to have found around the distant stars. Kemper based her findings on spectra, patterns of heat and light emissions, from dust around the stars. The spectra, which were collected by the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, an Earth-orbiting telescope that operated during 1995-1998, can be used to identify chemicals in the dust around the stars. Each of the two dying stars where Kemper says she detected carbonates began like our own Sun, and then evolved into a red giant, which "starts to eject some its material, not like a supernova but a more gradual loss of mass." The stars and their surrounding dust shells - known as the Butterfly Nebula or Bug Nebula or NGC 6302, and Red Spider Nebula or NGC 6537--are falling apart, with gas moving away from each star, cooling down and condensing into dust. The spectra of heat emissions from the dust look like squiggly horizontal lines. Vertical peaks on those lines represent different chemicals that emit heat or infrared light at different wavelengths. Kemper's group identified one specific peak as indicating calcium carbonate was present. Around the two nebulae, "there was a part of the spectrum that was still unexplained," says Kemper, who realized "those peaks could be explained as two carbonates. One was dolomite and the other calcite (limestone)." The discovery was billed as the first detection of carbonates beyond our solar system and the first extrasolar detection of carbonates that could not have formed in the presence of water. Measurements indicated the amount of carbonates around each star exceeded 30 times Earth's mass. If water to make the carbonates had come from planets vaporized by the expanding dying stars, 3,000 or more Earth-sized rocky planets would have been required--an unlikely number of planets to orbit one star. And new planets with water could not yet have formed around the dying stars because only 10,000 years have elapsed since the stars expelled their outer layers, and the dust is not dense enough to form planets, Kemper says. A matter of interpretation Anne Hofmeister, a mineral physicist and spectroscopist at Washington University in St. Louis, questions whether Kemper really detected carbonates around the two old stars. What Kemper's team detected in the stars' spectra "is calcium, but it's not calcium carbonate," and instead probably is the mineral hibonite, or calcium aluminate, Hofmeister says. The single spectral peak identified by Kemper, argues Hofmeister, is scanty evidence for calcium carbonate. The same peak also is seen in the spectrum of hibonite, and Kemper's group did not detect other peaks characteristic of carbonates, she says. Hibonite and other minerals with the same calcium peak as calcium carbonate can condense from hot gas ejected by dying stars, Hofmeister says, so there is no need to invoke the idea of carbonates created without water. Kemper replies that disagreement over whether the peak in the stardust's chemical signature really reveals carbonate boils down to differing laboratory measurements of carbonate spectra. The German spectroscopists who co-authored Kemper's study compared their laboratory carbonate spectra to the patterns from dust around the dying stars. Hofmeister is using different laboratory measurements of carbonate spectra, which look different than those used by Kemper's colleagues. Hofmeister says those differences are minor, and the main problem is that the spectra from the dying stars do not display the other peaks typical of carbonate. Kemper says calcium carbonate was detected based on the single peak because other spectral peaks characteristic of the mineral are not detectable due to the temperature of the dust around the two dying stars. For now, she says, she stands by her interpretation. "Until I've seen and used [Hofmeister's spectra], I will stick with carbonates." Carbonates closer to home Why all the fuss about carbonates around a couple of dying stars light-years away? Because if Kemper truly did detect carbonates around these stars--if carbonates can form in the absence of water-- astronomers may have to rethink their assumptions about the presence of water during the formative stage of our own solar system. Extremely old carbonates have been found in meteorites known as chondrites, which are believed to be primitive leftovers from the solar system's early stages, when huge amounts of swirling gas and dust gradually clumped into progressively larger objects and eventually formed asteroids and planets. Because carbonates were thought to form only in the presence of water, their occurrence in chondrites--which were dated by the decay of radioactive components-- was interpreted to suggest that planet- or asteroid-sized bodies had formed by the time the solar system was a mere 20 million years old, some 4.54 billion years ago. "That scenario may now be due for a revision," the European Space Agency said after publication of Kemper's study. The discovery of carbonates not formed by water, Kemper and her colleagues wrote in their paper in Nature, "suggests that some of the carbonates found in solar system bodies no longer provide direct evidence that liquid water was present on large bodies early in the history of the solar system." But cosmochemist Laurie Leshin isn't so sure. "I have not seen this particular work causing a massive questioning of the [water-based] origin of carbonates in meteorites," she says. Other minerals in the chondrites indicate that water was present in the young solar system, and those minerals formed in association with carbonates, says Leshin, an associate professor of geological sciences and associate director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University. She notes that there also is chemical evidence the carbonates formed from a fluid. The martian connection When Nature published Kemper's discovery of carbonates purportedly produced without water, some news accounts incorrectly said the findings raised doubts that water was involved in the formation of carbonates in martian meteorite ALH84001--a rock that some NASA scientists argue shows evidence of past life on Mars. But Kemper's study said no such thing. She and other experts believe the martian meteorite's carbonates did form in the presence of water. "It was silly [for some news media] to bring the meteorite into it," says geologist David McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at NASA's Johnson Space Center and leader of the team that advocates the hotly disputed notion that ALH84001 harbors evidence of past life on Mars. "There's no connection at all with the carbonates in the meteorite, which are clearly precipitates from water." What's next? Kemper suggests three ways carbonates may form in space without liquid water. Thin ice layers on dust grains in space may move just enough to react with silicates and form carbonates. Or carbonates may condense directly from carbon dioxide and gaseous calcium oxides. Or silicate dust grains react with water vapor to form hydrated silicates, which then react with carbon dioxide to form carbonates. Leshin says conditions in space would not be conducive to those mechanisms, yet "if I was going to make up a list, those are the three I would come up with." Kemper says these three possibilities "should all be investigated in the lab." So far, she is aware of no such experiments, and "it's disappointing. It's clear much more work is needed on this subject, not only in the laboratory. We have to look for astronomical evidence for the presence of carbonates." Leshin agrees. "Understanding the cycle of biogenic elements is a fundamental thing, and carbon is the most biogenic element. It's really important to follow the carbon in all its forms and all its places. So in that sense, it's really important to understand what happens to carbon around old stars, what happens to carbon around young stars. We need to understand how carbon gets incorporated into planets and pre-planets. This is at the forefront of astrobiology." Additional information on this article is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article290.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA ASTROBIOLOGISTS TO STUDY EXTREME LIFE AT EARTH'S HIGHEST LAKE NASA/ARC release 02-109AR 10 October 2002 Scientists from NASA, the SETI Institute and other organizations are preparing to ascend nearly 4 miles to the summit of a dormant volcano in the Chilean Andes to find out how the organisms that live there can survive in the volcano's hostile environment. During October, the scientists will explore several lakes in the region, including the highest freshwater lake in the world, in the caldera of the Licancabur volcano, almost 20,000 feet high. The information they gather will help astrobiologists devise strategies and technologies to search for life on planets like Mars during future missions. "If there was life on Mars 3.5 billion years ago, it could have used defense mechanisms similar to those used by the organisms at Licancabur volcano to survive," said expedition principal investigator Dr. Nathalie Cabrol of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. "This expedition and the follow-up mission in 2003 will provide critical astrobiological information about the limits of life on our planet," Cabrol said. "It also will give us clues about which planets are good candidates to search for life and help in the design of future mission strategies and technologies for exploring ancient martian paleolakes or oceans on Europa." [A moon of Jupiter, Europa is believed by some scientists to contain a subsurface ocean of water.] Although the lake at Licancabur volcano is covered with almost 2 feet of ice during much of the year, the expedition will take place in the southern hemisphere's spring, when the lake is not completely frozen. The researcher-divers will not use oxygen during their dives, but will have oxygen cylinders onboard a nearby dive boat as a backup precaution. The NASA Ames Safety, Environment and Mission Assurance Directorate has conducted an independent review of the Licancabur mission to ensure safety compliance. The site research will answer three questions critical to astrobiology and space exploration, Cabrol explained. How do the organisms there survive in such a low-oxygen, high-ultraviolet radiation environment? What are the limits of life on Earth? Why does the water at the bottom of the volcano's lake remain liquid when most of the lake's surface is frozen much of the year? To find answers to these questions, the scientists plan to study the life forms that live in the lake, such as microorganisms and plankton. These "extremophiles" thrive at Licancabur, one of the most Mars-like analogs on Earth. Another stressor on the life forms at the volcano is low atmospheric pressure, said Cabrol. Because of the volcano's high altitude, the atmospheric pressure is two times lower than at sea level. Researchers also hope to learn how the lake itself survives, given that the volcano is in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. The scientists will dive to the lake's bottom to find some of the answers. The researchers theorize that the lake's water temperature may remain warm at the bottom because of heat transferred from the volcano. "Only by going there will we find out," said Cabrol. Research during the 25-day mission, which begins October 16, will include mapping the crater's geology and topography, surveying the depth, topography and temperature of the lake bottom, characterizing the lake's organisms and testing a two-wheeled Mars mini-rover concept. Samples returned from the lake during the mission will be transferred to a support team of scientists who will begin preliminary analysis in the nearby town of Antofagasta. Most samples, however, will be flown to the United States for testing. Cabrol will give brief interviews from the volcano's summit using a satellite phone during the expedition on October 24 and November 1. Interviews will take place between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM PDT. To arrange an interview, please e-mail Kathleen Burton at kburton@mail.arc.nasa.gov by October 17. The team also includes Dr. Chris McKay and Marcus Murbach of NASA Ames, Drs. Imre Friedman, Edmond Grin, Edna DeVore and Roseli Friedman of NASA Ames and the SETI Institute, Drs. Guillermo Chong, Cecilia Demergasso, Lorena Escudero and Cristian Tambley from the Universidad Catolica del Norte in Antofagasta, Chile, David Fike from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Andrew Hock from the University of California at Los Angeles, Dr. Keeve Kiss from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Isivan Grigorsky from Kossuth Lajos University in Hungary and Brian Grigsby from the Schreder Planetarium. With grant support from NASA, administrative support from the SETI Institute and funding from Project ARISE and the Shasta County Office of Education, the project has established a Web site that will let teachers, students and members of the public take a virtual field trip to Licancabur. Details are available at www.extremeenvironment.com. Project ARISE (Advanced Rural Integrated Science Education) is a federally funded science professional development project for K-12 educators based in Shasta County, CA. Details are available at www.shastalink.k12.ca.us/scoe. The Licancabur expedition is funded primarily by NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA IDEAS (Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science) grant program, an education and outreach public grant program administered by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD. Contacts: Kathleen Burton NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-1731 or 604-9000 E-mail: kburton@mail.arc.nasa.gov Diane Richards SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA Phone: 650-960-4513 E-mail: drichards@seti.org An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-02zp.html. _____________________________________________________________________ CHALLENGES OF LANDING ON ALIEN WORLDS From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=30702 10 October 2002 Three ESA missions are due to send down robotic "space probes" when they arrive at their alien destinations. Since these craft will be going where no one has gone before, how can scientists be sure what it will be like down there? How do you ensure that your spaceprobe is prepared for anything? Experts take every precaution to ensure that these probes will not burn up entering an alien atmosphere, or meet a spectacular, untimely end via a crash landing on inhospitable terrain. These probes expect the worst. For example, the Huygens probe, which is currently on its journey to Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on-board the Cassini spacecraft, can withstand temperatures of up to 18,000 C in the shockwave in front of the heat shield. This is about three times the Sun's surface temperature. Why? The heat generated as Huygens travels through Titan's thick atmosphere will be immense. Jean-Pierre Lebreton, Huygens Project Scientist, says, "Things will get interesting once Cassini draws close to Saturn. We'll get the best views of Saturn and Titan that we ever had. We'll also observe Titan to verify that our models are correct. If we find the atmospheric density is different from what we expected, we could consider slightly changing the angle at which Huygens enters to protect it from overheating or the parachute deploying wrongly. However, late changes may bring new risks." Scientists chose the site for the landing of the Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, very carefully. Isidis Planitia, the chosen site, is largely flat without too many rocks to jeopardize a safe landing. However, Mars's famous planet-wide dust storms were taken into consideration. "Major dust storms are not expected to occur at the time and place of the landing. However, there may be strong lateral winds," says Mars Express Project Scientist Agustin Chicarro. ESA's Rosetta lander, which will be the first man-made object to land on a comet, has another set of challenges altogether. "Firstly, we don't know anything about how rough the surface is," says Rosetta Project Scientist Gerhard Schwehm. "It could be covered with fluffy snow like the Alps or it could be hard rocks and craters. We can, however, be sure that it will not be smooth and flat resembling parking lots." Scientists designed Rosetta's landing gear to cope with most nasty surprises as soon as it touches down on Comet Wirtanen in 2011. Two harpoons will anchor the probe to the surface. The self-adjusting landing gear will ensure that it stays upright, even on a slope. The lander's feet will drill into the ground. These devices will help counteract the fact that there is [virtually] no gravity on a comet. Observations of Mars, Titan, and Comet Wirtanen will continue frantically while the spacecrafts approach their final destination. In this way, scientists will be able to make last-minute adjustments to the timing of the landing. Information from other space missions and ground-based observations will increase scientists' understanding about the targets of the missions. In Rosetta's case, this will help to determine the comet's probable size and speed of rotation. These will help improve our models for comet behavior. However, for Rosetta, they may come too late. "We'll just have to see if the models we're using are good enough" says Schwehm. Useful links for this story More about Huygens http://sci.esa.int/huygens/ More about Mars Express http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress More about Rosetta http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/ More about planned landings http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/ESAZXCZ84UC_FeatureWeek_0.html [http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=1&cid=12 &oid=30702&ooid=26565] Huygens probe descending to Titan's surface. [http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=1&cid=12 &oid=30702&ooid=30212] Dust storms such as these on Mars complicate landings. Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) shows dust storm activity on Mars remained relatively high during the past week. The large (sub-regional) south polar storm continued for several days and then abruptly partitioned into a number of small, local events scattered throughout the antartic. By the end of the week a thin dust haze, the remnants of the south polar storms, enshrouded the entire south polar region reaching as far north as 50 deg S latitude. Concurrent with the south polar dust activity, another "polar cold" front developed in and traversed NW Acidalia, spawning one of the largest northern hemisphere dust storms observed by MOC in 2002. This event persisted for several days, traveling eastward into Deuteronilus Mensae and southward following the low lying topography into Chryse/Xanthe Terra (see "A"). No dust activity was observed to cross the equator. Additional northern storm activity continued along the north polar cap edge in Utopia and Arcadia (see "B"). Water-ice clouds continue to become more frequent, especially near or over all the major volcanoes, forming a thin cover at southern mid-latitudes (see "C"). Under some conditions, dust storm activity warms the atmosphere and inhibits water condensation. However, as noted last week, present atmospheric temperatures and water distributions (probably in the form of diurnally-precipitated frosts that sublime each morning), combined with the slightly dusty atmosphere, appear to favor nucleation of mid-atmospheric (at or slightly above the tropopause) ice clouds. [http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=1&cid=12 &oid=30702&ooid=30199] Rosetta's landing gear. This artist's impression shows the Rosetta Lander anchored to the comet's surface with instruments, legs and solar panels. _____________________________________________________________________ DALTON NAMED ASTROBIOLOGY DEPUTY NASA/ARC release 02-110AR 11 October 2002 NASA Ames Research Center has appointed Bonnie Dalton as deputy director for the Astrobiology and Space Research Directorate. She most recently served as acting chief of the NASA Ames Life Sciences Division. Dalton started her career at NASA Ames in 1963 as a bacteriologist. She has made significant contributions to the life sciences program in several capacities, as payload manager for Spacelab missions, branch chief for the Science Payload Operations Branch, and deputy division chief and division chief (acting) for the Life Sciences Division. She has played a key role in the development of requirements and budgets for Ames' participation in the International Space Station. In addition, she has focused the division's research on molecular biology and the use of both hypergravity and artificial microgravity to understand the elemental forces controlling the protein structures and subsequent biological systems, along with expanding the division's biotechnology and nanotechnology capabilities and applications. Dalton has a master's degree in microbiology from Montana State University, and an MBA in management and finance from Golden Gate University. Contact: Victoria Steiner Phone: 650/604-0176 E-mail: vsteiner@mail.arc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE CONGRATULATES ANOTHER NOBEL PRIZE WINNER NASA/ARC release 02-110AR 11 October 2002 Dr. Sydney Brenner, who previously advised the director of NASA Ames Research Center in the early stages of developing the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), has been awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Brenner shares the award with H. Robert Horvitz and John E. Sulston. Their work on C. elegans, a small (1 mm) worm, proved it to be a novel experimental model organism. "The Laureates have identified key genes regulating organ development and programmed cell death and have shown that corresponding genes exist in higher species, including man. The discoveries are important for medical research and have shed new light on the pathogenesis of many diseases," said the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. Brenner has served as a member of the distinguished NAI Director's Science Council from the time of its establishment by Director Baruch Blumberg. Contact: Kathleen Burton Phone: 650-604-1731 E-mail: kburton@mail.arc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ STATION RESIDENT WHITSON DESCRIBES LIFE IN ORBIT By William Harwood From CBS News "SPACE PLACE" and Spaceflight Now 13 October 2002 Astronaut Peggy Whitson, 130 days into a planned 167-day stay in space, says getting calluses on the tops of her feet, relying on her Russian commander to cut her hair and losing her taste for her favorite Earth food--shrimp--are par for the course when it comes to living in space. All in all, Whitson said today, she's having a blast. "I am having a great time up here, it is fun to live here and to do the science," she said. "And as long as I am busy, I'm quite happy to stay." "I do miss my family, I miss my husband and my friends, but it's really great having e-mail, our KU [-band satellite] phone system is great and it allows me to feel like I'm keeping in touch. So I'm doing all right and I'm quite happy to wait" for the shuttle Endeavour's arrival in November to bring her home. Get the full story at http://spaceflightnow.com/station/sts112/021013whitson/. _____________________________________________________________________ WHEN DID LIFE ON EARTH BEGIN? ASK A ROCK By David Tenenbaum From Astrobiology Magazine 14 October 2002 Does the first evidence of life date to 3.85 billion years ago (Ga), or 3.65 Ga? A 200-million-years discrepancy may seem trivial almost 4 billion years after the fact. And yet scientists continue to debate whether some of the oldest rocks ever found date to 3.85 Ga, or "just" 3.65 Ga. The discrepancy matters because the rocks, however old they are, indicate that life already existed at the time they formed. The dispute is not just a matter of how early life began, however, but under what conditions. The earlier date was during the tail end of an asteroid storm called the "late heavy bombardment," while the later date was after the bombardment ceased. For astrobiology, the issue could hardly have greater weight. What conditions allowed life to emerge? How quickly after the planet coalesced from primordial dust and gas did chemicals organize themselves into self-replicating, evolving systems--into life? And what evidence of that early life would remain after billions of years? The debate concerns samples of graphite--a form of carbon used in pencil leads--from the snowy, barren wastes of western Greenland. In 1979, German geologist Manfred Schidlowski first argued that ratios of carbon isotopes from the rocks were a relic of organic matter. The issue has been contested with renewed vigor since 1996, when Stephen Mojzsis, a geologist at the University of Colorado, published a study of microscopic samples of carbon from the same area. The samples were found in black, fine-grained, highly deformed rocks that started out as ocean-floor sediments. Marine sediments receive a continual rain of matter--both organic and inorganic--from the water, so they are a good place to look for the remains of past life. The debate over the sediments has two parts. What is the evidence for life? And how old are the rocks containing it? Rocks of this age are not likely to contain conventional fossils--to date, the oldest undisputed fossils appear in rocks from 3.2 Ga. Fossils in older rocks would have long since been destroyed by eons of heat, pressure and deformation. In searching for the oldest life, Mojzsis observes, "You have to look to the chemical record, on the principle that life changes the chemistry of its surroundings in a predictable way." The chemical record of ancient life, found in so-called "chemofossils," is reflected in the ratio of isotopes, with carbon being particularly useful. Carbon exists in nature in more than one form. Normally, carbon-13 (C-13, with atomic weight 13), is much rarer than C-12. However, biological processes concentrate C-12, so when organic debris falls to the ocean floor, the C-12 to C-13 ratio rises still further in the sedimentary rock that forms. That ratio is preserved even in rocks that formed billions of years ago. The percentage differences are small, but distinctive, says Craig Manning, a geologist at the University of California at Los Angeles. "In the modern world, the only way you can generate such a high ratio of carbon-12 relative to carbon-13 is if some sort of fractionation [or preferential use of carbon-12] occurs in living organisms." Manning, who helped map Akilia Island, Greenland, where the possible 3.85 Ga sediments were found, says ancient life is "the simplest explanation" for their carbon ratios. The isotopic evidence may be ancient and subtle, but it's convincing to John Valley, a professor of geology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has a lot of experience dating ancient rocks. High C-12 to C-13 ratios, he says, "when present in sufficient quantity, are very strong evidence of organic activity, although I don't use the word 'proof.'" But do the rocks that held the carbon really date to 3.85 Ga? Rock of sedimentary origin cannot be dated directly. However, it's possible to deduce a minimum age by dating any igneous "intrusions" that have cut through the sedimentary rock. These intrusions can be dated by the presence within them of crystals called zircons. And because the intrusions were deposited after the sedimentary rock, knowing the age of the zircons gives a minimum age of the sedimentary rock. Geochronologists depend on zircons. Mojzsis, for example, calls them "nature's timekeepers." Zircons crystallize from molten igneous rock as it cools. When they first crystallize, zircons contain uranium, a radioactive element that slowly decays to lead. But until the decay process begins, lead is absent. Because all the lead they now contain originally must have been uranium, the ratio of uranium to lead reflects the time since the zircons formed--since the igneous rock cooled. Thomas Krogh, who helped develop the uranium-lead zircon dating method at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, says that even if the zircons are reheated, as happened at least once to the Greenland samples, they retain a "memory" of the first crystallization. Even more than 3.5 billion years later, uranium-lead dating is accurate to within a few million years, Krogh adds. But because the Greenland rocks were severely deformed during billions of years of geologic turmoil, their age sequence--which rocks were laid down first, which later--is confusing. Obviously, accurate zircon dating can help determine the age of the sedimentary rocks only if the age relationship of the various rocks is known accurately. During summer, 2000, Manning, Mojzsis and Mark Harrison of UCLA performed a detailed survey of Akilia Island. "All the previous claims were based on an old kind of mapping," Manning says. "You [can't] just stand there with notebook and sketch what you see. Given the magnitude of the claims, it was extremely important to lay out a grid and map at more detailed scale." After two weeks of mapping, he says, "We did discover a good crosscutting relationship" among the rocks. The 3.85 Ga figure, he adds, "is indisputable, as far as we're concerned." This new research has been submitted for publication. While Manning, Mojzsis and Krogh all think the 3.85 Ga age is correct, Stephen Moorbath, a geologist at Oxford University contends that the rocks were most likely deposited about 3.65 to 3.70 Ga. This more recent dating would explain the absence of the element iridium--rare on Earth but common in asteroids--or any other signs of asteroid impacts, such as surface turbulence. Due to the paucity of evidence, the detailed interpretation of life from ancient samples may always remain controversial, yet the very existence of samples moves the discussion of ancient life from the realm of speculation and theory into the realm of experimentation. In other words, says Mojzsis, it enters the realm of science. "The geological record of Earth is the baseline from which we can investigate evidence of past environments on any other planet. On Earth, we call a spacecraft a Toyota Land Cruiser, and a sample return mission can return hundreds of kilograms to the world's best labs." Ancient zircons, he adds, "are intrinsically exciting because they help us understand the early Earth. These studies provide an important feature for any scientific discussion: data." Additional information on this article is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article293.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/oldest_life_0210 14.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 14 October 2002 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html R. R. Britt, 2002. Shadow moons: the unknown sub-worlds that might harbor life. Space.com. National Research Council, 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html NASA Ames Research Center, 2002. Astrobiologists to study extreme life at Earth's highest lake. SpaceDaily. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html R. R. Britt, 2002. What do we say when we get to Mars? Offer your ideas. Space.com. W. Harwood, 2002. Station resident Whitson describes life in orbit. Spaceflight Now and CBS News. University of Houston, 2002. Texas spaceports, Mars colonies on drawing board at UH. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html L. J. Siegel, 2002. Looking for carbonates in dry places. Astrobiology Magazine. D. Tenenbaum, 2002. When did life on earth begin? Ask a rock. Astrobiology Magazine. Planetary protection articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s6.html SpaceDaily, 2002. Small asteroid impacts may occur less frequently than expected. SpaceDaily. Astrobiology and extreme environments book list http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology_b ooks.htm National Research Council, 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 3-9 October 2002 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, October 9. 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://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/. This week the Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) completed a three day activity to test the amount of heating caused by various amounts of sunlight on the CIRS radiator. A Beta Gru observation was performed with the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument prime, with CIRS and the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) riding along. The star Beta Gru is one of the stars that VIMS will lock on and track for ring particle occultation studies. Spectral characteristics and signal level will be recorded at several integration times in order to correctly set the real occultation observation instrument parameters. In addition, ISS and Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument teams performed an observation of the White Dwarf HZ43. VIMS also performed a Geometric Calibration with ISS riding along. The full 64 X 64 pixel VIMS field of view was used for the Geometric Calibration studies of the Pleiades star cluster. The acquired images are used to correct for optical distortion in the instrument, and to construct an algorithm to be applied to the images to geometrically correct the VIMS field of view. Quick look processing of the data from these observations has been completed. A preliminary analysis of the ISS images showed the haze anomaly has not returned. Additional instrument activities included a RADAR Radiometric Calibration, Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver Calibration and high rate cyclic, uplink of an RPWS flight software patch, and uplink of a Cassini Plasma Spectrometer Actuator command file. Science Planning reported that the Science Planning Team (SPT) development process for C36 would be cancelled since this sequence is exclusively in support of the CDS/ACS flight software checkout period. During this time there are no planned science activities. The next SPT cruise development process is scheduled to start in December for C37. The tour Science Operations Plan (SOP) implementation of sequences S13/S14 began this week. The process to be used has a shorter development schedule compared to S09/S10 and S11/S12. The development schedule is 60 workdays instead of the 72 workdays used for the previous development activities. The Spacecraft Operations office held their Monthly Management Review for flight software and critical sequence development. The Cassini Archive Coordinator and two Planetary Data System (PDS) node representatives visited the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado to meet with the ISS Team Leader and staff. Discussions covered archiving and E-kernel requirements. The meetings were very successful. The ISS Team Leader now has an excellent understanding of the development needed to provide E-kernel inputs, and to produce a PDS archive. Uplink Operations (ULO) distributed a proposal for how prime-rider instrument coordination might be facilitated in the Cassini Information Management System (CIMS). The proposal will be reviewed with the distributed science teams and other CIMS users at the CIMS Working Group meeting next week. ULO also presented a proposal for Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) D9.0 and D9.0.1 delivery content at both the System Engineering Round Table and the Instrument Operations Working Group. D9.0.1 will include Science Opportunity Analyzer tool, items on the Pointing Design Tool requirements list, the suspend SID flight rule Engineering Change Request, targeting rocks, enhancements to ODD, and other miscellaneous fixes. Everything else currently scheduled for D9.0 will remain in D9.0, including the implementation of the new CIRS and VIMS flight rules in PDT. The proposal was accepted and is the new MSS baseline. Coding and acceptance testing has been completed for MSS D8.0.4. The software has now moved on to system test. The Delivery Coordination Meeting is scheduled for the end of October. Delivery coordination meetings (DCM) were held for Command Database V9a, and Cassini Operational Reference Encyclopedia (CORE) V3.0. The Command Database V9a is specifically to be used in the Integrated Test Laboratory for Probe relay critical sequence testing. V9b is to be delivered later this year for use with MSS D9.0. CORE V3.0 is the replacement of REALITY, a web-based tool to provide access to the command and telemetry dictionaries as well as the Flight Rule information. RPWS delivered their flight software version 2.6 to the Project Software Library. A Software Requirements Certification Review and DCM will be held later in the month. A draft schedule and list of attendees for 18 Cassini specific training classes was released this week. Classes are scheduled to coincide with the Project Science Group meetings later this month. Mission Assurance participated in a joint JPL/Aerospace Corporation Risk Management Workshop. These are an on-going series of monthly workshops, being conducted to advance the practice of Risk Management. Discussion during this workshop centered on developing a storyboard for risk management and looking for common threads among implementers. Cassini Outreach hosted an online training for 43 members of the Solar System Ambassador Program. The training focused on the Saturn Tour. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. _____________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 7-13 October 2002 The summer has flown by, and there is now less than a month until Galileo makes its final fly-by of the mission, a close encounter with Jupiter's small inner satellite Amalthea, on November 5. As the pace of activity picks up, both on the spacecraft and on the ground, the pace of these reports now returns to weekly. The flight team is now hard at work putting the finishing touches on the activity sequence for the encounter, and planning for contingency actions. The harsh environment near Jupiter has upset our plans in the past, and we are relying on our 12 years of experience with the spacecraft, and our anticipation of the worst that Jupiter can throw at us, to shore up any vulnerability in our plans. On Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5, a test was performed to verify a method of maintaining Galileo's knowledge of its position and spin rate deep within Jupiter's high radiation environment. High radiation levels interfere with the star scanner, which uses the positions of bright stars to determine Galileo's attitude and position. To counter this effect, Galileo's attitude control computer is told to "hibernate" for several hours, allowing it to continue reporting pointing and spin rate of the spacecraft without relying on either the star scanner or its radiation-sensitive gyros. On Friday, October 11, Galileo performs the last update to its orientation prior to the encounter. This is a fairly large turn in place of slightly over 9 degrees, to keep the communications antenna pointed towards Earth, and simultaneously to orient the spacecraft to take the best advantage of the geometry of the flyby for the measurements to be taken by the Fields and Particles instruments. The spacecraft will remain at this orientation until the end of planned mission operations in mid-January 2003. Ongoing activities for the spacecraft include maintaining the condition of the on-board tape recorder and continued data collection by the Dust Detector, the Magnetometer, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer instruments. 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 SCIENCE OPERATIONS STATUS NASA/MSFC release 02-254 9 October 2002 Science operations aboard the International Space Station this week were geared toward the docking today of Space Shuttle Atlantis, with three new experiments scheduled for transfer to the Station and four completed experiments to be ferried back to Earth. The exchange of scientific experiments represents research in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, agriculture, petroleum processing and pharmaceuticals. Scheduled for transfer to the Station this week are: the Plant Growth Bioprocessing Apparatus (PGBA), the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA), the Protein Crystal Growth Single-locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES), and fresh samples for the Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG) experiment. PGBA will investigate the effects of microgravity on plant structures. CGBA will serve as a refrigerator to stabilize biological samples from PGBA for post-flight analyses. PCG-STES, which has flown on Expeditions Two and Four, will again provide a temperature-controlled environment for growing high-quality crystals of selected proteins that could yield insights in the fields of medicine and agriculture. ZCG will continue to process zeolite crystals, which are used on Earth in petroleum manufacturing and are being studied for future applications in energy storage, electronics and more. Returning to Earth with Atlantis on this mission are soybean plants grown in the Advanced Astroculture experiment, PCG-STES protein crystals for analysis, experimental capsules for drug delivery from the Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing experiment, liver cell tissue samples cultured in the StelSys experiment, and Zeolite Crystal Growth experiment samples processed during the mission. Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson and the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI) science team completed the fifth experiment run on Sunday and a sixth experiment run on Monday in a research program to learn more about how bubbles can weaken materials such as those used in semiconductors and jet engine turbine blades. Also on Monday, Whitson collected a gas sample from the growth chamber of the ADVASC experiment in preparation for deactivation and the return to Earth. With the Shuttle safely on its way, Whitson also on Monday began preparing the zeolite crystal samples for return. Selected crewmembers on Monday filled out their weekly Crew Interactions survey on the Human Research Facility laptop computer. Interactions is a computer-based questionnaire intended to identify and characterize important interpersonal and cultural factors that may affect the performance of the crew and ground support personnel during Station missions. On Tuesday, the crew conducted pre-spacewalk readings on the EVA Radiation Monitoring (EVARM) badges. The badges, which will be used in this week's scheduled spacewalks, are designed to be worn in pockets in the cooling undergarments of the U.S. spacesuits and measure radiation dosages received by specific parts of the body during operations outside the Station. Crew Earth Observation photography targets for this week included Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Khartoum, Sudan, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; the lower Amazon River Basin; Caracas, Venezuela; the Tuamotu Archipelago in the Pacific; and Monterrey, Mexico. The crew continued its daily payload status checks of automated science payloads to make sure that all experiments and payload facilities continue to operate properly. Research operations aboard the Station last week slowed after NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston shut down Wednesday in the face of a threat from Hurricane Lili and transferred control to its Backup Control Center in Moscow. During that period, high-rate data downlink from the Station was not available, and the Station's solar arrays were fixed. As a result, power to some Station payloads was reduced by the Payload Operations Center in Huntsville, AL. The Operations Center returned to normal operations on Friday after Mission Control was reactivated. The Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, manages all science research experiment operations aboard the International Space Station. The center is also home for coordination of the mission-planning work of a variety of international sources, all science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and payload safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel. Contact: Steve Roy Media Relations Department Phone: 256-544-0034 Steve.Roy@msfc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 7-11 October 2002 Winter in Hellas Basin (Released 7 October 2002 http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021007a.html Western Arabia Terra (Released 8 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-200210088888888a.html Cydonia Landscape (Released 9 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021009a.html Henry Crater (Released 10 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021010a.html Arcadia Planitia (Released 11 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021011a.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. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen 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 11 October 2002 Stardust had three periods of radio contact through JPL's Deep Space Network this week. The spacecraft is in good health and is continuing to collect interstellar particles. Heaters for the Navigation Camera's light-sensing electronics and mirror motor and were turned on for 3 days to remove a very slight contamination that built up during a year-long period in which the camera was not used. Additional star images were taken, including some through the periscope, to continue to characterize the camera's performance. A trajectory correction maneuver was completed successfully on October 9th. The spacecraft has a sequence of procedures to perform during its comet encounter. Many successful tests of the encounter sequence have been performed in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory. The encounter sequence includes an updated way of calculating how to track the comet nucleus, based on lessons learned during the Deep Space 1 spacecraft's encounter with comet Borrelly last year. This updated software worked successfully in the simulated encounters, including one case in which it commanded the spacecraft to perform a 7-degree roll turn to continue tracking the nucleus. 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 38.