MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 9, Number 39, 21 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) THE MARS INSTITUTE: A NEW RESOURCE FOR A NEW CENTURY OF MARS EXPLORATION Mars Institute release 2) PHYSICIST FRED ADAMS TACKLES THE BIG QUESTIONS IN ORIGINS OF EXISTENCE University of Michigan release 3) HUNGRY ASTRONAUTS GROW COSMIC BEANS By Richard Stenger 4) AT THAT STAR, TURN LEFT! From ESA Science News 5) CONCERTED EVOLUTION From Astrobiology Magazine 6) TITAN - KEY TO EARTH'S EVOLUTION? By Emma Bakes 7) EARTH ROCKS ON THE MOON By Ron Koczor 8) RUSSIAN SPACE OFFICIAL: HUMANS TO MARS AS PRIORITY By Leonard David 9) WHAT'S LIVING IN THE WORLD'S HIGHEST LAKE? By Henry Bortman 10) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 11) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 12) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 13) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION Science Operations Status Report NASA/MSFC release 02-261 14) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 15) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS NASA/JPL releases _____________________________________________________________________ THE MARS INSTITUTE: A NEW RESOURCE FOR A NEW CENTURY OF MARS EXPLORATION Mars Institute release http://www.marsinstitute.info/about/release-101502.html 15 October 2002 Members of the founding Board of Directors of the Mars Institute formally unveiled the new organization today at the World Space Congress. The Mars Institute is a California-based nonprofit corporation whose stated purpose is to further the scientific study, exploration, and public understanding of Mars. The Institute intends to: * develop, implement and support high quality peer-reviewed scientific research about the planet Mars, its present nature, and its climatic, geologic and possibly biologic evolution, including through investigations of similarities and differences between the Earth, Mars and other planets; * analyze, develop and implement concepts, technologies and strategies for the exploration of Mars, by robotic systems and humans; * inform the public on the results, progress, and benefits to humankind of Mars exploration through the development and implementation of educational and public outreach activities. A new century of scientific knowledge and exploration of Mars has begun, with the current planning and prospect of many new missions to be launched to the Red Planet. The Mars Institute was created to respond to this opportunity and, out of a need strongly felt by its initiators, to establish an independent nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is to focus on advancing the scientific study and exploration of Mars, with a central commitment to conducting high quality peer-reviewed research, and on sharing knowledge and experiences of Mars exploration with students and the general public worldwide. The Mars Institute will strive to provide leadership as the premier international non-governmental organization for the peaceful advancement of these goals. The Mars Institute's founding Board of Directors includes Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute, Dr. Charles Cockell of the British Antarctic Survey, and Mr. Marc Boucher of SpaceRef Interactive, Inc. "The exploration of Mars is one of the most exciting combined scientific, technical, and public-inspiring challenges of our time. It is fitting that an international organization be dedicated to advancing Mars research and the peaceful exploration of our planetary neighbor", said Lee. The Mars Institute will build in particular on Lee's research experience as Principal Investigator of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project. "Every time humanity has embarked on a new path of scientific research and exploration, the need for an organization to focus on meeting the new scientific and technical challenges that appear, and on communicating the results of these efforts, has arisen. Such was the case for the exploration of Earth's oceans, its moon, and other frontiers. Now, with the founding of the Mars Institute, the same can be said for the exploration of Mars", said Boucher. Today, the Mars Institute also unveiled its inaugural Board of Advisors. Mars Institute Advisors provide independent advice to the Board of Directors on a wide variety of matters concerning the development and implementation of Mars science, exploration, and education and public outreach. Emeritus Advisors Audouin Dollfus, Ph.D., Observatoire de Paris-Meudon Frank Drake, Ph.D., Chairman, SETI Institute Science and Exploration Advisors Stephen Braham, Ph.D., Simon Fraser University David Crown, Ph.D., Planetary Science Institute Stephen J. Hoffman, Ph.D., Science Application International Corporation Jeffrey E. Moersch, Ph.D., University of Tennessee Michael Sims, Ph.D., NASA Ames Research Center Peter Smith, University of Arizona Steven W. Squyres, Ph.D., Cornell University Carol Stoker, Ph.D., NASA Ames Research Center Peter C. Thomas, Ph.D., Cornell University Outreach Advisor Kim Stanley Robinson, M.A., Author Student Advisors Darlene Lim, Ph.D. Candidate, Univeristy of Toronto Paul Wooster, Undergraduate, M.I.T. The Mars Institute will be managed on a day to day basis by Mr. Marc Boucher, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Dr. Pascal Lee serves as Chairman of the Board, and Dr. Charles Cockell is the Institute's Vice-President. The Mars Institute is currently pursuing a 5 Year Development Plan (2003-2007) which will guide the Institute's initial development and create a solid basis for its future growth. The Mars Institute will be funded through both public and private sources. For more information, visit http://www.marsinstitute.info. Contacts: Marc Boucher, CEO Phone: 250-213-7832 Pascal Lee, Chairman Phone: 408-666-2001 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-02g.html. _____________________________________________________________________ PHYSICIST FRED ADAMS TACKLES THE BIG QUESTIONS IN ORIGINS OF EXISTENCE University of Michigan release 15 October 2002 University of Michigan astrophysicist Fred Adams is a world-renowned theorist on star and planet formation whose ideas have influenced a generation of thinkers. His quick intellect, a gift for explaining complex, abstract phenomena in everyday language and a lively teaching style that has captivated U-M students for more than a decade has been recognized by the University, which awarded him two Excellence in Education Awards and most recently a Faculty Recognition Award. Adams is believed to have been the first to compute accurate spectra of the planet-forming disks around newborn stars wrote the definitive review article that chronicles the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects. His groundbreaking first book, The Five Ages of the Universe, co-authored with Greg Laughlin, has been translated into eight languages. It established five eras of the universe, from the inflationary epoch during its first 10-35 seconds to its far future. In his new book, Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe (The Free Press), Adams offers a new perspective on how the laws of physics created everything, including life in the universe. Among other startling ideas, the book argues that life began inside our planet, not on its surface--and that the universe exists in a forest of universes in space-time. One of science's new discoveries is that organisms did not originate in a primordial soup in a pond on the earth's surface, but rather deep inside the planet. This makes sense, Adams says, because primordial Earth was being constantly bombarded with explosions about 3,000 times more powerful than a global nuclear war. The only safe place was down deep. Adams discusses how a handful of physical laws resulted in the big bang, the formation of galaxies and the creation of stars within them, to solar systems with planets such as earth. This hierarchy of creation, he argues, was absolutely necessary for all the tiny chemical structures and vast celestial landscapes required for life to emerge-and also defined what type of life did emerge. In seven chapters, Adams takes the reader from the general subjects of physics and the universe to the appearance of life on Earth, showing how energy flowed, exploded and was harnessed in replicating structures that eventually became organisms. Adams discusses how the evolution of the universe followed a clear path toward the emergence of life and the question of whether we are alone in the universe. Life wasn't a lucky break, he says, but the result of physical laws that we can discover and understand. Origins of Existence is a main selection of the Astronomy Book Club and an alternate selection of the Library of Science. Editors: Origins of Existence will be published on October 24. For a review copy, contact Amy Heller at 212-698-7160 or amy.heller@simonandschuster.com. Adams can be contacted at 734-647 4320 or fca@umich.edu. Contact: Judy Steeh Phone: 734-647-3099 E-mail: jsteeh@umich.edu An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-02zq.html. _____________________________________________________________________ HUNGRY ASTRONAUTS GROW COSMIC BEANS By Richard Stenger From CNN 15 October 2002 When visiting the International Space Station, better one should come bearing gifts, in particular fresh edible treats for station residents weary of bland, processed foods. When the space shuttle Atlantis arrived last week, commander Jeff Ashby did just last, radioing space station resident Peggy Whitson to make sure she knew he was bringing salsa. "OK, we'll let you in then," joked Whitson, who had been gulping down freeze-dried and canned grub since her arrival in June. In fact, Ashby and his crew brought along a whole smorgasbord of promised goodies, including oranges, grapefruits, garlic and pecan pie. But someday explorers living in space for extended periods might not need perishable care packages. They will instead grow their own veggies. Atlantis, besides delivering groceries, will return home this week with an experimental food crop grown in the station's science laboratory. NASA hopes its cultivation of the cosmic beans will lead to the development of a miniature food farm unit in space, informally dubbed the "salad machine." Get the full story at http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/10/15/cosmic.beans/index.html. _____________________________________________________________________ AT THAT STAR, TURN LEFT! From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=13&cid=36&oid=30768 16 October 2002 Our bodies contain proteins that are made of smaller molecules that can be either left- or right-handed, depending upon their structure. Regardless of which hand we use to write, however, all human beings are "left-handed" at the molecular level. Life on Earth uses the left-handed variety and no one knows how this preference crept into living systems. In 2012, ESA's Rosetta lander will land on a comet to investigate, among other things, if the origin of this preference lies in the stars. Living cells use tiny organic molecules, called amino acids, to build proteins in the same way as children build things out of Lego bricks. Most amino acids come in two mirror-image varieties, right- and left- handed. The arrangement of the thumb and four fingers on a left hand is the mirror image of the arrangement on the right. In amino acids, the arrangement of the atoms determines whether the molecule is left- or right-handed. Uwe Meierhenrich, at the University of Bremen, Germany, thinks that the Earth's early supply of amino acids came from space, carried by comets. He is part of a European team who reproduced the way organic molecules form in space, to try to understand what the Rosetta lander might find on Comet Wirtanen in 2012. At a laboratory in Leiden, The Netherlands, they lowered the temperature of a chamber to -261°C, pumped out the air, and injected a rarefied mixture of molecules known to exist in space: water, ammonia, and simple carbon molecules. These molecules froze onto artificial dust grains inside the chamber. They then shined an ultraviolet lamp onto the samples, to simulate starlight. "Our aim was to simulate interstellar conditions as accurately as possible. We did not adapt the conditions to produce amino acids," says Meierhenrich. Using a version of Rosetta's Cometary Sampling and Composition (COSAC) experiment, they found newly formed right- and left-handed amino acids in equal quantities. Earthly life, however, uses only left-handed amino acids. Experiments during the 1950s showed that adding right-handed amino acids to proteins stopped the proteins from growing. Was Earth supplied with more left-handed amino acids than right-handed ones in the beginning, allowing life to begin? One famous study has suggested this. Meierhenrich says, "The excess (of left-handed amino acids) found in the Murcheson meteorite is really small and some of the analyses are controversial. Rosetta will give us a much clearer picture." Some scientists think the key to creating an excess of left over right is in the type of ultraviolet light that shines on the amino acids. When ultraviolet starlight strikes dust grains, it can begin to twist--either clockwise or anticlockwise. Depending on the direction in which it is twisting, it destroys one handedness of amino acid more than the other. In 1998, an international group of astronomers discovered large amounts of "twisty" light occurring naturally in the dusty cocoons of some young stars, where planets might be forming. "I think this is the most probable origin of the excesses," says Meierhenrich who is now using a Paris Laboratory where scientists can twist ultraviolet light to recreate these conditions. We may well find that Rosetta's findings on Comet Wirtanen reliably indicate that our molecular left-handedness is indeed a legacy of the stars. More about Rosetta http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/ [Image 1] http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12 &oid=30768&ooid=26283 Are organic molecules in space also left-handed? [Image 2] http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12 &oid=30768&ooid=30778 Simulated comet dust particles, each consisting of a rocky core, coated with a layer of yellow organic material and surrounded by an ice mantle consisting of condensed gases. The yellow material is formed when the ices are irradiated by ultraviolet light. [Image 3] http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12 &oid=30768&ooid=27694 Rosetta's lander will land on Comet Wirtanen. Astrium/Erik Viktor. _____________________________________________________________________ CONCERTED EVOLUTION From Astrobiology Magazine 16 October 2002 When astrobiologist and Professor Emeritus, David Deamer, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, discusses "How Did it all Begin?", his lecture starts with a mythical voyage through the cultural references that inevitably shape our view of other worlds. "Movies are the myths of late-20th century western culture. Because of the power of films like ET to capture our imagination, we are more likely than past generations to accept the possibility that life exists elsewhere in our galaxy." Indeed among cultural references, no single exchange between another galactic civilization and Earth stands out like the musical exchanges that resonated in one of the first such popular films, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". For its dramatic closing, music became a universal form of complex communication that transcended the otherwise untranslatable language barrier. Music is part of the tentative terrestrial messages for science as well. When a quarter- century ago, the Voyager probes carried outwards the symbols of terrestrial civilization on a golden record, the mixture of choices available to the scientific community at that time included images, music and languages. The languages--more than 55 in all--welcomed any listener to Earth. Spoken greetings ranged from ancient Akkadian to modern Wu. The music ranged from Chuck Berry to Bach. And the images included a mixture of scientific motifs, like DNA, solar systems, and human anatomy. But the early Voyager efforts predated much of the startling advances in genetics. When Voyager launched in 1977, the DNA helix was known but no complete organism on Earth was even close to being sequenced. Today, that is where David Deamer has applied the current science of DNA to craft a new and surprisingly musical message. His work with musicians has spawned a new genre in music, where DNA sequences are given musical notes, and encoded for both our listening, as well as what might provide a fitting transmission to accompany the DNA helix first sent out on the Voyager record. Crafting Beethoven's Fifth in four base pairs When Professor Deamer saw the first portion of a repeating sequence of about 300 bases found throughout all the DNA of the human body, he reported seeing it as resembling musical notations: C-T-G-G-G-C-G-T- G-G-T-G-G-C-T-C-A-C-A-C-C-T-G-T-A-A-T-C-C-C. The letters stand for base-pairs or DNA subunits that pair up with their opposing (G-C, T- A) molecules to form the familiar DNA helix. He wrote: "When a colleague showed me this sequence (which had just been discovered in his laboratory), the first thought that came to mind was that it could almost be musical notation. There were the notes of C (cytosine), G (guanine), and A (adenine), which represent three of the four bases found in DNA. If T, the symbol for the fourth base (thymine), were transposed into the note E, we would have four musical notes that fit nicely into the key of C... Could there really be a musical message in our genes?" Test tube cymbals Professor Deamer's curiousity is shared by colleagues at the University of Wales. When the Welsh Computer Science Department first published a program to analyze DNA musically, Dr. Ross King noted in the London Times that "proteins are beautiful and similar to music in structure--neither completely repetitive nor completely random". The question of a genetic musical message is indeed central to an entire evolutionary debate aptly called "Concerted Evolution". Each organism has a DNA structure wrapped into larger blocks or chromosomes, and those chromosomes--23 pairs for humans--have very few superficial similarities. The length differences alone can span 700% from shortest to longest sequences. At first glance, these differences suggest that the chromosomes evolved independently of each other. But a larger statistical analysis--akin to musical analysis-- is only now beginning to reveal remarkable similarities, which in turn suggest that a kind of concerted evolution, or even common ancestral molecules, might have a role to play in how DNA evolved. If one chromosome was duplicated and slightly modified from another, then subsequently evolved in a similar cellular environment, some statistical history should be discernable. The debate itself is only possible with the large number of whole organisms now sequenced in genetic libraries. Because of the complexity of a single strand of DNA, scientists have long sought new ways to compare and communicate such complex information. Whether among colleagues or the distant neighbors that might read the original Voyager DNA helix, the message is often cryptic. [For instance, if all the DNA in one human cell could be arranged and straightened out as a single strand, it would measure about 1.5 meters long. And comparing the trillions of cells in a single person makes for astronomical dimensions]. So code visualization has reached a stage of statistical sophistication that rivals what even the most well-tuned music critic might disassemble from a long sequence of contrasting notes. But what has become clear from such complex analysis is that not only do chromosomes have a kind of concerted evolution (statistical similarities), but also they have the same similarities that one expects in good music. This kind of correlation is often called a fractal spectrum, meaning that it shares features apparent when viewed across narrow statistical windows as well as broad segments. What's next? For audiophiles who share an interest in astrobiology, there are a number of forthcoming missions and opportunities to listen in. In 2007 the French NetLander mission will feature what is called the Mars Microphone, to transmit back to Earth the sounds from the surface of the Red Planet. Meanwhile, a quarter-century journey by the Voyager probes continues to carry both greetings in the languages of many terrestrial civilizations, as well as images of DNA. See related musical source links for converted annotations, including mobile phone ringtones for DNA. Additional information on this story is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article295.html. _____________________________________________________________________ TITAN - KEY TO EARTH'S EVOLUTION? By Emma Bakes From Space.com 17 October 2002 ...Within the tenuous nebulosities of the interstellar medium may lay the building blocks of life--amino acids. My work has focused on this and, of course, on the universal presence of carbon, the basis of terrestrial life. Carbon forms the basis of terrestrial photopigments like chlorophyll, which helped to kick start the oxygenated atmosphere in the early Earth. It also forms the backbone of amino acids. If amino acids are present throughout our galaxy, then it is likely they are a universal phenomenon. This has profound ramifications for proving the potential universality of life based on these compounds. Indeed, it appears that tiny amounts of amino acids cocooned in the safe haven of icy interstellar dust grains can survive in the hostile regions between the stars. In pursuit of further answers to the question of the origins of life, I steered my research inwards, to our own solar system. I focused on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, well known as a prebiotic parallel to the atmosphere of early Earth. Could Titan hold the answer about the kind of chemistry that fuelled the evolution of life on the early Earth? It appears that Titan holds abundant and tantalizing clues, its dark organic haze holding the promise of life bearing chemistry. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_titan_bakes_021017.html. _____________________________________________________________________ EARTH ROCKS ON THE MOON By Ron Koczor From NASA Science News 18 October 2002 People worry a lot about asteroids. Although the odds of Earth being hit by a big one are slim, the consequences are terrifying: tsunamis, climate change, even mass extinction. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often. Four billion years ago it happened all the time. Our planet was still young and the inner solar system was littered with asteroid- sized "planetesimals," the leftover building blocks of planets. Planetesimals, some big and some small, hit Earth every single day. This so-called "Period of Heavy Bombardment" (or PHB) lasted from about 4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago--a span that couldn't have been pleasant for terrestrial life. Earth's early pounding was one of the topics discussed this month when experts and students from around the world met at "Perspectives in Astrobiology," a NATO Advanced Studies Institute in Chania, Crete, sponsored jointly by NATO and the Marshall Space Flight Center. Science@NASA's Ron Koczor was there, and this is his report. Participants at the meeting noted something odd about the end of the Period of Heavy Bombardment. From the earliest geologic records known (roughly 3.8 billion years old), there is fossil evidence indicating life on Earth. The existence of apparently successful microbial life so soon after the end of these cataclysmic bombardments suggests that life emerged on Earth during the violent PHB itself. How could that happen? Did comets or asteroids deliver life intact to Earth? Maybe life rapidly evolved from organic building blocks deposited by comets. No one knows. Astrobiologists would love to study rocks and chemical fossils from that epoch, yet because of Earth's wind, rain, earthquakes and plate tectonics (normal environmental processes), the record has been completely erased. Or has it? Scientists at the conference speculated that such a record does exist. Not on Earth, but on the Moon. When a large body strikes Earth, impact debris can be accelerated to orbital speed and achieve Earth orbit. Four billion years ago Earth was probably surrounded by debris ejected in this way. (The Moon itself is a big piece of Earth that sundered when a Mars-sized planetestimal hit 4.5 billion years ago.) During the Period of Heavy Bombardment, the Moon was considerably closer to the Earth than it is now, perhaps 3 times closer. This placed the Moon in an ideal position to sweep up some of the terrestrial debris. Because the Moon lacks weather or tectonic activity, that debris might still be there. While some has undoubtedly been destroyed by subsequent impacts of asteroids or comets on the Moon, some might have survived in the lunar soil. A recent study by University of Washington graduate students John Armstrong and Llyd Wells, in collaboration with Guillermo Gonzalez at Iowa State, suggests that as much as 20,000 kg of Earth material could cover every 100 square kilometers of the moon. David McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA's Johnson Space Center, notes that "the Moon was in a unique position to be a collector of ejecta from Earth. If we look in the right places, we could find a reservoir of materials for study." The 400 kg or so of lunar rocks and soils already on the Earth thanks to Apollo begs the question. Have such terrestrial materials been seen in any of the returned samples? According to McKay: no. "I know of no reports of such materials, but I think the reason may be that no one has actually looked for them! This is an emerging area of research that was not considered over the past 30 years since Apollo." Where should future astronauts look on the Moon for these ejected terrestrial materials? There are several possibilities. One place, according to John Armstrong, would be the Moon's eastern (as seen from Earth) limb. "The Moon's rotation about its axis is synchronized with its revolution around the Earth," explains Armstrong. This means that the same side of the Moon--its eastern limb--is always the leading edge as it circles Earth. That leading edge would tend to sweep up more orbiting debris than other areas. "This is true for materials that are ejected into high Earth orbit. Another possibility is that material is ejected and travels directly from Earth to the Moon. In that case, it would be found anywhere on the Earth-facing side," said Armstrong. A third possibility is that the Earth material is ejected into a longer-lasting solar orbit. In this case the material could have spent thousands or millions of years in orbit and then impacted the Moon in a more random pattern. How could we distinguish an ancient Earth rock from a genuine Moon rock? After all, the Moon itself is a very old piece of Earth. According to Armstrong, that question is still under discussion. "There are several possible chemical differences," he says. One would be water. Earth's oceans formed after the Moon split off from our planet. While Moon rocks are dry, some Earth rocks contain hydrated minerals--those which have water incorporated into their molecular structure. Other differences could be the presence of hydrocarbons or carbonates. Perhaps a series of lunar missions would find such rocks. "We could develop automated robotic techniques that scan thousands or millions of small rocks, searching for Earth materials in lunar soils," speculates McKay. "It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack--a task that would be nearly impossible if done by hand but easily done by robots. We simply need to know which properties are the most useful for distinguishing Earth materials from Moon materials and set the robotic instruments to sniff them out." It is often said that traveling makes you appreciate home that much more. In this case, traveling to the Moon may be the only way we can ever understand the early chaotic period of Earth's formation. Additional information on this story is available at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/18oct_earthrocks.htm?list5226 0. _____________________________________________________________________ RUSSIAN SPACE OFFICIAL: HUMANS TO MARS AS PRIORITY By Leonard David From Space.com 20 October 2002 The Russians are itching to send a human crew to Mars, and are miffed that NASA remains undecided on such an undertaking. A leading expert in human Mars missions, Leonid Gorshkov of RSC Energia in Russia sketched out a reusable Interplanetary Expedition Complex for dispatching a crew to Mars in 2022. Here at the World Space Congress, Gorshkov challenged NASA to move up a humans-to-Mars mission and make it a high priority. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/news/wsc_future_021020.html. _____________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S LIVING IN THE WORLD'S HIGHEST LAKE? By Henry Bortman From Astrobiology Magazine 21 October 2002 An international team of scientists this week began a three-week trek to the highest lake in the world. The lake--it has no name--lies nestled in the crater of Licancabur, a dormant volcano in the Andes that rises nearly 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) above sea level, straddling the border between Chile and Bolivia. The atmospheric pressure at Licancabur's summit is less than half that at sea level. Because of this thin atmosphere and the volcano's low latitude--Licancabur is only 2500 km (about 1500 mi) south of the equator--the summit is exposed to more intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation than just about any other spot on Earth. And yet, there is a thriving ecosystem in the lake. How does the lake maintain itself? What lives there? And how have these organisms adapted to the harsh conditions at the volcano's summit? These are some of the questions that an international team of scientists, headed by Nathalie Cabrol of NASA AMES/SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, hope to answer. In the coming weeks, they will climb to the summit, camp inside the caldera, set up a variety of scientific experiments and dive into the frigid lake to collect water and sediment samples. Included in the expedition is a team of biologists, headed by Imre Friedmann. They will examine the organisms in the samples collected by the ascent team, using traditional taxonomic methods--that is, by looking at the samples through a microscope. Friedmann admits that DNA analysis would be "a more elegant, more exciting method of looking at things." But, he points out, "you cannot make an identification of an organism by identifying its genetic structure." Even if researchers found genetic material indicative of organisms that had never been seen before--and Friedmann does expect to find such novel organisms--they wouldn't know anything about what the organisms looked like or how they behaved. To determine that, Friedmann says, it is necessary to examine the organisms through the microscope, followed by isolating and growing them in the laboratory. Natural sunscreen Cabrol and her colleagues are particularly interested in learning how the organisms that inhabit the lake--they are mostly microorganisms-- survive the damaging effects of UV radiation. Most of the Earth is covered by a protective ozone layer that screens out higher-energy UV radiation, which is particularly damaging to life. "The best way to get high UV," explains Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA, and a member of the Licancabur expedition, "is to go to high elevations. The equatorial regions are particularly interesting because the Sun is higher in the sky," so the radiation is stronger than in regions closer to the poles. One of the experiments the ascent team will set up is designed specifically to study how the life forms in the lake respond to UV. The scientists will place several plexiglass plates on the lakebed. Some of the plates will screen UV; others will allow it to pass through. These will remain in place until next year, when a second expedition will return to examine the effect of differing amounts of UV exposure on the growth of the organisms. Early Earth, early Mars Learning how the Licancabur organisms protect themselves from UV may help researchers understand how life survived on early Earth--and perhaps on early Mars as well. Most scientists believe that, for perhaps as long as two billion years after life emerged on Earth, its atmosphere contained very little oxygen and therefore little ozone. Somehow, life on Earth got its start "without a protective atmosphere present," says Friedmann. By studying the organisms that live in the Licancabur summit lake, he hopes to find out something about how early life on Earth managed to cope with high UV. "The mechanism they use to survive in this environment may be very ancient." Cabrol, who can be found poring over images of ancient martian lakebeds when she's not busy climbing terrestrial volcanoes, sees important similarities between present-day conditions at Licancabur and conditions on early Mars. Cabrol likens the harsh, isolated environment of Licancabur to what was perhaps the final era of martian habitability. "High UV, low oxygen, low atmospheric pressure: These must be the conditions that were on Mars 3.5 billion years ago, when the atmosphere was not completely gone, when there was still a little bit there, when local ponds were still possible," says Cabrol. As Mars became more and more inhospitable, Cabrol adds, life would have survived only in "very isolated ecoystems, basically seeing their world shrinking year after year after year," much as Licancabur's summit lake is believed to be slowly shrinking. Studying Licancabur, Cabrol hopes, will help scientists to understand how life behaves under such conditions and help to focus their search for evidence of ancient martian life. High-altitude hydrothermals Another area of interest is how the lake maintains itself. No-one knows what water source feeds its lake. Annual precipitation is only a few centimeters per year. For most of the year, the lake is frozen over; even when it thaws, its water temperature never warms to more than a few degrees above 0°C (32°F). One [hypothesis] is that there is an underground hydrothermal system feeding the lake. Although Licancabur itself is dormant, the region surrounding it contains a number of active volcanoes. It's possible that there is a source of heat, water or both lying beneath the volcano. Another possibility is that the ice that covers the lake most of the year provides a greenhouse effect, warming the water below. It's also unclear how life got into the lake in the first place. If there is a hydrothermal system beneath the lake, organisms could have migrated up from lower altitudes. Or airborne microorganisms might have been carried there by the wind, although this is considered unlikely because of the lake's extreme isolation. Perhaps humans-- either the Incas in the distant past, or recreational mountain climbers more recently--introduced life to the lake. By whatever means the life forms got there, though, they could not have survived for long without evolving a means to minimize the effects of UV. A stop along the way On their journey to Licancabur's summit, the researchers will make several stops. One of these will be at a refuge, at 4100 m (13,450 feet) above sea level. The refuge is a downscale version of a hostel, where travelers to the Andean wilderness can find a bed and a hot meal. Migrating flamingos, as well as humans, are frequent visitors there. The refuge lies near a group of three alpine lakes that are also of interest to the scientists. The two larger lakes are Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde. "And there is this small pool in between the two that is heated," explains Cabrol. "So my theory--and you just look around and you see the paleo [ancient] shoreline--is that this was one lake tens of thousands of years ago during the end of the last glacial age." All three lakes, she speculates, may have been part of a single hydrothermal system. "Now they have been separated by evaporation, but who knows?" Cabrol wonders. "There might be other heat sources in the larger lakes." The scientists will spend just over a week at the refuge, acclimatizing themselves to the high altitude. But while there, they will also perform many of the experiments in the nearby lakes that they will be performing in the summit lake. A link to the past Licancabur was a sacred mountain to the Incas. Incan ruins have been found near its summit. "Licancabur, was used by the Incas to communicate between mountains. The Inca would climb up there and set fires" to send messages. Cabrol sees a link between her expedition and the mountain's historic use. "The Incas were going there to try to communicate and understand better the secrets of nature and whatever god of nature was there, and to understand their place in the universe and the cosmos. And we are doing exactly the same." Of course, her team will communicate its findings by satellite phone and the Internet, rather than by fire. Still, says Cabrol, "I find it neat to think about it." Additional information on this story is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article297.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/licancabur1_021021.html. View the expedition web site at http://www.extremeenvironment.com/. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 21 October 2002 Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html H. Bortman, 2002. What's living in the world's highest lake? Astrobiology Magazine. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html L. David, 2002. Russian space official: humans to Mars as priority. Space.com. R. Stenger, 2002. Hungry astronauts grow cosmic beans. CNN. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s5.html Astrobiology Magazine, 2002. Concerted evolution. Astrobiology Magazine. E. Bakes, 2002. Titan - key to Earth's evolution? Space.com. R. Koczor, 2002. Earth rocks on the Moon. NASA Science News. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 10-16 October 2002 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, October 16. 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/. Activities on board the spacecraft included clearing of the high water marks, and an autonomous Solid State Recorder memory load partition repair. Instrument activities included uplink and execution of a mini-sequence for a Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) Instrument Expanded Block load and flight software checkout, Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver Calibrations, a Cassini Plasma Spectrometer plasma environment observation, Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS), VIMS and Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) observations of Alpha Bootes, and an Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph Hydrogen Deteurium Absorption Cell LISM. Cruise sequences C42, C43, and C44 are part of Cassini's Approach Science subphase and are the last cruise sequences prior to tour. The topic at this week's Mission Planning Forum was a discussion of the constraints on approach science as we understand them, all known required activities, and how to go about planning for them. All teams and offices participated in the October Monthly Management Review. With requirements supplied by Uplink Operations (ULO), the Mission Support and Services Office (MSSO) implemented an ivd_get (Inertial Vector Definition) script for retrieving the correct files for the IVD target option in the Inertial Vector Propagator tool and Pointing Design Tool. The script has been delivered to operations, and ULO gave high praise for the excellent work done on the script by MSSO. This week marked the 5th Anniversary of the Cassini launch on October 15th, 1997. Coincident with this date, after many months of development, the new Cassini-Huygens web site went live to the public on Tuesday October 15, 2002. While the Cassini Outreach Team will continue to enhance the site with new material in the months ahead, this will be our electronic gateway for the Saturn Tour as we prepare for the spacecraft's arrival and tour. The web site can be accessed at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. A photo-essay of Cassini's historic encounter with Jupiter in early 2001 is now available online at the web site of "The Year In Space" 2003 Desk Calendar, an award-winning 144-page weekly calendar featuring images and information from the past, present and future of space exploration and astronomical discovery. The photo-essay summarizes some of the early accomplishments of Cassini, which was launched five years ago. For more information on the "The Year In Space" 2003 Desk Calendar, go to http://www.YearInSpace.com or call 800/736-6836. 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 14-20 October 2002 The calm before the storm This week is delightfully uneventful for the Galileo spacecraft, if not for the flight team. On Monday, October 14, and again on Saturday, October 19, a conditioning exercise for the on-board tape recorder is performed. This activity is designed to see us safely through our final encounter despite the sticking problems that were first seen just prior to arrival at Jupiter seven years ago, and have recurred within the past year. On Tuesday, October 15, the spacecraft passes a point in space 150 Jupiter radii (10.7 million kilometers or 6.7 million miles) out from the giant planet, on its penultimate trek in towards a close encounter. On November 5, it will skim only 143,000 kilometers (89,000 miles) over the Jovian cloud tops, less than two-fifths of the distance from Earth to our own Moon, and closer by half than it has ever been from Jupiter. Friday, October 18, marks another milestone for Galileo. On this date 13 years ago, the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with the Galileo spacecraft in the cargo bay, and our historic journey of discovery began. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/lucid/gll_launch.html It seems like only yesterday, and yet, it also seems like there wasn't a time when Galileo wasn't flying. Thirteen years and thirty nine encounters later (with Venus, Earth, two asteroids, and the Galilean moons), we're still plugging along. Not bad for a spacecraft that was designed and built before the first IBM PC hit the market! On Sunday, October 20, the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer is powered down for the final time in the mission. It has been collecting data on the interplanetary medium nearly continuously since late January, shortly after our last flyby of the volcanic satellite Io. The instrument does not operate well in the intense radiation environment close to Jupiter and is normally turned off during encounters. It also shares data processing resources on board the spacecraft with the Heavy Ion Counter, which is one of the suite of Fields and Particles instruments that are used to study the inner magnetosphere. Ongoing activities for the spacecraft include continued data collection by the Dust Detector and the Magnetometer instruments. The pace of activities here on Earth is fast and furious, though, as the flight team puts the finishing touches on the Amalthea encounter activities plan and develops contingency plans and emergency responses for as many problems as we can reasonably anticipate. 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 REPORT NASA/MSFC release 02-261 17 October 2002 Completed Expedition Five experiments and new experiments for the International Space Station swapped places during the visit of Space Shuttle Atlantis to the orbiting research facility. On Friday, October 11, StelSys experiment liver cells grown during Expedition Five were transferred from the Destiny lab to the Shuttle middeck for return. Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG) samples processed during the Expedition also were moved to Atlantis and stored for return. A Protein Crystal Growth Single Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES) growth chamber with space-grown crystals was stored in the Shuttle middeck for return and swapped places in the Destiny lab with another crystal growth unit ferried up by the Shuttle. The new PCG-STES experiment was successfully activated. Also on Friday, the crew collected post-spacewalk readings on the EVA Radiation Monitoring dosimeter badges worn by David Wolf and Piers Sellers during their first spacewalk to install the new S-1 Truss to the Station. The crew also installed a new specially-designed electrical grounding strap on EXPRESS Rack 2 and began preparations for a new ZCG experiment in the rack. The Rack is equipped with an Active Rack Isolation System that damps out vibrations caused by crew movement and operating equipment. The grounding strap, as well as other cables connecting the rack to the lab module, is specially designed to minimize vibrations. Ground controllers, working with the crew on Friday, were unable to activate the salmonella portion of the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA), a Station sortie experiment aboard Atlantis. They successfully activated the yeast growth portion of the experiment, which was completed Tuesday. The results may help in the design of bioreactors on Earth that can culture large volumes of cells for pharmaceutical and medical applications. On Saturday, ground controllers successfully activated the Zeolite Crystal Growth experiment. It is scheduled for a 15-day processing run. On Sunday, the Advanced Astroculture experiment growth chamber deactivated earlier in the week was transferred to the Shuttle along with its crop of soybean plants grown during the mission. In its place the crew transferred the Plant Growth Bioprocessing Apparatus (PGBA) from the Shuttle mid-deck to the Destiny lab. Over the next month, it will grow two crops of Arabidopsis plants--one planted on the ground that will be harvested by Station Science Officer Peggy Whitson before landing and the second to be planted by Whitson and then harvested by scientists after landing. Also on Sunday, the crew performed a post-spacewalk reading on the EVARM dosimeter badges worn by Wolf and Sellers on their second spacewalk to continue installing the S1 Truss to the Station. On Monday, selected members of the Station crew filled out their weekly Crew Interactions survey on the Human Research Facility laptop computer. Ground controllers activated the Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System to record several events of interest including the Monday spacewalk and other docked operations, as well as Wednesday's Shuttle undocking. On Tuesday, the crew transferred the CGBA from the Shuttle middeck to the Destiny lab where it will serve as a refrigerator for storing the Arabidopsis plants harvested by Whitson until their return. The crew also collected post-spacewalk readings on the EVARM badges following the third and final spacewalk to complete installation of the S1 Truss segment to the Station. Crew Earth Observation subjects photographed by the crew this week included: the Konza Prairie in Kansas, air quality between the Italian Peninsula and Corsica and Sardinia, urban development in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, the Spanish Riviera, water control, road patterns and cities of the Rhone River delta, the Panama Canal, the coral reefs of the Marquises Islands, Lake Michigan, the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and other sites. 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 E-mail: Steve.Roy@msfc.nasa.gov _____________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 14-18 October 2002 Hesperia Planum (Released 14 October 2002 http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021014a.html Appollinaris Patera (Released 15 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021015a.html Arabia Terra (Released 16 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021016a.html Olympus Mons Flows (Released 17 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021017a.html Terra Meridiani (Released 18 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021018a.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 REPORTS NASA/JPL releases 16 October 2002 Stardust will take advantage of flying near a small asteroid next month to test many procedures the spacecraft will use 14 months later during its encounter with its primary science target, comet Wild-2. Stardust will pass within about 3,000 kilometers (about 1,900 miles) of asteroid Annefrank at 04:50 November 2, Universal Time (8:50 PM November 1, Pacific Standard Time). The spacecraft will automatically image Annefrank using camera tracking of the mountain- sized rock as it speeds by at 7 kilometers (4 miles) per second. "This is an engineering test," said Thomas Duxbury, project manager for Stardust at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "We have no science goals or science expectations at Annefrank. It's an opportunity to try key procedures for the first time before we get to comet Wild-2. We may identify problems that we can address before we reach our primary target." Annefrank is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across. Given the flyby distance, that's too small for a picture that would show any surface detail, said JPL's Ray Newburn, leader of the imaging-science team. Also, the angle of the encounter relative to the Sun will give Stardust a view in which only a thin crescent of the asteroid will be sunlit during approach, providing an additional challenge for the optical-navigation system to recognize it as a guiding light. Aerogel dust collectors that will gather comet dust from Wild-2 will stay open for the asteroid flyby. The Max Planck Institute dust analyzer and the University of Chicago dust flux monitor also will be operating. However, no dust from the asteroid is anticipated at the distance the spacecraft will pass. "This will be our most challenging event since launch," said JPL's Robert Ryan, Stardust mission manager. "Our spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin is testing everything in the spacecraft simulation laboratory before we send the commands up to the spacecraft." Chen-wan Yen, Stardust mission design manager at JPL, identified the opportunity for a flyby of Annefrank during the spacecraft's four- year cruise toward Wild-2. NASA approved the Annefrank test run this month, at no added cost. The asteroid was discovered in 1942 and later named in honor of Anne Frank, author of an inspiring diary of the two years before she was taken to a Nazi concentration camp. Stardust will bring samples of comet dust back to Earth in 2006 to help answer fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system. The mission's principal investigator is Dr. Donald Brownlee, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, built and operates the Stardust spacecraft. Additional information is available online at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov. 18 October 2002 Stardust continues to operate in good health while traversing the main asteroid belt and collecting interstellar dust. The spacecraft had two periods of radio contact through JPL's Deep Space Network this week. A patch to the flight software for tracking a comet nucleus has remained stable for two weeks of extensive testing in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory. The laboratory is also testing other encounter command products. Stardust's outreach personnel presented information about the mission during two conferences in Houston this month: the World Space Congress and the International Council for Science's Committee on Space Research. 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 39.