MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 9, Number 40, 28 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) NASA RESEARCHERS SEEK ASTROBIOLOGY INSIGHTS ON THE LEONID MULTI- INSTRUMENT AIRCRAFT CAMPAIGN By David Lamb 2) HOW ASTRONAUTS GET ALONG By Karen Miller 3) NEW PLANET DISCOVERED: INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUE DETECTS PLANETS WITH LOWER MASSES AND LARGER ORBITS THAN ANY CURRENT METHOD University of Rochester release 4) THE LIFE THAT SPAWNED A QUARTER-MILLION DESCENDANT SPECIES By Leslie Mullen 5) CU-BOULDER SPACE TEAM STUDYING WATER, ICE AND POTENTIAL LIFE ON JUPITER MOON, EUROPA University of Colorado release 6) PROJECT PHOENIX AND THE NEW SEARCH SYSTEM By Peter Backus 7) LICANCABUR EXPEDITION JOURNAL: PART TWO By Henry Boortman 8) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 9) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 10) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 11) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SCIENCE OPERATIONS STATUS REPORT NASA/MSFC release 02-268 12) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 13) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release _____________________________________________________________________ NASA RESEARCHERS SEEK ASTROBIOLOGY INSIGHTS ON THE LEONID MULTI- INSTRUMENT AIRCRAFT CAMPAIGN By David Lamb From the NASA Astrobiology Institute http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/news_stories/news_detail.cfm?ID=170 18 October 2002 This November, Peter Jenniskens will again be leading a NASA team to explore the 2002 Leonid meteor storm from high altitudes. Meteor showers may be a beautiful, heavenly spectacle that can provide for a good evening of entertainment, but they are also much more. Meteors, or "shooting stars" are streaks of light that appear in the sky when small particles from space enter Earth's atmosphere. They have amazed stargazers for millennia. But only recently have scientists realized their importance to understanding the evolution of the solar system - and their connection to astrobiology. One shower in particular, the Leonids, has been especially strong recently. And this year, stargazers and scientists alike are in for a spectacular show, and astrobiologists will be closely monitoring from high altitudes. In 1965, Comet (55P) Tempel-Tuttle, the comet responsible for the Leonid meteor shower, was rediscovered after being lost for nearly a century. The following year, many onlookers viewed flurries of meteors that may have reached 40 per second! Although we probably won't experience rates that high this year, we will still be in for a good show. This is good news for Dr. Peter Jenniskens, the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign (MAC), which is designed specifically around tracking, monitoring, and recording the recent increased rates of the Leonids. Dr. Jenniskens has been following the Leonids closely since he noticed an increase in their rates in 1994. This year, after three successful missions, he and his team are gearing up for another intense Leonid storm (a heavy meteor shower). About the Leonid MAC Mission Since 1998, Dr. Jenniskens has been leading the Leonid Multi- Instrument Aircraft Campaign. The MAC is an airborne NASA mission that brings together researchers from different disciplines to be able to examine the meteors from different scientific perspectives. Only an airborne mission can guarantee clear viewing and appropriate location to study the Leonids. The aircraft serves as a platform for various scientific instruments. Researchers on board use spectrometers, cameras, and counters (for meteor flux measurement) to gather their data. Experiments on the MAC help to answer important questions such as: * Will a particularly intense meteor storm cause satellites to malfunction some time in the future? * What chemical reactions will occur as the meteors incinerate? * Might cometary debris have influenced the development of life on Earth? MAC missions also took place in 1999 and 2001 (low rates prevented a comprehensive MAC mission in 2000). This year, two planes will be monitoring the Leonids, the NKC 135-E FISTA and the NASA DC-8 Airborne laboratory. The planes can fly at a 100-km distance and make stereoscopic observations of the Leonids. For more details on the mission specifications, go to http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/logo.html. MAC astrobiology initiatives and international cooperation The 1998 MAC was dubbed as NASA's first astrobiology mission. One of the overall objectives of the MAC is to "learn how extraterrestrial materials may have been brought to Earth at the time of the origin of life." Also, MAC seeks to understand more about the reactions of meteors and Earth's atmosphere. Specifically, Peter Jenniskens and his team are looking to find the fate of organic matter in the meteors as the plunge into Earth's atmosphere. At the 2001 Meteoroids conference in Kiruna, Sweden, Dr. Jenniskens notes that "Meteors dominated the supply of organics to the early Earth if organic matter survived this pathway efficiently. Understanding these processes relies heavily on empirical evidence that is still very limited." The full paper from the conference is available at http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/Meteoroids.pdf. Depending on the year, the MAC team has flown to various parts of the globe to get the best views of the Leonids. In 2002, they will be flying above Spain. The Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), an NAI International Partner, will host the deployment of the MAC. CAB will also participate in some of the key experiments on the DC-8 airborne lab. The Centro de Astrobiologia previously helped coordinate Leonid observations in 2000. Experience the mission! Information on the Leonids and the Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign is well documented on the MAC web site. For example, during the 2001 mission researchers recorded some spectacular shots of the Leonids. You can view still images and even a short video on an 8 second "Taurid fireball" at the MAC 2001 scientific results page (http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/01images.html). If you are interested in viewing the Leonids this year, you will soon be able to access the Leonid MAC Flux Estimator to help find prime viewing conditions in your area at http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html (also has an article giving more information on viewing). You too can also be a part of the mission! Amateur astronomers are needed to help count local rates of the Leonid storm. If you are interested in being a counter for the mission, go to http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/leonid/stormcount.html. _____________________________________________________________________ HOW ASTRONAUTS GET ALONG By Karen Miller From NASA Science News 21 October 2002 "Once, I was evaluating astronaut applicants," says psychiatrist Nick Kanas. "I asked them to give me some examples of things that might cause stress." One applicant, a test pilot, recalled the time he was flying an experimental aircraft and it spun out of control. As the plane spiraled down, he took out his manual, calmly thumbed through it, and figured out how to pull the plane to safety. "His ability to temporarily control his emotions was very striking," laughs Kanas. Astronauts manage stress a whole lot better than most of us. They have to because there's always some hazard looming: radiation storms, space debris, the possibility of crashing--or just a new list of things to do from ground control. It all adds up. And then there's the stress that comes from dealing with other people. Space crews must live and work together in close quarters 24-hours a day, sometimes for months on end. They're also far from home and family, which means they can feel both lonely and crowded at the same time. It's enough to drive anyone to distraction. Kanas, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California and the Veteran's Hospital in San Francisco, is studying the way astronauts behave under these demanding conditions. His research began with the shuttle-Mir program in the 1990's, and now he's working with the crew of the International Space Station. As part of the project, called Crewmember and Crew-ground Interactions during International Space Station Missions, astronauts and cosmonauts answer weekly questionnaires for Kanas about their moods, feelings and daily lives in orbit. Earlier studies have already uncovered some interesting behaviors. For example: Like that test pilot, many of those who go into space are able to suppress their emotions when they need to. That's a valuable trait, not only for astronauts but also for surgeons and fire fighters, because it helps get things done. "The problem," says Kanas, "is if you suppress your emotions for months on end, it can wear you down." The trick is to be able to suppress your emotions when you're in crisis, but then to relax enough to experience your feelings when things aren't so stressful. Astronauts in general tend to be skilled at knowing when to suppress their feelings and when to deal with them. "It's just that sometimes, [in space] they're under so much pressure they find it difficult to relax," he says. When that happens, astronauts tend to socialize with each other less and less. After months of being together, they can grow tired of hearing one another's stories. Tension mounts. One way of relieving that tension is by blaming mission control. This is called "displacement" and it's a very common way to deal with stress. People do it all the time, for example by yelling at their kids instead of their boss. Displacement provides the short-term benefit of relieving tension. But it hurts the family, and it doesn't deal with the problem. "We found that when crew members reported being under stress, those were the times that they perceived a lack of support from the ground." Likewise, when mission control was under stress, they tended to perceive a lack of support from management. Displacement again. In the long run displacement is toxic because it lets the real problems fester. Problems that arise during a few-month stint on the ISS are likely to be even worse during a mission to Mars. A Mars crew will be away for about three years and during that time they're going to be astonishingly isolated. Any psychological problem that comes up, they'll need to handle on their own. "The more training we can give them, the better," notes Kanas. Research suggests that the moods of astronauts might change in a predictable pattern over the course of a long mission. In Antarctic expeditions, for example, some studies found a blip of depression about midway through. "The conventional thinking," says Kanas, "is that on a long term mission, you work your way through the first half, you get to the half-way point, you say, 'Wow, I made it to the half-way point' and then you say, 'but wait! I've got another half to go." And then a temporary depression may set in." If that pattern holds in space, astronauts on a journey to Mars will need to be aware of, and expect, it. The kind of support that the astronauts will need from their commander might also change as the mission progresses. For example, scientists have found that at the beginning of an expedition, the leaders rated most highly were those who were task-oriented, and got things done. But later, the most appreciated leaders were those that focused on morale, on how people felt. "We need to train the commanders to think about that, so they can emphasize that aspect of their leadership at the appropriate time." Kanas's ongoing study will lead to a greater understanding of these patterns. "This is the basic science of group behavior," he says. "It's all the kind of stuff that affects humans relating in any environment, but it's brought out more strongly because in space, people are isolated, confined, and under more pressure." His findings will certainly aid fire fighters, police officers, doctors in emergency rooms--anyone in a high-stress environment. And they might even help the rest of us who cope with more mundane problems. Maybe you'll never need to dodge a piece of space debris or pull a malfunctioning airplane out of a spin. But, at some point, you'll probably have to take your kids to a mall! Additional information on this article is available at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/21oct_getalong.htm?list69247. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW PLANET DISCOVERED: INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUE DETECTS PLANETS WITH LOWER MASSES AND LARGER ORBITS THAN ANY CURRENT METHOD University of Rochester release 22 October 2002 A new extrasolar planet has been discovered using a new technique that will allow astronomers to detect planets no other current method can. Planets around other stars have been previously detected only by the effect they have on their parent star, limiting the observations to large, Jupiter-like planets and those in very tight orbits. The new method uses the patterns created in the dust surrounding a star to discern the presence of a planet that could be as small as Earth or in an orbit so wide that it would take hundreds of years to observe its effect on its star. The research by Alice Quillen, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, and undergraduate student Stephen Thorndike, appears in the current issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We're very excited because this will open up the possibility of finding planets that we'd probably never detect just looking at the parent star," says Quillen. "We can confirm the presence of certain planets in five years instead of the two centuries it would otherwise take." The new planet was discovered orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani about 10 light years from Earth. It is one of the lowest mass planets yet discovered around another star and has by far the longest, largest orbit of any yet discovered. Epsilon Eridani already has one discovered planet, the size of Jupiter (our solar system's largest planet) and orbiting around the star about every five years. By contrast, the new planet is roughly a tenth of Jupiter's mass and completes an orbit once every 280 years. Traditional planet-detection methods cannot reveal the new planet, tentatively named "Epsilon Eridani C," because those methods watch for the effect a planet has on its parent star, and low-mass planets or those in very large orbits do not dramatically affect their star. The method that has detected most of the 100+ extrasolar planets so far measures how much the parent star "wobbles" as the planet's gravity tugs on it throughout its orbit. A newer method watches for planets as they pass in front of a star and slightly dims its light. Unlike current methods, Quillen's technique does not use direct light from the star, but rather light radiating from the dust surrounding it. Not all stars have large concentrations of dust, but those that do, like Epsilon Eridani, can display certain telltale patterns in their dust fields. These patterns can betray the existence of a planet. Quillen started her research by running computer simulations of how a planet might sculpt the dust surrounding a star. Instead of using a simple, circular orbit like most planets in our own solar system follow, she decided to experiment with highly eccentric orbits-- orbits where the planet sometimes swings very close to the star and then moves very far away. She found that for certain situations where the planet orbited the star three times for every two times the dust orbited, or five times for every three dust orbits, the dust would settle into definable clumps in a ring around the star. These clumps formed as the planet swung to its farthest point from the star and its gravity pulled the dust into the patterned clumps. After finding this pattern in her simulations, Quillen turned to the heavens to see if she could find a star surrounded with dust with these patterns. She found Epsilon Eridani. "The fact that the dust around this star closely matches what we expected to see if a planet were present doesn't mean we know for sure that a planet is really there," says Quillen. "The images of Epsilon Eridani that we matched with our model are five years old. If Epsilon Eridani were re-observed then the clumps should have moved. The rate that they move will pin down the likely location of the planet." Quillen plans to find more planets and work out new simulations to determine if patterns could emerge from other kinds of planetary orbits. She's hoping to find if a change in the light emitted from the dust fields could help signal the presence of a planet, as well as what other kinds of patterns might form from the dust, such as rings or swaths of orbiting dust-free zones. She's also planning to learn where the disk of dust comes from, if it comes from frequently colliding planetesimals as she expects. If she pins down how the dust forms, she may be able to estimate the number of planetesimals needed to create the dust. The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation through its Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The program supports highly qualified students who undertake research at the University for 10 weeks each summer. Contact: Jonathan Sherwood Office of Public Relations University of Rochester Rochester, NY Phone: 585-273-4726 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/epsilon_planet_021023.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-02x.html _____________________________________________________________________ THE LIFE THAT SPAWNED A QUARTER-MILLION DESCENDANT SPECIES By Leslie Mullen From Astrobiology Magazine 23 October 2002 The first cellular organisms with a nucleus, called protists, now comprise nearly a quarter-million named species. Including green algae and parasites, they make up the first link in the complex food chain that not only sustains all life on Earth, but modifies terrestrial weather. UC Berkeley biologist, Jere Lipps, considers their prolific and ancient evolution on Earth and even beyond. If ever you find yourself suffering the fevers and agonies of malaria, you'll curse the mosquito that bit you. But it would make more sense to blame the parasitic protist the mosquito unintentionally injected into you. The action of the protist in the liver and red blood cells is what produces the malarial symptoms. Other parasitic protists are responsible for other diseases, such as African sleeping sickness, toxoplasmosis, and amoebic dysentery (which infect billions of people every year). "In fact, every human alive has probably been sick or annoyed at one time or another because of some protist in their system," says Jere Lipps, professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California in Berkeley. Yet not all protists are parasites, and many do more good than harm. Without protists, our planet would have much less oxygen today, and there would've been less oxygen in the past. Although cyanobacteria were responsible for the initial rise of oxygen on Earth, the appearance and evolution of photosynthetic protists in the form of algae dramatically increased the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. Protists are important in other ways, too. The balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is controlled, in part, by the activities of protists. Decomposing protist species like the ciliates help recycle nutrients. Photosynthetic protists make up the base of the food chain in the ocean. And without protists, animals, plants, and many other life forms may never have developed. So just what are protists? Most are single-celled eukaryotes. Because they are composed of only one cell they tend to be microscopic, although some can grow up to 10 centimeters, others live in large cooperative colonies, and a few are multi-celled (kelp, for instance, is a multi-cellular protist alga). Protists are found in nearly every wet environment, including marine and fresh water bodies, damp terrestrial habitats such as leaf litter on a forest floor, and in the moist insides of larger organisms. All life on Earth can be divided into two groups: the eukaryotes, whose cells have a nucleus, and the prokaryotes, whose cells do not have a nucleus (prokaryotes are also known as bacteria and archaea). Human beings are eukaryotes; each of our cells has within it a nucleus that contains our DNA. In fact, most visible, or "macroscopic" life forms are eukaryotes. But the macroscopic life forms make up only a small part of the eukaryotic tree of life. While animals, plants, and fungi constitute just three small twigs, the rest of the tree positively bristles with protist branches. The reason so many life forms are lumped into one category called "protist" is a hangover from earlier forms of classification. For a long time, we were only aware of life forms that were visible to the naked eye. But then in 1673, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek used a microscope of his own design to peer into the microscopic world. Leeuwenhoek made the first descriptions of protists and bacteria, which he called "animalicules." Today there are about 200,000 named species of protists, although there are likely millions that remain undescribed, and over the course of history there have been many millions of protist species that have gone extinct. Arranging the vast numbers of different protists into descriptive categories has proved to be a headache. At first, protists were broadly divided into the protozoa (animal-like creatures that ingest food), the algae (plant-like organisms that create food through photosynthesis), and fungus-like protists that absorb their food. But there was a lot of crossover between these groups, so the categories were further broken down into the flagellates, ciliates, amoebae, algae, and parasitic protists. Later discoveries led to even more categories. Yet genetic studies now show that these categories don't reflect the unique evolutionary origins of the different protist types. According to Malcolm Walter, director for the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, genome analysis has shown that many of the groups are not at all closely related to one another. "We consider protists as a group more for our convenience than as a reflection of close kinship," says Walter. "A better name for this group of organisms would be 'eukaryotes that are neither animals, fungi, [nor] plants.'" Why do protists have so much diversity--more than animals, plants and fungi combined? One answer is time. There may have been as much as two or more billion years between the time of protist origin and the origin of multi-cellular eukaryotes, so protists had a long time to evolve different body forms. Some scientists have suggested that environmental changes also could have triggered massive evolutionary radiations. For instance, the differentiation of protists may have coincided with the increasing rates of oxygen in the atmosphere. As oxygen levels rose, the eukaryotes that could adapt to atmospheric oxygen evolved to fill all the newly available ecologic opportunities. Such entries into new environments would have led to many evolutionary adaptations over time. Lipps suggests that protists may have radiated many times during Earth's history. Environmental catastrophes such as early Snowball Earth events or asteroid impacts may have killed off early eukaryotes, and required the steps of their origin to be repeated over and over again. Still, says Lipps, the ultimate reason for so many protist forms remains a mystery. He points out that we don't even understand the steps that made protists in the first place. The mystery of their history Before eukaryotes evolved to form large, multi-cellular life forms, there were only the protists. The name "protist" means "the very first." It is thought that animals, plants, and fungi derived from different groups of protists: sponges and animals are believed to have originated from the choanoflagellates, plants from green algae, and fungi from water and slime molds. Before the origin of eukaryotes, prokaryotes were the only kind of life around. The earliest eukaryotes probably evolved from prokaryotes, and thus were similar to prokaryotes in many ways. There are several hypotheses for the origin of the eukaryotic nucleus: one says that prokaryotes developed more and more folded membranes until an organism with a nuclear envelope arose. Another theory suggests that one prokaryotic cell engulfed another, but rather than be digested as food it became the cell's nucleus. (This theory, called endosymbiosis, is also thought to be the means by which mitochondria in animal cells and chloroplasts in plant cells first formed). Archezoans are believed to have been the first protist species, and they can still be found today. The archezoan Giardia lamblia, for instance, causes the intestinal infection giardiasis in humans. Ribosomal RNA sequencing suggests that the archezoans are closely related to the prokaryotes. And like prokaryotes, archezoans lack mitochondria. Some believe this proves that archezoans diverged prior to mitochondria development. Recent evidence has shown, however, that some archezoans have genes for mitochondrial proteins, suggesting they may have lost their mitochondria. There is no fossil record of archezoans to help figure out what happened to these organisms over time. Most of the early protists had soft bodies, which do not preserve well, if at all. The earliest known eukaryotic fossils were found in 2.1 billion-year-old Precambrian rock. These eukaryotes, known as "acritarchs," seem to have two nuclei and no mitochondria. Some scientists suggest such double-nucleated protists, or "diplomonads," may point to an early stage in eukaryotic evolution. But Lipps says we can't say anything for certain about these soft structures. "We don't really know what acritarchs represented, [but] they seem to be the fossilized cysts of some kind of protistan alga," says Lipps. "Some might even be prokaryotes." Many of the protists living today have no fossil record, so scientists can't rely on fossils to provide an accurate reflection of all protist history. But according to Lipps, when there is a protist fossil record-- is the case with skeletonized protists-- is even more complete than the fossil records for plants and animals. "When we get to the fossilized protists, those that have shells or other kinds of skeletons, their record is excellent," says Lipps. "However, each group, being evolutionarily independent of the others, has a different time of origin in the fossil record and a different history." Because of the independent evolution of the different protist groups, the huge numbers of species that developed over time, and the lack of early fossils, there are many gaps in the protist fossil record. Scientists have not found many protist fossils that would help explain important divergence events. "At about 1 billion years ago, the fossil record shows the appearance of the first known macroscopic algae," says Walter. "However, not much material is preserved between the origin of the protists and the appearance of macroscopic algae to suggest any divergence or sophistication. Likewise, there is little preserved between the appearance of macroscopic algae and the first appearance of animals at approximately 570 million years ago, and as yet no transitional organism between protists and animals has been found in the fossil record." One way to overcome such gaps in the fossil record is to use a controversial technique known as "molecular clock dating." General rates of genetic change are used to estimate how long it took for differences to occur between two organisms that share a common ancestor. For instance, molecular clock dating of protists has placed the date of their emergence at 2.7 billion years ago. But Lipps is skeptical about dates obtained through this technique. "Molecular data can't really be used with confidence to date protists," says Lipps. For one thing, he says, "the geologic evidence comes from geochemicals, not real fossils. Since no fossils are considered in the molecular studies, a huge part of their evolution would not show up." The ultimate answer to the origin of protists is still out of our purview. While the current evidence suggests the earliest eukaryotes emerged sometime between 2.7 and 2.1 billion years ago, Lipps thinks it is possible that protists could have emerged even earlier. He admits, however, that the data do not yet support that theory. "We don't have any answers for this yet," says Lipps, "so speculation is rampant, and driving some of us on." What's next? The resilience and diversity of protists may make them ideal candidates for life on other planets. With as many types of protists that have evolved to cope with the environmental demands of Earth, how many kinds of protists could have developed on other kinds of habitable worlds? Lipps, for one, believes that protist-type organisms could very well inhabit other planetary systems. Lipps has many protist-related projects underway, including investigations of the role of protists in marine food webs over the past 3.8 billion years, of the radiations and extinctions of particular protist groups at various times in the past, and of possible protistan habitats on Jupiter's moon, Europa. Walter, meanwhile, is conducting studies of protist biomarkers. He hopes that the biomarker composition of the 2.1 billion-year old acritarch fossils may shed light on their biology. Additional information on this article is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article298.html. _____________________________________________________________________ CU-BOULDER SPACE TEAM STUDYING WATER, ICE AND POTENTIAL LIFE ON JUPITER MOON, EUROPA University of Colorado release 24 October 2002 The oozing of glacial material in the floating ice shell on Jupiter's moon Europa has important implications for future exploration of the enigmatic moon and prospects of life in its ice-covered ocean, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder professor. Robert Pappalardo, an assistant professor in the astrophysical and planetary sciences department and one of the world's foremost Europa experts, said the icy moon is believed to contain an ocean some 13 miles under its icy surface. Satellite images appear to indicate surface warping--including domes and reddish spots--showing that "elevators" of sorts transport material up and down from the ocean to the surface, said the planetary scientist. "Europa acts like a planetary lava lamp, carrying material from near the surface down to the ocean, and, if they exist, potentially transporting organisms from the ocean up toward the surface," he said. "Just a mile or two beneath the surface, the conditions may be warm enough to allow organisms to survive the journey." The "thick shell" model of Europa has implications for the future exploration of the moon and whether the existence of life is possible in the lightless depths beneath the planet's surface, said Pappalardo. "It would be very difficult for a future spacecraft to drill all the way through a 13-mile-deep ice shell to search for life in the underlying ocean. But the motions of glacial ice may transport ocean material, and any life it might contain, to the surface." Pappalardo and his research group at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics are attempting to tie together pieces of an elaborate puzzle to assemble a comprehensive model of how Europa functions. The results are being reported at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver October 27 to November 1. Under similar conditions in Arctic ice on Earth, organisms can remain in a state of hibernation until exposed to warmer and wetter conditions, he said. "If life exists in Europa's ocean, organisms might be carried on a slow ride from the bottom to the top of Europa's icy crust. Sampling the surface composition may provide direct insights into the nature of the ocean deep below, and could plausibly reveal dormant organisms if they exist within Europa." CU-Boulder graduate student Amy Barr is developing a computer model to illustrate the Europa ice motions, said Pappalardo. She is modifying a computer model that has been used to understand Earth's plate tectonics and to better understand Europa's geology, including how nutrients created by ice irradiation at Europa's surface might be transported down to the moon's oceans. Barr's ice-convection model, the most sophisticated yet applied to Europa, may show that organisms could thrive below the thick cap of ice, Pappalardo said. It incorporates information on how the satellite's thick ice shell is heated and how it flows as it is squeezed by the gravity of Jupiter, which raises huge tides on Europa. CU undergraduate Michelle Stempel is analyzing Europa's pattern of cracks and ridges to understand how the Jupiter tides have fractured the surface, and over what time scales the cracking has occurred. By matching stress patterns to surface geological features, she is studying where and how the surface cracks are created in response to short- and long-term deformation of the thick icy shell overlying an ocean. Pappalardo also has teamed with Francis Nimmo of University College, London, to understand the similarities and differences between Europa and its sibling Jovian moon, Ganymede. Ganymede may hide an ocean beneath its icy crust much deeper than Europa's, although Ganymede's era of geological activity has likely long ceased. By analyzing the topography of fractures on Ganymede, the two scientists have determined that Ganymede was once nearly as warm inside as Europa is today. "This has important implications for the history of Ganymede, and also for how Europa's surface is shaped today," Pappalardo said. "Ganymede may be a fossil version of Europa." The two scientists found similar internal and external forces that probably have influenced the two moons, but with different geological expressions. In addition, Pappalardo is working with Nick Makris of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study how a future Europa lander could precisely determine the depth and thickness of Europa's ocean, using the same techniques routinely used by the Navy to measure the depth and composition of Earth's oceans. The two are presenting back-to-back talks at Denver's GSA meeting to illustrate how the proven terrestrial technique can apply to the exotic environment of Europa. Pappalardo recently served on a National Research Council panel that reaffirmed a spacecraft should be launched in the coming decade with the goal of orbiting Europa. The Europa Geophysical Explorer would have scientific objectives that include confirming the presence of an ocean, remotely measuring the composition of the surface and scouting out potential landing sites for a follow-on lander mission. Contacts: Robert Pappalardo Phone: 303-492-6423 E-mail: robert.pappalardo@colorado.edu Jim Scott Phone: 303-492-3114 Office of News Services University of Colorado-Boulder 3100 Marine Street, 5th Floor 584 UCB Boulder, Colorado 80309-0584 Phone: 303-492-6431 _____________________________________________________________________ PROJECT PHOENIX AND THE NEW SEARCH SYSTEM By Peter Backus From Space.com 24 October 2002 Ten years ago, NASA began a targeted search for extraterrestrial intelligence at the Arecibo Observatory. Using technology, the Targeted Search System (TSS), largely developed by the SETI Institute, humanity's most sophisticated SETI program began. One year later, the search was terminated by a budget-conscious US Congress. Fortunately, the Institute secured the long-term loan of the equipment from NASA. Then with private funding, [SI] doubled the size and capability of the TSS, adding the unique ability to immediately test possible signals using two widely separated telescopes. Since 1995, under the name of Project Phoenix, Institute scientists and engineers have conducted the world's most sensitive and comprehensive SETI program. Although the Targeted Search System (TSS) is still the most sophisticated SETI system in the world, it uses computer technology that is more than ten years old. According to Moore's Law, computer power doubles every 18 months. So, after conducting more than 70,000 observations and traveling more than 30,000 miles, it's time to replace the TSS. On November 27, Project Phoenix will inaugurate its New Search System (NSS) and begin a new phase in the search for ET. Based on a modular architecture and programmable integrated circuits, the initial NSS will have roughly the same search power as the old system but occupy less than one fifth of the space. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_backus_021024.html. _____________________________________________________________________ LICANCABUR EXPEDITION JOURNAL: PART TWO By Henry Boortman From Astrobiology Magazine 28 October 2002 This is the second in a series of four articles about a scientific expedition currently under way to explore the highest lake in the world. The lake lies inside the crater of Licancabur, a dormant volcano that straddles the border between Chile and Bolivia. The expedition hopes to learn how the organisms that live in the lake have adapted to the thin atmosphere and damaging high-UV environment some 6000 meters (19,700 feet) above sea level. Astrobiology news editor Henry Bortman conducted an interview on Thursday, October 24th, with expedition leader Nathalie Cabrol. Cabrol is a research scientist affiliated with NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, CA. She spoke to us from a stopover point known as "the Refuge," located 4200 meters (13,800 feet) above sea level, near the base of Licancabur. A group of three lakes--Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde and a third, unnamed lake fed by a thermal spring--are within easy walking distance of the Refuge. Astrobiology Magazine: Can you tell us where you are right now? Nathalie Cabrol: Right now I'm at the Refuge and I'm looking at Laguna Blanca through the window while I'm talking to you. AM: It's supposed to be Spring in the Andes. How is the weather? NC: The weather is stormy. We have storms in the afternoon. It's not too bad, though. It's mainly clouds and it's snowing a little bit on the mountains but it usually disappears the day after. During the day we are at around 15 to 17 degrees C (59° to 63°F). At night it's around 2°C (36°F). We expect that during the day on top of Licancabur right now it is between 3° and 5°C (between 37° and 41°F), and at night the temperature should reach minus 15°C (5°F). AM: What have you been doing while staying at the Refuge besides getting acclimated to the high altitude? NC: We arrived at the Refuge on Monday morning [October 21st]. Monday afternoon we started a tour of the lagunas [lakes] for the members of the team who didn't know the surroundings. Andy [Hoke] and Brian [Grigsby] and Dave [Fike] left to study the thermal pool, which is fed by a thermal spring that is at about 15 degrees C [59°F]. Andy's going to be working the temperature profile and trying to understand the water chemistry of the source. There are many interesting microorganisms and algae in this thermal pool. After that, along with Edmond [Grin], we decided to take a walk. My goal here is to understand the history of the paleolake. And it's a tremendous history as far as we can see. But on that morning we went out around 9:00 just for a walk--nothing more. And we were walking and walking and walking, and we started walking on the terraces of the paleolake [ancient lakebed shorelines] and I stumbled into a prehistoric tool. So we are also doing archaeology. I would say it's about a one-inch-long obsidian tool. It looks to me like a small razor, to cut skin or meat or flesh. To some others it looks like an arrowhead. But it's very interesting because before coming here we all visited the [archeological] museum in San Pedro and learned that these tools can be as old as 5,000 or 10,000 years old. So it was a tremendous finding. It touched us very much because it is kind of a link in time between the past and the present, between the people who lived here and who probably had the same view as we have today. So I have this tool with me right now and I will hand it over to the museum and the people there will label it properly. It's really remarkable. Then we continued our walk. We were heading away from the current lakeshore, which means that we were going back in time. And as we were reaching one of the highest shorelines, I think we made the discovery of a lifetime. We found a field of stromatolites that is larger than anything I have ever seen before. [Stromatolites are the fossil remains of layered, often dome-shaped microbial communities. They are believed to have been one of the dominant forms of life on early Earth.] The field is about 250 meters across and it probably extends several miles. Our guide said that it could extend up to 10 kilometers. And it goes around the lake. This is something I've never seen before. The domes are preserved. The laminations [layers] are preserved. And that was just our first morning. The next day we had a training day. That was Wednesday (October 23). Our goal that day was to reach 5000 meters (16,400 feet) because many of the team members, including me, have never reached that height before. [The summit of Licancabur is at 6000 meters (19,700 feet).] So we wanted to do that, to continue our acclimatization. We not only reached 5000 meters very well, but we went up to 5200 to reach the summit of lower rim of Juriques [another nearby volcano]. So it was a real achievement. It's too bad that the storm chased us down. It became really, really cold and we had to turn back. But it was really a beautiful experience. We walked through the Inca City [ancient Incan ruins] to follow the trail. And once we were way up we looked with an eagle's eye and it looked almost like a blueprint of an archaeologist, that city that archaeologists draw when they are in the field, when they are making plans. So it was very, very impressive. AM: There is second team of scientists based in Antofagasta, on the Chilean coast. I understand they will be visiting you at the refuge during your stay there. NC: We received a visit this morning from Team B--Imre Friedmann, Rosalie Friedmann, Kiss Keeve and Istran Grigorsky. We took them to the different sites we have been exploring so far, the stromatolite field, the lagunas. The two Hungarians collected many, many samples. Just from what they saw, they already think that there are some interesting things. But we had two cases of altitude sickness so we had to ship them back [to Antofagasta] pretty fast this afternoon. We are waiting now for news from them. Tomorrow they will start studying the samples they took today. They will study them in the lab [that is set up at the Universidad Catolica del Norte] in Antofagasta and tell us more about the microbial life in the lagunas. Tomorrow we have a second day of training in the mountains and this one will happen on Licancabur, so that will be our first reconnaissance on the slope. We'll be going as far as we can. We're not planning to reach the summit tomorrow, but we'll go as far as we can. AM: When do you plan to begin your climb to the summit? NC: We will start the ascent on the 27th. We will sleep the first night in Inca City. The day after, we will climb to 5400 meters (17,700 feet) and we will spend the night there. Meanwhile the porters will bring all our equipment to the summit. The day after that, on the 29th, we should reach the summit and sleep two nights there. We should be down November 1st, if we have no weather delays. Additional information on this article is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article301.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/licancabur2_021028.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 28October 2002 Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s2.html H. Boortman, 2002. Licancabur expedition journal: part two. Astrobiology Magazine. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s3.html K. Miller, 2002. How astronauts get along. NASA Science News. Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html P. Backus, 2002. Project Phoenix and the new search system. Space.com. _____________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 17-23 October 2002 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, October 23. 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/. On-board activities included setting of the CDS flight software equivalency bit, a memory readout of Assisted Load Format addresses for beginning and end of flight software loads, a Reaction Wheel Assembly momentum unload, a Stellar Reference Unit calibration, transition from Reaction Wheel to Reaction Control Subsystem control, and a high watermark clear. Additional instrument activities included Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibrations and Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, and Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph stellar observations of Fomulhaut, Canopus, epsilon Orionis, alpha Leonis, lambda Scorpii and eta Ursa Majori. ISS performed a geometric calibration and observations of Saturn. A total of 59 images was delivered to Southwest Research Institute on Monday, with a select set of images displayed on JPL monitors within an hour of generation of the data files. Cassini is currently traveling at 28,330 kilometers per hour and is 284.662 million kilometers from Saturn. The B version of the C35 background sequence products have been published to the Distributed Object Manager. A preliminary Sequence Integration & Validation Sequence Change Request meeting is scheduled for next week. SIRTF has requested DSN passes on 6 and 9 January 2003. This will result in a change to the DSN allocation file for C35 but will not impact Gravity Wave Experiment #2. The 29th session of the Cassini Project Science Group (PSG) was held this week at JPL. Representatives from all instrument teams came to the lab to participate. Mission Support and Services Office and Instrument Operations personnel have completed testing of theVirtual Private Network (VPN). The first router with VPN hardware will be shipped to RPWS next week. Engineering Change Requests for Cassini Information Management System 2.4 involving Science Planning Attitude Spread Sheet implementation, Prime/Rider instrument coordination, and Data Volume Calculation have been released to the flight team for review and impact. Software Requirement Certification Review meetings were held for RPWS and Cosmic Dust Analyzer flight software builds. Both have been accepted for uplink in December. Mission Assurance presented a Risk Management briefing to Principle Investigators who are at JPL attending PSG meetings. The talk covered an introduction to risk management, some background on the Cassini process and several sample risk statements. PIs have been tasked to identify risks relative to the health & safety of their instruments, as well as any risks that would threaten their instrument science or mission objectives. This group will convene again at the January 2003 PSG, to disposition and obtain concurrence on the risks generated as a part of this exercise. The Cassini Planetarium Show has delivered a script for review, and signed on Robert Picardo to narrate. Mr. Picardo is known to many as a member of the cast from the Voyager television series. 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 21-27 October 2002 The pace quickens The science observation sequence for Galileo's final satellite encounter begins this week. On Monday, October 21, the Fields and Particles suite of instruments is turned on and configured to collect continuous data for the next three weeks. During this time, the spacecraft passes the tiny inner moon Amalthea, and passes closer to Jupiter than any spacecraft since Pioneer 10 and 11 sped by nearly three decades ago. The instruments participating in the Galileo data collection are the Dust Detector, the Energetic Particle Detector, the Heavy Ion Counter, the Magnetometer, the Plasma Subsystem, and the Plasma Wave Subsystem. While these data are being collected, occasional gaps in the ground communications antenna coverage require the data to be stored in an on-board computer memory buffer, and when that buffer fills, the data are copied onto the tape recorder for later playback. To prepare for these buffer dumps, the tape is moved on Monday to the correct position to begin recording. Over the next two weeks the buffer is dumped to tape 14 times. On Thursday, October 24, a test of the gyroscopes that help determine the spacecraft attitude is performed. This test will help engineers decide if any of the software parameters that are used to process the gyro data need to be updated before the maneuver that will occur next week. On Friday, October 25, routine maintenance of the propulsion system is performed. Also on that day the spacecraft closes to within 100 Jupiter radii (7.1 million kilometers or 4.4 million miles) of the giant planet. Finally, on Sunday, October 27, the sequence of commands that will govern spacecraft activity during the week of the close Amalthea flyby will be transmitted to Galileo. 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 02-268 23 October 2002 The crew of Expedition Five began their final sample collection period with the Renal Stone experiment during the past week, completing a study of a drug that could prevent kidney stones during long duration space missions. The final Renal Stone session began Friday and continued through Tuesday for all crewmembers. The microgravity environment of the Station results in several changes in the human body, including changes in fluid metabolism and bone loss that increase the chance of kidney stone formation during and after flight. As part of the study, all three Station crew members are taking either two potassium citrate pills--a proven Earth-based therapy to minimize calcium-containing renal stone development--or a placebo as part of this "blind" study, beginning three days before launch and continuing through 14 days after landing. Crewmembers collect urine samples and record their food, fluid, exercise and medication to assess environmental influences other than microgravity. Space Station Science Officer Peggy Whitson is the principal investigator for this experiment. On Sunday, the crew completed collection of radiation readings on all 12 EVA Radiation Monitoring (EVARM) EVARM dosimeter badges onboard the Station. EVARM is designed to measure radiation dosages received by specific parts of the body during spacewalks. The badges are worn in pockets in the cooling undergarment of the U.S. EVA suits. On Tuesday, the crew reviewed activation procedures for the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA) and activated the hardware. CGBA was ferried to the station last week by the STS-112 Space Shuttle mission. During joint operations, CGBA served as an incubator for three cell culturing experiments involving human kidney cells, salmonella and yeast. Those experiments were transferred to the Space Shuttle for return to Earth. The CGBA hardware was transferred to the Station, where it will serve as a refrigerator for storing plant samples from the Plant Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus when the planned plant growth cycle ends later this month. BioServe, a NASA Commercial Space Center, located at the University of Colorado-Boulder, is studying possible applications of this phenomenon. Today (Wednesday) selected members of the crew completed their Crew Interactions survey on the Human Research Facility laptop computer. The hard drive data will be returned on an upcoming Shuttle mission for analysis. The experiment identifies important interpersonal and cultural factors that may affect the performance of the crew and ground support personnel during International Space Station missions. The crew today also collected background radiation dosimeter badge readings on the EVARM badges in preparation for spacewalks during the STS-113 Space Shuttle mission. On Friday, the crew is scheduled to conduct a routine 90-day health check on the Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis Physiology (GASMAP). GASMAP is used to periodically assess crew aerobic capacity by checking heart output, lung diffusing capacity, lung volume, pulmonary function, and nitrogen washout. The Zeolite Crystal Growth experiment, activated on October 12, continued to function normally during the past week and is scheduled for deactivation on Monday, October 28. The Protein Crystal Growth Single Thermal Enclosure System experiment, which arrived on the STS- 112 mission, also continued to function normally. The Plant Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, which arrived on STS-112, is functioning normally. It is growing a crop of Arabidopsis plants for studying the role of gravity on lignin, a plant substance that affects the strength of plant stalks and stems. Ground teams are trouble-shooting a problem transmitting video from the experiment that will allow scientists on Earth to monitor the growth and determine the harvest time. Harvest is now scheduled for October 28. The growth will be stopped and the plants frozen for return to Earth. Science Officer Peggy Whitson will plant a second crop of Arabidopsis plants that will grow until it is returned to Earth at the end of Expedition Five. Crew Earth Observation photography subjects for this week included the Amazon River, the Hawaiian Island chain and ocean currents, and Eastern Mediterranean dust plumes. 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 21-25 October 2002 Lava Flows of Daedalia Planum (Released 21 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021021a.htm Reull Vallis (Released 22 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021022a.htm Coprates Chasma Landslide (Released 23 October 2002 http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021023a.htm Pavonis Mars Summit Caldera (Released 24 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021024a.htm Scaly-skinned Mars (Released 25 October 2002) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20021025a.htm 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 25 October 2002 Stardust is being prepared to conduct a series of engineering tests as it passes near asteroid 5535 Annefrank on November 2. The spacecraft is operating in good health and continuing to collect interstellar dust. The flight team had one period of radio contact with the spacecraft this week through JPL's Deep Space Network. The mission's Spacecraft Test Laboratory is testing software that Stardust will use during its flyby of the asteroid. The software will be transmitted to the spacecraft beginning October 29. Stardust will pass within about 3,000 kilometers of asteroid Annefrank at 04:50 November 2 (Universal Time). The asteroid is estimated to be about 4 kilometers across, based on its apparent brightness. 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 40.