MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 2, 13 January 2003. 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) 40 ASTRONAUTS TO VISIT ISS IN 2003 From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 2) RADIATION-RESISTANT ORGANISM REVEALS ITS DEFENSE STRATEGIES--THE SECRET TO ITS STRENGTH IS A RING Weizmann Institute release 3) NEW ODYSSEY DATA AVAILABLE ONLINE AT PDS NASA Planetary Data System release 4) MARS SOCIETY ANNOUNCES KEPLER DESIGN CONTEST Mars Society release 5) WHAT DOES ET LOOK LIKE FROM 40 LIGHT YEARS AWAY? By David Tenenbaum 6) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 7) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 8) INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SCIENCE OPERATIONS STATUS REPORT NASA/MSFC release 03-005 9) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 10) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release ________________________________________________________________________ 40 ASTRONAUTS TO VISIT ISS IN 2003 From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 8 January 2003 Forty astronauts from three continents will journey to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2003, the Russian space agency was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying on Wednesday. Three joint US-Russian permanent missions of three persons each will stay on the ISS for around four months, while 31 other astronauts hailing from countries in the ISS international consortium will stay for shorter, seven-to-10-day periods, the agency said. They will travel to the ISS on US Space Shuttles and Russian Soyuz rockets, bringing vital supplies like oxygen, water, fuel and food to further develop the space platform, it added. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030108181300.61vo1sbj.html. ________________________________________________________________________ RADIATION-RESISTANT ORGANISM REVEALS ITS DEFENSE STRATEGIES--THE SECRET TO ITS STRENGTH IS A RING Weizmann Institute release 9 January 2003 Weizmann Institute scientists have found what makes the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans the most radiation-resistant organism in the world. The microbe's DNA is packed tightly into a ring. The findings, published in the January 10 issue of Science, solve a mystery that has long engaged the scientific community [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/299/5604/254]. The red bacterium can withstand 1.5 million rads--a thousand times more than any other life form on Earth and three thousand that of humans. Its healthy appetite has made it a reliable worker at nuclear waste sites, where it eats up nuclear waste and transforms it into more disposable derivatives. The ability to withstand other extreme stresses, such as dehydration and low temperatures, makes the microbe one of the few life forms found on the North Pole. It's not surprising, then, that it has been the source of much curiosity worldwide, recently leading to a debate between NASA and Russian scientists--the latter saying that it originated on Mars, where radiation levels are higher. Since DNA is the first part of a cell to be damaged by radiation and the most lethal damage is the breakage of both DNA strands, scientists have focused on DNA repair mechanisms to find the answer to the microbe's resilience. Cells, including human cells, can mend only very few such breaks in their DNA. Microbes, for example, can repair only three to five. Yet D. radiodurans can fix more than 200. Thus scientists believed that the microbe must possess uniquely effective enzymes that repair DNA. However, a series of experiments showed that the microbe's repair enzymes were very similar to those existing in ordinary bacteria. Using an assortment of optical and electron microscopy methods, Professor Avi Minsky of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Organic Chemistry Department found that the microbe's DNA is organized in a unique ring that prevents pieces of DNA broken by radiation from floating off into the cell's liquids. Unlike other organisms, in which DNA fragments are lost due to radiation, this microbe does not lose genetic information because it keeps the severed DNA fragments tightly locked in the ring--by the hundreds, if necessary. The fragments, held close, eventually come back together in the correct, original order, reconstructing the DNA strands. As exciting as these findings may be, they aren't expected to lead to the protection of humans from radiation. "Our DNA is structured in a fundamentally different manner," says Minsky. The results may, however, lead to a better understanding of DNA protection in sperm cells, where a ring-like DNA structure has also been observed. More survival tricks Minsky's team also found that the microbe undergoes two phases of DNA repair. During the first phase the DNA fixes itself within the ring as described. It then performs an even more unusual stunt. The bacterium is composed of four compartments, each containing one copy of DNA. Minsky's group found two small passages between the compartments. After about an hour and a half of repair within the ring, the DNA unfolds and migrates to an adjacent compartment--where it mingles with the copy of DNA residing there. Then the "regular" repair machinery, common in humans and bacteria alike, comes into play -- repair enzymes compare between the two copies of DNA, using each as a template to fix the other. Since the DNA has already been through one phase of repair in which many of the breaks are fixed, this phase can be completed relatively easily. ...and a backup system The finding of a tightly packed ring made the team wonder how the bacterium could live and function under normal conditions. DNA strands must unfurl to perform their job of protein production. How can they do that if they can barely budge? This question led to the uncovering of another of the microbe's survival strategies: out of the four copies of DNA, there are always two or three tightly packed in a ring while the other copies are free to move about. Thus at any given moment there are copies of DNA that drive the production of proteins and others that are inactive but continuously protected. Minsky, along with other scientists, believes that the bacterium's answer to acute stresses evolved on Earth as a response to the harsh environments from which it might have emerged. It is one of the few life forms found in extremely dry areas. The unique defense mechanism that evolved to help it combat dehydration proves useful in protecting it from radiation. Deinococcus radiodurans was discovered decades ago in canned food that was sterilized using radiation. Red patches appeared in the cans-- colonies of the bacterium--setting off questions as to how it could have survived. Though these questions have now been answered, the tide of speculation as to how these defense mechanisms evolved--and where--is likely to continue. The original version of this article is available at http://wis- wander.weizmann.ac.il/site/EN/weizman.asp?pi=372&doc_id=3123. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03c.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ODYSSEY DATA AVAILABLE ONLINE AT PDS NASA Planetary Data System release 9 January 2003 The second release of science data from the 2001 Mars Odyssey Mission occurred January 1, 2003. This release includes data acquired between April 1, 2002, and June 30, 2002, by the suite of science instruments on the Odyssey orbiter. Also included are revised versions of all previously released data products from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) instruments. Odyssey data are released every three months. The THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) release includes: - Visible and infrared raw, uncalibrated image cubes (EDRs), - Visible and infrared calibrated radiance image cubes (RDRs), - Special product visible Apparent Brightness Records (ABRs), - Special product infrared Brightness Temperature Records (BTRs). The Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) release includes: - Raw, uncalibrated spectra (EDRs) from the gamma sensor (GSH), neutron spectrometer (NS), and high energy neutron detector (HEND), - Gamma ray spectra corrected to a common energy scale (CGS). The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) release includes: - Raw, reformatted event and count data (REDRs), - Derived event data (RDRs) (to be released approximately January 15), - Housekeeping data. The SPICE (navigation and ancillary files) release includes: - Spacecraft trajectory files (SPK), - Mars, martian satellites and Sun ephemeris file (SPK), - Spacecraft, solar array, and HGA orientation files (CK), - On-board clock correlation file (SCLK), - Instrument parameter files (IK), - IAU 2000 Mars rotation and shape file (PcK), - Spacecraft and instrument frame definitions file (FK), - Latest leapseconds file (LSK). Radio Science data are released every few weeks, including: - Archival Tracking Data Files (ATDF), - Orbit Data Files (ODF), - Radio Science Receiver records (RSR). All of the above Odyssey data is now available through the Planetary Data System PDS-D online service at http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds. This service provides search and download capabilities for all Odyssey data sets. More information on Odyssey data may be found on the Odyssey Data Archives web site at http://wwwpds.wustl.edu/missions/odyssey/. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS SOCIETY ANNOUNCES KEPLER DESIGN CONTEST Mars Society release 11 January 2003 The Mars Society announced today that it is initiating an annual open spacecraft design contest. Named the Kepler Prize after the great renaissance thinker who first derived the laws of celestial motion based on observations of the planet Mars, the award for the winning team each year will be a trophy and two crew slots in the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station. In addition, the winning team will be invited to present its work at a plenary session of the Mars Society's international convention. The contest is open to all individuals and teams who want to contribute their ideas in Mars mission design. For its first year's contest, the Kepler Prize will be given to the team that presents the best design of an Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) for use in piloted Mars missions. In the contest, participants will propose their design for the ERV and have it judged based on set criteria and mission requirements. The ERV is a critical piece of the Mars Direct mission plan, (for details see, The Case for Mars, by Zubrin and Wagner, and/or http://www.nw.net/mars/). The ERV flies to Mars autonomously, landing on the surface and using an on-board supply of hydrogen to create fuel, oxygen, and water for extended operations when the crew arrives later. The same fuel and oxygen are used to propel the crew (and the ERV) back to Earth when their mission is complete. The contest is built on an academic timeline to facilitate its use as a class project for universities, and formally kicks off at The Mars Society convention in Eugene Oregon August 2003. See www.marssociety.org for convention details. At the convention, competition organizers will present the basic design requirements for the ERV, and distribute a request for proposal, detailing design requirements as well as reporting timelines and formats. Throughout the school year, questions from teams will be fielded over email, with responses broadcast to all participants. A short mid-term report will be due in December, and the final report will be due in May 2004. Winners will be announced in July, and be invited to the Mars Society convention in 2004 to present their design. At this time, the Mars Society Kepler Prize oversight team is forming and composing initial drafts of the requirements document. Expect a reference list and educational contacts in the next months. If anyone has questions about the competition before then, please contact Kepler Prize Contest Chairman Tom Hill at hillkid@earthlink.net. To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org, or contact info@marssociety.org. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT DOES ET LOOK LIKE FROM 40 LIGHT YEARS AWAY? By David Tenenbaum From Astrobiology Magazine 13 January 2003 The discovery of about 100 extrasolar planets over the past decade has placed a momentous task on the scientific agenda: finding planets that could harbor life. Most of the newly discovered planets are gas giants that orbit close to their stars. They're broiling hot, and probably dead. The job of Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is to find "terrestrial" (Earthlike) planets, and then to scan them for biosignatures--chemical signs of life. Reading biosignatures requires knowing how life would change a planet. But Earth is the only planet that we know for certain is a living world. Although Earth now glows with a distinctive biosignature of oxygen and methane, it has not always done so. To be comprehensive, TPF must be able to search for far more than just present-day terrestrial conditions. And thus its search algorithm and technology rest on understanding how life has affected our planet's atmosphere over the entire history of life on Earth, from the time (some 3 to 4 billion years ago) when life first emerged until the present. When launched in 10 to 15 years, TPF will study many different aspects of planets beyond the solar system, including their formation, abundance, locations, and suitability for life. TPF will focus on stars that could have planetary systems, says James Kasting, a professor of geoscience at Penn State who has worked on the biosignature issue for the mission. "The baseline plan is look out 40 to 50 light years [about 250 to 300 trillion miles], where there are several thousand stars. Within that range are about 120 single solar-type stars that we think are most likely to harbor Earthlike planets." To be of interest, a planet must have the fundamental requirements of familiar life--warmth, energy and liquid water--because nobody can figure out how to recognize the effects of unforeseeable life forms. "The best we can do is assume that life requires the kind of chemistry that we understand on Earth: carbon chemistry dependent on liquid water," says spectroscopist Wesley Traub of the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "I have resigned myself to look for planets that look just like the past or present Earth." TPF's telescope will block light from a planet's star, then perform a spectroscopic analysis on the faint light reflecting from the planet's surface. The instrument will use absorption spectroscopy to measure the identities and abundances of gas molecules in the planet's atmosphere that block specific frequencies of light reflected by the planet. As mission planners move toward a decision on whether to build a spectroscope that will detect infrared or visible light, they have focused on four gases that are found in Earth's atmosphere and linked to life. Water vapor: a baseline sign, indicating the presence of liquid water, a requirement of known life. Carbon dioxide: can be created by biological and non-biological processes. Because it is necessary for photosynthesis, it would indicate the possible presence of green plants. Methane: considered suggestive of life, it also can be made both by biological and non-biological processes. Molecular oxygen (O2) or its proxy, ozone (O3): the most reliable indicator of the presence of life, but still not conclusive. A discussion of gas Unless molecular oxygen in the atmosphere is constantly replenished by photosynthesis, it is quickly consumed in chemical reactions, in the atmosphere, on land and in seawater. So the presence of a large amount of oxygen in an extrasolar planet's atmosphere would be a sign that it might host an ecosystem like present-day Earth's. Measuring oxygen may also prove useful, indirectly, in detecting living planets that resemble Earth before the rise of photosynthesis. "We can tell the ages of stars to moderate precision," says Neville Woolf, a telescope builder at the University of Arizona who has advised the TPF project, "and so if TPF were to find that younger stars had planets without oxygen, and older stars had planets with oxygen, we would think that life had probably started on the younger planets, but not yet taken sufficient control of the environment as to be visible." An additional oxygen-related biosignature is the possibility of detecting green plants that make oxygen. Chlorophyll reflects near- infrared light very strongly, a phenomenon known as the "red edge" because the light is just beyond the range of colors human eyes can see. (If humans could see the red edge, plants would look red instead of green.) Near-infrared cameras would have no trouble picking up this distinctive signal. Although methane is often biogenic, detecting it on a distant world would not automatically indicate the presence of life. Jupiter and Saturn, for example, have traces of it. Methane, Traub points out, is "produced easily in primitive solar nebula. There is a huge amount of methane floating around in the universe." Moreover, TPF probably could not see methane at Earth's present concentration, 1.6 parts per million (ppm), since its spectroscopic lines overlap those of water. However, methane levels around 1,000 ppm may have occurred on Earth between 2.3 and 3 billion years ago, produced as a waste byproduct by primitive microorganisms called methanogens. This strong a methane signal would probably be visible to a TPF-style detector, Kasting says, who adds that methane would be a "suggestive but not convincing" biosignature. Finding oxygen along with methane might constitute the most convincing biosignature. "On Earth, we have loads of oxygen, so you should never see any methane, it would all be oxidized by oxygen, to form water and carbon dioxide," says Traub, who has worked on the biosignature issue. "The fact that we do see methane in Earth's atmosphere means it's not in equilibrium. That methane has to be continually produced." And life, in the form of methanogenic bacteria and photosynthetic plants, is the most likely source of the two gases. In the 1960s, Kasting adds, British biologist James Lovelock proposed that the simultaneous presence of oxygen and a reduced gas such as methane would be a convincing indication of life. "Nothing is totally unambiguous," says Kasting, "but this is the best test for life." However, many living worlds may never reach the stage of having much oxygen in the atmosphere. On Earth, to take the only example we know of, cyanobacteria did not start starting cranking out oxygen until some time before 2.3 billion ago. Primitive life on terrestrial planets may not have had time to progress beyond this stage, or may be snuffed before photosynthesis arises. How to find such worlds? What's next? As TPF planners move toward a decision on whether to build a spectroscope that will measure visible or infrared light, their ability to distinguish a wide variety of biosignatures depends on improving our picture of how early life changed Earth billions of years ago. One possibility now getting some attention is to search for methanethiol (CH3SH), which is produced during the decay of biological material. This compound, also called methyl mercaptan, is created through the degradation of the amino acid methionine," says Carl Pilcher of the Astronomy and Physics Division at NASA headquarters. Since all life today uses the same 20 amino acids, he says, "There is every reason to think methionine was used by early life, and every reason to think the same process of degradation was going on then." While Pilcher acknowledges that methanethiol is simply an early-stage proposal that may not pan out, it would address a difficult problem facing TPF. "We certainly understand what to look for once there is oxygen in the atmosphere--you look for oxygen or ozone, and traces of reduced gases like methane that are way out of equilibrium with the oxygenated atmosphere. What you look for in the early atmosphere is really the challenge." Astrobiologists advising the TPF project face a basic limitation--nobody can predict the nature of extraterrestrial life. Woolf points out that Earth's subterranean biosphere, which by some estimates contains half of the entire planet's biomass, was essentially unknown a decade or two ago. In designing TPF, he says, "We cannot look for generalized life on other worlds. We can only look for those particular forms of life that produce signatures that are unlikely to arise from any other process." The original version of this article is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article354.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 13 January 2003 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles1. html D. Tenenbaum, 2003. What does ET look like from 40 light years away? Astrobiology Magazine. University of Washington, 2003. Finding life away from Earth will be a tough ask. SpaceDaily. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles2. html S. Levin-Zaidman, J. Englander, E. Shimoni, A. K. Sharma, K. W. Minton and A. Minsky, 2003. Ringlike structure of the Deinococcus radiodurans genome: a key to radioresistance? Science, 299(5604)254-256. Weizmann Institute, 2003. Radiation-resistant organism reveals its defense strategies. SpaceDaily. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles3. html Agence France-Presse, 2003. 40 astronauts to visit ISS in 2003. SpaceDaily. Astrobiology and extreme environments book list http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology_book s.htm P. Ward and D. Brownlee, 2003. The Life and Death of Planet Earth. Times Books. ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 2-8 January 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, January 8. 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/operations/present-position.cfm. On-board activities this week included Radio and Plasma Wave (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibrations, an autonomous Solid State Recorder Memory Load Partition repair, and clearing of the ACS high water marks. The Command and Data System (CDS) Team successfully patched the CDS flight software to add a five bit per second telemetry mode. The five bit per second telemetry mode patch is necessary to properly configure the Version 7 CDS flight software prior to uplink of the Version 9 CDS flight software which will begin in March, 2003. Gravitational Wave Experiment #2 continued successfully during the fifth of its six weeks. The Ka-band and X-band uplinks have been nominal, and the Ka-Band Translator has locked successfully and remained in lock during passes. On DOY 006, the monopulse tracking system went out of lock shortly after 2-way acquisition when it was enabled, probably due to high winds nearing 50 MPH in the desert. A short time later it was re-enabled, and remained in lock throughout the rest of the pass. The Spacecraft Operations Office began a series of Probe Relay Operational Verification Tests to test a portion of ground operations during the probe mission. The purpose of the test is to verify the ground processes, software, and Cassini/Huygens interfaces which will provide updated pointing information to the orbiter for tracking Huygens during the descent phase. The tests will be performed three times throughout January. System Engineering kicked-off an update of the Workforce Analysis Task. In addition to revisions to the Science Operations Plan and Science and Sequence Uplink Process processes, the update will include additional uplink activities including live Inertial Vector Propagator updates, moveable blocks, and real-time commanding. Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) personnel have completed a draft update of the ISS Operations Handbook, and distributed it for review. 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. ________________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SCIENCE OPERATIONS STATUS REPORT NASA/MSFC release 03-005 10 January 2003 Remotely operated science combined with the human touch got the second Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG) experiment off to a good start during the past week. On Friday, January 3, Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox unloaded samples completed two days earlier from the zeolite experiment and reconfigured the furnace for another round of tests. After twirling each of the 19 new sample tubes to reduce the number of bubbles in them, he installed the samples in the ZCG furnace to begin a scheduled 15-day processing run. On the ground, the Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing at Northeastern University, Boston, MA transmitted commands to initiate sample mixing. When one sample appeared to jam, Bowersox used a hand drill instead to mix the sample and begin processing. "The autoclave malfunctioned due to the particular sand-like nature of the mixture," said Expedition Six Lead Increment Scientist Vic Cooley. "Although this experiment is controlled from the ground, Ken Bowersox's ability to intervene, assess the problem and take corrective action enabled the science team to begin processing all of their samples. It's also a good example of how humans in space and humans on the ground can work together to achieve more than they could separately." Zeolites are used in many manufacturing processes on Earth. Virtually all the world's gasoline is produced or upgraded using zeolites. Improving zeolites could make gasoline production more efficient or lead to ways of storing clean-burning hydrogen for fuel. Zeolites can also be applied to detergents, optical cables, gas and vapor detectors for environmental monitoring. The microgravity environment of the Space Station allows scientists to grow higher-quality crystals that are 100 to 500 times larger than normal for analysis and test the crystallization process in "slow motion" without being rushed by the effects of gravity. On Monday, January 6, Bowersox set up the FOOT/Ground Reaction Forces During Space Flight (FOOT) experiment and conducted the experiment on Tuesday. He transferred the data Wednesday to the HRF laptop computer for downlinking later. FOOT is designed to characterize the stress on the bones and muscles in the lower extremities in microgravity. On Thursday, all three crewmembers participated in the Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF) experiment. The PuFF session will serve double-duty as both a monthly and a pre-spacewalk test. PuFF focuses on lung function both following spacewalks and during long stays in microgravity--laying the groundwork for future experiments which are key to understanding and maintaining crew health. The crew during the week also continued to perform daily status and maintenance checks on Space Station science payloads and equipment. They are continuing to participate in the Renal Stone experiment, in which they take potassium citrate or a placebo pill as a possible preventative for kidney stone formation in microgravity. The Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) and the Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS) continue to collect acceleration data to characterize the microgravity environment of the station necessary for planning future microgravity experiments. The Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG- STES) experiment continues to function normally in its automated mode. The passive Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE) is also in progress and scheduled to be retrieved for return to Earth during Expedition Seven. Crew Earth Observation photography subjects this week included: the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, southwest Libyan geology, southwest Sudan, Lagos, Nigeria, Miami, Florida, Navassa Island in the Caribbean, Caracas, Venezuela, Las Vegas, Nevada, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, and the Isla del Coco in Costa Rica. 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 NASA/MSFC, Huntsville, AL Phone: 256-544-0034 ________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 6-10 January 2003 Resurfaced Mars (Released 6 January 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030106a.html Complex and Perplexing Mars (Released 7 January 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030107a.html Candor Chasma Mesa (Released 8 January 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030108a.html Melas Chasma Deposits (Released 9 January 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030109a.html Shalbatana/Simud Vallis Junction (Released 10 January 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030110a.html All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. ________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 10 January 2003 During this past week, the Stardust flight team had two periods of communication with the spacecraft courtesy of the antennas of JPL's Deep Space Network. The telemetry relayed during this interval indicated the spacecraft is healthy and all subsystems were running normally. On Tuesday, January 2, 2003, the countdown clock to Stardust's encounter with Comet Wild 2 dropped below the one-year mark. Next month (February 7, 2003), will be another milestone as Stardust begins its third year of space exploration. These milestones, and the entire Stardust mission, were chronicled by Stardust's Principle Investigator, Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington, during his January 6 keynote speech to the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. 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 10, Number 2.