MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 9, 3 March 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) THE SEARCH FOR TERRESTRIAL PLANETS ORBITING AROUND OTHER STARS Max Planck Institute for Astronomy release 2) EXPLOSIVE REGULATIONS THREATEN TO KILL MODEL ROCKETRY By Jim Banke 3) PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT SENDS LAST SIGNAL NASA/ARC release 03-13AR 4) WHY WE FLY By John Carter McKnight 5) MARS: TILTING TOWARDS LIFE? By Henry Bortman 6) GALILEO TEAM DISBANDING AS LONG JUPITER TOUR WINDS DOWN NASA/JPL release 2003-026 7) NASA FINDS REMNANTS OF ANCIENT STARS IN EARTH'S UPPER ATMOSPHERE NASA release 03-084 8) NEW SPACECRAFT TOOL REVEALS MASSIVE GAS CLOUD AROUND JUPITER NASA release 2003-028 9) JUPITER ICY MOONS ORBITER From JPL's First Light 10) GREAT IMPACT DEBATE, PART IV: ON A COLLISION COURSE FOR EARTH Moderated by Don Yeomans 11) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 12) CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 13) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 14) THIS YEAR ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 15) MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS (MER): SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT NASA/KSC release 16) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES February 24-28 2003 17) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release ________________________________________________________________________ THE SEARCH FOR TERRESTRIAL PLANETS ORBITING AROUND OTHER STARS Max Planck Institute for Astronomy release 18 February 2003 The first planet orbiting a star other than our Sun was found in 1995. With this fundamental discovery, the eternal question of the cosmic uniqueness of our life-bearing Earth was removed from the realm of pure speculation and put on a firm scientific basis. Immediately, astronomers all over the world began collaborations to extend this basis and to interpret the newly obtained observational results. To date, more than one hundred extrasolar planets are known. These are all giant planets, similar to (or even larger than) Jupiter. They are also located quite close to their parent stars, simplifying the detection process. Because of their size and proximity to their suns, these planets are not likely to harbor life. Finding planets similar to the Earth is considerably more difficult, and so far, none are known outside our solar system. The detection of terrestrial extrasolar planets and the detailed study of the conditions prevailing on their surfaces (including the potential presence of life) will require a variety of technological breakthroughs. Both ESA in Europe and NASA in the United States have accepted this challenge and are preparing two extremely demanding international space missions: Darwin (ESA), and Terrestrial Planet Finder (NASA). Both missions are planned for the year 2014. In order to prepare for these missions, scientists and engineers from a variety of fields will be working together in international consortia. To coordinate this work, a series of conferences has been conceived, the first of which will be held in Heidelberg in April 22-25,2003. The conference, organized by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, is entitled: Toward other Earths, Darwin, TPF and the Search for Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets. The following areas will be covered at this meeting: * Planet search methods * Earlier projects and their role as precursors for * Darwin/TPF * Planet formation and evolution * Astrobiology in the context of Darwin/TPF * Technological developments for Darwin/TPF Prominent scientists, experts in space technologies, representatives of the space agencies and industrial firms from all over the world have announced their participation. Confirmed speakers include: * Professor Steven Beckwith (STScI, Baltimore) * Professor Charles Beichman (JPL, Pasadena) * Professor Pascale Ehrenfreund (Leiden) * Professor Martin Harwit (Washington) * Professor Michel Mayor (Geneva) * Professor Alain Léger (Paris) The conference will be held in the Heidelberg Conference Center. A Press conference will take place on Tuesday, April 23, 2003, from 10:00- 11:00 AM at the Conference Center. Participants will include: * Professor Thomas Henning (Heidelberg), Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy * Professor Michel Mayor (Geneva), the discoverer of the first extrasolar planet * Professor Malcolm Friedlund (ESA), Project scientist for Darwin * Professor Charles Beichman (Pasadena, USA), Project scientist for TPF * Professor Jill Tarter (Mountain View, USA), Director of the SETI Institute A public lecture, by Jill Tarter, Director of the SETI Research Institute (SETI = Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), will take place on Wednesday, April 23, at 8:00 PM. The title of the lecture will be, "SETI: Science Fact, Not Fiction". A detailed conference program and further information are available at http://www.mpia.de, or contact: darwin@mpia.de. Read the original press release at http://www.mpia- hd.mpg.de/Public/Aktuelles/PR/2003/PR030218/PR_030218_en.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-03f.html. ________________________________________________________________________ EXPLOSIVE REGULATIONS THREATEN TO KILL MODEL ROCKETRY By Jim Banke From Space.com 25 February 2003 A provision deep within the regulations of the new Homeland Security Act is threatening to shut down the popular hobby of model rocketry because the propellant used to make the rocket's solid-fueled motors is now classified as explosive material. The change in status, approved in November 2002 as an update to the Safe Explosives Act of 1970, imposes new restrictions on shipping and handling the rocket motors, which have been safely flown by thousands of students for many years. Under the new rules, which fully take effect May 24, shipping companies are required to have every employee who might touch the rocket motors be certified, pass background checks and get fingerprinted--an added expense the companies are unlikely to bear. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rocketry_security_020325.html. ________________________________________________________________________ PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT SENDS LAST SIGNAL NASA/ARC release 03-13AR 25 February 2003 After more than 30 years, it appears the venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer's last, very weak signal was received on January 22, 2003. NASA engineers report that Pioneer 10's radioisotope power source has decayed, and it may not have enough power to send additional transmissions to Earth. NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) did not detect a signal during the last contact attempt on February 7, 2003. The previous three contacts, including the January 22 signal, were very faint, with no telemetry received. The last time a Pioneer 10 contact returned telemetry data was April 27, 2002. NASA has no additional contact attempts planned for Pioneer 10. "Pioneer 10 was a pioneer in the true sense of the word. After it passed Mars on its long journey into deep space, it was venturing into places where nothing built by humanity had ever gone before," said Dr. Colleen Hartman, director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "It ranks among the most historic as well as the most scientifically rich exploration missions ever undertaken," she said. "Originally designed for a 21-month mission, Pioneer 10 exceeded all expectations and lasted more than 30 years. It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our money's worth," said Pioneer 10 Project Manager, Dr. Larry Lasher of NASA Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley. Pioneer 10 was built by TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA, and was launched on March 2, 1972 on a three-stage Atlas-Centaur rocket. Pioneer 10 reached a speed of 32,400 mph needed for the flight to Jupiter, making it the fastest human-made object to leave the Earth; fast enough to pass the moon in 11 hours and to cross Mars' orbit, about 50 million miles away, in just 12 weeks. On July 15, 1972, Pioneer 10 entered the asteroid belt, a doughnut- shaped area that measures some 175 million miles wide and 50 million miles thick. The material in the belt travels at speeds up to 45,000 mph and ranges in size from dust particles to rock chunks as big as Alaska. Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt, considered a spectacular achievement, and then headed toward Jupiter. Accelerating to a speed of 82,000 mph, Pioneer 10 passed by Jupiter on December 3, 1973. The spacecraft was the first to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Pioneer 10 also charted the gas giant's intense radiation belts, located the planet's magnetic field, and established that Jupiter is predominantly a liquid planet. In 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first human-made object to pass the orbit of Pluto, the most distant planet from the sun. Following its encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 10 explored the outer regions of the solar system, studying energetic particles from the sun (solar wind), and cosmic rays entering our portion of the Milky Way. The spacecraft continued to make valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of the solar system until its science mission ended on March 31, 1997. Since that time, Pioneer 10's weak signal has been tracked by the DSN as part of a new advanced concept study of communication technology in support of NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission. At last contact, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, or 82 times the nominal distance between the sun and the Earth. A that distance, it takes more than 11 hours and 20 minutes for the radio signal, traveling at the speed of light, to reach the Earth. "From Ames Research Center and the Pioneer Project, we send our thanks to the many people at the Deep Space Network and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who made it possible to hear the spacecraft signal for this long," said Pioneer 10 Flight Director David Lozier, also of NASA Ames. Pioneer 10 explored Jupiter, traveled twice as far as the most distant planet in our solar system, and as Earth's first emissary into space, is carrying a gold plaque that describes what we look like, where we are and the date when the mission began. Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship through deep space into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus (The Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light years away. It will take Pioneer 10 more than 2 million years to reach it. Its sister ship, Pioneer 11, ended it mission September 30, 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was received. Further information about Pioneer 10 is available on the Internet at http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNhome.html. Contact: Michael Mewhinney NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-3937 or -9000 E-mail: Michael.S.Mewhinney@nasa.gov Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/25/pioneer.10.ap/index.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/pioneer_10_030225.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030226183430.vxmq71ds.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0302/25pioneer10/ ________________________________________________________________________ WHY WE FLY By John Carter McKnight From Space.com 26 February 2003 Post-Columbia punditry has formed up into two camps: mystically pro- human and reductionistically pro-robot. Before the isolated sparring turns into a general melee, we should look up from our conflicting means to examine the question of ends. If any of us are to be effective, in water-cooler conversation, op-ed high-noon showdowns or Congressional testimony, we'll need a good firm grip on our own answer to the root question: why do we want to go to space? It's immediately clear that there is no single answer. Some motivations cross established bounds of ideology, in a sign that people might be thinking around the edges of their own rusted-in-place opinions. Some are rationalizations, some are reasons, some are passions. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03s.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS: TILTING TOWARDS LIFE? By Henry Bortman From Astrobiology Magazine 26 February 2003 Although there is evidence that Mars was warmer and wetter in the distant past, today it is a frozen desert. Temperatures average minus 50°C (minus 58°F) for the planet as a whole. The poles reach a summertime high of minus 70°C (minus 94°F). Nothing is known to be able to live under such deep-freeze conditions. So why does Bruce Jakosky, Director of the Center for Astrobiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, think Mars's polar regions, where it is coldest, are good places to look for evidence of life? Because, although the martian poles are frigid today, in the recent past, some 10 to 20 million years ago--to a geologist like Jakosky, that's recent--they were much warmer. Warm enough, perhaps, to support life. "Most discussions of [martian] habitability have centered either on the ancient surface of Mars, where we think the climate might have been different, or the deep subsurface, where the temperatures might be warm enough due to geothermal heating to give liquid water," Jakosky says. "We wanted to explore the near subsurface, the top couple of meters of the regolith [the mixture of rock and dirt that lies at the martian surface]. We know that there's ice there, based on the Odyssey results, and it's accessible. You can actually drill down within the top meter and access ice." Jakosky presented his findings last week at the NASA Astrobiology Institute General Meeting in Tempe, AZ. To examine the possibility of life in the polar ground ice, Jakosky posed three related questions. "First," he wondered, "what is lowest temperature at which liquid water can exist in thin films sufficient to support an organism?" The answer: about minus 20°degrees C (minus 4°F). "Down to minus 20 degrees you still have liquid water that is present in thin films that are big enough to physically hold an organism," says Jakosky. But just barely--the liquid-water films Jakosky is talking about exist at the boundaries between grains of ice, or of ice and dirt. They are roughly 10 microns thick, or about one-tenth the width of a human hair. His second question: "What is the lowest temperature at which terrestrial organisms can grow or metabolize?" And, coincidentally, the answer is the same as the answer to the first question: minus 20°C. Recent research has found that cold-adapted bacteria, or psychrophiles, live in the Siberian permafrost. They grow and divide at temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14°F). At temperatures as low as minus 20°C, they take in needed materials from their environment and appear to be capable of repairing damage. That leaves the third question. How warm does ground ice get at the martian poles during periods of high obliquity? Obliquity is the angle at which a planet is tilted on its axis: the higher the obliquity, the greater the tilt. Today, both Mars and Earth are tilted at approximately the same angle: Earth at 23.5 degrees, Mars at 25.2. But unlike Earth, Mars's obliquity changes over time. Over the course of tens of millions of years, Mars's obliquity is believed to fluctuate between standing almost straight up and leaning over as much as 60 degrees. When its tilt is high, the poles get the lion's share of the planet's sunlight. And the poles just happen to be where most of Mars's water is found. Today, of course, that water is frozen solid. But during periods of high obliquity, Jakosky says, the polar regions get enough sunlight to raise the temperature significantly. Up to minus 20 degrees C; perhaps even higher. In other words, at periods of high obliquity, ground ice in the martian polar and high-latitude regions should warm up enough for thin films of water to form. And those thin films of water should provide a suitable environment in which martian microbes could live. Gene McDonald, of the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA, thinks Jakosky's scenario is "plausible." But, he adds, "it depends a lot on the length of time between the warming events." McDonald has studied organisms that live in the Siberian permafrost. "We don't really know, in Siberian permafrost on Earth, how long an organism can stay dormant or nearly dormant and still survive," he says. "We've gone back to about 30,000 years or so and they seem to be holding their own. "There are some hints that maybe it's as much as a couple of million years. There may still be some viable organisms that have been frozen essentially for a couple of million years. So if the time frame between warming events [on Mars] is on that scale, then it's quite possible." At present, no mission to Mars's polar regions is planned. But Jakosky thinks one would be a good idea. Although there are many unknowns, the polar regions may offer the best hope of finding signs of life on Mars. Most scientists believe that at lower latitudes any signs of viable life--if it exists--are likely to lie deep below the surface. Finding it will require sending complex and expensive drilling equipment to Mars. But at high latitudes, if Jakosky is right, it may be as easy as scratching the surface. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article383.html. ________________________________________________________________________ GALILEO TEAM DISBANDING AS LONG JUPITER TOUR WINDS DOWN NASA/JPL release 2003-026 26 February 2003 The flight team for NASA's Jupiter-orbiting Galileo spacecraft will cease operations on Friday, February 28 after a final playback of scientific data from the robotic explorer's tape recorder. The team has written commands for the onboard computer to manage the spacecraft for its short remaining lifetime. Galileo will coast for the next seven months before transmitting a few hours of science measurements in real time, leading up to a Sept. 21 plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere. "This mission has exemplified successful team efforts to overcome obstacles to make outstanding discoveries," said Dr. Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "While the team is sad to see it come to an end, there is great pride in Galileo's remarkable accomplishments." In the years since astronauts deployed Galileo from the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989, the mission has produced a string of discoveries about asteroids, a fragmented comet, Jupiter's atmosphere, Jupiter's magnetic environment, and especially about the geologic diversity of Jupiter's four largest moons. The prime mission ended six years ago, after two years of orbiting Jupiter. NASA extended the mission three times to continue taking advantage of Galileo's unique capabilities for accomplishing valuable science. Now, the onboard supply of propellant is nearly depleted. Without propellant, the spacecraft would not be able to point its antenna toward Earth nor adjust its trajectory, so controlling the spacecraft would no longer be possible. Before that could happen, the flight team last year put Galileo on course for disposal by a dive into the crushing pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere. This strategy eliminates any possibility of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and the moon Europa. Galileo's own discovery of a likely subsurface ocean on Europa has raised interest in the possibility of life there and concern about protecting it. On November 5, 2002, the orbiter passed closer to Jupiter than it had ever ventured before, flying near an inner moon named Amalthea and through part of Jupiter's gossamer ring to begin its 35th and last orbit around the giant planet. This elongated farewell loop will take Galileo farther from Jupiter than it has been since before it entered orbit in 1995, to a point more than 26 million kilometers (16 million miles) away on April 14 before heading back in for impact. Scientific data recorded on the tape recorder during last November's flyby have been gradually played back for transmission to Earth since the flight team repaired radiation damage to the tape recorder in December. Transmissions during a communication session with a NASA Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, CA, Thursday night and early Friday will finish the playback. "After this month, we have no further activities planned until the day of impact," Theilig said. The Galileo flight team numbered about 300 people at its peak during the prime mission, but has run much leaner in recent years, with about 30 since the Amalthea flyby. That smaller team is now disbanding, mostly to work on other JPL-managed NASA missions that are in development or already flying. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Additional information about the mission and its discoveries is available online at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Contact: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 ________________________________________________________________________ NASA FINDS REMNANTS OF ANCIENT STARS IN EARTH'S UPPER ATMOSPHERE NASA release 03-084 27 February 2003 NASA researchers believe they have found bits of ancient stars in small particles gathered in the Earth's upper atmosphere. The researchers revealed their findings in a paper released today. For more than two decades, NASA has collected interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) in the Earth's stratosphere using a modified U-2 aircraft, the ER-2. These tiny particles include the only samples of comets that can be studied in the laboratory. "The stardust grains we discovered are typical of the kinds of dust that were available at the beginning of our solar system, these were the building blocks of the sun and planets," said Dr. Lindsay Keller, an author of the paper and a researcher in the Office of Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "Comet samples are the logical place to look for preserved stardust. They formed in a region of the solar system where they escaped the extensive processing that affected other solar system materials," he said. Before the sun formed, our solar system was a swirling cloud of dust and gas, the remnants of dead stars from other parts of the galaxy. Some of this dust survived the formation of the solar system unchanged to end up in comets. These comets contain the ingredients of the early solar system, the ingredients for which came from the remnants of early stars in the universe. "The fact that these IDPs are rich in stardust and molecular cloud material suggests that they have remained essentially unchanged from the time the solar system formed, 4.5 billion years ago," said Dr. Scott Messenger, lead author of the paper and an astrophysicist at Washington University in St. Louis. The discovery was made possible by using a new kind of ion ratios on scales much smaller than previously possible. This is essential for identifying stardust grains, because, "they have isotopic ratios very different from anything in the solar system," Messenger said. Most collected IDPs range in size from 5 to 50 millionths of a meter, and often contain crystalline grains clumped together in sizes of 100 to 500 billionths of a meter. The paper is on the Internet at http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress/recent.shtml. For more information about NASA on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Contacts: Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, CD Phone: 202-358-1547 Catherine E. Watson NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX Phone: 281-483-5111 An additional article on this topic is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0302/27atmosphere/. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW SPACECRAFT TOOL REVEALS MASSIVE GAS CLOUD AROUND JUPITER NASA release 2003-028 27 February 2003 Using a sensitive new imaging instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, researchers have discovered a large and surprisingly dense gas cloud sharing an orbit with Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Stretching millions of miles around Jupiter, the donut-shaped cloud, known as a "torus," is believed to result from the uncommonly severe bombardment of ion radiation the jovian giant sends toward Europa. That radiation damages Europa's surface, kicking up and pulling apart water- ice molecules and dispersing them along the moon's orbit into a neutral- gas torus with a mass of about 60,000 tons. The cloud's mass indicates the intense radiation Europa faces has more severe consequences than scientists thought, said Dr. Barry Mauk of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD. Mauk heads the laboratory's research team whose findings appear in the February 27 issue of the journal Nature. The mass also shows that Europa, in an orbit some 671,000 kilometers (416,000 miles) from Jupiter, wields considerable influence on the magnetic configuration around the giant planet. "Surprisingly, Europa's gas cloud compares to that generated by the volcanically active satellite Io," Mauk said. "But where Io's volcanoes are constantly spewing materials, mostly sulfur and oxygen, Europa is a comparatively quiet moon, and the water gas we see is a direct consequence of its icy surface being bombarded so intensely." he said. "By acting as both a source and a sink of charged radiation particles, the dense gas torus gives Europa much greater influence than was previously thought on the structure of, and energy flow within, Jupiter's huge space environment, its magnetosphere," Mauk said. The Applied Physics Laboratory team studied images of Jupiter taken in late 2000 and early 2001 with the laboratory's ion and neutral camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now en route to Saturn. Mauk says this is the first substantial discovery made at an extraterrestrial planet using an innovative technique known as energetic neutral atom imaging. "Planetary magnetospheres glow with energetic neutral atoms, much like a red-hot piece of iron glows with photons of light, and such neutral-atom glows can be remotely imaged," Mauk said. "To this point, no instrument has imaged that activity beyond Earth's magnetosphere. Energetic neutral atom imaging makes visible the three-dimensional structure of planetary space environments, which, until recently, were invisible to remote imaging techniques." Research team members at the Applied Physics Laboratory and co-authors on the Nature paper, "Energetic Neutral Atoms from a Trans-Europa Gas Torus at Jupiter," include Dr. Donald Mitchell, Dr. Stamatios Krimigis, Dr. Edmond Roelof and Dr. Christopher Paranicas. Krimigis, head of the space department at the laboratory, is principal investigator for Cassini's magnetospheric imaging instrument, which includes the ion and neutral camera. The magnetospheric imaging instrument built by the Applied Physics Laboratory is one of 12 science instruments on the main spacecraft and one of six instruments designed to investigate the space environments around Saturn and its moons. Cassini will begin orbiting Saturn on July 1, 2004, and release its piggybacked Huygens probe about six months later for descent through the thick atmosphere of the moon Titan. Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. An energetic neutral atom image showing the donut-shaped cloud around Jupiter is available at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04432 http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2003/030227.htm For more information on Cassini visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the magnetospheric imaging instrument and its science mission visit http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/CASSINI. Contacts: Michael Buckley Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD Phone: 240-228-7536 or 443-778-7536 Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0302/27jupiter/ http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-europa-03a.html ________________________________________________________________________ JUPITER ICY MOONS ORBITER From JPL's First Light 1 March 2003 This proposed mission would orbit three planet-sized moons of Jupiter-- Callisto, Ganymede and Europa--to make extensive investigations of their makeup, their history and their potential for sustaining life. All three moons may harbor deep oceans beneath their icy surfaces. The mission would launch in 2011 or later. A NASA fact sheet for the mission is available at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/JIMO.pdf. A video of the proposed mission is available at http://realserver1.jpl.nasa.gov:8080/ramgen/Video-Icy-Moon-Jupiter- 030214.rm?mode=compact. ________________________________________________________________________ GREAT IMPACT DEBATE, PART IV: ON A COLLISION COURSE FOR EARTH Moderated by Don Yeomans From Astrobiology Magazine 3 March 2003 Don Yeomans: As mentioned in last week's debate, an asteroid or comet larger than a kilometer colliding with the Earth would be a very rare event. One would only expect a collision of this type to occur every several hundred thousand years. Nevertheless, it has happened before and it could happen again in the near future. In the unlikely event that a sizable near-Earth object (NEO) is found to be on an Earth- threatening trajectory, would we have the technology to deflect the object in time so that it would pass harmlessly past the Earth? Clark Chapman: I think pieces of the technology are there. We have rockets that can launch the deflection hardware, and there are well- tested means to deliver and operate this hardware in the vicinity of a low-gravity body. In fact, one spacecraft already has landed on an asteroid--the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft landed on the asteroid "Eros" on Valentine's Day, 2001. What has not been done is to put all the technological tools in our toolbox together and make them work in the strange, unintuitive physical world of an asteroid. Also, much more thinking is necessary about the diversity of asteroid properties. We have sufficiently energetic tools to push on an asteroid and move it, but we need to consider how we might attach any deflection mechanism to an NEA and push it in the direction we want. Not every one-kilometer NEA will be easy to divert. Such a body is very massive, and a long lead-time of perhaps decades would be necessary to succeed, even without employing new or potentially dangerous technology. But, fundamentally, we probably could do it, provided there was sufficient motivation: namely, an asteroid headed our way, destined to collide with Earth some years or decades hence. Joe Veverka: I believe that we currently are not in a position to protect Earth from impacts by one kilometer-sized objects. The technology required to carry out such a task exists, or it can be developed, but the effort would be colossal by any standards. I would argue that the question, while of academic interest, is not very relevant from a practical point of view. In such a discussion, it is essential to define a "horizon of concern." In other words, how far into the future does it make sense to worry about something and take precautions? The answer might depend on where and when we live, but right now any planning that society does hardly extends more than a few decades into the future, and at most perhaps to a few centuries. Planning for events that occur on time scales of hundreds of thousands to a few million years just doesn't make practical sense. Nor is it necessary to expend resources to protect ourselves against events that occur on time scales of a million years. For instance, few of us lose sleep over the fact that the sun will turn into a red giant some 5 billion years from now. It is only when we get down to impacts that occurred early in the 20th century that it makes sense to discuss mitigation--for example, the Tunguska explosion of 1908 that has been attributed to a meteoroid 60 meters in diameter. But even for these events, which might occur every few hundred to a thousand years, the cost of a mitigation policy must be weighed against the likely benefit. We have to keep in mind all of the other ways resources could be used to benefit society in preserving and improving life. Even in the case of Tunguska-type events, there are far more urgent and potentially more beneficial uses of our resources than developing a system to protect us from impacts by bodies a hundred or so meters across. Almost certainly more people will die from wars, cancer, and even traffic accidents during the next few hundred years than are likely to die from the next Tunguska. Clark Chapman: Joe Veverka makes a major error when he compares the time scale for a large asteroid collision with the time scale for the sun turning into a red giant. There is zero chance that the sun will turn into a red giant during the next century, or even the next billion years, according to our robust understanding of the physics of stellar evolution. But asteroids strike at random. If asteroids struck like clockwork, a kilometer-sized body every few hundred thousand years for example, then the analogy might work. But there is roughly a one-in- several-thousand chance that a kilometer-sized asteroid will strike during the 21st century. One could even strike tomorrow. One might well question what level of risk we are willing to accept by doing nothing about one-kilometer asteroids. Joe should argue that he's willing to accept the risk, given other higher priority concerns. But he's wrong, and he hurts his case, to make the classic error people make about lightning strikes and hundred-year floods: "the next one can't happen again soon." It has nothing to do with a "waiting time" or being "over the event horizon." Given that civilization might hang in the balance, we really should think about this issue, despite the low probability that we will have to meet this challenge during our lifetimes. Of course, until such an asteroid is discovered, there certainly are weightier threats facing society, as Joe Veverka argues. Benny Peiser: In contrast to other, more frequent natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical storms, tsunami, etc., we have very little understanding of or experience with NEO impacts. Thus, we can only speculate about the effectiveness of planetary protection. The question as to whether or not we have the technology necessary for effective NEO protection ultimately depends on the warning time we are granted by an asteroid or comet on a collision course with Earth. At present, we do not have any protection against a NEO about to collide with Earth in, say, one or two years time. Estimates for the time it may take to assemble an operative deflection system currently range from 30 to 70 years. With ongoing advancements in space and defense technologies, I am confident that this estimate will gradually come down further. But the real problem, as I see it, is not so much whether we have the theoretical know-how for NEO deflection. Instead, the key challenge we will face at some time in the future is when a NEO is found to have a significant chance of hitting Earth. In the absence of any experience, we will be confronted with an unprecedented crisis situation. Such an impact crisis could happen tomorrow or it could occur in 300 years time. It could be a small asteroid, a medium-sized comet, or an even larger object. Happily, chances are extremely small that this will happen soon. Nonetheless, such an event will transpire one day. And when it happens, it will be unprecedented. By contemplating what may happen in the event of a small impact, we need to recognize the psychological and social implications of traumatic events and the emotional and irrational reactions they can activate. The social effects of an impact are all too often ignored or underestimated, but they could be extremely grave. Such effects perhaps could be even more disruptive than the physical damage and economic costs. Some people may experience problems dealing with even a small impact due to its totally random and "terrorizing" nature. It will certainly stir up anxieties--not least because the impact is likely to be blown out of proportion by the mass media. Some people will blame their governments, space agencies, and astronomers for failing to protect them from cosmic disaster. Then it will not be sufficient to issue the mantra of "statistical risk estimates." Don Yeomans: If you were given the means, what scientific or engineering project (or any other endeavor) would be highest on your list to better understand these near-Earth objects, or to possibly reduce the threat that these objects pose to Earth? Clark Chapman: The theme of NEO impacts with Earth and other planets has a strong scientific legitimacy, even if dangerous impacts in our lifetimes are unlikely. I believe that asteroids and comets are of exceptional importance in the scientific understanding of the solar system. Yet it took 25 years from the first asteroid mission study before the first dedicated asteroid mission (the NEAR Shoemaker mission to Eros) was accomplished. I believe future studies of NEOs should combine the purely scientific interest in these bodies with the public interest of impact hazard mitigation, as well as the potential utilization of asteroid materials. This includes theoretical studies, Earth-based telescopic observations, and space-based missions of increasing sophistication. Joe Veverka: To assess the risk that NEOs pose to Earth, we not only need to know how many there are and how big they are, but we need to know what they are made of and how they are put together. Telescopic observations have done a splendid job in finding what's out there, and a pretty decent job in determining how big these bodies are. The next important step is direct exploration by spacecraft of carefully selected NEOs to determine their precise geochemistry and internal structures. Missions are needed to return a sample from each of these bodies for detailed geochemical analyses and to determine the average density of each object. Such samples would give us accurate data on what these bodies are made of and how they are put together. This information will be essential for evaluating the risk and planning a mitigation strategy, if needed. Alan Harris: I have always felt that, given the very low chance that anything out there "has our name on it," we should not expend resources on impact mitigation unless we discover something to mitigate against. However, I would soften this position in the same way that one might buy a "whole life" insurance policy rather than term life insurance, so that even if you don't die in the prescribed term of the policy, you at least have something like a savings account in return. Therefore I think we might favor research programs that have intrinsic scientific interest and that also contribute in some way to potential mitigation, if that should ever come to be necessary. The landing of NEAR-Shoemaker on Eros already is in this category: a valuable practice exercise for something almost certainly necessary if we were to need to deflect an asteroid, and also scientifically valuable in itself. Another example could be a rendezvous and landing mission to an asteroid to probe the interior structure of an asteroid--rubble pile, monolithic rock, or what? This exercise would give us further insights into possible modes of deflection. Or perhaps we could implant transponders on an asteroid in order to practice precision orbit tracking, making sure we could monitor the progress of a deflection maneuver. The scientific payoff, even if the deflection technology were never needed, would be to look for wobbles in the asteroid rotation that could help probe the interior of the body. We also could look for very slight variations in the orbit, perhaps due to radiation pressure, and that would help us understand the evolution of small bodies into Earth- crossing paths. I remain opposed to major defense programs to protect against an undiscovered "enemy" asteroid that has only a one in ten thousand chance of existing. I believe that the danger of having such a "defensive" system, which almost certainly would involve rockets and nuclear bombs, exceeds the security it provides. However, any part of the preparation that can be accomplished at modest cost might be justified, so long as it will yield a scientific return as a side benefit. Benny Peiser: I'm glad to hear that Al has softened his position on future efforts to boost the study and our understanding of impact mitigation. I have always been skeptical of the customary NASA view that no funds should be provided for impact mitigation research until we are faced with an impending impact threat. This sounded too unreasonable to me. Traditionally, the main argument has been that no supplementary resources should be allocated to examine a highly implausible scenario. But nobody is asking for additional funds. Space agencies around the world are already spending billions of dollars each year on space exploration and scientific research. As Al points out, the landing of the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft on Eros shows that scientific space missions easily can be designed so they include mitigation aspects without the need for additional funding. Future missions should progressively incorporate NEO and impact mitigation components. This would ensure that we gradually learn to decode and handle the multifaceted compositions of asteroids and comets. Such a policy would be the best remedy to reassure an increasingly concerned public that the NEO and space communities are taking adequate steps to take control of our cosmic environment. In the next twenty-five years, I would like to see the first space mission aim to nudge an asteroid out of its orbit. After landing a spacecraft on an asteroid (NEAR-Shoemaker), striking at a comet (Deep Impact) and bringing back samples from an asteroid (MUSES C), the most captivating, and certainly the most popular NEO mission ever would be an attempt to shift a medium-sized space rock out of its orbit. In many ways, this would be the first attempt in all of history to change the course of cosmic nature. Clark Chapman: A NASA-sponsored workshop on "scientific requirements for mitigation" last autumn went a long way towards demonstrating that there is great similarity between the kinds of missions one would fly to study the nature and origin of NEAs, and those that one would fly to learn how to push on an asteroid, if it were ever necessary to do so. A focused motivation to try to move a small NEA in a controlled manner in the next dozen years, as advocated by the B612 Foundation, could reap an enormous scientific pay-off as well as take a major step toward understanding the practicalities of how to move a such a body. If the endeavor involved "bombs in space," as Al Harris fears, then I would be hesitant too. But last autumn's workshop made it clear that the appropriate technology in most instances involves long-acting, low-thrust propulsion. This is in order to move the asteroid gently, in a controlled fashion, and not risk breaking the body up into a dangerous swarm of pieces. I don't see such technology as being especially dangerous, although international oversight of such endeavors will always be the prudent way to go. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article389.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 3 March 2003 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles1. html H. Bortman, 2003. Mars: tilting towards life? Astrobiology Magazine. S. Graham, 2003. Snow melt may have carved martian gullies. Scientific American. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, 2003. Are there Earth-like planets near other stars? SpaceDaily. Reuters, 2003. NASA starts countdown to Mars mission. CNN. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles5. html J. M. Perkel, 2003. 5-Prime: ribozymes. The Scientist, 17(4):12. J. Strick, 1999. Darwinism and the origin of life: the role of H. C. Bastian in the British spontaneous generation debates, 1868-1873. Journal of the History of Biology, 32:1-42. Planetary protection articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles6. html D. Yeomans, 2003. The great impact debate, part IV: collision course for Earth. Astrobiology Magazine. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 3 March 2003 The investigation of the Columbia tragedy continues to make headlines in both space and general media. I have included (below) a non-exhaustive list of links to recent articles on the subject. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/27/sprj.colu.memo/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/27/sprj.colu.station.soyuz/index.h tml http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/national/nationalspecial/27SHUT.html?t h http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/national/nationalspecial/28INQU.html?t h http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_mcdowell_030224.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_future_030224.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_recovery_030225.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_hawaii_030225.html http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/computer_modeling_030 226.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03t1.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030227015150.7gibu0iy.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030226195327.bm0bupg5.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03l.html http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030226email/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030228onboard/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/timeline/ http://spaceflightnow.com/columbia/status.html http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030228dittemore/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030227debris/ ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 20-26 February 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, February 26. 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. ACS Flight Software (FSW) checkout continued this week with the following activities being uplinked and executed: checkouts of the reaction control subsystem and reaction wheel assembly functionality, a periodic engineering maintenance, demonstrations of rotating coordinate tracking, star ID suspend, 7COAST, an FSW timing memory readout, and several fault protection log pointer resets and high water mark clears. All activities executed normally. Playback data has been received, and detailed analysis will continue throughout the checkout period. The first official input port for tour sequences S17/S18 occurred this week. Individual teams' SASFs were merged, and the resulting files delivered to ACS for end-to-end pointing validation. Pointing validation and team review for the S15/S16 port 2 products was completed. The third and final input port occurs on March 6, 2003. A presentation on the upcoming S14 Science Operations Plan Update Verification and Validation activity was given at this week's Tour Process meeting. Instrument Operations (IO) Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and Multi Mission Image Processing Laboratory personnel attended the VIMS Science Team meeting in Tucson last week. IO reported on recent instrument activities, flight software development and testing status, and other instrument topics and plans. Various Science Team members reported on calibration, science planning, software status and future Team plans. Orbiter activities around the time of the probe mission were addressed at this week's Mission Planning Forum. Discussion included plans and constraints for orbiter science from the start of sequence S7 through the end of Probe data playback and solid-state recorder release. Updated charts were displayed from two presentations made last year. Most proofs have been returned for the Space Science Reviews Journal volume 1. This volume should go to press soon. An open forum was held with members of the Cassini Flight Team and Dr. Charles Elachi. Topics of concern to the project and generally relating to JPL were discussed. Members of the Cassini Project met with the Consolidated Space Operations Contract DSN Customer Service Representative to discuss a procedure for new or modified DSN keywords or changes to station configuration codes. The current DSN procedure was written for MMO and was unclear about how it applied to Cassini. Notes from the discussion have been distributed. Mission Support and Services Office personnel completed a Cassini web page that will support security training, and security operation procedure document review. The Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) web site now has an active photo and story posting zone. Participants can load photos of Saturn, drawings, star parties, and stories on the server for approval and posting by the SOC coordinator and web master. Visitors can browse through the images and stories at http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/experience/index.cfm. 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 YEAR ON GALILEO NASA/JPL release 5 November 2002 - 20 September 2003 The story so far... As usual for the combination of an aging spacecraft and an intensely energetic environment, Jupiter dealt Galileo a temporarily crippling blow during our flyby of Amalthea on Tuesday, November 5, 2002. Approximately 17 minutes after zipping by the tiny satellite at over 18 kilometers per second (41,000 miles per hour), as the spacecraft neared its closest approach to the giant planet, the intensity of the radiation caused a failure in computer circuitry that handles timing of the events on the spacecraft. This caused the computer to switch to a set of backup circuitry, which is a serious enough change to warrant the computer to declare an emergency, shut down operations, and phone home for help. Even in this relatively quiet state for the spacecraft, the radiation environment was still raging, and several additional faults triggered repeated software requests to place (or in this case, keep) the spacecraft computers in safe mode. Once Galileo had cleared the depths of Jupiter's radiation field, engineers could start wading through the flood of error messages received to determine which ones represented temporary conditions, now passed, and which might represent permanent failures in spacecraft systems. Surprisingly, with the exception of the switched timing circuit, there appeared to be no hard failures! Indications were that we had successfully captured two full tracks of recorded science data, including the orbiter instruments' first taste of the environment well inside Io's orbit. It appeared that the spacecraft systems, though showing expected additional wear and tear due to the radiation exposure, were all still in operating condition! Computer processing, telecommunications, and attitude control were still providing the heartbeats of a working spacecraft. Then it was time to begin to retrieve the digital gold stored on the tape recorder, and that was when the headaches returned. On Friday, November 8, 2002, test commands were sent to the recorder to attempt a short movement of the tape. Engineering measurements indicated that the tape did not move, and the signs pointed to a different problem than the sticky tape that has affected operations in the past. Over the next month diagnostic tests were run both on the spacecraft and on the ground that convinced engineers that the problem was most likely a radiation- induced failure in light-emitting-diode circuitry in the motor control of the recorder. Radiation experts suggested that time spent away from the radiation environment, as well as running current through the circuits without moving the tape, might help anneal the circuitry and allow a return to operations. More tests were performed on the spacecraft, during which over 111 hours of current was applied to the circuits, and eventually limited motion was restored! (Imagine a doctor trying to diagnose an illness when the patient is a half a billion miles away, and he has to wait at least an hour and a half between asking a question and receiving an answer! This is the nature of deep-space operations.) Though not fully operational, enough tape motion was possible to allow the playback process to return data. Finally, on Thursday, December 12, 2002, with careful control of the amount of motion allowed, playback of the recorded science data began. Throughout this tape diagnostic period, standard maintenance of other on-board systems continued. On November 15, December 6 and December 27, the propulsion system was exercised to keep the lines cleared. On November 14 and January 7, tests of the gyroscopes were performed. These activities were in support of the final attitude change in the mission, on January 15, 2003. This turn was also the largest that Galileo has performed in three years, changing the pointing of the spacecraft by 18 degrees. At this final attitude, the communications antenna is now pointed in a direction that will be only 2.5 degrees away from Earth in mid-September 2003, when Galileo next and finally encounters Jupiter. As part of final cleanup from the safing activities of early November, on December 16 and 18 the Plasma Subsystem and Energetic Particle Detector were turned on and configured for science data acquisition. These two instruments were turned off in response to the problems encountered in the intense radiation bombardment. Since very few communications passes are scheduled with the giant antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network between now and September, on January 15, the spacecraft was instructed not to worry if it doesn't hear from ground controllers. The story yet to come... Playback of the recorded Amalthea and Jupiter radiation environment data will continue until Friday, February 28. At that time, the playback process is stopped, and the tape recorder, that workhorse of data collection and return for Galileo over the past seven years, is consigned to a well-deserved retirement. With playback completed, the Fields and Particles instruments (Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Subsystem, and Plasma Wave Subsystem) are configured to send their data directly to Earth in real time, and the spacecraft continues on its long, slow loop away from Jupiter before returning for our terminal encounter with the giant planet in September. At this time, the high level of spacecraft monitoring via the Deep Space Network antennas that has characterized the past thirteen years drops to one contact per week, just enough to verify the health and status of the craft, and to verify that it is still on the correct trajectory. With the exception of a few flight controllers, the flight team, which once numbered in the hundreds, has moved on to other projects, other jobs, other lives. The distant orbital loop takes the spacecraft farther from Jupiter than it has been since before entering orbit in December 1995. On April 14, Galileo reaches 370 Jupiter radii (26.4 million kilometers or 16.4 million miles) from the planet. This is about 1/6 the distance from Earth to the Sun, and light takes nearly a minute and a half to travel from Jupiter to the spacecraft! During the summer months, as the Earth proceeds in its own orbit about the Sun, Jupiter, with Galileo in tow, appears to pass behind the Sun, an event known as Solar Conjunction. This limits our ability to hear from the spacecraft, due to interference from the Sun's turbulent atmosphere. Between Monday, July 28 and Monday, September 15, the radio signal from Galileo changes to put more power into the carrier signal, giving the ground antennas a better chance to receive the signal. Between Tuesday, August 11, and Monday, September 1, the spacecraft is within 7 degrees of the Sun as seen from Earth, and communications of any sort are not expected. The spacecraft appears to be closest to the Sun on Friday, August 22, when the separation between the two is only 0.83 degrees. On Thursday, September 18, Galileo is again streaking in towards Jupiter, and reaches 50 Jupiter radii (3.6 million kilometers or 2.2 million miles) from the planet. Finally on Saturday, September 20, just before 6:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Galileo is just over 18 Jupiter radii out, and a scant 19 hours before impact with the clouds. For the conclusion of Galileo's trek through the solar system, tune in again in early September! 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 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-03b.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS (MER): SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT NASA/KSC release 27 February 2003 Mission: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER-1/MER-2) Launch vehicles: Delta II/Delta II Heavy Launch pads: 17-A/17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch dates: May 30/June 25 Launch times: 2:28 PM/12:34 AM The first of two Mars Exploration Rovers, MER-2, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. The cruise stage, aeroshell and lander for the Mars Exploration Rover-1 mission also arrived with it. This same flight hardware for the MER-2 rover arrived January 27. However, this rover is scheduled to arrive at KSC around March 10. The Boeing Delta II vehicle for the first of the two launches, scheduled on May 30, is planned for erection on the pad at Space Launch Complex 17 beginning April 18. The Delta for the second launch on June 25 will begin erection activities on May 1. [http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/photodetail.cfm?MediaID=18233] In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers get ready to remove the plastic covering from the Mars Exploration Rover-2. Image credit: NASA. [http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/photodetail.cfm?MediaID=18234] After being cleaned up, the Mars Exploration Rover-2 is ready to be moved to a workstand in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. Image credit: NASA. [http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/photodetail.cfm?MediaID=18496] The aeroshell for Mars Exploration Rover 2 rests on a rotation stand in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. Image credit: NASA. While at KSC, each of the two rovers, the aeroshells and the landers will undergo a full mission simulation. All of these flight elements will then be integrated together. After spin balance testing, each spacecraft will be mated to a solid propellant upper stage booster that will propel the spacecraft out of Earth orbit. Approximately ten days before launch, they will be transported to the launch pad for mating with their respective Boeing Delta II rockets. The rovers will serve as robotic geologists to seek answers about the evolution of Mars, particularly for a history of water. Contact: George H. Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center Phone: 321-867-2468 ________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES February 24-28 2003 Arsinoes Chaos (Released 24 February 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030224a.html Valles Marineris - with 3D (Released 25 February 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030225a.html Lycus Sulci (Released 26 February 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030226a.html Kasei Vallis (Released 28 February 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030228a.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 28 February 2003 This past week, the Stardust flight team used the antennas of JPL's Deep Space Network on two occasions. Data relayed from the spacecraft during the two contacts indicated Stardust is healthy and all subsystems continue to run normally. The Stardust spacecraft will transmit its images stored in the spacecraft's memory of the Pleiades star cluster the first week of March. These Pleiades images were taken by Stardust's navigation camera and will be used to evaluate performance of the spacecraft camera's periscope. Information on the present position and orbits of the Stardust spacecraft and Comet Wild 2 may be found on the "Where Is Stardust Right Now?" web page located at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/scnow.html. 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 9.