MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 13, 31 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) MIGHTY APHRODITE By David Grinspoon and Astrobiology Magazine 2) NEW MEXICO HAS NEW HOLIDAY TO HONOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL CULTURE From Associated Press and Space.com 3) SCIENTISTS FIND EVIDENCE FOR CRUCIAL ROOT IN THE HISTORY OF PLANT EVOLUTION American Chemical Society release 4) ESA STUDIES MISSIONS TO SAFEGUARD THE EARTH ESA release 19-2003 5) HOW CAN HUMANITY DECODE ALIEN TRANSMISSIONS? By Seth Shostak 6) MDA TEAM SELECTED FOR 2007 MARS SCOUT STUDY MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates release 7) MARS WATER, ODD SURFACE FEATURES TIED TO LIFE By Leonard David 8) BEYOND THE COUNTDOWN: SETI@HOME LOOKS AHEAD By Amir Alexander 9) MDRS CREW 15 ROTATION SUMMARY REPORT By David Fuller, Jody Tinsley, April Childress, Tim O'Connor, Kim Binsted and Derek O'Keeffe 10) SEARCHING FOR HABITABLE PLANETS WITH EDDINGTON ESA release 21-2003 11) FILE COMPRESSION: NEW TOOL FOR LIFE DETECTION? By Henry Bortman 12) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 13) CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 14) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 15) MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS: SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT By George H. Diller 16) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 17) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release ________________________________________________________________________ MIGHTY APHRODITE By David Grinspoon and Astrobiology Magazine From Astrobiolgy Magazine 25 March 2003 Planetary scientist, Dr. David Grinspoon, of the Southwest Research Institute, has studied Venus as a Principal Investigator for NASA's Planetary Atmospheres and Venus Data Analysis Program. As he describes this cloudy world: "Brighter than any star, never in the same place for long, Venus is a live-wire, sparkling and dancing through our evening and morning skies." While Venus shares with Earth a similar size (95%) and mass (80%), its thick greenhouse atmosphere has transformed a potential terrestrial twin into a hostile, burning acidic world. When the Soviet Venera landers (1975-1982) first touched down amidst solidified lava flows and acid rain, the bright planet's shroud was momentarily lifted: pictures revealed the "morning-" and "evening-star" up close, as if under one's feet. In total, more than 20 spacecraft have now tried to visit Venus, most recently highlighted by the US Magellan mission to plot detailed radar maps. Unlike earlier portrayals in mythology or in science- fiction, Venus offers life-as-we-know-it anything but a hospitable place. Underneath those luminous clouds that reflect back 80% of incoming sunlight, writes Grinspoon, "The most important single quality distinguishing Venus from Earth is the near total lack of water there." "At a conference I attended recently," he reflects, "a colleague began his talk on exobiology by stating: 'We assume that life requires liquid water because otherwise the problem is completely unconstrained.' He went on to give a brilliant talk on the prospects for finding habitable planets." As Dr. Grinspoon shares in the preface to his book, Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of our Mysterious Twin Planet, the world nearest to us offers opportunities for "planetary self-knowledge": "Like most nerds, I was drawn into my field (planetary sciences) simply because it was the coolest thing I could imagine doing. Recently, we have learned that Venus seems to embody an active planetary system with many complex feedbacks among surface, atmosphere, climate and clouds. Thus Venus may serve as a valuable companion to Earth as we learn to live on, and with, our world." "The portrait of Venus, as a verdant, rainy, overgrown swamp planet-- perhaps complete with tree ferns and jungle animals--", writes Dr. Grinspoon, "became widespread in the popular and scientific literature through the nineteenth and most of the twentieth centuries." When one considers that as recently as 1955--just a few years before the dawn of the space-age, the famous British astrophysicist, Fred Hoyle, considered Venus to be covered planetwide in oil, apparently our nearest neighbor still has many secrets left to reveal. [Hoyle speculated upon what became known as "Hoyle Oil": "Venus is probably endowed beyond the dreams of the richest Texas oil-king".] The details are foreboding. At its surface, the Venusian atmosphere is 90 times denser than Earth's, or about the same as being 1 km (0.6 miles) beneath terrestrial oceans. The average surface temperature (470°C or 870°F) is hot enough to melt lead. At night, amidst distant lightning strikes high in the clouds, the ground would glow a faint red. Venus' surface is the hottest in our solar system, despite being twice the distance of Mercury from the Sun. Or as Dr. Grinspoon illustrates: "You could fry an egg on the sidewalk, but you'd have to do it quickly, before the sidewalk melted." Venus has no tilted axis, and thus no winter, summer, nor any seasonal change. A relatively gentle breeze of a few miles per hour at the surface builds to a cloud-top gale that swirls like perpetual hurricanes: 350 km/hr, or 210 mph. While rather quiet geologically for the last few hundred million years, today's Venus is still volcanically active. Its terrain is marked by several large shield volcanoes, and is covered with solidified lava flows. Because of its slow rotation, the Venusian day and night each last 59 Earth days, or about two Earth months. Journey with Dr. Grinspoon, as he takes a fly-by of mighty Aphrodite, Earth's environmentally-evil twin: the second rock from the Sun, sulfurous, suffering from a runaway greenhouse effect. Excerpt from Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of our Mysterious Twin Planet [Copyright David Grinspoon]. Is there life on Venus? Could there be life on Venus? The standard answers are "No and NO!". Venus is usually dismissed in a paragraph or two before an extensive discussion of the prospects for life on Mars, the icy moons Europa and Titan, and Earth-like planets elsewhere in the universe. Where life is concerned, Venus is consistently voted "least likely to succeed". In my opinion, this quick dismissal is not justified; it presupposes knowledge of the universal nature of life and the general characteristics of inhabited planets; knowledge that we do not yet possess. ...In our present state of ignorance we should avoid all dogma in exobiology (the study of possible life beyond Earth). The current paradigm of exobiology has been around for about 30 years or so: life is carbon based, made by chemical evolution of organics in water. Earth-like environments are the only places where life can really be expected to flourish. You have to wonder, though, about any theory that concludes that our kind of life is the only kind, and that our planet is uniquely qualified to become alive. Of course there is a serious objection to this. Neither organic (carbon) compounds nor liquid water can exist at the temperature of the Venusian surface. But how sure can we be that this rules out life? First let me say that I am a big fan of carbon-based life. Some of my best friends are carbon-based. Carbon and water are two substances that each have incredible properties on their own. In combination they do something completely different, something that neither could do on its own. Carbon, with some oxygen, nitrogen and a few other elements mixed in serves as the universal template, the flexible yet solid Lego blocks of life that can build up an endless variety of huge and complex molecules. Water is the universal solvent. Dissolved in water, carbon molecules are free to flop around, twist themselves into complex shapes and interact with one another in the intricate dance that we call life. Something magical and creative beyond belief happened here as a result of carbon and water. Once it started it never stopped and it completely re-made our world. Carbon in water crawls and flies, respirates and synthesizes, colonizes, adapts, seeks and hides, gives birth, invents, worries, wonders and sings. If that's not magic, then what is? An obvious objection to this line of argument is the following: we have not thought of any other ways to do it. If there are other possible biochemistries, then what are they? Make a counter-suggestion! I am not persuaded by this objection. It's true that no one has devised an alternative biochemistry, but this could be a measure of our ignorance. I think it is safe to say that we would not have thought of carbon-based life either, if we hadn't had the Earth's example to examine and dissect. We are still trying to learn how biochemistry works here on Earth. Admittedly, this is a long shot, but I consider life on Venus to still be an open question. In any case, thinking about it is a worthwhile exercise that may help us to better understand the real limits of life. Reader's Advisory: This Box Contains Explict Speculation! I have now crawled so far out on a limb that I see no reason to try climbing back. I may as well jump! So let me propose some possible signs of life on Venus. Let me state clearly that I regard each of these possibilities as extremely unlikely. Here are four phenomena that could be signs of life on Venus: 1) The atmospheric "superrotation" could be created by life. This is one of the most obvious and large scale unexplained features of the planet. ...From the point of view of any venusian bugs that want to use sunlight for energy, the superrotation would be a major plus because the night [59 days] is so long there. The planet may rotate too slowly for photosynthesis unless you have something like superrotation. 2) Maybe the "unknown ultraviolet absorber" is a photosynthetic pigment. If venusian life has evolved to take advantage of UV light, this might be done in the form of a pigment that absorbs ultraviolet. If this is some complex chemical unknown to us, that could explain why we have had such a tough time figuring out the identity of the "unknown ultraviolet absorber". [Venus viewed with an ultraviolet filter shows] a complex swirl of high contrast features, ranging from finely, detailed splotches to huge planetwide streaks. And the stuff moves around like crazy. The identity of this material, so dark in the ultraviolet that it is responsible for nearly half of the solar energy absorbed by Venus, is still not known, one of the great mysteries of Venus. 3) Maybe Mode 3 cloud particles are alive. Mode 3 are the odd, large cloud particles... we do not have a good description of them or explanation for them. Some measurements suggest that they are made of sulfuric acid... but there is also evidence of more exotic chemicals, like chlorine or nitrogen compounds... In fact, conditions in the clouds of Venus are not too different from those at the surface of the Earth. There is a level in the clouds (about 33 miles up), where the atmospheric pressure is about 70% of the pressure at sea level on Earth, and the temperature is a balmy 107 degrees Fahrenheit. ..It's cool enough for liquid water, and small amounts of it exist there (in a strong sulfuric acid solution). Still, something in my gut tells me that the clouds of Venus are not a good biological habitat. That something is stomach acid, hydrochloric acid. Acid eats organic molecules. 4) The highly reflective mountain tops could be covered with life. Some kind of transformation happens to the ground all around the planet above an altitude of 13,000 feet (which corresponds to a temperature of 820 degrees). Now that I have gotten those flights of fantasy out of my system, it's time to come back down to Earth--or at least to Venus. Here is another reason why the possibilities of life on Venus may not be completely academic to students of exobiology: there are probably more Venus-like than Earth-like planets in the universe. We know, for sure, that there are signs of life at a few places on Venus. We know because we left them there--the smashed, corroding remains of our inquisitive machines. The most recent addition to this smattering of Earth-junk is whatever is left of Magellan. What's next? How soon and in what style will we go back to Venus? We could put a small craft with a few carefully chosen instruments in orbit around Venus, or land a very small package on the surface for a ballpark figure of $200 million... here are some questions for future missions. What drives the superrotation of the upper atmosphere? What is stabilizing the climate? What is the "snow" at high altitudes? What is the present rate of volcanic eruptions? What does the surface look like up close? The Soviet Vega mission of 1985 pioneered the use of balloon stations in the Venusian atmosphere. We could do a lot more along these lines. By setting balloons adrift in the atmosphere, we could learn about circulation patterns... At lower altitudes, cameras on balloons could photograph the surface as they circled the planet, getting a free ride from the superrotation. [For instrumentation], the two that most excite me are cameras and seismometers...there are surely places of fantastic beauty and complexity. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article410.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW MEXICO HAS NEW HOLIDAY TO HONOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL CULTURE From Associated Press and Space.com 25 March 2003 Believers in space aliens, rejoice! New Mexicans can now celebrate every second Tuesday in February as "Extraterrestrial Culture Day" after a Roswell lawmaker's proposal won approval in the House. Some lawmakers scoffed at the idea. But the sponsor of the memorial, Republican Representative Daniel Foley, of Roswell, said life on other planets--if you believe in it--surely has its own set of cultural beliefs. "They have some sort of culture, whether it's something we understand or not," he said. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/et_roswell_0303225.html. ________________________________________________________________________ SCIENTISTS FIND EVIDENCE FOR CRUCIAL ROOT IN THE HISTORY OF PLANT EVOLUTION American Chemical Society release 25 March 2003 If ancient plants had not migrated from the shallow seas of early Earth to the barren land of the continents, life as we know it might never have emerged. And now it appears this massive floral colonization may have been spurred by a single genetic mutation that allowed primitive plants to make lignin, a chemical process that leads to the formation of a cell wall. The new findings were presented today at the 225th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, in New Orleans. Using an advanced analytical technique, applied for the first time to fossils, a team of researchers studied an extinct plant species called Asteroxylon--thought to be one of the first plants to inhabit the land of the early continents. The new method, which allows scientists to analyze fossils without altering their spatial context, could provide paleontologists a way to answer some of the looming questions in Earth's history. It also offers wide-ranging applications in fields such as petroleum exploration and meteorite chemistry. "A critical question is whether Asteroxylon in fact had the capacity to biosynthesize lignin," says George Cody, Ph.D., a chemist at the Carnegie Institute of Washington who presented the research. "If it did, it starts to beg an interesting question: If one of the earliest plants had this capacity, then is it that capacity that allowed plants to colonize the continents? And that, of course, could have enormous significance, because that was probably one of the many truly defining events in Earth history." Asteroxylon was found fossilized in the beds of the Rhynie Chert--a rock formation in northeast Scotland. Fossils from this site have revealed much about Earth as it might have been 400 million years ago, in the early Devonian period. "What we came up with is evidence that really can't be explained any other way than the fact that this plant, when it lived, had two structural biopolymers in its cell wall," Cody says. "The differences that you see in the spectra are consistent with a greater amount of lignin being in one region of the cell wall than the other, which is consistent with what we see in modern plants." Plants originally evolved from some kind of algae, which, even in modern forms, do not have the ability to make lignin. "At what point did plants become plantlike, and less like algae?" Cody asks. A clue may be found in determining if there is a chemical difference in the cell walls of the earliest plants, hinting at the presence of lignin. In the early Devonian period, Earth is thought to have been an aggregate mass of land in the Southern Hemisphere with smaller continents in the equatorial region. Europe was near the equator, so the Rhynie Chert beds were in a tropical climate consisting mostly of flatlands and shallow pools of fresh water. Rhynie fossils were preserved when trapped in silica precipitated from hot spring fluids. Over time, the amorphous silica crystallized to form a fine-grained rock known as chert, which protected the fossils over time. "Different thermal events over 400 million years have transformed some of this material, but its spatial context has never changed," Cody says. Normal analytical methods require dissolving the rock matrix to study the organic material in the chert. "The problem is, when you're done, all the organic matter basically disintegrates into this incredibly fine black powder," Cody continues. "So you've obtained your organic matter, but all the spatial context related to these beautiful fossils is gone." To develop a method of studying the organic matter in the fossils while still preserving the spatial context, Cody turned to his collaborator Kevin Boyce, Ph.D., a paleobotanist at Harvard University. "What Kevin does is polish a surface of rock where the interesting fossils are, etch it in hydrofluoric acid, then put a gel on top," Cody says. "You allow the thing to dry and then pull it off like you're pulling a bandage off your leg." With it comes all the organic matter that was embedded in the chert, while completely preserving the anatomical detail. Paleobotanists have been using this method for years. "The entire phylogeny of plants is based on this technique," Cody continues. "I said, well, that's organic matter; we can actually analyze that." To do so, the researchers used scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM, or "stixum"). This involved mounting the fossil impression on a copper grid and bombarding it with a brilliant focused beam of X-rays in the "soft" range--between 200-900 electron volts. Biological elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, exhibit characteristic absorption in this unusual energy range, Cody says. This is the first time STXM has been used to study fossils, and it could be applied to other lingering questions of paleontology, Cody says. For example, it could be used to determine whether what some scientists have called extremely ancient micro-fossils--on the order of 3.5 billion years old--are actually biological fossils at all, or just organic matter. The technique also has potential uses in the area of petroleum and natural gas exploration, and it could even be used to study the complex organic chemistry found in meteorites. "It turns out that biologically derived organic matter is chemically and structurally complex," Cody says. "This is a very nice tool to try to interrogate that complexity while obtaining chemical information." Read the original news release at http://acs.yellowbrix.com/pages/acs/Story.nsp?story_id=37633912&ID=acs&s category=Chemicals&. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03o.html. ________________________________________________________________________ ESA STUDIES MISSIONS TO SAFEGUARD THE EARTH ESA release 19-2003 26 March 2003 Early on the morning of 30 June 1908, the vast forest of western Siberia was illuminated by a strange apparition: an alien object streaking across the cloudless sky. White hot from its headlong plunge into the Earth's atmosphere, the intruder exploded about 8 km above the ground, flattening trees over an area of 2000 square kilometers. Despite the huge detonation, equivalent to a 10 megaton nuclear warhead (about 500 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb), there were few if any casualties in the sparsely populated taiga. If the Tunguska object-- probably an asteroid about twice the size of a tennis court--had exploded over London or Paris, the list of casualties would have run into millions. Fortunately, cataclysmic events caused by incoming near-earth objects (NEOs) are few and far between. Current estimates suggest that a 50 meter Tunguska-like object is likely to collide with the Earth once every 100-300 years. A 1 km object, which typically arrives every few hundred thousand years, could wipe out an entire country. An impact in the ocean would be no better, generating enormous waves (known as tsunamis) that would devastate coastal areas thousands of kilometers away. An increasing awareness of the potentially disastrous consequences of such impacts has driven recent efforts to detect and categorize the larger Earth-threatening objects. However, much more needs to be done if the millions of Tunguska-like objects are to be found and catalogued. Only then can advance warning of pending impacts be provided and measures be taken to reduce the threat. Despite the introduction of increasingly sophisticated search programs in various parts of the world, the search for objects heading our way needs to expand into space. Only space-based observatories can provide the all-sky coverage required and detect Earth-crossing objects that would normally be hidden in the glare of the Sun. In July 2002 the general studies program of the European Space Agency (ESA) provided funding for preliminary studies on six space missions that could make significant contributions to our knowledge of NEOs. "The six proposals were selected because the mission concepts would help to answer essential questions on the NEO threat, such as how many there are, their size and mass, and whether they are compact bodies or loose rock aggregates," said Andrés Gálvez, head of the Advanced Concepts Team at ESA's European Space Research Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. "This information, as well as other data, is needed before appropriate mitigation procedures can be developed." "There are two broad categories. The observatory missions are able to detect and track many more NEOs than can be seen from the ground. This enables astronomers to calculate their orbits and predict whether they will offer a threat to the Earth far into the future." "The flyby/rendezvous missions are designed to look at a small number of NEOs in great detail, sending back information on their size, composition, density, internal structure and so on. This is important because we need to know as much as possible about how they will behave if we try to divert them from a collision course with Earth." The six missions under study were: * Don Quijote: This proposal involves the launch of two spacecraft to test technologies required to deflect an asteroid heading towards Earth. The "Hidalgo" spacecraft will be targeted to impact a 500-metre-diameter asteroid at a relative speed of 10 km/s. Its companion, known as "Sancho" will deliver a number of sensors to the surface of the asteroid and observe from a safe distance what happens during and after the high speed collision. This will provide valuable information on the NEO's internal structure. * Earthguard 1: A proposal to mount a "hitchhiker" telescope on a spacecraft en route to the inner Solar System, e.g., ESA's BepiColombo Mercury orbiter. The telescope would detect Earth-crossing asteroids larger than about 100 meters, which are very difficult or impossible to detect with ground-based telescopes. * EUNEOS: A medium-sized telescope mounted on a dedicated spacecraft platform that would search for the most dangerous NEOs from inside the orbit of Venus. Its main goal is to detect 80% of the potentially hazardous objects down to a few hundreds of meters in size. It is estimated that this could be attained in 5 years. By systematic re- detection of the objects, their orbits would then be determined with high accuracy. * ISHTAR: In addition to measuring the mass, density and surface properties of an NEO, this spacecraft would probe the interior of an NEO in order to study its structure and internal strength. This would be done using radar tomography, a new technology that uses ground- penetrating radar to make images of the interior of a solid body. * SIMONE: A fleet of five low-cost microsatellites that would each fly by and/or rendezvous with a different type of NEO. Each spacecraft would carry a suite of scientific instruments that would provide valuable insights into the nature of large asteroids (400-1 000 meters in diameter) with different physical and compositional properties. Low- thrust ion propulsion would be used to rendezvous with each target. * Remote observation of NEOs from Space: A space-based observatory to carry out remote sensing and detect physical characteristics of NEOs, such as size, composition and surface properties. "We now have a number of excellent proposals that are both feasible and affordable," said Franco Ongaro, head of ESA's Advanced Concepts & Studies Office. "These phase A studies by industry and academia, which were completed in January 2003, provide a valuable framework for developing future missions. They will now be discussed within the Agency and with ESA's international partners in order to determine how best to proceed." ESA NEO studies: http://www.esa.int/gsp/completed/neo/index.htm ESA Advanced Concepts Team: http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/index.htm Contact: ESA Media Relations Service Phone: +33(0)1.53.69.7155 Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-03h.html. ________________________________________________________________________ HOW CAN HUMANITY DECODE ALIEN TRANSMISSIONS? By Seth Shostak From Space.com 27 March 2003 Sorting deliberate signals from a gush of cosmic static requires discernment. It's somewhat akin to beachcombing: finding the occasional bauble on a shoreline littered with dead seaweed, desiccated crustaceans, and other unappealing, sea-borne dross. Radio SETI experiments do this by hunting for narrow-band signals, in which much of the transmitter power has been crammed into a bit of spectrum that's 1 Hz or less in width. ...Optical SETI experiments use a different criterion for artificiality: they search for short, intense photon bursts. ...So the SETI criterion for artificiality is this: narrow-band signals in the radio, and brief photon bursts in the optical. Fine. Such signals would tell us that the aliens are out there, but what about the message? Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_artificiality_part3_030327.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MDA TEAM SELECTED FOR 2007 MARS SCOUT STUDY MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates release 27 March 2003 MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced today that the company's subsidiary, MD Robotics has been awarded a $150,000 study contract by the Canadian Space Agency for the Canadian contribution to a U.S.-led Phoenix Mars Scout mission. During this mission definition study, MD Robotics will work with Toronto-based Optech and with members of the Canadian scientific community to carry out engineering studies and conceptual design for potential Canadian elements of the mission. The elements include a laser-based scientific instrument to conduct atmospheric studies on the planet, as well as a laser sensor that will ensure a safe and accurate spacecraft landing on Mars. Competing with 20 proposals, Phoenix is one of 4 finalists selected by NASA for the mission definition studies. In the second half of 2003, NASA will select which of these four proposals will be the first Scout mission to be fully developed and sent to Mars in 2007. Dr. Christian Sallaberger, Director of Space Exploration at MD Robotics stated, "The work we are executing under this contract will help position Canada to play a critical partnership role with NASA in the first mission of the Mars Scout program in 2007." Dr. Alain Berinstain, the Mars Lead at CSA, commented, "The Canadian Space Agency is pleased to support this work and proud that Canadian scientific and technical excellence is being recognized by our American partners in the exploration of Mars". About Phoenix The primary scientific goals of the Phoenix mission are to "Follow the Water" by studying the presence and history of water on the Red Planet and to search for habitable zones by assessing liquid water and any organic or biologically interesting materials. A suite of landed science instruments will determine the suitability of Mars for human exploration, including in situ production of propellants and radiation and dust hazard evaluation, and will also investigate soil mineralogy and geochemistry, as well as measure atmospheric aerosols. The mission Principal Investigator is Dr. Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, and the lead Canadian scientist is Dr. Alan Carswell, Professor Emeritus at York University and Founder and Chairman of Optech Incorporated. Related web sites: www.mda.ca www.mdrobotics.ca www.space.gc.ca www.optech.on.ca Contact: Ted Schellenberg Media Relations MacDonald Dettwiler Phone: 604-231-2215 E-mail: teds@mda.ca Read the original news release at http://www.mda.ca/news/pr/pr2003032701.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS WATER, ODD SURFACE FEATURES TIED TO LIFE By Leonard David From Space.com 28 March 2003 Mars is one wet and wild world. Scientists are slowly warming up to the view that trickling amounts of water on the cold, dry planet may be nourishing martian biology. Thanks to spacecraft observations by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), newly formed dark slope streaks on Mars have been spotted. Emanating from a point source, they widen as they flow down slope. In some cases, they divide into separate streaks as they encounter other surface features. These sharp-edged dark stains always appear on slopes, mostly inside craters and valleys, but also on small hills. They are almost always located below martian sea level--zero elevation. Over the last few years, cause for the streaks has been chalked up to the work of winds, or cascading surface materials. These processes would remove light- colored surface dust to expose darker bedrock beneath--so the thinking went. A new view is that liquid flow is the most promising process for explaining the dark streaks. They appear to indicate currently flowing water on Mars. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_streaks_030328.html. ________________________________________________________________________ BEYOND THE COUNTDOWN: SETI@HOME LOOKS AHEAD By Amir Alexander Planetary Society release March 27, 2003 At 12:00 midnight, Atlantic Standard Time, on Monday, March 24, SETI@home's Stellar Countdown came to an end at the Arecibo Radio Observatory. The 24 hours of observation needed to visit the top SETI@home candidate signals should have taken three days, but instead took nearly a week. The eruption of a rare Solar flare pushed the sessions back several days, ending with a 14 hour observation marathon on Monday. In the end, the change of plans did not matter. The Stellar Countdown proved even more successful than expected, revisiting 166 of SETI@home's most promising candidates signals. This is considerably more than the 100-150 predicted before the observations. In addition, SETI@home Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer and his team found time to target 35 nearby Sun- like stars, 15 nearby galaxies, 6 candidates from the SERENDIP SETI search, and 5 extrasolar planetary systems. All in all the Stellar countdown observed 227 promising locations in the sky. Within the next few weeks all the data collected and recorded will be processed by SETI@home users around to world, to determine whether any of the targets proves to be a true alien signal. We promise to keep you posted! Even before getting the final results, however, SETI@home is moving forward with plans for a more sensitive and comprehensive sky survey. Within the next two years the SETI@home team hopes to phase out the aging receiver at the base of the line feed. In its place, SETI@home observations will be conducted using a new multi-beam array that will be located within the Gregorian dome. Unlike the single needle-shaped feed now in use, the array will be composed of seven separate feeds, each connected to its own highly sensitive L-Band receiver. This means that whereas the line feed can only observe a single location in the sky at any given time, the multi- beam array will be able to point at seven locations simultaneously. It will, furthermore, observe them at a much higher degree of sensitivity than is possible with the current arrangement. Dan Werthimer and his crew are not the only group looking forward to the installation of the new array. SETI@home is, in fact, part of a consortium of hundreds of researchers from around the world who are interested in conducting research using the multi-beam array. The other major groups in the consortium include astronomers interested in detecting pulsars, and researchers mapping the density of hydrogen in our galaxy and beyond. Together, the three groups constitute the ALFA consortium--short for the Arecibo L-band Feed Array. The multi-beam array offers important advantages to all researcher in the consortium. A survey that can point at seven different locations at the same time will be far more efficient than one that has to visit each location in succession. The fact that each of the feeds has its own separate receiver also makes it possible for scientists to listen at different frequencies at same time--a feat that is not possible with a single feed. Over the weekend of March 21-23 ALFA representatives met at Arecibo to coordinate their plans for using new array (the Stellar Countdown was scheduled to coincide with their meeting). Working together, ALFA researchers hope to be granted as many as 10,000 observing hours on the radio telescope, spread over 5 years. "Getting this much observing time is only possible because the consortium represents so many researchers" said Werthimer. Furthermore, he explained, all this telescope time will not come at the expense of other astronomers vying for telescope time. This is because using the multi-beam array, members of the consortium will be able to conduct their research far more efficiently than before, and will not compete with other scientist for precious (and far less efficient) observing time. The end result, Werthimer says, is that all telescope users will have more time available to conduct their observations. The multi-beam array is currently being built in Australia, where a similar 13 feed array is already installed on the 64 meter dish at the Parkes Observatory. It is expected to arrive at Arecibo in April, 2004, and installation, according to Werthimer, will take around 9 months. Once the observations get under way, perhaps early in 2005, the SETI@homne sky survey will become more sensitive and comprehensive than ever before. It will be a new chapter in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Read the original news release at http://planetary.org/html/news/articlearchive/headlines/2003/setifuture. html. Additional articles are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/setiathome_030328.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/seti-03b.html ________________________________________________________________________ MDRS CREW 15 ROTATION SUMMARY REPORT By David Fuller, Jody Tinsley, April Childress, Tim O'Connor, Kim Binsted and Derek O'Keeffe Mars Society release 28 March 2003 Introduction Crew 15 moved into the MDRS on 15 March 2003 for a two week rotation. The crew, made up of American, Irish, and Canadian nationalities, consisted of David Fuller, Commander; Jody Tinsley, Geologist and Health and Safety Officer; April Childress, Crew Archivist; Derek O'Keeffe, Engineer; Kim Binsted, Computer and Communications Specialist; Tim O'Connor, Astronomer and Biologist. The crew was introduced, by e-mail, to one another, on 19 February 2003, so we had only about three weeks to find out about one another, discuss research topics and expectations, and start planning our activities. In the end we decided to lay out general guidelines and rough out what we wanted to accomplish, and plan in more detail once we arrived. Von Moltke, a Prussian general, once said that no battle plans survive first contact with the enemy. So it was with Crew 15. Kim's flight from LAX was delayed two hours, so we left Salt Lake City later than planned. By the time we got to Hanksville, the sun had set, and we made the final drive into the desert in the dark. On arrival at the Hab, we found that the main 20 kW generator had failed the previous night, and the Hab was on a strict power budget using the backup 7 kW generator. The backup generator also required us to shut down and refuel it every 12 hours. Our delay also meant that the University of Michigan people had only about an hour to introduce us to their Mars analog rover, Everest. It's a wonderful machine, and the UM people had obviously spent many hours developing it. During our first full day in the Hab, we began our adjustment to this strange environment. One of the most dramatic adjustments was coping with a reduced amount of power. We quickly learned that, for example, we could not run the coffee maker and the electric hot plate at the same time. We also found that a general clean up and straightening up was needed before we could continue with our own plans. We dedicated our first two days to learning Hab systems, cleaning and organizing the tools and equipment, and planning our science schedule. Most of the team, experienced as they were in research and academia, had not had any experience with space missions or the challenges of planning and executing tasks in an operational environment. One of the first things David did was to sketch out how such operations worked, and likely scenarios we would encounter. We quickly learned some of the more mundane practices, such as radio protocol. Other skills, such as moving around in a space suit, and learning to work in heavy gloves, would only come with practice and experience. Science, like operations and war, usually suffers from the first contact with the enemy. Although much preparation went into their experiments, our scientists had to do much re-planning and fiddling with equipment once they got here. Computer science Kim's experiment involved field testing of a Sensor Network. The goal of the Sensor Network project is to test out the node triage protocol. "Node triage" refers to a set of heuristics for dealing with sensor network problems, such as depleted batteries, equipment failures, temporary conditions (such as clouds interfering with solar cells), node movement (due to wind, slipping down a slope, etc.) and so on. For each problem there may or may not be a solution (e.g., waiting for the condition to pass, self-repair, powering down and recharging, sending a human or robot to repair/replace the node etc.). Also, problems can be more or less serious, and nodes can vary in importance (e.g. if there are many nodes in a particular area, losing one might not matter), and solutions can vary in cost (e.g., sending a human on an EVA to a remote area is very costly). Our system is intended to a) take data from the sensors, b) detect problems, c) identify potential solutions, d) sort problems and solutions by priority and cost, e) initiate any solutions the node can carry out by itself, and f) recommend more expensive solutions, such as robot missions or EVAs. The current prototype is very simple. It involves a node (an iPAQ handheld computer with a dual compact flash expansion sleeve, a data logger with two sensors, and a GPS) and a base station (a notebook computer), which communicate via wireless (802.11b). The base station takes data from the node: sensors (light and temperature), GPS, and battery level. It diagnoses problems to do with battery level. If the battery is being used up too quickly, it instructs the node to send data less often. If the battery level is critical, it tells the node to send all data, then power down. Despite significant problems with the equipment (the sensors/iPAQ interface, in particular) that took the bulk of the two weeks to solve, Kim managed to test the system, and demonstrate the basic principle of sensor triage. Over the next few months, the data from this evaluation will be used to improve the system. Also, while the rest of the system was being debugged, Kim used the sensors to take detailed readings of temperature and light levels in the GreenHab, which we hope will be of use in getting the GreenHab up and running again. Geology The majority of our time, and all EVAs, focused on the geology of the area and how it might pertain to Mars. Jody spent most of his non-EVA time pouring over maps and previous reports, planning excursions into the desert. During Crew 15's rotation here at the MDRS we performed 12 EVAs, two initial training EVAs followed by ten EVAs dedicated to geological exploration and sampling. This record is very good for a crew with only one geologist because there were numerous research projects ongoing, and also because there were many maintenance issues that required our attention. During the course of these geological EVAs we ranged from the Hab by foot and ATV over an area extending approximately 7 kilometers north, 4 kilometers south, 4 kilometers east, and 3 kilometers west. We traveled up in geologic section to the base of the Ferron Sandstone beneath Skyline Rim and down in section to the Summerville Formation in Candor Chasma Canyon. We explored and investigated the various members of the varied Morrison Formation and the distinctive Dakota Sandstone. Through our work here we have gained a wonderful understanding of and appreciation for the rocks in the MDRS area, rocks which record the time which brackets the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary. We have collected a suite of samples from the sandstone and conglomerate units in the area and have plotted many outcrop locations on a paper copy of the Skyline Rim 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle. We've also noted these locations in NAD27 UTM coordinates throughout the geologic reports. In addition, we have collected several interesting samples of various lithologies as surface float, and we have located-in one place only-evidence of movement along a joint surface, a small fault. Finally, we have made several observations on weathering differences on north-facing versus south-facing slopes. One of the goals Jody had for this rotation was to look for perched basalt boulders, which would imply times in the past with vast amounts of surface water. Although we found rounded basalt boulders in modern- day washes, this doesn't necessarily imply any higher flow volumes in the past. A further search for these boulders, especially above the Skyline Rim to the west, would be an interesting follow up. Also, looking forward, a study attempting to establish evidence for joint control of some of the drainages would be very interesting. Also, a look at why the Lower and Upper Blue Hills levels are more dissected in the north than in the south would be worth taking, although this would necessitate several overnight or longer term EVAs, which would be worth doing in themselves. Biomedical engineering There is an old saying in music--how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Answer: Practice! This is very true and also applicable to any future human Mars mission. Before we are in a position to put mankind on the Red Planet we should have done a lot of practice, or our great moment might not go as planned. The biomedical experiments carried out by this crew during our rotation are part of that practice--by developing a system which is able to actively monitor astronaut mobility we can assess the amount of physical activity they do, and if it falls below a predefined threshold, we can then correct it by ensuring they carry out enough supplemental exercise. This is vital research for any Mars expedition, as crew health is the number one priority in any deep space mission--it's one thing to put a [person] on Mars, the real feat of humanity will be to bring him home again. Over the course of the two week rotation, five crew members were given pedometers in order to monitor the number of steps they took throughout the day. This was the first stage of a mobility assessment trial, carried out by Derek. At fixed intervals throughout each day he noted the subjects' pedometer readings. Pedometers use different approaches with regards to the electronics and mechanics of the units, but they all contain mechanisms that detect movement. The most common approach involves a small metal arm that moves up and down as you walk. Each time the "arm" moves, an electronic or manual counter is triggered, and thus, a step is counted (new pedometer systems that are entering the market use accelerometer sensors or GPS technology). The objective of this research was to find out gross mobility patterns of planetary station crews primarily to improve exercise training regimes to supplement possible reduced movement due to the limited space of the living environment. This reduced movement is intuitive in a smaller work / living environment, but it is important to try to quantify it objectively with numbers as well as quantify it subjectively (e.g., questionnaires). One consequence of reduced movement is the lack of subsequent "calf muscle pumping" action of the body's venous blood flow return system (similar to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) on airplanes-- also known as Economy Class Syndrome). Therefore with more accurate records of astronaut mobility patterns, medical staff will be able to design optimum exercise regimes (time of day and type of exercise) for space crews in order to maintain their peak physical health. Each day the trial ran for 12 hours (08:00-20:00), and already preliminary analysis of the results are quite interesting. On one level, there exists a large difference in mobility between different crew members at the end of each day--suggesting that some crew functions involve more exercise than others. Also, although almost counter- intuitive in such a small living/work environment, things are actually quite positive with regards to gross average daily step patterns in general. Although any information collected with pedometers should not be taken as absolute (due to inherent limitations such as false triggering etc.), it does allow researchers to build up interesting pictures of mobility activity and therefore design mission plans, exercise regimes and habitat layout more efficiently. One interesting "Mars effect" on the trial was the ruggedness of the terrain and its toll on some of the sensors--which is why it is important to think ahead and bring spares on any Mars/Utah mission! The second stage of the MDRS mobility assessment at the Hab involved the use of accelerometers to monitor an astronaut's mobility using a pair of twin axial acceleration sensors. Phase I of this trial was the validation of the sensors' accuracy in determining various activities such as walking, climbing etc. Phase II was the actual long term logging of data of a planetary astronaut's day using the described system and from this data, building up a detailed picture of the astronaut's day from a biomedical perspective (e.g., How much time were they sitting? How much walking did they do?). The unique environment of the MDRS allows this trial to examine the astronaut's mobility "in sim" both living in the Habitat and outside on EVA. Again each of the five crew members took part in the assessment and wore the devices for the day. A large amount of clinical data has been generated and will be examined in the detail over the coming weeks. Astronomy and biology Tim, the crew's biologist and astronomer, worked with the radio telescope and the Mars Desert Research Station Observatory, with help by email from Peter Detterline and John Samouce. With some effort, the radio telescope was brought online. It seems that the audio-in on the Hab Observatory laptop is non-functioning. So, the SkyPipe software was installed onto Kim Binsted's personal laptop, and data were examined there. Recently, there has not been much radio activity (within the sensitivity of the telescope). There were a few issues with the optical telescope. Specifically, the computer's case had been left off, and the computer was found with a massive amount of internal dust and oxidation some interfaces. After isolating the problem (only the network card was entirely non-functional, even though the CD-ROM had been reporting errors during startup) the problem was corrected (with the help of Don Foutz's McGuyver-like tricks using that lovely Utah grit). Once the basic functionality of the computer system was established, a two-star alignment was performed (under limited power, the telescope needed to be re-aligned for every use). The first image captured was of Jupiter and some of its moons. At first, the images from the telescope were very unfocused; in fact the telescope was focused in such a way that images were barely visible at all. The field-of-view in the secondary mirror was larger than the entire primary mirror. In the end, it took between 20 and 30 minutes, using "RoboFocus" switches on the telescope mounting, to get a decent focus. Also, inclement weather, such as clouds, rain, and/or high winds, prevented the use of the optical telescope in the MDRS Observatory. Only the last two nights of the mission resulted in decent viewing--but what nights they were! We saw excellent images of Jupiter and Saturn, and managed to take some decent images of both. Few biological, specifically exobiological, concerns were addressed, since colonial growth is essentially guaranteed (even in such a "barren" environment as Utah's high desert). However, the main considerations regarding searching for life on Mars were reflected in expedition choices. There were discussions, during EVA planning, about favoring sites with obvious evidence of liquid water (which is common in this location, despite it being a desert). Specifically, the interest would be focused on old standing water sites, as these may offer the best conditions for spotting signs of former life. Primarily, the search for life on Mars should pay special attention to looking for biotic/pre-biotic materials more than microscopic fossils (fossils are rare, fossilized microbes are exceedingly rare). The most interesting materials would be amino acids. If found, they would tell us vast amounts about the nature of life (their chirality would be very interesting). We did not look for amino acids here (no centrifuge was available, and as stated previously, they would almost certainly be found). The main issues that are worth simulating, regarding the search for life, are site selection and collection procedures, both of which we practiced as much as possible. Summary One of the things that became apparent early on was the amount of maintenance that is required in this type of environment. After every EVA the suits had to be brushed off, put away, batteries recharged, the gloves and boots had to be cleaned and dried, and miscellaneous equipment put away, no matter how tired we were. Trash has to be properly disposed of, floors swept, and tools put away. Meal preparation and dish washing has to be planned and coordinated three times a day. Other maintenance and repair tasks took up more time than we anticipated. Two trips to Grand Junction, CO, each about two and a half hours one way, were required to first take the 20 kW generator to a dealer for repair, and then to pick it up. The big blue pickup truck required new tires and a new battery, which meant a one hour trip to Green River to the nearest garage. We also chased down and fixed a problem with the taillights, so the truck can now be driven at night. Aside from the science accomplishments, there were many personal triumphs. We learned the joys of grits at breakfast, the incredible number of stars visible on a clear desert night, inappropriate uses of spoons, the horror of encounters with space weasels, the taste of Utah grit, the joys of Shakespeare, and the vital importance of a good sense of humor. When we first came here we were strangers. Now we're a team. A complete report on the activities of the Mars Desert Research Station will be presented at the 6th International Mars Society Convention, to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Eugene Oregon, August 14- 17, 2003. Registration is now open online at www.marssociety.org. To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org, or contact info@marssociety.org. ________________________________________________________________________ SEARCHING FOR HABITABLE PLANETS WITH EDDINGTON ESA release 21-2003 31 March 2003 The scientific community involved in the search for habitable planets will meet in Palermo (Italy) on April 9-11 to take an important step towards the discovery of other worlds which might harbor life. The European Space Agency and the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo have organized an international workshop, entitled "Stellar-structure and habitable planet finding'', dedicated specifically to selection of the single area of the sky that will be searched for habitable planets by Eddington, the European mission due for launch at the beginning of 2008. The workshop has attracted more than 150 participants, from most European countries and also from the USA and Australia. In addition to the leading scientists in the field of extra-solar planets, representatives from several European space companies will be attending. "Eddington" is a European astronomical space observatory currently being developed by ESA; one of its key scientific aims is the discovery, for the first time, of habitable planets--planets that could harbor life as we know it on Earth. Eddington will put European scientists in a leading position in this key scientific challenge. It will search for habitable planets in a single area of the sky (its 'target field'); the choice of target field is therefore a critical decision in the mission's lifetime. Details of the workshop arrangements are given at http://www.astropa.unipa.it/Eddington/Index.html. During the workshop, details of its progress will be available at the same address. Media representatives are welcome to attend the workshop; a press lunch will be organized on April 11, during which some of the leading scientists attending the workshop will be available to answer questions from journalists. Media representatives wishing to attend the workshop are required to complete the attached registration form. Further information about the Eddington mission, the workshop and its outcome can be requested from: Fabio Favata Eddington Project Scientist ESA, Astrophysics Division Fabio.Favata@rssd.esa.int Phone: +31(0)71.565.4665 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Workshop on stellar-structure and habitable planet-finding Palermo - 9-11 April 2003 First name: ________________________ Surname: _____________________ Media: _____________________________________________________________ Address: ___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Telephone: ________________________ Fax: __________________________ Mobile: _______________________ E-mail: ___________________________ ( ) I will be attending the workshop ( ) I will not be attending Please fax back to: Franca Morgia ESA/ESRIN Phone: +39(06)9418.0951 Fax: +39.06.9418.0952 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ________________________________________________________________________ FILE COMPRESSION: NEW TOOL FOR LIFE DETECTION? By Henry Bortman From Astrobiology Magazine 31 March 2003 To those interested in early life on Earth, stromatolites are among the most intriguing life forms known. Billions of years ago, they may have been the dominant form of life on the planet. Some scientists speculate that, perhaps, similar organisms once populated Mars. Strictly speaking, stromatolites are not organisms, but rather layered structures built by colonies of microorganisms, the first great wonder of the ancient world. Until a few years ago, whenever geobiologists found an ancient rock that looked like a fossilized stromatolite, they figured it was a stromatolite. But in 1996, John Grotzinger of MIT published a paper in the journal Nature showing that stromatolite-like structures could be formed through a simple chemical process, without the help of microorganisms. So how does one separate the wheat from the chaff, the true stromatolites from the fakes? One method is to examine the suspect rock with a microscope, looking for visual evidence of microorganisms. But as researchers who study ancient terrestrial rocks--and one notorious martian meteorite--have discovered, it isn't all that easy to tell, just by looking at shapes, whether or not a microscopic blob in a rock was once alive. Stromatolites are handy in this regard because their characteristic layers, although formed by microscopic organisms, are visible to the naked eye. So if there were an easy way to distinguish biological stromatolites from non-biological layered structures that merely look like stromatolites, it not only would help in understanding the evolution of early life on Earth, it might also prove a useful tool for detecting evidence of ancient martian life because stromatolites could be detected easily by a rover's camera. Frank Corsetti, who is with the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC), and Michael Storrie-Lombardi of JPL, think they may have found a way. Their approach is simplicity itself: Create a digital image of the rock; then compress the image file. The more the file shrinks, the more likely it is that life was responsible for building the layers. Corsetti and Storrie-Lombardi began by collecting a series of TIFF images, some believed to be of biological stromatolites, others believed to be of non-biological layered structures that merely look like stromatolites. When they compressed the images on a Macintosh computer using the standard UNIX compression utility gzip, they found that the images of biological stromatolites were more compressible. Here's why An RGB image file, like those used by Corsetti in his analysis, is comprised of a series of data bytes. Three bytes--one red, one green and one blue--represent each pixel in the image. The numerical values of the bytes indicate the color of the pixel. When gzip compresses a file, it looks for multi-byte patterns in the data. It assigns a number to each pattern it finds and maintains a table that pairs patterns with their corresponding numbers. Each time a pattern recurs in the original file, instead of storing the pattern, the compressed file stores the number that represents the pattern. In this way, a pattern tens or even hundreds of bytes long can be represented by a number that is one, two or three bytes long. This is why the compressed file is smaller. Corsetti explains that the biogenic images are more compressible because they're more predictable or redundant, which can be considered a form of biologic complexity. This notion may seem counter-intuitive. Initially, Corsetti says, "I expected that the biotic one would be harder to compress, and that the abiotic one would be more regular, easier to compress. So we did the analysis--and it came out reversed." Resolving this apparent contradiction requires a realignment of one's ideas about complexity. In this context, "complex" doesn't mean "complicated"; rather, it means, "patterned," less random. "A computer file that's complex," says Corsetti, "would have a lot of non-redundant, or random, features in the data. Patterns would be hard to see in something that is more random. Something that's very redundant would have a lot of repeated patterns, and would be more compressible, and therefore less complex." Although biological stromatolites and non-biological stromatolite-look- alike structures appear similar to the human eye, the biological origin of stromatolites makes them more ordered, more highly patterned. And it is this patterning that, while hard for the human eye to discern, is readily detected by the compression algorithm. Non-biological stromatolite-like structures are more random, less patterned and therefore less compressible. Robert Hazen, who is with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has spent the last several years studying complex systems, both living and non-living. He's intrigued by Corsetti's findings. "The thing that maybe has turned a lot of scientists off to the idea of complexity is that there has not been any universal or simple way to quantify what you mean by complexity. The sort of thing--I know it when I see it--isn't very useful," he says. His interest is piqued, however, "any time someone comes up with a way to look at a system and says, let's see if we can't in a purely mathematical impartial way see if there's a difference in the quantifiable structure" of a living versus a non-living system. "It's an amazingly simple idea," says Hazen of Corsetti's work. "It's one that does not pre-judge anything genetic about the structure. It just says, can we differentiate between those stromatiform objects, which are not biological, and the stromatolites, which clearly are? And, lo and behold he does this and finds that--wow!--there's a difference." What's next? Corsetti is the first to raise a cautionary flag about this work. "This is very preliminary. I'm not saying we have the answer. In fact, I don't believe we have the answer. What we have are some intriguing preliminary results." So far, he and his colleagues have examined only about 20 images. They appear to cluster into two groups, one biotic, the other abiotic. "We need to do a lot more work to see, is this a spectrum, an interaction between abiotic and biotic things, or is it truly a signature [that can distinguish between the two]? And right now I'm not ready to say one way or the other, if it's a signature or not. What I am willing to say is that it deserves further research." That research is already underway. Corsetti and Storrie-Lombardi plan to examine many more images in the coming months in an effort to determine just how useful the technique may prove. "Our goal is to eventually have some kind of data base or web site, where we could provide the protocol and other people would analyze their stromatolites in the same way and see what they come up with. "It would be really neat if people could send us an image - they will determine to their eye, based on the microscopic structure, whether they think it's biotic or abiotic, and send it to us as an unknown. We could do the analysis, see where it falls, and then see if it matches with what they found. And that's kind of cool because it adds a certain double blind aspect to the study, which at this point we don't have." When asked if he planned to apply his technique to close-up images of Mars rocks sent back by the upcoming MER missions, Corsetti said, "Oh sure, I'd love to look at those! But we're not ready to say, hey, we can make a comment one way or the other." Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article415.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 31 March 2003 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles1. html H. Bortman, 2003. File compression: new tool for life detection? Astrobiology Magazine. L. David, 2003. Mars water, odd surface features tied to life. Space.com. ESA, 2003. Pasteur: payload opportunities to search for life on Mars. SpaceDaily. D. Grinspoon, 2003. Mighty Aprhodite. Astrobiology Magazine. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles3. html Mars Society of Canada, 2003. International crew returns home from Utah Mars simulation base. SpaceDaily. Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles4. html A. Alexander, 2003. SETI@home completes stellar countdown. SpaceDaily. Associated Press, 2003. New Mexico has new holiday to honor extraterrestrial culture. Space.com. Associated Press, 2003. SETI@home users get more signals to analyze. Space.com. S. Shostak, 2003. How can humanity decode alien transmissions? Space.com. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles5. html American Chemical Society, 2003. Scientists find evidence for crucial root in the history of plant evolution. SpaceDaily. Planetary protection articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles6. html ESA, 2003. ESA studies missions to safeguard the Earth. SpaceDaily. Astrobiology and extreme environments book list http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology_book s.htm D. Grinspoon, 1998. Venus Revealed. Perseus Publishing. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 31 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/03/27/sprj.colu.shuttle.tape/index.ht ml http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/03/27/sprj.colu.shuttle.investigation .ap/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/03/26/nasa.safety.report.ap/index.htm l http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/29/national/nationalspecial/29SHUT.html?t h http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_oex_030324.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030324.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030325.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_clearlake_030325.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_escape_030325.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_panel_030325.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030326.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_memorial_030326.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_recorder_030327.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_e-mail_030328.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_spike_030331.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03j.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0303/24slep/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030325hearing/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030325search/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030326hearing/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030329nima/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030330oexdata/ ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 20-26 March 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Canberra tracking station on Wednesday, March 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. The last activity of the Attitude Control Flight Software (FSW) checkout was a successful Reaction Wheel Assembly friction test. After that, real time command files were uplinked to set global variables for the string swap procedure, and memory readouts for the SSR flight software regions. These commands enabled Command and Data Subsystem (CDS) personnel to establish and verify initial conditions prior to their CDS FSW checkout period. The CDS checkout began with activities to load the new version 9 FSW onto the on-line "backup" CDS string, and a string swap procedure to reset the CDS_A string executing Version 7.0, and allow the CDS_B String with Version 9.0 to become the prime CDS string. The swap was successfully completed. The CDS_A string will continue to execute the Version 7.0 software as a "hot" backup until Thursday, when CDS_A will also be loaded with Version 9.0. A delivery coordination meeting was held for Version 2.0 Release 1 of the Remote Terminal Interface Unit (RTIU) software. This delivery was needed to allow the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) instrument to replay bus traffic from their recent tests in the Integrated Test Laboratory (ITL) using their RTIU and engineering model in Michigan. Previously the RTIU had a limit of 1024 commands in a sequence. The INMS tests in ITL exceeded that limit so the number was increased to 2048. The RTIU software simulates the Cassini CDS, and provides the CDS functionality needed for testing instrument commands and data telemetry. The Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado has made the ISS "pre-commanding" tool software available for download by IO personnel. User documentation is also included. This version of the software has been delivered to the development network side of the PSL. After testing by IO, the software will be officially delivered to the PSL. The Navigation Ancillary Information Facility toolkit, version N0055, with Cassini components tested, was delivered to the Project Software Library (PSL). Members of the Navigation team presented contingency missions and trajectories for the Huygens Probe at the Mission Planning Forum this week. Students throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties have gazed at Saturn through telescopes in the past two weeks. Members of the Saturn Observation Campaign have hosted a series of events throughout Southern California. The Cassini Program Manager gave two lectures on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn, one in Von Karman Auditorium at JPL, and the other at The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College, California. 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. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS: SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT By George H. Diller NASA/KSC release 26 March 2003 Mission: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER-1/MER-2) Launch Vehicles: Delta II/Delta II Heavy Launch Pads: 17-A/17-B Launch Dates: May 30/June 25 Launch Times: 2:28 PM/12:34 AM EDT On March 21, MER-1 was driven on a test pad that included navigating the rover over obstacles simulating martian terrain. The camera also underwent functional testing. A functional test and mission simulation is scheduled for this weekend that includes deployment of the lander petals, the solar arrays, camera mast and camera. A second functional test and mission simulation for MER-2 was successfully completed last weekend and the rover will be stowed on the lander base petal late this week. Processing of the cruise stage, lander and heat shield elements for both missions continues. Once functional testing and mission simulation of the flight elements is complete, they will be integrated together. Each spacecraft will be mated to a solid propellant upper stage booster that will propel the spacecraft out of Earth orbit. After mating to the upper stage, the stack will undergo spin balance testing. Approximately ten days before launch the payload will be transported to the launch pad for mating with their respective Boeing Delta II rockets. The Boeing Delta II vehicle for the first launch of the two launches scheduled on May 30 is planned for erection on Pad 17-A at Space Launch Complex 17 beginning April 22. The Boeing and NASA review to assess the engineering readiness of the Delta II for MER-A was completed on March 19 at the Boeing plant in Huntington Beach, CA. The Delta for the second launch on June 25 will begin its erection at Pad 17-B on May 1. Boeing's Delta II Heavy Design Certification Review for MER-B was completed on March 20. Contact: George H. Diller Kennedy Space Center Phone: 321-867-2468 ________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 17-27 March 2003 Martian Braille (Released 17 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030317a.html Pavonis Mons Caldera (Released 18 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030318a.html Impact Craters (Released 19 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030319a.html Flooded Crater in Terra Sirenum (Released 20 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030320a.html Cydonia Craters (Released 21 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030321a.html Gale Crater Mound (Released 25 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030325a.html Acidalia Planitia (Released 26 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030326a.html Hebrus Valles (Released 27 March 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030327a.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 March 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 that contact indicated Stardust is healthy and all subsystems continue to run normally. 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. On March 22, Stardust successfully transmitted the remaining images of the Pleiades star cluster stored in the spacecraft's memory. The Pleiades images were taken by Stardust's navigation camera. Stardust's Optical Navigation and Image Science Teams report image quality to be very good. The educational and public outreach office of Stardust will partner up with the Deep Space Network and the JPL Asian American Committee for the 2nd Annual Pasadena Cherry Blossom Festival. Those festival goers in attendance had the opportunity to see Stardust's new mission banners, as well as a cube of aerogel, and receive handouts detailing the Stardust mission. 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 13.