MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 19, 12 May 2003. Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu 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 editor, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. The editor does not condone "spamming" of subscribers. Readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing lists. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editor. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting the editor. 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) STARDUST SAMPLES Meteoritical Society release 2) RUSSIA, U.S. AGREE TO EXPLORE MARS TOGETHER From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 3) ASTEROID IMPACT PUTS HEAT ON SNOWBALL EARTH THEORY OF KEY EVOLUTIONARY JUMP Australian Centre for Astrobiology release 4) WATER: THE MOLECULE OF LIFE--AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP BALL From Astrobiology Magazine 5) A-LIFE EXPERIMENTS SHOW HOW COMPLEX FUNCTIONS CAN EVOLVE Michigan State University release 6) METEORITES RAINED ON EARTH AFTER MASSIVE ASTEROID BREAKUP Rice University release 7) COUNTING ON DISTANT WORLDS: MATH AS AN INTERSTELLAR LANGUAGE By Douglas Vakoch 8) CHINA'S MANNED SPACE FLIGHT STILL GO DESPITE SARS From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 9) EUROPA DIARY 1: LANDING ON ALIEN TERRAIN By Matthew Pruis 10) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 11) CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 12) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 13) MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS: SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT By George H. Diller 14) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 15) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 16) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release ________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST SAMPLES Meteoritical Society release 29 April 2003 In 2006 the Stardust mission will return the first samples of contemporary comet grains and possibly interstellar dust to Earth. The goal of the mission is to make the samples available internationally to the widest possible spectrum of qualified researchers. Sample allocation will be made through the Cosmic Dust Subcommittee of CAPTEM, and it is anticipated that requests will be evaluated by CAPTEM in the same manner as current requests for interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), i.e. through small research proposals (2-5 pages). Proposals will be judged not just on scientific merit but also on small particle handling expertise. For this reason, it is recommended that investigators first experiment with small matrix fragments of CI and CM meteorites and then request an IDP allocation. IDPs can be requested by contacting: Dr. Micheal Zolensky Curator/Cosmic Dust Code ST Planetary Science Branch NASA/Johnson Space Center Houston, TX 77058 USA All requests are evaluated on the basis of originality, quality of the proposed research, experience of the applicant(s), and the availability of appropriate facilities. The Cosmic Dust Subcommittee will provide guidelines in microparticle handling to successful applicant(s) if required. A series of Stardust workshops will be held prior to sample return. The first, a science meeting, will be held in August 2003. For details visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/stardust2003/. A second meeting planned for Summer 2004 will be a hands-on workshop where methods of extracting particles from aerogel, small particle handling techniques, and particle analysis methods will be covered. The workshop will be held in the San Francisco area. Interested participants should contact: Dr. John Bradley Director, Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 7000 East Avenue, L-413 Livermore, CA 94550 USA E-mail: jbradley@igpp.ucllnl.org CAPTEM web site: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/captem/ Read the original news release at http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/news_display.cfm?code=news_intro&item ID=15 ________________________________________________________________________ RUSSIA, U.S. AGREE TO EXPLORE MARS TOGETHER From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 5 May 2003 Russia and the United States have agreed to launch a joint program of Mars exploration, officials said here Monday after talks between the heads of the US and Russian space agencies. The two countries "have agreed to begin joint exploration of Mars and carry out joint unmanned interplanetary station flight programmes," Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for Russia's Rosaviakosmos space agency, told the Interfax news agency. "In addition, it was decided that Russia can take part in U.S. space tenders," Gorbunov added. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe held talks with his Russian counterpart Yuri Koptev to discuss cooperation including over the 16-nation International Space Station (ISS). Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030505155244.v4ljrq85.html. ________________________________________________________________________ ASTEROID IMPACT PUTS HEAT ON SNOWBALL EARTH THEORY OF KEY EVOLUTIONARY JUMP Australian Centre for Astrobiology release 6 May 2003 Scientists studying rocks near an ancient asteroid impact structure in South Australian have uncovered evidence that could change current theories explaining how life on Earth rapidly diversified about 580 million years ago. Dr. Kath Grey of the Western Australian Department of Industry and Resources' Geological survey and an ACA associate researcher, Professor Malcolm Walter, Director of the ACA and Dr. Clive Calver of the Tasmanian Department of Mineral Resources challenge the idea that "Snowball Earth"--an intense period of glaciation about 600 million years ago, triggered the evolution of simple life forms into more complex and familiar species. In the May edition of the international journal Geology, Dr. Grey and her team put forward an alternative radical idea that 580 million years ago an asteroid impact played a pivotal role in this evolutionary jump. The impact, known as the Acraman event, smashed a hole in South Australia about four times the size of Sydney. Up until then, for the first three billion years of Earth's 4.5 billion year history, bacteria and simple algae had dominated life on Earth. "Then almost overnight geologically speaking, the ancestors of modern day animals and plants appeared in the fossil record about half a billion years ago," Dr. Grey said. "The big question is what caused the rapid proliferation of life at that time?" Research by other scientists suggests the evolutionary burst of life between 600 and 540 million years ago was the result of an intense period of global glaciation. However, if the findings of Dr. Grey's research prove correct, the cause could lie beyond our planet. Dr. Grey, who has studied fossil plankton (single-celled green algae) from drill holes across Australia, has found that, as predicted by the Snowball Earth theory, bacterial mats and a few simple spherical species of plankton were the only organisms that managed to survive the intense ice age. "As the sea level rose at the end of the ice age, these spherical forms increased in number," Dr. Grey said. "But there is no sign of a new species emerging at the end of the intense ice age to support ideas of the rapid diversification of life at this time." Dr. Grey believes it wasn't until about 20 million years later more than 50 new and highly complex species suddenly replaced the small number of simple species in the fossil record. "What is really interesting is that the more complex spiny fossils appear just above a layer of rock in South Australia associated with the Acraman impact," Dr. Grey said. In a related study, Dr. Calver found significant carbon isotope changes mirrored Dr. Grey's observations. Professor Walter has also noted that patterns associated with the Acraman impact were similar to those of mass-extinction and recovery events, and that a large asteroid impact could have produced conditions ideal for evolutionary change. "Later impacts, like the 65 million year old Chixulub collision in Mexico wiped out a diverse range of species, including the dinosaurs," Dr. Grey said. "But with the Acraman impact, there were only a small number of species around and the time to cause a mass extinction event." "Most of the species that did survive were highly resilient, and had the ability to remain dormant through the cosmic winter that followed. When conditions improved, these species had an advantage over their competitors and were able to proliferate and diversify." Dr. Grey and her team have reasoned that the ensuing plankton diversification must have played a vital role in the subsequent development of the animals dependent on plankton as a food source. Read the original news release at http://aca.mq.edu.au/acraman.htm. ________________________________________________________________________ WATER: THE MOLECULE OF LIFE--AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP BALL From Astrobiology Magazine 7 May 2003 One of NASA's guiding policies in the search for alien life is to "follow the water." Water is fairly common in the universe, found everywhere from vast interstellar dust clouds to the orange-red fields of Mars, but most of this water is in the form of ice. Solid water can't act as a lubricant for the molecular processes of life, so the search is on for liquid water--a commodity that is far more rare in the universe. Philip Ball, author of the book, Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water, says that liquid water is essential for the kind of delicate chemistry that makes life possible. Liquid water is a universal solvent, a mediator of life's chemical reactions, and it has a structure unlike that of any other liquid. In an interview with Astrobiology Magazine, Philip Ball recently discussed his thoughts on the role of liquid water for life on Earth and on other worlds. Interview with Philip Ball, consultant editor of the journal Nature and Writer in Residence in the Chemistry Department of University College, London. Q: Do you think liquid water is necessary for life to exist on other worlds? Alternatively, what do you think of suggestions that life elsewhere might evolve without liquid water, and instead make use of liquids like sulfur? PB: I think that the discussion about this, with its attendant charges of "terra-centricity," generally fails to acknowledge what is really unique about water. The more we understand about biological water, the more we see that its unique ability to form a three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network enables it to participate in biochemical processes and not just to act as a passive backdrop. At a somewhat crude level, life is about molecular processes such as templating, molecular recognition and replication, which can be duplicated in non-aqueous solvents. But we find that even for the simplest organisms, many of the molecular interactions are facilitated by water in an extremely fine-tuned way. I'm not sure we know of any solvent that can play a comparable role in terms of enabling the kind of highly delicate chemistry that makes life possible. If we accept that any form of life will require a comparable degree of chemical sophistication, it is hard to see what other solvent would make this possible. In other words, I'd put it like this: 1. Life most probably needs a solvent. 2. That solvent needs to perform an active, diverse, and flexible role. 3. Water is so far the only common liquid we know that is capable of this. So I think that Lawrence Henderson may have been right when he argued in 1913 that water is biophilic--though he didn't use that word, and his interpretation of that fact was rather different! Q: You note in your book that in some ways, water is more like a crystal than a liquid. This brought to mind some theories that suggest crystals might have played a role in the origin of life, especially in regards to the chirality problem. Could water have played the role in life's origin that others have attributed to crystals? PB: I say that water has attracted the attentions of people who have tended to be more interested in the crystalline rather than the liquid state, like Bernal and Pauling. But I'd say that water is literally like a crystal in just one respect: it has an unusually high degree of local ordering. But of course this is just on average--there is nothing like a persistent ordered structure even on a local level. So I don't see that water could have played any kind of templating role like that proposed for some mineral crystals in the origin of life. Q: You also mentioned in your book some experiments that used different pressures and temperatures to study the (sometimes strange) effects on water. Do you think on planets with pressures and temperatures significantly different from Earth's, that water would still play a fundamental role in life? PB: The pressure at the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific is around 1,000 atmospheres, under which conditions liquid water has a significantly different structure--more like that of high-density amorphous ice. Yet life persists there. So it seems entirely possible that high pressures on other worlds are no impediment to life in water. It is surely possible for life to persist in super-cooled water below its normal freezing point too--but this would be a very precarious existence, as the danger of freezing would be ever present. As for high temperatures--I believe that the conditions around some hydrothermal vents are above water's critical point. I doubt whether carbon-based life can exist in such an environment, however, not just because many organics fall apart above a few hundred degrees, but because the solvent properties of supercritical water are quite different--hydrophobic species become more soluble, for instance. Q: What is your preferred theory for the origin of life on Earth-- hydrothermal vent, sunlit shallow pool, panspermia, or other? PB: I think the vent theory has the most going for it, not least because it posits a relatively stable environment in the face of a pretty changeable and often rather nasty situation at the surface of the land or sea. Panspermia always feels unsatisfying because it merely displaces rather than addresses the problem. But that is not of course to say that it is ruled out for that reason! Q: What do you think are some of the most interesting or exciting recent findings about the properties of water? PB: Right now, I think some of the biggest questions hinge around the nature of water in the cell. There is still a lot of controversy about this: is cell water more or less like bulk water? Biochemists usually treat it this way. Or is it so modified by the presence of so many macromolecules and surfaces that it has a quite different structure? Some people think that cell water is more like a gel. Others believe that it is strongly inhomogeneous, sometimes having an enhanced density- -encouraged by the presence of certain dissolved ions--and sometimes a reduced density, making it a poorer solvent and more ice-like. Very recently there have been several reports that water very near hydrophobic surfaces is vapor-like: that such surfaces are relatively "dry." This would have important implications for things like the hydrophobic attraction, as well as for the nucleation of gas bubbles at surfaces, which has been proposed as an explanation for the mysteriously long-ranged attraction between hydrophobic surfaces. We also have more and more examples of water bound to proteins playing an important functional role--for example, chains of water molecules inside protein pore-like channels acting as "proton wires." All of this makes it clear that water plays a subtle and dynamic role in molecular biology, and is itself a biomolecule. Read the original article and an excerpt from Phillip Ball's book at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article453.html. ________________________________________________________________________ A-LIFE EXPERIMENTS SHOW HOW COMPLEX FUNCTIONS CAN EVOLVE Michigan State University release 7 May 2003 If the evolution of complex organisms were a road trip, then the simple country drives are what get you there. And sometimes even potholes along the way are important. An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology, with the help of powerful computers, has used a kind of artificial life, or ALife, to create a road map detailing the evolution of complex organisms, an old problem in biology. In an article in the May 8 issue of the international journal Nature, Richard Lenski, Charles Ofria, Robert Pennock, and Christoph Adami report that the path to complex organisms is paved with a long series of simple functions, each unremarkable if viewed in isolation. Moreover, the article states, some mutations that cause damage in the short term ultimately become a positive force in the genetic pedigree of a complex organism. "The little things, they definitely count," said Lenski, MSU Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbial Ecology and the paper's lead author. "Our work allowed us to see how the most complex functions are built up from simpler and simpler functions. We also saw that some mutations looked like bad events when they happened, but turned out to be really important for the evolution of the population over a long period of time." In the key phrase, "a long period of time," lies the magic of A-Life. Lenski teamed up with Adami, a faculty associate and principal scientist at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ofria, an MSU assistant professor of computer science and engineering, after a chance meeting with a colleague on the squash court led him to hear a seminar about their work. Their first Nature paper on digital evolution was published in 1999. Pennock, an MSU associate professor of philosophy, now joins the team as they study an artificial world inside a computer, a world in which computer programs take the place of living organisms. They go forth and multiply, they mutate and they adapt by natural selection. The program, called Avida, is basically an artificial petri dish in which organisms not only reproduce, but also perform mathematical calculations to obtain rewards. Their reward is more computer time that they can use for making copies of themselves. Avida randomly adds mutations to the copies, thus spurring natural selection and evolution. The research team watches how the bugs adapt and evolve in different environments inside their artificial world. Avida is the biologist's race car--a really souped up one. To watch the evolution of most living organisms would require thousands of years-- without blinking. The digital bugs evolve at lightning speed, and they leave tracks for scientists to study. "The cool thing is that we can trace the line of descent," Lenski said. "Out of a big population of organisms you can work back to see the pivotal mutations that really mattered during the evolutionary history of the population. The human mind can't sort through so much data, but we developed a tool to find these pivotal events." There are no missing links with this technology. Evolutionary theory sometimes struggles to explain the most complex features of organisms. Lenski uses the human eye as an example. It's obviously used for seeing, and it has all sorts of parts--like a lens that can be focused at different distances--that make it well suited for that use. But how did something so complicated as the eye come to be? Since Charles Darwin, biologists have concluded that such features must have arisen through lots of intermediates and, moreover, that these intermediate structures may once have served different functions from what we see today. The crystalline proteins that make up the lens of the eye, for example, are related to those that serve enzymatic functions unrelated to vision. So, the theory goes, evolution borrowed an existing protein and used it for a new function. "Over time," Lenski said, "an old structure could be tweaked here and there to improve it for its new function, and that's a lot easier than inventing something entirely new." That's where A-Life sheds light. "Darwinian evolution is a process that doesn't specify exactly how the evolving information is coded," says Adami, who leads the Digital Life Laboratory at Caltech. "It affects DNA and computer code in much the same way, which allows us to study evolution in this electronic medium." Many computer scientists and engineers are now using processes based on principles of genetics and evolution to solve complex problems, design working robots, and more. Ofria, a computer scientist, says: "We can then apply these concepts when trying to decide how best to solve computational problems." "Evolutionary design," says Pennock, "can often solve problems better than we can using our own intelligence." This research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under its biocomplexity initiative, with additional funding from The MSU Foundation. "This project addresses a fundamental criticism of the theory of evolution, how complex functions arise from mutation and natural selection," said Sam Scheiner program director in the NSF's division of environmental biology. "These simulations will help direct research on living systems and will provide understanding of the origins of biocomplexity." Contact: Richard Lenski Michigan State University Phone: 517-355-6463 x1603 E-mail: lenski@msu.edu Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article455.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/artificial_life_030507.html ________________________________________________________________________ METEORITES RAINED ON EARTH AFTER MASSIVE ASTEROID BREAKUP Rice University release 8 May 2003 Using fossil meteorites and ancient limestone unearthed throughout southern Sweden, marine geologists at Rice University have discovered that a colossal collision in the asteroid belt some 500 million years ago led to intense meteorite strikes over the Earth's surface. The research, which appears in this week's issue of Science magazine, is based upon an analysis of fossil meteorites and limestone samples from five Swedish quarries located as much as 310 miles (500 km.) apart. The limestone formed from sea bottom sediments during a 2 million-year span about 480 million years ago, sealing the intact meteorites, as well as trace minerals from disintegrated meteorites, in a lithographic time capsule. "What we are doing is astronomy, but instead of looking up at the stars, we are looking down into the Earth," said lead researcher Birger Schmitz, who conducted his analysis during his tenure as the Wiess Visiting Professor of Earth Science at Rice. Schmitz is professor of marine geology at Göteborg University in Sweden. Meteorite activity on earth is relatively uniform today, with an average of about one meteorite per year falling every 7,700 square miles (12,500 km2). The new study found a 100-fold increase in meteorite activity during the period when the limestone was forming, a level of activity that was present over the entire 150,000-square-mile (250,000 km2) search area. Some 20 percent of the meteorites landing on Earth today are remnants of a very large asteroid that planetary scientists refer to as the "L- chondrite parent body." This asteroid broke apart around 500 million years ago in what scientists believe is the largest collision that occurred in late solar system history. Schmitz and his colleagues looked for unique extraterrestrial forms of the mineral chromite that are found only in meteorites from the L- chondrite breakup. They found that all the intact fossil meteorites in the Swedish limestone came from the breakup. Moreover, they found matching concentrations of silt and sand-sized grains of extraterrestrial chromite in limestone from all five quarries, indicating that meteorite activity following the breakup was occurring at the same rate over the entire area. The research helps explain why Schmitz and his colleagues at Göteborg have been able to collect so many fossilized meteorites from a single quarry near Kinnekulle, Sweden over the past decade. Fossil meteorites embedded in stratified rock are extremely rare. Only 55 have ever been recovered, and Schmitz's group found 50 of those. "It is true that we are lucky to be looking in just the right place--a layer of lithified sediments that was forming on the sea floor immediately after this massive collision," said Schmitz. "But on the other hand, we would never have started looking there in the first place if the quarry workers hadn't been finding the meteorites on a regular, yet still rare, basis." Until Schmitz's group started working with the quarry crew, the fossilized meteorites were discarded because they blemish the finished limestone. Schmitz believes it's possible that similar concentrations of fossilized meteorites and extraterrestrial chromite grains are present worldwide in limestone that formed during the period following the asteroid breakup. He recently got funding to look for evidence of this in China, and he said there are South American sites that are also favorable. The research was sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the Swedish Research Council. Contact: Jade Boyd Rice University Office of News & Media Relations Phone: 713-348-6778 E-mail: jadeboyd@rice.edu Read the original news release at http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/reno/Newsrel/2003/20030508_meteorite.s html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroids_collide_030508.html. ________________________________________________________________________ COUNTING ON DISTANT WORLDS: MATH AS AN INTERSTELLAR LANGUAGE By Douglas Vakoch From Space.com 8 May 2003 If some day we receive an information-rich signal from another star, no one expects it to be written in English, Chinese, or Swahili. Instead, researchers engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) often suggest that mutual comprehension will come through the language of math. Imagine for a moment an extraterrestrial civilization that can build radio telescopes and transmitters, and thus signal its existence across interstellar space. Wouldn't such a civilization's knowledge of the physical universe overlap at least in part with our own? Mathematics, it has been argued, provides a common language for talking about this shared scientific understanding. As physicist and philosopher Sundar Sarukkai notes "Nature, for scientists, is universal in the sense that the laws of science hold in any region of the universe. Their belief that nature is written in the language of mathematics actually reflects their belief that mathematics is a universal language." Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_vakoch_numbers_030508.html. ________________________________________________________________________ CHINA'S MANNED SPACE FLIGHT STILL GO DESPITE SARS From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 9 May 2003 China is sticking to its plan of sending its first human into space this year despite the onslaught of the SARS virus, state media said Friday. After Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) erupted in China, staff at the manned space program undertook the necessary measures to ensure their work was not affected, Xinhua news agency reported. The report did not say when the manned space flight is expected to kick off. However, previous reports have suggested the pioneering trip on board the spacecraft, called Shenzhou V, would take place some time this fall. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030509135500.mtwg5bjq.html. ________________________________________________________________________ EUROPA DIARY 1: LANDING ON ALIEN TERRAIN By Matthew Pruis From Astrobiology Magazine 12 May 2003 The Europa Focus Group is a collaboration of scientists who study Jupiter's moon, Europa. This ice-covered world may be one of the few places in our solar system other than Earth that has a water ocean, and liquid water is believed to be one of the key factors in the development of life. Astrobiologists and other scientists eager to learn more about Europa recently headed to Alaska's North Slope. The scientists studied the region's unique terrain, providing insight for future missions to the icy landscape of Europa. Flying in small aircraft to study geographical features, driving snowmobiles over glacial terrain, digging bore holes to get a glimpse of ice history--all the activities pursued by these hardy adventurers may someday be duplicated on the surface of Europa by robotic spacecraft. Matt Pruis, a support scientist with NorthWest Research Associates in Seattle, Washington, attended the North Slope conference and kept a journal of the events. Wednesday, 23 April 2003 It didn't hit me until this morning at 6:30 AM, when I walked my dog down to the beach of a small lake on the outskirts of Seattle. The weather was overcast and rainy, with a foggy mist hovering above the lake. This is the type of weather you come to love if you choose to call Seattle home. As I stood there, I suddenly realized that I would be standing on the shoreline of the northernmost settlement in Alaska this very evening, looking out over the Arctic Ocean. Somehow, it was a humbling thought. It's about 2,100 miles from Seattle to Barrow, Alaska--not a bad day's trip by today's standards. When the weather cooperates, the journey is truly spectacular. Sitting in my window seat on the airplane, I was treated to a panorama of the Wrangle-St. Elias mountain ranges, followed by a close fly-by of Mt. McKinley, and capped off by a view of the "fast ice" on the coast of the Chukchi Sea. On the last leg of the trip, from Fairbanks to Barrow, I began to recognize some of the other passengers as former participants in other Focus Group meetings. In all, 22 of us have chosen to gather on the North Slope to discuss our current understanding of the ice features of Jupiter's moon Europa. We also will be learning about the floating ice pack of our own planet. The ice cover on Europa is thought to be between 2 to 50 kilometers thick, and there is compelling evidence that the ice may be overlaying a deep ocean of water. Dr. Ron Greeley of Arizona State University, with the assistance of Dr. Hajo Eicken of the University of Alaska, has organized this workshop to allow us to observe sea ice first-hand. Although we can learn much about the physics, chemistry and biology of sea ice from text books and journal papers, I believe that true appreciation can only occur after one has drilled, tasted and stubbed their (well-insulated) toe on actual sea ice. Whaling camps being set up by the Iñupiat native people were visible on our approach into Barrow's airport. They place their camps by the "flaw lead," a region along the shoreline where pack ice has been blown away from the shore fast ice. The original settlement of native people is believed to have occurred around 800 A.D. Since that time there has been continuous settlement of this land, making it one of North America's richest regions in cultural and ethnic history. When we stepped off the plane in Barrow, we were greeted with a blast of 9°F (-13°C) Arctic air. A light snowfall was blowing horizontally across the runway. Crossing the tarmac over to a small metal building to retrieve our luggage, one of my colleagues said blithely, "Well, it looks and feels as if we have come to the ends of the Earth." Cinching up my coat a little further, I thought to myself, "and it is good to be here." We're staying at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC), which is located at a complex that was once a Navy facility known as NARL (Naval Arctic Research Laboratory). After checking in to the bunkhouse, we headed for our safety briefing and an overview of the planned workshop activities. There are many dangers associated with working in this challenging locale, but the greatest danger is from being inattentive around moving machinery--in other words, getting run over by a snowmobile. The other major dangers on the ice pack are getting separated from shore (if the ice breaks away from the shoreline), twisting ankles on the broken and fractured sea ice, and finally, polar bears. Someone asked how often a dangerous encounter occurs with polar bears. The answer was, "Not very often." Usually the bears just do their own thing and don't pay much attention to people. But a few years ago a bear ripped the large metal doors off the refrigerated ice core locker in the BASC compound. The locker previously had been used to store "mikiaq," or Bowhead whale meat fermented in blood, and the lingering aroma had probably attracted the bear. Only one person has had a fatal run-in with a polar bear in this area over the past six years. It's unlikely that we will even see a polar bear on this trip. Still, a polar bear was spotted in the BASC complex last Sunday evening, so it is best not to be caught unaware! The facilities we will use and the areas we will visit over the next couple of days are on native lands. The Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation has given all of us "scientific use permits" to explore and take some limited samples of the nearby sea ice and Arctic terrain. It is only with their assistance that we are able to have this workshop. Some of the elders have graciously agreed to share with us their experiences and insights of sea ice. We plan to have multiple excursions to the near-shore ice, an aerial over-flight of the pack ice, and visits to some permafrost and frozen freshwater lakes. Hopefully, time permitting; we also will be able to visit the Native Heritage Museum. We are very much at the mercy of the weather conditions, however, and will need to keep flexible. Presentations on recent Europa research will be squeezed into the schedule whenever there is down time. I've decided to read "Farthest North" by Fridtjof Nansen for this trip. This book is a classic tale of Arctic adventure set in the late nineteenth century, but it is also the scientific basis for many of the theories still used to describe ice motion and thermodynamics. Over the past couple of years, I have been developing and describing large-scale sea ice models. It continues to amaze me that Nansen's work, completed 110 years ago, is still used to describe the drift of ice in the open ocean. It indicates the quality of the work. Describing the long departure from his home village, Nansen opened a chapter of his book with a poem: "So travel I north to the gloomy abode That the sun never shines on - There is no day." Since I'm traveling at a different time of year, I am having the opposite experience--there seems to be no night. It is now 11:30 PM, and there has not been any appreciable change in the brightness outside. After reading a few more pages of Nansen's exploits, I will head off to sleep and hopefully be well rested for tomorrow's explorations! Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article459.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 12 May 2003 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles1. html M. Pruis, 2003. Europa diaries 1: landing on alien terrain. Astrobiology Magazine. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles2. html D. R. Bond and D. R. Lovley, 2003. Electricity production by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to electrodes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 69(3): 1548-1555. A. Dhillon, A. Teske, J. Dillon, D. A. Stahl and M. L. Sogin, 2003. Molecular characterization of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the Guaymas Basin. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 69(5):2765-2772. K. Kashefi, D. E. Holmes, J. A. Baross and D. R. Lovley, 2003. Thermophily in the Geobacteraceae: Geothermobacter ehrlichii gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel thermophilic member of the Geobacteraceae from the "Bag City" hydrothermal vent. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 69(5):2985-2993. C. Leang, M. V. Coppi and D. R. Lovley, 2003. OmcB, a c-type polyheme cytochrome, involved in Fe(III) reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens. Journal of Bacteriology, 185(7):2096-2103. K. L. Londry and D. J. Des Marais, 2003. Stable carbon isotope fractionation by sulfate-reducing bacteria. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 69(5):2942-2949. M. Pruis, 2003. Europa diaries 1: landing on alien terrain. Astrobiology Magazine. Human space exploration and microgravity effects articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles3. html Agence France-Presse, 2003. China's manned space flight still go despite SARS. SpaceDaily. Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles4. html D. Vakoch, 2003. Counting on distant worlds: math as an interstellar language. Space.com. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles5. html R. R. Britt, 2003. Darwin proved right by experiment with 'alien' life. Space.com. Michigan State University, 2003. Breeding computer code. Astrobiology Magazine. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 12 May 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/05/06/sprj.colu.shuttle.investigation .ap/index.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_foam_ft_030505.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030506.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_foam_ft_030506.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03p1.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030506212405.ysaa64k3.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03q.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03r1.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03zi.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030509173550.mw7e7jnu.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03zh.html http://spaceflightnow.com/plus/030501lufkin/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030506scenario/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030508foamtests/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030508chief/ ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 1-7 May 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, May 7. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm. On board activities this week included Trajectory Correction Maneuver 19 (TCM-19), Probe Checkout 11, High Rate Observations, High Frequency Receiver Calibrations, an Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) exercise, and a periodic instrument maintenance all for the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument, uplink of IEBs for Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), a Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) absolute turn calibration, and several high water mark clears. All activities before, during and after the TCM-19 burn executed nominally, and all telemetry was as expected. The design burn time was 17.57 seconds. The maneuver terminated with a nominal accelerometer shutdown after burning for 17.53 seconds. TCM-19 was the first main-engine maneuver performed in over a year. The primary purpose for this 1.58 m/s blow down maneuver was to satisfy the 400-day flushing requirement of the bipropellant propulsion system. The maneuver also validated the new main-engine maneuver block to be used for tour, and the ground processes that will be used during orbital operations. The block is designed to be integrated within the tour downlink passes. The ground processes demonstrated a rapid maneuver design, and uplink of the maneuver on the same tracking pass upon which the maneuver will execute. Additionally, several Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) maneuver activities were demonstrated. These were 1) early closure of the main-engine cover after the burn; 2) use of both dual drive motors for cover closure; and 3) early turn-on of the oxidizer valve heater after burn termination. TCM-19 allowed an opportunity for checkout of what would otherwise be first-time events during SOI. Probe Checkout 11 also executed nominally. Huygens personnel have received all data from the checkout, and preliminary analysis indicates that all Probe instruments are functioning as expected. Various teams and offices supported this month's Cassini/NASA Quarterly Review. The Spacecraft Operations Office (SCO) held a design review for the Huygens probe release scenario. The scope of the review covered the final probe-targeting maneuver through the release sequence and spacecraft attitude recovery. The board, consisting of JPL and European Space Agency personnel, approved the mission scenario and release sequence design, and identified no major issues. There were sixteen requests for further action, which will be closed during the course of the release sequence development. An Archive Design Peer Review of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), Magnetometer Subsystem (MAG), and Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) instrument team archive plans was held this week. Members of the Planetary Data System, instrument team representatives, and Instrument Operations personnel attended. A wrap up meeting was held for Science Operations Plan (SOP) development of tour sequences S17 and S18. The sequence products have been archived until August of 2005 when the SOP Update process will begin for S17. SOP Update V&V completed this week, on schedule. Participating teams have been queried throughout this activity for status and comments on the processes and tools. The results have been compiled and will be presented at the SOP U/D V&V wrap-up meeting next week. As part of the process, Science Planning hosted a project briefing to outline the modifications to S14, and to present Uplink Operations with a package that officially "hands over" the sequence to the Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP). Delivery Coordination Meetings were held for the redelivery of Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) D9.0 On-Board Modules, Kinematic Prediction Tool/Inertial Vector Propagator V9.0, MSS D9.0.1, and an update to the command database. The MSS D9.0.1 Delivery Coordination Meeting had been postponed one week to accommodate test and integration of a new command database Version 9D. Two errors in Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) commands were uncovered last week while CIRS was testing their V2.0.1 flight software checkout sequence. The commands are critical to their checkout and although a workaround was possible, it was extremely arduous. SCO quickly produced an updated database, tested, and delivered it. Cassini Outreach participated in judging High School Science Projects relating to Earth and Space Science at the Los Angeles County Science Fair, held at the LA Convention Center, and hosted an educator workshop on Cassini for 25 master teachers attending a weeklong training session in Pasadena, 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 5 May 2003 Mission: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER-1/MER-2) Launch Vehicles: Delta II/Delta II Heavy Launch Pads: 17-A/17-B Launch Dates: June 5/June 25 Launch Times: 2:56:59 PM/12:38:16 PM EDT The reworked telecom support boards (TSB) have been installed on both MER landers. MER-2 lander integration was completed on Thursday, April 24. Integration of the MER-2 entry vehicle (back shell, heat shield, lander and rover assembly) has been completed. Last week the spacecraft had a weight and center of gravity determination was followed by a dry- spin test. Fueling is planned for May 11 and will be followed by another spin test once fuel is aboard. On MER-1, rover installation onto the base petal has been completed and the lander's air bag installation is scheduled for this week. The mission will have two launch opportunities each day during the launch period, which is scheduled to close on June 19. Arrival at Mars is set for Jan 4, 2003, regardless of the launch date within that period. On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, first stage was erected on Wednesday, April 23 for MER-A on Pad 17-A. Second stage erection was completed on Monday, April 28. Fairing on April 30 Simulated Flight and Engine Sequence is currently scheduled for May 9. The solid motor erection is scheduled for May 14-16. For MER-B on Pad 17-B, the solid rocket boosters will be erected May 19-24, the second stage will be hoisted atop the first stage on May 28th. Contact: George H. Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center Phone: 321-867-2468 ________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 4-9 May 2003 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Becquerel Layers (Released 4 May 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/04/index.html Martian Dust Devil Tracks (Released 5 May 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/05/index.html Dunes and Dust Devil Tracks (Released 6 May 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/06/index.html Slope Streaks in Arabia (Released 7 May 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/07/index.html Chasma Boreale Dunes (Released 8 May 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/08/index.html Martian "Ground Rot" (Released 9 May 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/05/09/index.html All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 5-9 May 2003 Volcano Vents (Released 5 May 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030505a.html Craters, pit chains, and graben, oh my! (Released 6 May 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030506a.html Deposition + Erosion = Textures (Released 7 May 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030507a.html Surface Textures (Released 8 May 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030508a.html Flow along valley floors (Released 9 May 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030509a.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 2 May 2003 There were two periods of communications with the Stardust spacecraft in the past week. Telemetry relayed from the spacecraft indicates it is healthy and all subsystems continue to operate normally. Commands were successfully transmitted to the spacecraft to redefine the battery 100 percent state of charge definition as the spacecraft continues to move closer to the Sun back to Earth's orbit, resulting in the solar panels producing more power. The battery performance, as expected, has degraded over time and with it a reduction in the maximum voltage supplied by the battery. These commands will increase the battery maximum voltage to approximately 32.5 volts. The battery state of charge is determined by battery pressure, which has now been redefined as 800 psi, increased from 740 psi. In early February a test was performed on the battery to determine its full value. The battery reached 900 psi before entering its exothermic region where battery temperature increases instead of charging. After the Comet Wild 2 encounter in January 2004, we anticipate raising the 100 percent value again to ensure there will be sufficient power during the third aphelion when the spacecraft will reach 2.8 AU from the Sun. Testing for the Comet Wild 2 encounter under nominal conditions continues in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory (STL). These tests are being used to establish a nominal baseline that will ensure a faster turn-around when the off-nominal tests are performed. Earth-based telescopic observations of Comet Wild 2 are being taken as approaches its perihelion passage (its closest distance from the Sun) on September 25 of this year. 9 May 2003 This past week, the Stardust flight team used the antennas of JPL's Deep Space Network on three occasions. Data relayed from the spacecraft during that contact indicated Stardust is healthy and all subsystems continue to run normally. Information on the relative positions 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. A data transfer test was successfully performed with the Cometary Interplanetary Dust Analyzer (CIDA) instrument. The CIDA science team now compresses their data prior to transferring it to be downlinked. Also a flight software patch was developed and installed on the spacecraft to correct a read delay parameter that was set incorrectly. This test verified that compressed CIDA data can be transferred without errors. Two Network Simplification Plan (NSP) demonstration Deep Space Network passes were successfully conducted at the Canberra and Goldstone stations. 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. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-03a.html. ________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 10, Number 19.