MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 25, 23 June 2003. Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas 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://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/. [http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/23/R0600044.gif] Mars has two natural satellites, or moons, Phobos and Deimos. On 1 June 2003, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft was slewed eastward to capture these views of the inner moon, Phobos, shortly before it set over the afternoon limb. Phobos orbits Mars about 3 times a day at an average distance of 9,378 km (5,828 mi). About 0.006 times the size of Earth's Moon, Phobos is a potato-shaped object with dimensions approximately 27 by 22 by 18 kilometers (about 17 by 14 by 11 miles). The rows of grooves and aligned pits on Phobos are related to, and were probably caused by, a large meteor impact that occurred on the side of Phobos that is not seen here. That large crater, Stickney, was named for the maiden name of the wife of the astronomer that discovered Phobos and the other martian satellite, Deimos, in 1877, Asaph Hall. Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) ANALOGIES OF NATURE, LEGENDS OF ASTROBIOLOGY: NEWCOMB From Astrobiology Magazine 2) CHINA ON COURSE FOR MANNED SPACE FLIGHT THIS YEAR From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 3) SYNCHRONIZING MOLECULAR CLOCKS By Leslie Mullen 4) CHINA TO ACCELERATE MARS PROGRAM, BUT AIMS FOR MOON FIRST From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 5) SETI TODAY: PART OF THE GROWING ASTROBIOLOGY COMMUNITY By Jill Tarter 6) MARS: LIFE PINNED ON VIKING HORNS? From Astrobiology Magazine 7) THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, I: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF FINDING LIFE IN THE COSMOS By Neil deGrasse Tyson 8) NASA EDUCATOR AMBASSADOR PROGRAM--SPACE SCIENCE ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY By Phil Plait 9) EXOBIOLOGIST TO DISCUSS "BIOLOGICALLY REVERSIBLE" EXPLORATION AT MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE Mars Society release 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) "OPPORTUNITY" MARS EXPLORATION ROVER TARGETED FOR LAUNCH JUNE 26 NASA/KSC release 45-03 14) WHERE ARE SPIRIT, MARS EXPRESS AND NOZOMI? By Ron Baalke 15) SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT: MARS EXPLORATION ROVER-B By George H. Diller 16) MARS ROVER SPIRIT MISSION STATUS NASA release 2003-089 17) MER-B "OPPORTUNITY" LAUNCH POSTPONED NASA/KSC release 48-03 18) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 19) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 20) STARDUST SPACECRAFT MISSION STATUS NASA release 2003-088 21) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release ________________________________________________________________________ ANALOGIES OF NATURE, LEGENDS OF ASTROBIOLOGY: NEWCOMB From Astrobiology Magazine 16 June 2003 In 1906, the world had known powered human flight for a short three years. The most famous astronomer, if not most famous scientist, was a man who was self-educated: Simon Newcomb. Born in Nova Scotia, he spent a large part of his adult life observing stars from the Naval Observatory, in Washington, D.C. Since 1877, he had been director of the American Nautical Almanac Office. His relatively peaceful life gave him great scientific freedom. He began a body of observational astronomy that even today, underpins a large class of universal constants and stellar tables. His goal was to make astronomy a more exact science, to clean out incomplete descriptions of celestial motion, and replace speculation with universality and precision. His remarkable essays, many of which were written for popular magazines like Harper's and the North American Review, featured the unsolved problems--a contrast with the textbook style of only detailing the solved ones. He formulated his thoughts on "Life in the Universe", and published the collection in June 1906. Excerpts of his reflections are included here, in the "Legends of Astrobiology"--a multi-part historical series of insightful opinion from those who helped shape modern thought on our place in the universe. Echoing over the span of nearly a century, many of Newcomb's observations remain as penetrating today, just as one might expect from a self-educated man who had shaped an entire generation of mathematical astronomers. ______________________________ So far as we can judge from what we see on our globe, the production of life is one of the greatest and most incessant purposes of nature. Life is absent only in regions of perpetual frost, where it never has an opportunity to begin; in places where the temperature is near the boiling-point, which is found to be destructive to it; and beneath the earth's surface, where none of the changes essential to it can come about. Within the limits imposed by these prohibitory conditions--that is to say, within the range of temperature at which water retains its liquid state, and in regions where the sun's rays can penetrate and where wind can blow and water exist in a liquid form--life is the universal rule. How prodigal nature seems to be in its production is too trite a fact to be dwelt upon. We have all read of the millions of germs which are destroyed for every one that comes to maturity. Even the higher forms of life are found almost everywhere. Only small islands have ever been discovered which were uninhabited, and animals of a higher grade are as widely diffused as man. Precise surroundings If it would be going too far to claim that all conditions may have forms of life appropriate to them, it would be going as much too far in the other direction to claim that life can exist only with the precise surroundings which nurture it on this planet. It is very remarkable in this connection that while in one direction we see life coming to an end, in the other direction we see it flourishing more and more up to the limit. These two directions are those of heat and cold. We cannot suppose that life would develop in any important degree in a region of perpetual frost, such as the polar regions of our globe. But we do not find any end to it as the climate becomes warmer. On the contrary, every one knows that the tropics are the most fertile regions of the globe in its production. The luxuriance of the vegetation and the number of the animals continually increase the more tropical the climate becomes. Where the limit may be set no one can say. But it would doubtless be far above the present temperature of the equatorial regions. We all know that this earth on which we dwell is only one of countless millions of globes scattered through the wilds of infinite space. So far as we know, most of these globes are wholly unlike the earth, being at a temperature so high that, like our sun, they shine by their own light. In such worlds we may regard it as quite certain that no organized life could exist. But evidence is continually increasing that dark and opaque worlds like ours exist and revolve around their suns, as the earth on which we dwell revolves around its central luminary. Although the number of such globes yet discovered is not great, the circumstances under which they are found lead us to believe that the actual number may be as great as that of the visible stars which stud the sky. If so, the probabilities are that millions of them are essentially similar to our own globe. Have we any reason to believe that life exists on these other worlds? The reader will not expect me to answer this question positively. It must be admitted that, scientifically, we have no light upon the question, and therefore no positive grounds for reaching a conclusion. We can only reason by analogy and by what we know of the origin and conditions of life around us, and assume that the same agencies which are at play here would be found at play under similar conditions in other parts of the universe. The first germ A generation ago the origin of life upon our planet was one of the great mysteries of science. All the facts brought out by investigation into the past history of our earth seemed to show, with hardly the possibility of a doubt, that there was a time when it was a fiery mass, no more capable of serving as the abode of a living being than the interior of a Bessemer steel furnace. There must therefore have been, within a certain period, a beginning of life upon its surface. But, so far as investigation had gone--indeed, so far as it has gone to the present time--no life has been found to originate of itself. The living germ seems to be necessary to the beginning of any living form. Whence, then, came the first germ? Many of our readers may remember a suggestion by Sir William Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, made twenty or thirty years ago, that life may have been brought to our planet by the falling of a meteor from space. This does not, however, solve the difficulty--indeed, it would only make it greater. It still leaves open the question how life began on the meteor; and granting this, why it was not destroyed by the heat generated as the meteor passed through the air. The popular view that life began through a special act of creative power seemed to be almost forced upon man by the failure of science to discover any other beginning for it. It cannot be said that even today anything definite has been actually discovered to refute this view. All we can say about it is that it does not run in with the general views of modern science as to the beginning of things, and that those who refuse to accept it must hold that, under certain conditions which prevail, life begins by a very gradual process, similar to that by which forms suggesting growth seem to originate even under conditions so unfavorable as those existing in a bottle of acid. Ask the spectroscope But it is not at all necessary for our purpose to decide this question. If life existed through a creative act, it is absurd to suppose that that act was confined to one of the countless millions of worlds scattered through space. If it began at a certain stage of evolution by a natural process, the question will arise, what conditions are favorable to the commencement of this process? Here we are quite justified in reasoning from what, granting this process, has taken place upon our globe during its past history. One of the most elementary principles accepted by the human mind is that like causes produce like effects. The special conditions under which we find life to develop around us may be comprehensively summed up as the existence of water in the liquid form, and the presence of nitrogen, free perhaps in the first place, but accompanied by substances with which it may form combinations. Oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen are, then, the fundamental requirements. The addition of calcium or other forms of matter necessary to the existence of a solid world goes without saying. The question now is whether these necessary conditions exist in other parts of the universe. The spectroscope shows that, so far as the chemical elements go, other worlds are composed of the same elements as ours. Hydrogen especially exists everywhere, and we have reason to believe that the same is true of oxygen and nitrogen. Calcium, the base of lime, is almost universal. So far as chemical elements go, we may therefore take it for granted that the conditions under which life begins are very widely diffused in the universe. It is, therefore, contrary to all the analogies of nature to suppose that life began only on a single world. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article498.html. ________________________________________________________________________ CHINA ON COURSE FOR MANNED SPACE FLIGHT THIS YEAR From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 16 June 2003 China remains on course for its first manned mission into space by the end of December, a top Chinese official said here [Le Bourget, France] Monday, indicating that two astronauts might take part in the historic flight. "It will be launched by the end of this year," Liu Youguang, general manager of the space department at China Great Wall Industry Corp., told AFP on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show here. Asked whether the mission would be timed, for maximum political effect, for the 54th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of the People's Republic, he said, "it could be later." "It could be two (astronauts) maybe," he said, adding that the capsule would also carry scientific experiments in addition to the human payload. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030616155436.uvzbg82b.html. ________________________________________________________________________ SYNCHRONIZING MOLECULAR CLOCKS By Leslie Mullen From Astrobiology Magazine 18 June 2003 In classic tales of mystery, police detectives ask suspects what they were doing on a certain day. Most people would be hard pressed to recall such incidents, unless there was something to help in the recollection. Most events, however, are not fixed in some preservable medium such as video or writing. Imagine then, how hard it must be to pin a date on something that happened long before the human race even existed. Some parts of the Earth have preserved events of the past, of course. Bones fossilize, tree rings reflect weather events, and layers of rocks serve as templates of time, recording changes in the atmosphere or water chemistry. But our knowledge of the Earth's history is far from complete, partly because not every event has been preserved. The discovery of DNA opened a new record book for the history of organisms. As anyone who knows their Darwin understands, species change over time. According to the theory of molecular evolution, these changes are reflected in the genetic code. The frequency of these genetic changes can be seen as the ticking of a "molecular clock." Molecular clocks can trace the branches of a family tree back to the original root. As two species arose from a common ancestor, changes occurred in their genomes. The more the species diverged, the greater the number of genetic differences. Counting these differences, and dividing them by the rate of genetic mutation, takes you back in time to the ancestor. Some stunning results have come out of this technique. For instance, molecular clock data places the origin of modern humans at only 100,000 years ago, when previous estimates were of an origin one million years ago. The emergence of animals, meanwhile, has been pushed further back in time by molecular clock studies. Prior estimates placed their origin at about 600 million years ago, but according to molecular clock data it happened more than a billion years ago. These dramatic dates give some biologists pause. Why would genes differ so much from the rock record? Why would there be a 400 million-year gap, for instance, between the genetic evidence for the emergence of animals and the first animal fossil? One explanation is that species might undergo genetic changes long before those changes are reflected in the body plan. An organism experiences a "tick" of its molecular clock, recording a change in its genome, and yet physically looks the same as one who has not. This brings up the question of how to determine when an organism crosses the genetic line between one species and another. There can be a great deal of genetic diversity within a species, and many mutations are irrelevant since they have no discernable effect on an organism. It may take many generations before genetic changes result in what we commonly think of as two separate species. Molecular clocks help determine the genetic differences between species by tracking which genes changed over time. But molecular clocks are based on assumptions that make some biologists uncomfortable. For one thing, the method assumes that changes in DNA accumulate at approximately constant rates over time. While mutations in the genome of a species tend to tick away at a fairly steady rate, many genes are known to violate this clock-like trend. Proponents of molecular clocks say they can recognize such genes and remove them from molecular clock studies. This guarantees more accurate results, and the errant genes then can be studied individually in separate studies. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist with Penn State University and a leading researcher in molecular clock studies, says that no one ever claimed that all genes and all species evolve at the same rate. "It has been well established for decades that some species evolve faster or slower than others at some genes, and perhaps even consistently fast or slow across many genes," says Hedges. "Clock methods have been developed over the years to account for those differences." Another point of contention is how molecular clocks are calibrated. The genetic information for a molecular clock study is gathered from living species, and the gene sequences are plotted on a graph with evolutionary events that are well established in the fossil record. This technique helps determine the tempo of a particular molecular clock. Vertebrates are common in the fossil record, since bone preserves better than soft tissue. Vertebrate fossils therefore have been used to calibrate many molecular clock studies of animals. But more ancient organisms don't have much of a fossil record. For these soft-bodied organisms, researchers extrapolate a molecular rate of change from the vertebrate calibrations, assuming that the clocks have continued at a comparable pace through time. This extrapolation makes many biologists wary. The fossil record prior to the Cambrian explosion (around 600 million years ago) is extremely poor. Several scientists have used invertebrate microfossils as calibration points, but this still does not take us beyond the Cambrian era. The lack of Precambrian fossil calibration points is a continuing problem for molecular clock studies involving ancient organisms. As molecular clock studies become more complete and complex, doubt is being cast on earlier findings. For example, fish and birds living in cold environments were thought to have slower molecular clocks (slower rates of change) than other vertebrate animals. Yet in a study published last year in the journal, Science, David Lambert of Massey University in New Zealand found that the genome of Antarctic penguins has evolved faster than was first reported. Examining 6,000 year-old DNA from Adélie penguins, he found that the rate of genetic mutation is about two to seven times faster than previous estimates. Because Adélie penguin colonies return to the same nesting grounds every year, one location can have layers of bones dating far back in time. Lambert's team members collected and dated 96 bones from various layers and gathered 300 blood samples from living birds. Because he had access to an entire spectrum of bones dating back 6,000 years, Lambert's study differs from previous efforts to determine rates of genetic change. Previous studies had to be satisfied with just one or two generations, or with genetic information from organisms separated in time by millions of years. "It seems clear that using a different approach to the traditional one, we get a different answer to the question of evolutionary rates," says Lambert. "So in some sense the work must bring into question earlier rates." While molecular clock dating remains somewhat controversial, many scientists believe that the method will ultimately prove to be important in understanding evolution. "Evolutionary biologists essentially have been trying to answer two central questions for a long time," says Lambert. "One is, 'what are the relationships among life forms?' In other words, what is the tree of life? Secondly, they have been trying to put a time scale on the tree. Our work, and studies like it, helps with the second goal." What's next? Lambert now has carbon dates of Adélie penguins going back 37,000 years. He also hopes to also use ancient DNA to measure evolutionary rates in Antarctic fish, kiwi, tuatara and humans. Hedges is using molecular clocks from many genes to pin down dates of astrobiological interest, such as the origin of cyanobacteria and oxygen, the origin of eukaryotes, and the rise of complex multi-cellular life. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article500.html. ________________________________________________________________________ CHINA TO ACCELERATE MARS PROGRAM, BUT AIMS FOR MOON FIRST From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 19 June 2003 China plans to accelerate preparations for a mission to Mars, using its lunar program to gain the experience and expertise needed to join the world's elite space nations, state press said Thursday. While senior space scientists said a Mars probe was still years away, they plan to step up preparations. "We do not have a timetable for a Mars probe program at the moment but such a project will surely benefit from the country's ongoing efforts to embark on a maiden unmanned lunar mission," said Liu Zhenxing, a space expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said the program would consist of three stages: orbiting, landing and returning from Mars, the China Daily reported. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030619030757.jtwvlhe8.html. ________________________________________________________________________ SETI TODAY: PART OF THE GROWING ASTROBIOLOGY COMMUNITY By Jill Tarter From Space.com 19 June 2003 I have the best job in the world. That's a pretty bold statement, and one I've repeated often throughout my 30-year career as a SETI scientist, for there has never been a day when I've ever thought about doing anything else. What could be more thrilling than the search for a sentient, technological civilization beyond our solar neighborhood? It has been exciting for me to watch SETI evolve from a tiny somewhat arcane astronomical niche to a large, global, and increasingly sophisticated technological endeavor that has captured the imagination of several million citizens of Earth. I became "hooked" on SETI when I realized that I lived in the first generation of human beings that could try to answer the old and fundamental question "Are we alone?" by doing experiments, instead of relying upon beliefs. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_astrobiology_030619.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS: LIFE PINNED ON VIKING HORNS? From Astrobiology Magazine 22 June 2003 The milestone launch of NASA's latest Mars mission--called Spirit--along with the scheduled end-of-June launch for its twin--Opportunity-- together, provide the impetus to revisit the remarkable journey of the earliest martian missions. Excerpts from the lively debates that took place prior to the 1976 Viking missions give immediacy and perspective on both the rewards and challenges that the Red Planet offers. In this and forthcoming issues, Astrobiology Magazine is pleased to commemorate the descriptions offered in the words of then mission contemporaries. NASA historians have compiled these notes in their five-hundred page edition of On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet, 1958-1978 (NASA HQ SP-4212). ______________________________ At the 1:30 PM news briefing on 31 July 1976 (sol 11), Jim Martin made an announcement. Prefacing his remarks with, "I wanted to state that it's been project policy for seven years to make data available to the media when we have [them]." Martin noted that this day was no exception. "We have received biology data that we believe to be good data," he continued. Engineering telemetry indicated that the biology instrument was performing "extremely well," perhaps too well, since early reactions from the gas-exchange and labeled-release experiments were very positive. That could possibly be the consequence of biological activity, but Martin was cautious: "I think Chuck Klein will continue to caution you that the biology experiment is a complex one. We've seen that Mars is a complex planet. There are many things that we do not understand." The scientists were proceeding systematically and methodically. Biology Team Leader Harold P. Klein and his colleagues had already conducted a number of tutorials for the news people covering the Viking mission, and at each session where they presented analytical details they took time to explain the experiment in question. The biologists started with the basics. Each Viking Lander carried an integrated biology instrument, which contained three experiments designed to detect the metabolic activity of microorganisms should they be present in the soil sampled. First, the gas-exchange experiment would determine if changes caused by microbial metabolism occurred in the composition of the test chamber atmosphere. Second, the labeled-release experiment, also known as Gulliver, would determine if decomposed organic compounds were produced by microbes when a nutrient was added. Third, the pyrolytic-release experiment would detect, from gases in the chamber, any synthesis of organic matter in the martian soil. A change could be the result of either photosynthetic or nonphotosynthetic processes. [In the gas-exchange experiments] after ruling out all other possible causes, the scientists concluded that the oxygen had to be coming from the soil itself. While one possible explanation for the increase was biological activity, other explanations were possible, too. A possible alternative answer to why the initial amount of oxygen had been released lay in the desert area of landing site; the martian samples contained peroxides and superoxides, which when exposed to abnormal (non-Marslike) humidity in the instrument quickly released oxygen. The related release of carbon dioxide suggested that the samples had an alkaline core. Although such reactions had not been witnessed on Earth, the scientists believed that the intense ultraviolet radiation bombarding the surface of the Red Planet could have produced unique photocatalytic effects. Still, there was much to be explained, including the reactions observed from the labeled-release investigation. As in the gas-exchange experiment, [so too in the labeled-release study] there was a possibility that the soil itself contained catalysts, minerals, inorganics that produced some breakdown of the radioactive compounds. "The effect of water introduced into the dry Mars soil may cause violent chemical reactions that would disintegrate a portion of our medium," said Gil Levin. By l August, the production of oxygen in the gas-exchange experiment had decreased considerably, thus supporting the belief that the release was the function of oxides in the soil. In a 2 August update on the labeled-release experiment, Levin noted that they had examined the radioactivity curve very carefully. They had found no evidence of any doubling of cells. No growth appeared to be taking place, but the curve did not seem to behave as scientists would have expected it to for chemical reactions either. "We find that the chemical reaction took place at a very rapid rate initially, and then uncharacteristically slowed down and took a long time to plateau." The curve detected with the labeled-release experiment did not agree with known responses for either chemical or biological reactions. Data returned by the pyrolytic-release experiment and reported by Norman Horowitz on 7 August were equally confounding. Once again, the specialists had detected a reaction, but they did not know what it meant. "There's a possibility that this is biological," Horowitz said, but "there are many other possibilities that have to be excluded." Norman Horowitz told the press, "We hope by the end of this mission to have excluded all but one of the explanations, whichever that may be. I want to emphasize that if this were normal science, we wouldn't even be here-we'd be working in our laboratories for three more months-you wouldn't even know what was going on and at the end of that time we would come out and tell you the answer. Having to work in a fishbowl like this is an experience that none of us is used to." The scientist's caution was prompted by his knowledge that "we well might be wrong in anything we say. Anyone who has carried out a scientific investigation knows that the pathway of science is paved not only with brilliant insights and great discoveries, but also with false leads and bitter disappointments." Later in a November 1977 Scientific American article, Horowitz was able to speak more authoritatively about the results that had been observed in all three experiments. In the gas-exchange experiment, "the findings of the first stage of the experiment were both surprising and simple." Immediately following the addition of the moisture to the sample chamber-the soil sample was not directly wetted-carbon dioxide and oxygen were released. The evolution of gases was short-lived, but the pressure in the chamber increased measurably. At the Chryse site, the amount of carbon dioxide increased by about 5 times, and the amount of oxygen increased by about 200 times in little more than one sol. At the landing site in Utopia, the increases were smaller but still "considerable." Upon reflection, Horowitz stated that "the rapidity and brevity of the response recorded by both landers suggested that the process observed was a chemical reaction, not a biological one." Horowitz felt that the appearance of the carbon dioxide was readily explainable: "Carbon dioxide gas would be expected to be adsorbed on the surface of the dry martian soil; if the soil was exposed to very humid atmosphere, the gas would be displaced by water vapor." The presence of the oxygen was logical but harder to account for, since so much oxygen would seem to require an oxygen-producing substance, not just the physical release of preexisting gas. There was just not that much oxygen available in the atmosphere-past or present-to account for the quantities measured. Horowitz argued that it was "likely that the oxygen was released when the water vapor decomposed an oxygen-rich compound such as a peroxide. Peroxides are known to decompose if they are exposed to water in the presence of iron compounds, and according to the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer... the martian soil is 13 percent iron." Viking looked at only two samples at each of the two landing sites from depths of 5 to 10 centimeters. If organic materials were produced millions or hundreds of millions of years ago, they could be present at greater depths and protected there from the damaging ultraviolet radiation. The Viking spacecraft could be sitting on an area containing a deposit of organic material a few meters down. There could also be other areas on the planet where the surface material is more protected or where organic material is now being synthesized and not destroyed. While Jerry Soffen believed that it was possible for life to have developed on Mars, he also thought it likely that the biology instrument, for a host of reasons, had not been designed properly to detect it. However, he was also very confident that if organic compounds had been present, the [gas chromatograph] GCMS would have detected them. For that reason, he had fought for the instrument throughout the evolution of the Viking project. Soffen could have accepted a negative biology result, if there had been a positive measurement of organic compounds. But positive biology results could not be interpreted as indicating the existence of life in the absence of organics. Others have argued that perhaps Viking landed at the wrong places on the planet. Nearer the poles where there was a higher moisture content in the soil and atmosphere, life might exist. Or perhaps, as suggested by Carl Sagan and Joshua Lederberg, there are martian microenvironments where in small oasislike areas life has evolved and survived. Soffen thought this unlikely since the homogenizing effects of wind and dust storms would have likely distributed any organic material all over the planet. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article503.html. ________________________________________________________________________ THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, I: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF FINDING LIFE IN THE COSMOS By Neil deGrasse Tyson From Astrobiology Magazine 23 June 2003 If the person on next to me on a long airplane flight ever finds out that I am an astrophysicist, nine times out of ten they ask, with wide eyes, about life in the universe. And only later do they ask me about the big bang and black holes. I know of no other discipline that triggers such a consistent and reliable reaction in public sentiment. This phenomenon is not limited to Americans. The time-honored question: "What is our place in the universe?" might just be genetically encoded in our species. All known cultures across all of time have attempted to answer that question. Today we ask the same question, but with fewer words: "Are we alone?" Ordinarily, there is no riskier step that a scientist (or anyone) can take than to make sweeping generalizations from just one example. At the moment, life on Earth is the only known life in the universe, but there are compelling arguments to suggest we are not alone. Indeed, most astrophysicists accept a high probability of there being life elsewhere in the universe, if not on other planets or on moons within our own solar system. The numbers are, well, astronomical. If the count of planets in our solar system is not unusual, then there are more planets in the universe than the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet in the cosmos with life would be inexcusably egocentric of us. Many generations of thinkers, both religious and scientific, have been led astray by anthropic assumptions, while others were simply led astray by ignorance. In the absence of dogma and data, history tells us that it's prudent to be guided by the notion that we are not special, which is generally known as the Copernican principle, named for the Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus who, in the mid-1500s, put the Sun back in the middle of our solar system where it belongs. In spite of a third century BC account of a sun-centered universe proposed by the Greek philosopher Aristarchus, the Earth-centered universe was by far the most popular view for most of the last 2000 years. Codified by the teachings of Aristotle and Ptolemy, and by the preachings of the Roman Catholic Church, people generally accepted Earth as the center of all motion. It was self-evident: the universe not only looked that way, but God surely made it so. The sixteenth century Italian monk Giordano Bruno suggested publicly that an infinite universe was filled with planets that harbor life. For these thoughts he was burned upside down and naked at the stake. Fortunately, today we live in somewhat more tolerant times. While there is no guarantee that the Copernican principle will guide us correctly for all scientific discoveries to come, it has humbled our egos with the realization that not only is Earth not in the center of the solar system, but the solar system is not in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way galaxy is not in the center of the universe. And in case you are one of those people who thinks that the edge may be a special place, then we are not at the edge of anything either. A wise contemporary posture would be to assume that life on Earth is not immune to the Copernican principle. If so, then how can the appearance or the chemistry of life on Earth provide clues to what life might be like elsewhere in the universe? I do not know whether biologists walk around every day awestruck by the diversity of life. I certainly do. On this single planet called Earth, there co-exist (among countless other life forms), algae, beetles, sponges, jellyfish, snakes, condors, and giant sequoias. Imagine these seven living organisms lined up next to each other in size-place. If you didn't know better, you would be hard-pressed to believe that they all came from the same universe, much less the same planet. Try describing a snake to somebody who has never seen one: "You gotta believe me. There is this animal on Earth that 1) can stalk its prey with infrared detectors, 2) swallows whole live animals up to five times bigger than its head, 3) has no arms or legs or any other appendage, yet 4) can slide along level ground at a speed of two feet per second!" Given the diversity of life on Earth, one might expect a diversity of life exhibited among Hollywood aliens. But I am consistently amazed by the film industry's lack of creativity. With a few notable exceptions such as life forms in The Blob (1958) and in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Hollywood aliens look remarkably humanoid. No matter how ugly (or cute) they are, nearly all of them have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two ears, a head, a neck, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, a torso, two legs, two feet--and they can walk. From an anatomical view, these creatures are practically indistinguishable from humans, yet they are supposed to have come from another planet. If anything is certain, it is that life elsewhere in the universe, intelligent or otherwise, will look at least as exotic as some of Earth's own life forms. The chemical composition of Earth-based life is primarily derived from a select few ingredients. The elements hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon account for over 95% of the atoms in the human body and in all known life. Of the three, the chemical structure of the carbon atom allows it to bond readily and strongly with itself and with many other elements in many different ways, which is how we came to be carbon-based life, and which is why the study of molecules that contain carbon is generally known as "organic" chemistry. The study of life elsewhere in the universe is known as exobiology, which is one of the few disciplines that, at the moment, attempts to function in the complete absence of first-hand data. Is life chemically special? The Copernican principle suggests that it probably isn't. Aliens need not look like us to resemble us in more fundamental ways. Consider that the four most common elements in the universe are hydrogen, helium, carbon, and oxygen. Helium is inert. So the three most abundant, chemically active ingredients in the cosmos are also the top three ingredients in life on Earth. For this reason, you can bet that if life is found on another planet, it will be made of a similar mix of elements. Conversely, if life on Earth were composed primarily of, for example, molybdenum, bismuth, and plutonium, then we would have excellent reason to suspect that we were something special in the universe. Appealing once again to the Copernican principle, we can assume that the size of an alien organism is not likely to be ridiculously large compared with life as we know it. There are cogent structural reasons why you would not expect to find a life the size of the Empire State Building strutting around a planet. But if we ignore these engineering limitations of biological matter we approach another, more fundamental limit. If we assume that an alien has control of its own appendages, or more generally, if we assume the organism functions coherently as a system, then its size would ultimately be constrained by its ability to send signals within itself at the speed of light--the fastest allowable speed in the universe. For an admittedly extreme example, if an organism were as big as the entire solar system (about 10 light-hours across), and if it wanted to scratch its head, then this simple act would take no less than 10 hours to accomplish. Sub-slothlike behavior such as this would be evolutionarily self-limiting because the time since the beginning of the universe may be insufficient for the creature to have evolved from smaller forms of life over many generations. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article504.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NASA EDUCATOR AMBASSADOR PROGRAM--SPACE SCIENCE ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY By Phil Plait 23 June 2003 Approximately ten highly motivated educators will be given the opportunity to represent space satellite missions in NASA's Structure and Evolution of the Universe theme as Educator Ambassadors for annually renewable one-year terms beginning October 1, 2003, extending through at least September 30, 2007. This new group will join the existing group of ten Educator Ambassadors from the previous term. The Sonoma State University (SSU) NASA Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Program invites you to apply to become an Educator Ambassador. The Educator Ambassadors Program aims to engage energetic educators who have the means and drive to share the excitement of space-based astronomy by assisting NASA outreach and science team members in developing and delivering engaging, cutting-edge workshops and curriculum materials. There is a $2500 annual stipend and budget for travel to a national educators' conference. Apply Now! Deadline for applications is August 1, 2003. More information and an online application form can be found at http://epo.sonoma.edu/ambassadors. ________________________________________________________________________ EXOBIOLOGIST TO DISCUSS "BIOLOGICALLY REVERSIBLE" EXPLORATION AT MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE Mars Society release 23 June 2003 Noted exobiologist, Dr. Chris McKay, will discuss the concept of "biologically reversible" exploration of the Red Planet at the 6th International Mars Society Convention which will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Eugene Oregon, Aug 14-17, 2003. McKay's presentation will be followed by an open debate on the subject "Is the Achievement of Biologically Reversible Mars Exploration Achievable and Desirable?" The McKay presentation and following debate are only two of over a hundred papers, plenaries, debates, and panels that will take place at the Mars Society convention, which will deal with all matters, including the science, technology, politics, historical significance, and philosophy, associated with the human exploration and settlement of Mars. The deadline for abstract submission to the conference is June 30, 2003. Those wishing to present papers should send abstracts of no more than 300 words to msabstracts@aol.com. Registration for the Convention is open at www.marssociety.org. Reduced rates are available for those who register by June 30, 2003. Dr. McKay's abstract is presented below. Making Human Exploration of Mars Biologically Reversible Chris McKay, NASA/ARC, Mail stop 245-3, Moffett Field CA 94035 cmckay@mail.arc.nasa.gov Mars is interesting because it may have had life in the past and because it may be a place for life in the future. However we are uncertain of the current state of life on Mars. There are at least three possibilities: 1) there is life on Mars that is distinctly different from life on Earth, 2) there is life on Mars that is genetically related to life on Earth, or 3) there is no life on Mars. Until we know which of these possibilities is correct we must explore Mars is a way that keeps our options open with respect to future life. I argue that this means that we must explore Mars in a way that is biologically reversible. In this paper I discuss the implications for reversible exploration for human missions to Mars. For further information about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 23 June 2003 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles1. html Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. Mars: life pinned on Viking horns? Astrobiology Magazine. Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. Analogies of nature, legends of astrobiology: Newcomb. Astrobiology Magazine. N. Tyson, 2003. The search for life in the universe, I: reflections on the scientific and cultural implications of finding life in the cosmos. Astrobiology Magazine. Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles4. html J. Tarter, 2003. SETI today: part of the growing astrobiology community. Space.com. Evolutionary biology and chemistry articles http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_articles5. html L. Mullen, 2003. Synchronizing molecular clocks. Astrobiology Magazine. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 23 June 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.national-academies.org/headlines#sh0619 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=LENU314ZABGFUCRBAELC FEY?type=scienceNews&storyID=2951455 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_gordon_030616.html http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030618kostelnik/ http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0306/19station/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030620tilerepair/ ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 12-18 June 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Canberra tracking station on Wednesday, June 18. 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. Final activities for the C37 background sequence included execution of the Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) Ka-band exciter and Ka-band traveling wave tube amplifier power-off, and a Magnetometer (MAG) and Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) plasma environment observation. Cruise sequence C38 began execution on Saturday, June 14th. Initial activities included a MAG calibration, Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS), Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, and MIMI instrument expanded block (IEB) loads, an RPWS high rate observation, RPWS high frequency receiver calibration, execution of an RPWS Saturn orbit insertion test cyclic that will run until June 24th, a Ka-Band power on, an attitude control constraint monitor update, and execution of a MIMI cyclic. Both the RPWS and MIMI cyclics are first time events. The RSS Solar Conjunction Experiment #2 began on Sunday June 17th. It will run for thirty days until July 15th with daily Goldstone DSN support and additional coverage from the Canberra and Madrid stations. As of Tuesday, June 17, the Ka-band Translator (KaT) has been operating the in a region where it cannot lock on the uplink. The radio science team is using previously developed contingency commands to cycle the KaT power in order to restore it to the appropriate operating region. Coherent X-band and Ka1 data have been successfully acquired Cruise sequence C39 science planning activities completed on June 13th with a hand off package delivered to Uplink Operations (ULO). C39 sequence development is underway with a kick-off meeting and the release of subsequences for the teams to populate. Events this week for the S14 Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP) Verification and Validation (V&V) activity included delivery from the instrument teams of IEB load Spacecraft Activity Sequence Files for the SSR, receipt and response to a new DSN allocation file, preparation for the Science Allocation Panel meeting to be held next week, release of the merged sequence product for initial review, and the third V&V status meeting. The Integrated Test Laboratory (ITL) completed two significant tests. One was the first complete run of the Saturn Orbit Insertion critical sequence demonstration. The demo will execute on the spacecraft starting on July 21, 2003. The second test completed was the Reaction Wheel Assembly-4 (RWA-4) checkout, with all commands and associated procedures verified. RWA-4 checkout is currently scheduled for July 7- 11, 2003. All teams and offices participated in this week's Cassini monthly management review. A Delivery Coordination Meeting was held for the Cassini Information Management System (CIMS). The Mission Planning forum discussed the scope of activities to be performed in C40. C40 will contain the third Gravitational Wave Experiment and all remaining calibration and checkout activities before approach science. ULO presented the CIMS 3.0 baseline, and possible future work, at the Cassini Design Team meeting. The design team accepted the baseline and proposed future work. System Engineering will lead an effort to simplify and unify the directory structures on development, operations, and Science Operations and Planning Computer environments where software is installed. An Associated Press article appearing on the web it reported that the winds of Saturn appear to be slowing dramatically just as NASA's Cassini spacecraft approaches the ringed gas planet. The Cassini spacecraft is due to arrive July 2004 for a 4 year orbital mission, and may provide more direct measurements to help explain the mystery of the diminishing winds. For more information go to http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=2&u=/ap/2 0030616/ap_on_sc/exp_saturn_winds. 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. ________________________________________________________________________ "OPPORTUNITY" MARS EXPLORATION ROVER TARGETED FOR LAUNCH JUNE 26 NASA/KSC release 45-03 17 June 2003 The second of two Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity, is targeted for launch on Thursday, June 26 at 12:27:31 AM EDT. Liftoff will occur aboard the Boeing Delta II Heavy launch vehicle from Pad B at Space Launch Complex 17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A second launch opportunity exists at 1:08:45 AM EDT, if necessary. Should launch be delayed by 24 hours, the two launch times available are 12:16:55 AM and 12:58:19 AM EDT. The window of the planetary launch period extends through July 15. Opportunity will reach Mars on January 25, 2004. Together the two MER missions, Spirit and Opportunity, seek to determine the history of climate and water at two sites on Mars where conditions may once have been favorable to life. Both rovers are identical. Each rover carries five scientific instruments including a panoramic camera and microscope, plus a rock abrasion tool that will grind away the outer surfaces of rocks to expose their interiors for examination. The rovers each weigh approximately 400 pounds. They will navigate themselves around obstacles as they drive across the martian surface, traveling up to about 130 feet each martian day. Each rover's prime mission is planned to last three months on Mars. Prelaunch press conference The prelaunch press conference is scheduled for L-2 days, Tuesday, June 24 at 1:00 PM EDT in the KSC News Center auditorium and will be carried live on NASA Television. Participating in the briefing will be: Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator, Office of Space Science NASA Headquarters Omar Baez, NASA launch director NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center Kris Walsh, Boeing director for NASA programs Boeing Expendable Launch Systems Peter Theisinger, Mars Exploration Rover project manager Jet Propulsion Laboratory Dr. Joy Crisp, Mars Exploration Rover project scientist Jet Propulsion Laboratory Dr. Steve Squyers, Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator Cornell University Joel Tumbiolo, Launch Weather Officer 45th Weather Squadron, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station No post-launch press conference will be held. NASA Television is available on satellite AMC-2, transponder 9C, located at 85 degrees West longitude. Audio only of NASA Television coverage of the prelaunch news conference and launch commentary will be available on the "V" circuits which may be dialed directly at 321-867-1220, 867-1240, 867-1260, 867-7135. The NASA-KSC News Center codaphone will carry recorded MER-B pre-launch status reports beginning at L-3 days, Monday, June 23, and may be dialed at 321-867-2525. "Nasa Direct!" web coverage The Kennedy Space Center's Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) coverage will include special webcasts on NASA Direct! For more information on the MER-B/Opportunity web activities, go to http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/elvnew/merb/index.htm. For a detailed NASA Direct! event calendar, go to http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/nasadirect/index.htm. Information about the MER missions is available on-line at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/. Contacts: Don Savage NASA Headquarters Phone: 202-358-1727 George H. Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center Phone: 321-867-2468 Guy Webster NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Phone: 818-354-6278 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/launches/next_launch.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030617202513.imvm0yxz.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/merb/status.html http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=585&e=6&u=/nm/2 0030617/sc_nm/space_mars_dc ________________________________________________________________________ WHERE ARE SPIRIT, MARS EXPRESS AND NOZOMI? By Ron Baalke 17 June 2003 On the "Where's Spirit Right Now?' web page, I've modified one of the graphics to include the current positions of the Mars Express and the Nozomi spacecraft: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/mission/spiritrightnow.html. It is the 4th graphic down, or you can go directly to the image at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/realtime/mera3.jpg. I'll include MER-B (Opportunity) when it launches. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/race_to_mars_maps.html. ________________________________________________________________________ SPACECRAFT AND EXPENDABLE VEHICLES STATUS REPORT: MARS EXPLORATION ROVER-B By George H. Diller NASA/KSC release 18 June 2003 Mission: Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B/Opportunity) Launch Vehicle: Delta II Heavy Launch Pad: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Date: June 25, 2003 NET Launch Time: 12:27:31 AM / 1:08:45 AM EDT The MER-1 rover, Opportunity, mated to the upper stage booster and contained within its payload transporter, rolled out of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Tuesday morning, June 17 at 1:58 AM. It arrived at Pad 17-B at 4:30 AM and was hoisted atop the Boeing MER-B Delta II Heavy launch vehicle at 9:15 AM. The spacecraft electrical umbilical connections were established last night. A spacecraft state of health check is under way today. The integrated vehicle/spacecraft Flight Program Verification test will follow on Thursday. This will demonstrate the ability of the spacecraft and the launch vehicle to work together during the terminal countdown and flight. The Simulated Flight Test of the Delta II vehicle has been successfully completed. Installation of the fairing around the spacecraft is scheduled to occur on Saturday, June 21. Fueling of the Delta second stage with its complement of storable hypergolic propellants is planned for Monday, June 23. The Flight Readiness Review (FRR) will be held on Saturday, June 21 in the Mission Briefing Room at KSC. Pending successful completion of this review, launch is scheduled for June 26. There are no significant issues or concerns at this time. Contact: George H. Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center Phone: 321-867-2468 ________________________________________________________________________ MARS ROVER SPIRIT MISSION STATUS NASA release 2003-089 20 June 2003 NASA's Spirit spacecraft, the first of twin Mars Exploration Rovers, performed its first trajectory correction maneuver today. Following commands from the Mars Exploration Rover flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, the spacecraft first performed a calibration and check of its eight thrusters, then fired the thrusters to fine-tune its flight path toward Mars. The main burn had two components. Thrusters that accelerate the rotating spacecraft along the direction of the rotation axis burned steadily for about 28 minutes. Then, thrusters that accelerate the spacecraft in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis fired in pulses timed to the spacecraft's rotation rate--with 264 pulses totaling about 22 minutes of burn time. The total maneuver increased Spirit's speed by 14.3 meters per second (32 miles per hour). At the end of the trajectory correction, Spirit performed an attitude turn that adjusted its orientation in space to maintain the optimal combination of facing its solar array toward the Sun and pointing its low-gain antenna toward Earth. The spacecraft's next trajectory correction maneuver is scheduled for August 1 and its next attitude turn for July 22. All systems on the spacecraft are in good health. As of today at 6:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Spirit had traveled 27,390,000 kilometers (17,020,000 miles) since launch on June 10, and was at a distance of 2,660,000 kilometers (1,653,000 miles) from Earth. It was traveling at a speed of 32.22 kilometers per second (72,100 miles per hour) relative to the Sun. Spirit will arrive at Mars on January 4, 2004, Universal Time (evening of January 3, 2004, Eastern and Pacific times). The rover will examine its landing area in Mars' Gusev Crater for geological evidence about the history of water on Mars. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is being prepared at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for a first launch opportunity at 12:27:31 AM June 26, Eastern Daylight Time (9:27:31 PM June 25, PDT). JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer and from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0880 Nancy Lovato NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-9382 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars2003-03l.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/030620maneuver.html ________________________________________________________________________ MER-B "OPPORTUNITY" LAUNCH POSTPONED NASA/KSC release 48-03 21 June 2003 The Flight Readiness Review was held today for the MER-B launch of the "Opportunity" Mars Exploration Rover. Afterward, a decision was made to postpone the launch by at least a couple of days. Based on routine post-test inspections, the launch team has elected to remove and replace a band of protective cork insulation on the Delta first stage. The location is below the forward attach points of the strap-on solid rocket boosters. Inspections of a second band located higher on the first stage are being performed. The time necessary to do this work means a rescheduling of the launch to no earlier than Saturday, June 28 at 11:56:16 PM EDT. A firm date will be established on Monday after the engineering team reconvenes. Contact: George Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL Phone: 321-867-2468 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030622171244.jyvik3wy.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 12-18 June 2003 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Layered Yardangs in Henry Crater (Released 12 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/12/index.html Frosted Chasma Boreale Dunes (Released 13 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/13/index.html Sand Dunes of Schaeberle Crater (Released 14 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/14/index.html Daedalia Lava Flow Margin (Released 15 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/15/index.html Richardson Dunes in Summer (Released 16 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/16/index.html Impact on Arsia Mons (Released 17 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/17/index.html Terby Crater Layers (Released 18 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/18/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 16-20 June 2003 Volcanic Surface Textures (Released 16 June 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030616a.html Etched Terrain (Released 17 June 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030617a.html Wind, Water, and Lava (Released 18 June 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030618a.html Smooth and Scrambled (Released 19 June 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030619a.html Channels and Erosion (Released 20 June 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030620a.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 SPACECRAFT MISSION STATUS NASA release 2003-088 19 June 2003 198 days before its historic rendezvous with a comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully completed the mission's third deep space maneuver. This critical maneuver modified the spacecraft's trajectory, placing it on a path to encounter and collect dust samples from comet Wild 2 in January 2004. At 2100 Universal Time (2:00 PM Pacific Time), Wednesday, June 18, Stardust fired its eight, 4.4 newton (1 pound) thrusters for a grand total of 1456 seconds, changing the comet sampler's speed by 34.4 meters per second (about 77 miles per hour). This burn, the second in two days, completed the almost seven-year-long mission's third deep space maneuver. The June 18 burn required 6.08 kilograms (13.4 pounds) of hydrazine monopropellant to complete. At launch, the spacecraft carried 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of hydrazine propellant. "It was a textbook maneuver," said Robert Ryan, Stardust's mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "This was the last big burn we will have prior to our encounter with Wild 2, and it looks very accurate. After sifting through all the post-burn data I expect we will find ourselves right on the money." Stardust has traveled over 2.9 billion kilometers (1.8 billion miles) since its February 7, 1999 launch. At present, it is hurtling through the cosmos at 124,300 kilometers per hour (77,200 miles per hour). In January 2004, Stardust will fly through the halo of dust that surrounds the nucleus of comet Wild 2. The spacecraft will return to Earth in January 2006 to make a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. Its sample return capsule, holding microscopic particles of comet and interstellar dust, will be taken to the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, where the samples will be carefully stored and examined. Stardust's cometary and interstellar dust samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system. More information on the Stardust mission is available at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov. Stardust, a part of NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, highly focused science missions, was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Operations, Denver, CO, and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The principal investigator is astronomy professor Donald E. Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle. Contacts: D. C. Agle NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-393-9011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-03b.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0306/19stardust/ ________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 20 June 2003 The Stardust team had six periods of communication with the spacecraft in the past week. Telemetry relayed from the spacecraft indicates it is healthy and all subsystems continue to operate 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. At 2100 Universal Time (2:00 PM Pacific Time), Wednesday, June 18, Stardust fired its eight, 4.4 newton (1 pound) thrusters for a grand total of 1456 seconds, changing the comet sampler's speed by 34.4 meters per second (about 77 miles per hour). As with previous maneuvers of this type, during both burns Stardust's solar panels were placed edge-on to the Sun and the spacecraft operated solely on battery power. This "textbook" burn, the second in two days, completed the almost seven- year-long mission's third deep space maneuver. The June 18 burn required 6.08 kilograms (13.4 pounds) of hydrazine monopropellant to complete. At launch, the spacecraft carried 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of hydrazine propellant. Also this past week, Navigation Camera images taken about 1 month ago were successfully transmitted to Earth. The images indicate NavCam performance is still very good. 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 25.