MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 26, 30 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/2003/06/25/2003.06.25.051203global. medium.jpg] The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) experiment consists of 3 different cameras: a narrow angle imager that provides the black-and-white high resolution views (up to 1.4 meters per pixel) of Mars, and 2 wide angle cameras, observing in red and blue wavelengths, from which color views of the entire planet are assembled each day. The wide angle cameras provide a daily record of changes in martian weather and surface frost as the seasons progress. MGS MOC has obtained a record of martian weather spanning a little over 2 martian years since it began systematic observations in March 1999. The view of Mars shown here was assembled from MOC daily global images obtained on May 12, 2003. At that time, the northern hemisphere was in early autumn, and the southern hemisphere in early spring. At the left/center of this view are the four large Tharsis volcanoes: Olympus Mons, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons. Stretching across the center of the globe is the ~5,000 kilometers (~3,000 miles) long Valles Marineris trough system. The seasonal south polar carbon dioxide frost cap is visible at the bottom of this view. A dust storm sweeps across the plains of northern Acidalia at the upper right. North is up, east is right, sunlight illuminates the planet from the left. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES NEW TEAMS NASA release 03-208 2) INFERENCE AND RED CORN, LEGENDS OF ASTROBIOLOGY: NEWCOMB By Simon Newcomb 3) CHINA KEEPS ITS SIGHT ON LONG-TERM MARS EXPLORATION By Wei Long 4) THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE II: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF FINDING LIFE IN THE COSMOS By Neil deGrasse Tyson 5) THE WOMEN OF SETI By Seth Shostak 6) LATINA SCIENTIST KEEPS AN EYE ON SMALLEST INHABITANTS OF SPACE NASA/MSFC release 03-101 7) NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ANNUAL SPACE SETTLEMENT CONTEST NASA/ARC release 8) ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY 101: HOW TO TAKE STELLAR PICTURES By Joe Rao 9) FIRST PERSON: GARY BLACKWOOD From JPL First Light Newsletter 10) LONG, STRANGE TRIPS From Astrobiology Magazine 11) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 12) CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 13) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 14) DELTA II/MER-B "OPPORTUNITY" UPDATES By George Diller 15) MARS EXPRESS STATUS REPORT ESA release 16) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 17) NASA'S ODYSSEY ORBITER WATCHES A FROSTY MARS NASA release 2003-091 18) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release ________________________________________________________________________ ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES NEW TEAMS NASA release 03-208 24 June 2003 NASA today announced 12 new teams would join the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), a national and international research consortium that studies the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life on Earth and in the universe. The institutional awards begin in fall 2003, when current agreements with the NAI's 11 founding lead teams conclude. NAI team awards are for five years, with annual reviews, at an average annual funding level of one million dollars. Funding supports interdisciplinary research in conjunction with professional, educational, and public outreach activities, coordinated through NAI's offices at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. "The NAI successfully reached an important milestone today with the competition for the original NAI membership," said Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator of Space Science. "The quality of the proposals and stiff competition demonstrated the scientific community's enthusiasm for the Astrobiology Institute. "This is an ongoing experiment in collaboration across disciplines and distance," said Dr. Michael Meyer, astrobiology senior scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington. The 12 newly selected teams, of which six are founding members, join four NAI lead teams selected in 2001. "With this group of 16 teams, NAI's efforts reach from the Earth's deep subsurface to the stars," said Dr. Rosalind Grymes, acting director of the NAI. "We look to the near- term future of solar system exploration as well as to the distant past of planet Earth," she said. The new team lead institutions, principal investigators and the titles of their proposed research are: * Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC: Dr. Sean Solomon, "Astrobiological Pathways: From the Interstellar Medium, Through Planetary Systems, to the Emergence and Detection of Life." * Indiana University, Bloomington, IN: Professor Lisa Pratt, "Indiana- Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Institute: Detection of Biosustainable Energy and Nutrient Cycling in the Deep Subsurface of Earth and Mars." * Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA: Dr. Mitchell Sogin, "From Early Biospheric Metabolisms to the Evolution of Complex Systems." * SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA: Professor Christopher Chyba, "Planetary Biology, Evolution and Intelligence." * NASA Ames Research Center, CA: Dr. David DesMarais, "Linking Our Origins to Our Future." * NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD: Dr. Michael Mumma, "Origin and Evolution of Organics in Planetary Systems." * Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA: Professor Hiroshi Ohmoto, "Evolution of a Habitable Planet." * University of Arizona, Tucson: Professor Neville Woolf, "An Astronomical Search for the Essential Ingredients for Life: Placing our Habitable System in Context." * University of California at Los Angeles: Professor Edward Young, "From Stars to Genes: An Integrated Study of the Prospects for Life in the Cosmos." * University of California at Berkeley: Professor Jillian Banfield, "BIOspheres of Mars: Ancient and Recent Studies." * University of Colorado, Boulder: Professor Bruce Jakosky, "University of Colorado Center for Astrobiology." * University of Hawaii, Manoa: Professor Karen Meech, "The Origin, History, and Distribution of Water and its Relation to Life in the Universe." The NAI, founded in 1997, is a partnership between NASA, 16 major U.S. teams and five international consortia. NAI's goal is to promote, conduct, and lead integrated multidisciplinary astrobiology research and to train a new generation of astrobiology researchers. For more information about the NAI on the Internet, visit http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/. Contacts: Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 John Bluck NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-5026 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article507.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0306/24astrobio/ ________________________________________________________________________ INFERENCE AND RED CORN, LEGENDS OF ASTROBIOLOGY: NEWCOMB By Simon Newcomb From Astrobiology Magazine 24 June 2003 In 1906, the world had known powered 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, DC. Since 1877, he had been director of the American Nautical Almanac Office. This relatively peaceful life gave him great scientific freedom. He began a body of observational astronomy that even today, underpins the large body of stellar tables. His goal was to make astronomy a more exact science, to clean out incomplete descriptions of celestial motion, and replace speculation with universal constants. Newcomb was professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins (1884-1893). He was an editor of the American Journal of Mathematics for many years. He was also a founding member and first president (1899-1905) of the American Astronomical Society. He served as president of the American Mathematical Society from 1897 to 1898. His remarkable essays, many of which were written for popular magazines like Harper's and the American Review, helped shape a generation of astronomers. He formulated his thoughts on "Life in the Universe", and published the collection in June 1906. Excerpts of his reflections are included in the "Legends of Astrobiology"--a multi-part historical series of informative 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. ___________________________________ It is a scientific inference, based on facts so numerous as not to admit of serious question, that during the history of our globe there has been a continually improving development of life. As ages upon ages pass, new forms are generated, higher in the scale than those which preceded them, until at length reason appears and asserts its sway. In a recent well-known work Alfred Russel Wallace has argued that this development of life required the presence of such a rare combination of conditions that there is no reason to suppose that it prevailed anywhere except on our earth. It is quite impossible in the present discussion to follow his reasoning in detail; but it seems to me altogether inconclusive. Not only does life, but intelligence, flourish on this globe under a great variety of conditions as regards temperature and surroundings, and no sound reason can be shown why under certain conditions, which are frequent in the universe, intelligent beings should not acquire the highest development. Now let us look at the subject from the view of the mathematical theory of probabilities. A fundamental tenet of this theory is that no matter how improbable a result may be on a single trial, supposing it at all possible, it is sure to occur after a sufficient number of trials--and over and over again if the trials are repeated often enough. For example, if a million grains of corn, of which a single one was red, were all placed in a pile, and a blindfolded person were required to grope in the pile, select a grain, and then put it back again, the chances would be a million to one against his drawing out the red grain. If drawing it meant he should die, a sensible person would give himself no concern at having to draw the grain. The probability of his death would not be so great as the actual probability that he will really die within the next twenty-four hours. And yet if the whole human race were required to run this chance, it is certain that about fifteen hundred, or one out of a million, of the whole human family would draw the red grain and meet his death. Now apply this principle to the universe. Let us suppose, to fix the ideas, that there are a hundred million worlds, but that the chances are one thousand to one against any one of these taken at random being fitted for the highest development of life or for the evolution of reason. The chances would still be that one hundred thousand of them would be inhabited by rational beings whom we call human. But where are we to look for these worlds? This no man can tell. We only infer from the statistics of the stars--and this inference is fairly well grounded- -that the number of worlds which, so far as we know, may be inhabited, are to be counted by thousands, and perhaps by millions. Expecting every variety In a number of bodies so vast we should expect every variety of conditions as regards temperature and surroundings. If we suppose that the special conditions which prevail on our planet are necessary to the highest forms of life, we still have reason to believe that these same conditions prevail on thousands of other worlds. The fact that we might find the conditions in millions of other worlds unfavorable to life would not disprove the existence of the latter on countless worlds differently situated. Coming down now from the general question to the specific one, we all know that the only worlds the conditions of which can be made the subject of observation are the planets which revolve around the sun, and their satellites. The question whether these bodies are inhabited is one which, of course, completely transcends not only our powers of observation at present, but every appliance of research that we can conceive of men devising. If Mars is inhabited, and if the people of that planet have equal powers with ourselves, the problem of merely producing an illumination which could be seen in our most powerful telescope would be beyond all the ordinary efforts of an entire nation. An unbroken square mile of flame would be invisible in our telescopes, but a hundred square miles might be seen. We cannot, therefore, expect to see any signs of the works of inhabitants even on Mars. All that we can do is to ascertain with greater or less probability whether the conditions necessary to life exist on the other planets of the system. The moon being much the nearest to us of all the heavenly bodies, we can pronounce more definitely in its case than in any other. We know that neither air nor water exists on the moon in quantities sufficient to be perceived by the most delicate tests at our command. It is certain that the moon's atmosphere, if any exists, is less than the thousandth part of the density of that around us. The vacuum is greater than any ordinary air-pump is capable of producing. We can hardly suppose that so small a quantity of air could be of any benefit whatever in sustaining life; an animal that could get along on so little could get along on none at all. But the proof of the absence of life is yet stronger when we consider the results of actual telescopic observation. An object such as an ordinary city block could be detected on the moon. If anything like vegetation were present on its surface, we should see the changes which it would undergo in the course of a month, during one portion of which it would be exposed to the rays of the unclouded sun, and during another to the intense cold of space. If men built cities, or even separate buildings the size of the larger ones on our earth, we might see some signs of them. In recent times we not only observe the moon with the telescope, but get still more definite information by photography. The whole visible surface has been repeatedly photographed under the best conditions. But no change has been established beyond question, nor does the photograph show the slightest difference of structure or shade which could be attributed to cities or other works of man. To all appearances the whole surface of our satellite is as completely devoid of life as the lava newly thrown from Vesuvius. We next pass to the planets. Mercury, the nearest to the sun, is in a position very unfavorable for observation from the earth, because when nearest to us it is between us and the sun, so that its dark hemisphere is presented to us. Nothing satisfactory has yet been made out as to its condition. We cannot say with certainty whether it has an atmosphere or not. What seems very probable is that the temperature on its surface is higher than any of our earthly animals could sustain. But this proves nothing. We know that Venus has an atmosphere. This was very conclusively shown during the transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882. But this atmosphere is so filled with clouds or vapor that it does not seem likely that we ever get a view of the solid body of the planet through it. Some observers have thought they could see spots on Venus day after day, while others have disputed this view. On the whole, if intelligent inhabitants live there, it is not likely that they ever see sun or stars. Instead of the sun they see only an effulgence in the vapory sky which disappears and reappears at regular intervals. Mars When we come to Mars, we have more definite knowledge, and there seems to be greater possibilities for life there than in the case of any other planet besides the earth. The main reason for denying that life such as ours could exist there is that the atmosphere of Mars is so rare that, in the light of the most recent researches, we cannot be fully assured that it exists at all. The very careful comparisons of the spectra of Mars and of the moon made by Campbell at the Lick Observatory failed to show the slightest difference in the two. If Mars had an atmosphere as dense as ours, the result could be seen in the darkening of the lines of the spectrum produced by the double passage of the light through it. There were no lines in the spectrum of Mars that were not seen with equal distinctness in that of the moon. But this does not prove the entire absence of an atmosphere. It only shows a limit to its density. It may be one-fifth or one-fourth the density of that on the earth, but probably no more. That there must be something in the nature of vapor at least seems to be shown by the formation and disappearance of the white polar caps of this planet. Every reader of astronomy at the present time knows that, during the martian winter, white caps form around the pole of the planet which is turned away from the sun, and grow larger and larger until the sun begins to shine upon them, when they gradually grow smaller, and perhaps nearly disappear. It seems, therefore, fairly well proved that, under the influence of cold, some white substance forms around the polar regions of Mars which evaporates under the influence of the sun's rays. It has been supposed that this substance is snow, produced in the same way that snow is produced on the earth, by the evaporation of water. But there are difficulties in the way of this explanation. The sun sends less than half as much heat to Mars as to the Earth, and it does not seem likely that the polar regions can ever receive enough of heat to melt any considerable quantity of snow. Nor does it seem likely that any clouds from which snow could fall ever obscure the surface of Mars. But a very slight change in the explanation will make it tenable. Quite possibly the white deposits may be due to something like hoar-frost condensed from slightly moist air, without the actual production of snow. This would produce the effect that we see. Even this explanation implies that Mars has air and water, rare though the former may be. It is quite possible that air as thin as that of Mars would sustain life in some form. Life not totally unlike that on the earth may therefore exist upon this planet for anything that we know to the contrary. More than this we cannot say. Outer realms In the case of the outer planets the answer to our question must be in the negative. It now seems likely that Jupiter is a body very much like our sun, only that the dark portion is too cool to emit much, if any, light. It is doubtful whether Jupiter has anything in the nature of a solid surface. Its interior is in all likelihood a mass of molten matter far above a red heat, which is surrounded by a comparatively cool, yet, to our measure, extremely hot, vapor. The belt-like clouds which surround the planet are due to this vapor combined with the rapid rotation. If there is any solid surface below the atmosphere that we can see, it is swept by winds such that nothing we have on earth could withstand them. But, as we have said, the probabilities are very much against there being anything like such a surface. At some great depth in the fiery vapor there is a solid nucleus; that is all we can say. The planet Saturn seems to be very much like that of Jupiter in its composition. It receives so little heat from the sun that, unless it is a mass of fiery vapor like Jupiter, the surface must be far below the freezing-point. We cannot speak with such certainty of Uranus and Neptune; yet the probability seems to be that they are in much the same condition as Saturn. They are known to have very dense atmospheres, which are made known to us only by their absorbing some of the light of the sun. But nothing is known of the composition of these atmospheres. To sum up our argument: the fact that, so far as we have yet been able to learn, only a very small proportion of the visible worlds scattered through space are fitted to be the abode of life does not preclude the probability that among hundreds of millions of such worlds a vast number are so fitted. Such being the case, all the analogies of nature lead us to believe that, whatever the process which led to life upon this earth- -whether a special act of creative power or a gradual course of development--through that same process does life begin in every part of the universe fitted to sustain it. The course of development involves a gradual improvement in living forms, which by irregular steps rise higher and higher in the scale of being. We have every reason to believe that this is the case wherever life exists. It is, therefore, perfectly reasonable to suppose that beings, not only animated, but endowed with reason, inhabit countless worlds in space. It would, indeed, be very inspiring could we learn by actual observation what forms of society exist throughout space, and see the members of such societies enjoying themselves by their warm firesides. But this, so far as we can now see, is entirely beyond the possible reach of our race, so long as it is confined to a single world. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article505.html. ________________________________________________________________________ CHINA KEEPS ITS SIGHT ON LONG-TERM MARS EXPLORATION By Wei Long From SpaceDaily 25 June 2003 China would carry out long-term Mars exploration in four stages that might lead to the eventual human exploration of the red planet, an article from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) publication, Science Times, said on June 13. Liu Zhenxing, a researcher from the CAS Center for Space Science and Applied Research (CSSAR) said that although there would be no immediate plan to explore Mars, China would systematically explore our planetary neighbor in the 21st century. However, Liu did not mention any timeline of the Mars exploration initiative. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-03q.html. ________________________________________________________________________ THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE II: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF FINDING LIFE IN THE COSMOS By Neil deGrasse Tyson From Astrobiology Magazine 25 June 2003 How about intelligence? Since there is still debate on how to define it and measure it in people, I wonder what the question even means when applied to extraterrestrials. Hollywood has tried, but I give them mixed reviews. I know of some aliens that should have been embarrassed at their stupidity. What about all those aliens that manage to traverse thousands of light years through interstellar space, yet bungle their arrival by crash-landing on Earth? Then there were the aliens in the 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, who, in advance of their arrival, beamed to Earth a mysterious sequence of repeated digits that were eventually decoded to be the latitude and longitude of their upcoming landing site. But Earth longitude has a completely arbitrary starting point--the prime meridian- -which passes through Greenwich, England by international agreement. And both longitude and latitude are measured in peculiar unnatural units we call degrees, 360 of which are in a circle. Armed with this much knowledge of human culture, it seems to me that the aliens could have just learned English and beamed the message, "We're going to land a little bit to the side of Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. And since we're coming in a flying saucer we won't need the runway lights." The award for dumbest creature of all time must go to the alien from the original 1983 film Star Trek, The Motion Picture. V-ger, as it called itself (pronounced vee-jer) was an ancient mechanical space probe that was on a mission to explore and discover and report back its findings. The probe was "rescued" from the depths of space by a civilization of mechanical aliens and reconfigured so that it could actually accomplish this mission for the entire universe. Eventually, the probe did acquire all knowledge and, in so doing, achieved consciousness. The Star Trek crew comes upon this now-sprawling monstrous collection of cosmic information at a time when the alien was searching for its original creator and the meaning of life. The stenciled letters on the side of the original probe revealed the characters V and ger. Shortly thereafter, Captain Kirk discovers that the probe was Voyager 6, which had been launched by humans on Earth in the late twentieth century. Apparently, the oya that fits between the V and the ger had been badly tarnished and was unreadable. Okay. But I have always wondered how V- ger could have acquired all knowledge of the universe and achieve consciousness yet not know that its real name was Voyager. Regardless of how Hollywood aliens are portrayed, or how good or bad the films are, we must not stand in denial of the public's interest in the subject. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that humans are the only species in the history of life on Earth to evolve high-level intelligence. (I mean no disrespect to other big-brained mammals. While most of them cannot do astrophysics, my conclusions are not substantially altered if you wish to include them.) If life on Earth offers any measure of life elsewhere in the universe, then intelligence must be rare. By some estimates, there have been more than ten billion species in the history of life on Earth. It follows that among all extraterrestrial life forms we might expect no better than about one in ten billion to be as intelligent as we are, not to mention the odds against the intelligent life having an advanced technology and a desire to communicate through the vast distances of interstellar space. On the chance that such a civilization exists, radio waves would be the communication band of choice because of their ability to traverse the galaxy unimpeded by interstellar gas and dust clouds. But humans on Earth have only understood the electromagnetic spectrum for less than a century. More depressingly put, for most of human history, had aliens tried to send radio signals to earthlings we would have been incapable of receiving them. For all we know, the aliens have already done this and unwittingly concluded that there was no intelligent life on Earth. They would now be looking elsewhere. A more humbling possibility would be if aliens had become aware of the technologically proficient species that now inhabits Earth, yet they had drawn the same conclusion. Our life-on-Earth bias, intelligent or otherwise, requires us to hold the existence of liquid water as a prerequisite to life elsewhere. A planet's orbit should not be too close to its host star, otherwise the temperature would be too high and the planet's water content would vaporize. The orbit should not be too far away either, or else the temperature would be too low and the planet's water content would freeze. In other words, conditions on the planet must allow the temperature to stay within the range for liquid water. As in the three- bowls-of-food scene in the fairy tale, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", the temperature has to be just right. When I was interviewed about this subject recently on a syndicated radio talk show, the host commented, "Clearly, what you should be looking for is a planet made of porridge!" While distance from the host planet is an important factor for the existence of life as we know it, other factors matter too, such as a planet's ability to trap stellar radiation. Venus is a textbook example of this "greenhouse" phenomenon. Visible sunlight that manages to pass through its thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide gets absorbed by Venus's surface and then re-radiated in the infrared part of the spectrum. The infrared, in turn, gets trapped by the atmosphere. The unpleasant consequence is an air temperature that hovers at about 900 degrees Fahrenheit, which is much hotter than we would expect knowing Venus's distance to the Sun. At this temperature, zinc would swiftly become molten and a 16" pepperoni pizza will cook in nine seconds. The discovery of simple, unintelligent life forms elsewhere in the universe (or evidence that they once existed) would be far more likely and, for me, only slightly less exciting than the discovery of intelligent life. Two excellent nearby places to look are the dried riverbeds of Mars, were there may be fossil evidence of life from when waters once flowed, and the subsurface oceans that are theorized to exist under the frozen ice layers of Jupiter's moon Europa. Once again, the promise of liquid water defines our targets of search. If we consider the possibility that we may rank as primitive among the universe's technologically competent life forms however rare they may be then the best we can do is keep alert for signals sent by others because it is far more expensive to send rather than receive them. Presumably, an advanced civilization would have easy-access to an abundant source of energy such as its host star. These are the civilizations that would be more likely to send rather than receive. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (affectionately known by its acronym "SETI") has taken many forms. The most advanced efforts today uses a cleverly designed electronic detector that monitors, in its latest version, billions of radio channels in search of a signal that might rise above the cosmic noise. The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, if and when it happens, will impart a change in human self-perception that may be impossible to anticipate. If we don't soon find life elsewhere, what will matter most is that we had not stopped looking. Our species demands that we keep looking. Deep in our soul of curiosity we are intellectual nomads in search of other places, in search of other life forms because we derive almost as much fulfillment from the search as we do from the discovery. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article506.html. ________________________________________________________________________ THE WOMEN OF SETI By Seth Shostak From Space.com 26 June 2003 The work promised to be repetitive, undramatic, and as dull as decade- old floor wax. Perfect, in other words, for a woman. That was the attitude of Edward Pickering, Director of the Harvard College Observatory in 1880, as he confronted the necessity of analyzing the swelling stack of glass plates being churned out by his research staff. At the end of the nineteenth century, astronomy's increasing use of photography was causing a gush of new data. In particular, stellar spectra--"fingerprints" of a star's temperature and composition--were being made by the hundreds each clear night. ...Today, women astronomers have their own computers (the silicon variety), and apply themselves to every facet of front-line investigation, from comets to cosmology. And that includes, of course, the hunt for intelligent life beyond Earth. Just about everyone who's curious about the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence knows of Jill Tarter, the SETI Institute's director of SETI research. Tarter has logged more telescope hours in the search for cosmic company than any other human on the planet, and was the inspiration for the protagonist of Carl Sagan's novel, Contact. She's in the forefront of development for the Allen Telescope Array, the first radio telescope designed from the pad up to be used 24 hours a day for SETI. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/shostak_women_030626.html. ________________________________________________________________________ LATINA SCIENTIST KEEPS AN EYE ON SMALLEST INHABITANTS OF SPACE NASA/MSFC release 03-101 26 June 2003 When microbiologist Monserrate (Monsi) Roman came to the United States from Puerto Rico, she never dreamed she'd be a scientist working to ensure safe water and air for the crew of the International Space Station, the world's largest space laboratory. As a microbiologist, Roman studies microbes, living organisms including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites, which are only visible under a microscope. Microbes are everywhere, but most are harmless, and many do useful jobs like help us digest food. "My job is to be a detective, to determine how microbes will behave under different situations and in different locations, such as the nooks and crannies of the Space Station," explained Roman, chief microbiologist for the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Huntsville, AL. Everyone who visits the Station comes with his or her own unique set of microbes. And since crewmembers, visitors, experiments and hardware hail from 15 Station partner countries, Roman must study an international, multicultural group of the microbes. She often collaborates with scientists and engineers from other countries. "Microbes were the first inhabitants of the Space Station hitchhiking into orbit on equipment before people ever arrived," Roman said. "Each microbe is unique, and if left unchecked, some will thrive and could eventually eat many materials." The Station was designed with materials that are microbe-resistant. Temperature and humidity are controlled to discourage microbe growth. Roman helps ensure microbes aren't a threat by monitoring the Station's air and water system. She works closely with MSFC engineers who are designing and testing the Oxygen Generation and Water Recovery equipment, a more sophisticated air and water recycling system to be installed on the Station. It will dramatically reduce the amount of water supply vehicles deliver to the Station. Roman's fascination with science and living organisms blossomed when she was a child. Her science teachers nurtured her curiosity, encouraged her to participate in science fairs, and provided opportunities for her to work with real scientists. Roman carries on that tradition, helping with classes at NASA's Challenger Learning Centers and at the agency's Educator Resources Center in Huntsville. Every summer, she mentors a student who works by her side as an intern at the MSFC. Roman earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Puerto Rico, where she became so fascinated with microbiology that she washed dishes in the lab before finally being hired as a research assistant. She earned her master's degree in microbiology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and joined NASA in 1989. "As I always tell my three sons and the students I mentor: Don't listen to anyone who says you can't," said Roman. "As a little girl, I never dreamed I would be helping NASA build part of a Space Station. It has been fascinating watching the Station go from paper drawings to a real home and workplace in space." To learn more about Roman's work and the ECLSS project, visit http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/background/facts/eclss.pdf. Microscopic Stowaways on the International Space Station http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26nov%5F1.htm Water on the Space Station http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02nov%5F1.htm Breathing Easy on the Space Station http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast13nov%5F1.htm For information about NASA and the Space Station on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. ________________________________________________________________________ NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ANNUAL SPACE SETTLEMENT CONTEST NASA/ARC release 26 June 2003 This annual contest is for 6-12th graders (11-18 years old) from anywhere in the world. Individuals, small teams of two to six, and large teams of seven or more (often whole classrooms with teacher leadership) may enter. Grades 6-9 and 10-12 are judged separately, except for the grand prize. Students develop space settlement designs and related materials. These are sent to NASA Ames for judgment. Submissions must be received by March 31, 2004. Check out the results of the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 contests. Teachers are encouraged to use this contest as part of their curriculum. See the space settlement teacher's page and visit the Ames Educator Resource Center for more contest information. Contest prizes and certificates * All participants will receive a certificate. * The best submission wins the grand prize. This space colony design will be placed on the NASA Ames World Wide Web site. * The grand prize, first, second and third place award winners in the individual and small group categories will be invited to visit NASA Ames in June 2004 to present their submissions. (Increased security measures may impact the size of the visiting group this year.) * Contest categories are individual 6-9 grade, small group 6-9 grade, large group 6-9 grade, individual 10-12 grade, small group 10-12 grade, and large group 10-12 grade. An additional category based on artistic and literary merit is also included in the contest. Full contest rules and additional information are available at http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/spacesettlement/Contest/. ________________________________________________________________________ ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY 101: HOW TO TAKE STELLAR PICTURES By Joe Rao From Space.com 27 June 2003 You may have seen some of the beautiful photographs of sky objects that have been taken over the years by contributors to SPACE.com. Perhaps you've even wondered whether it might be possible for you to take photos of the night sky. The answer is most definitely "yes." In fact, making the transition from normal photography to astrophotography is relatively easy. Astrophotography is a special adaptation of ordinary photography. You can make some interesting photographs of stars even with inexpensive equipment. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/spacewatch/astrophotography_101_030627.html. ________________________________________________________________________ FIRST PERSON: GARY BLACKWOOD From JPL First Light Newsletter 28 June 2003 Is there life beyond Earth? JPL's Dr. Gary Blackwood, interferometer systems manager for Terrestrial Planet Finder, explains how this future mission will look for signs of other worlds like ours. Watch a video of Dr. Blackwood at http://realserver1.jpl.nasa.gov:8080/ramgen/Video-NASA-1st-Person- Blackwood-030627.rm?mode=compact. Find out more about TPF at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_index.html. ________________________________________________________________________ LONG, STRANGE TRIPS From Astrobiology Magazine 30 June 2003 The last quarter-century in planetary exploration has stretched the limits of human imagination: the banner image of the Venera footpad on our sister planet, Venus, illustrates the challenges and rewards of reaching out in our solar neighborhood. The crusty surface just below that circularly-spiked footprint is hot enough to melt lead. Even fewer may recognize that international teams have flown a balloon in the clouds on Venus, or touched down on an asteroid. Missions have intentionally crashed a spacecraft into the moon, in hopes of observing from Earth an ejected spray of lunar ice. In a spectacular planetary- scale catastrophe, orbiting telescopes have witnessed comets smash into Jupiter. A steady meteor stream has been found identifiably reaching Earth from Mars, Venus and the moon-- many of which land on Antarctic fields with their interior temperatures never having exceeded one hundred degrees. Mars alone contributes fifteen annually. More than four and half million home computers have been tied together, in hopes of detecting an intelligent radio signal from another planet. Their total computer processing units have combined what would take a single computer more than one and half million years to complete. A collosal asteroid strike on Earth has been proposed as what killed the dinosaurs. The moon itself has been modeled as originating from another terrestrial impact. In excess of one hundred planets have been found outside our solar system. Water-ice has been found on martian polar caps. A remote control rover has navigated safely between sharp martian boulders, while being driven from millions of miles away. Thick sheets of ice may cover an ocean on Jupiter's moon, Europa. The catalog of nearby habitable stars has tallied more than 17,000 candidates. Massive stars so dense that they represent a new kind of matter--so-called quark stars--populate the universe with exotic sub-atomic physics. The quarter-century's timeline, by mission, year, and spacecraft, are highlighted in summary below with links to more information. As this month begins an unprecedented blitz on Mars, including the first time that multiple landers will operate at the same time since 1977, the future of planetary exploration is also worth anticipating. Even more ambitious missions will attempt to land on a comet. A probe will try to land on Saturn's moon, Titan--the smoggy moon with a rich atmosphere almost as thick as Earth's. Many international returns to Mars are anticipated after the January 2004 landing assault, including intelligent rovers pre-programmed for hazard avoidance. The encyclopedic cataloguing of new planets will get help from new telescopes, ones specifically trying to image distant stars that dim as their comparatively dark and tiny planets transit and eclipse the light reaching us. Both fiery Mercury and frigid Pluto will become foci of new missions. Samples of solar wind and comet dust may be returned to Earth. New techniques for projectile sampling, where bullets are fired into the moon, Europa, and comets will complement the traditional land- and-scoop methods pioneered by Viking on Mars. New landing methods will extend the controlled collisions of airbag bounces in hopes of more accurate positioning and deployments. New solar-powered, ion engines will make the most of the least--charged particles provide fuel to go further at less cost than explosive chemical drives. Astrobiology Magazine congratulates and commemorates those who have imagined what the surface of Venus might look like up-close, and wanted to drive a car on Mars. See also detailed spacecraft image gallery, Probes of the Planets: http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?set_albumName=crafts&op=modload &name=gallery&file=index&include=slideshow.php. 1978 - Pioneer Venus 1 - Venus Orbiter - Pioneer Venus 2 - Venus Probes - launch of Halley Comet Flyby (also Comet Giacobini-Zinner) - Russian Venera 11, Venus Orbiter and Lander - Russian Venera 12, Venus Orbiter and Lander 1979 - patches of strong ultraviolet absorption detected circulating in Venusian clouds by Pioneer Venus Orbiter 1980 - Cosmos TV broadcast introduces a mass audience to cosmology - Seven moons of Saturn are discovered: Atlas, Calypso, Epimetheus, Helene, Pandora, Prometheus, Telesto - Luis and Walter Alvarez propose KT (Cretaceous-Tertiary) asteroid impact killed the dinosaurs - Voyager 1 obtains close-up images of Saturn's rings 1981 - First space shuttle launches - Russian Venera 13 ,Venus Orbiter and Lander - Russian Venera 14 ,Venus Orbiter and Lander 1982 - Andrei Linde proposes new inflationary universe scenario - Mars Viking Lander 1 makes its final transmission to Earth, 6 years after its rocket-powered descent 1983 - Andrei Linde develops chaotic inflationary universe scenario - Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) launches - Paul Horowitz initiates Project Sentinel to search for extraterrestrial intelligence - Russian Venera 15 , Venus Orbiter - Russian Venera 16 , Venus Orbiter 1984 - SETI Institute is founded - Russian Vega 1 , Venus Lander and Balloon/Comet Halley Flyby - Russian Vega 2 , Venus Lander and Balloon/Comet Halley Flyby, floats balloon payload at 50 km altitude in Venusian top layer of atmosphere 1985 - Puck, a moon of Uranus, is discovered in Voyager 2 images - International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft flies through tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner, becoming the first to encounter a comet - Project META (Megachannel Extraterrestrial Assay) begins searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence - Halley's Comet makes its latest close approach to Earth - Japanese Sakigake , Comet Halley Flyby - European Giotto , Comet Halley Flyby - Japanese Suisei (Planet-A), Comet Halley Flyby 1986 - Margaret Geller and John Huchra describe bubble structure of galaxy superclusters - SERENDIP II (Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations) begins operations, surveys 30% of sky on 4 million channels - Voyager 2 flies past Uranus - Nine moons of Uranus are discovered in Voyager 2 images: Bianca, Belinda, Cordelia, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Ophelia, Portia, Rosalind - Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 1987 - Astronomers realize Milky Way and many local galaxies are moving toward "Great Attractor" - Supernova 1987A is discovered 1988 - Numerical simulations by Martin Duncan and colleagues confirm short- period comets could come from Kuiper Belt - Phobos 1 , Attempted Mars Orbiter/Phobos Landers - Phobos 2 , Mars Orbiter/Attempted Phobos Landers 1989 - Magellan spacecraft launches as Venus Orbiter - Voyager 2 flies past Neptune - Hipparcos astrometry mission launches - Galileo spacecraft is deployed from Space Shuttle Atlantis, as Jupiter Orbiter and Probe 1990 - John Mather presents observations of the cosmic background radiation by the Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer (COBE) which confirm predictions of the big bang theory - Pan, a moon of Saturn, is discovered in Voyager 2 images - Project META II begins extraterrestrial search from southern hemisphere - Hubble Space Telescope launches aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, as Earth Orbiting Observatory - Ulysses spacecraft is deployed by Space Shuttle Discovery, As Jupiter Flyby and Solar Probe Orbiter - Japanese Hiten , Lunar Flyby and Orbiter 1991 - Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory finds gamma-ray burst radiation is isotropic - Alexander Wolszczan discovers two planets orbiting a millisecond pulsar 1992 - John Mather and George Smoot find fluctuations in cosmic microwave background radiation with COBE - First Kuiper Belt asteroid (1992 QB1) is discovered - SERENDIP III begins operations at Arecibo Observatory - MACHO project begins searching for massive compact halo objects - NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) begins searching for extraterrestrial signals from Arecibo and Goldstone observatories 1993 - Keck Observatory begins observations - Contact with Mars Observer is lost three days before orbit insertion - Galileo spacecraft images the first known asteroid moon, Dactyl, orbiting asteroid Ida - Space shuttle astronauts fit Hubble Space Telescope with corrective optics 1994 - Hubble Space Telescope finds evidence of black hole in the center of M87 - Hubble Key Project begins studying Cepheid variable stars to better define Hubble Constant, and the size of the universe - Michael Rampino and Richard Strothers propose Earth could be periodically struck by comets dislodged from orbits when the solar system passes through galactic plane - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hits Jupiter - U.S. Department of Defense/NASA Clementine mission, Lunar Orbiter/Attempted Asteroid Flyby 1995 - Donald Lamb and Bodhan Paczynski debate the distance of gamma-ray bursts - Andrew Gould determines distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using Supernova 1987A - The SETI Institute launches Project Phoenix - Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz announce discovery of extrasolar planet around sun-like star 51 Pegasi - Project BETA (Billion-Channel Extraterrestrial Assay) begins scanning the skies 1996 - Comet Hyakutake and Comet Hale-Bopp reach peak brightness - Sidney van den Bergh and Gustav Tammann debate Hubble Constant and the scale of the universe - Terry Oswalt and colleagues determine age of the galactic disk from old white dwarfs - Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR Shoemaker) mission launches, Asteroid Eros Orbiter - Scientists announce they've found signs of primitive life in Mars meteorite ALH840001 - Mars Global Surveyor launches - Carl Sagan dies 1997 - BeppoSAX determines gamma-ray bursts are extragalactic - Two moons of Uranus are discovered: Caliban and Sycorax - Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry (SVLBI) mission launches - Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars - SERENDIP IV begins operations at Arecibo Observatory - Cassini-Huygens mission launches, as Saturn Orbiter and Titan probe - First commercial lunar mission, AsiaSat 3/HGS-1, Lunar Flyby 1998 - Supernovae observations by the Supernova Cosmology Project and High-z Supernova Search team suggest the expansion of the universe is accelerating - Lunar Prospector launches and enters lunar orbit - Jim Peebles and Michael Turner debate nature of universe and whether cosmology is solved - Paul Horowitz initiates an optical SETI program to search for laser pulses from other worlds - Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) launches - BOOMERANG (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics) launches over Antarctica - Nozomi Mars Orbiter (Japanese "Hope") launched, enters detour for 2004 encounter - Galileo flyby of Jupiter's moon, Europa, shows the infrared picture of cracks correlate to water ice and also either salts or some organics 1999 - John Cowan confirms age estimates of globular clusters and universe by dating metal-poor stars - Stardust mission launches - Wendy Freedman and Allan Sandage debate Hubble Constant and the scale of universe - SETI@Home begins distributing data to computers around the world, to accomplish millions of CPU years in search of intelligent radio signals - Chandra X-ray telescope is deployed from Space Shuttle Columbia, to probe the high-energy universe - Mars Climate Orbiter is lost during orbit insertion - Mars Polar Lander stops communicating after landing on Mars - Lunar Prospector tries to detect water on the Moon 2000 - Eleven moons of Jupiter are discovered - NEAR Shoemaker begins orbiting asteroid Eros - Expedition One crew arrives at International Space Station - Very Large Telescope -world's largest optical telescope array-measures the temperature of the early universe - Mars Viking Project Scientist, Jerry Soffen, dies at 74 2001 - Adam Reiss and colleagues announce the most distant supernova known supports "dark energy" theory - Robert Becker and colleagues use quasar to identify cosmic "Dark Age" - Twelve moons of Saturn are discovered - Lunar soil samples and computer models by Robin Canup and Erik Asphaug support impact origin of moon - NEAR Shoemaker lands on asteroid Eros - Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) is launched, to measure the temperature of the cosmic background radiation - Genesis mission lifts off, to capture and return 10-20 milligrams of solar wind to Earth - Deep Space 1 encounters Comet Borrelly - 2001 Mars Odyssey arrives at Mars - Hubble Space Telescope detects an atmosphere around an extrasolar planet 2002 - Mars Odyssey detects water in martian south polar cap - Eleven moons of Jupiter are discovered - Chandra X-ray Observatory finds evidence for new matter in "quark stars", matter so dense it exceeds terrestrial nuclear material with 1.2 million degree temperatures - 100th extrasolar planet is discovered 2003 - Japanese launch of Hayabusa (or falcon, formerly Muses-C), to collect a surface sample of material from an asteroid and return it to Earth - European Mars Express, Mars Orbiter and Lander launched, encounters Mars, Christmas 2003 - Spirit Mars Rover launched, MER-A encounters Mars, January 4, 2004 - Microwave measurements precisely date the Big Bang at 13.7 billion years ago, with a remarkable 1% error prediction - Eight new moons of Jupiter identified - SETI classifies 150 most promising radio signals for revisiting, Arecibo Observatory - Jill Tarter and Margaret Turnbull publish the Catalog of Habitable Stars (17,129 potentially habitable hosts for complex life) - Opportunity Mars Rover to launch, MER-B encounters Mars, January 25, 2004 - SMART 1, to launch lunar orbiter and test solar-powered ion drive for deep space missions What's next? 2004 - European Rosetta mission, to land a science probe on the surface of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko - Mercury orbiter, MESSENGER, to look for water-ice on the closest planet to the Sun - Comet rendezvous, Deep Impact, to fire a bullet into comet P/Tempel 1 and study the ejecta and crater - Japanese Lunar-A, Lunar Mapping Orbiter and Penetrator, to fire two bullets 3 meters into the lunar soil near Apollo 12 and 14 sites 2005 - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) launch, Mars Orbiter to collect high-resolution, 1-meter, images in stereo-view of Mars - European Venus Express, Venus Orbiter for two-year nominal mapping life [486 days, two Venus year] 2006 - New Horizons, Pluto and moon Charon flyby, mapping to outer solar system cometary fields and Kuiper Belt - Dawn, Asteroid Ceres and Vesta rendezvous and orbiter, including investigations of asteroid water and influence on meteors - Kepler, Extrasolar Terrestrial Planet Detection Mission, designed to look for transiting or earth-size planets that eclipse their parent stars [survey 100,000 stars] - Europa Orbiter, planned Orbiter of Jupiters ice-covered moon, Europa, uses a radar sounder to bounce radio waves through the ice - Japanese SELENE Lunar Orbiter and Lander, to probe the origin and evolution of the moon 2007 - Japanese Planet-C Venus Orbiter, to study the Venusian atmosphere, lightning, and volcanoes - Mars Scout mission, final selections August 2003 from four Scouts: SCIM, ARES, MARVEL and Phoenix - French Mars Remote Sensing Orbiter and four small Netlanders, linked by Italian communications orbiter 2009 - BepiColumbo, European Mercury Orbiters and Lander, including Japanese collaborators, lander to operate for one week on surface - Mars 2009, proposed long-range rover to demonstrate hazard avoidance and accurate landing dynamics Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article511.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 30 June 2003 Astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html K. Benzerara, N. Menguy, F. Guyot, C. Dominici and P. Gillet, 2003. Nanobacteria-like calcite single crystals at the surface of the Tataouine meteorite. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 10(13):7438-7442. S. Newcomb, 2003. Inference and red corn. Astrobiology Magazine. N. Tyson, 2003. The search for life in the universe, II: 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/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles4.html S. Shostak, 2003. The women of SETI. Space.com. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 30 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.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030604.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_wing_030624.html http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/escape_tech_030625- 1.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030625.html http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/ http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_ap_030626.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_update_030626.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030627.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03x.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030624081319.e8g2sgg7.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03y.html http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030624cause/ http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030627155619.21gs8fzj.html http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030627recommend/ http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/2 0030624/ap_on_sc/shuttle_investigation http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=2&u=/ap/2 0030625/ap_on_sc/shuttle_investigation ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 19-25 June 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Canberra tracking station on Wednesday, June 25. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. June 24 marked the four-year anniversary of Cassini's Venus 2 flyby. 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. Instrument activities this week for Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) included a High Frequency Receiver calibration, conclusion of the Saturn orbit insertion cyclic test, execution of a Solar Conjunction Experiment cyclic, and an Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) exercise. The Composite InfraRed Spectrometer was woken up to perform a functional test and load of IEBs. Cassini has entered Superior Conjunction with the Sun-Earth-Probe angle at 5.0 degrees. Minimum separation of 0.344 degrees will be reached next week. Two sequence change requests (SCR) were submitted as part of the C39 sequence development activity. Both were approved at an SCR approval meeting held this week. Participating teams submitted all Cassini Information Management System inputs for C40. This was followed by a kickoff meeting to begin the Science Planning Team process. Events this week for the S14 Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP) Verification and Validation (V&V) activity included generation and distribution of new Sequence Phase List of Ancillary Files, Pointing Design Tool configuration, SEQGEN data configuration, ephemeris, geometric, and rider epoch files, processing of IEB loads by CDS for loading to the SSR, and release of a fully merged S14 background sequence. This version of the sequence will serve as the basis for the stripped subsequences in the Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation part 2 process. A V&V status meeting was held to review current activities, and any schedule changes. As a result of the on-going S14 uplink V&V exercise, potential changes to the SSUP document have been identified. The Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node representative met with the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) High Rate Detector (HRD) Co-Investigator last week in Chicago to finalize the HRD component of the CDA archive plan. The archive SIS will be updated with new products generated from the HRD data. Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer flight software (FSW) version 7.1, Cassini Plasma Spectrometer FSW version 4.0, and Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer FSW version 6.0 were delivered to the Project Software Library (PSL). The Spacecraft Operations Office also delivered Reaction Wheel Bias Optimization Tool (RBOT) V1.0. to the PSL. RBOT is designed to compute the Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) bias to accomplish RWA momentum management, and optimize consumption of RWA resources. Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) personnel concentrated this week on characterizing the anomalous behavior of the Ka-Band Translator (KaT) for the on-going Solar Conjunction Experiment #2. The KaT continues to operate in its bad region. Several attempts to correct this by power cycling the KaT have been unsuccessful. History and current status were presented this week to the Cassini Project Manager, staff, and Huygens Probe representatives. The Project approved a request to turn on the S- Band Transmitter pending receipt of a statement from Alenia, the Italian manufacturer of the KaT, or ASI, supporting the expected thermal change. The necessary cognizant engineers will be available next week. In the meantime, RSS personnel are working on preparing a data package to provide to Alenia. On a positive note, monopulse tracking seems to have improved, and coherent Ka1 and X-band data data collection was mostly nominal except for a few outages over Goldstone due to the X-band transmitter tripping off, Radio Science Receiver problems, and monopulse throwing the antenna off point. A delivery coordination meeting was held for the Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA) version 9E for PC Windows, and Linux platforms. This is an intermediate delivery until Mission Sequence Subsystem D9.1.1, which will include new SOA, CORE, and Cassini adaptation becomes available. A Cassini Information Management System (CIMS) developer presented a tutorial on how to use eXtensible Style sheet Language for Transformations (XSLT) to read the CIMS XML files and convert them to any format. This allows users to automate some functions that previously had to be done manually. This was followed by all-day workshops on Wednesday and Thursday to finalize the CIMS requirement for performing a Science Planning Attitude Spread Sheet--Spacecraft Activity Sequence File comparison. 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. ________________________________________________________________________ DELTA II/MER-B "OPPORTUNITY" UPDATES By George Diller NASA/KSC releases 23 June 2003 Based on completing the work as currently scheduled, launch managers continue to plan toward Saturday, June 28 as the launch date for MER-B with the "Opportunity" Mars Exploration Rover. The launch time is 11:56:16 PM EDT with a second time available at 12:37:59 AM EDT on June 29. NASA and Boeing engineers met today to assess the progress of the cork insulation rework on the Delta first stage for MER-B. The effort is proceeding on schedule to remove and replace the lower band of cork. Inspections on the upper band are under way, and it has not been decided what work, if any, will be required. Pending a successful schedule assessment by NASA and Boeing managers on Tuesday afternoon, a revised Note to Editors will then be issued with updated plans for news media activities and the launch coverage on NASA Television. The prelaunch press conference will not be held on Tuesday, June 24. It is being rescheduled so that it may continue to be held on L-1 day, Friday, June 27 at 1:00 PM. 25 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 28, 2003 Launch Time: 11:56:16 PM / 12:37:59 AM EDT The Flight Readiness Review was held on June 21, and 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 elected to remove and replace a band of protective cork insulation on the Delta first stage that may not have been adhering properly. 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 showed that only minor work is necessary to assure that it is ready for launch. All of the reapplication and repair of the cork insulation will be completed today. Normal countdown activities will then resume on Thursday, beginning with the fueling of the Delta second stage with its complement of storable hypergolic propellants. A countdown dress rehearsal will also be held on Thursday. The Launch Readiness Review will be held on Friday in the Mission Briefing Room at KSC. The fairing was installed around the MER-B "Opportunity" spacecraft on June 21. Fairing closeouts will begin tonight. Integrated spacecraft/launch vehicle testing indicates that the flight systems are ready for launch. At Pad 17-B on launch day, the mobile service tower will be retracted from around the Delta II about 3:30 PM, if weather permits. Options are available to retract the mobile service tower later if there are thunderstorms in the vicinity and still reach one or both of the two available launch times. Loading of the RP-1 fuel aboard the Delta first stage is nominally planned to begin at 9:16 PM followed by loading of liquid oxygen at about 10:06 PM. 29 June 2003 Upon inspecting the first stage of the Delta launch vehicle after the January 28 launch attempt, engineers found that the lower band of cork insulation that was removed and replaced has limited areas that have debonded from the surface of the vehicle. Sections of this band, approximately ten percent of the circumference, will be reinstalled. The band of cork insulation around the vehicle is approximately 2 feet wide and 1/4 inch thick. Based on the amount of time this work will require, launch has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 2. There are two launch opportunities available: 11:17:37 PM and 11:59:54 PM EDT. Accredited media covering the launch should meet at the Gate 1 Pass and Identification Building of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday, July 2 at 10:00 PM. NASA Television coverage will begin at 9:00 PM EDT. Contact: George Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL Phone: 321-867-2468 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/delta2_concern_030629.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/merb/status.html ________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPRESS STATUS REPORT ESA release 25 June 2003 The instruments on board ESA's mission to Mars, Mars Express, are in the process of being tested to verify that they have survived the launch successfully and will work properly. One of these tests on the Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, has been postponed to the first week of July. This will give engineers extra time to investigate a temporary anomaly that occurred in a memory unit, the so-called "Solid State Mass Memory" (SSMM). The SSMM stores data from the instruments before sending them to Earth. This anomaly happened last week during the test of OMEGA, one of Mars Express instruments. For a short period of time, the output of one part of the SSMM contained errors. The problem disappeared spontaneously. The affected memory unit is now working properly. To preserve the data which are stored in this part of the memory, while trying to understand why it occurred, the instrument checks have been rescheduled. These kind of events are considered routine in a space mission, but engineers would like to understand the causes before re-starting the instrument tests. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/beagle2_check_030623.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030623190230.js2dl5ge.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030624154343.7za4ddp5.html ________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 19-25 June 2003 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Flows on Olympus Mons (Released 19 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/19/index.html Large, Bright Wind Ripples (Released 20 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/20/index.html Defrosting Gully Aprons (Released 21 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/21/index.html Defrosting Sand Dunes (Released 22 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/22/index.html Phobos Over the Martian Limb (Released 23 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/23/index.html Crater with Wind Streak (Released 24 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/24/index.html Mars 2003 (Released 25 June 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/06/25/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. ________________________________________________________________________ NASA'S ODYSSEY ORBITER WATCHES A FROSTY MARS NASA release 2003-091 26 June 2003 NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is revealing new details about the intriguing, dynamic character of the frozen layers now known to dominate the high northern latitudes of Mars. The implications have a bearing on science strategies for future missions in the search of habitats. Odyssey's neutron and gamma ray sensors tracked seasonal changes as layers of "dry ice" (carbon-dioxide frost or snow) accumulated during northern Mars' winter and then dissipated in the spring, exposing a soil layer rich in water ice, the martian counterpart to permafrost. Researchers used measurements of martian neutrons, combined with height measurements from the laser altimeter on another NASA spacecraft, Mars Global Surveyor, to monitor the amount of dry ice during the northern winter and spring seasons. "Once the carbon-dioxide layer disappears, we see even more water ice in northern latitudes than Odyssey found last year in southern latitudes," said Odyssey's Dr. Igor Mitrofanov of the Russian Space Research Institute, Moscow, lead author of a paper in the June 27 issue of the journal Science. "In some places, the water-ice content is more than 90 percent by volume." Mitrofanov and co-authors used the changing nature of the relief of these regions, measured more than two years ago by the Global Surveyor's laser altimeter science team, to explore the implications of the changes. Mars Odyssey's trio of instruments, the gamma ray spectrometer suite, can identify elements in the top meter (three feet) or so of Mars' surface. Mars Global Surveyor's laser altimeter is precise enough to monitor meter-scale changes in the thickness of the seasonal frost, which can accumulate to depths greater than a meter. The new findings show a correlation in the springtime between Odyssey's detection of dissipating carbon dioxide in latitudes poleward of 65 degrees north and Global Surveyor's measurement of the thinning of the frost layer in prior years. "Odyssey's high-energy neutron detector allows us to measure the thickness of carbon- dioxide at lower latitudes, where Global Surveyor's altimeter does not have enough sensitivity," Mitrofanov said. "On the other hand, the neutron detector loses sensitivity to measure carbon- dioxide thickness greater than one meter (3 feet), where the altimeter obtained reliable data. Working together, we can examine the whole range of dry ice snow accumulations." "The synergy between the measurements from our two 'eyes in the skies of Mars' has enabled these new findings about the nature of near-surface frozen materials, and suggests compelling places to visit in future missions in order to understand habitats on Mars," said Dr. Jim Garvin, NASA's Lead Scientist for Mars Exploration. Another report, to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-- Planets, combines measurements from Odyssey and Global Surveyor to provide indications of how densely the winter layer of carbon-dioxide frost or snow is packed at northern latitudes greater than 85 degrees. The Odyssey data are used to estimate the mass of the deposit, which can then be compared with the thickness to obtain a density. The dry ice layer appears to have a fluffy texture, like freshly fallen snow, according to the report by Dr. William Feldman of Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM, and 11 co-authors. The study also found once the dry ice disappears, the remaining surface near the pole is composed almost entirely of water ice. "Mars is constantly changing," said Dr. Jeffrey Plaut, Mars Odyssey project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "With Mars Odyssey, we plan to examine these dynamics through additional seasons, to watch how the winter accumulations of carbon dioxide on each pole interact with the atmosphere in the current climate regime." Mitrofanov's co-authors include researchers at the Institute for Space Research, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC; Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD; and TechSource, Santa Fe, NM. Feldman's co-authors include researchers at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; and Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, Toulouse, France. JPL manages the Mars Odyssey and Global Surveyor missions for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Investigators at Arizona State University, Tempe; University of Arizona, Tucson; and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, built and operate Odyssey science instruments. The Russian Aviation and Space Agency supplied the high-energy neutron detector and Los Alamos National Laboratory supplied the neutron spectrometer. Goddard Space Flight Center supplied Global Surveyor's laser altimeter. Information about NASA's Mars exploration program is available on the Internet at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov. Contacts: Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1727 Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/odyssey_update_030627.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0306/26marsfrost/. ________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 27 June 2003 The Stardust team had eight 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. The 1 Astronomical Unit Engineering Activities have successfully started. This series of activities will provide valuable data and reduce the uncertainty during the sample return capsule's release and Earth return on January 15, 2006. One of the activities that will take place entails placing the spacecraft in the "sample return capsule release attitude" and measuring the small forces, solar pressure and thruster firings, that occur while at that attitude. 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 26.