Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 32, 15 August 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/. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) SEARCH FOR LIFE COULD INCLUDE PLANETS, STARS UNLIKE OURS By Pam Frost Gorder 2) MARS 2007 "PHOENIX" WILL STUDY WATER NEAR MARS' NORTH POLE NASA release 2003-107 3) MARS SOCIETY MEMBERS WIN NASA SCOUT COMPETITION Mars Society release 4) DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: LOOKING FOR LIFE IN ROCKS By Diane Richards 5) NIAC STUDENT VISIONS OF THE FUTURE PROGRAM By Robert A. Cassanova 6) NASA SELECTS WINNING STUDENT DESIGN FOR TITAN AERIAL VEHICLE NASA/ARC release 03-55AR 7) LIQUID WATER LIKELY SUPPORTS LIFE ON MARS TODAY, SCIENTISTS CLAIM By Leonard David 8) ENVIRONMENTS FOR LIFE ON EUROPA By Cynthia Phillips 9) MARTIAN HOT SPOTS From Astrobiology Magazine 10) THE INCREDIBLE GLOWING ALGAE By Amy Casey 11) MARS UP CLOSE By Stephen Hart 12) RESEARCHERS FIND ANTARCTIC LAKE WATER WILL FIZZ LIKE A SODA NASA/ARC release 03-57AR 13) FASCINATION WITH DISTANT WORLDS: CYNTHIA PHILLIPS From The SETI Institute and Astrobiology Magazine 14) BRIDGING THE GAP: A DISCUSSION WITH FREEMAN DYSON, PART I From The Planetary Society and Astrobiology Magazine 15) SCRIPPS TEAM PART OF COLLABORATION THAT REVEALS FIRST ECOLOGICAL GENOMIC "BLUEPRINTS"--GENOMES UNCOVERED FOR MICROBES IMPORTANT IN PHOTOSYNTHESIS, GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE Scripps Institute of Oceanography release 16) SPOTLIGHT ON SATURN'S MOON TITAN By Emma Bakes 17) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas 18) CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 19) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL releases 20) MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS NASA release 2003-109 21) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS releases 22) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU releases 23) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL releases ________________________________________________________________________ SEARCH FOR LIFE COULD INCLUDE PLANETS, STARS UNLIKE OURS By Pam Frost Gorder Ohio State University release 1 August 2003 The search for life on other planets could soon extend to solar systems that are very different from our own, according to a new study by an Ohio State University astronomer and his colleagues. In fact, finding a terrestrial planet in such a solar system would offer unique scientific opportunities to test evolution, said Andrew Gould, professor of astronomy here. In a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, he and his coauthors calculated that NASA's upcoming Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) would be able to detect habitable planets near stars significantly more massive than the sun. Scientists have typically thought that the search for life should focus on finding planets like Earth that orbit stars like the sun, but this new finding shows that "the field is wide open," Gould said. "Here's a type of solar system that we never thought to look at," he added, "but now we'll have the tools to do it." Gould is on the science team that is helping to plan the SIM mission, and he is working to define the capabilities of the satellite. The satellite was set to launch in 2009, but its fate is now uncertain. NASA is considering whether to divert funds to maintain the Hubble Space Telescope beyond its scheduled retirement in 2010, Gould explained, and he has been asked to address the issue for an assembly of astronomers in Washington, DC on Thursday, July 31. SIM would help astronomers find habitable planets, Gould said. The key is detecting planets that circle a star at just the right distance to maintain a supply of liquid water. The range of most promising orbits depends on the type of the star, and is called the "habitable zone." The earth resides directly in the habitable zone for our solar system, some 93 million miles from the sun. The nearest planets, Venus and Mars, barely lie within the edges of the habitable zone. Hotter, more massive stars have always been considered less likely to harbor life, though not because they would be too hot. Planets could still enjoy temperate climates, just at orbits farther away from the star. The problem is one of time, not temperature, Gould said. Hotter stars tend to "burn out" faster--perhaps too fast for life to develop there. Our sun is approximately 4.5 billion years old; in contrast, one of the stars examined in the study is 1.5 times more massive than the sun, and would probably only generate life-sustaining energy for about two billion years. Given the billions of years required for evolution of life on earth, scientists could question whether life would stand a chance in a shorter-lived solar system. "We have no idea how evolution would proceed on any planet other than our own," Gould said. "If we find a planet around a shorter-lived star, we may be able to test what would happen to evolution under those circumstances." SIM will use Interferometry--a technique that involves the interference of light waves--to very accurately measure the position of stars in the sky. The satellite would notice, for instance, if a point of light on the surface of the moon moved the width of a dime. In the case of distant stars, SIM will pick up on the tiny wobble in the position of a star caused by the gravity of its orbiting planets. That's what will make SIM ideal for studying hotter, massive stars, Gould said. Planets that orbit far from a star--as the habitable planets around a hot star would have to do--create a larger wobble. He and study coauthors Eric B. Ford of Princeton University and Debra A. Fischer of the University of California, Berkeley, determined that SIM is sensitive enough for the task. Previously, Gould and Ohio State professor Darren DePoy and graduate student Joshua Pepper determined that another future NASA mission could be used to find habitable planets around very small stars, which are much more plentiful in the galaxy than stars like our sun. That mission, the Kepler Mission, will detect planetary transits--events where planets pass in front of a star and block the star's light from reaching earth. Transits of planets orbiting close to a star are easier to detect, and because these small stars are very dim, the habitable zone would also be very close to the star. "The point is that the various methods for planet detection complement each other, and can be used to find habitable planets around a wide variety of stars," Gould said. NASA funded this research. Contacts: Andrew Gould Phone: 614-292-1892 E-mail: Gould.34@osu.edu Pam Frost Gorder Phone: 614-292-9475 E-mail: Gorder.1@osu.edu Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article545.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03zk.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0308/02lifesearch/ ________________________________________________________________________ MARS 2007 "PHOENIX" WILL STUDY WATER NEAR MARS' NORTH POLE NASA release 2003-107 4 August 2003 In May 2008, the progeny of two promising U.S. missions to Mars will deploy a lander to the water-ice-rich northern polar region, dig with a robotic arm into arctic terrain for clues on the history of water, and search for environments suitable for microbes. NASA today announced that it has selected the University of Arizona "Phoenix" mission for launch in 2007 as what is hoped will be the first in a new line of smaller competed "Scout" missions in the agency's Mars Exploration Program. Dr. Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory heads the Phoenix mission, named for the mythological bird that is repeatedly reborn of ashes. The $325 million NASA award is more than six times larger than any other single research grant in University of Arizona history. "The selection of Phoenix completes almost two years of intense competition with other institutions," Smith said. "I am overjoyed that we can now begin the real work that will lead to a successful mission to Mars." Phoenix is a partnership of universities, NASA centers, and the aerospace industry. The science instruments and operations will be a University of Arizona responsibility. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, will manage the project and provide mission design. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, will build and test the spacecraft. Canadian partners will provide the meteorological instrumentation, including an innovative laser-based sensor. Phoenix has the scientific capability "to change our thinking about the origins of life on other worlds," Smith said. "Even though the northern plains are thought to be too cold now for water to exist as a liquid, periodic variations in the martian orbit allow a warmer climate to develop every 50,000 years. During these periods the ice can melt, dormant organisms could come back to life, (if there are indeed any), and evolution can proceed." The lander for Phoenix was built and was being tested to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor Program, but the program was canceled after the Mars Polar Lander was lost upon landing near Mars' south pole in December 1999. Since then, the 2001 lander has been stored in a clean room at Lockheed Martin in Denver, managed by NASA's new Mars Exploration Program as a flight asset. Renamed Phoenix, it will carry improved versions of University of Arizona panoramic cameras and volatiles-analysis instrument from the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, as well as experiments that had been built for the 2001 Mars Surveyor Program, including a JPL trench-digging robot arm and a chemistry- microscopy instrument. The science payload also includes a descent imager and a suite of meteorological instruments. The mission has two goals. One is to study the geologic history of water, the key to unlocking the story of past climate change. Two is to search for evidence of a habitable zone that may exist in the ice-soil boundary, the "biological paydirt." The Phoenix robotic arm will scoop up martian soil samples and deliver them for heating into tiny ovens of the volatiles-analysis instrument so team members can measure how much water vapor and carbon dioxide gas are given off, how much water ice the samples contain, and what minerals are present that may have formed during a wetter, warmer past climate. The instrument, called thermal evolved gas analyzer, will also measure any organic volatiles. Using another instrument, researchers will examine soil particles as small as 16 microns across. They will measure electrical and thermal conductivity of soil particles using a probe on the robotic arm scoop. One of the most interesting experiments is the wet chemistry laboratory, Smith said. "We plan to scoop up some soil, put it in a cell, add water, shake it up, and measure the impurities dissolved in the water that have leached out from the soil. This is important, because if the soil ever gets wet, we'll know if microbes could survive. We'll know if the wet soil is super acidic or alkaline and salty, or full of oxidants that can destroy life. We'll test the environment that microbes might have had to live and grow in," Smith said. Information is available online about NASA's Mars exploration at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov and about Phoenix at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Scout Program for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Lori Stiles University of Arizona, Tucson Phone: 520-621-1877 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1727 Additional articles on this subject are available at; http://www.astrobio.net/news/article548.html http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/scouts_final_030804.h tml http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-scouts-03a.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0308/04phoenix/ ________________________________________________________________________ MARS SOCIETY MEMBERS WIN NASA SCOUT COMPETITION Mars Society release 5 August 2003 A team of scientists led by Mars Society steering committee member Peter Smith has won the NASA competition to design, build, and fly the first NASA scout mission to Mars. The mission, known as Phoenix, will send a lander to Mars' icy north pole in 2008 to search for signs of life. The Mars Scout program is a wide-open competition where teams drawn from industry, academia, and government offer their ideas for high- payoff, low-cost Mars exploration missions. The program was first proposed by the Mars Society as a priority for NASA funding under the rubric of "Mars Discovery" at its Founding Convention in 1998 and embraced by the space agency in 2000. The advantage of the Scout program concept is that it promotes much greater creativity in mission design than is possible using the alternative central committee led five year plan model. To win the Scout mission contract, Smith's team had to outdo some thirty other competitors on the basis of merit in science return, quality of engineering design, public inspiration and cost. A planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, Smith was principal investigator for the successful Imager for Mars Pathfinder, which took 16,600 images from the surface of Mars during 83 days in 1997. As a member of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) science team, he will help operate two rovers on the surface of Mars early next year. Smith is also part of Britain's Beagle2 project on the Mars Express mission launched last June. He is the project manager and a co-investigator for UA planetary scientist Alfred McEwen's HiRISE high resolution imaging system that will orbit Mars starting in 2006. He also is co- investigator on UA planetary scientist Martin Tomasko's DISR, a descent imager on the Cassini-Huygens mission that will parachute a probe into the dense atmosphere of Titan in January 2005. In 2001, Smith was a member of Crew 4 of the Mars Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island, where he participated in studies of combined human/robot exploration activities. Other Mars Society steering committee members who are members of the winning Phoenix team are NASA Ames scientists Chris McKay and Carol Stoker, both of whom will participate in the mission as co- investigators. Another member of the team of eminent Phoenix co-investigators is Ben Clark, of Lockheed Martin Astronautics. Clark was the Principal Investigator of the X-ray florescence experiment on the 1976 Viking Lander, which determined the elemental composition of the martian soil. In 1978, Clark published the seminal essay "The Case for Humans on Mars," which became the manifesto of the Mars Underground which followed. In the 1980's Clark was responsible for recruiting me (Robert Zubrin) to Martin Marietta Astronautics, (now Lockheed Martin), and was my mentor on Mars mission design. Congratulations to Peter, Chris, Carol, Ben, and all the Phoenix team. On to Mars! For further information about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org. For more information on the Phoenix mission, see http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu. ________________________________________________________________________ DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: LOOKING FOR LIFE IN ROCKS By Diane Richards From Astrobiology Magazine 5 August 2003 Anyone who knows a trilobite from an ammonite can tell you that the history of early life is a book written in rock. According to SETI Institute scientist Friedemann Freund, chapter one and perhaps chapter two may have been written at least in part, by the rocks themselves. Common rocks, he explains, such as gabbro and granite carry a payload of complex chemistry that may have played a dynamic role in life's origin, and the co-evolution of life and Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere. Freund first began studying this premise twelve years ago at NASA Ames Research Center as a SETI Institute principal investigator researching life's origins. While other exobiologists (as astrobiologists were then known) looked towards comets as potential delivery vehicles of life's basic materials, or at warm little ponds as assembly sites for life, Freund was intrigued by the interesting organic chemistry he found taking place in the misalignments and displacements in rock crystals. Most of the "interesting" properties of minerals and rocks, Freund contends, are determined by their imperfections and impurities. Rubies, sapphires and other gems, for example, derive their colors from chemical impurities. Early in his career as a crystallographer, Freund wondered about the minerals that incorporate molecules of the common gases-- water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen--what happens to these gas molecules once they are lodged within the dense crystal matrix? This "ignored" area of geophysics presented huge difficulties. The concentrations of the former gas molecules within the crystals are small (mostly less than 100 parts per million). They are not easy to detect. Freund embraced the challenge, developing some novel and highly precise measuring techniques. His findings were astounding and in many ways counter-intuitive. Minerals, he discovered, are chemical factories where carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen--the consequence of the incorporation of water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen--can assemble into complex organic molecules, and at the same time form highly reactive peroxy groups. The observation of such complex organic molecules, or precursors thereof, led to the idea that the weathering of rocks might release significant amounts of organic material. Assuming that the weathering rate on the barren land surfaces of the early Earth was comparable to what it is today, about 10 billion tons of rock would dissolve every year, pointing at the exciting possibility that a payload of complex organic molecules would have liberated perhaps as much as 1 million tons every year. At the same time, the peroxy groups would have turned into hydrogen peroxide and initiated a slow but inextricable process of planetary oxidation. Under the SETI Institute's NASA Astrobiology grant, Freund will be focusing on the peroxy chemistry of rocks. A few years ago, Freund wondered whether a slow trickle of hydrogen peroxide that would be released at the rock-water interfaces, where early microbial colonies were likely to dwell, could have stimulated the development of biochemical defenses against oxygen in primitive microbes on the otherwise anoxic early Earth. "Perhaps," Freund explains, "organisms exposed to a constant trickle of hydrogen peroxide in their immediate environment were forced to develop enzymes which were able to protect them from oxygen (oxygen is lethal to primitive life) long before there was an oxygenated atmosphere, but no one knew why." Enter Dr. Lynn Rothschild, a NASA Ames microbiologist who worked down the hall from Freund. "I knew Lynn and always enjoyed talking to her," says Freund, "I would 'bug' her with questions about biology." A few years ago, Freund approached her with the idea that the presence of peroxy in rocks could have produced a steady low-level exposure of early organisms to the highly reactive hydrogen peroxide. If such an oxygenating source were present on early Earth it would have far- reaching consequences for the "oxygen transition" of the atmosphere. Rothschild said, "Let's talk about this later." And after a year of mulling it over, she came to agree that the hypothesis sounded plausible, was interesting and should be testable. Today, the NASA microbiologist and the SETI-Institute physicist are collaborating on a project that examines the peroxy effects on microbial life. If there is a downside to the rock research--beyond the challenge of explaining electrochemistry to a lay public--it is perhaps in the cumbersome nature of the material under study. Freund obtains much of his material from a San Jose supplier who deals in monuments and cemetery markers. The stone must be cut and moved, and the handling is often the greatest cost of research. Last year, Freund recalls, he was given a boulder from "a beautiful piece of the Earth's mantle" uplifted by the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. The gift weighed 15 tons. Another rock in the road of life? Perhaps, but also a world of discovery. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article547.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NIAC STUDENT VISIONS OF THE FUTURE PROGRAM By Robert A. Cassanova 6 August 2003 The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is pleased to announce the NIAC Student Visions of the Future Program (NSVFP). NIAC is chartered and funded by NASA HQ, and administered by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), to inspire, solicit, select, fund and nurture revolutionary advanced concepts for architectures and systems that could have significant impact on aeronautics and space in the time frame of 10 to 40 years into the future. A comp4lete description of NIAC and all of its funded activities and advanced concepts are available on the Web site, http://www.niac.usra.edu. The NSVFP offers the opportunity for undergraduate students to be selected for participation in the NIAC Annual Meeting to be held November 5-6, 2003, in Atlanta, Georgia. Travel, per diem, and cash awards will be offered to students whose advanced concept descriptions are selected for a poster presentation during the meeting. NIAC and USRA hope to inspire our nation's youth to choose a pathway to the future with their creative visions for careers in aeronautics and space. The program is open to undergraduate students in all departments. We will need architects, engineers, artists, mathematicians, scientists, and others with skills and imagination. We look forward to hearing from you and your students. Contact: Robert A. Cassanova, PhD NIAC Director Phone: 404-347-9633 E-mail: bcass@niac.usra.edu ________________________________________________________________________ NASA SELECTS WINNING STUDENT DESIGN FOR TITAN AERIAL VEHICLE NASA/ARC release 03-55AR 6 August 2003 Flying rovers may someday explore Saturn's moon, Titan, thanks to futuristic aerial vehicle designs submitted by top minority university students for a nationwide NASA design contest. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, recently announced that a student team from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) submitted the winning design for NASA's Titan VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) Design Contest 2003. The contest invited minority student teams from across the country to design an aerial vehicle that will be capable of exploring Titan, Saturn's largest moon. On August 7-8, 2003, members of the winning CSULA team will present their design to a panel of experts in the fields of VTOL vehicles and planetary exploration at NASA Ames. "I was truly impressed by the quality of the proposed designs. The results of this competition help to bring the exciting concept of planetary exploration using autonomous aerial vehicles closer to reality. Congratulations to all of the competitors and especially to the CSULA Team," said Ed Aiken, chief of the Rotorcraft Division at NASA Ames. CSULA students Uche Ofoma, Shigeru Matsuyama, Josue Cruz, Josh Ward, Chunlei He and Amir Massoudi, and faculty advisor Dr. Chivey Wu from the school's Department of Mechanical Engineering, designed an innovative aerial vehicle capable of piercing the thick haze that envelops Titan to explore one of the solar system's most mysterious objects. Titan is the only moon in our solar system that has a substantial atmosphere, believed to be similar to the atmosphere of early Earth. A team from the University of Texas, El Paso, placed second and students from Alabama A&M University came in third. The contest is designed to encourage minority students to continue their interest in science, technology, and space exploration with students being encouraged to share and present their ideas at student conferences. Future missions, possibly using student VTOL designs, will build upon the 2004 NASA and European Space Agency's Cassini space mission to Saturn and the Huygens atmospheric probe to Titan. The development of a VTOL vehicle can potentially present a significant value to future follow-on scientific missions beyond the Cassini and Huygens mission. The NASA Ames Equal Opportunity Programs Office provided funding for the Titan VTOL Design Contest workshops through a cooperative agreement through NASA's Minority University Research and Education Program and Integrated Space Technologies, Inc of Huntsville, Ala. The Rotorcraft Division at NASA Ames provided the student teams with technical support at design workshops at NASA Ames and over the Internet. "We were very pleased to offer this opportunity to outstanding minority students from various universities throughout the country. Students who could potentially be our 'researchers of tomorrow'," said Adriana Cardenas, director of the NASA Ames Equal Opportunity Programs Office. To view the student design entries and to get more information about the competition, visit http://www.integratedspacetechnologies.com/Titan. For more information about NASA's Minority University Research and Education Program, visit http://mured.nasaprs.com/index.cfm. For more information about the Rotorcraft Division at NASA Ames, visit http://rotorcraft.arc.nasa.gov/ar/rotorcraft.html. Contact: Jonas Dino NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-5612 or 650-604-9000 E-mail: jonas.g.dino@nasa.gov An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-titan-03c.html. ________________________________________________________________________ LIQUID WATER LIKELY SUPPORTS LIFE ON MARS TODAY, SCIENTISTS CLAIM By Leonard David From Space.com 6 August 2003 Even on the present-day cold and dusty surface of Mars, liquid water may be sustaining a world of martian microbes. Data churned out by NASA's Mars Odyssey suggest that the nearby planet is waterfront property--at least in the form of below surface deposits of water ice. Odyssey scientists report that the soil very close to the surface over much of the planet contains large amounts of ice. Now a father and son science team argues that ice near Mars' surface means liquid water in its "topsoil", thereby strengthening the case for life on the red planet. The researchers presented their findings this week at the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) meeting being held in San Diego, California. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_life_030806.html. ________________________________________________________________________ ENVIRONMENTS FOR LIFE ON EUROPA By Cynthia Phillips From Space.com 7 August 2003 As part of the SETI Institute's astrobiology proposal, Dr. Christopher Chyba and I will be investigating potential environments for life on Europa. Our investigation will have two components. First, we will study the dataset of Galileo images of Europa's surface, as taken over a five and a half-year period, to search for any changes that could be due to geological activity. Second, we will study various models of geological activity on Europa to determine their implications for the formation of transport of biologically useful material from the surface to the ocean, or vice versa. Jupiter's moon Europa, about the size of Earth's Moon, is thought to have an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface, making it a possible environment for life. Two of the necessary ingredients for life, liquid water and appropriate biogenic elements, are now thought to exist at Europa. The third required component is a useful source of free energy, since photosynthesis is unlikely to provide sufficient energy at Europa (which is five times further from the Sun than Earth). Due to Jupiter's strong magnetic field, irradiation of Europa's surface can produce a variety of biologically useful compounds. If they could be transported down through the ice layer to the subsurface ocean, these compounds could provide a significant amount of energy and could possibly sustain a subsurface biosphere. However, transport mechanisms remain uncertain due to the uncertainty in formation models for Europa's surface features. That is, Europa's biosphere depends in part on the style and frequency of Europa's geological surface activity. In this research, we aim to understand this connection. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_phillips_europa_030807.html. ________________________________________________________________________ MARTIAN HOT SPOTS From Astrobiology Magazine 7 August 2003 Giant hollow towers of ice formed by steaming volcanic vents on Ross Island, Antarctica are providing clues about where to hunt for life on Mars. University of Melbourne geologist, Dr. Nick Hoffman, has found evidence from recent infra-red images of Mars that similar structures may exist on Mars and, if life is to be found, such towers may be best place to start looking. Hoffman has drawn attention to strange temperature anomalies in these latest Mars images taken with an infra- red heat-sensing camera on the Mars Odyssey orbiter. These anomalies, he says, fit the signature you might expect from structures formed in similar ways to the Antarctica ice towers. "If these thermal anomalies don't prove to be another of Mars' red herrings, the search for water and life on Mars now has a clear focus. While I believe Mars is actually lifeless, ice towers rather than the current acclaimed river channels are the most likely place to find signs of water activity, and hence life, on an otherwise frozen planet," says Hoffman. Hoffman and colleague, Professor Phil Kyle, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, New Mexico, presented their research into the similarities between Antarctica and Mars at NASA's recent 6th International Mars Conference in Pasadena, California. Mount Erebus is a 3800 meter active volcano on Antarctica's Ross Island. Here, steaming volcanic vents transform steam directly into ice, missing the normal in-between step of liquid water. Instead, all of the water is transported as vapour directly from snow and ice in the ground (permafrost) to build tall hollow chimneys of ice, that loom over the landscape up to 10 m tall. It is possible to climb down the inside the chimneys where the filtered sunlight creates an eerie blue dimness. In this cave-like grotto, away from the howling wind, there exists a local microclimate gently warmed by the volcanic heat beneath. The internal temperatures of the towers hover around freezing, but are often tens of degrees warmer than the outside air. Delicate curtains of snowflakes and icicles hang from the roof. The floor is dry crunchy gravel, dried out by volcanic warmth, but occasionally a warm spell leads to drips melting from the roof. "Earth bacteria can thrive in this sheltered spot, despite the traces of volcanic gas," says Hoffman. Many scientists are no longer surprised at the robust tolerances found in microbe adaptation, whether those microbes scavenge a living from dry, salty, hot or very cold landscapes. This revised view of what constitutes a tolerable biological condition on Earth, in fact, makes it somewhat surprising when sterile samples are found anywhere on Earth. Such microbes may indeed have a relative (if not absolute) survival advantage over competing life forms. "In soils with such a paucity of life," says David Malloch of the University of Toronto, "there may be more food than eaters. [A fungal] presence there may have more to do with tolerance to the physical environment than to lack of nutrients." Malloch led an expedition to dig for such microbes in Antarctica. "On Mars, similar structures would be doubly valuable for potential Mars microbes. The icy structure of the chimney would filter out harmful ultra-violet radiation, and provide warmth and shelter. Meanwhile, the volcanic gases could provide chemical energy for primitive forms of life like those that live in hot springs on earth," he says. The strange temperature anomalies picked up by the orbiter are in an area of Hellas Basin, a massive impact basin about the size of Australia in the southern Hemisphere of Mars. Mars has the largest shield volcanoes in the solar system, include the record-holder, Olympus Mons. The youngest lava flows on Olympus Mons are only 20 to 200 million years old. These flows are very small, however, and they probably represent the last gasp of martian volcanism. There are less than 20 named volcanoes on Mars, and only 5 of these are giant shields. Also, volcanism occurs mostly within three regions: Tharsis, Elysium, and the Hellas impact basin. "Debate continues about the anomalies which might only be odd rock formations, but they are definitely 8 to 12 degrees warmer than the surrounding materials both day and night, so warmth from the sun cannot be responsible for their anomalous temperature," says Hoffman. "Some special combination of sunshine, reflectivity, and cementation is required to explain these temperatures in any other way, and this combination, whilst possible, is unlikely," he says. "We anticipate that such towers, if they exist on Mars, could grow up to 30 meters tall under the lower gravity. The geothermal hotspots over which a tower might exist are unlikely to produce liquid water, unless they are exceptionally active or newly formed where the extensive permafrost of Mars might melt for the first and only time. Instead the hotspot would drive the water vapor upwards forming a similar grotto- chimney type of ice tower as found on Mount Erebus. Water on Mars? Until now, NASA scientists have thought deep gullies discovered in 2001 to be the most promising candidates for liquid water flows on modern Mars. Many NASA researchers have suggested ways in which they might be formed by liquid water. High-resolution infrared data gathered by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is opening Mars to a new kind of detailed geological analysis and revealing a dynamic planet that has experienced dramatic environmental change. The report by THEMIS's science team appeared in a recent issue of Science and was released on June 5 in the magazine's online preview, Science Express. "The problem is nobody has seen water flowing in the gullies," says Hoffman. Rather than water, Hoffman's recent research shows the gullies are more likely to be formed by avalanches of frozen carbon dioxide and other debris. "The ice towers are the best bet for life, so far," he says. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article550.html. ________________________________________________________________________ THE INCREDIBLE GLOWING ALGAE By Amy Casey NASA Earth Observatory study 8 August 2003 Each year, the North Atlantic Ocean announces springtime by producing "blooms" large enough to be seen from space. These explosive increases in microscopic marine algae, called phytoplankton, appear as sudden bright blossoms in satellite imagery. Phytoplankton blooms occur in all the Earth's oceans when nutrient and sunlight conditions are right. Although scientists have been able to view these blooms through satellite data for the past 25 years, they could not get much detail about phytoplankton health. The latest development in oceanographic remote sensing, however, enables researchers to detect the glow, or phytoplankton fluorescence, from chlorophyll. "I think the most exciting advance in remote sensing is fluorescence from space," said Mark Abbott, professor and dean in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. "This is the first time we've been able to measure physiological changes in phytoplankton communities rather than just population increases." Like plants, phytoplankton use photosynthesis to grow. During photosynthesis, the green pigment chlorophyll absorbs light, which allows plants to produce organic carbon (carbohydrates) from carbon dioxide and water. The amount of organic carbon plants produce is called primary productivity. Ocean remote sensing instruments measure primary productivity by determining the amount of light absorbed by phytoplankton chlorophyll. Sunlight enters ocean water, bounces around on particles, phytoplankton, and water molecules, then bounces back up toward space. The instruments detect variations in the intensity of light, called ocean color, at the ocean surface. The first remote sensing instrument designed to survey ocean color, the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), operated from 1978 to 1986. The Sea- viewing Wide Field of View Sensor (SeaWiFS) was launched in 1997 and is still operational. These instruments measure light absorption at particular wavelengths (bands). Specific bands on each sensor detect chlorophyll absorption. As the concentration of chlorophyll increases, satellite images show the ocean surface changing from blue to shades of green. To illustrate these changes, most ocean color imagery uses a color palette ranging from purple to orange or red as chlorophyll concentration increases. One of the initial challenges in ocean color remote sensing was determining the difference between phytoplankton chlorophyll and dissolved organic matter, called gelbstoff. A high concentration of gelbstoff affects how much sunlight penetrates the water, which impacts the growth of phytoplankton populations, and can present a false signal in the satellite's color measurements of chlorophyll. "If you've ever raked leaves and put them in a bucket of water, you see the water turn yellow over time--the yellow color is gelbstoff," said Ken Carder, professor of ocean optics at the University of South Florida. Carder has developed an algorithm, called chlor-a 3, that distinguishes between gelbstoff and chlorophyll by measuring the chlorophyll a molecules. "CZCS didn't have the ability to separate gelbstoff from phytoplankton. High concentrations of gelbstoff looked just like chlorophyll," Carder said. "So CZCS and SeaWiFS historically overestimated the amount of chlorophyll, and chlor-a 3 now adjusts for that." Using data from the chlorophyll bands on CZCS and SeaWiFS, researchers could track the size and movement of phytoplankton populations, but they could not determine phytoplankton health or efficiency. What scientists needed was fluorescence data, which is now available from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), launched in 1999. Carder and Abbott are both members of the MODIS Ocean Science Team, based at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. The GSFC Earth Sciences (GES) DAAC archives and distributes oceanographic data from CZCS, SeaWiFS, and MODIS. Along with other team members, Carder and Abbott are working on new models of primary productivity using MODIS fluorescence data. Monitoring fluorescence can help scientists describe the physiological state of phytoplankton, determine the cause of population decreases, and make accurate estimates of primary productivity on a global scale. Abbott explained, "Phytoplankton can do three things with absorbed light: use it to conduct photosynthesis, turn it into heat, or emit light (glow) in the red portion of the spectrum called fluorescence. The relative balance of these processes tells us about the health of the phytoplankton. Relatively low fluorescence indicates a healthy area." When phytoplankton cells absorb light efficiently for photosynthesis, they have less light energy available for fluorescence. Therefore, researchers can evaluate phytoplankton health by looking at fluorescence levels. Different species of phytoplankton fluoresce at different rates, called fluorescence quantum yield. Phytoplankton use light differently as the amount of sunlight changes from sunrise to sunset and from sunny days to cloudy days. "As phytoplankton age or the availability of nutrients decreases, they become less healthy and the amount of fluorescence may increase," Abbott noted. While ocean color remote sensing instruments can detect blooms and track their progress, fluorescence data provide more specific information about how phytoplankton use light. This information could lead to more accurate models of primary productivity and give scientists a better idea of how ecosystem changes affect algal populations. "MODIS is the first satellite sensor to measure chlorophyll fluorescence from space," said Abbott. "Fluorescence is an indicator of phytoplankton health, and we'll be able to use that to improve estimates of phytoplankton productivity--and to understand how the ecosystem is responding to changes in its physical environment." Read the original article at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/glowingalgae/. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS UP CLOSE By Stephen Hart From Astrobiology Magazine 11 August 2003 When the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, land on Mars in January 2004, geologists will want a close look at the rocks and soil the rovers encounter. Faced with an interesting rock on Earth, a field geologist might reach into a pocket and pull out a magnifying glass. On Mars, they'll use a custom-built close-up camera called the Microscopic Imager. "It mimics the view a geologist would have through a hand lens-some people call it a loupe-that geologists often use to look at rocks and soils up close," says Ken Herkenhoff, a USGS astrogeologist in Flagstaff. "A lot of us have experience with geologic field work, and the MER mission is our first chance to really do field geology on Mars, so it was thought it would be useful to have a hand lens on the rover." The Microscopic Imager includes a camera body identical to the others on the rover, similar to a digital camera with a one-megapixel CCD, the digital equivalent of film. The close-up lens and its placement on the end of the rover's robotic arm differentiate the Microscopic Imager from other rover cameras. "This is the highest-resolution camera that NASA has flown to the surface of Mars," Herkenhoff says. The Microscopic Imager will make useful pictures of objects as small as 90 to 100 micrometers. Sand grains will show up sharply, but grains of dust, at one or two micrometers, will appear as a blur. (The Beagle 2 lander, slated to land on Mars in late December 2003, will carry a close-up camera with much higher resolution, but still not sharp enough to show individual dust grains.) Close-up images will help Earth-bound geologists determine the nature of various rocks the rovers encounter, including sedimentary rocks that may have formed in standing water. Rocks formed by volcanic activity often include more than one kind of mineral, and the Microscopic Imager can show those features. Point 'n' shoot The Imager itself cannot move or focus, and takes only grayscale pictures, detecting the same range of wavelengths as the human eye sees. By using the yellowish transparent lens cap as a filter, geologists will be able to derive some color information from Imager photographs. "It's not really a color camera," Herkenhoff says. "But we can get crude color by closing the dust cover." However, the robotic arm, or Instrument Deployment Device (IDD), can move the camera precisely, and that capability opens up a wide range of possibilities. Mars close up One difficulty of all close-up photography is that the plane that's sharply in focus, called the depth of field, is very slim. Move the camera a few millimeters and the insect or rock you're shooting will be just an out-of-focus blur. The Microscopic Imager includes a probe to let the arm's computer controls know when the lens is nearly in contact with a surface. Then the arm can pull back from the surface until the object-to-camera distance is ideal for sharp focus. "The depth of field of the camera is roughly plus or minus three millimeters," Herkenhoff says. "And the accuracy of positioning of the arm is good enough to get us within that depth of field." But that slim depth of field might only include part of a three- dimensional or slanted rock surface. Here's where the IDD comes to the rescue. The rover's robotic arm can move the camera in tiny, precise steps, the Imager taking a photo at each step. "We need to take a number of images of a rough target to make sure all parts of that rough surface are in good focus," Herkenhoff says. "We are now working on software, in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center, to merge those images into a single well-focused frame," Herkenhoff says. The software detects sharply focused parts of an image-like the way a consumer digital camera performs autofocusing- then combines these "optical slices" into a single image with an apparently large depth of field. Geologists can also instruct the IDD to move the camera from side to side, taking stereo pictures that the science team can combine to produce an even more precise three-dimensional view. One important use of the Microscopic Imager will be to take "before and after" pictures of rock and soil surfaces. For example, scientists will want several images of any surface on which they plan to use the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). The RAT scrapes the surface to reveal fresh material beneath any weathered or dusty coat. "That's the plan for a surface that we plan to abrade. We would take pictures before and after. In that way we can see if there's some kind of weathering rind or patina on the rock that we've abraded away," Herkenhoff says. Herkenhoff and his colleagues hope to begin working with images made by the Microscopic Imager in January 2004. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article554.html. ________________________________________________________________________ RESEARCHERS FIND ANTARCTIC LAKE WATER WILL FIZZ LIKE A SODA NASA/ARC release 03-57AR 11 August 2003 Water released from Lake Vostok, deep beneath the south polar ice sheet, could gush like a popped can of soda if not contained, opening the lake to possible contamination and posing a potential health hazard to NASA and university researchers. A team of scientists that recently investigated the levels of dissolved gases in the remote Antarctic lake found the concentrations of gas in the lake water were much higher than expected, measuring 2.65 quarts (2.5 liters) of nitrogen and oxygen per 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of water. According to scientists, this high ratio of gases trapped under the ice will cause a gas-driven "fizz" when the water is released. "Our research suggests that U.S. and Russian teams studying the lake should be careful when drilling because high gas concentrations could make the water unstable and potentially dangerous," said Dr. Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. McKay is lead author of a paper on the topic published in the July issue of the Geophysical Research Letters journal. "We need to consider the implications of the supercharged water very carefully before we enter this lake," said Dr. Peter Doran, a co-author and associate professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lake Vostok is a rich research site for astrobiologists, because it is thought to contain microorganisms living under its thick ice cover, an environment that may be analogous to Jupiter's moon, Europa. Europa contains vast oceans trapped under a thick layer of ice. Russian teams are planning to drill into Lake Vostok's 2.48 mile (four kilometer) ice cover in the near future, and an international plan calls for sample return in less than a decade. An important implication of this finding is that scientists expect oxygen levels in the lake water to be 50 times higher than the oxygen levels in ordinary freshwater lakes on Earth. "Lake Vostok is an extreme environment, one that is supersaturated with oxygen," noted McKay. "No other natural lake environment on Earth has this much oxygen." The research also suggests that organisms living in Lake Vostok may have had to evolve special adaptions, such as high concentrations of protective enzymes, in order to survive the lake's oxygen-rich environment, the researchers say. Such defense mechanisms may also protect life in Lake Vostok from oxygen radicals, the dangerous byproducts of oxygen breakdown that cause cell and DNA damage. This process may be similar to that of organisms that scientists theorize may once have lived on Europa, whose ice layer and atmosphere are thought to contain radiation-produced radicals and oxygen. "We expect to find that the organisms in Lake Vostok are capable of overcoming very high oxygen stress," said co-author Dr. John Priscu, a geo-biologist at Montana State University in Bozeman. Priscu heads an international group of researchers that will deploy a remote observatory at Lake Vostok within three years and return samples within 10 years. The team also determined the ratios of gases in the lake. The scientists discovered that the air-gas mixture there, besides dissolving in the water, also is trapped in a type of structure called a clathrate. In clathrate structures, gases are enclosed in an icy cage and look like packed snow. These structures form at the high pressure depths of Lake Vostok and would be unstable if brought to the surface. Lake Vostok is located 2.48 miles (four kilometers) beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lake, and more than 70 other lakes deep beneath the polar plateau, are part of a large, sub-glacial environment that has been isolated from the atmosphere since Antarctica became covered with ice more than 15 million years ago. Scientists theorize that Lake Vostok probably existed before Antarctica became ice covered, and may contain evidence of conditions on the continent when the local climate was subtropical. For images and further information about plans to return research samples from Lake Vostok, go to http://salegos-scar.montana.edu/. The paper's authors also include K. P. Hand, Stanford University and Dr. D. T. Andersen, the SETI Institute. The research was jointly funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. Contact: Kathleen Burton NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-1731 or 604-9000 E-mail: Kathleen.M.Burton@nasa.gov Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03zl.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0308/11antarcticlake/ ________________________________________________________________________ FASCINATION WITH DISTANT WORLDS: CYNTHIA PHILLIPS From The SETI Institute and Astrobiology Magazine 12 August 2003 In 1989, when Voyager 2 hurtled through the far reaches of our solar system passing the planet Neptune, a live feed from JPL opened a window onto an exotic world nearly 3 billion miles away. Entitled "Neptune All Night," the PBS television coverage enraptured a young Cynthia Phillips, who recalls watching the fly-by in her Boston home, late into the night until "caught" by her parents. The grainy images from outer space set this SETI Institute planetary scientist on a future career path that stretched far beyond the confines of our warm blue planet. With an undergraduate degree from Harvard in Astronomy and Physics, Phillips completed graduate studies in Planetary Science at the University of Arizona. There she first worked with then UA professor and now SETI Institute scientist, Dr. Christopher Chyba, who sparked her interest in the possibility of life on Europa in a graduate seminar on astrobiology. While at Arizona, Phillips developed image processing techniques that allowed her to compare satellite images taken at different times of the same geologic locations of two Jovian moons, Europa and Io. Her algorithms allowed researchers to view any geological changes that had taken place in the time interval between imaging surveys of the Voyager and the Galileo missions. In 2000, Phillips joined Chyba at the SETI Institute's Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, where today she continues her work on Europa as a NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) co-investigator on the SETI Institute's lead team. Europa research Phillip's NAI research consists of two phases. First, she will complete a large database of images consisting of 95 separate observations from the five and one-half year long Galileo mission. "We have between one and twenty frames from each observation," says Phillips. The separate images were taken with different filters and at different resolutions. With the database, Phillips will determine which images cover the same area of the surface multiple times. Overlapping images allow Phillips to look for any changes on the surface that indicate current or recent geological activity. "Examples would be areas where the surface may have cracked open or where a feature has grown wider or taller," she explains. In the second phase of the project, Phillips and Chyba will use the results of phase one to evaluate a number of models proposed by different researchers for Europa's surface features to understand implications of those models for life's prospects on Europa. One model, she says, offers a theory for the creation of long linear cracks and ridges that "suggests they could be formed by the tides on Europa opening and closing the surface. One version of this model suggests the ice layer is quite thin. If there is actually liquid water close to the surface of Europa, this could mean a number of things," she continues. "It could mean there may be interesting biological or organic compounds created at the surface that then have a chance to work their way down into Europa's ocean layer." Conversely, "it is also possible that if there are any interesting signs of life or biological compounds within the ocean, then if the water is close to the surface, these materials can work their way up to the surface." Both possibilities offer tantalizing prospects for astrobiologists seeking evidence of life on this cold, distant world. Asked how the imaging and model evaluation are integrated, Cynthia again offers an example. "If we found a domed feature that had gotten bigger over the five years, we would know to focus on a model that includes such features in the second half of the study." She would then estimate from the images how much larger the dome has grown in the specific time interval, and how much material would have had to be brought to surface for the growth to take place. A variety of models might account for the growth, "upwarping or instrusions of solid and liquid materials," she says, naming two. "I can look at parameters for what is seen to be happening, and how much material the model predicts." So far, her preliminary studies have not detected change however, if she finds any evidence at all, she'll be very excited. "I'd know that there is geological activity taking place currently, and it would mean that Europa is one of a very few places in our solar system where such activity is taking place." Europa will never be done Although the Galileo satellite is scheduled to dive into Jupiter's atmosphere on September 21, 2003, Phillips states with confidence that "Europa will never be done," and adds, "I could happily work on Europa for another 20 years." For the next five of those years, she'll be using the Galileo data set, but she acknowledges that this data has limitations. The failure of Galileo's high gain antenna limited the quality of the images. Also, the satellite spent a relatively limited amount of time observing Europa as it orbited Jupiter, imaging the planet and its other moons in addition to the object of her study. The quality of the combined images of Galileo and Voyager is frustratingly inconsistent. "Some areas," she says, "have a resolution of 20 kilometers per pixel some are very sharp, some are very fuzzy." While scientists do have images of the entire surface, some are, in Phillips' words, "pretty lousy." In some areas of Europa, "Voyager 2 images are better than Galileo we're using these." Phillips worked with the U.S. Geological Survey building a map of Europa, "trying to blend a hodge-podge of images into smoothest map possible." Looking at a globe of the moon, it is possible to see large areas where the features are still sketchy. "There are regions where we just need better data." She eagerly anticipates the next NASA mission to the mysterious planet, tentatively planned as the "Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter" or JIMO mission, which may launch in "about a decade" and would orbit Europa for up to a month. "JIMO would take a very nice consistent data set of the kind I've been hoping for," she explains. "I'm crossing my fingers." Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article555.html. ________________________________________________________________________ BRIDGING THE GAP: A DISCUSSION WITH FREEMAN DYSON, PART I From The Planetary Society and Astrobiology Magazine 13 August 2003 Going to another star is a terribly powerful idea, just as going to the Moon was originally. At some point in human history, there will be a leap across the great void not just to the nearest star but to any star that might be interesting to explore. Renowned physicist, educator, and author Freeman Dyson joined Planetary Society Chairman of the Board Bruce Murray and Executive Director Louis Friedman at Society headquarters for an informal discussion about interstellar flight. Their discussion dovetails to a proposal for sailing on solar wind. Nearly 400 years ago astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails blown by a solar breeze and suggested that vessels might likewise navigate through space using appropriately fashioned sails. It is now widely recognized that sunlight does indeed produce a force which moves comet tails and a large, reflective sail could be a practical means of propelling a spacecraft. In fact, one concept explored by NASA centers is to develop an interstellar probe pushed along by sunlight reflected from an ultra-thin sail. Nearly half a kilometer wide, the delicate solar sail would be unfurled in space. Continuous pressure from sunlight would ultimately accelerate the craft to speeds about five times higher than possible with conventional rockets--without requiring any fuel. In collaboration with the Planetary Society, Cosmos Studios, has funded the first solar sail, which had its initial trial launch from an intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] on a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. The launch unfortunately had a third-stage separation failure, which was a problem of the ICBM rather than the spacecraft. They are launching again. Solar sailing is a kind of technology which enables probes to move through space ten times faster than even the Voyager spacecraft, 38,000 miles an hour. To go ten times faster than that begins to get to a potentially practical rapid transit system for our local neighborhood in space, but also even to go to other stars. Bruce Murray: In the 1970s, when I was director at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL] at the same time that Voyager set out on its wonderful journey we seemed to be in a period where there were no limits. And yet I became very aware of a sudden end to this period. I couldn't foresee a way to push beyond the horizon. Then, in October 1980, just after Voyager's Saturn encounter, I organized an informal conference in Pasadena. The question I wanted to address was, how do we eventually go to another star? At that point, the only potentially doable system was some kind of giant sail powered by enormously powerful lasers located in the solar system but not on Earth. This seemed to be within the bounds of physical plausibility, which was pretty exciting. Now, I'd like to ask you, Freeman, even with all that's happened in the last 20 years, is that still the conclusion? Freeman Dyson: I think that's still true, although there is an alternative way-- pellet stream propulsion of voyaging to another star that could be somewhat more economical, though more difficult to do. Instead of shooting at your sail with a laser beam, you shoot at it with pellets. The problem is how to catch the pellets, but in principle, the vehicle could be a lot smaller and more compact, so the system could in fact end up being more economical. It hasn't really been worked out in detail. But I would say the pellet stream is perhaps just as good a contender as the solar sail. Bruce: Is the energy needed to collect and capture the pellets less than to collect photons with the sail? Freeman: The energy isn't any less. A mass on the order of a ton traveling at half the speed of light takes a lot of energy no matter how you do it. The question is, just what is your efficiency? Although the pellet stream doesn't in the end use all that much less energy, it's a lot neater from an engineering point of view. Because the vehicle can be less massive, you save energy simply on the total mass. The problem with the laser sail is that the sail itself weighs so much, and you don't really want that. Lou Friedman: What about the really advanced technology sail: some kind of wispy carbon structure, with just a few molecules of aluminum as the reflector? That wouldn't weigh very much. Freeman: No, it wouldn't, but at 30 kilometers [about 20 miles] in diameter it adds up to quite a lot. The question is, are you using light or are you using microwaves? If you're using light, then you must have a metal surface of some kind to reflect the light. If you're using microwaves, you can have a network that can be a lot lighter. In fact, we really don't know how light that can be. Bob Forward's proposal, to make the network out of chicken wire and what he calls Starwisp, involves a really wispy kind of a sail driven by microwaves. That could be a great deal lighter. Lou: Which would you bet on: light or microwaves? Freeman: I don't know. I think it's foolish to make the choice. In all these technological questions, you have to try everything and find out what works. Lou: JPL is starting microwave experiments right now. They've done some in the laboratory, and they've done a light-sail experiment. On our Cosmos 1 mission, we'll try to pulse the sail with a microwave from the Deep Space Network and see if we can measure the acceleration. If we do that, Freeman, will it be the first interstellar propulsion experiment? Freeman: Maybe, I don't know. But, of course, there's a lot of stuff between here and Alpha Centauri. And I think it's foolish to think that after you've explored the solar system, there's nothing else interesting until you get to Alpha Centauri. In fact, there's a lot of stuff along the way. A fellow named Jack Baggaley in New Zealand is observing meteors with radar a project called AMOR, which stands for Advanced Meteor Orbit Radar. He actually sees stuff arriving here on Earth from Beta Pictoris, which I find very delightful. So we're already getting interstellar stuff, and it's being measured and observed. Beta Pictoris is a star with a huge disc of dust around it. The dust presumably is being thrown around by encounters with planets or other objects. So, before we reach the edge of the solar system, we'll probably see a lot of interlopers on the journey there--for example, comets and asteroids from Beta Pictoris. It's wrong to think of all that space as empty. There's all sorts of interesting stuff going on. Bruce: Let me ask Lou a question. You're the only one of the three of us who has written a book about solar sailing. What was your conclusion in the book, and what is your conclusion now about solar sailing to another star? Lou: My favorite line from my book is "Space is big." When I was writing that in the mid-1980s, I was quite negative on the whole notion of interstellar flight. At that time, I held the view that interstellar travel is to us what the airplane was to Leonardo da Vinci. We could think of it, sketch cartoons about it, but we were centuries away from being able to implement it. I'm not intimidated by the size of the solar sail--even the idea that the sail has to be hundreds of kilometers or so. If I were, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. The thing that is intimidating to me is the power source. Freeman: Well, that to me is the easiest part. The Sun is just a wonderful source of power once you get out there. That's something we more or less understand. What we don't understand, of course, is the biology and how to provide for the comfort of human beings in quite different environments. That we don't know anything about. And that, to me, is far more interesting than the problem of solar power. Lou: To me, the exciting aspect of solar sailing is the idea of lasers and microwaves. They may change our perspective, so maybe interstellar flight is not so unimaginably far away. Freeman: Well, I don't consider 500 years a long time. Interstellar travel is not unimaginable at all. We'll be there before we know it. Five hundred years is a very short time in the history of the species. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article556.html. ________________________________________________________________________ SCRIPPS TEAM PART OF COLLABORATION THAT REVEALS FIRST ECOLOGICAL GENOMIC "BLUEPRINTS"--GENOMES UNCOVERED FOR MICROBES IMPORTANT IN PHOTOSYNTHESIS, GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE Scripps Institute of Oceanography release 13 August 2003 A broad international collaboration of scientists has uncovered the first genetic blueprints of organisms critically important in the world's ecological makeup. The genetic blueprints, or genomes, are publicized jointly in the August 13, 2003, online editions of the journals Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A group from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, led one of the discoveries. The papers describe the genomes of Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, tiny organisms that account for up to two-thirds of the carbon dioxide "fixation" (the conversion of carbon dioxide into organic compounds during photosynthesis) in the oceans and are key players in marine food webs. By knowing their genetic makeup, the scientists say, researchers will better be able to understand how these organisms process carbon, leading to a better understanding of the global carbon cycle. "Having these genomes is helping us understand ecosystems in a way no other genomes have before," said Brian Palenik, lead author of one of the Nature papers and a member of the new Center for Marine Genomics at Scripps Institution. "Many of the sequenced genomes to date have been pathogens, but these are the first genomes of organisms that are ecologically relevant on a global scale. So these are really going to help us understand global carbon fixation and global element cycling- these are keystone organisms in marine ecosystems." Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, single-celled organisms about 1/100th the diameter of a human hair, numerically dominate the phytoplankton of the oceans. With the genomes in hand, researchers will have a better idea of how to solve mysteries surrounding these organisms, such as how they thrive in the nutrient-poor open ocean. For the Palenik-led paper, contributors included Bianca Brahamsha, Eric Allen, and Jay McCarren of Scripps. Others included researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the Joint Genome Institute; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; TIGR (The Institute for Genomic Research); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Station Biologique de Roscoff in France; and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Palenik says the paper is the first of a set in a Department of Energy initiative aimed at understanding marine phytoplankton. It is the beginning, Palenik says, of a program that is going to be important for marine science by revealing how photosynthetic organisms fix carbon in the marine environment and adapt to specific habitats within that environment. In the Palenik-led study, one of the most revealing of many details of the newly sequenced genome was an "enormous" protein found in Synechococcus. Palenik says it is one of the largest bacterial proteins ever reported. He also says Synechococcus, and not the other three genomes newly reported, can be genetically manipulated. Scripps Marine Biology Research Division scientist Bianca Brahamsha developed a way to remove specific genes to evaluate their functions. When she and Scripps graduate student Jay McCarren removed, or "knocked out," the gene for the large protein, the organism stopped swimming. "These organisms are known for their unique type of swimming," says Palenik, "and this newly uncovered fact will shed light on how these organisms can convert chemical energy into swimming motion." Palenik's group further showed that Synechococcus, compared with the other reported organisms, has a broader capability for using different compounds for growth. While the others clearly prefer low-light/high- nutrient or high-light/low-nutrient niches, Synechococcus exhibits "jack-of-all-trades," or generalist, characteristics by using various nitrogen and phosphorous compounds for growth. Finally, Palenik says the paper shows that Synechococcus displays a history of picking up foreign DNA and converting it into useful genes for its own purposes. Countering the reputation of the open ocean as an isolated, dilute environment, Palenik says this new evidence shows a high volume of organisms interacting with each other and with other viruses. "It's amazing," said Palenik, "that marine Synechococcus were only discovered in 1978. So in 25 years we've gone from not knowing they were there to suddenly knowing every base pair of DNA." (Prochlorococcus was discovered even later, in 1988.) Palenik believes such marine genomic information will help in understanding biodiversity conservation in general. "We've always been trying to understand how diverse our planet's organisms are," said Palenik. "These results are helping us do that. Starting to decipher whole genomes of different groups of organisms will help us understand how diverse they are and why they are diverse." In the same issue of Nature, a team led by Gabrielle Rocap of the University of Washington reported extensive differences between the genomes of two strains of Prochlorococcus and helps explain their adaptation to different light and nutrient environments. That study included coauthors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Washington (UW), Humboldt University in Germany, Interuniversity Institute of Marine Science in Israel, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Synechococcus and MIT/UW Prochlorococcus teams worked closely together in deciphering their genomes. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper, a team led by Frederick Partensky of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Station Biologique de Roscoff, reports on the genome of a third strain of Prochlorococcus. Coauthors of Palenik's research paper include, in addition to Brahamsha, McCarren, and Allen, Frank Larimer, Miriam Land, Loren Hauser, Patrick Chain, Jane Lamerdin, Wayne Regala, Ian Paulsen, Alexis Dufresne, Frederic Partensky, Eric Webb, and John Waterbury. Palenik's study was supported by the Biological and Environmental Research Program and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office (DOE) of Science. Additional support was provided by the DOE, the National Science Foundation, and the Margenes program of the European Community. Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the web: http://scripps.ucsd.edu Scripps News on the web: http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu Scripps Centennial on the web: http://scripps100.ucsd.edu Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for global science research and graduate training in the world. The scientific scope of the institution has grown since its founding in 1903. A century of Scripps science has had an invaluable impact on oceanography, on understanding of the earth, and on society. More than 300 research programs are under way today in a wide range of scientific areas. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration. Now plunging boldly into the 21st century, Scripps is celebrating its centennial in 2003. Contacts: Mario Aguilera or Cindy Clark Phone: 858-534-3624 E-mail: scrippsnews@ucsd.edu ________________________________________________________________________ SPOTLIGHT ON SATURN'S MOON TITAN By Emma Bakes From Space.com 14 August 2003 Titan is Saturn's largest moon and it is unique within our Solar System, being the only satellite that possesses an atmosphere. Its atmosphere is smoggy, composed of a hydrocarbon haze, and it is this component that dominates its physical evolution, determining whether the moon ultimately boils or freezes, produces life or remains barren. The haze can also accelerate the formation of an oxygenated atmosphere by catalyzing the removal of hydrogen atoms from a planet's atmosphere and by providing an excellent absorber of harmful UV radiation, protecting fragile macromolecules floating in the haze. The most interesting point about simulations of Titan's hydrocarbon haze is that this smoggy component contains molecules called tholins (from the Greek word, muddy) that can form the foundations of the building blocks of life. For example, amino acids, one of the building blocks of terrestrial life, form when these red-brown smog-like particles are placed in water. When scientists analyze the building blocks of tholins by pyrrolysis, splitting up the tholins using plasma, scientists find a rich array of biomolecular building blocks such as pyrroles, pyrazines, pyridines and pyrimidines. All of these molecules have played an important role in the evolution of life. Read the full story at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_titan_bakes_030814.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 19 August 2003 Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html E. Bakes, 2003. Spotlight on Saturn's moon Titan. Space.com. L. David, 2003. Liquid water likely supports life on Mars today, scientists claim. Space.com. L. David, 2003. NASA picks Mars lander for first scout mission. Space.com. S. Hart, 2003. Mars up close. Astrobiology Magazine. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2003. Phoenix to Mars. Astrobiology Magazine. C. Phillips, 2003. Environments for life on Europa. Space.com. SETI Institute, 2003. Fascination with distant worlds: Cynthia Phillips. Astrobiology Magazine. L. Stiles, 2003. Phoenix will land at Mars' icy north pole, study water, search for habitable zone. SpaceDaily. University of Arizona - Tucson, 2003. "Phoenix" lander headed for martian north pole. Spaceflight Now. University of Melbourne, 2003. Martian hot spots. Astrobiology Magazine. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html NASA Ames Research Center, 2003. Antarctic lake water will fizz like a soda, researchers say. Spaceflight Now. NASA Ames Research Center, 2003. Researchers find Antarctic lake water will fizz like a soda. SpaceDaily. Human space exploration articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html Planetary Society, 2003. Bridging the gap: a discussion with Freeman Dyson, part I. Astrobiology Magazine. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html D. Richards, 2003. Diamonds in the rough: looking for life in rocks. Astrobiology Magazine. Extrasolar planets articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles7.html P. F. Gorder, 2003. Hotter stars, habitable planets? Astrobiology Magazine. P. F. Gorder, 2003. Search for life could include planets, stars unlike ours. Spaceflight Now. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2003. Tiny planet SIM. Astrobiology Magazine. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 19 August 2003 The investigation of the Columbia tragedy and its aftermath continues. I have included (below) a non-exhaustive list of links to recent articles on the subject. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_pictures_030730.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_update_030805.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sctg_update_030807.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030805191057.i6axb2zu.html http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030731etimagery/ http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030805rtfplan/ ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL releases 24-30 July 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, July 30. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm. On-board activities this week included a Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibration, activation of the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) demonstration critical sequence, a pre-SOI demo ACS configuration activity, and an instrument reconfiguration for the SOI demo. This demo marks the first time that a critical sequence has been executed at a non-critical time, and exercises the last aspects of the flight software installed earlier this year. The Spacecraft Operations Office reported that the SOI demo critical sequence is currently active on the spacecraft and running in both CDS strings. The first five commands were sent, and all telemetry to this point is per predictions. The command loss timer was successfully reset to 9.25 days, as planned. The next critical sequence activity occurs on Monday, August 4th. Data from this activity will be received on the ground at 8:58 AM PDT. The spacecraft will be monitored daily for this exercise during each day's Goldstone pass. The C39 Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation (PSIV) package has been delivered to the teams for review, and all sequence change requests (SCR) have been submitted. Next week both the preliminary and final sequence approval meetings will be held. The S14 Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP) Verification and Validation (V&V) activity concluded this week. Activities performed included generation of the PSIV2 and Final Sequence Integration and Validation (FSIV) products, delivery of final default live movable block sequences and trigger immediate/delayed action programs, generation and release of the FSIV approval package, an FSIV SCR approval meeting, and the final sequence approval meeting. A final wrap-up review meeting has been scheduled for next week. A wrap-up meeting was held this week for Science Operations Plan implementation of tour sequences S07/S08. The products from this process have now been archived. A kickoff meeting was held for S01/S02 and S03/S04. SO1/S02 is the last use of the 3-port implementation process for tour with S03/S04 being the first use of the 2-port implementation process. Now that V&V activities have concluded, two tour implementation processes will be conducted simultaneously. A scoping meeting for C42 was held at the Mission Planning Forum. How the sequence will be planned was discussed along with a detailed DSN schedule with information on criticality and flexibility. This latter item was a main point of the discussion, to identify how the project should be delivering planned pass requests to the schedulers to properly equip them to negotiate prior to the SOP Update process. A delivery coordination meeting was held for Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) D9.1. The software has been installed, and is in use by Science Planning in the development of SOP products for S01, 02, 03, and 04. Additionally, the port of MSS D9.1 to Solaris 9 for MSS D10.0 has started and initial progress is good. 31 July - 6 August 2003 On board activities this week included the conclusion of the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) demonstration, conclusion of the command moratorium period, playback of SOI demo data, uplink and execution of nominal post SOI demo clean up commands, and instrument reconfiguration following the demo. The SOI critical sequence demonstration was an end to end demonstration of the spacecraft preparation, the eight-day critical sequence, and the clean-up activities to be performed in June and July of 2004. The preparations and clean-up activities included both sequenced, and real-time commands as they are planned for execution in 2004. The sequence itself was stripped of the main engine firing commands, and other commands with potentially irreversible effects, and replaced with "NO OP" commands to make the sequence size match exactly. The Spacecraft Operations Office (SCO) considered this activity to be the final verification of the critical sequence capabilities in the Attitude Control (AACS), and Command and Data System (CDS) flight software versions uplinked earlier this year. The final capability to be exercised is the accumulated energy cutoff logic for maneuvers. That demonstration will be part of Trajectory Correction Maneuver 19B scheduled for October 2003. During the final hours of the SOI Demo, the Radios Science Team used the Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) open loop receiver to track the low gain antenna (LGA) X-Band signal. Using RSS tools, real-time visibility was afforded the project to confirm the presence of the signal following each of the spacecraft turns, progress during the burn, and was used to verify the last "call home" signal. For SOI, this Radio Science instrument will become the prime tool for real-time visibility into the progression of the SOI maneuver. C39 sequence generation concluded this week with participating instruments delivering final instrument expanded block (IEB) files, release and review of the Final Sequence Integration and Validation (FSIV) products, and uplink approval given for the sequence at the FSIV approval meeting. IEBs for Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, and Radio and Plasma Wave Science have been uplinked for this sequence. The background sequence itself will be uplinked to the spacecraft next week. Saturday was the last of the post Solar Conjunction Experiment (SCE)#2 DSS-25 passes that the Radio Science Systems Group has utilized to characterize the Ka-band Translator (KaT) anomaly. Problems with the Ka-band transmitter at DSS-25 prevented successful execution the planned tests. As of last Saturday, the KaT was still in the bad region. The next scheduled opportunity to attempt KaT recovery begins in mid September during the RSS Engineering Tests, and quiet test. In the meantime, the Radio Science team will be evaluating information known to date in consultation with the KaT manufacturer. System engineering conducted a wrap up meeting this week for the S14 Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP) Verification and Validation (V&V) activity. Topics included a general review and summary of activities, V&V assumptions and liens, review of some of the open issues, and discussion of tasks remaining to be performed. Pointing Design Tool (PDT) developers from the Uplink Operations team presented a training session on the D9.1 version of PDT. Mission Assurance convened the quarterly Risk Team Meeting to address cruise risks this week. Risks were reviewed and re-assessed for changes to likelihood, impact, or mitigation efforts. The team also discussed future retirement dates for cruise risks. Those cruise risks which do not apply to Saturn Tour Operations will be retired after SOI next year. The application window for new Saturn Observation Campaign members closes 29 August 2003. 51 new applicants were accepted into the program during July, bringing the total number of amateur astronomers in the program to 149. The Outreach Team attended a workshop on educational techniques for special needs students at Goddard Space Flight Center. The South East Regional Clearinghouse (SERCH) hosted the event. SERCH is a NASA broker and facilitator that provides support in all space science research areas, "plays matchmaker" between scientists and Education/Public Outreach programs, and assists in regional distribution of educational products. At the workshop, Cassini outreach personnel presented a mission overview and introduced different Cassini education materials. All Cassini teams and offices supported this weeks NASA Quarterly Review. As reported on-line at Sky and Telescope, at the 25th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature announced the names of two dozen planetary satellites discovered since 2000. On the list were 12 Saturnian moons. The satellites were named for Norse, Inuit, or Gallic giants. For more information go to http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1012_1.asp 7-14 August 2003 The C38 background sequence concluded this week with playback of science data recorded during Saturn Orbit Insertion Demonstration, a Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) Instrument Expanded Block (IEB) load test and a Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibration. The flight team sent real time commands to power on the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) and load the instrument with IEBs. The team also loaded the INMS flight software (FSW) onto the Solid State Recorder (SSR). C39 background sequence was radiated to the spacecraft on Thursday, August 7, and began execution on Sunday August 10. C39 contains numerous instrument checkout and calibration activities that must be performed prior to the approach science phase which begins in January of 2004. Initial activities included IEB loads from the SSR for the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS), and RPWS, a Magnetometer calibration, a Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) module test, CAPS and Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) FSW uploads. Also uplinked were a mini-sequence for INMS FSW checkout, pressure test, and all C39 INMS checkout activities, and a RPWS high rate observation and IEB exercise. The INMS team reports that the instrument is now on, in sleep mode, and operating normally. The INMS instrument was last active during the instrument checkout period in cruise sequence C11 in January of 1999. The instrument has been off since then per plan. A kick-off meeting was held for the start of the Science Planning Virtual Team process for cruise sequence C42. C42 is the first of three approach science sequences just prior to the start of tour operations. This is an intense period of time while the flight team transitions between cruise and tour processes and procedures, and we gather valuable science and navigation data as we draw closer to Saturn. The science and engineering teams have delivered sequence products for preliminary port one of the science operating plan for tour sequences S03 and S04, and port two for cruise sequence C40. The Science Planning team presented an overview of the aftermarket process. Cassini personnel are currently creating the basic commands for pointing, telemetry, and power to control the spacecraft for each of the 41 sequences in the four-year tour. When the process for a sequence concludes, the sequence is archived for as long as two to four years. During this time, science and engineering teams may work on the liens identified and make a small number of changes to the baseline plan. New discoveries and changes in the spacecraft or instruments may also necessitate a change in the plan. The presentation outlined guidelines and constraints that will govern this work, and summarized the five week aftermarket process where changes are prioritized and approved/disapproved so that a complete package may be created for the science operations plan (SOP) update. A Software Review Certification Requirement delivery meeting was held for the MIMI v7.0.0 FSW build. The board granted preliminary approval of the FSW for preparation of the uplink files with final approval to occur after completion of an additional regression test and update of the release documents. The Multi-mission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) version D30 software is now officially in use as the operational software set. All Cassini MIPL tour hardware has been configured and is now on-line. This includes seven Sun Blades for telemetry processing, and eight terabytes of storage for the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and VIMS life-of- mission storage. The multi-mission database server machine was also upgraded to meet performance needs. System engineering held a Delivery Coordination Meeting (DCM) for three Spacecraft Operations Office tools. The MAPDF_GEN Generator (MAPDF_GEN): is used to create a Maneuver Performance Data File (MAPDF) for use by navigation in the maneuver design process. The Maneuver Design tool (MDT) determines the commands necessary for the spacecraft to perform a trajectory correction maneuver. The Best Estimate Conic (BECON) tool determines a single best-fit conic orbit for the orbiter as it flies past Titan during the Huygens probe mission. The orbit is used on board the spacecraft to provide pointing control. A DCM also was held for the Kinematic Prediction Tool (KPT) v9.2. The DCM accepted the delivery but agreed to wait 1-2 weeks for additional testing prior to installation on the operations network. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS NASA release 2003-109 6 August 2003 The first in-flight checkouts of the science instruments and engineering cameras on NASA's twin Spirit and Opportunity spacecraft on their way to Mars have provided an assessment of the instruments' condition after the stressful vibrations of launch. The instrument tests run by the Mars Exploration Rover flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, finished with performance data received Tuesday from two of the spectrometers on Opportunity. Each rover's suite of science instruments includes a stereo panoramic camera pair, a microscope camera and three spectrometers. The tests also evaluated performance of each spacecraft's engineering cameras, which are a stereo navigation camera pair, stereo hazard-avoidance camera pairs on the front and back of the rover, and a downward-pointing descent camera on the lander to aid a system for reducing horizontal motion just before impact. All 10 cameras on each spacecraft--three science cameras and seven engineering cameras on each--performed well. One of the three spectrometers on Spirit returned data that did not fit the expected pattern. The other two spectrometers on Spirit and all three on Opportunity worked properly. Teams have been busy since the tests began nearly three weeks ago analyzing about 200 megabits of instrument data generated from each spacecraft. "All the engineering cameras are healthy," said JPL imaging scientist Dr. Justin Maki. "We took two pictures with each engineering camera--14 pictures from each spacecraft. Even when the cameras are in the dark, the images give characteristic signatures that let us know whether the electronics are working correctly." The science cameras on each rover--the Pancam color panoramic cameras and the Microscopic Imagers--all performed flawlessly. A spectrometer on each rover for identifying minerals from a distance, called the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, or mini-TES, also worked perfectly on each rover. Two other spectrometers--an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and a Mössbauer spectrometer--are mounted on an extendable arm for close-up examination of the composition of rocks and soil. Both instruments on Opportunity, as well as Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer worked properly. The Mössbauer spectrometer on Spirit is the one whose test data did not fit the pattern expected from normal operation. "The Mössbauer results we just received from Opportunity are helping us interpret the data that we've been analyzing from Spirit," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the suite of science tools on each rover. "Some of the theories we had developed for what might be causing the anomalous behavior of the Mössbauer instrument on Spirit have been eliminated by looking at the data from the one on Opportunity." The remaining theories focus on an apparent problem in movement of a mechanism within the instrument that rapidly vibrates a gamma-ray source back and forth. "The Mössbauer spectrometer on Spirit is working, and even if we don't come up with a way to improve its performance, we'll be able to get scientific information out of the data it sends us from Mars," Squyres said. "But it's a very flexible instrument, with lots of parameters we can change. We have high hopes that over the coming months we'll be able to understand exactly what's happened to it and make adjustments that will improve its performance. And if the Mössbauer spectrometer on Opportunity behaves Aon Mars the way it did today, we'll get beautiful data from that instrument." The two types of spectrometers on the rovers' extendable arms complement each other. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometers provide information about what elements are in a rock. The Mössbauer spectrometers give information about the arrangement of iron atoms in the crystalline mineral structure within a rock. As of 6:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time August 7, Spirit will have traveled 157.1 million kilometers (97.6 million miles) since its June 10 launch, and Opportunity will have traveled 82.7 million kilometers (51.4 million miles) since its July 7 launch. After arrival, the rovers will examine their landing areas for geological evidence about the history of water on Mars. 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 (818) 354-6278 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Donald Savage (202) 358-1547 NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article551.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_030807.html http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/2 0030807/ap_on_sc/mars_rover. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS releases 31 July - 6 August 2003 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. South Polar Scarps (Released 31 July 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/07/31/index.html Gale Sedimentary Rocks (Released 01 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/01/index.html Warrego Valles (Released 2 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/02/index.html Labou Vallis (Released 03 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/03/index.html Marte Vallis Platy Flows (Released 04 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/04/index.html Aeolis Yardangs (Released 05 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/05/index.html Pedestal Crater and Yardangs (Released 06 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/06/index.html 7-13 August 2003 Layers in Tithonium Chasma (Released 07 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/07/index.html Northeast Hellas Landscape (Released 08 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/08/index.html Large, Windblown Ripples (Released 09 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/09/index.html Scamander Vallis (Released 10 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/10/index.html Bouldery Surface (Released 11 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/11/index.html Peridier Crater (Released 12 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/12/index.html South Polar Mesas (Released 13 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/13/index.html All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived here 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 releases 29 July - 1 August 2003 Remnants of Medusa Fossae Formation (Released 29 July 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030729a.html Valley Networks (Released 30 July 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030730a.html Lava Flows (Released 31 July 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030731a.html Crenulated lava flows of Daedalia Planum (Released 1 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030801a.html 4-8 August 2003 Knobby Terrain Down Under (Released 4 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030804a.html Wind-sculpted Rocks (Released 5 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030805a.html Dunes in a Crater Floor (Released 6 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030806a.html Craters and Grabens: Circles and Lines (Released 7 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030807a.html Outflow Channel (Released 8 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030808a.html 11-13 August 2003 Charlier Crater Dunes (Released 11 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030811a.html Peneus Patera (Released 12 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030812a.html Three Terrains (Released 13 August 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030813a.html All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. ________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL releases 1 August 2003 The spacecraft is in its 2-month solar conjunction period where it is within 3 degrees of the Sun as viewed from Earth. There is no commanding but only downlink telemetry during this period. All subsystems are performing 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 Stardust flight team is continuing its effort to finalize all plans for the Comet Wild 2 encounter. An "Encounter Workshop" is scheduled for mid-August to complete all encounter action items. Final decisions about the approach, encounter and departure sequences for Stardust's encounter with Comet Wild 2 will be made at the workshop. Formal reviews of these decisions and plans will then follow. 8 August 2003 There were four Deep Space Network passes during the past week and all Stardust subsystems are performing normally. The Stardust flight team is continuing its effort to finalize all plans for the Comet Wild 2 encounter. An 'Encounter Workshop' is scheduled for mid-August to complete all encounter action items. Numerous meeting were held this past week with project management science and engineering to finalize all issues effecting encounter sequence and encounter timeline decisions. Final decisions about the approach, encounter and departure sequences and operations for Stardust's encounter with Comet Wild 2 will be made at the workshop. Formal reviews of these decisions and plans will then follow. 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 32.