Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 10, Number 35, 8 September 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) PLANETARY TILT NOT A SPOILER FOR HABITATION Pennsylvania State University release 2) BIOLOGY'S THEME PARK: RNA WORLD By David Cameron 3) ALPHA AND OMEGA: INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES SEIFE, PART II From Astrobiology Magazine 4) NEW STUDY OF JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA MAY EXPLAIN MYSTERIOUS ICE DOMES, PLACES TO SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF LIFE University of Colorado at Boulder release 5) LIFE'S LIMIT By Rocco Mancinelli 6) METHANE MAY BE CAUSE OF MASS EXTINCTION Northwestern University release 7) BRIDGING THE GAP: A DISCUSSION WITH FREEMAN DYSON, PART II From the Planetary Society and Astrobiology Magazine 8) SURFACE WATER POSSIBLE UNDER MARS-LIKE CONDITIONS By Melissa Blouin 9) ASTEROID 2003 QQ47'S POTENTIAL EARTH IMPACT IN 2014 RULED OUT By Paul W. Chodas and Steven R. Chesley 10) ALL OUT FIGHT BEGINS FOR FUTURE OF US SPACE PROGRAM, MARS SOCIETY CALLS FOR MOBILIZATION Mars Society release 11) NASA HAS A VISION, IT'S OUR NATION THAT NEEDS GLASSES By Jim Banke 12) NASA ASKS STUDENTS TO HELP DESIGN ORBITAL SPACE COLONY NASA/ARC release 03-68AR 13) THE SCIENCE AND ETHICS OF SEEDING THE UNIVERSE By Michael Mautner 14) ASTEROIDS ARE PROBABLY A THREAT. MAYBE? By Fraser Cain 15) FARTHEST, FAINTEST SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS FOUND BEYOND NEPTUNE Space Telescope Science Institute release STScI-PR03-25 16) SURVEYING THE SCENE--MARTIAN STYLE By Stephen Hart 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 release 20) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 21) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 22) STARDUST STATUS REPORTS NASA/JPL releases ________________________________________________________________________ PLANETARY TILT NOT A SPOILER FOR HABITATION Pennsylvania State University release 25 August 2003 In B science fiction movies, a terrible force often pushes the Earth off its axis and spells disaster for all life on Earth. In reality, life would still be possible on Earth and any Earth-like planets if the axis tilt were greater than it is now, according to Penn State researchers. "We do not currently have observations of extrasolar planets, but I imagine that in the near future, we will uncover some of these small planets," says Darren M. Williams, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. "The issue before us is what will they be like? Will they have moons? What will their climates be like? Will they be teaming with life or will life be rare? "I suspect, based on simulations and our own solar system, that many Earth-like planets will have spin axes that are tipped more severely than Earth's axis." Williams, working with David Pollard, research associate in geoscience at Penn State, used general circulation climate models to simulate a variety of tilts, carbon dioxide levels and planets. They reported on their findings in the International Journal of Astrobiology. The researchers first looked at present-day Earth with tilts of 23, 54, 70 and 85 degrees. Earth's tilt today is about 23 degrees. The simulation that mimicked today's Earth and tilt closely matched today's climate, including regional precipitation patterns, snow and ice cover and drought. "Tilts greater than the present produce global annual-mean temperatures higher than Earth's present mean temperature of about 57 degrees Fahrenheit," says Williams. "Above 54 degrees of tilt, the trend is for the global annual-mean temperature to decrease as tilt increases." The Penn State scientist explains that this decrease occurs because more land exists north of the equator in present-day Earth. Annual-mean temperatures, however, are not the best way to determine if a planet might be habitable, as seasonal temperature variations could be extreme. The researchers also looked at these tilted Earths with 10 times the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas increases the temperatures on a planet. These models produced Earths with 11 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit higher annual-mean temperatures. Because all planets will not have Earth's geography, the researchers took a page from Earth's history and modeled a 750-million-year-old Earth representing the Sturtian glaciation and a 540-million-year-old Earth, the closest approximation available for the Varanger glaciation. "During the Sturtian, land masses were mainly equatorial and clumped mostly within 30 degrees of the equator," says the Penn State Erie researcher. "In the Varanger model, everything is close to the south pole." While current day Earth is about 30 percent land to 70 percent water, these ancient geographies are about 22 percent land and 78 percent water. "The highest temperatures and seasonal variations happen with the largest land areas at the mid to high latitudes," says Williams. The researchers also ran some of the model Earths with zero tilt. "Present Earth is one of the most uninhabitable planets that we have simulated," says Williams. "Approximately 8.7 percent of the Earth's surface is colder than 14 degrees Fahrenheit on average, and this percentage peaks at 13.2 percent in February owing to the large landmasses at high latitude covered by snow." The only planets colder than today's Earth are those planets simulated with no tilt. The Varanger simulation, with most land in the southern hemisphere, is the most extreme with 15.6 percent of the surface below 14 degrees Fahrenheit in July and 9.3 percent of the surface above 122 degrees Fahrenheit in January. On average, nearly 28 percent of this planet's land mass is uninhabitable by Earth standards. "This simulation suggests that planets with either large polar supercontinents or small inventories of water will be the most problematic for life at high obliquity," says Williams. None of the planets with increased tilt had permanent ice sheets near the equator. This, however, does not guarantee that a world is suitable for life, the researchers note. The extremes of temperature on most of the simulated earths would make it difficult for all but the simplest Earth life forms to survive. Extremes caused because the tilt puts large portions of the planet in 24-hour darkness or 24-hour sunlight for long periods would also inhibit photosynthetic organisms. The researchers suggest that even with high tilt, life can exist on the planets they modeled. "Provided the life does not occupy continental surfaces plagued seasonally by the highest temperature, these planets could support more advanced life," the researchers say. "While such worlds exhibit climates that are very different from Earth's, many will still be suitable for both simple and advanced forms of water-dependent life." So there is no reason to eliminate Earth-like planets with more tilt than Earth from future searches for life beyond the solar system. "We have one planet and we have a lot of species on this planet, but it is only one data point," says Williams. "Maybe one day we will figure out everything about life on our own planet, but no where near what is possible elsewhere." The National Science Foundation supported this work. The International Journal of Astrobiology, founded in 2002, is published by Cambridge University Press. The editors are Simonj Mitton (Cambridge) smitton@cambridge.org and Lynn Rothschild (NASA-Ames) Lrothschild@mail.arc.nasa.gov. Contacts: A'ndrea Messer Phone: 814-865-0481 E-mail: aem1@psu.edu http://live.psu.edu Vicki Fong Phone: 814-865-9481 E-mail: vfong@psu.edu http://live.psu.edu Read the original news release at http://live.psu.edu/story/3848. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article576.html. ________________________________________________________________________ BIOLOGY'S THEME PARK: RNA WORLD By David Cameron, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research From Astrobiology Magazine 30 August 2003 People love theme parks, giant playgrounds that usually offer patchwork renditions of either an evocative historical moment or a particular future vision. Rarely, if ever, are theme parks built around a biological theme--and never do such parks fit inside a test tube; almost never. Scientist David Bartel is hard at work on what might seem an impossibility--a microscopic theme park whose motif, the origins of life, is of equal interest to both scientists and philosophers. Bartel, a researcher at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, pursues a theory of early evolution called the "RNA-world hypothesis," which maintains that, in the beginning, long before DNA or protein existed, RNA performed both DNA's job of encoding information and protein's job of catalyzing replication. Because RNA replication is far simpler than protein replication, and because RNA participates in central cellular functions, researchers postulate a primitive, yet elegant, system in which RNA made RNA. Central to this hypothesis is an RNA enzyme that replicates other RNA molecules. Unfortunately, no such molecule currently exists in nature. To demonstrate the feasibility of this hypothesis, researchers must re- create certain aspects of this RNA world in the lab--hence Bartel's RNA theme park. According to Bartel, the micro exhibits in his lab are "artificial and fragmented when compared with the real thing, but still well worth a visit." So far, Bartel has developed some impressive displays. In a paper published in the journal Science in 2001, his lab demonstrated one of the first pieces of hard evidence that such a world is at least possible. But this landmark paper also revealed that Bartel's RNA molecules didn't yet perform to the degree that the RNA world would have required. In a July 2003 follow-up in the journal Biochemistry, Bartel and doctoral student Michael Lawrence published research pinpointing the exact reason for this, findings Bartel claims are "an important step toward figuring out how to improve the efficiency of these RNA replicating molecules." Re-evolving evolution Today, cellular machinery coordinates a sophisticated process that involves proteins, DNA, and RNA all working in concert, with proteins typically serving as enzymes to catalyze reactions, and DNA and RNA storing and processing genetic information. If, as the RNA-world hypothesis states, RNA once was in the business of replicating RNA, then enzymes once were composed entirely of RNA and not amino acids--the building blocks of protein. The first step then, in creating an RNA- world theme park, is to create RNA enzymes from scratch. To do this, Bartel employs a process developed with Harvard Medical School's Jack Szostak: in vitro evolution, or evolution in a test tube. Workers in Bartel's lab fill tubes with anywhere from 1 trillion to 1 quadrillion RNA molecules, selecting for those that can expand by forming chemical bonds with other RNAs. The molecules that can do this are isolated; the rest are discarded. These new, bigger RNAs are multiplied, returned to the tube and tested again for the same ability. Again, losers are removed, and winners multiplied. As this cycle repeats, slight mutations often appear in the RNAs, some of which create molecules superior to the parent molecule. Says Bartel, "Really, we end up selecting for the survival of the best molecules, and then propagating those survivors"--Darwinian natural selection. So far, Bartel's lab has demonstrated that these new RNA molecules can act as enzymes. In this case, they can bind to an RNA template molecule that serves as the pattern for producing, one nucleotide at a time, another RNA. The Science paper reported both good and cautionary news. The good news was that these RNA enzymes are flexible and robust enough to bind to just about any kind of template regardless of its sequence-- findings that eluded earlier experiments. The more sobering news was that these new sequences of RNA are at most 14 nucleotides long, which, while still a major achievement, is far short of the roughly 200- nucleotide goal. As reported in Biochemistry, Bartel and Lawrence have now learned the reason for this. The actual process of assembling the new RNA is fast and efficient once binding occurs, but the binding doesn't last long enough to produce a complete replicate. "What we really need now," says Bartel, "is to work on the binding." Life was a garbage bag Less than four decades old, the RNA-world hypothesis has garnered widespread support within the scientific community. However, some researchers subscribe to an alternate view often called the "metabolism first" theory. This idea, in contrast to the RNA world's "information first" thesis, posits that a chaotic soup of small, random molecules led to chance metabolic reactions that evolved into modern cellular life. Stuart Kauffman, a biologist and RNA-world skeptic affiliated with the nonprofit research center Santa Fe Institute, believes the RNA hypothesis is narrow and fails to take into account the possibility that other polymeric molecules may be able to self-reproduce without making a copy of a template. He theorizes that life originated from a complex mixture of such polymers that eventually yielded autocatalytic reactions. A similar notion is Freeman Dyson's "garbage bag" hypothesis. Dyson, a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, NJ, believes that primordial soup was filled with membranes (garbage bags) that contained random chemicals not nearly as complex as RNA or DNA. These chemicals began catalyzing reactions in each other, some of which eventually caused the cell-like garbage bags to divide and thus evolve. Proponents of this view claim the key factor in early evolution is the garbage bag rather than the molecule. For University of California, Santa Cruz, chemistry professor David Deamer, it's inconceivable that RNA could have catalyzed and evolved outside the barrier of a cell membrane without just drifting off. Bartel, rather than countering these critics, takes seriously the need for some kind of cell-like barrier--or garbage bag. "If our lab is able to demonstrate that RNA can replicate RNA, a next step would be to synthesize a self-replicating system that can also evolve," he says. "To do this would require membranes, or some other type of compartmentalization." Harvard's Szostak, a prominent advocate of the RNA world, counters that he can't imagine a system as complex as cell formation and division not being preceded by some sort of informational transmission, such as RNA creating RNA. However, he adds that the RNA-world hypothesis isn't without its problems. "The big question," he says, "is whether RNA arose as the first genetic polymer from some prebiotic chemistry that we don't understand, or whether there were one or more progenitors of RNA. People are looking at many possible candidates for being a progenitor for RNA." Szostak looks not to a world of random metabolism, but rather to threose nucleic acid, or TNA, a molecule that, while not existing in nature, has been successfully synthesized in the lab. Szostak believes that TNA's relatively simple composition make it a likely candidate to have spawned RNA in a prebiotic world. In spite of the various theories, most researchers readily admit that, like the proverbial blind men trying to describe an elephant, each approach may have captured only one angle of life's origins. "We'll never really know the whole story of how life got started," says Bartel, "but every insight that we can discover is important. This is one of the most significant and fundamental questions in science, right up there with 'how does the mind work?' or 'how did the universe begin?'" Meanwhile, Bartel and his team continue working toward their goal of developing an RNA enzyme that can fully replicate other RNAs. "We're designing these RNAs as well as we can," Bartel says, "and what we can't design, we evolve." The more successful this re-evolving, the closer he gets to his theme park's grand opening. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article575.html. ________________________________________________________________________ ALPHA AND OMEGA: INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES SEIFE, PART II From Astrobiology Magazine 1 September 2003 Astrobiology magazine had the opportunity to discuss "how the universe began and how it will end" with Science magazine writer, Charles Seife. Seife is the author of a new book, Alpha and Omega, which describes how cosmologists today are trying to answer these age-old questions. Seife previously has written on the mathematical and cultural genesis of the number "zero". His latest adventures in cosmology bring a characteristic enthusiasm for a remarkable field undergoing a revolution. Alpha and Omega asks the questions: how did the universe begin and how will it end? And how do we know? Astrobiology Magazine (AM): How much of Alpha and Omega is about fitting the universe to human sensory data, given that proposals are put forward for exotic dark matter, and invisible parts of light spectra to explain why the universe "looks" the way it does? For instance, there is a long debate by Da Vinci to prove that the Sun itself is not the actual size you see, as written from the vantage point of a painter's lifelong study of perspective. But that would seem obvious to a child today, or anyone who watches a horse get bigger apparently as it approaches from the horizon. But not in his time. Are modern astronomers comparable to a version of perspective painters, confronted with creating new dimensions out of what our telescopes see as a flat canvas? Charles Seife (CS): Very much so. It doesn't take much imagination to think of the night sky as a sphere enclosing the Earth. It took a lot of work to show that the heavens had depth--vast depth. Astronomers have to use subtle clues to flesh out that extra dimension: parallax, Cepheid variables, the Tully-Fisher relation, and supernovae are all tools which gave scientists more and more understanding of how deep the universe really is. AM: Are the following notes roughly consistent with the synopsis? The universe is most likely: * flat (in a curvature sense, from measuring the clumpiness of the cosmic microwave background) * expanding (from redshift of starlight in all directions) * accelerating in this expansion (from supernova Ia data, where a red giant feeds a white dwarf to just the right density for a calibrated brightness measurement) * clumped energetically like an acoustic wave, and like Swiss cheese spatially under the influence of gravity and radiation * driven by the balance between gravity (mass density) and radiation pressure (initial energy) from the big bang. CS: That's pretty much correct, though there are interrelationships between the observations that make you more confident in each of these conclusions. The acoustic waves and [inflation?] were important until the universe was 400,000 years old and set the pattern for the clumping of matter in the cosmos; until then, the important forces were gravity and the radiation pressure of photons bouncing off of matter, set against the backdrop of an expanding universe. And don't forget dark energy in addition to gravity and the initial energy of the big bang as a driver! AM: Our observations are limited to about 400,000 years after the big bang (the most "ancient light"), when matter recombined and left us a faint hissing signature of microwaves. Would you consider it correct to say therefore, that we are surrounded all the time by the "stuff" that began it all, the microwave background? CS: Absolutely. It's as if we're surrounded by walls of fire. No matter where you look in the sky, the most distant, most ancient object visible to any sort of telescope is an image of the last scattering surface, the plasma that filled the universe when it was only 400,000 years old. However, there is a hope of peering beyond those walls, at least indirectly. The cosmic microwave background is polarized--the photons have preferred "orientations" at different parts of the sky--and that polarization contains information about gravity waves that rattled around the universe since a tiny fraction of a second after the big bang. The Planck satellite or its successors should be able to extract that information from the CMB. AM: To paraphrase what Richard Feynman said about particle physics, it can be compared to playing chess while seeing only four squares, watching chess pieces appear and disappear inside those four squares, and then guessing at the rest of the board and even the rules for the 60 unknown squares. Is there an added cosmological complication in the quest from Alpha to Omega, that the rules may change dramatically in the middle of the game? CS: There's always a chance that something dramatic will happen, but the longer you observe, the more confident you are in your models and the less "important" such a rule change will tend to be. I put "important" in quotation marks because I need to clarify what I mean--after all, quantum mechanics and relativity were incredibly important and dramatic changes of the rules that occurred after several centuries of scientific observation and theory. By "important," I don't mean philosophically important. Relativity and quantum mechanics each changed our understanding of space, time, and the limits of human understanding. But the magnitudes of the correction to classical equations are pretty small for both quantum mechanics and relativity in most cases. Newton and Maxwell still hold until you start dealing with very small objects or very fast objects or things in large gravitational fields or in solid state electronics or in other areas where the extensions of quantum mechanics or relativity are needed instead of classical laws. So even though quantum mechanics and relativity supplant classical laws, in a sense, they are extensions that are needed only under certain circumstances. In Feynman's analogy, they are like a rule for castling or a rule for en passant--they force you to change the seemingly ironclad dicta about the way pieces can move, but these new rules have fairly limited applicability compared to the grosser rules of the game. Yes, there are rules we don't know, and probably some of them will dramatically change the way we look at the universe. But the game of chess probably won't become a game of checkers all of a sudden; the rules we have learned will still apply most of the time, even if we have to modify them slightly to give them extended reach. AM: When Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson first mistook the microwave static in their antennae at Bell Labs as pigeons, how long was it before this anomaly became accepted as the signature hissing left over from the Big Bang? 1965, or much later? CS: I think it was pretty quick. The theory was there from the get-go-- the Princeton group had postulated the existence of the CMB and was setting up an experiment to detect it when they realized that they had been scooped by the Bell Labs group. By 1971, physicists were already making detailed predictions the nature of anisotropies in the CMB, and the Nobel was awarded in 1978. AM: The need for two-thirds of the universe to be invisible (dark matter), doesn't that remain a most uncomfortable proposition for modern science to find itself in? It seems even traditional views of gravity are safe with current theory. Is it considered the strongest current indirect observation of dark matter that the rotation of galaxies doesn't decay as gravity predicts for outlying stars that should orbit slower, but instead spiral at the same speed as inner stars? CS: It is uncomfortable, but scientists thrive on discomfort; after all, if your experiments always agree with expectations, you won't learn very much. And I think that the discomfort with dark energy is tempered by the fact that modern big bang theory already required a dark-energy-like phenomenon in the early universe; there had to be some energy driving the super-rapid period of inflation shortly after the initial singularity. Thus, the current model of the universe isn't really more complex than the one we already had. It's weirder, but it's not more Byzantine. There's a number of other indicators of dark matter besides the rotation rates of galaxies (which, of course, are what led Zwicky and Rubin to the idea of dark matter in the first place.) I'd argue that there's a stronger method nowadays: gravitational lensing on different scales. Groups like the MACHO project and OGLE have been studying dark matter with "microlensing," brief flickers in background stars that occur when a dark stellar-sized chunk of matter passes in front of it. Others have been looking at dark matter with "strong" and "weak" gravitational lensing, where the enormous mass of a galaxy or galaxy cluster distorts the image of distant light sources. AM: One remarkable story you tell which has rarely been translated out of the scientific literature involves the quest to associate star brightness with distance. This first try used variable stars (Cepheids), which were a primary target for the Hubble Space Telescope, and give a way to use parallelax to estimate the relative separation between far distant objects. The other is the supernovae Type Ia, which are a calibration for the stellar distribution and age--a measure of how fast the universe may be expanding. Both are tied to fleshing out a third (and fourth) dimension to the sky, so like the ancients, aren't we still grappling with the basics of we only can observe directly the brightness and position in the sky, not the depth nor age, without knowing initial conditions? Were you surprised at how much of the 14 billion year timeline hinges on this observational association between brightness and distance? And the key role played by what most people have heard little about: Cepheids and Type Ia supernova? CS: Measuring distance is a fundamental problem in astronomy, and it's why the supernova data are so important. Unless you have something to give you a direct clue, such as an object of known brightness such as a Cepheid or a Type-Ia, you've got to rely upon the Hubble relationship: if you know how fast something is receding from you, you know roughly how far away it is. Roughly. Measuring distance by Hubble is difficult. For one thing, dust tends to redden light, making the source look like it's receding faster than it actually is. For another, bodies have their own "peculiar" motion in addition to the relative motion caused by the expansion of space--motion toward or away from Earth distorts the apparent distance. (This sort of effect can make a spherical galaxy cluster can wind up looking like a long finger pointing at the Earth, something known as the "finger of God effect.") And worst of all, your distance estimate is dependent on your model of the expansion and on the Hubble constant, which, until very recently, wasn't known terribly well. It was somewhat surprising to realize how important such a basic thing as measuring distance was to all three cosmological revolutions. Tycho Brahe showed that a comet was very distant and so, along with his supernova, showed that the heavens weren't immutable. Hubble measured the distance to galaxies and showed that the universe was larger than just our own Milky Way and that it probably had to have a beginning. And the present revolution began when the measurements of supernova distances changed the way astronomers thought about the forces that drive the universe's expansion. AM: Is there any need for "antigravity" in reconciling the size of the universe with Einstein's cosmological constant, if alternatively there is dark matter? In other words does this force go away if the critical density itself is adjusted? CS: The force would only go away if the critical density were reduced by two thirds or if there were indications that the universe was strongly negatively curved. Dark energy is such an overwhelming component of the universe (according to measurements of the CMB, supernovae, galaxy clusters, primordial gas clouds, and other astronomical objects) it's hard to get around it by slight adjustments. AM: You mention also the great debate between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis in April 1920 about the size of the universe. Shapley believed in one galaxy, and Curtis envisioned millions of them, of which our Milky Way is just one. Anything else from your research into that debate that didn't make into final print? No one won, or could have won, until Hubble and some telescopic proof either way. In what ways are our current theories of the universe similarly hindered by a lack of good observational data today? CS: There are lots of things that cosmologists would love to see that are just barely out of reach. I already mentioned polarization of the cosmic microwave background. Just last year, scientists got their first, blurry, glimpse of that polarization, but it will be a few years before anyone can get a precise enough picture to see a crucial component of that polarization that will reveal the nature of gravity waves in the early universe. Once they see it, though, they'll have a signal that comes directly from the inflationary era--something that might well tell them about what caused the dramatic expansion of the infant universe. Cosmologists would like to know a lot more about dark energy, too, and they're awaiting data from a number of fronts before they can really figure out what its properties are. They'd like to see many, many more supernovae as well as lots more "Lyman-alpha" objects--filaments of gas in deep space that will give a better handle on the behavior of dark energy. On Earth, particle physicists are eagerly awaiting the startup of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva toward the end of the decade. This massive accelerator will finally reveal whether the theory known as "supersymmetry" is correct. If it is, then particle physicists will probably find the particle that is responsible for the majority of dark matter. Until then, or until somebody in a neutrino observatory gets lucky and detects this "exotic" dark matter directly, cosmologists won't be able to figure out what most of the mass in the universe is made of. AM: So our readers will have to know, when will the universe end? CS: I'm not sure--but it'll almost certainly be on a Monday. Seriously, though, the death-by-ice scenario doesn't come with a specific date attached; unlike the big crunch, which has a finite termination point, an ever-expanding universe (with a couple of theoretical exceptions) will die only when the usable hydrogen in the cosmos is consumed and (perhaps) protons themselves decay. It will be many, many billions of years hence--longer than the current age of the universe. In comparison, we've got about a billion years of life on Earth before the sun's increasing temperature evaporates the oceans. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article577.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW STUDY OF JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA MAY EXPLAIN MYSTERIOUS ICE DOMES, PLACES TO SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF LIFE University of Colorado at Boulder release 2 September 2003 A new University of Colorado at Boulder study of Jupiter's moon Europa may help explain the origin of the giant ice domes peppering its surface and the implications for discovering evidence of past or present life forms there. Assistant Professor Robert Pappalardo and doctoral student Amy Barr previously believed the mysterious domes may be formed by blobs of ice from the interior of the frozen shell that were being pushed upward by thermal upwelling from warmer ice underneath. Europa is believed to harbor an ocean beneath its icy surface. But the scientists now think the dome creation also requires small amounts of impurities, such as sodium chloride or sulfuric acid. Basically the equivalent of table salt or battery acid, these compounds melt ice at low temperatures, allowing warmer, more pristine blobs of ice to force the icy surface up in places, creating the domes. "We have been trying for some time to understand how these ice blobs can push up through the frozen shell of Europa, which is likely about 13 miles thick," said Pappalardo of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department. "Our models now show that a combination of upwelling warm ice in the frozen shell's interior, combined with small amounts of impurities such as sodium chloride or sulfuric acid, would provide enough of a force to form these domes." A paper on the subject co-authored by Pappalardo and Barr was presented at the annual Division of Planetary Sciences Meeting held September 2 through September 6 in Monterey, CA. DPS is an arm of the American Astronomical Society. The meeting schedule is available at http://dps03.arc.nasa.gov/administrative/schedule/index.html. Europa appears to have strong tidal action as it elliptically orbits Jupiter--strong enough "to squeeze the moon" and heat its interior, said Pappalardo. "Warm ice blobs rise upward through the ice shell toward the colder surface, melting out saltier regions in their path. The less dense blobs can continue rising all the way to the surface to create the observed domes." The domes are huge--some more than four miles in diameter and 300 feet high--and are found in clusters on Europa's surface, said Barr, who did much of the modeling. "We are excited about our research, because we think it now is possible that any present or past life or even just the chemistry of the ocean may be lifted to the surface, forming these domes. It essentially would be like an elevator ride for microbes." Barr likened the upwelling of warmer ice from the inner ice shell to its surface to a pot of boiling spaghetti sauce. "The burner under the pan sends the hottest sauce to the top, creating the bubbles at the surface," she said. "The trouble is Europa's icy skin is as cold and as hard as a rock." The idea that either small amounts of salt or sulfuric acid might help to create Europa's domes was Pappalardo's, who knew about similar domes on Earth that form in clumps in arid regions. On Earth, it is salt that is buoyant enough to move up through cracks and fissures in rock formations to form dome clusters at the surface. "In addition, infrared and color images taken of Europa by NASA's Galileo spacecraft seem to indicate some of the ice on the surface of these domes is contaminated. Impurities seen at the surface are clues to the internal composition of the Jovian moon, telling of a salty ice shell," he said. "The surface of Europa is constantly being blasted by radiation from Jupiter, which likely precludes any life on the moon's surface," said Barr. "But a spacecraft might be able to detect signs of microbes just under the surface." Both Pappalardo and Barr also are affiliated with CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The project was funded by NASA's Exobiology Program and Graduate Student Research Program. Pappalardo recently served on a National Research Council panel that reaffirmed a spacecraft should be launched in the coming decade with the goal of orbiting Europa. He currently is part of a NASA team developing goals for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission. The scientific objectives of the mission probably will include confirming the presence of an ocean at Europa, remotely measuring the composition of the surface and scouting out potential landing sites for a follow-on lander mission. Read the original news release at http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2003/340.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-europa-03c.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0309/02europa/ ________________________________________________________________________ LIFE'S LIMIT By Rocco Mancinelli, SETI Institute Principal Investigator 2 September 2003 "You don't have to go far to see extremeophiles here in northern California," Rocco Mancinelli once told a crowd of astronomy lovers in a Bay Area lecture hall. People giggled. But Mancinelli wasn't talking extreme life styles or fashion; he was talking about microbes. Specifically, salt-loving halophiles that thrive in the crimson patchwork of evaporation pools--those commercial salt extraction ponds clustered along southern portions of the San Francisco Bay. Tiny creatures that thrive in harsh conditions on Earth are of great fascination to astrobiologists. Mancinelli describes his area of expertise: astrobiology is an enormous field with ambitious goals. It seeks to understand the origin and evolution of life on Earth, to determine if life exists elsewhere, and to predict the future of life on our planet and in the rest of the universe. My own work within this field is also cross-disciplinary, and touches upon several elements of this big picture. In order to understand how life began on Earth, I study the origin of the chemical compounds that make up living organisms, and what kind of chemistry and geology are necessary to create an environment capable of supporting life. My research interests encompass ecology, physiology, biogeochemistry, and geochemistry. Skills and techniques from all these fields help me better understand how an environment will shape, sustain and constrain the origin and evolution of life. I currently examine four living systems in these studies. I study: * halophiles, salt-loving microbes in the evaporitic salt crusts that form along marine intertidal zones; * microbial mats inhabiting diverse environments (for example, the intertidal area of the Baja coast, the alkaline and acid hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, hypersaline lakes and the perennially ice- covered lakes in the dry valleys of Antarctica; * areas where rock (desert) varnish occurs; and * the space environment in Earth orbit. I examine the organisms in these unique and challenging environments, study the mechanisms by which they survive and flourish in their current environment, and subject them to further rigors to test the limits of their survival mechanisms. The results of such experiments allow me to model the interactions of microbes with other microbes, and with their environment, and the role of nitrogen in these living systems. These models help us formulate hypotheses about the evolution of the nitrogen cycle, and the role exogenous sources of fixed nitrogen in the physiology of nitrogen metabolism, biogeochemistry and microbe community structure. We also use these models to extrapolate from what is known about the environment (geochemistry and climatology) of early Mars in an attempt to determine the potential for life to evolve on that planet. Nitrogen seems a the key element for two reasons: 1) It (fixed-N) is an important limiting nutrient in many terrestrial systems; and 2) It appears that N would have been one of the most important limiting nutrients on Mars as well. A common thread ties all my research projects together; I am searching for the definitive environmental limits in which life can arise and evolve on planets. Seeking these limits leads my research into examining the potential for life to arise elsewhere in the solar system, for example, Mars. Because Mars shares many common attributes to Earth, (this is particularly true for its early planetary history), it is the only other planet in the solar system that had potential for life to arise. This makes Mars a particularly appropriate test-bed for assessing the probability, and environmental parameters necessary for life's origin and early evolution. We know that the essential major and minor biogenic elements exist on Mars, and that its temperatures, pressures and radiation levels would not have precluded the origin and evolution of life. The primary factor in determining if life could have arisen on Mars lies in determining if liquid water existed on its surface for sufficient time. The history of water lies within the mineralogy of the rocks. My research with Mars soil analogs (using differential thermal analysis coupled with gas chromatography) will allow me to interpret data from the suite of upcoming Mars missions and help answering the question of whether Mars ever possessed sufficient liquid water for life to evolve. This in turn may elucidate and define the limits for the origin and early evolution of life on earth. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article578.html. ________________________________________________________________________ METHANE MAY BE CAUSE OF MASS EXTINCTION Northwestern University release 2 September 2003 What caused the worst mass extinction in Earth's history 251 million years ago? An asteroid or comet colliding with Earth? A greenhouse effect? Volcanic eruptions in Siberia? Or an entirely different culprit? A Northwestern University chemical engineer believes the culprit may be an enormous conflagration caused by methane (natural gas) erupting from the ocean depths. In an article published in the September issue of Geology, Gregory Ryskin, associate professor of chemical engineering, suggests that huge explosive clouds of methane gas, initially trapped in stagnant bodies of water and suddenly released, could have killed off the majority of marine life and land animals and plants at the end of the Permian era-- long before dinosaurs lived and died. The mechanism also might explain other extinctions and climate perturbations (ice ages) and even the Biblical flood, as well as be the cause of future catastrophes. Ryskin calculated that some 10,000 gigatons of dissolved methane could have accumulated in water near the ocean floor under high pressure. If released quickly, perhaps triggered by an earthquake, the resulting cloud of methane would have an explosive force about 10,000 times greater than the world's entire stockpile of nuclear weapons. The huge conflagrations plus flooding and overturned oceans would cause the extinctions. (Approximately 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were lost.) "That amount of energy is absolutely staggering," said Ryskin. "As soon as one accepts this mechanism, it becomes clear that if it happened once it could happen again. I have little doubt there will be another methane-driven eruption--though not on the same scale as 251 million years ago--unless humans intervene." Contact: Megan Fellman Phone: 847-491-3115 E-mail: fellman@northwestern.edu Read the original news release at http://www.northwestern.edu/univ- relations/media_relations/releases/2003_09/methane.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article582.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-03g.html ________________________________________________________________________ BRIDGING THE GAP: A DISCUSSION WITH FREEMAN DYSON, PART II From the Planetary Society and Astrobiology Magazine 3 September 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. Lou: Do you think we'll be putting the lasers in space or on the Moon? Freeman: I would say in space, but I think that's a matter of convenience. One of the problems with the Moon is day and night 14 days of night is inconvenient if you're talking about solar energy. Lou: A nuclear-powered laser doesn't make much sense. Freeman: It makes no sense at all. Nuclear power is fine for getting around the solar system. But it's no good if you're talking about really high speeds you're only using 1 percent of the mass. That's no good at all. With the power available from nuclear reactors, whether fission or fusion, you can comfortably reach speeds on the order of 100 kilometers [60 miles] a second or so which allows you to go more or less anywhere you want in the solar system within a couple of years, maybe even quicker. But if you're serious, you really want to travel at something like half the speed of light, which is tens of thousands of kilometers per second. So, the amounts of energy you need are enormously larger, and neither fission nor fusion has that much energy. At the very most, if you consume the fuel at 100 percent efficiency and have no other machinery on board, you're using a little less than 1 percent of the mass. Lou: Freeman, you said you weren't intimidated by lasers, and I'm not intimidated by the sail. However, we agree that the biology, the challenge of human space travel long distance, is very hard. One revolution that may make interstellar flight more practical is the information revolution. We might be able to build brains and communication power into the wispy structure of the sail itself. You wouldn't need to send humans at all. Freeman: But people would like to go. Bruce: Still, there may be 200 years' difference between sending robotic spacecraft and sending humans. Freeman: Oh, certainly. It's the same with exploring the solar system. We've done that with robots very beautifully, making human pilots, from a scientific point of view, irrelevant. We'll send humans for the human adventure. When I said it will take 500 years to go interstellar, I was thinking of humans. When you're talking about instruments only, then we could probably cut that in half. Lou: Probably the biggest challenge will be to get a data rate that's kilobits per seconds; megabits would be better. Bruce: Mariner 4 was 8 bits per second. So, don't knock it. We learned a lot. Eight bits per second from Alpha Centauri would be wonderful. Lou: Only if we can use Bob Forward's scheme of slowing down. Eight bits per second zooming through the Alpha Centauri system wouldn't be good. Forward came up with an idea for a detachable sail that, after positioning itself out in front, reflects the light back so it can be used as a brake system. Freeman: I think you can probably do better using magnetic fields, but that we will learn in due time. Lou: Do you mean generating a magnetic field? Freeman: Well, interacting with interstellar plasma. But we don't really know how to do that yet. It's not energy you need then, but mass--something to drag you to a halt. If you want to decelerate, you don't need energy, you've got more energy than you want. You've got to have some way of dissipating the energy something massive to absorb your momentum. So, if you could couple yourself into the interstellar plasma, which has lots of mass, you could use that to brake. The question is, can you couple yourself magnetically to the plasma in such a way that you use it as a cushion to bring yourself to a halt? In principle, it looks as if it would work, but whether it really does, we don't know yet. Lou: Two things have happened since the interstellar flight conference more than 20 years ago: the advancement of information processing and the microminiaturization of spacecraft. With that in mind, Freeman, would you describe yourself as more optimistic or about the same in terms of robotic interstellar flight in this century? Freeman: Well, I would say about the same. Judging from what we know now, I would say we're not going to make it this century, but that could easily be wrong. Bruce: I have a question for Freeman that I want to be sure to get in. Carl Sagan wrote about wormholes or worm tubes as a way to travel the solar system and beyond. The physics seems to be relatively stable. What do you think? Freeman: That certainly could change things totally. But, in fact, I don't think our understanding of wormholes has improved at all in the last 30 years. As far as we know, there's absolutely no way they could actually function. All the models with imaginary wormholes don't allow you to travel through them. There are all sorts of impossibilities you have to deal with in order to get from one end to another. I would say that one of the best features of the universe, as far as I'm concerned, is the speed limit. It's a guarantee of privacy you just get far enough away and you're out of sight. I find that very consoling. Lou: But it's philosophically not very acceptable. It's a limit. Freeman: I find it very acceptable. Bruce: Let me ask you another off-the-wall question. By your reasoning, it will take our civilization maybe 250 years from now to send a payload, and another 250 years to send a human, to another star. If that's the case, there are presumably other planets out there with civilizations. They must have had the same opportunity. Where is everyone? Freeman: It is a paradox. I tend to believe that life is much more difficult to get started than people seem to imagine. Of course, we know nothing about the origin of life, it is still a total mystery. The simple explanation is that life is very rare, and that to me would be quite plausible as this planet does seem to be very suited to life or life is very suited to this planet. It's not a big surprise that we don't see anybody out there. To me, it makes absolutely no sense to calculate probabilities. The exciting thing is to look, whether or not we find anything. Our solar system is so big and there's so much variety out there, I think we'll be less excited about interstellar travel because there will be exciting things we'll discover along the way. It won't be such a big jump once we're traveling farther and farther from Earth and finding unexpected surprises. There may be many things going on out there of which we have no conception at the moment. Bruce: I think that is very true, and this kind of exploration will happen because it's doable, and the technology, both the miniaturization and the computing electronics, is making it easier and easier to do. Freeman: And I would say that biology is going to be even more important. We'll find ways of growing crops on Mars and growing potatoes on Europa and so on. As soon as we have a little better control of biology, most of these worlds will be habitable but in very different ways. We'll have totally different ecologies in each place. Lou: We'll learn a lot about the search for life and the habitability on other planets from our experience here in the solar system especially on Mars and Europa and we'll make some conclusions about the rest of the universe based on that. Freeman: The fact that we're getting stuff from Beta Pictoris also changes one's view of panspermia the idea of life moving from place to place in space. If there are creatures living around Beta Pictoris, then they're probably already here. If an organism is already adapted to living in a vacuum, interstellar travel is not all that big a problem. Lou: I'm glad to hear you say that, Freeman. You're well-known for being provocative and creative, with a lot of ideas that are intellectually stimulating, and yet in most of this conversation, you've been the conservative, pessimistic one. Freeman: I only think you're asking the wrong questions. My point is that sending humans on an interstellar trip is not really the interesting thing. There are so many more interesting things you can do in the time you have available. Bruce: Like getting material from Beta Pictoris in the lab, where we could really look at it carefully--that's exciting. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article581.html. ________________________________________________________________________ SURFACE WATER POSSIBLE UNDER MARS-LIKE CONDITIONS By Melissa Blouin University of Arkansas, Fayetteville release 3 September 2003 A team of researchers from the University of Arkansas has measured water evaporation rates under Mars-like conditions, and their findings favor the presence of surface water on the planet. Water on the planet's surface makes the existence of past or present life on Mars a little more likely, according to the group. Derek Sears, director of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, and his colleagues graduate student Shauntae Moore and technician Mikhail Kareev reported their initial findings at the fall 2003 meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the AAS. The researchers have brought on-line a large planetary environmental chamber in which temperature, pressure, atmosphere, sunlight and soil conditions can be reproduced. Sears and his colleagues use the chamber to investigate the persistence of water under a range of physical environments and to study its evaporation. For their first experiments, reported at the DPS meeting, the group chose to measure one of the most important properties of water on a planetary surface, the rate at which it evaporates. "Physicists have long argued that Mars is currently a sterile desert, completely unsuited to life," Sears said. "This conclusion is based on their belief that water would evaporate very quickly, as soon as it appeared on the surface." The University of Arkansas group examined the effect of Mars' atmospheric conditions--temperature and wind--on the evaporation rate. The movement of the atmosphere close to the surface is a crucial factor in the survival of water on Mars. Water evaporates more slowly when evaporated molecules build up over the water's surface, but wind sweeps away evaporated molecules, allowing more water molecules to escape the surface and increasing evaporation rates. "These findings suggest that even under worst case scenarios, where wind is maximizing evaporation, evaporation rates on Mars are quite low," Sears said. This implies that surface water could indeed exist, or have existed recently, under the given conditions on Mars. In addition to the evaporation experiments, the group examines the ways in which water-ice behaves when frozen at depth and how it reacts when covered with layers of frost or dust. They also explore how ice behaves when exposed on the surface, and whether it can exist in a transient liquid phase that could harbor life. The subtle balance between the input of heat from the Sun and subsurface sources and the strength of the surface atmospheric motions determines the fate of the water; whether it remains as ice, becomes liquid, and if so how long it remains as a liquid, or how quickly it evaporates. "The environmental chamber will enable us to gain new insights into the behavior of water on Mars and reduce much of the speculation on this topic," said Barney Farmer, principal investigator for the atmospheric water vapor mapping experiment during the Viking missions and a member of the Arkansas research group. Contacts: Derek Sears, professor, chemistry and biochemistry, Fulbright College Director, Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences Phone: 479-575-5204, E-mail: dsears@uark.edu Melissa Blouin, science and research communications manager Phone: 479-575-5555 E-mail: blouin@uark.edu Read the original news release at http://advancement.uark.edu/news/SEP03/sears.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/water_mars_030904.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-03o.html. ________________________________________________________________________ ASTEROID 2003 QQ47'S POTENTIAL EARTH IMPACT IN 2014 RULED OUT By Paul W. Chodas and Steven R. Chesley NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov 3 September 2003 Newly discovered asteroid 2003 QQ47 has received considerable media attention over the last few days because it had a small chance of colliding with the Earth in the year 2014 and was rated a "1" on the Torino impact hazard scale, which goes from 0 to 10. The odds of collision in 2014, as estimated by JPL's Sentry impact monitoring system, peaked at 1 chance in 250,000, a result which was posted on our Impact Risk Page (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risko) on Saturday, August 30. Impact events at the Torino Scale 1 level certainly merit careful monitoring by astronomers, but these events do not warrant public concern. In fact, each year several newly discovered asteroids reach Torino Scale 1 for a brief period after discovery; 2003 QQ47 is the fourth such case this year. As astronomers continue to monitor an asteroid and measure its position, more precise predictions can be made. On September 2, new measurements of QQ47's position allowed us to narrow our prediction of its path in 2014, and thus we could rule out any Earth impact possibilities for 2014. In our Impact Risk Page for 2003 QQ47, the entry for the year 2014 has now disappeared, although a number of potential impact events remain for later years. We expect that these too will be ruled out in the coming days as astronomers continue to track the object and we refine our orbit predictions. These seemingly large day-to-day changes in impact predictions for newly discovered asteroids are just what we expect. In the few days after an asteroid is first discovered, its orbit is known only very approximately. The range of possible positions in future years is wide and can easily encompass the Earth, but as the object continues to be tracked, the range of possibilities shrinks quickly, allowing us to rule out any possibility of impact. This process is ongoing for 2003 QQ47, and could take days or even weeks before all potential impacts are ruled out. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3200019.stm http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_norisk_030903.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-03k.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030903111219.bsj7nkl3.html ________________________________________________________________________ ALL OUT FIGHT BEGINS FOR FUTURE OF US SPACE PROGRAM, MARS SOCIETY CALLS FOR MOBILIZATION Mars Society release 4 September 2003 The week since the release of the damning Gehman report on the Columbia Shuttle disaster has seen an all out fight emerge on the future of the US space program. NASA's policy of maintaining a human presence in space without a discernable goal has come under withering criticism. On the one side are those who, pointing to the present program, say the risks and costs of human spaceflight are unjustifiable, and therefore such activity should be curtailed or eliminated. On the other are those who insist that the space program be given a goal that is worthy of the costs and risk human spaceflight necessarily entails. Between the two, the middle course of continuing to tread water is becoming increasingly untenable. NASA must start swimming, or it will drown. Stagnation is not an option. Those who want there to be a real American space program need to come out swinging. Some are. On Friday, August 29, USA Today founder, Al Neuharth, editorialized calling for a 10 year commitment to send humans to Mars. Numerous other newspapers and radio stations have opened their media to Mars Society members to make the same case, with coverage over the past two weeks including CNN, the BBC, The Toronto Globe and Mail, US News and World Report, the Boston Herald, the Houston Chronicle, the Boulder Camera, the Denver Post, Liberation, and many local radio stations. Many in the political class are also beginning to pick up the call as well. At hearings Sept 2, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) said he wants to know "NASA's vision for the future." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) said "I believe the agency needs a new culture of bold innovation and creativity." Rep Bart Gordon, (D-TN) said; "There has to be a goal." The most exciting news, however, is leaking out of the White House. According to Washington Post writers Mike Allen and Eric Pianin, writing August 29, the Bush Administration is now considering a radical redirection of the American space program, with the option of a commitment to human interplanetary exploration squarely on the table. "Administration officials disclosed in an interview that the White House will begin work next week on a blueprint for interplanetary human flight over the next 20 or 30 years, with plans calling for Bush to issue an ambitious new national vision for space travel by early next year. The officials said they will wrestle with the military's role in space, as well as with whether to emphasize manned or robotic missions, whether to build a base in space, what vehicle should replace the shuttle and what planets should be visited. "The question is: What do we say to the president about why we should continue humans in space and in what vehicles and to what ends?" a senior administration official said." In other words, it could go either way. We need to make sure it goes our way. This debate will play out over the next six months, and the result could determine the future of the American space program in our generation. Now is the time when anyone who cherishes hopes for a spacefaring future for humanity must step forward and speak up. At its 6th International Conference held in Eugene, Oregon last month, the Mars Society initiated a mobilization of its own chapters to meet with congressmen in their home office, with a goal of 300 meetings over the next six months. In view of the critical nature of the current situation, this mobilization needs to be both accelerated and expanded. We call upon all other space advocacy organizations and unaffiliated individuals to join us in this effort. We need to send every member of the political class a message consisting of the following points. 1. America needs to continue to be nation of pioneers, and space is the frontier. 2. The problem with NASA is not that it has taken risks, but that has taken risks without a goal worthy of those risks. 3. NASA's current policy of trying to make headway in space through miscellaneous technology development programs to spread money around its various internal constituencies is a failure. We are spending 90% of the average 1961-73 NASA budget ($17 billion/year) in real inflation- adjusted dollars, and achieving less than 1% the results. In consequence, we are no closer today to sending humans to Mars then we were 20 years ago. To make progress, NASA needs to be given a goal and a schedule. The goal should be humans to Mars. The schedule should be 10 years. 4. The Shuttle Orbiter is a high-risk vehicle whose use is only rational for a limited class of missions, such as Hubble repair. But the Shuttle launch stack can be readily converted to a heavy lift vehicle capable of lifting 120 tons to LEO or throwing 45 tons directly to the Moon or Mars by replacing the Orbiter with a payload fairing and rocket stage. That is what should be done, and a coherent set of payload elements developed to enable such direct-launch human exploration expeditions. 5. Back to the Moon in five years as an initial milestone, on to Mars in 10. We can do it. We overcame much greater challenges to reach the Moon a generation and a half ago. Accepting the line of those who say we can't is equivalent to accepting the idea that we have become something less than what we used to be, and that is something we truly cannot afford. So mobilize now. Write George Bush. Insist on meeting with your congressman and senators. The choice, as Wells said, is the universe-- or nothing. To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org. ________________________________________________________________________ NASA HAS A VISION, IT'S OUR NATION THAT NEEDS GLASSES By Jim Banke From Space.com 4 September 2003 Wading through the huge volume of editorials and opinion pieces that followed the release of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) final report, one can't help wonder if most were written by people with scant knowledge of NASA's history. Many of the pieces seemed to come from commentators who watched CNN or the Fox News Channel for five minutes. A lot of analysts, quoting certain lawmakers and "outside experts," just seem ill-informed, more interested in being quoted than in actually offering productive advice. If their vision of the future is to be collectively believed, we face a dismal future in which the United States stays home, feet firmly planted on terra firma, hoping to avoid any chance of danger or harm. To them, risk is a four-letter word. In that world, the space shuttle can never be made safe, is too expensive to operate and should never fly again. Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour are death traps waiting to torture more families with the loss of loved ones. Some suggest the International Space Station (ISS) should be abandoned and dumped into the ocean before we waste another billion dollars. And to solve NASA's culture problem, they say, let's get rid of all the space agency's top managers. That includes Sean O'Keefe, who as a self- admitted bean counter is clearly the single person responsible for all of NASA's financial and operational woes--none of which he could have possibly inherited from his predecessor. This is all hogwash. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/news/commentary_vision_030904.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NASA ASKS STUDENTS TO HELP DESIGN ORBITAL SPACE COLONY NASA/ARC release 03-68AR 4 September 2003 As children around the world begin the new school year, NASA scientists are seeking their help in designing an orbital space colony. NASA Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley, is holding its annual Space Settlement Contest and inviting students from around the world to develop and submit their designs for permanent space communities. "The annual Space Settlement Contest inspires our next generation of explorers to use the science, technology and mathematical skills acquired through formal learning to become engaged in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery," said contest organizer Barbara Navarro of NASA Ames. Sponsored by the NASA Office of Biological and Physical Research through the NASA Ames Life Sciences Division, the contest is open to students in grades 6 through 12. Contestants are invited to submit their models, artwork and stories by mail to Bryan Yager at Mail Stop 236-7, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035. Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2004. "What's unique about this contest is that it is not only for science- oriented students, but also for writers, young artists and social commentators," said Navarro. "In this contest, we are trying to tap the creative minds of our youth." All 2004 Space Settlement Contest participants will receive a certificate of recognition. The grand prize, and first, second and third-place award winners, will be invited to visit NASA Ames in June 2004, to tour its cutting-edge research facilities and meet with NASA scientists. For more information about NASA Ames' annual Space Settlement Contest on the Internet, visit http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/Contest. Contact: Victoria Steiner NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-0176 or 650-604-9000 E-mail: Victoria.L.Steiner@nasa.gov ________________________________________________________________________ THE SCIENCE AND ETHICS OF SEEDING THE UNIVERSE By Michael Mautner 5 September 2003 Directed panspermia missions to new solar systems can assure that life will expand in the universe. With such powers, we can affect the future of life and even the evolution of the physical universe. It is important to develop both a scientific evaluation and an ethical structure that will guide these programs. A life-centered space ethics Science helps to identify our position in nature and to define a human purpose. We understand that life is unique in nature. Living matter has uniquely intricate structures which are allowed by a precise coincidence of physical laws and constants. In this sense, the physical universe came to a unique point in life. We can be proud to be part of this unique family of organic life. We are united with all life by common gene/protein structures, a common ancestry, the exchanges of genes, judgment by survival, and a shared future. All life is also united by self-perpetuation. Living beings invest their best efforts to perpetuate their patterns, as if to pursue self-propagation deliberately. Where there is life, there is therefore purpose. Being part of life defines the human purpose: to forever propagate life and to elevate life into a dominant force in the universe. This purpose defines the basic values of a panbiotic ethics that values all life, present and future: that which promotes life is good; that which destroys life is evil. Astroecology and space resources Recent results in experimental astroecology show that materials in space contain adequate bioavailable nutrients. These materials are basically similar to materials on Earth and can support complex biosystems. These straightforward results have far-reaching implications: if life can flourish or Earth, then life can flourish throughout the universe. Seeding the galaxy We can soon start to expand life by seeding new solar systems nearby in the galaxy and clusters of young solar systems in star-forming interstellar clouds. Technologies such as solar sailing will allow us in the near future to launch swarms of microorganisms and some small multicellular organisms toward new worlds. Biological engineering will help to optimise these payloads for survival and fast evolution. They may start new chains of evolution, some of which may bring forth intelligent species who will further promote life in the universe. The road to space: serving human needs The first steps in space will require major investments. These barriers can be overcome if these programs serve human needs. Economical programs may include mining the asteroids, diverting threatening asteroids, constructing space screens to control the climate, and deploying space-based gene repositories for endangered species. Designing space-based humans Later, engineered evolution will adapt humans to live freely in space. Some of the new life-forms may have to be combined with durable robots, but organic life will be safe if control remains vested in organic brains with self-interest to continue the gene-protein life-form. A new biotic ethics will help us to decide which human features can change and which must be preserved to keep us human and part of organic life. The ultimate future of life Science allows us to estimate the ultimate extent of life in the universe. The principal resources in this and other solar systems will be organic materials, nutrient electrolytes and water in carbonaceous asteroids and in comets. Using planetary microcosms based on meteorites, we found that these materials can support diverse organisms. Based on the results on these resources and on astronomical predictions, we can estimate the amounts of possible biomass and populations in the cosmological future. We can quantify the future amount of life in terms of time-integrated biomass. Considering the resources of materials and energy, the ultimate time-integrated amount of living matter may be as much as 1059 kilogram-years, immensely more than what have existed to the present. The great expansion of life will lead to much biological diversity and will allow multitudes of intelligent beings to enjoy conscious existence. Science will advance much further. Our remote descendants will transform the universe to maximize life and will seek eternity. When our descendants fill the universe with life, our human existence will have fulfilled a cosmic purpose. For the present, we understand that life, which is precious to us, is unique in nature. We know that we are united with all gene/protein organic life by our intricate structures, by our common ancestry and by our shared future. Our unity with all life defines the human purpose: to forever safeguard and propagate life and to advance life into a dominant force in the universe. Guided by a panbiotic ethics, we can soon start to advance life by seeding young solar systems. These subjects are discussed in The Purpose and Future of Life: The Science and Ethics of Seeding the Universe, M. N. Mautner, Legacy Books, available at www.panspermia-society.com. An e-book version is available for a limited time at www.ebookomatic.com (in ebookstore, search author for Mautner). Contact: Michael Mautner E-mail: info@eco88.com ______________________________________________________________________________________ ASTEROIDS ARE PROBABLY A THREAT. MAYBE? By Fraser Cain From Universe Today 5 September 2003 Well, you can all breath a sigh of relief, Asteroid 2003 QQ47 isn't going to smash into Earth on March 21, 2014 and cause widespread death and destruction. But then, if you've been a regular follower of space news, you're probably not really surprised. Astronomers release a warning almost every year that a space rock has some outside chance of striking the Earth, and then revise their estimates shortly afterwards thanks to more observations. The first big rock to freak out the public was Asteroid 1997 XF11; it was supposed to strike the Earth in October 26, 2028. Even though the original threat was still remote, the mass media picked up on this. There were full-page articles in major newspapers, the cover of magazines, and on the evening news. Astronomers quickly followed up the story with a retraction. Not only would XF11 miss the Earth, it would miss by almost a million kilometers, or 2.5 times further than the Moon. New reports of killer asteroids have come out in the following years, with wiser astronomers being a little more conservative in their predictions. With QQ47, the first stories pegged the chances of a strike at 1 in 909,000; not much higher than the background risk that the Earth faces every year from getting hit by an asteroid. The risk has since been downgraded. Read the full article at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/asteroids_threat_maybe.html. ________________________________________________________________________ FARTHEST, FAINTEST SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS FOUND BEYOND NEPTUNE Space Telescope Science Institute release STScI-PR03-25 6 September 2003 Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three of the faintest and smallest objects ever detected beyond Neptune. Each object is a lump of ice and rock--roughly the size of Philadelphia-- orbiting beyond Neptune and Pluto, where the icy bodies may have dwelled since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. They reside in a ring-shaped region called the Kuiper Belt, which houses a swarm of icy rocks that are leftover building blocks, or planetesimals," from the solar system's creation. The results of the search were announced by a group led by astronomer Gary Bernstein of the University of Pennsylvania at today's meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences in Monterey, CA. The study's big surprise is that so few Kuiper Belt members were discovered. With Hubble's exquisite resolution, Bernstein and his co- workers expected to find at least 60 Kuiper Belt members as small as 10 miles (15 km) in diameter--but only three were discovered. "Discovering many fewer Kuiper Belt objects than was predicted makes it difficult to understand how so many comets appear near Earth, since many comets were thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt," Bernstein says. "This is a sign that perhaps the smaller planetesimals have been shattered into dust by colliding with each other over the past few billion years." Bernstein and his colleagues used Hubble to look for planetesimals that are much smaller and fainter than can be seen from ground-based telescopes. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys was pointed at a region in the constellation Virgo over a 15-day period in January and February 2003. A bank of 10 computers on the ground worked for six months searching for faint-moving spots in the Hubble images. The search netted three small objects, named 2003 BF91, 2003 BG91, and 2003 BH91, which range in size from 15-28 miles (25-45 km) across. They are the smallest objects ever found beyond Neptune. At their current locations, these icy bodies are a billion times fainter (29th magnitude) than the dimmest objects visible to the naked eye. But an icy body of this size that escapes the Kuiper Belt to wander near the Sun can become visible from Earth as a comet as the wandering body starts to evaporate and form a surrounding cloud. Astronomers are probing the Kuiper Belt because the region offers a window on the early history of our solar system. The planets formed over 4 billion years ago from a cloud of gas and dust that surrounded the infant Sun. Microscopic bits of ice and dust stuck together to form lumps that grew from pebbles to boulders to city- or continent-sized planetesimals. The known planets and moons are the result of collisions between planetesimals. In most of the solar system, all of the planetesimals have either been absorbed into planets or ejected into interstellar space, destroying the traces of the early days of the solar system. Around 1950, Gerard Kuiper and Kenneth Edgeworth proposed that in the region beyond Neptune there are no planets capable of ejecting the leftover planetesimals. There should be a zone, the two astronomers said--now called the Kuiper Belt--filled with small, icy bodies. Despite many years of searching, the first such object was not found until 1992. Since then, astronomers have discovered nearly 1,000 from ground-based telescopes. Most astronomers now believe that Pluto, discovered in 1930, is in fact a member of the Kuiper Belt. Astronomers now use the Kuiper Belt to learn about the history of the solar system, much as paleontologists use fossils to study early life. Each event that affected the outer solar system--such as possible gravitational disturbances from passing stars or long-vanished planets-- is frozen into the properties of the Kuiper Belt members that astronomers see today. If the Hubble telescope could search the entire sky, it would find perhaps a half million planetesimals. If collected into a single planet, however, the resulting object would be only a few times larger than Pluto. The new Hubble observations, combined with the latest ground-based Kuiper Belt surveys, reinforce the idea that Pluto itself and its moon Charon are just large Kuiper Belt members. Why the Kuiper Belt planetesimals did not form a larger planet, and why there are fewer small planetesimals than expected, are questions that will be answered with further Kuiper Belt studies. These studies will help astronomers understand how planets may have formed around other stars as well. The new Hubble results were reported by Bernstein and David Trilling (University of Pennsylvania); Renu Malhotra (University of Arizona); Lynne Allen (University of British Columbia); Michael Brown (California Institute of Technology); and Matthew Holman (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). The results have been submitted to The Astronomical Journal for publication, and a preliminary report is available on the Web at http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0308467. Contacts: Steve Bradt University of Pennsylvania Phone: 215-573-6604 Pager: 215-524-6272 Donna Weaver Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD Phone: 410-338-4493 E-mail: dweaver@stsc.edu Read the original news release at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/25/text. An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0309/07fossils/. ________________________________________________________________________ SURVEYING THE SCENE--MARTIAN STYLE By Stephen Hart From Astrobiology Magazine 8 September 2003 Like all good exploration vessels, each of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, includes a mast. Instead of a crow's nest and a lookout, however, the rover mast-a little more than a meter tall-is topped by a pair of cameras-collectively called the Pancam (panoramic camera)-that can image the scene around the rover as sharply as a person with 20-20 vision. The Pancam's two lenses aim slightly inward from parallel, allowing twin images to be used as a stereo pair, showing the scene in three dimensions. And the whole camera head can rotate 360 degrees, as well as tilting up and down 90 degrees. The Pancam design began, literally, from the ground up. "The governing requirement was that we be able to take images of potential obstacles about the size of the wheels of the rover about 100 meters away," says Jim Bell, Pancam lead scientist and an astronomer at Cornell University. Beginning with that requirement-and some cost constraints-the scientists designed the Pancam's one-megapixel digital "film," a charge-coupled device (CCD) similar to those used in consumer digital cameras. The same space-certified CCD is used on other rover cameras as well. The requirement of being able to make a sharp image at a distance also determined the Pancam lenses' focal lengths, about the same as a moderate telephoto lens on a consumer digital camera or a 110-mm lens on a 35-mm-film camera. "Each image is just going to cover a very small part of the landing site," Bell says, "so it will take literally hundreds of images to make these beautiful mosaics." Onboard software will perform some image correction similar to what astronomers normally do with astronomical images. This software will also compress the image data using a method similar to those used for serving images on web sites. Finally, ground-based software will help researchers stitch hundreds of images into mosaics, for example an uninterrupted 360-degree panorama. The rover's navigation cameras will do most of the range finding, telling the computer how far away objects are. But the Pancam may also prove useful as a rangefinder in certain circumstances. "The niche for Pancam is range finding at far distances, because we have much better resolution than the other cameras," Bell says. With its sharper resolution, the Pancam can make sharper images of distant objects for the rover to investigate-or to avoid. The CCD used in the rovers cannot record color. To produce a true-color image, the Pancam must take three photos, each with a different-color filter. Pancam includes eight filters per lens (all of the optics are protected by sapphire lens covers), so in addition to true-color images it can make images at various wavelengths, including those slightly beyond the range of human vision in both the ultraviolet and the infrared parts of the spectrum. "We're looking to use the color information to help determine the composition, especially of iron-bearing minerals that have very small changes in their colors in the infrared wavelengths beyond where the human eye is sensitive," Bell says. Iron is important to Mars geologists because it provides clues to the history of the rocks and soils, perhaps implicating watery environments that could have harbored life. Each lens also includes a special filter allowing the Pancam to image the Sun directly. To color calibrate the cameras, rover designers included a calibration target with three gray regions of varying darkness, color patches that reflect blue, green, red and near infrared, and a central post that will cast a shadow, allowing the scientists to determine the color cast created by sky light, as opposed to sunlight. The calibration target can also act as a sundial for K-12 education purposes. In addition to showing individual rocks and distant dunes, the Pancam's photo mosaics will reveal how wind or surface water may have shaped the martian landscape. The Pancam images will be the best-ever pictures of the Mars landscape, Bell says. The Pancam "is about three times higher resolution than the Mars Pathfinder and the Viking landers' highest-resolution mode. These are very close to 20-20 human vision resolution." "We land on January 4 [in 2004] UT or late night on the 3rd Pacific Time," Bell says. "So we're hoping to be able to get some images down that first day. If not on the first day, then definitely on the second day. Immediately on landing we'll start doing the various instrument checkouts and making sure things are working well and then we can really start diving into the investigation." Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article586.html. ________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/astrobiology.html 8 September 2003 Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html M. Blouin, 2003. Drip drip drip under a feeble sun. SpaceDaily. R. R. Britt, 2003. Lab test shows Mars surface water possible. Space.com. Pennsylvania State University, 2003. Terrestrial tip of the cap. Astrobiology Magazine. University of Colorado, 2003. Europan ice domes could be first place to look for life. SpaceDaily. University of Colorado, 2003. Mysterious "giant domes" of Europa could be explained. Spaceflight Now. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html R. Mancinelli, 2003. Life's limit. Astrobiology Magazine. 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 II. Astrobiology Magazine. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. Alpha and omega: interview with Charles Seife, part II. Astrobiology Magazine. Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. Methane: the great dying? Astrobiology Magazine. D. Cameron, 2003. Biology's theme park: RNA world. Astrobiology Magazine. Northwestern University, 2003. Methane thought to be responsible for mass extinction. SpaceDaily. Space Telescope Science Institute, 2003. Hubble finds farthest, faintest solar system objects. Spaceflight Now. Planetary protection articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles6.html Agence France-Presse, 2003. Apocalypse not: "killer asteroid" will pass us by. SpaceDaily. BBC News, 2003. Asteroid danger in 2014 downplayed. BBC News. R. R. Britt, 2003. Asteroid doomsday "risk" evaporates after media fan flames. Space.com. F. Cain, 2003. Asteroids are probably a threat. Maybe? Universe Today. P. Chodas and S. Chesley, 2003. Asteroid 2003 QQ47'S potential earth impact in 2014 ruled out. SpaceDaily. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUING COVERAGE OF THE COLUMBIA DISASTER By David J. Thomas 8 September 2003 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) released its findings on Tuesday, 26 August 2003. The CAIB's findings and their ramifications have once again increased the amount of news concerning the Columbia tragedy. I have included (below) a non-exhaustive list of links to recent articles on the subject. Most likely, this will be the last of this series of link collections in Marsbugs. http://www.space.com/news/nasa_hearing_030902.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/nasa_plan_030804.html http://www.space.com/news/commentary_vision_030904.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03zzd.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03zc.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03zd.html http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=6&u=/ap/2 0030904/ap_on_sc/shuttle_investigation ________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 28 August - 3 September 2003 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, September 3. 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 clearing of the attitude control high water marks, Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibrations and high rate observations, and uplink of an Imaging Science Subsystem memory load. Members of the Huygens team reported successful results from last week's probe mute test. With the participating orbiter instruments muted, all commands sent from the orbiter to the probe were successfully registered. Cassini and Huygens have officially released the 56 kilobit per second (kbps) NASA Integrated Service Network (NISN) data line between JPL and the European Space Operations Center (ESOC). In its place, the projects will use a 384 kbps NISN data line that is shared with the Integral project. This will have a large potential benefit for both the probe and orbiter missions. During a demonstration of the transfer of the probe data during the Command and Data System Version 9 flight software checkout last spring, the 56 kbps line backed up significantly. Testing during August on the new line has shown data rates of between 210 kbps and 300 kbps allowing data transfer several times faster than before. This will allow ESOC more rapid access to the probe data and will allow for the earlier release of the on-board recorders for further data collection after the probe mission. A delivery coordination meeting was held for the Maneuver Automation System version 3.0. New functionality for the software includes and enhanced user interface to simplify parameter inputs and view outputs; an interface to the reaction wheel bias tool; "one button" architecture to bind together Navigation and Spacecraft Operations Office processes into a seamless process. This system will be first used in operations for Trajectory Correction Maneuver 19a, which will execute next week. The JPL Navigation Section held a one day review of the Cassini Navigation Team's preparations for Saturn approach and orbital operations. The review went well. While the board generated a small number of follow on actions for the team, the consensus was that the team was in good shape and well prepared for Saturn operations. A separate review concentrating exclusively on the Huygens probe mission will be held later. The application window for new members to the Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) is now officially closed for 2003. As of August 30, there were 235 participants. 135 are new, 150 reside in the USA, and 85 reside in foreign nations. For the 2003-2004 year, SOC members reside in 34 US states, Puerto Rico, and 35 foreign countries. A new lithograph illustrating Saturn Orbit Insertion with information on the Cassini Mission and tour at Saturn has been produced. Copies are available through the Cassini Outreach Office for talks and Cassini- related events. 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 GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 28 August - 3 September 2003 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Northeast Arabia Terra (Released 28 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/28/index.html Defrosting South Polar Slope (Released 29 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/29/index.html Defrosting Sand (Released 30 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/30/index.html Ancient Sedimentary Rocks (Released 31 August 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/08/31/index.html Martian Gullies (Released 01 September 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/09/01/index.html Hellas Planitia (Released 02 September 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/09/02/index.html Eroded Cratered Highlands (Released 03 September 2003) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/09/03/index.html All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. ________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 2-5 September 2003 Gullies Galore! (Released 2 September 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030902a.html Concentric crater floor deposits in Daedalia Planum (Released 3 eptember 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030903a.html Butterfly Ejecta (Released 4 September 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030904a.html Dune field in a southern highlands crater (Released 5 September 2003) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030905a.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 REPORTS NASA/JPL releases 29 August 2003 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass in the past week. The DSN was able to obtain real time telemetry from the Stardust spacecraft for the first time in three weeks as the Sun-Earth-Probe (SEP) angle became greater than 1 degree. 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. A peer review of the Comet Wild 2 cometary dust production model is expected in mid-September. An Earth-based observing plan for Comet Wild 2 has been drafted that includes Keck, Lowell and Table Mountain observatories. These observations will be taken as Comet Wild 2 comes out from behind the Sun in late December, in time to validate the Comet Wild 2 dust production and ephemeris models before final targeting of the flyby in January 2004. 5 September 2003 There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass in the past week. Telemetry relayed from the spacecraft indicates it is healthy and all subsystems continue to operate normally. The Education and Public Outreach team participated in the Annual Challenger Center Nation Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Forty seven Challenger Centers from throughout the United States were represented including England. A group of international comet experts has been invited to be part of the Comet Wild 2 Dust Model Peer Review Board. The flight software patch to select images during the Comet Wild 2 encounter was delivered to Spacecraft Test Laboratory (STL) for testing. This patch is expected to provide at least one of the higher resolution nucleus images early in the encounter data playback. 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 35.