Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 3, 13 January 2004 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. 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 (http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs). 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. __________________________________________________________________________ Articles and News 1) THE BRIGHT SIDE OF BEAGLE By Morris Jones 2) MARS: "BEAUTIFUL, SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!" By Edna DeVore 3) BORAX MINERALS MAY HAVE BEEN KEY TO START OF LIFE ON EARTH NASA release 04-016 4) MASS EXTINCTION BY OUR OWN SUN By Paul Recer 5) NASA RESEARCH ENHANCES BENEFITS OF PLANT EXPERIMENTS NASA release 04-018 6) BUSH WANTS TO SEND AMERICANS BACK TO THE MOON From SpaceDaily 7) GETTING MAN ON MARS WILL NEED MORE THAN JUST RHETORIC By Richard Ingham 8) EARTH, WIND AND FIRE: WHAT'S MISSING? From Astrobiology Magazine 9) MARTIAN LANDSCAPES AND ROSE COLORED MEMORIES By John Carter McKnight Announcements 10) 2004 INTERNATIONAL MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE By Maggie Zubrin 11) EXTREMOPHILES 2004: 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EXTREMOPHILES From the American Society for Microbiology 12) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas Mission Reports 13) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 14) MARS EXPRESS: NO SIGNAL FROM BEAGLE 2 SO FAR ESA release 15) ROVER AIRBAG TO GET ANOTHER TUG NASA/JPL release 2004-11 16) SPIRIT LOWERS FRONT WHEELS, LOOKS AROUND IN INFRARED NASA/JPL release 2004-103 17) NASA'S SPIRIT STAGES MARTIAN STAND-UP PERFORMANCE NASA/JPL release 2004-014 18) SPIRIT ROVER NEARLY READY TO ROLL NASA/JPL release 2004-015 19) SPIRIT'S SURROUNDINGS BECKON IN COLOR PANORAMA NASA/JPL release 2004-016 20) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 21) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release __________________________________________________________________________ THE BRIGHT SIDE OF BEAGLE By Morris Jones From SpaceDaily 6 January 2004 The Monty Python song, "Always look on the bright side of life," comes to mind as we contemplate the apparent loss of the Beagle 2 Mars lander. By now, repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft have failed, and it seems reasonable to conclude that we will never hear from it. We have lost much science and adventure along with the lander, but the Beagle 2 project is more than just the hardware that was deposited on the surface. Beagle 2 has been a mission that has been underway for years, and has generated interesting results throughout its course. The Beagle 2 team, headed by Professor Colin Pillinger, has pioneered new ground in developing planetary missions. Their innovations have appeared in everything from funding strategies to media campaigns. Along the way, they have recruited individuals ranging from modern artists and pop stars to amateur spaceflight engineers who have modified devices such as dental drills for use on Mars. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/beagle2-04b.html. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS: "BEAUTIFUL, SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!" By Edna DeVore From Space.com 6 January 2004 Sixty-eight hours after Spirit landed on Mars, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol spoke with me about her experiences as a scientist working with the Spirit team. This is a personal story, a snapshot taken in the midst of the swirl of events as Spirit prepares to rove the surface of Mars. She's been at JPL for more than a week. When asked if it's been hard to sleep, Nathalie replied, "If this is a dream, don't wake me up! I've been waiting for 15 years to see this place we've been dreaming about. It's as beautiful as I expected! I'm excited and eager to step off the lander and explore Gusev Crater." For more than a decade, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol has been going to Mars every morning as she pursued her dreams of exploring Gusev Crater. She's a planetary geologist with the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. In a unique scientific partnership with her husband, Dr. Edmond Grin, Cabrol studied and successfully proposed, and promoted Gusev Crater as a landing site for the martian rovers. Gusev may hold an ancient lakebed; Spirit is seeking evidence of water on Mars. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/mars_devore_seti_040108.html. __________________________________________________________________________ BORAX MINERALS MAY HAVE BEEN KEY TO START OF LIFE ON EARTH NASA release 04-016 8 January 2004 Astrobiologists, supported by NASA, have announced a major advance in understanding how life may have originated on Earth billions of years ago. A team of scientists report in the January 9 issue of Science that ribose and other simple sugars that are among life's building blocks could have accumulated in the early Earth's oceans if simple minerals, such as borax, were present. Ribose is a key component of ribonucleic acid (RNA). It is also a precursor for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). RNA and DNA, together called "nucleic acids", are required for all known life, where they enable inheritance, genetics, and evolution. "Many building blocks in biology can be formed without life", said Steven Benner, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and the leader of the team. "Fifty years ago, Stanley Miller did a famous experiment that generated amino acids by passing electrical sparks through a primitive atmosphere. This was a key step to understanding how proteins might have originated. But without nucleic acids, proteins appeared to be useless, unable to have children," he said. For those interested in the origin of life, making RNA and DNA has been the key unsolved problem. This is in large part because ribose, needed to form RNA and DNA, is unstable and easily forms brown tars unless kept cold. "Ribose and electrical sparks are simply not compatible," Benner said. "We knew that ribose and other sugars decompose easily. This happens in your kitchen when you bake a cake for too long. It turns brown as the sugars decompose to give other things. Eventually, the cake becomes asphalt," added Benner. Recognizing ribose had a particular chemical structure that allowed it to bind to borate, Benner added the mineral colemanite. "Colemanite is a mineral containing borate found in Death Valley. Without it, ribose turns into a brown tar. With it, ribose and other sugars emerge as clean products," Benner said. He then showed that other borate minerals did the same trick, including ulexite and kernite. The latter is more commonly known as borax. Borax is mined in southern California and used in certain detergents to wash clothing. "This is only one of several steps that must be taken to convert simple organic molecules found in the cosmos to life," Benner cautioned. "Much work remains to be done. We are just surprised that such a simple idea has gone unexploited for so long," he added. "Steve Benner's clever work has taken us closer to revealing the origin of life on Earth and furthered NASA's understanding of the potential for life elsewhere in the universe," said Michael Meyer, Senior Scientist for Astrobiology at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. The NASA Astrobiology Institute supports nodes at universities and non- profit organizations around the United States. Its goal is to understand the origin, evolution, distribution and fate of life in the universe. The Benner group has been a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute for five years. "Without ongoing, stable support from NASA, this work would not have been possible," Benner said. Also contributing to the research were Alison Olcott, an assistant at the Wrigley Institute on Catalina Island, CA; Alonso Ricardo, a graduate student at the University of Florida; and Dr. Matthew Carrigan, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida. The National Science Foundation and the Agouron Institute in Pasadena, CA have supported this research. For information about NASA on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Contacts: Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Paula Rausch University of Florida, Gainesville Phone: 352-392-0186 Read the original news release at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/jan/HQ_04016_borax.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/303/5655/196 http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0401/08borax/ http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/borax_early_life.html __________________________________________________________________________ MASS EXTINCTION BY OUR OWN SUN By Paul Recer From Associated Press and Space.com 8 January 2004 The second-largest extinction in the Earth's history, the killing of two- thirds of all species, may have been caused by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun after gamma rays destroyed the Earth's ozone layer. Astronomers are proposing that a supernova exploded within 10,000 light years of the Earth, destroying the chemistry of the atmosphere and allowing the Sun's ultraviolet rays to cook fragile, unprotected life forms. All this happened some 440 million years ago and led to what is known as the Ordovician extinction, the second most severe of the planet's five great periods of extinction. "The prevailing theory for that extinction has been an ice age," said Adrian L. Melott, a University of Kansas astronomer. "We think there is very good circumstantial evidence for a gamma ray burst." Read the full article at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solar_extinction_040108.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA RESEARCH ENHANCES BENEFITS OF PLANT EXPERIMENTS NASA release 04-018 9 January 2004 NASA-funded scientists are researching methods to address current issues and future needs for efficiently growing plants on Mars. The research is being conducted in the specialized low- pressure and Mars-simulation chambers at the new state-of- the-art Space Life Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL. The research data, featured on the cover of the January 2004 issue of the scientific journal Plant Physiology, focuses on using reduced pressure environments to increase the scientific and engineering benefits of plant growth experiments. The data indicate, with the currently available materials on Mars, a greenhouse structure could only be constructed if the internal pressure of the greenhouse was maintained below approximately one-sixteenth of Earth's atmospheric pressure. "Since extraterrestrial colonies and space vehicles may well employ reduced atmospheric pressures to lower the time and engineering costs of missions, we now have the beginnings of an understanding of how those atmospheres will impact our long-term life support system," said Robert Ferl, director, Space Agriculture Biotechnology Research and Education, University of Florida, Gainesville. Ferl is principal investigator for the project and author of the featured paper "Hypobaric biology, Arabidopsis gene expression at low atmospheric pressure." Research team members and co-authors include Anna-Lisa Paul and Mick Popp, University of Florida; and Andrew Schuerger, Dynamac Corp., KSC. For more information on space research, visit http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov. Contacts: Dolores Beasley NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1753 Tracy Young NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL Phone: 321-867-2468 The abstract from the Plant Physiology paper is available at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/abstract/pp.103.032607v1. __________________________________________________________________________ BUSH WANTS TO SEND AMERICANS BACK TO THE MOON From SpaceDaily 9 January 2004 US astronauts could return to the moon as early as 2013 if Congress backs an ambitious new space plan that President Bush is expected to unveil next week according to a UPI report late Thursday night. The UPI report says America will look at using Russian Soyuz and European Ariane rockets for human and cargo transport both to support the International Space Station and in the lead up for a return to the moon. The new space plan comes in the wake of the Shuttle Columbia disaster that saw seven astronauts killed when their three billion dollar space shuttle lost control after a burn through in the left wing on reentry before exploding over Texas on January 31, 2003. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-04c.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3381531.stm http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/bush_mars_040108.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-04d.html __________________________________________________________________________ GETTING MAN ON MARS WILL NEED MORE THAN JUST RHETORIC By Richard Ingham From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 10 January 2004 If George W. Bush, in an announcement likely to be made next Wednesday, intends to put an American on Mars, the endeavor will require commitment that endures way beyond his presidency, a gamble on technology and buckets of dollars. These factors will determine if the expected plan will enjoy the same glory as John F. Kennedy's 1961 pledge to place an American on the Moon by 1970--or whether history will dismiss it as a political flourish in an election year. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-04f.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moonbase_science_040113-1.html http://www.space.com/news/commentary_bush-plan_040113.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_ksc_040113.html http://www.space.com/news/nasa_lobby_040113.html __________________________________________________________________________ EARTH, WIND AND FIRE: WHAT'S MISSING? From Astrobiology Magazine 12 January 2004 There is one question that the Spirit rover's mission will try to answer. Which primordial elements dominated the crater formation at Gusev? Among the choices are fire (volcanism), water (ponding or glacial), impacts (dust) or wind? Mars seems to offer three elements in abundance: earth, wind and at least ancient fire. (Mars is home to the largest volcano in the solar system, appropriately named Mount Olympus). Is Mars missing water? One hint in this search for water is an even more primordial element, the most common one in the universe, hydrogen. There is alot of hydrogen, relatively speaking, at Spirit's landing site, Gusev, and Opportunity's destination in two weeks, Terra Meridiani. Hydrogen offers a signature that points to water, H2O. Hydrogen is found mainly at the polar latitudes on Mars, that much is clear from what the orbiter, Mars Odyssey, can detect. The top banner image shows three views of Gusev--global, regional and local. The colored images show relative hydrogen abundance, with blue as the highest. The white rectangles show the familiar bowl shape at Gusev crater, with its southern delta, Ma'adim Vallis, that makes this region appear to have once witnessed erosion. The punch-line in the search for water is this: of all the places to land near the equator, those in blue might have the best chance for sub-surface water, either as ice or aqueous minerals. While it might be that the darkest blue is at the poles, this rugged, frosty terrain is difficult to get to. Engineers want to land the rover near the equator, so that longer sun exposure can keep Spirit's batteries going for an extended surface mission. This tradeoff leads to favoring the equatorial blue shown in the banner image of hydrogen abundances. How can an orbiting spacecraft look for water, without actually being on the surface? The answer depends on an even more primordial element than hydrogen, which are the neutral subatomic particles called neutrons. The Mars Odyssey neutron spectrometer looks for neutrons generated when galactic cosmic rays slam into the nuclei of atoms on the planet's surface. These collisions eject neutrons skyward with enough energy to reach the orbiting spacecraft. Elements create their own unique distribution of neutron energy--called fast, thermal or epithermal--and these neutron flux signatures allow scientists to map the soil's elemental composition. During the spacecraft's 1000-day science mission, a neutron spectrometer, from its orbit 250 miles off Mars' surface, has continued to measure neutrons that leak outward from the upper meter of the martian soil. By looking for a decrease in neutron flux the scientists can locate hydrogen. Hydrogen in the soil efficiently absorbs the energy from neutrons, reducing their flux in the surface and also the flux that escapes the surface to space where it is detected by the spectrometer. Since hydrogen is most likely in the form of water-ice, the spectrometer can measure directly, a meter deep into the martian surface, the amount of ground ice and how it changes with the seasons. In the map of hydrogen abundance from orbit, Gusev shows a high hydrogen abundance. The hydrogen abundance at Gusev and Meridiani are similar to that closer to the poles (~50% latitude) and could represent between 20- 50% of subsurface H2O within one meter of the surface. This is particularly intriguing because Gusev and Terra Meridiani (the destination for the companion Opportunity rover) are positioned as one of only several equatorial areas with high hydrogen compositions. Inspection of the map shows high hydrogen content in surface soils south of about negative 60 degree latitude and in a ring that almost surrounds the north polar cap. The maximum intensity in the northern ring coincides with a region of high surface brightness (albedo) and low thermal inertia, which are both required for near-surface water ice to be stable at latitudes equatorward of about positive/negative 60 degree latitude. Also seen are large regions near the equator that contain enhanced near-surface hydrogen, which is most likely in the form of chemically and/or physically bound water and/or hydroxyl radicals because water ice is not stable near the equator. This map has led to a number of working hypotheses about the forces at work within Gusev, some of which should be testable as "ground truth" for orbital measurements. Suppose, for instance: --Ice is close to the surface in Gusev and stable today. --The hydrogen signature reflects an abundance of hydrated minerals and thus past aqueous activity. The instruments aboard the Spirit rover are well-equipped to test these hypotheses. How to look for ice In testing whether there is ice below the surface at Gusev, Pancam will search for rocks that have been shaped by frozen water. Pits or small cavities may indicate this, along with frost deposits directly. The abrasion tool (RAT) may expose this icy-richness. The Mini-TES instrument can identify the chemical spectra of icy or hydrated minerals, while also looking at temperatures or water vapor. The microscopic imager can get up-close to any ice crystals. The APXS can analyze the elements in the soil. The Mossbauer spectrometer is geared to look directly for iron- bearing minerals, along with carbonates, sulfates and nitrates that are found in a ponding environment. How to look for aqueous minerals In testing whether there are water-formed minerals at Gusev, Pancam will scan the landscape. A flat, homogeneous surface might be expected for a perennial lake. Evaporation governs the lifecycle of such an ephemeral pond, with salt deposits on rock and soil surfaces. Clustering of rocks is a sign of debris that has been pushed into piles by runoff. In this case, Mini-TES will look for clays, mud or salt encrustations. When viewed microscopically, the mineral grain sizes tell geologists whether rocks were embedded in a matrix like cemented sediment. If Gusev never was a lake, it may still be pooling part of what are thought to be cyclic freezes that deposit ice from the atmosphere. This is called the "White Mars" hypothesis, owing much to Nick Hoffman's research. Such airfall deposits would likely not show the same rock stratification expected in an ancient lakebed. Because grain sizes might be governed by periodic atmospheric freezes, they are likely much smaller than sediments expected from a lake bed. If water is found or not, as part of Gusev, there are still further interpretations possible for the erosion channel that runs in or out of the crater to the south. Called Ma'adim Vallis, it may have served as a sustained delta, or be part of a short-lived and catastrophic outburst. Rounded sand grains might help distinguish the lifetime of this river (fluvial) channel, as such weathering requires longer times to shape the sand or sediments. In the absence of water, flowing lava could offer the first chance to study the ancient effect of the nearby volcano, Apollinaris Patera--about 120 miles to the northwest. What sediments and smoother rocks might represent as supporting observations for the water hypothesis, then glassy shards rich in silica might point to volcanic origins. If sedimentary, water is in play; if glassy, then fire is in play. Since Gusev may be nearly 3.9 billion years old, its present location near the equator may not have always been the same. Pole shifts may suggest that Gusev deposits used to be closer to glaciers, if it had considerably colder latitudes across its large climate history. A distinguishing characteristic of such glacial lakes is layering, with a mixture of dust and volatiles that extend and retreat seasonally. Spectacular glacial layers have been imaged from orbit elsewhere on Mars, including intricate flow-like twists and turns that change with retreating frost. Most scientists see evidence for dust, wind and fire in action at Gusev. As Dr. Ray Avridson, of Washington University and deputy principal investigator for MER, put it, the outcome of water's role at Gusev may "depend on who's on top, the volcano or the lake." Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article768.html. __________________________________________________________________________ MARTIAN LANDSCAPES AND ROSE COLORED MEMORIES By John Carter McKnight From SpaceDaily 12 January 2004 Sitting at my desk, I behold two vistas: the Gusev Crater panorama as wallpaper on my computer, and the view out my window onto the Sonoran Desert. The similarity, give or take a few jackrabbits, touches upon something primal in the American soul, something doubtless influencing the policy choices of another son of the Southwest, President Bush. Unreasonable or not, inaccurate or not, it remains inescapable: the politics of Mars is the politics of the American West. In a recent Slate article, planetary scientist David Grinspoon decries the Western analogy, citing the Great Terraforming Debate at the Mars Society's founding conference in 1998. Then, the stage was dominated by advocates of a large-scale industrial transformation of Mars, terraforming it for maximum utility to humans. Panelists called it "Manifest Destiny," a belief in the inevitability and rightness of their views. History was on their side. Once, the lands west of the hundredth meridian were known as the Great American Desert, a land barely habitable with contemporary technologies, and unsuitable for settlement is it had been known in the more congenial Eastern part of the continent. While not as remote or as inhospitable as Mars, the West seemed nearly as forbidding to European and American explorers. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-04a.html. __________________________________________________________________________ 2004 INTERNATIONAL MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE By Maggie Zubrin Mars Society release 8 January 2004 We are very excited to formally announce that the 7th International Mars Society Conference will be held at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Illinois, August 19-22, 2004. The conference will be jointly hosted by the Illinois and Michigan chapters of The Mars Society. With Spirit landed safely on the surface of Mars at what my daughter calls "the Smiley Face crater", the European probe orbiting the planet, and another NASA rover due to land later this month, we can expect an exciting influx of new information on the red planet to be presented. We are also looking forward to working with the Adler Planetarium and other local attractions to enhance the conference experience. The Palmer House has offered us excellent rates for conference attendees, beginning at $99 double occupancy. Rates will be extended for three days prior and three days after the conference, allowing attendees the chance to explore and enjoy the greater Chicago area. We will be adding a link to the web site soon, but you can reserve by phone in the meantime. Our room block is limited so do book your room early in order to take advantage of the special conference rates. Conference fees Members* Regular early bird (prior to June 1, 2004) - $150 Regular late - $210 Student/senior early bird (prior to June 1, 2004) - $40 Student/senior late - $70 Non-members and members with expired membership** Regular early bird - $210 Regular late - $270 Student/senior early bird - $75 Student/senior late - $105 *Current membership based on date of conference registration **You save $10 by joining or renewing along with your conference registration. Daily rates are $60 regular and $30 student/senior and may be offered at the door based on availability. Daily guest passes for family members of attendees may be pre-ordered by mail. The cost to add a banquet ticket to your student or senior registration is $50 adult, $25 children 10 and under. On-line registration will be available soon. In addition, we will be sending out a conference mailing later this month. If you wish to get a jump on registration, you can mail or fax in a membership form with 2004 conference added on and your check or credit card information. The mailing address is The Mars Society, PO Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454. Fax number is 303-980-0753. Call for abstracts As in prior years, we invite all interested individuals and groups to speak at the conference. We will be covering areas such as new technology, latest Mars exploration results, political action and chapter activities, and will also have opportunities for artists, writers and philosophers to address the conference. Please send your abstract via email to msabstracts@aol.com. As all abstracts will later be re-formatted for publication, we do ask that you keep formatting to a minimum. Preferred format is either as a text e-mail or a .doc attachment. We look forward to hearing from you. Call for volunteers The Chicago and Michigan chapters are coordinating volunteer activities at the conference. Typical volunteer positions include press liason, printing coordinator, conference staff and security, AV coordinator, speaker seeker, vendor and sponsor recruitment, etc. If you would like to be involved with any of these fun and challenging positions, contact Scott DiPietro at sdipietr@prodigy.net. Headquarters also gets rather busy with conference preparations and we are looking for people who can edit, work with merchandizing vendors, coordinate the auction and any displays, and just generally help with the workload. You need not live in Colorado to help out with these tasks. Conference volunteers receive several perks, including free t-shirts, special access to speakers and events and a post-conference celebratory dinner. Hakluyt contest We will once again be sponsoring the Hakluyt contest for student letters to political leaders. This year we have a special push on to convince the current American political administration to designate a humans to Mars mission as the base architecture for future NASA planning. At this time, it is more important than ever to let our voices be heard. The Hakluyt contest is open to all students between the ages of 15 and 21 (younger if a parent will be attending the conference), worldwide. The contest is judged on content, creativity and distribution. Email copies of your entries along with personal information to mzubrin@aol.com. Note: you need not be a Mars Society member to enter this contest. Auction items wanted We will be holding a fund-raising auction at the conference. Due to time constraints, the auction will be part silent and part live. Last year we had some great art work and neat Mars toys and paraphernalia which were very well received, as well as telescopes, globes, etc. This year, we are looking for books, tech devices, art work, toys, and any other Mars or Mars Society related items which are unique, and interesting. We would also be happy to auction gift certificates, retail items and others goods and services of a non-space nature. Please let me know if you have an item to donate or can obtain an item and I will arrange for shipping. Write to me at mzubrin@aol.com. Remember that all donations are tax deductible. Thanks in advance for your generosity. Fund-raising drive Our December fundraising drive has brought in an overwhelming number of responses and we are very grateful to all who have donated or renewed your membership. I do want to clarify a few points. All donors at the $100 level or above will have their names engraved on a new set of plaques to be installed at our Mars Analog Stations. It is my dream that someday these plaques will make it to a Founders' Museum on the planet Mars, but for now the stations are as close as we can get. You need to get your donation in no later than February 15th in order to be included on the plaque. All donors at the $100 level or above will have their Mars Society membership automatically renewed. This has been our policy in prior years, but we have not publicized it. Because your Mars Society membership includes no material benefits, the entire amount of your donation remains tax deductible. We have had several individuals take advantage of the free conference admission at the $500 donor level. We will send you an acknowledgement along with conference enrollment form in order to ensure that your conference badge is correctly printed. Please do not remit payment along with the enrollment form. Corporate donations of $1000 or above entitle the donor to two free conference admissions per $1000. We depend on your generosity for continued operation of our outreach and research activities. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do. New Zubrin book available Many of you will have noticed a couple of new choices of premium on our donor form this year. Mars on Earth, the story of the Analog Research stations, has been added and makes an excellent addition to your Mars library. But we are also offering the new Zubrin book--The Holy Land-- which is an altogether different type of story. The Holy Land is a Sci-Fi satire in the tradition of War with the Newts by Karel Capek or Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, and hits very close to home during these troubled times. We will be offering the Holy Land for sale at the Mars Society web site. Dr. Zubrin has generously agreed to donate $2.50 from the purchase of each book to help fund Mars Society activities. In my humble opinion, it's a hoot and an eye opener. __________________________________________________________________________ EXTREMOPHILES 2004: 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EXTREMOPHILES From the American Society for Microbiology 13 January 2004 An ASM Conference September 19 - 23, 2004 Chesapeake Bay, Maryland Conference Goals: * To provide coverage of new developments in the international scientific community is the primary goal. * To provide a forum to review progress in the biology, genomics, and systematics of microorganisms from extreme environments, including high and low temperature, high pressure, high salt, extreme pH, and desiccation. * To review several model systems for eukaryotic molecular biology that have arisen because the Archaea have relatively simple versions of, for example, the DNA replication complex and transcriptional regulation systems of eukaryotes. * To maintain an interest in structural genomics and proteomics, which are growth areas in the field. Additional information is available at http://www.asm.org/Meetings/index.asp?bid=19177. __________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ 13 January 2004 Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html K. Junge, H. Eicken and J. W. Deming, 2004. Bacterial activity at -2 to - 20°C in Arctic wintertime sea ice. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 70(1):550-557. V. I. Miteva, P. P. Sheridan and J. E. Brenchley, 2004. Phylogenetic and physiological diversity of microorganisms isolated from a deep Greenland glacier ice core. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 70(1):202-213. Human space exploration articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html R. Ingham, 2004. Getting man on Mars will need more than just rhetoric. SpaceDaily. J. C. McKnight, 2004. Martian landscapes and rose colored memories. SpaceDaily. SETI articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles4.html Astrobiology Magazine, 2004. Tapping the grid: interview with David Anderson. Astrobiology Magazine. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html NASA, 2004. Borax might have helped the early formation of life. Universe Today. NASA, 2004. Borax minerals may have been key to start of Earth life. Spaceflight Now. P. Recer, 2004. Theory: mass extinction by our own sun. Space.com. A. Ricardo, M. A. Carrigan, A. N. Olcott and S. A. Benner, 2004. Borate minerals stabilize ribose. Science, 303(5655):196. __________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 18 December 2003 - 7 January 2004 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, January 7. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=R9EVD4h_vQ9O-3BCLCXxIg. On-board activities this week included execution of Probe pre-heating checkout test #2, a Composite Infrared Spectrometer flight software checkout, execution of the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer recovery mini-sequence, and a spacecraft Periodic Engineering Maintenance activity. Preliminary port one and official port one deliveries were made as part of the Science Operations Plan implementation process for tour sequences S19 and S20. In addition, preliminary port 1 was delivered for sequences S21 and S22. The first aftermarket process decision meeting was held as part of the development process for tour sequence S01. The Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation (PSIV) 2 integrated sequence with Inertial Vector Propagator commands merged in has been delivered for cruise sequence C42. The final approval meeting will be held the first week of January. The PSIV1 Seqgen products for C43 were also released for review along with a sequence of events listing and the space flight operations schedule. The international astronomical community and Cassini investigation teams will begin a program of cooperative, synergistic, ground based observations of the Saturnian system. The program is planned as a series of regular monitoring observations of Saturn beginning in 2004 from ground based observatories. In addition 17 orbits of Hubble Space Telescope observation time have been obtained. The objective of this program is to acquire a maximum amount of information about the state of Saturn's atmosphere, which could be obtained by imaging and spectroscopy at different wavelengths. All teams and offices supported the Cassini Monthly Management review. Delivery coordination meetings were held for the Instrument Operations Remote Terminal Interface Unit /SEQTRAN V1.0 utility, and Cassini Information Management System 3.0 (CIMS). The CIMS delivery provides several functions in support of the Science Planning processes, the most prominent of which is the Spacecraft Activity Sequence File / Science Planning Attitude Spread Sheet comparison. This comparison typically takes about eight hours to perform manually. CIMS 3.0 now does the comparison in less than a minute. On December 8, it was reported in a Southwest Research Institute News Release that the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) has made the first in situ observations of interstellar pickup ions beyond the orbit of Jupiter. This is the first major discovery using data gathered by CAPS. For more information, go to http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=bwkVThk4UdlO-3BCLCXxIg. Saturn will have its closet approach to Earth for the next 29 years on December 31, 2003. At that time the planet will be about 1.2 billion kilometers away with the rings tipped towards Earth. Reflected sunlight will cause the planet to appear brighter than usual. For more information, go to http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=DVRoJdlvkg1O-3BCLCXxIg. 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 EXPRESS: NO SIGNAL FROM BEAGLE 2 SO FAR ESA release 7 Jan 2004 ESA's Mars Express orbiter made its first attempt to establish contact with the Beagle 2 lander, after the two spacecraft separated on 19 December 2003. The orbiter made its first pass over the Beagle 2 landing site today at 13:13 CET, but could not pick up any signal from the tiny lander. More attempts to contact Beagle 2 are planned in the days to come. Beagle 2 was released on 19 December on a course towards the Red Planet by Mars Express, which was the mother ship for the 400 million kilometer interplanetary cruise. Six days later it entered the martian atmosphere and should have landed on the near-equatorial site of Isidis Planitia. Since then, attempts to communicate with the lander through NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and radio telescopes on Earth have been unsuccessful. The Mars Express orbiter successfully entered Mars orbit at about the same time as Beagle 2's landing. Then, in early January, it made a series of planned manoeuvres to change its equatorial orbit to a polar one, to prepare for its scientific mission and to make contact with Beagle 2. Unlike Mars Odyssey and the radio telescopes, Mars Express has a communication system that was fully tested to contact Beagle 2, which gives ESA more confidence of picking up the signal in the coming days. "We have not lost hope yet to contact Beagle 2, but we also know that it has landed on an unforgiving planet," said David Southwood, ESA's Director of Science. "There are still opportunities to make contact with Beagle in the days to come, and we are giving our best efforts. Nevertheless, our spacecraft Mars Express has now reached its operational orbit and is working well; I know the science community is eagerly waiting for its first results." Read the original news release at http://sci.esa.int/science- e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34463. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/express_update_040106.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/express_update_040107.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040107175118.sy9v1nlx.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/status.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/additional_attempts_fail_beagle_2. html __________________________________________________________________________ ROVER AIRBAG TO GET ANOTHER TUG NASA/JPL release 2004-11 7 January 2004 The engineers and scientists for NASA's Spirit are eager to get the rover off its lander and out exploring the terrain that Spirit's pictures are revealing, but caution comes first. An added "lift and tuck" to get deflated airbag material out of the way extends the number of activities Spirit needs to finish before it can get its wheels onto martian ground. "We'll lift up the left petal of the lander, retract the airbag, then let the petal back down," said Art Thompson, rover tactical uplink lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. This and other added activities have pushed the earliest scenario for roll-off to January 14, and it could be later. The first stereo image mosaic from Spirit's panoramic camera provided new details of the landscape's shapes, including hills about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away that scientists are discussing as a possible drive target for the rover. The rover's infrared sensing instrument, called the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, has begun returning data about the surroundings, too, indicating that it is in good health. Now, positive health reports are in for all of Spirit's science instruments. The rover carried out commands late Tuesday to pull in the cords to its base-petal airbags with three turns of the airbag retraction motor. "We got about a 5 centimeter (2 inch) lowering of the airbag to the left of the front of the lander, which is the one we're most concerned about," said JPL's Arthur Amador, mission manager. "That airbag is still a little too high, and we're concerned that we might hit it with our solar panel on the way down." The rover could also turn to roll off in a different direction, but the maneuver to lift a petal and pull airbags further under it is designed to improve conditions for exiting to the front. "We have experienced a couple of hiccups, so we're being very cautious about how we deal with them," Thompson said. One concern from Sunday and Monday was resolved late Tuesday, when results of testing a motor that moves the high-gain antenna showed no sign of a problem. "We're chomping at the bit to get this puppy off the lander." Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, MO, deputy principal investigator for the rover's science instruments, said the science team gathered in Pasadena has been offering diverse theories for how the landscape surrounding Spirit was shaped, and anticipating ways to test the theories with the rover's instruments. "A lake bed is typically flat, with very fine-grain sediments," Arvidson said. "That's not what we're looking at. If these are lake sediments, then they've been chewed up by impacts and rocks have been brought in." Besides looking forward to exploring away from the lander, the rover teams are looking forward to getting Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, safely landed on Mars. Atmospheric conditions in the region of Opportunity's landing site are being monitored from orbit, said Dr. Joy Crisp, project scientist for both rovers. Information about the actual conditions Spirit experienced on its descent through Mars' atmosphere are being compared with the conditions predicted ahead of time in order to refine the predictions for what Opportunity will experience. Spirit arrived at Mars January 3 (EST and PST; January 4 Universal Time) after a seven-month journey. Its task is to spend the next three months exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment at this part of Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach its landing site on the opposite side of Mars on January 25 (EST and Universal Time; January 24 PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet from Gusev Crater. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.marsdaily.com/2004/040108231945.ywgdzoiu.html http://www.national-academies.org/headlines#sh0105 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_airbag_040107.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_040108.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040108airbags.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_airbags_another_tug.html __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT LOWERS FRONT WHEELS, LOOKS AROUND IN INFRARED NASA/JPL release 2004-103 9 January 2004 NASA's Spirit, the first of two Mars Exploration Rovers on the martian surface, has stood up and extended its front wheels while continuing to delight its human partners with new information about its neighborhood within Mars' Gusev Crater. Traces of carbonate minerals showed up in the rover's first survey of the site with its infrared sensing instrument, called the miniature thermal emission spectrometer or Mini-TES. Carbonates form in the presence of water, but it's too early to tell whether the amounts detected come from interaction with water vapor in Mars' atmosphere or are evidence of a watery local environment in the past, scientists emphasized. "We came looking for carbonates. We have them. We're going to chase them," said Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, leader of the Mini-TES team. Previous infrared readings from Mars orbit have revealed a low concentration of carbonates distributed globally. Christensen has interpreted that as the result of dust interaction with atmospheric water. First indications are that the carbonate concentration near Spirit may be higher than the Mars global average. After the rover drives off its lander platform, infrared measurements it takes as it explores the area may allow scientists to judge whether the water indicated by the nearby carbonates was in the air or in a suspected ancient lake. "The beauty is we know how to find out," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the mission. "Is the carbonate concentrated in fluffy dust? That might favor the atmospheric hypothesis. Is it concentrated in coarser material? That might favor the water hypothesis." Spirit accomplished a key step late Thursday in preparing for rolling off the lander. In anticipation, the flight team at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, played Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" as wake-up music for the sixth morning on Mars, said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. In the following hours, the rover was raised by a lift mechanism under its belly, and its front wheels were fully extended. Then the rover was set back down, raised again and set down again to check whether suspension mechanisms had latched properly. Pictures returned from the rover's navigation camera and front hazard-identification camera, plus other data, confirmed success. "We are very, very, very pleased to see the rover complete the most critical part of the stand-up process," Wallace said. Next steps include retracting the lift mechanism and extending the rear wheels. A tug on airbag tendons by the airbag retraction motor Thursday evening did not lower puffed up portions of airbag material that are a potential obstacle to driving the rover straight forward to exit the lander. The most likely path for driving off will be to turn 120 degrees to the right before rolling off. "This is something we have practiced many times. We are very comfortable doing it," Wallace said. The earliest scenario for getting the rover off the lander, if all goes smoothly, is Spirit's 13th or 14th day on Mars, January 16 or 17. "We're proceeding in a measured, temperate way," said JPL's Peter Theisinger, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover project. "This is a priceless asset. It is fully functioning. It is sitting in a beautiful scientific target. We're not going to take any inappropriate risks." While preparing to learn more about what Mars rocks are made of, Christensen announced an educational project to involve school children and other people in getting rocks from all over Earth for comparison. "Send me your rocks and we'll see if there are rocks in your back yard that are similar to what we're seeing on Mars," he said. Information about how to send rocks to Arizona State University is on the rovers' web site at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article769.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_opportunity_040109.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04j.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04l.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040107sitecomplex.html __________________________________________________________________________ NASA'S SPIRIT STAGES MARTIAN STAND-UP PERFORMANCE NASA/JPL release 2004-014 10 January 2004 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has successfully completed its stand- up activities by extending the rear wheels. This puts the rover into a fully opened configuration for the first time since pre-launch testing in Florida last spring. Meanwhile, the rover is sending home sections of a 360-degree color panorama it has taken and stored onboard, plus other information about the terrain around its landing site, Columbia Memorial Station in Mars' Gusev Crater. Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, have decided that changing the tilt of the lander platform will not be necessary before the rover drives off, possibly allowing drive-off to occur late Tuesday night or early Wednesday, Pacific Standard Time. JPL's Chris Voorhees, who led the engineering team that planned the unfolding sequences for Spirit and its sister rover, Opportunity, said, "Spirit has spent most of the last seven months scrunched up inside of a tetrahedral-shaped lander, and that is not the shape a rover wants to be. Over the last several days, Spirit has performed a sort of reverse robotic origami." "The rover now stands at its full height and all six wheels are in position for driving on the surface of Mars," said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at JPL. The rover is still attached to the lander. The next step planned for Saturday evening (Pacific Standard Time) is to command the rover to release connections between the middle wheels and the lander. Under best- case conditions, severing the final cable connection is planned for Sunday night, followed by clockwise turns totaling 120 degrees on Monday night into Tuesday, then drive-off toward the northwest on the following martian day. Pictures from Spirit's panoramic camera continue to provide details about the martian ground and sky. The rover transmitted home about 180 megabits of science data in the past martian day, nearly 10 times the maximum daily capability of Mars Pathfinder in 1997. JPL geologist Dr. Matt Golombek, co-chair of the steering committee that evaluated potential landing sites for Spirit and Opportunity, said the pictures are confirming some predictions about the Gusev site. Rocks cover less of the ground than at the three previous Mars landing sites-- about three percent of ground area around Spirit compared with about 20 percent of the ground around each of Mars Pathfinder, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Presenting the latest high-resolution color mosaic from Spirit, Golombek said, "This is without question the smoothest, flattest place we've ever landed on Mars, with the possible exception of Viking 2." Dr. Mark Lemmon a member of the rover science team from Texas A&M University, College Station, said the atmosphere at Spirit's site is dustier than at previous landing sites, except during dust storms observed by the Viking landers. The dust colors the sky and affects the appearance of objects on the ground. Higher above the ground, atmospheric densities predicted for Spirit's descent closely matched the true conditions measured from the spacecraft's deceleration, said JPL's Dr. Joy Crisp. That is a good sign for Opportunity's descent two weeks from now, though risks remain high for any landing on Mars. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article767.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article771.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_stands_up.html __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT ROVER NEARLY READY TO ROLL NASA/JPL release 2004-015 11 January 2004 NASA's Spirit rover now has its arm and all six of its wheels free, and only a single cable must be cut before it can turn and roll off its lander onto the soil of Mars. As that milestone is completed, scientists are taking opportunities to take extra pictures and other data. During the past 24 hours--the rover's 8th martian day on the planet, or "sol 8"--pyro devices were fired slicing cables to free the rover's middle wheels and releasing pins that held in place its instrumented arm. The arm was then locked onto a hook where it will be stowed when the rover is driving. Because one airbag remains adjacent to the lander's forward ramp, the rover will turn about 120 degrees to its right and exit the lander from the side facing west-northwest on the planet--also the direction of an intriguing depression that scientists have dubbed Sleepy Hollow. Current plans call for the rover to complete that turn in three steps, said Arthur Amador, one of the mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. As currently envisioned, during the coming martian day engineers will complete ground tests and execute dress rehearsals of the drive-off, or "egress." On sol 10--the night of Monday-Tuesday, January 12-13, California time-- engineers expect to sever the umbilical cord that connects the rover to its lander by firing a pyro device, the last of 126 pyro firings since Spirit separated from its cruise stage shortly before landing on January 4 (January 3 in U.S. time zones). Also on that day, the rover will execute the first of three parts of its turn when it moves clockwise (as viewed from above) about 45 degrees. After taking and analyzing pictures to verify the first part of the turn, engineers anticipate completing it on sol 11 (night of Tuesday-Wednesday, January 13-14). First, the rover will turn an additional 50 degrees and stop to take pictures. Then, if all is well, it will turn a final 20 to 25 degrees to position it precisely in front of one of its three exit ramps. If no issues crop up as those steps are completed, the rover could drive off onto the martian soil no earlier than sol 12 (night of Wednesday- Thursday, January 14-15). "But we adjust our schedule every day, based on flight events, so this remains an estimate," said Amador. The rover's status overall is "pretty darn perfect," said Amador. He described the communication link from Mars to Earth as excellent, allowing the team to receive 170 megabits of data during the past day. All science data stored on the rover has been sent to Earth. The rover is generating 900 watt-hours of power per day and using 750 watt-hours, and its thermal condition is good, he added. While engineers are completing and testing commands to execute the rover's turn and egress, the science team is enjoying an "unexpected dividend" of time to collect data, said Dr. John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover science manager at JPL. Until now, all science observations have been planned far in advance, but the unfolding schedule of rover activities gave the team the opportunity to do their first on-the-fly planning for observations driven by previous results, Callas explained. In doing so they segued to a working style that they will practice on a day to day basis as the rover rolls across the surface of its landing site in Gusev Crater, named the Columbia Memorial Station. In the next 24 hours, the team will collect 270 megabits of science data, considerably more than on any previous martian day. This will include a high-quality, 14-color mosaic taken by the panoramic camera of a third of the horizon toward Sleepy Hollow, the direction in which the rover will leave its lander. In addition, they plan to complete two remaining "octants" (each a pie slice showing an eighth of the horizon) with the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer. These areas will also be re-photographed with the rover's panoramic camera in order to allow the camera and spectrometer data to be co-registered. Plans also call for the spectrometer to "stare" at three selected sites to collect very low-noise data, as well as calibration of another science instrument, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_040111.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040111schedule.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_roll_secondary_ramp.html __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT'S SURROUNDINGS BECKON IN COLOR PANORAMA NASA/JPL release 2004-016 12 January 2004 The first 360-degree color view from NASA's Spirit Mars Exploration Rover presents a range of tempting targets from nearby rocks to hills on the horizon. "The whole panorama is there before us," said rover science-team member Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "It's a great opening to the next stage of our mission." Spirit's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, continues making progress toward getting the rover off its lander platform, but expected no sooner than early Thursday morning. "We're about to kick the baby bird out of its nest," said JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the rover's egress off the lander. The color panorama is a mosaic stitched from 225 frames taken by Spirit's panoramic camera. It spans 75 frames across, three frames tall, with color information from shots through three different filters. The images were calibrated at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, home institution for Dr. Jim Bell, panoramic camera team leader. Malin said, "Seeing the panorama totally assembled instead of in individual pieces gives a much greater appreciation for the position of things and helps in developing a sense of direction. I find it easier to visualize where I am on Mars when I can look at different directions in one view. For a field geologist, it's exactly the kind of thing you want to look at to understand where you are." Another new image product from Spirit shows a patch of intriguing soil near the lander in greater detail than an earlier view of the same area. Scientists have dubbed the patch "Magic Carpet" for how some soil behaved when scraped by a retracting airbag. "It has been detached and folded like a piece of carpet sliding across the floor," said science-team member Dr. John Grotzinger of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Spirit's next step in preparing to drive onto the surface of Mars is to sever its final connection with the lander platform by firing a cable cutter, which Burke described as "an explosive guillotine." The planned sequence after that is a turn in place of 115 degrees clockwise, completed in three steps over the next two days. If no obstacles are seen from images taken partway through that turn, drive-off is planned toward the northwestern compass point of 286 degrees. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_040112.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040112science.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 1-7 January 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. "White Rock" of Pollack Crater (Released 01 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=GicANtwJColO-3BCLCXxIg Gusev Crater (Released 02 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=_wSpoIOJY9hO-3BCLCXxIg Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) Spirit Landing Site (Released 03 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Ei5zD4EEUeNO-3BCLCXxIg Locating Landers on Mars (Released 04 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=hYnSSnFVngtO-3BCLCXxIg A Dynamic Spirit Site (Released 05 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=D4TLqEOaE1xO-3BCLCXxIg Galle Crater Dunes (Released 06 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=mRlUMT1i3yJO-3BCLCXxIg Mars Global Surveyor's View of Gusev Crater During Spirit's Entry, Descent, and Landing (Released 07 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=n4eevHvXYhdO-3BCLCXxIg All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=pdXQQ9BtV0dO-3BCLCXxIg. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 5-9 January 2004 Spirit Has Landed! (Released 5 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=qKUpD-3YM7JO-3BCLCXxIg Gusev Crater (Released 6 January 2003) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=PsviST3S8vdO-3BCLCXxIg Western Gusev (Released 7 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=muIm81Y8b5dO-3BCLCXxIg Gusev Crater in Infrared (Released 8 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=O2l9De4osntO-3BCLCXxIg Southern Gusev (Released 9 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=2clfl_I_PV9O-3BCLCXxIg All of the THEMIS images are archived here at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=zMm3RnQQwsdO-3BCLCXxIg. 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. __________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 3.