Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 4, 19 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. [http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040119a/P25 42_Sol14_L456-A16R1_br.jpg] Adirondack--"They of the Great Rocks". This true color image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Sunday, January 18, 2004, just two days after it successfully rolled off the lander. Image credit: NASA/JPL. __________________________________________________________________________ Articles and News 1) OLD EQUATION MAY SHED NEW LIGHT ON PLANET FORMATION By Mari N. Jensen 2) SPACE MISSION WILL EXPLORE EFFECT OF MARS' GRAVITY ON MAMMALS Massachusetts Institute of Technology release 3) RESEARCHERS SHOW EVOLUTIONARY THEORY ADDS UP By Ryan Smith 4) GOLF CARTS TODAY, MINI-VAN IN 2009? NEW MARS MISSION ALREADY PLANNED By Evelyn Boswell 5) SPIRIT'S LANDING MORE DRAMATIC THAN FIRST THOUGHT By William Harwood 6) COMMENTARY: THE REASONABLE COST OF PUTTING HUMANS ON THE MOON AND MARS By Robert Roy Britt 7) PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES NEW VISION FOR SPACE EXPLORATION PROGRAM By President George W. Bush 8) PRESIDENT BUSH OFFERS NEW VISION FOR NASA NASA release 9) CHINA PLANS SPACE COMPETITION By Jaime FlorCruz 10) NASA ANNOUNCES NEW HEADQUARTERS MANAGEMENT ALIGNMENT NASA release 04-024 11) IF AIRBAGS WORK WELL WITH "OPPORTUNITY," TOO, THEN MARS LANDING SITES CAN BE CHOSEN MORE BOLDLY, SAYS UB GEOLOGIST University of Buffalo release 12) IS SPACE EXPLORATION WORTH THE COST? By Virgiliu Pop Announcements 13) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas Mission Reports 14) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 15) MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 2004-023 16) GO TO THAT CRATER AND TURN RIGHT: SPIRIT GETS A TRAVEL ITINERARY NASA/JPL release 2004-018 17) SPIRIT READY TO DRIVE ONTO MARS SURFACE NASA/JPL release 2004-19 18) SPIRIT ROLLS ALL SIX WHEELS ONTO MARTIAN SOIL NASA/JPL release 2004-020 19) SPIRIT FLEXES ITS ARM TO USE MICROSCOPE ON MARS' SOIL NASA/JPL release 2004-022 20) ESA'S MARTIAN WEATHER REPORT ESA release 21) EUROPE'S EYE ON MARS: FIRST SPECTACULAR RESULTS FROM MARS EXPRESS ESA release 05-2004 22) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 23) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 24) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release __________________________________________________________________________ OLD EQUATION MAY SHED NEW LIGHT ON PLANET FORMATION By Mari N. Jensen University of Arizona release 5 January 2004 New work with an old equation may help scientists calculate the thickness of ice covering the oceans on Jupiter's moon Europa and ultimately provide insight into planet formation. Planetary bodies, such as the Earth and its moon, exert such gravitational force on one another that tides occur, not just in the oceans, but also in bodies of the planets themselves. The surfaces of planets actually rise and fall slightly as they orbit one another. The standard for calculating how the gravity of one celestial body affects the shape of a second is an equation published in 1911 by A. E. H. Love. Sarah Frey, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona in Tucson, decided to see if she could figure out the thickness of ice on Europa by using Love's equation to calculate planetary tides. "Love looked at two cases, which were very well behaved, very similar to Earth's values," she said. However, Love didn't have the power of modern computers at his disposal. Working with Terry Hurford, a graduate student in UA's department of planetary sciences and Richard Greenberg, a professor of planetary sciences at UA, Frey used computers to calculate what Love's equations predicted for various spheres that differed from one another in density, compressibility and rigidity. The spheres serve as proxies for planets. To their surprise, the researchers found that in specific cases, the computer calculations suggested that the sphere would change shape dramatically. Frey said these special circumstances, called singularities, might ultimately reveal situations that would prevent the formation of planets. Greenberg said, "If a rocky planet was a little bit bigger than Earth or Venus, it would be in the danger zone where the formula would predict a substantial distortion in the planet's shape. We're wondering if in some way this regulated the size of the planets." Read the original news release at http://uanews.opi.arizona.edu/cgi- bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/4/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=8407. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-04c.html. __________________________________________________________________________ SPACE MISSION WILL EXPLORE EFFECT OF MARS' GRAVITY ON MAMMALS Massachusetts Institute of Technology release 9 January 2004 Students and researchers at MIT are designing a space mission to learn about the effects of Mars-level gravity using pint-sized astronauts. The 15 mouse-trounauts will orbit Earth for five weeks to help researchers learn how martian gravity--about one-third that of Earth--will affect the mammalian body. The goal of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program is to send the mice into near-Earth orbit inside a one-meter space ship simulating Mars' gravity, and then bring them back to Earth. It won't be the first time mice have flown in space, but it will be the first time mammals of any kind have lived in partial gravity for an extended period. The spin of the spacecraft will create an effect on the mice equivalent to Mars' gravity. The mouse cages will be designed for comfort and protection with room for the little travelers to lope around for exercise in the simulated gravity of Mars. "Astronauts living on space stations have encountered serious health problems such as bone loss due to their weightless environment [zero gravity]," the team said in a statement. "The first crew on Mars could experience similar effects; scientists do not yet know whether partial gravity is sufficient to prevent these health hazards. A crew of mice will provide the first answers." The multi-university group, led by MIT and involving the University of Washington at Seattle and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, is managed by MIT research affiliate Paul Wooster. The MIT team is providing overall systems engineering and project management, as well as designing and building the payload module, and planning the scientific experiments. Students and researchers from Washington are designing and building the spacecraft bus, which contains the power, propulsion and communications components. Re-entry and recovery systems are the responsibility of the Australian group. The project is expected to cost about $15 million plus the cost of the launch. The teams have received more than $400,000 for building the spacecraft from a variety of sources including NASA, the three universities, and a number of private companies and individuals. The teams have also secured commitments to cover approximately half the cost of the $6 million launch. The program is overseen by a program board composed of faculty from each of the universities and outside space experts, and supported by a broad network of advisors from the space field. Given appropriate funding, the mission could launch as early as mid-2006. For more information on the Mars Gravity Biosatellite, visit http://www.marsgravity.org. Read the original news release at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2004/mars-biosatellite.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/martian_gravity_tested_mice.html. __________________________________________________________________________ RESEARCHERS SHOW EVOLUTIONARY THEORY ADDS UP By Ryan Smith University of Alberta release 12 January 2004 All living plants and animals are likely derived from two primitive species of bacteria, a mathematics professor at the University of Alberta has shown. Dr. Peter Antonelli and a former post-doctoral student of his, Dr. Solange Rutz, used an original mathematical modeling system and software program to evaluate and compare the two main theories of biological evolution. One theory, put forward by Dr. Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts, proposes that a "mother" bacterium (Bdellavibrio) and a "father" bacterium (Thermoplasma acidophilum) "exchanged energy" in a stable, dependable and consistent way about 3.2 billion years ago to form all subsequent multicellular organisms, Antonelli explained. Another theory, put forward by Dr. Carl Woese of the University of Illinois, proposes multicellular organisms developed from many different bacteria interacting in many different ways 3.2 billion years ago. Research done by Antonelli and Rutz showed that Woese's theory does not account for stability in the chemical exchange processes of many bacteria interacting, whereas Margulis's theory holds up under the scrutiny of Antonelli's modelling system. The study is published in the latest edition of Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications. "We showed that the chemical production necessary to support Woese's theory is not dependable and not conducive to the formation of multicellular organisms, but Margulis's theory proves to be reliable," Antonelli said. Antonelli decided to test the two theories after reading an article on the subject in the New York Times about three years ago. "I try to solve scientific problems with mathematics, and when I read this article, I thought, 'Hey, this is a problem I can solve.'" Antonelli has also solved other problems with the "Volterra-Hamilton" mathematical model that he developed. He has solved the mystery of succession in the crown of thorns population of the Great Barrier Reef. He is now working to define the succession of the Amazon Rain Forest to its current climax state. He is also seeking a unified theory of ecological evolution, and he feels he can achieve this in the not-too- distant future. "I haven't always been trying to develop a unified theory, but as we have been putting pieces together, study by study, I can see now that it's possible," said Antonelli, who has mentored more than 35 post-doctoral students and sits as an editor for eight journals. Antonelli uses differential equations to explain social interactions and biological behaviors, and he laments that more biologists aren't attuned to this type of research. "What we do is new and not a lot of people understand it yet," he said. "I've published in biology journals before, but most biologists don't read these articles because of the mathematics involved. We've got to convince (biologists) that it's worth the effort to learn the mathematics." Dr. Peter Antonelli's U of A web page: http://www.math.ualberta.ca/Antonelli_P.html The U of A Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences web site: http://www.math.ualberta.ca/index.html The Non-linear Analysis: Real World Applications web site: http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/store/6/2/0/3/9/2/ An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04e.html. __________________________________________________________________________ GOLF CARTS TODAY, MINI-VAN IN 2009? NEW MARS MISSION ALREADY PLANNED By Evelyn Boswell Montana State University release 12 January 2004 If you think the Mars rovers are interesting, wait until you see a mini- van clambering over the planet's red rocks and dusty lake beds. The two golf-cart size rovers that are mesmerizing the country now are preparing the way for a 2009 mission to Mars called the Mars Scientific Laboratory, says William Hiscock, head of the physics department and director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium based at Montana State University-Bozeman. The 2009 mission will involve a rover, too, but that vehicle will be the size of a mini-van. Lest anyone picture adventurous soccer parents doubling as astronauts, Hiscock said the upcoming rover, like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, will be remotely controlled. It will be nuclear powered instead of solar powered. Nuclear power is a good thing, because it means the rover won't be disabled by dust covering the power source, Hiscock said. The current rovers are expected to run 90 days before they're done in by conditions like dust or extreme temperature changes. "Dust builds up on solar panels, decreasing the light getting in. The power fades away because of it," Hiscock explained. Roving around Mars is like being 100,000 feet above sea level on Earth, Hiscock added. So when day turns into night, temperatures can drop up to 200 degrees, only to surge again the next day. "That puts a lot of thermal stress on electronics and wiring," Hiscock said. "Eventually probably, something just breaks after going through so many cycles." The Sojourner rover that landed on Mars in 1997 and still sets on the planet was disabled by dust and extreme temperatures, Hiscock said. It weighed 23 pounds, which means the Spirit and Opportunity are almost big enough to roll over it. The two rovers each weigh about 400 pounds. Michelle Larson, deputy director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium, said the larger size of the 2009 rover will give it the ability to survive longer than current and past rovers. "Therefore, science experiments performed on the 2009 rover will be able to make long duration measurements to see how the environment changes in time," Larson said. "The intent is to have the science instruments on the rover operating for an entire martian year (which is approximately two Earth years)." The 2009 mission will investigate the capacity of the Mars environment to sustain life, Larson said. Among other things, the mission will look for organic carbon compounds and features that might have resulted from biological processes. The mission will look at the geology and geochemistry of the landing area, investigate the role of water and other processes that may have been relevant to past living conditions. The mission will look at the effects of cosmic and solar radiation on the martian surface. Contact: Evelyn Boswell Phone: 406-994-5135 E-mail: evelynb@montana.edu Read the original news release at http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=1448. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mini_van_sized_rover.html. __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT'S LANDING MORE DRAMATIC THAN FIRST THOUGHT By William Harwood From CBS News and Spaceflight Now 13 January 2004 In the end, it was probably just as well flight controllers couldn't watch the Spirit lander's hair-raising descent to the rocky floor of Gusev Crater January 3. Even a base-jumping skydiver might have experienced a jolt of fear given the last-second maneuvers required to turn a high-speed impact into a safe, if bumpy, landing. Plunging toward Mars at 920 mph, Spirit's parachute deployed at an altitude of just 4.6 miles--a mile lower than expected--and its braking rockets fired a scant 34 stories or so above the surface in a flawless, but hair-raising descent that engineers are just now coming to fully appreciate. Read the full article at http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040113reconstruction.html. __________________________________________________________________________ COMMENTARY: THE REASONABLE COST OF PUTTING HUMANS ON THE MOON AND MARS By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 13 January 2004 President Bush's trial balloon for sending humans back to the Moon and on to Mars is, naturally, becoming politicized. Critics question whether America can afford a bold new space initiative at a time of fiscal disarray back home. "It is not worth bankrupting the country," said Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean. Of course it isn't. And it need not. Setting up a permanent base on the Moon--Bush is expected to call for a return in about 10-15 years--and then reaching for Mars does not require any outlandish hike in NASA's budget. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/news/commentary_bush- plan_040113.html. __________________________________________________________________________ PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES NEW VISION FOR SPACE EXPLORATION PROGRAM By President George W. Bush White House release 14 January 2004 Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm honored to be with the men and women of NASA. I thank those of you who have come in person. I welcome those who are listening by video. This agency, and the dedicated professionals who serve it, have always reflected the finest values of our country--daring, discipline, ingenuity, and unity in the pursuit of great goals. America is proud of our space program. The risk takers and visionaries of this agency have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity. Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America's space program. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon, and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own. I am comfortable in delegating these new goals to NASA, under the leadership of Sean O'Keefe. He's doing an excellent job. I appreciate Commander Mike Foale's introduction--I'm sorry I couldn't shake his hand. Perhaps, Commissioner, you'll bring him by--Administrator, you'll bring him by the Oval Office when he returns, so I can thank him in person. I also know he is in space with his colleague, Alexander Kaleri, who happens to be a Russian cosmonaut. I appreciate the joint efforts of the Russians with our country to explore. I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous spacial entrepreneurs who set such a wonderful example for the young of our country. And we've got some veterans with us today. I appreciate the astronauts of yesterday who are with us, as well, who inspired the astronauts of today to serve our country. I appreciate so very much the members of Congress being here. Tom DeLay is here, leading a House delegation. Senator Nelson is here from the Senate. I am honored that you all have come. I appreciate you're interested in the subject--it is a subject that's important to this administration, it's a subject that's mighty important to the country and to the world. Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. They made that journey in the spirit of discovery, to learn the potential of vast new territory, and to chart a way for others to follow. America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons. We have undertaken space travel because the desire to explore and understand is part of our character. And that quest has brought tangible benefits that improve our lives in countless ways. The exploration of space has led to advances in weather forecasting, in communications, in computing, search and rescue technology, robotics, and electronics. Our investment in space exploration helped to create our satellite telecommunications network and the Global Positioning System. Medical technologies that help prolong life--such as the imaging processing used in CAT scanners and MRI machines--trace their origins to technology engineered for the use in space. Our current programs and vehicles for exploring space have brought us far and they have served us well. The Space Shuttle has flown more than a hundred missions. It has been used to conduct important research and to increase the sum of human knowledge. Shuttle crews, and the scientists and engineers who support them, have helped to build the International Space Station. Telescopes--including those in space--have revealed more than 100 planets in the last decade alone. Probes have shown us stunning images of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets of our solar system. Robotic explorers have found evidence of water--a key ingredient for life--on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter. At this very hour, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is searching for evidence of life beyond the Earth. Yet for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and to learn. In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world, or ventured farther upward into space than 386 miles--roughly the distance from Washington, DC to Boston, Massachusetts. America has not developed a new vehicle to advance human exploration in space in nearly a quarter century. It is time for America to take the next steps. Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing programs and personnel. We'll make steady progress--one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time. Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finish what we have started, we will meet our obligations to our 15 international partners on this project. We will focus our future research aboard the station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology. The environment of space is hostile to human beings. Radiation and weightlessness pose dangers to human health, and we have much to learn about their long-term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. Research on board the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration. To meet this goal, we will return the Space Shuttle to flight as soon as possible, consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the Space Shuttle--after nearly 30 years of duty--will be retired from service. Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module. Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond. Beginning no later than 2008, we will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration. Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, we will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods. Eugene Cernan, who is with us today--the last man to set foot on the lunar surface--said this as he left: "We leave as we came, and God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind." America will make those words come true. Returning to the moon is an important step for our space program. Establishing an extended human presence on the moon could vastly reduce the costs of further space exploration, making possible ever more ambitious missions. Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth's gravity is expensive. Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could escape its far lower gravity using far less energy, and thus, far less cost. Also, the moon is home to abundant resources. Its soil contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air. We can use our time on the moon to develop and test new approaches and technologies and systems that will allow us to function in other, more challenging environments. The moon is a logical step toward further progress and achievement. With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond. Robotic missions will serve as trailblazers--the advanced guard to the unknown. Probes, landers and other vehicles of this kind continue to prove their worth, sending spectacular images and vast amounts of data back to Earth. Yet the human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures, or the most detailed measurements. We need to see and examine and touch for ourselves. And only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel. As our knowledge improves, we'll develop new power generation propulsion, life support, and other systems that can support more distant travels. We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos. And along this journey we'll make many technological breakthroughs. We don't know yet what those breakthroughs will be, but we can be certain they'll come, and that our efforts will be repaid many times over. We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math, and science, and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers. This will be a great and unifying mission for NASA, and we know that you'll achieve it. I have directed Administrator O'Keefe to review all of NASA's current space flight and exploration activities and direct them toward the goals I have outlined. I will also form a commission of private and public sector experts to advise on implementing the vision that I've outlined today. This commission will report to me within four months of its first meeting. I'm today naming former Secretary of the Air Force, Pete Aldridge, to be the Chair of the Commission. Thank you for being here today, Pete. He has tremendous experience in the Department of Defense and the aerospace industry. He is going to begin this important work right away. We'll invite other nations to share the challenges and opportunities of this new era of discovery. The vision I outline today is a journey, not a race, and I call on other nations to join us on this journey, in a spirit of cooperation and friendship. Achieving these goals requires a long-term commitment. NASA's current five-year budget is $86 billion. Most of the funding we need for the new endeavors will come from reallocating $11 billion within that budget. We need some new resources, however. I will call upon Congress to increase NASA's budget by roughly a billion dollars, spread out over the next five years. This increase, along with refocusing of our space agency, is a solid beginning to meet the challenges and the goals we set today. It's only a beginning. Future funding decisions will be guided by the progress we make in achieving our goals. We begin this venture knowing that space travel brings great risks. The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia was less than one year ago. Since the beginning of our space program, America has lost 23 astronauts, and one astronaut from an allied nation--men and women who believed in their mission and accepted the dangers. As one family member said, "The legacy of Columbia must carry on--for the benefit of our children and yours." The Columbia's crew did not turn away from the challenge, and neither will we. Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey. May God bless. Read the original release at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040114-3.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/15/bush.space/index.html http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/bush_papers.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moonbase_science_040113-1.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_ksc_040113.html http://www.space.com/news/nasa_lobby_040113.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_rtq_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/challenge_ahead_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/nasa_budget_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_vision_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_speech_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_transcript_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/bush_science_040114.html http://www.space.com/news/nasa_robots_040115.html http://www.space.com/news/esa_bush_040115.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nasa-04b.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nasa-04c.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nasa-04f.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040114230915.y3w9z339.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040114220551.wp4jq6wv.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040114220232.5hkkud02.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040114085552.b5i8mhi2.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040114143346.5das20lg.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115224033.kyq72gta.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115185953.4qfwre2v.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115185953.4qfwre2v.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115162118.8ffpi9bk.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115120458.eexseiq6.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040118163258.v6170upz.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0401/14spacepolicy/ http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/bush_space_policy_announced.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/space_advocates_bush_plan_needs_wo rk.html __________________________________________________________________________ PRESIDENT BUSH OFFERS NEW VISION FOR NASA NASA release 14 January 2004 President Bush has unveiled a new vision for space exploration, calling on NASA to "gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own." In a speech at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, the President said that the "new course for America's space program" would give NASA a new focus and clear objectives for the future. "We do not know where this journey will end," said Bush, "yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos." The President's plan for steady human and robotic exploration is based on a series of goals. First, he said, America will "finish what it started," completing the International Space Station by 2010. Research on the station will be focused on studying the long-term effects of space travel on humans, preparing for the longer journeys of the future. After the Station is complete, the Space Shuttle would be retired, after nearly 30 years of duty. Second, the United States will begin developing a new manned exploration vehicle, called the Crew Exploration Vechicle (CEV). The first craft to explore beyond Earth orbit since the Apollo days, the spacecraft would be developed and tested by 2008 and conduct its first manned mission no later than 2014. Though its main purpose would be to leave Earth orbit, the vehicle would also ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station after the shuttle is retired. "Our third goal," Bush said, "is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond." He proposed sending robotic probes to the lunar surface by 2008, with a human mission as early as 2015, "with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time." Bush said lunar exploration could lead to new technologies or the harvesting of raw materials that might be turned into rocket fuel or breathable air. "With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon," he said, "we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond." The proposed funding for the new exploration initiative will total $12 billion over the next five years, with much of it coming from reallocation of $11 billion within NASA's current five-year budget. The president called on Congress to increase the agency's budget by roughly $1 billion spread over the next five years. The president also announced the formation of a commission, headed by former Secretary of the Air Force Pete Aldrich, to advise him on the implementation of the new vision. Bush closed by acknowledging the sacrifices of fallen astronauts and looking to the future. "We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit," Bush said. "So let us continue the journey." Read the original news release at http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/bush_vision.html. __________________________________________________________________________ CHINA PLANS SPACE COMPETITION By Jaime FlorCruz From CNN 15 January 2004 It may be too early to call it a full-blown "space race", but China's burgeoning space program is certainly adding an element of competition for the long-dominant NASA efforts. After the successful return space flight by Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei last October, China has set its sights on the Moon and Mars--with plans for an unmanned lunar satellite by 2007. That would be followed by the landing of an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2010, the official Xinhua news agency reported Thursday. As U.S. President George W. Bush revealed Wednesday, the Chinese will not be alone on their inter-planetary quests. Read the full article at http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/14/china.spacerace/index.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA ANNOUNCES NEW HEADQUARTERS MANAGEMENT ALIGNMENT NASA release 04-024 15 January 2004 In a move designed to align the agency with the new exploration agenda outlined yesterday by President George W. Bush, NASA Deputy Administrator Frederick D. Gregory announced a comprehensive restructuring of the offices within Headquarters in Washington. The alignment impacts NASA management, the strategic Enterprises, and the agency's functional offices. The new alignment goes into effect immediately and reflects the new vision and the results of a comprehensive review of Headquarters operations, which first began when Gregory became Deputy Administrator in 2002. Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle is the new Associate Administrator, Office of Exploration Systems. Since retiring from the Navy in March, 2000, he has been an independent aerospace consultant. He was Chief Aerospace Engineer and Vice Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, which develops, acquires and supports naval aeronautical systems, when he retired. The Office of Exploration Systems is established to set priorities and direct the identification, development, and validation of exploration systems and related technologies. Users and technologists will work together to enable a balancing of factors between requirements, program schedules and costs. Steidle entered the Navy after graduating with merit from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. He trained as an attack pilot, test pilot and test pilot instructor. Steidle commanded the Navy's F/A-18 Program, naval aviation's largest production, research and development program, as well as the largest Foreign Military Sales Program. The Secretary of Defense presented Steidle with the Navy's Outstanding Program Manager Award. While Director of the Joint Strike Fighter Program, the program was awarded the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award. Steidle earned Master of Science degrees in Systems Management and Aerospace Engineering. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Dr. J. Victor Lebacqz is the new Associate Administrator, Office of Aeronautics, which was previously known as the Office of Aerospace Technology. He served as Acting Associate Administrator of the Office of Aerospace Technology since July 2003. He was appointed as Deputy Associate Administrator in December 2002. The new Office of Aeronautics was created to reflect NASA's commitment to aviation research and aeronautics technologies for the nation's civil and defense interests. "This alignment gives us the ability to specifically focus on our aeronautics and exploration systems," Gregory said. "These management adjustments will give us new opportunities for more effective leadership, policy and program success." The changes are consistent with NASA's ongoing responses to the management and cultural issues addressed by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. "We live in a different world than we did just a few years ago, and our management structure should reflect the priorities and objectives of our commitments," Gregory added. The Office of the NASA Administrator will be streamlined to allow for more independent leadership in areas vital to the execution of NASA's vision and mission. Among the changes, four new independent offices will be created. The new offices include: * The Office of Chief Engineer is established to ensure agency development efforts and mission operations are planned and conducted using sound engineering. * The Office of Health and Medical Systems is established to ensure the well-being of the NASA workforce and to provide independent oversight authority for healthcare, related research and information. * The Office of the Chief Information Officer is established to manage the agency's Information Technology (IT) investments, lead the development of an IT strategic plan, and create a roadmap to guide the agency's IT programs and policies. * The Office of Institutional and Corporate Management is established to lead the oversight of NASA's management systems, institutional, and corporate activities Leadership for the new offices, as well as staffing requirements and resource allocations, will be addressed as the new alignment is implemented this calendar year. For information about NASA and management programs on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Contact: Glenn Mahone/Bob Jacobs NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1898/1600 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115221837.3qiqf5ry.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nasa-04e.html __________________________________________________________________________ IF AIRBAGS WORK WELL WITH "OPPORTUNITY," TOO, THEN MARS LANDING SITES CAN BE CHOSEN MORE BOLDLY, SAYS UB GEOLOGIST University of Buffalo release 15 January 2004 The anticipated Mars landing on January 24 of the Opportunity rover will be a bit more challenging than the Spirit's bounce onto the red planet earlier this month, according to a University at Buffalo geologist, but if it's successful, then scientists will be able to be much bolder about selecting future Mars landing sites. "If both of these landers survive with airbag technology, then it blows the doors wide open for future Mars landing sites with far more interesting terrain," said Tracy Gregg, Ph.D., University at Buffalo assistant professor of geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and a planetary volcanologist. Gregg, who headed a national conference at UB in 1999 regarding the selection of future Mars landing sites, is chair of the geologic mapping standards committee of the NASA Planetary Cartography Working Group. "With the success of Spirit, I feel so much more confident about future Mars landers," said Gregg. "The airbags seem to be able to withstand quite a bit of trauma." Gregg remembers attending a conference presentation a few years ago by Matt P. Golombek, Ph.D., planetary geologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and, at the time, the principal investigator on the Mars Pathfinder mission, in which he proposed the airbag landing technology. "He listed the 15 steps that had to happen at exactly the right time and in exactly the right way in order for this technology to work. The general mood in the lecture hall was, 'Yeah, right, good luck,'" Gregg remembered. "Well, the next year, he got up to a standing-room-only crowd at a meeting of the same organization and he described all of the same steps that the Pathfinder had successfully completed on Mars. He got a standing ovation." The selection of Mars landing sites is a complex balancing act, Gregg says, where the potential for important scientific discoveries has to be balanced against the requirement that sites be absolutely safe so that the rovers can perform well and send data back to earth. Both Gusev Crater, where the Spirit landed, and Sinus Meridiani, where Opportunity is scheduled to land, were chosen, Gregg says, because they are not expected to have large boulders, steep cliffs or deep craters that could pop an airbag or swallow up the lander preventing the transmission of radio signals. "If Opportunity survives the landing on January 24, there is a high possibility that we will get to see layers of ancient rock, deposited when Mars was warm and wet and could have supported life," she says. "Evidence of river channels, which we expect to see at Sinus Meridiani, could be remnants of that early, warm history." When pictures start coming back from Opportunity, Gregg will have her eyes peeled, searching for layers in the walls of the dried-up river channels. "Those layers could be lava flows," explained Gregg, noting that often the best place to look for evidence of life on any planet is near volcanoes. "That may sound counterintuitive, but think about Yellowstone National Park, which really is nothing but a huge volcano," she says. "Even when the weather in Wyoming is 20 below zero, all the geysers, which are fed by volcanic heat, are swarming with bacteria and all kinds of happy little things cruising around in the water. So, since we think that the necessary ingredients for life on earth were water and heat, we are looking for the same things on Mars, and while we definitely have evidence of water there, we still are looking for a source of heat." Gregg hopes that a future landing Mars site will be near a volcano, particularly one called Apollinaris Patera. "A landing site near a volcano might be possible, now that the airbag technology has worked so wonderfully," she says. Contact: Ellen Goldbaum Phone: 716-645-5000 ext 1415 Fax: 716-645-3765 E-mail: goldbaum@buffalo.edu Read the original news release at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast- execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=65440009 For more information, see the UB News Services web site at http://www.buffalo.edu/news. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/dangerous_targets_mars_rovers.html . __________________________________________________________________________ IS SPACE EXPLORATION WORTH THE COST? By Virgiliu Pop 19 January 2004 The new space policy of the Bush administration, aimed at taking humankind back to the Moon and on to Mars, came under fire before even being released. In their bids at the Democratic nomination for the White House, several politicians criticized George W. Bush's grand space plans, arguing that the money would find a better use here, on Earth. "I also want to explore planet Earth and planet D.C.," Dennis Kucinich said. Al Sharpton too suggested that Bush instead try to discover the lower-income parts of Washington. "I mean, it won't cost as much... and it would be just as enlightening for him". Joseph Lieberman stated that the money would be needed "right here on Earth to give health care that's affordable to everybody, to improve our education system, and do better on veterans' benefits and homeland security". And Howard Dean agreed that "space exploration is terrific", but went on to ask, "Where is the tax increase to pay for it? It is not worth bankrupting the country." Since the beginning of the space era, it has been argued that the money spent on space exploration should rather be used on meeting the needs of the underprivileged... ...In the same time, many of the critics of the space program on social grounds are "limousine liberals". They point the finger at the US government for wasting their tax money in space instead of helping the poor, but they are not feeling guilty for their own consumerist life style and for their own scale of priorities. For instance, this year, total pet-related sales in the United States are projected to be $31 billion--the double, almost to the cent, of the $15.47 billion NASA budget. An estimated $5 billion worth of holiday season gifts were offered--not to the poor--but to the roving family pets--six times more than NASA spent on its own roving martian explorers... ...Americans spend $586.5 billion a year on gambling... ...$31 billion go annually in the US on tobacco products--twice the NASA budget... ...$58 billion is spent on alcohol consumption--almost four times the NASA budget... ...$250 billion are spent annually in the US on the medical treatment of tobacco- and alcohol-related diseases--only sixteen times more than on space exploration. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-04b.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ 19 January 2004 Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html E. Boswell, 2004. Mini-van sized rover for 2009. Universe Today. University of Buffalo, 2004. Scientists could choose more dangerous targets on Mars. Universe Today. Human space exploration articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html B. Berger, 2004. President Bush's plan calls for return to the Moon by 2015. Space.com. M. O'Brien and J. King, 2004. Mixed reaction to Bush's space plans. CNN. R. R. Britt, 2004. Commentary: the reasonable cost of putting humans on the Moon and Mars. Space.com. R. R. Britt, 2004. Eager to go to Mars, scientists offer cautious praise for Bush plan. Space.com. L. David, 2004. America's new space plan: a vision in search of focus, observers say. Space.com. L. David, 2004. The Moon: NASA's proving ground for Mars missions and beyond. Space.com. J. FlorCruz, 2004. China plans space competition. CNN. W. Harwood, 2004. President Bush unveils new space initiative. CBS and Spaceflight Now. P. de Selding, 2004. ESA officials applaud Bush exploration plan. Space.com. O. Knox, 2004. US president calls for Moon, Mars missions in new NASA focus. Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily. V. Pop, 2004. Is space exploration worth the cost? SpaceDaily. S. Silverstein, 2004. The challenge ahead: what Bush needs to duplicate the success of Apollo. Space.com. White House, 2004. President Bush announces new vision for space exploration program. SpaceDaily. White House, 2004. Transcript of President Bush's Speech at NASA HQ. Space.com. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html M. N. Jensen, 2004. Old equation may shed new light on planet formation. SpaceDaily. R. Smith, 2004. Researchers show evolutionary theory adds up. SpaceDaily. __________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 8-14 January 2004 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Tuesday, January 13. 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=8HuRiO9qwCJO-3BCLCXxIg. Cruise sequence C40 concluded this week with uplink of a trigger mini- sequence for the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), start of execution of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) Solar Wind mini- sequence, uplink of instrument expanded blocks (IEB) in support of C42, and uplink of the C42 background sequence. C42 began execution on Friday, January 9. Initial activities included instrument wake-up and IEB loads, an Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer pressure test, uplink of Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) flight software version 9.2, CAPS and Radio and Plasma Wave Science solar wind observations, CDA articulations, and a reaction wheel unload. With the start of C42, the Cassini orbiter has begun its Approach Science phase. The previous "cruise" phase included instrument calibrations and infrequent science opportunities. Approach Science consists of a set of continuous science observations between now and Saturn Orbit Insertion in July 2004. The level of science activity is representative of the upcoming Tour phase, and the flight team will be using tour processes and operational modes as expected in tour operations. One of the features of the Approach Science phase is a month-long campaign to monitor the solar wind impinging on Saturn's magnetosphere using CAPS, the Magnetometer Subsystem (MAG), and the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) while monitoring Saturn's auroral radio emissions with RPWS. MIMI and RPWS will look for upstream waves and particles, or disturbances in the solar wind caused by its interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere. The Hubble Space Telescope will also be carrying out a campaign at this time to monitor Saturn's ultra violet emissions periodically. The goal of these observations is to understand how Saturn's magnetosphere responds to changes in the solar wind. For the remainder of the Approach Science phase, the Magnetospheric and Plasma Science (MAPS) instruments will continue to monitor the solar wind but from a less-advantageous orientation while continuing to monitor Saturn's radio emissions and search for upstream waves and particles. Throughout, CDA will look for Saturn dust streams similar to those emanating from Jupiter. Remote sensing observations during the Approach Science phase include Saturn ring and atmospheric movies by the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), searches for new satellites and their orbit determinations by ISS, extended Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) system scans to search for hydrogen emissions, CIRS ring and Saturn atmospheric composition measurements, and optical navigation images to refine the ephemeredes of the known satellites. During the last month of this phase, monitoring by ISS of Titan's surface and clouds will begin, along with diffuse ring observations to search for unidentified ring hazards close to the planet. This month we are executing the month-long MAPS campaign. Next month we start Optical Remote Sensing observations, and more MAPS. As part of the C43 development process, uplink operations personnel (ULO) began the processing of IEB loads. No waiver disposition or Science Allocation Panel meeting was held during the C43 Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation 1 phase process as no additional waivers were submitted, and the DSN allocation file did not require any changes to the SSR management strategy. ULO is working with the Spacecraft Operations Office to build and test command files for the Probe Relay demonstration to be executed in C43. Over 40 real time command files are required for this activity. A waiver disposition meeting and a final wrap up meeting were held as part of the Science Operations Plan (SOP) implementation process for tour sequences S19/S20. The S19/S20 products are now archived, and will be reactivated for execution in March, April, and May of 2006. Official port #1 occurred for SOP implementation of S21/S22. The merged Spacecraft Activity Sequence File (SASF) is now being run through Inertial Vector Propagator (IVP)/ Kinematic Prediction Tool (KPT) to validate the end-to- end pointing profile. The S23/S24 SOP Implementation process kicked off this week and will complete on March 11, 2004. The next process to follow SOP Implementation in the development of a tour sequence is the Aftermarket process. This 5-week process addresses both mandatory and proposed discretionary changes that would require re- integration of segments contained in a sequence. The proposed changes would include requests by science and engineering that involve modifications to key shared resources including, but not limited to, spacecraft attitude, data volume, observing time, op modes, telemetry modes, and waypoints. After the cutoff for changes has been reached, an assessment meeting chaired by the Project Scientist is held to scope out the proposed changes. Later in the process a final decision meeting is held on what changes will be made to the sequence plan. The appropriate Target Working Team or Orbiter Science Team will then integrate approved changes. If it turns out that no discretionary changes are requested, the Aftermarket process for that sequence is cancelled and the sequence developed as part of the SOP Implementation process moves on to SOP Update. All approved Aftermarket changes have been accommodated for tour sequence S01 and the process has completed. The S01 SOP Update Process will begin on January 30, 2004. All requested S02 Aftermarket changes were received this week. The S02 Aftermarket Assessment meeting will be held next week to review the scope of the requested changes. The final port#3 occurred as part of the C44 Science Planning Team process. C44 is the last approach science sequence before the start of tour with S1. The merged SASF for C44 is now being run through IVP/KPT to validate the end-to-end pointing profile. This process will end this week and will be followed immediately with the C44 Science and Sequence Update Process beginning on January 20. All teams and offices supported this week's Cassini Monthly Management Review. The Project Scientist released a draft agenda for the Project Science Group meeting to be held at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California the last week of January. 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. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/getting_closer_saturn.html. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY MISSION STATUS NASA/JPL release 2004-023 16 January 2004 With barely a week before reaching Mars, NASA's Opportunity spacecraft adjusted its trajectory, or flight path, today for the first time in four months. The spacecraft carries a twin to the Spirit rover, which is now exploring Mars' Gusev Crater. It will land halfway around Mars, in a region called Meridiani Planum, on January 25 (Universal Time and EST; January 24 at 9:05 PM, PST). For today's trajectory correction maneuver, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, commanded Opportunity at 6:00 PM PST to fire thrusters in a sequence carefully calculated by the mission's navigators. The spacecraft is spinning at two rotations per minute. The maneuver began with a 20-second burn in the direction of the axis of rotation, then included two 5-second pulses perpendicular to that axis. "Looks like we got a nice burn out of Opportunity," said JPL's Jim Erickson, mission manager. "We're on target for our date on the plains of Meridiani next Saturday with a healthy spacecraft." Before the thruster firings, Opportunity was headed for a landing about 384 miles west and south of the intended landing site, said JPL's Christopher Potts, deputy navigation team chief for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. The maneuver was designed to put it on course for the target. Opportunity's schedule still includes two more possible trajectory correction maneuvers, on January 22 and January 24, but the maneuvers will only be commanded if needed. As of 5:00 AM Sunday, PST, Opportunity will have traveled 444 million kilometers (276 million miles) since its July 7 launch, and will have 12.5 million kilometers (7.8 million miles) left to go. 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. For more information about NASA and the Mars mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Additional information about the rover project is available from NASA's JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-5011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 __________________________________________________________________________ GO TO THAT CRATER AND TURN RIGHT: SPIRIT GETS A TRAVEL ITINERARY NASA/JPL release 2004-018 13 January 2004 NASA's Spirit has begun pivoting atop its lander platform on Mars, and the robot's human partners have announced plans to send it toward a crater, then toward some hills, during the mission. Determining exactly where the spacecraft landed, in the context of images taken from orbit, has given planners a useful map of the vicinity. After Spirit drives off its lander and examines nearby soil and rocks, the scientists and engineers managing it from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., intend to tell it to head for a crater that is about 250 meters (about 270 yards) northeast of the lander. "We'll be careful as we approach. No one has ever driven up to a martian crater before," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the science instruments on Spirit and on its twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity. The impact that dug the crater about 200 meters (about 220 yards) wide probably flung rocks from as deep as 20 to 30 meters (22 to 33 yards) onto the surrounding surface, where Spirit may find them and examine them. "It will provide a window into the subsurface of Mars," Squyres said. Craters come in all sizes. The main scientific goal for Spirit is to determine whether the Connecticut-sized Gusev Crater ever contained a lake. Taking advantage of the nearby unnamed crater for access to buried deposits will add to what Spirit can learn from surface materials near the lander. After that, if all goes well, the rover will head toward a range of hills about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away for a look at rocks that sit higher than the landing neighborhood's surface. That distance is about five times as far as NASA's mission-success criteria for how far either rover would drive. The highest hills in the group rise about 100 meters (110 yards) above the plain. "I cannot tell you we're going to reach those hills," Squyres said. "We're going to go toward them.'' Getting closer would improve the detail resolved by Spirit's panoramic camera and by the infrared instrument used for identifying minerals from a distance. First, though, comes drive-off. Overnight Monday to Tuesday, Spirit began rolling. It backed up 25 centimeters (10 inches), turned its wheels and pivoted 45 degrees. "The engineering team is just elated that we're driving," said JPL's Chris Lewicki, flight director. "We've cut loose our ties and we're ready to rove." After two more pivots, for a total clockwise turn of 115 degrees, Spirit will be ready for driving onto the martian surface very early Thursday morning, according to latest plans. Engineers and scientists have determined where on the martian surface the lander came to rest. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter was used in a technique similar to satellite- based global positioning systems on Earth to estimate the location of the landing site, said JPL's Joe Guinn of the rover mission's navigation team. Other researchers correlated features seen on the horizon in Spirit's panoramic views with hills and craters identifiable in images taken by Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey. "We've got a tremendous vista here with all kinds of features on the horizon," said JPL's Dr. Tim Parker, landing site-mapping geologist. The spacecraft came to rest only about 250 to 300 meters (270 to 330 yards) southeast of its first impact. Transverse rockets successful slowed horizontal motion seconds before impact, said JPL's Rob Manning, who headed development of the entry, descent and landing system. The spacecraft, encased in airbags, was just 8.5 meters (27.9 feet) off the ground when its bridle was cut for the final freefall to the surface. It first bounced about 8.4 meters (27.6 feet) high, then bounced 27 more times before stopping. Analysis of Spirit's landing may aid in minor adjustments for Opportunity, on track for landing on the opposite side of Mars on January 25 (Universal Time and EST; 9:05 PM January 24, PST). 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. For more information about NASA and the Mars mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Additional information about the rover project is available from NASA's JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-5011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article777.html http://www.marsdaily.com/2004/040113185017.5dngwjmq.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_040113.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04w.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040113exploration.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_crater_head_hills.html __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT READY TO DRIVE ONTO MARS SURFACE NASA/JPL release 2004-19 14 January 2004 NASA's Spirit completed a three-stage turn early today, the last step before a drive planned early Thursday to take the rover off its lander platform and onto martian soil for the first time. "We are very excited about where we are today. We've just completed the exploration of our lander and we're ready to explore Mars," said Kevin Burke of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., leader of the engineering team that planned the rover's egress from the lander. "We are headed in a north-northwest direction. That is our exit path, and we're sitting just where we want to be." Late tonight, mission managers at JPL plan to send the command for Spirit to drive forward 3 meters (10 feet), enough to get all six wheels onto the soil. After the move, one of the rover's first jobs will be to locate the Sun with its panoramic camera and calculate from the Sun's position how to point its main antenna at Earth, JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager, explained. On Friday, Spirit's science team will take advantage of special possibilities presented by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter flying almost directly overhead, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) high. Mars Express successfully entered orbit around Mars last month. Spirit will be looking up while Mars Express uses three instruments to look down. "This is an historic opportunity," said Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the science instruments on Spirit and on its twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity. "The intent is to get observations from above and to get observations from below at the same time to do the best possible job of determining the dynamics of the atmosphere." The Mars Express observations are also expected to supplement earlier information from two NASA Mars orbiters about the surface minerals and landforms in Spirit's neighborhood within Gusev Crater. Mars Express will be looking down with a high-resolution stereo camera, a spectrometer for identifying minerals in infrared and visible wavelengths, and another spectrometer for studying atmospheric circulation and composition. Spirit will be looking up with its panoramic camera and its infrared spectrometer. Dr. Michael Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., reported how Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer can be used to assess the temperatures in Mars' atmosphere from near the planet's surface to several kilometers or miles high. Spirit's measurements are most sensitive for the lower portion of the atmosphere, while Mars Express' measurements will be most sensitive for the upper atmosphere, he said. 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. For more information about NASA and the Mars mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Additional information about the rover project is available from NASA's JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-5011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT ROLLS ALL SIX WHEELS ONTO MARTIAN SOIL NASA/JPL release 2004-020 15 January 2004 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove off its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early today. The robot's first picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the soil set off cheers from the robot's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and discovery. We have six wheels in the dirt," said JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi. Since Spirit landed inside Mars' Gusev Crater on January 3 (PST and EST; January 4 Universal Time), JPL engineers have put it through a careful sequence of unfolding, standing up, checking its surroundings and other steps leading up to today's drive-off. "It has taken an incredible effort by an incredible group of people," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Peter Theisinger of JPL. The drive moved Spirit 3 meters (10 feet) in 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) away from the foot of the egress ramp, said JPL's Joel Krajewski, leader of the team that developed the sequence of events from landing to drive- off. The flight time sent the command for the drive-off at 12:21 AM PST today and received data confirming the event at 1:53 AM PST. The data showed that the rover completed the drive-off at 08:41 Universal Time (12:41 AM PST). "There was a great sigh of relief from me," said JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the drive-off. "We are now on the surface of Mars." With the rover on the ground, an international team of scientists assembled at JPL will be making daily decisions about how to use the rover for examining rocks, soils and atmosphere with a suite of scientific instruments onboard. "Now, we are the mission that we all envisioned three-and-a-half years ago, and that's tremendously exciting," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager. JPL engineer Chris Lewicki, flight director, said "It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team." Spirit was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on June 10, 2003. Now that it is on Mars, its task is to spend the rest of its mission exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment in Gusev Crater was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars on January 25 (EST and Universal Time; 9:05 PM, January 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet. 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. For more information about NASA and the Mars mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Additional information about the rover project is available from NASA's JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-5011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/15/rover.mars.int/index.html http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/15jan_spiritrolls.htm http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_rolling_040115.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115171954.a4dlar6i.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115102612.dmn8pgm3.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_rolls_off_lander.html __________________________________________________________________________ SPIRIT FLEXES ITS ARM TO USE MICROSCOPE ON MARS' SOIL NASA/JPL release 2004-022 16 January 2004 NASA's Spirit rover reached out with its versatile robotic arm early today and examined a patch of fine-grained martian soil with a microscope at the end of the arm. "We made our first use of the arm and took the first microscopic image of the surface of another planet," said Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. The rover's microscopic imager, one of four tools on a turret at the end of the arm, serves as the functional equivalent of a field geologist's hand lens for examining structural details of rocks and soils. "I'm elated and relieved at how well things are going. We got some great images in our first day of using the microscopic imager on Mars," said Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, AZ. Herkenhoff is the lead scientist for the microscopic imagers on Spirit and on Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity. The microscope can show features as small as the width of a human hair. While analysis of today's images from the instrument has barely begun, Herkenhoff said his first impression is that some of the tiny particles appear to be stuck together. Before driving to a selected rock early next week, Spirit will rotate the turret of tools to use two spectrometer instruments this weekend on the same patch of soil examined by the microsope, said Jessica Collisson, mission flight director. The Mössbauer Spectrometer identifies types of iron-bearing minerals. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer identifies the elements in rocks and soils. The rover's arm is about the same size as a human arm, with comparable shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. It is "one of the most dextrous and capable robotic devices ever flown in space," said JPL's Dr. Eric Baumgartner, lead engineer for the robotic arm, which also goes by the name "instrument deployment device." "Best of all," Baumgartner said, "this robotic arm sits on a rover, and a rover is meant to rove. Spirit will take this arm and the tremendous science package along with it, and reach out to investigate the surface." The wheels Spirit travels on provide other ways to examine Mars' soil. Details visible in images of the wheel tracks from the rover's first drive onto the soil give information about the soil's physical properties. "Rover tracks are great," said Dr. Rob Sullivan of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, a member of the science team for Spirit and Opportunity. "For one thing, they mean we're on the surface of Mars! We look at them for engineering reasons and for science reasons." The first tracks show that the wheels did not sink too deep for driving and that the soil has very small particles that provide a finely detailed imprint of the wheels, he said. Opportunity, equipped identically to Spirit, will arrive at Mars January 25 (Universal Time and EST; 9:05 PM January 24, PST). The amount of dust in the atmosphere over Opportunity's planned landing site has been declining in recent days, said JPL's Dr. Joy Crisp, project scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. Today, Spirit completes its 13th martian day, or "sol", at its landing site in Gusev Crater. Each sol lasts 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than an Earth day. The rover project's goal is for Spirit and Opportunity to explore the areas around their landing sites for clues in the rocks and the soil about whether the past environments there were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life. 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. For more information about NASA and the Mars mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Additional information about the rover project is available from NASA's JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-5011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_examines_martian_soil.html. __________________________________________________________________________ ESA'S MARTIAN WEATHER REPORT ESA release 14 January 2004 Every day, people around the world tune in weather forecasts to plan their days ahead. Soon ESA will be delivering the same service for Mars, thanks to an ingenious experiment on board Mars Express. Scientists around the world will be able to use this for some very special planning of their own. The Mars Radio Science Experiment, or 'MaRS', is a very special one on the European Mars Express spacecraft, which is now in its final operational orbit around Mars. This experiment requires no additional hardware--only the main antenna that Mars Express uses to communicate with the Earth. Yet it will provide the precise condition of the martian atmosphere from ground level up to an altitude of fifty kilometers. Included in these data will be a measure of the ground air temperature of Mars to twice the accuracy usually seen in weather reports on Earth! To gain this information, scientists on Earth must transmit a precise signal to Mars Express, which then sends it back, unchanged, once Mars Express has moved close to the limb of Mars. Here the radio signal has to pass through the thin atmosphere of Mars. The temperature, density and pressure of the atmosphere cause subtle changes in the signal that are detected on Earth and which, when analyzed, allow the scientists to see what the atmospheric conditions are on Mars. Equally astonishing is that MaRS can detect minuscule variations in the movement of Mars Express. Mars Express needs only to vary its expected motion by just half the speed of a garden snail and this too will be detected by the MaRS analysis software. These movements are caused by the spacecraft passing over martian features such as mountains or the polar caps, whose masses cause tiny variations in the gravitational pull on Mars Express compared to when the spacecraft is flying over a flat plain or basin. The data will be invaluable in determining the thickness of the planetary crust and charting the seasonal variation in the carbon dioxide ice sheets that make up the martian polar caps. "We aim to run the experiment for the next four years, providing a better understanding than ever before of the daily and seasonal variations that occur in the martian atmosphere," says the MaRS Principal Investigator Martin Pätzold, of Universität Koln. Such data will allow planetary scientists on Earth to construct more accurate computer programs to simulate or 'model' the behavior of the martian atmospheric circulation. This ability could prove invaluable to future mission planners, especially for those scientists contemplating landing sensitive equipment, or even manned missions on the surface of Mars, perhaps as part of ESA's proposed Aurora program. The first data from MaRS will be collected on 19 January. Although this particular sweep will be treated as a test run, Pätzold hopes to be in possession of his first martian weather report this April. Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM6TQ374OD_0.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article787.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040115164923.yzhsv6hm.html __________________________________________________________________________ EUROPE'S EYE ON MARS: FIRST SPECTACULAR RESULTS FROM MARS EXPRESS ESA release 05-2004 19 January 2004 ESA's Mars Express, successfully inserted into orbit around Mars on 25 December 2003, is about to reach its final operating orbit above the poles of the Red Planet. The scientific investigation has just started and the first results already look very promising. Although the seven scientific instruments on board Mars Express are still undergoing a thorough calibration phase, they have already started collecting amazing results. The first high-resolution images and spectra of Mars have already been acquired. This first spectacular stereoscopic colour picture was taken on 14 January 2004 by ESA's Mars Express satellite from 275 km above the surface of Mars by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). This image is available on the ESA portal at: http://mars.esa.int. The picture shows a portion of a 1700 km long and 65 km wide swath which was taken in south-north direction across the Grand Canyon of Mars (Valles Marineris). It is the first image of this size that shows the surface of Mars in high resolution (12 meters per pixel), in color, and in 3D. The total area of the image on the martian surface (top left corner) corresponds to 120,000 km2. The lower part of the picture shows the same region in perspective view as if seen from a low-flying aircraft. This perspective view was generated on a computer from the original image data. One looks at a landscape which has been predominantly shaped by the erosional action of water. Millions of cubic kilometers of rock have been removed, and the surface features seen now such as mountain ranges, valleys, and mesas, have been formed. The HRSC is just one of the instruments to have collected exciting data. To learn more about the very promising beginning to ESA's scientific exploration of Mars, media representatives are invited to attend a press conference on Friday, 23 January 2004, at 11:00 CET at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, and in video-conference with the other ESA centers. There, under the auspices of ESA Council Chair at Ministerial level, Germany's Minister for Education and Research, Mrs Edelgard Bulmahn, ESA's Director of the Scientific Program, Professor David Southwood and the Principal Investigators of all instruments on board Mars Express will present the first data and preliminary results. Also a spectacular, three-dimensional video sequence, featuring famous landmarks on the surface of Mars "as seen through European eyes" will be unveiled for the first time on Friday 23 January. Contact: ESA Media Relations Office Phone: +33(0)1.53.69.7155 Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690 An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_express_first_image.html. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 8-14 January 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Mars on 25 December 2003 (Released 08 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=s-fpYb89VSNO-3BCLCXxIg Dust Devils Near Schiaparell (Released 09 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=1dFgnCSgC1BO-3BCLCXxIg Frosty North Polar Dunes (Released 10 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=1I3tFUQHTFRO-3BCLCXxIg Cratered Hill in Amazonis (Released 11 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=IX2oijSt8sBO-3BCLCXxIg High-resolution View of Gullies (Released 12 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=tCoZ7Gm_BOpO-3BCLCXxIg South Polar Troughs (Released 13 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=CjskK84J5clO-3BCLCXxIg Clouds near Phlegra Montes (Released 14 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=ZFrmLaclcxZO-3BCLCXxIg All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=R0JT8IPD_HtO-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 12-16 January 2004 Spirit Landing Site in Infrared (Released 12 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=e44_QJ_sAkFO-3BCLCXxIg Western Gusev in Infrared (Released 13 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=pxgUcE0r7qFO-3BCLCXxIg Central Gusev (Released 14 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=hfD5sed8rdZO-3BCLCXxIg Craters within Craters (Released 15 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=7S1RyPu4Lr9O-3BCLCXxIg Central Gusev in IR (Released 16 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Vl02LASFEy1O-3BCLCXxIg All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=QvsLD3NTSDpO-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. __________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 16 January 2004 The Stardust team had daily communications with the spacecraft in the past week. Telemetry relayed from the spacecraft remains in very good shape after its close encounter with Comet Wild 2 back on January 2. 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://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=6aJ6NMC9cNBO-3BCLCXxIg. The Stardust spacecraft was commanded out of its encounter configuration and back into cruise configuration. It will remain in cruise until just prior to the release of the Sample Return Capsule in January 2006. Post- encounter calibrations of both the navigation camera and Dust Flux Measurement Instrument were completed. Images taken through the periscope showed significant degradation from the dust hits during flyby as expected. The periscope performed its function of protecting the mirror and primary camera optics as images not taken through the periscope continue to be good. For more information on the Stardust mission--the first ever comet sample- return mission--please visit the Stardust home page at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Q2xRVg3Y6hpO-3BCLCXxIg. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/16jan_stardust.htm http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04h.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/stardust_surprised_scientists.html __________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 4.