Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 6, 3 February 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) OXYGEN TRIGGERED THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX LIFE FORMS From SpaceDaily 2) SEEING THE INVISIBLE COLORS OF MARS By Janice Bishop 3) EDUCATORS SPRING INTO FLIGHT ON NASA'S "WEIGHTLESS WONDER" AIRCRAFT NASA release 04-046 4) SEND IN YOUR SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKS From the MER education site 5) BIOLOGICAL "GOLD RUSH" THREATENS ANTARCTICA, EXPERTS WARN From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 6) PROMINENT BUSINESS LEADERS, SCIENTISTS ON BUSH'S MARS-MOON COMMISSION By Robert Roy Britt 7) JAMES CAMERON'S MARS REFERENCE DESIGN: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT By Helen Matsos 8) FROM A RIVER IN SPAIN TO A CRATER ON MARS: INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW KNOLL, PART I By Henry Bortman 9) OXYGEN AND CARBON DISCOVERED IN EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERE "BLOW-OFF" ESA release Announcements 10) SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL MARS SOCIETY CONVENTION Mars Society release 11) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas Mission Reports 12) BEAGLE 2 UPDATE Beagle 2 team release 13) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 14) MARS EXPLORATION ROVER UPDATES NASA/JPL releases 15) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 16) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 17) GETTING TOGETHER IN DEEP SPACE: THE ROSETTA SPACE PROBE'S LONG TREK TO COMET CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO ESA release 03-2004 18) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release __________________________________________________________________________ OXYGEN TRIGGERED THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX LIFE FORMS From SpaceDaily 29 January 2004 Oxygen played a key role in the evolution of complex organisms, according to new research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The study shows that the complexity of life forms increased earlier than was thought, and in parallel with the availability of oxygen as an energy source. In the largest study to date that does not focus on vertebrates, researchers from Pennsylvania State University used molecular dating methods to create a new timeline of eukaryotic evolution. By adding information about the numbers of different cell types possessed by each group of organisms, the researchers reconstructed how the complexity of life has increased over time. The study shows that organisms containing more varied cell types evolved following increases in atmospheric oxygen. Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04g.html. Read the BMC Evolutionary Biology article at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/4/2/abstract. __________________________________________________________________________ SEEING THE INVISIBLE COLORS OF MARS By Janice Bishop From Space.com 29 January 2004 The color of Mars tells us which minerals are present, and these minerals provide information about water and environmental factors on Mars. The red color comes from iron oxides and varies from orange to red to violet depending on the mineral structure. In the visible region a spectrometer acts like our eyes do and recognizes colors such as green, blue and red. The Pancam on Spirit and Opportunity records these colors in spectral images. The Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is another spectrometer on the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and measures infrared radiation. Our eyes cannot "see" the infrared radiation, but the spectrometer can. Rocks are composed of minerals and each mineral has a certain spectrum that can be measured by the spectrometer. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_mars_color_040129.html. __________________________________________________________________________ EDUCATORS SPRING INTO FLIGHT ON NASA'S "WEIGHTLESS WONDER" AIRCRAFT NASA release 04-046 30 January 2004 This spring, NASA Explorer Schools teams of teachers and administrators from Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa will fly aboard NASA's "weightless wonder", a KC-135A aircraft, as part of NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. For the first time, teams from NASA Explorer Schools will participate in NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities program. Participants will design and build experiments for a microgravity environment and fly them aboard NASA's KC-135A aircraft. As a flying science laboratory, the KC-135A alternates steep climbs and dives, riders experience the best opportunity at weightlessness available on Earth. The NASA Explorer Schools selected to fly in 2004 are: Pender Public Schools, Pender, NE, Crossroads Elementary School, Saint Paul, MN, and Sioux Central Middle School, Sioux Rapids, IA. Teams of students and teachers from these NASA Explorer Schools, working in collaboration with NASA scientist-mentors, will develop experiments that two teachers per school will conduct during flights aboard the aircraft. The flights will take place April 15-21 from Houston's Ellington Field, near NASA's Johnson Space Center. "One of the goals of the NES program is to provide teachers and their students with unique opportunities that are inquiry- based, 'as only NASA can'," said Peggy Steffen, NASA Explorer Schools program manager. "Developing an experiment to fly on the reduced gravity aircraft with the assistance of a NASA scientist-mentor will provide the students an opportunity to investigate a real-world application of physical science." The NASA Explorer Schools Program, started in June 2003, establishes a three-year partnership between NASA and 50 new NASA Explorer Schools teams annually. The teams consist of teachers and education administrators from diverse communities across the country. During the commitment period, NASA invites teams to NASA Centers to spark innovative science and mathematics instruction directed specifically at students in grades four through nine. The selected schools are also eligible for up to $17,500 in grants over the three years of involvement, pending continued funding. The deadline for 2004 NASA Explorer Schools Program applications is midnight tonight. For more information about the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities program on the Internet, and access to a short video about the program, visit http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/. For information about the NASA Explorer Schools Program on the Internet, visit http://explorerschools.nasa.gov. For information about other NASA educational programs on the Internet, visit http://www.education.nasa.gov. For information about NASA on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Contacts: Gretchen Cook-Anderson NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-0836 Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX Phone: 281-483-5111 __________________________________________________________________________ SEND IN YOUR SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKS From the MER education site 1 February 2004 Mars scientists are asking students from around the world to help them understand the red planet. Send in a rock collected by you or your classroom from your region of the world, and we will use a special tool like the one on the rover to tell you what it's made of. Then everyone can compare their rocks to the ones found on Mars. We'll post a picture of your rock on the web, and give you a report on what kind of rock it is. We'll also send you an official certificate and Mars sticker for your contribution. Your rock will be kept in a special collection where scientists from around the world can come to study them. It's really important that you send a rock in or on the ground in its natural setting. Avoid rocks that are decorative or used in landscaping as they could have come from other regions on Earth. Here's how you can participate: Minimum to send: Rock: minimum 2", maximum 6" (preferred 4" size) Name Age Address (to send certificate and sticker--not released) Name of city/village and country (include zip code if U.S.) Clean rock: wash with water if dirty (make free of dirt) Note: Only First Names, Age, and Cities will be listed on the web Optional: Latitude/longitude of sample site Name of geographic feature (if it has one) where rock was collected Copy of map with location where rock was collected Picture of rock in person's hand for scale Picture of location where rock was collected (with no people) Short paragraph describing area where rock was collected Phone number Place to Send Your Rock: Dr. Phil Christensen Mars Space Flight Facility Arizona State University PO Box 876305, Moeur Building Room 131 Tempe, AZ 85287-6305 Visit the "Send us your rocks" page at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/schoolhouse/. __________________________________________________________________________ BIOLOGICAL "GOLD RUSH" THREATENS ANTARCTICA, EXPERTS WARN From Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily 1 February 2004 A "21st Century gold rush" for Antarctica's biological treasures threatens to overwhelm international efforts to regulate their exploitation, experts warn in a United Nations University report to be released Monday. Bioprospectors are racing to find and exploit the genetic and biochemical riches of "extremophiles"--organisms that have evolved unique characteristics to survive in earth's most hostile environments, the report says. "Many scientists believe that isolating and extracting the substances that allow these organisms to prosper could have enormous implications in biotechnoloy research, possibly leading to new cancer treatment drugs, antibiotic and industrial compounds. But in fragile Antarctica this optimism is offset by warnings of significant consequences if an unregulated international 'free-for-all' is allowed to develop," says the report by the UN University's Tokyo-based Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). Read the full article at http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040201100057.98la4wnn.html. __________________________________________________________________________ PROMINENT BUSINESS LEADERS, SCIENTISTS ON BUSH'S MARS-MOON COMMISSION By Robert Roy Britt 1 February 2004 President George W. Bush announced Friday the business leaders, scientists and other spaceflight experts who will advise him on how to carry out the specifics of his new vision for putting humans back on the Moon and eventually on Mars. Carleton S. "Carly" Fiorina, the CEO of Hewlett- Packard, will serve on the nine-member commission. HP has previously sponsored Disney's new SPACE ride and a robotic lunar mission by TransOrbital Inc. The new team also includes prominent Mars researcher Maria Zuber of MIT, planetary scientist Paul Spudis of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, book author and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. The Presidential Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy is to be headed by former Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge, Jr., Bush had said Janueary 14 when he presented his plan for refocusing NASA's human spaceflight activities. Other members of the commission: Michael P. Jackson of Virginia, Laurie Ann Leshin of Arizona, Lester L. Lyles of Ohio and Robert Smith Walker of Pennsylvania. The panel will advise the White House on what sort of science agenda should be considered for the Moon and other destinations as well as what human and robotic missions should be conducted to achieve Bush's vision. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/news/bush_commission_040201.html. __________________________________________________________________________ JAMES CAMERON'S MARS REFERENCE DESIGN: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT By Helen Matsos From Astrobiology Magazine 2 February 2004 As an artist and filmmaker, James Cameron is credited on major Hollywood productions in virtually all roles: writer, director, producer, editor, visual effects, actor, art director, and even crew. Cameron wrote and directed such science fiction classics as Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), The Abyss (1989), and Aliens (1986). He received an Academy Award for Best Director for 1997's Titanic, which was also the largest grossing film in history. Astrobiology Magazine's Executive Producer, Helen Matsos, sat down with James Cameron and discussed his project slate. During their discussions, Cameron shared how he became interested in Mars and his unique renderings commissioned to represent the key stages in a future human mission to the red planet. As Cameron said about his directorial view: "I think that any kind of exploration should always try to acquire the highest level of imaging. That's how you engage people--you can put them there, give them the sense that they're standing there on the surface of Mars." The Design Reference Mission (DRM) covers Earth launch to Mars landing, Mars cruise to Mars launch, and Earth return. The mission entails sending cargo ahead, docking the crew at the space station, then meeting up with the cargo supplies once on Mars. Cameron underscored the need to illustrate the details for each stage of the DRM. And whether deploying a crew or robotic explorers, the mission needed to connect more to a shared human story of discovery. A future Astrobiology Magazine feature will highlight Cameron's reflections on making such a mission come to life, but this director's preview offers tantalizing visual cues to what is going on robotically today on Mars. "The [1997] Sojourner Rover became a character to millions of people, a protagonist in a story. How long is it going to survive, could it perform its mission? It wasn't anthropomorphic in any way, there was absolutely no emotion in a little solar powered machine that was being commanded from eighty million miles away, and yet people thought of it as a character. The reason we thought of it as a character is that it represented us in a way. It was our consciousness moving that vehicle around on the surface of Mars. It's our collective consciousness--focused down to that little machine--that put it there. So it was a celebration of who and what we are." "It takes our entire collective consciousness and projects it there--to that point in time and space. That's what the Sojourner Rover did." "I was involved in a private company that was going to try to land two rovers on the Moon. That collapsed in the dot com crash--they ran out of money. I'm loosely involved with people who are going to be doing future robotic missions to Mars. I'm involved in terms of imaging, and of how imaging might be improved in terms of story telling. I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement--the 'Mars Underground'--and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3-D film." "In doing this fictional story about the first humans to Mars--a subject that has been done in the movies, but never done very well, I think-- people in the Hollywood community have no idea of what that means. The average person walking around has no idea of what's involved. I called up NASA and said 'who's in charge of Mars?' It turns out that NASA has (scientists studying Mars) everywhere, but there's no one person in charge. It's taken me years to ferret around and talk to everybody." "In the course of designing this project, we never got past the design stage, although we will eventually. Right now it's just, 'what's everything going to look like?' What it looked like was determined by how it worked, and how it worked was determined by the mission architecture. " "The thing I found about human mission architectures for going to Mars is that if you change one piece or one assumption, it has a ripple effect through the whole thing, and it looks different coming out the other end. You do things differently, your spacecraft are configured differently, your surface mission looks different, the time you spend on the planet looks different. So a certain set of fundamental assumptions had to be made and then we had to design everything for what it was going to look like." "I wanted it to be highly realistic. Obviously I don't think we can predict now, twenty-some years before the fact, exactly how it is going to be done, but we can make a set of very plausible assumptions. We got involved in the design of it, and predicated it on a series of assumptions, and then I went to JSC (Johnson Space Center) to talk to some of the people in the human exploration and development group. I asked, 'Does this look like what you guys thought?' They had created overall architectural guidelines in the DRM--the Design Reference Mission--but there were no pictures. Nobody knew what it was really going to look like." I said, 'Look, this is our proposal for what a Hab would look like, and what a pressurized rover would look like, and we made certain assumptions based on how we operate deep submersibles, for example, in terms of how the manipulators would work taking samples and so on.' And they said, 'Hey, this is neat! Thanks! If you ever want to get out of filmmaking, come here and hang with us.' The stages of the Cameron's Mars Reference Design take a crew and cargo ship from a heavy-lift launch to the flat, red plains of Mars. See the slideshow version [http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?set_albumName=marsdrm&op=modload &name=gallery&file=index&include=slideshow.php]. A Biconic Aeroshell and Fairing is used to transport payloads into space atop a heavy launch vehicle. A single cargo mission will precede the crew to Mars. The cargo mission provides all the necessary equipment a Mars crew will require to explore the martian surface for 500 to 600 days. Included in this cargo are the Cargo Landing Vehicle (CLV), an In Situ Propellant Production Plant Reactor and two inflatable surface Habitats (Hab). This cargo will be placed in the Biconic Aeroshell and will aerobrake to slow its descent into the martian atmosphere. A heavy-lift launch vehicle will deliver the Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV) into low Earth orbit (LEO). The CTV will deploy in orbit and rendezvous with the crew at the International Space Station (ISS). The CTV comprises several systems: an inflatable habitat called the TransHab; the Crew Lander and Rover; and the Aeroshell. The petals of the Aeroshell deploy and lock in place. After cruise, the CTV will tumble end-over-end during Trans-Mars Injection (TMI), creating a 0.38 times earth gravity environment, identical to conditions on Mars. The Crew Lander and Rover, along with their aeroshell will separate from the CTV and enter into the martian atmosphere. Upon successful aerobraking in the martian atmosphere, the Biconic aeroshell will fall away as large parachutes further assist to slow the CLV in its powered landing. The crew will use steering flaps and reaction control thrusters to guide their entry. During descent, the packed Habs are jettisoned. The jettisoned Habs will inflate during their independent descent, providing airbag protection to the Cargo Modules housed inside. The aeroshell itself is jettisoned and large parachutes are used to slow the Crew Lander and Rover during descent. The Crew Lander and Rover will use powerful engines to hover before landing. The Rover's variable suspension will be capable of absorbing the shock of landing as well as increasing the Rover's ground clearance. In addition to the Rover's descent engines, the vehicle will serve as transport and mobile laboratory. A robotic manipulator and crane will allow the crew to interact remotely with the surface. Forward and dorsal docking tunnels simplify crew transfers to the Hab. Power will come from crygenic fuel tanks and a photovoltaic array. The vehicle's port side includes a centrifugal blower to keep dust to a minimum. On the surface, the crew must locate both Habs and transport them to the CLV site. The Crew Lander/Rover docks with one of the Habs via the forward hatch. The Mars Mission Base will have a modular design of components that allow for several geometric configurations and expansion. After landing, the In Situ Propellant Production (ISPP) plant deploys nuclear reactors to power the production of water, oxygen and methane using hydrogen and carbon dioxide as raw materials. The CLV and ISPP will provide liquid oxygen and methane (LOX/CH4) propellant to the Ascent Crew vehicle. The Ascent Crew vehicle will rendezvous with the Earth Return Vehicle in orbit around Mars. The crew comes home, having established a human base on Mars. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article813.html. __________________________________________________________________________ FROM A RIVER IN SPAIN TO A CRATER ON MARS: INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW KNOLL, PART I By Henry Bortman 2 February 2004 In Pasadena, Henry Bortman, Astrobiology Magazine's Editor-in-Chief had the chance to talk with Andrew Knoll, a science team member for the Mars' Exploration Rover missions and Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. Astrobiology Magazine (AM): The first batch of images from Meridiani Planum, showing finely layered bedrock, have scientists pretty excited. What are your initial impressions? Andrew Knoll (AK): We've known for several years, from orbital data, that there are layered rocks on Mars, but Opportunity gives us our first chance to actually go and work directly on some of these rocks in an outcrop. For geologists, you just can't overemphasize the importance of that. The fact that they're sort of tabular suggests that they're either fairly thin volcanic deposits or sediments. And the prospect of having in situ sedimentary rocks on Mars that we can go up and interrogate is about a best-case scenario, as far as I'm concerned. AB: What if they turn out to be volcanic ash deposits? Will that make for a less interesting scenario? AK: Not at all. I think one of the big questions is, "What are the predominant processes that have given rise to layered rocks on Mars?" There's no reason to believe that every layered rock on Mars formed in the same way as the ones that Opportunity's sitting in front of. But to know even how one of those layered rocks formed will be a step in the right direction. We will also soon know whether the hematite signal in Meridiani that was detected from orbit is resident in those rocks. Remember the reason that we're at Meridiani Planum is because of this strong signal for a particular form of iron oxide called hematite. It's very difficult to think about making hematite without some liquid water interactions with rocks. So even if it's a volcanic rock, it will help to constrain our thinking about one of the most interesting chemical anomalies on the planet. AB: There's a river in Spain, the Rio Tinto, where you've spent some time doing research. You've suggested that the way the iron minerals at Rio Tinto have degraded and transformed over time might shed some light on how the hematite at Meridiani formed. Can you explain the connection? AK: Let me start at the beginning. The kinds of thinking we bring to the interpretation of iron on Mars will be informed by our experience with oxidized iron on the Earth's surface. There are a number of ways that iron deposits have formed on our planet. It may be that no one of them is going to be an exact analog for what happened on Mars. But each of them might give tidbits of information that will help us think about Mars. Now, Rio Tinto is a very interesting place. It's in southwestern Spain, about an hour west of Seville, maybe another hour east of the Portuguese border. Rio Tinto is actually of historical interest to people in America since Columbus set sail in 1492 from a port at the mouth of the Rio Tinto. But it's also of interest to mining geologists because it has been a mine at least since the time of the Romans. What's being mined there is iron ore. About 400 million years ago hydrothermal processes formed these iron ore deposits. Mostly the iron is in the form of iron sulfide, or fool's gold. It's very rich ore. As rainwater percolates down through these deposits, it oxidizes the pyrite and two things happen. One, it forms sulfuric acid. So the water in the river has a pH of about 1; it's very acidic. And, two, the iron gets oxidized. So the water is about the color of rubies, because of this iron being carried around. What's interesting is that if you look at the deposits that are forming from the Rio Tinto today, most of the iron is coming out as iron sulfate minerals, that is, a combination of iron, sulfur and oxygen; and a little bit of it is coming out as a mineral called goethite, which is iron mixed with oxygen and a little bit of hydrogen. Goethite is basically rust. That's not what you see at Meridiani on Mars. But what's interesting about the Rio Tinto deposit is that this process has been taking place for at least 2 million years. And there is a series of terraces that give us a sense of what happens to these deposits over time. What we find is that after just a few thousand years, all of the sulfate minerals have disappeared and all of the iron is in this material called goethite. But as you go into older and older terraces, by the time you get to terraces that are 2 million years old, much of that goethite has been replaced by hematite, the mineral on Mars. And it's a fairly coarse- grained hematite, which is also what we see at Mars. So the first thing we learn at Rio Tinto is that one doesn't need to think only about processes that deposit coarse-grained hematite from the get-go. It can form during what geologists call diagenesis. That is, it can form by processes that affect the rocks through time, and it can actually do that at low temperatures and without being deeply buried and subjected to high pressure. So in that sense, Rio Tinto shows us another way in which the hematite in Meridiani could have gotten there. It expands the options we consider. AB: When geologists say things like "low temperature," they often mean something different than the rest of us do. AK: When I say "low temperature," I'm talking about the temperatures that you and I experience on a daily basis, room temperature. I would guess that most of the Rio Tinto groundwaters are between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius, maybe 70 to 80 degrees Farenheit. AB: Does the texture of the rock change over time as a mineral goes through the process of diagenesis? AK: Yes, it does. Although what's interesting is that while texture at the level of what the microscopic imager can see definitely changes through diagenetic history, larger scale features of deposition that you would see by looking closely at the outcrop with Pancam appear to be persistent. So, even though the rock is going through these changes, it retains sedimentary signatures of its formation, which is exciting. That's important. AB: You say that at Rio Tinto you can see a 2-million-year slice that shows you the diagenetic process over time. But the outcrops that Opportunity has seen at Meridiani could be 2 billion years old. Would they still retain any useful information after that long? AK: Here's the good news about geology: for sedimentary rocks, in particular, most of the changes that a rock undergoes it undergoes very early in its history. Unless a rock undergoes metamorphism, getting buried and subjected to high pressures and temperature, within at most a few million years of its formation it stabilizes into a form that it will retain indefinitely. I work, in my day job, on Precambrian rocks on this planet. And I can guarantee you that when I look at a sedimentary rock that's a billion years old, most of the changes that that rock underwent happened within the first 200 thousand years of its life. And then it stabilizes, and just waits for a geologist. AB: And we have no reason to believe that physics behaves differently on Mars? AK: That's what we have going for us. I've said this before in terms of astrobiology: when you're looking for life beyond our planet, you have no assurance that biology somewhere else will be the same as it is here. But you have pretty good assurance that physics and chemistry will be the same. AB: Part of what makes Meridiani interesting is that it's unlike just about any place else on Mars. Even if you're able to figure out the history of Meridiani, to what extent will you be able to generalize that knowledge to Mars as a whole? AK: I think it will certainly constrain the way we think about Mars as a whole planet. It may be that, in terms of the overall chemical and rock signature of Mars, that Gusev will turn out to be a better standard-issue Mars surface. That is, most of Mars--in fact, almost all of Mars--is surfaced with basalt, and then covered with fine dust. And that's what we see at Gusev. Now, it turns out that if you strip away the signal of hematite from the signatures of surface materials in Meridiani that we've gotten from orbit, it's also mainly basalt. So it's not a completely anomalous part of the planet. It appears to be a representative part of the planet at heart, with this unique hematite signal layered onto it. One of the features of the Meridiani iron deposit is that, while it's local with respect to the whole planet, it's geographically widespread in that you have thousands of square kilometers that give this signature. Many people think that hydrothermal processes and groundwater processes will give only small local iron signals, but in fact, the hematite-rich layers in the Rio Tinto deposit, go for several thousand square kilometers because these groundwaters spread out in a layer over a wide area. So the Rio Tinto iron deposits do several things that we should keep in mind at Meridiani. They combine ancient hydrothermal and younger low- temperature processes; they need water; they can be layer forming; and they can be widespread. They're not the only set of processes that could to that, by any means. I'm not particularly prejudiced in favor of Rio Tinto as a better analog to Meridiani than anything else. I just think that as we go into this exploration we need to at least keep in our memory file as many different products and processes dealing with iron as we can. All of the different settings for iron deposition and processes of iron deposition we see on this planet carry chemical and textural signals that Opportunity could detect on Meridiani. We can use those comparisons to help us to figure out how the Meridiani hematite formed. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article817.html. __________________________________________________________________________ OXYGEN AND CARBON DISCOVERED IN EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERE "BLOW-OFF" ESA release 2 February 2004 The well-known extrasolar planet HD 209458b, provisionally nicknamed Osiris, has surprised astronomers again. Oxygen and carbon have been found in its atmosphere, evaporating at such an immense rate that the existence of a new class of extrasolar planets--"the chthonian planets" or "dead" cores of completely evaporated gas giants--has been proposed. Oxygen and carbon have been detected in the atmosphere of a planet beyond our Solar System for the first time. Scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the famous extrasolar planet HD 209458b passing in front of its parent star, and found oxygen and carbon surrounding the planet in an extended ellipsoidal envelope--the shape of a rugby-ball. These atoms are swept up from the lower atmosphere with the flow of the escaping atmospheric atomic hydrogen, like dust in a supersonic whirlwind. The team led by Alfred Vidal-Madjar (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, France) reports this discovery in a forthcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. The planet, called HD 209458b, may sound familiar. It is already an extrasolar planet with an astounding list of firsts: the first extrasolar planet discovered transiting its sun, the first with an atmosphere, the first observed to have an evaporating hydrogen atmosphere (in 2003 by the same team of scientists) and now the first to have an atmosphere containing oxygen and carbon. Furthermore the "blow-off" effect observed by the team during their October and November 2003 observations with Hubble had never been seen before. In honor of such a distinguished catalogue this extraordinary extrasolar planet has provisionally been dubbed "Osiris". Osiris is the Egyptian god who lost part of his body--like HD 209458b--after his brother killed and cut him into pieces to prevent his return to life. Oxygen is one of the possible indicators of life that is often looked for in experiments searching for extraterrestrial life (such as those onboard the Viking probes and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers), but according to Vidal-Madjar: "Naturally this sounds exciting--the possibility of life on Osiris - but it is not a big surprise as oxygen is also present in the giant planets of our Solar System, like Jupiter and Saturn". What, on the other hand was surprising was to find the carbon and oxygen atoms surrounding the planet in an extended envelope. Although carbon and oxygen have been observed on Jupiter and Saturn, it is always in combined form as methane and water deep in the atmosphere. In HD 209458b the chemicals are broken down into the basic elements. But on Jupiter or Saturn, even as elements, they would still remain invisible low in the atmosphere. The fact that they are visible in the upper atmosphere of HD 209458b confirms that atmospheric "blow off" is occurring. The scorched Osiris orbits only 7 million kilometers from its yellow Sun-like star and its surface is heated to about 1,000 degrees Celsius. Whereas hydrogen is a very light element--the lightest in fact--oxygen and carbon are much heavier in comparison. This has enabled scientists to conclude that this phenomenon is more efficient than simple evaporation. The gas is essentially ripped away at a speed of more than 35,000 km/hour. "We speculate that even heavier elements such as iron are blown off at this stage as well" says team member Alain Lecavelier des Etangs (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, France). The whole evaporation mechanism is so distinctive that there is reason to propose the existence of a new class of extrasolar planets--the chthonian planets, a reference to the Greek God Khtôn, used for Greek deities from the hot infernal underworld (also used in the French word autochton). The chthonian planets are thought to be the solid remnant cores of 'evaporated gas giants', orbiting even closer to their parent star than Osiris. The detection of these planets should soon be within reach of current telescopes both on the ground and in space. The discovery of the fierce evaporation process is, according to the scientists, "highly unusual", but may indirectly confirm theories of our own Earth's childhood. "This is a unique case in which such a hydrodynamic escape is directly observed. It has been speculated that Venus, Earth and Mars may have lost their entire original atmospheres during the early part of their lives. Their present atmospheres have their origins in asteroid and cometary impacts and outgassing from the planet interiors", says Vidal-Madjar. Read the original release at http://www.spacetelescope.org/bin/news.pl?string=heic0403. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/extrasolar_blowout_040202.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/hubble_atmosphere_blowing_planet.h tml. __________________________________________________________________________ SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL MARS SOCIETY CONVENTION Mars Society release 2 February 2004 August 19-22, 2004, Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois The Mars Society was founded to further the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. The International Mars Society convention presents a unique opportunity for those interested in Mars to come together and discuss the technology, science, social implications, philosophy and a multitude of other aspects of Mars exploration. Highlights of the convention will include the latest results from the Spirit, Opportunity, and Mars Express missions now exploring the Red planet, as well as reports from the fifth field season of the Devon Island Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, and the third season of the Mars Desert Research Station. There will also be extensive political discussions and planning meetings on how we can turn President Bush's announcement of a new space policy into a real exploration initiative that can get humans to Mars in our time. The agenda will also include a wide assortment of panels and debates concerning key issues bearing on Mars exploration and settlement, a banquet with lots of fun entertainment, and plenary addresses from many prominent leaders of the effort to get humans to Mars. Prior conventions have drawn thousands of participants from all over the world and received extensive press coverage in many leading international media. This year's conference should be the most exciting event to date. Conference sessions 1. The Search for Life on Mars 2. Latest Findings from the Mars Probes 3. Plans for the Missions of 2005, 2007 and 2009 4. The Cross Contamination Threat-myth or reality? 5. Concepts for Future Robotic Mars Missions 6. Piloted Missions to Mars 7. Advanced Propulsion 8. Launch Vehicles for Mars Exploration 9. Long Range Mobility on Mars 10. Life Support Technology 11. Biomedical and Human Factors Issues in Mars Exploration 12. Options for Producing Power on Mars 13. Methods of Martian Construction 14. In Situ Resource Utilization 15. Water on Mars--Accessing the Hydrosphere 16. Concepts for a Permanent Mars Base 17. Colonizing Mars 18. Terraforming--Creating an Ecology for Mars 19. Analog Studies Relating to Mars Exploration 20. The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station 21. The Mars Desert Research Station 22. The Mars Analog Rover project 23. The Translife Mars Gravity Mission 24. The Value of Mars Exploration to the Earth 25. Public Policy for Mars Exploration 26. Concepts for Privately Funded Mars Missions 27. International Cooperation in Mars Exploration 28. Law and Governance for Mars 29. Social Systems for Mars 30. The Significance of the Martian Frontier 31. Philosophical Implications of Mars Exploration. 32. Mars and Education 33. Mars and the Arts 34. Outreach Strategy for the Mars Society 35. Proposed Projects for the Mars Society 36. Open Mike Martian Literature Reading, Songfest & Gallery Call for papers Presentations for the convention are invited dealing with all matters (science, engineering, politics, economics, public policy, etc.) associated with the exploration and settlement of Mars. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent by 31 May 2004 to: The Mars Society, P.O. Box 273, Indian Hills 80454, or via email to: msabstracts@aol.com (e-mail submission preferred). Conference registration fees Before 31 May 2004: $150 for MS members, $210 for non-members. After 1 June 2004: $210 for members, $270 for non-members. Students and Seniors: $40 for members, $75 for non-members before 31 May, $70 for members, $105 for non-members after 1 June 2004. Conference registration is now open online at www.marssociety.org. __________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ 3 February 2004 Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html H. Bortman, 2004. Greening the red planet. Astrobiology Magazine. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html Agence France-Presse, 2004. Biological 'gold rush' threatens Antarctica, experts warn. SpaceDaily. Human space exploration articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html H. Matsos, 2004. James Cameron's Mars reference design: the director's cut. Astrobiology Magazine. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html S. B. Hedges, J. E. Blair, M. Venturi and J. L. Shoe, 2004. A molecular timescale of eukaryote evolution and the rise of complex multicellular life. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 4:2. Extrasolar planets articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles7.html ESA, 2004. Hubble sees atmosphere blowing off a planet. Universe Today. T. Malik, 2004. Oxygen at extrasolar planet, a first. Space.com. __________________________________________________________________________ BEAGLE 2 UPDATE Beagle 2 team release 2 February 2004 The first high resolution image of part of the Beagle 2 landing site has been released by NASA. The image covers a small strip of the ellipse that encompasses Beagle's feasible locations, but shows no obvious signs of the spacecraft. The image was taken by the Mars Observer Camera (MOC), onboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, on January 5th, and is the first maximum resolution image to be obtained for the Beagle landing site. Mike Malin, Principle Investigator for the MOC instrument, was able to release the image this weekend following processing by Malin Space Science Systems. The narrow angle image is made available below as Figure 1. Also provided are two images of the entire ellipse and surrounding area. Figure 2 was obtained by the wide angle lens of the MOC instrument concurrently with the high resolution strip, and Figure 3 is a mosaic assembled from medium resolution images obtained by the camera THEMIS on NASA's other Mars orbiter, Odyssey. Read the original release at http://www.beagle2.com/news/index.htm. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article807.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/beagle_update_040126.html __________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release 22-28 January 2004 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Monday, January 26. 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=vg1GKh1XljpO-3BCLCXxIg. The first Approach Science sequence, C42, continued this week with completion of a flight software normalization procedure for Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) and Composite Infrared Spectrometer, upload of VIMS flight software version 8.1, clearing of the ACS high water marks, and continuation of CAPS and Radio and Plasma Wave Science solar wind observations. The C43 Preliminary Sequence Integration and Validation Sequence Change Request approval meeting was held, and stripped subsequence files published shortly thereafter for use by the instrument teams and the Spacecraft Operations Office (SCO). The Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP) for the C44 sequence is underway. C44 stripped subsequence generation (SSG) files have been released for review and update. It was determined that no science allocation planning or waiver meetings were required for the SSG phase of the SSUP. A meeting was held to discuss the implications of the requested ACS flight software update uplink windows on interwoven science activities during the week of 27 April 2004. An action was taken by SCO and Uplink Operations to produce a timeline of planned events. The first of three planned Software Review/Certification Requirements meetings was held for Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) instrument diagnostic flight software. As the INMS team reviews data returned from the first upload they will determine if tests two and three are required. Instrument Operations personnel produced a report of the analysis of filter wheel movement timing. The precise knowledge of the duration of movements allows for more flexibility in observation planning. The report was sent to the Imaging Science Subsystem Science Team for incorporation into their planning process. A dataflow test to exercise the ability of the Huygens operations center in Darmstadt, Germany to receive 66 kbps real-time broadcast data as well as NERT TDS queries by Virtual Channel ID was held this week. This activity was a rehearsal for the Probe relay demo to be held in March of this year. A test report with the results of the dataflow test will be issued in the next few weeks. The 33rd meeting of the Cassini Project Science Group was held this week at the California Institute of Technology, and at JPL in Pasadena, California. Attendees are very excited about plans for approach science and the start of tour operations. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPLORATION ROVER UPDATES NASA/JPL releases Gear on Opportunity Rover Passes Martian Health Check NASA/JPL release 2004-038, 26 January 2004 During the second day on Mars for NASA's Opportunity rover, key science instruments passed health tests and the rover made important steps in communicating directly with Earth. Halfway around the planet, during its 22nd day on Mars, NASA's Spirit obeyed commands for transmitting information that is helping engineers set a strategy for fixing problems with the rover's computer memory. On Earth this morning, scientists marveled at a high-resolution color "postcard" of Opportunity's surroundings. The mosaic of 24 frames from the panoramic camera shows details from the edge of the lander to the distant horizon beyond the rim of the rover's small home crater. "We're looking out across a pretty spectacular landscape," said Dr. Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, lead scientist for the panoramic cameras on Spirit and Opportunity. "It's going to be a wonderful area for geologists to explore with the rover." The color view shows dark soil that brightened where it was compacted by the rolling spacecraft, and an outcropping of bedrock on the inside slope of the 20-meter (66-foot) crater in which the rover sits. Opportunity will be commanded to finish taking a 360-degree color panorama of the site during its third Mars day, which began at 12:01 PM PST today. Another major step planned for Opportunity's third day is to begin using its high-gain antenna for communicating directly with Earth at a high data rate, said Jackie Lyra of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, activity lead for this rover event. In preparation for this transition, Opportunity found the Sun with its panoramic camera yesterday. Once oriented by knowing the position of the Sun, it can calculate how to point its high-gain antenna toward Earth. "We're making steady progress in our effort to get the wheels of the rover dirty," said Mission Manager Jim Erickson of JPL. Still the earliest scenario for the rover to drive off its lander platform is more than a week away. Opportunity has tested the three scientific sensing instruments on its robotic arm that will be used for up-close examination of rocks and soil: the microscopic imager, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for determining what elements are present, and a Moessbauer spectrometer for identifying iron-containing minerals. "I'm pleased to report that all are in perfect health," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the science instruments on the rovers. Squyres had been especially concerned about the Moessbauer spectrometer because tests conducted while the spacecraft was on its way to Mars showed that an internal calibration system was not working as intended. However, after the rover landed on Mars, the instrument is functioning normally again. The Moessbauer spectrometer's function for identifying iron- bearing minerals will be important in the scientific goal of determining the origin of iron-bearing hematite deposits in the Meridiani Planum region selwected as Opportunity's landing site. "We have a perfectly functioning Moessbauer spectrometer, and given that we are now perched atop the hematite capital of the Solar System, that's a good thing," Squyres said. Restoration efforts continue making progress on Spirit. "We have a patient in rehab, and we're nursing her back to health," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager. Engineers found a way to stop Spirit's computer from resetting itself about once an hour by putting the spacecraft into a mode that avoids use of flash memory. Flash memory is a type common in many electronic products, such as digital cameras, for storing information even when the power is off. The rover also has random-access memory, which cannot hold information during the rover's overnight sleep. One of the next steps planned is to erase from flash memory the files stored there from the spacecraft's cruise to Mars from Earth. That is intended to lessen the task of managing the flash memory files. Scientist Thrilled to See Layers in Mars Rocks Near Opportunity NASA/JPL release 2004-039, 27 January 2004 New pictures from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reveal thin layers in rocks just a stone's throw from the lander platform where the rover temporarily sits. Geologists said that the layers--some no thicker than a finger--indicate the rocks likely originated either from sediments carried by water or wind, or from falling volcanic ash. "We should be able to distinguish between those two hypotheses," said Dr. Andrew Knoll of Harvard University, Cambridge, a member of the science team for Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. If the rocks are sedimentary, water is a more likely source than wind, he said. Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, plan to tell Opportunity tonight to start standing up from the crouched and folded posture in which it traveled to Mars. "We're going to lift the entire rover, then the front wheels will be turned out," said Mission Manager Jim Erickson of JPL. Several more days of activities are still ahead before the rover will be ready to drive off the lander. "We're about to embark on what could be the coolest geological field trip in history," said Dr. Steve Sqyures of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the rovers' science payload. The layered rocks are in a bedrock outcrop about 30 to 45 centimeters (12 to 18 inches) tall, and only about eight meters (26 feet) away from where Opportunity came to rest after bouncing to a landing three days ago. Examination of their texture and composition with the cameras and spectrometers on the rover may soon reveal whether they are sedimentary, Knoll predicted. Scientists also hope to determine the relationship between those light- colored rocks and the dark soil that covers most of the surrounding terrain. The soil may contain the mineral hematite, which was identified from orbit and motivated the choice of Opportunity's landing area, Squyres said. Opportunity successfully used its high-gain antenna for the first time yesterday. The rover is losing some if its battery charge each night, apparently due to an electric heater at the shoulder joint of the rover's robotic arm. A thermostat turns on the heater whenever the air temperature falls to levels that Opportunity is experiencing every night. The heater is not really needed when the arm is not in use, but ground control has not been able to activate a switch designed to override the thermostat, Erickson said. Mission engineers are working to confirm the diagnosis, determine the ramifications of the power drain, and propose workarounds or fixes. Meanwhile, engineers working on Spirit have determined that the high-gain antenna on that rover is likely in working order despite earlier indications of a possible problem. They are continuing to take information out of Spirit's flash memory. Results from a testbed simulator of the rover's electronics supported the diagnosis of a problem with management of the flash memory, reported JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager. Opportunity Rover Begins Standing Up NASA/JPL release 2004-043, 28 January 2004 NASA's Opportunity rover has untucked its front wheels and latched its suspension system in place, key steps in preparing to drive off its lander and onto martian soil. Overnight tonight, mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, plan to try tilting the lander platform down in the front by pressing the rear petal downward to raise the back. "What we want to do is lower the front edge by about 5 degrees," said JPL's Dr. Rick Welch, activity lead for preparing the rover for roll-off. Plans call for driving off straight ahead, possibly as early as overnight Sunday-Monday, if all goes well. Meanwhile, halfway around Mars, Opportunity's twin, Spirit, continues on the mend from a computer memory problem that struck it a week ago. "Right now we're working to get complete control of the vehicle, and we're still not quite there," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager. "If we're on the right track, we hope to be back doing some science by early next week. If we're not on the right track, it could take longer than that." Opportunity's infrared sensing instrument, the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, passed a health check last night. Scientists plan to begin using it tonight. The instrument detects the composition of rocks and soils from a distance. That information will help scientists decide what targets to approach after Opportunity drives off the lander. Scientists and rover engineers are already discussing which specific rocks within an outcropping near the lander will make the best targets, said Dr. Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, lead scientist for the panoramic cameras on Opportunity and Spirit. Details of the outcrop can be seen in a new a color-picture mosaic Bell presented, the first portion of a full-circle panorama that has been taken and partially transmitted. Other new images show how Opportunity's airbags left detailed impressions in the fine-textured soil as the spacecraft was rolling to a stop in the small crater where it now sits. "These marks are telling us about the physical properties of the material," Bell said. Some scientists believe that dark colored granules covering most of the crater's surface were pressed down into an underlying layer of powdery, lighter red material when the airbags hit. Others hold to a theory that the dark granules are agglomerations that crumble into the finer, lighter material when disturbed. After roll-off, soil near the lander will be the rover's first target for close-up examination with a microscope and two tools for detecting the composition of the target. The soil at Opportunity's landing site appears to have different properties than the soil at Spirit's landing site, Bell said. Opportunity has already validated predictions about the landing site made on the basis of images and measurements taken by spacecraft orbiting Mars, said JPL's Dr. Matt Golombek, a member of the rover science team and co- chair of a steering committee that evaluated potential landing sites for the rovers. The predictions included that the region of Meridiani Planum where Opportunity landed would be safe for landing, would be safe for rover driving, would have very few rocks and would look unlike any place previously seen on Mars. "This bodes well for our ability to use remote sensing data in the future for picking landing sites," Golombek said. Engineers have been able to confirm a diagnosis that an unplanned drawdown of battery power each night on Opportunity is due to a heater on the rover's robotic arm. A switch designed to overrule the heater's thermostatic control has not been working. "In the near term, it's not providing any operational constraints," Welch said. Healthier Spirit Gets Back to Work While Opportunity Prepares to Roll NASA/JPL release 2004-044, 29 January 2004 NASA's Spirit rover on Mars has resumed taking pictures as engineers continue work on restoring its health. Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, extended its rear wheels backward to driving position last night as part of preparations to roll off its lander, possibly as early as overnight Saturday-to-Sunday. Spirit shot and transmitted a picture yesterday to show the position of its robotic arm. "The arm is exactly where we expected," said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. It is still extended in the same position as when the rover developed communication and computer problems on January 22. A mineral-identifying instrument called a Moessbauer spectrometer, at the tip of the arm, is positioned at a rock nicknamed Adirondack. Engineers have been carefully nursing Spirit back toward full operations for the past week. They are sending commands today for the rover to begin making new scientific observations again, starting with panoramic camera images of nearby rocks. Today's commands also tell the rover to send data stored by two instruments since they took readings on Adirondack last week--the Moessbauer spectrometer and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, which identifies the chemical elements in a target. "We know we still have some engineering work to do, but we think we understand the problem well enough to do science in parallel with that work," Trosper said. Several attempts to get a full trace of data related to the rover's problem have only partially succeeded. The engineers might choose to reformat the rover's flash memory in the next few days. A health check of Spirit's camera mast is on the agenda for today. Another health check, of an actuator motor for a periscope mirror of the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, is planned for Friday. Halfway around Mars from Spirit, Opportunity's lander platform successfully tilted itself forward by pulling airbag material under the rear portion of the lander then flexing its rear petal downward. "What this did is drive our front edge lower," said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. "The tips of the egress aid (a reinforced fabric ramp) are now in the soil. That makes egress look perfect. It's going to be an easy ride." The rover also retracted a lift mechanism underneath the rover, to get it out of the way for the egress, or drive-off. During Opportunity's sol 6, the martian day that started today at 10:26 AM PST, the rover will be commanded to lower the middle pair of its six wheels and to release its robotic arm from the latch that has held it since before launch. Yesterday, Opportunity used its minature thermal emission spectrometer on a portion of the landing neighborhood that includes a rock outcrop. The instrument identifies the composition of rocks and soils from a distance. Opportunity did not return the data from those observations before going to sleep for the martian night, but may later today. Two Working Rovers on Martian Soil Expected by Saturday Morning NASA/JPL release 2004-046, 30 January 2004 Ground controllers plan to tell Opportunity to drive off its lander early Saturday, and with Spirit now back in working order, NASA should soon have two healthy rovers loose on Mars. Early today, the controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, decided to move up the time for Opportunity's roll-off by nearly 24 hours, to the rover's seventh martian day since landing last weekend. "We're ahead of schedule and taking advantage of the fact that Opportunity treats us well," said JPL's Daniel Limonadi, rover systems engineer. "We feel it's good to egress today and get ready to do science earlier with six wheels on the ground in Meridiani Planum." Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the rover science instruments, said, "We're totally ecstatic that we're going to be on the surface." If a final check finds conditions OK for sending the egress commands at about 12:30 AM Saturday, Pacific Standard Time, confirmation of the roll- off would be expected between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM PST. Opportunity's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, has sent back its first new science data in more than a week. On Thursday, it took and transmitted panoramic camera images including views of two light-colored rocks, nicknamed Cake and Blanco. Scientists are considering those rocks as possible targets for up-close examination after Spirit finishes inspection of the rock called Adirondack over the next few days. Spirit has also returned microscopic images and Moessbauer spectrometer readings of Adirondack taken the day before the rover developed computer and communication problems on January 22. Both are unprecedented investigations of any rock on another planet. The microscopic images indicate Adirondack is a hard, crystalline rock. "If you had a hammer and whacked that rock, it would ring," Arvidson said. Moessbauer readings allow scientists to determine what types of iron- bearing minerals are in a rock. "What made us extremely happy when we saw the graph for the first time were the small peaks," said Dr. Bodo Bernhardt, a member of the rover science team from the University of Mainz, Germany, which provided the instrument. The peaks large and small in the spectrum reveal that the minerals in Adirondack include olivine, pyroxene and magnetite. That composition is common in volcanic basalt rocks on Earth, said science-team member Dr. Dick Morris of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. In coming days, scientists plan to use Spirit's rock abrasion tool to grind the weathered surface off of a small area on Adirondack to inspect its interior. Later plans include examining a nearby whitish rock, then driving toward a crater nicknamed Bonneville that's about 250 meters (820 feet) away. Researchers will use the rover to search for rocks that may have been excavated from below the surface and tossed outward by the impact that dug the crater. If Spirit can reach the rim, scientists hope to see outcrops in the crater walls. Engineers are continuing to restore Spirit to full health as the rover makes scientific observations, said JPL's Dr. Mark Adler, mission manager. They plan to delete from the rover's flash memory a large amount of information stored before landing, then resume operating Spirit in a normal mode that uses flash memory. Halfway around the planet, Opportunity's main task in the days after roll- off will be to take microscopic images and spectrometer readings of the soil close to the lander. Within about a week, controllers anticipate sending the rover to an outcrop of bedrock about 8 meters (26 feet) northwest of the lander. Opportunity currently sits near the center of a crater 22 meters (72 feet) across and 3 meters (10 feet) deep. A new three-dimensional model of the crater, created from information in stereo images, will provide a reference for rover driving within the crater and later for choosing a route out onto the surrounding plains, said Dr. Ron Li, a rover science team member from Ohio State University, Columbus. This is the first time a crater on another planet has been mapped from inside the crater. Opportunity Rolls onto Martian Ground NASA/JPL release 2004-047, 31 January 2004 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars' Meridiani Planum this morning. Also, new science results from the rover indicate that the site does indeed have a type of mineral, crystalline hematite, which was the principal reason the site was selected for exploration. Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation of the successful drive at 3:01 AM Pacific Standard Time via a relay from the Mars Odyssey orbiter and Earth reception by the Deep Space Network. Cheers erupted a minute later when Opportunity sent a picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the martian soil. For the first time in history, two mobile robots are exploring the surface of another planet at the same time. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, started making wheel tracks halfway around Mars from Meridiani on Jan. 15. "We're two for two! One dozen wheels on the soil." JPL's Chris Lewicki, flight director, announced to the control room. Matt Wallace, mission manager at JPL, told a subsequent news briefing, "We knew it was going to be a good day. The rover woke up fit and healthy to Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run,' and it turned out to be a good choice." The flight team needed only seven days since Opportunity's landing to get the rover off its lander, compared with 12 days for Spirit earlier this month. "We're getting practice at it," said JPL's Joel Krajewski, activity lead for the procedure. Also, the configuration of the deflated airbags and lander presented no trouble for Opportunity, while some of the extra time needed for Spirit was due to airbags at the front of the lander presenting a potential obstacle. Looking at a photo from Opportunity showing wheel tracks between the empty lander and the rear of the rover about one meter or three feet away, JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for getting the rover off the lander, said "We're glad to be seeing soil behind our rover." JPL's Chris Salvo, flight director, reported that Opportunity will be preparing over the next couple days to reach out with it robotic arm for a close inspection of the soil. Gray granules covering most of the crater floor surrounding Opportunity contain hematite, said Dr. Phil Christensen, lead scientist for both rovers' miniature thermal emission spectrometers, which are infrared- sensing instruments used for identifying rock types from a distance. Crystalline hematite is of special interest because, on Earth, it usually forms under wet environmental conditions. The main task for both Mars Exploration Rovers in coming weeks and months is to read clues in the rocks and soil to learn about past environmental conditions at their landing sites, particularly about whether the areas were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life. The concentration of hematite appears strongest in a layer of dark material above a light-covered outcrop in the wall of the crater where Opportunity sits, Christensen said. "As we get out of the bowl we're in, I think we'll get onto a surface that is rich in hematite," he said. Mars Rover Spirit Restored to Health NASA/JPL release 2004-048 1 February 2004 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is healthy again, the result of recovery work by mission engineers since the robot developed computer- memory and communications problems 10 days ago. "We have confirmed that Spirit is booting up normally. Tomorrow we'll be doing some preventive maintenance," Dr. Mark Adler, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, said Sunday morning. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, which drove off its lander platform early Saturday, will be commanded tonight to reach out with its robot arm early Monday, said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. Opportunity will examine the soil in front of it over the next few days with a microscope and with a pair of spectrometer instruments for determining what elements and minerals are present. For Spirit, part of the cure has been deleting thousands of files from the rover's flash memory--a type of rewritable electronic memory that retains information even when power is off. Many of the deleted files were left over from the seven-month flight from Florida to Mars. Onboard software was having difficulty managing the flash memory, triggering Spirit's computer to reset itself about once an hour. Two days after the problem arose, engineers began using a temporary workaround of sending commands every day to put Spirit into an operations mode that avoided use of flash memory. Now, however, the computer is stable even when operating in the normal mode, which uses the flash memory. "To be safe, we want to reformat the flash and start again with a clean slate," Adler said. That reformatting is planned for Monday. It will erase everything stored in the flash file system and install a clean version of the flight software. Today, Spirit is being told to transmit priority data remaining in the flash memory. The information includes data from atmospheric observations made January 16 in coordination with downward-looking observations by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Also today, Spirit will make new observations coordinated with another Mars Express overflight and will run a check of the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Spirit will resume examination of a rock nicknamed Adirondack later this week and possibly move on to a lighter-colored rock by week's end. Each martian day, or "sol" lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 30th sol on Mars at 12:44 AM Monday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 10th sol on Mars at 1:05 PM Monday, PST. The two rovers are halfway around Mars from each other. Opportunity and Spirit Reach Out NASA/JPL release 2004-049, 2 February 2004 Each of NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers is using its versatile robotic arm for positioning tools at selected targets on the red planet. Also, a newly completed 360-degree color panorama from Opportunity shows a trail of bounce marks coming down the inner slope of the small crater where the spacecraft came to rest when it landed on Mars nine days ago. Opportunity extended its arm early today for the first time since pre- launch testing. "This was a great confirmation for the team," said Joe Melko of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. Melko is mechanical systems engineer for the arm, which is also called the instrument deployment device. Mission controllers at JPL are telling Opportunity to use two of the instruments on the arm overnight tonight to examine a patch of soil in front of the rover. A microscope on the arm will reveal structures as thin as a human hair and a Moessbauer Spectrometer will collect information to identify minerals in the soil, according to plans. Tomorrow, the rover will be told to turn the turret at the end of the arm in order to examine the same patch of soil with another instrument, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, which reveals the chemical elements in a target. Spirit is now in good working order after more than a week of computer- memory problems. It is brushing dust off of a rock today with the rock abrasion tool on its robotic arm. After the brushing, Spirit will use the microscope and two spectrometers on the arm to examine the rock. "We're moving forward with our science on the rock Adirondack," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, Spirit mission manager. Reformatting of Spirit's flash memory was postponed from today to tomorrow. The reformatting is a precautionary measure against recurrence of the problem that prevented Spirit from doing much science last week. Later in the week, Spirit will grind the surface off of a sample area on Adirondack with the rock abrasion tool to inspect the rock's interior. After observations of Adirondack are completed, the rover will begin rolling again. "We are already strategizing how to drive far and fast," Trosper said. Observations by each rover's panoramic camera help scientists choose where to drive and what to examine with the instruments on each rover's arm. Dr. Jeff Johnson, a rover science team member from the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, AZ, said that 14 filters available on each rover's panoramic camera allow the instrument to provide much more information for identifying different types of rocks than can be gleaned from color images such as the new panoramic view. "By looking at the brightness values in each of these wavelengths, we can start to get an idea of the things we're interested in, especially to unravel the geological history of these landing sites," Johnson said. The rovers' main task is to explore their landing sites during coming months for evidence in the rocks and soil about whether the sites' past environments 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, DC. Images and additional information about the project are 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: 818-354-5011 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1547 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article804.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article805.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article808.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article811.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article812.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article815.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article816.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/opportunity_crater_040126.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_express_040126.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/opportunity_update_040127.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_040129.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_sendspic_040129.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/opportunity_rolling_040131.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rovers_update_040201.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rovers_update_040202.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zn.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zo.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zr.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zs.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zt.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zu.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zv.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040127205237.p99mfiru.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040201230800.15lakaif.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040131174238.4uxvor19.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040125crater.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040125spirit.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040126spirit.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040127layeredrocks.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040201hematite.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040201spirit.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/opportunity_small_crater.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/what_is_that_bedrock_opportunity.h tml http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/opportunity_hardware_working_prope rly.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/volcanoes_targets_landers.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/opportunity_stands_up.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_on_the_mend.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/opportunity_rolls_off_lander.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 22-28 January 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Layers in Crater Wall (Released 22 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=06_zk1OnP3FO-3BCLCXxIg MGS MOC Image of Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, on Mars (Released 23 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=uNobilqfcKdO-3BCLCXxIg Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B) Opportunity Landing Site (Released 24 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=SE4oedLUEUVO-3BCLCXxIg Sedimentary Rocks in Ladon Vallisi (Released 25 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=gamFC5LESz5O-3BCLCXxIg Summer South Polar Cap (Released 26 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=3V-xnXFetMZO-3BCLCXxIg Sedimentary Rock Layers (Released 27 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=lBlWwDyS-mdO-3BCLCXxIg Layered Remnant (Released 28 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=AYIwEv0cgq9O-3BCLCXxIg All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived here at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=zgIrM4D5oQFO-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 26 January 2004 Opportunity Has Landed! (Released 26 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Xs4r3eptpLFO-3BCLCXxIg Meridiani Planum (Released 27 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=aX5StF_cZlhO-3BCLCXxIg Equatorial Crater in Meridiani (Released 28 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=0pBzsnuzKExO-3BCLCXxIg Northwest Meridiani (Released 29 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=5xn80vmtTi1O-3BCLCXxIg Craters within Craters in Meridiani (Released 30 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=xq0P__cWgBFO-3BCLCXxIg All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=rwns7_daVy9O-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. __________________________________________________________________________ GETTING TOGETHER IN DEEP SPACE: THE ROSETTA SPACE PROBE'S LONG TREK TO COMET CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO ESA release 03-2004 3 February 2004 The countdown to Rosetta's rendezvous in space began on 1 March 1997. At the end of February 2004, seven years and not a few headaches later, the European Space Agency (ESA) probe will at last be setting off on its journey to meet Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The long-planned get- together will not however take place until the middle of 2014. A few months after arriving at the comet, Rosetta will release a small lander onto its surface. Then, for almost two years it will investigate Churyumov-Gerasimenko from close up. Dr. Gerhard Schwehm, lead scientist for the Rosetta project, explains that, "With this mission we will be breaking new ground--this will be the first protracted cometary encounter." The trip to the meeting place in space will certainly be a long one, located as it is some 4.5 astronomical units from the Sun, which translates into something like 675 million kilometers. Rosetta will be on the road for ten years, during which time it will clock up in excess of five billion kilometers. Launch in February 2004 Rosetta will be waved off on 26 February when it lifts off from the space centre in Kourou, French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 launcher. Shortly after the spacecraft's release, its solar panels will be deployed and turned towards the Sun to build up the necessary power reserves. Its various systems and experiments will be gradually brought into operation and tested. Just three months into the mission the first active phase will be over, followed by final testing of the experiments in October 2004. Rosetta will then spend the following years flying a lonely path to the comet, passing by the Earth, Mars, the Earth and the Earth again. There is no alternative to this detour, for even Ariane 5, the most powerful launcher on the market today, lacks the power to hurl the probe on a direct route to the comet. To get the required momentum, it will rely on swing-by maneuvers, using the gravitation pull of Mars (in 2007) and the Earth (three times, in 2005, 2007 and 2008) to pick up speed. Asteroids for company A change is as good as a rest, and a meeting with at least one asteroid should help break the monotony for Rosetta. The spacecraft will come close to an asteroid at the end of 2008. Asteroids are rocky bodies, some as large as mountains, some even larger, that orbit the Sun in much the same way as planets. "These 'brief encounters' are a scientific opportunity and also a chance to test Rosetta's instrument payload," says Gerhard Schwehm. But asteroid exploration also serves an entirely practical purpose: "The more we find out about them, the better the prospect of being able one day to avert a possible collision." Following a period of low-activity cruising, the probe's course will be adjusted one last time in May 2011. From July 2011, a further two-and-a-half years' radio silence will be observed, and Rosetta, left entirely to its own resources, will fly close to the Jupiter orbit. Link-up in 2014 Finally, in January 2014, the probe will be reactivated and will, by October 2014, be only a few kilometers distant from Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This is where the dream of so many scientists becomes reality. Having deposited its precious lander cargo on the comet's surface, Rosetta will continue to orbit Churyumov-Gerasimenko and together they will spend the next seventeen months flying towards the Sun. Rosetta was built by an international consortium led by Astrium. The lander probe was developed in Cologne under the aegis of the DLR, Germany's space agency, with contributions from ESA and research centres in Austria, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Great Britain. The comet explorer carries ten scientific instruments. Their job is to draw out the secrets of the comet's chemical and physical composition and reveal its magnetic and electrical properties. Using a specially designed camera, the lander will take pictures in the macro and micro ranges and send all the data thus acquired back to Earth, via Rosetta. "This will be our first ever chance to be there, at first hand, so to speak, as a comet comes to life," Schwehm goes on to explain. When Churyumov-Gerasimenko gets to within about 500 million kilometers of the Sun, the frozen gases that envelop it will evaporate and a trail of dust will be blown back over hundreds of thousands of kilometers. When illuminated by the Sun, this characteristic comet tail then becomes visible from Earth. In the course of the mission, the processes at work within the cometary nucleus will be studied and measured more precisely than has ever before been possible, for earlier probes simply flew past their targets. "As we will be accompanying Churyumov-Gerasimenko for two years, until the comet reaches the point closest to the Sun on its orbit, we can at long last hope to acquire new knowledge about comets. We are confident we will come a step nearer to understanding the origins and formation of our solar system and the emergence of life on Earth." For further information on Rosetta and ESA projects, please consult our portal at http://www.sci.esa.int. Contact: ESA, Media Relations Service Phone: 33(0)1.53.69.7155 Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690 __________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 30 January 2004 The Stardust team had daily communications with the spacecraft in the past week. Telemetry relayed from the spacecraft indicates it remains in very good shape after its close encounter of the cometary kind 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=z4TW9cTqQG1O- 3BCLCXxIg. The Stardust team is preparing for a deep space maneuver that will occur next week. This past week, a science team teleconference was held that included both U.S. and foreign science team members. The focus was to complete data analyses that will be presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March. 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=1-U3txvHIrhO-3BCLCXxIg. __________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 6.