Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 7, 9 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) THE GROWING CASE FOR WATER ON MARS By Robert Roy Britt 2) EUROPE PLANS HUMAN MISSIONS TO MOON AND MARS By Jane Wardell 3) NEW NASA BUDGET SHOWS GAINS FOR MARS EXPLORATION Mars Society release 4) DARWIN DAY: MARK YOUR CALENDAR! By Edna DeVore and Diane Richards 5) UQ RESEARCHERS FIND EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE ON MARS University of Queensland release 6) NASA'S MOON-MARS PLANS TAKE SHAPE By Robert Roy Britt 7) ASTRONOMERS UNRAVEL SECRETS OF SIXTH-CENTURY COMET Cardiff University release 8) COULD OPPORTUNITY FIND LIFE ON MARS? INTERVIEW WITH ANDY KNOLL, PART II By Henry Bortman Announcements 9) NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) FOR FLIGHT EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE LIFE SCIENCES NRA 04-OBPR-01 10) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas Mission Reports 11) CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL releases 12) MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS UPDATES NASA/JPL releases 13) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 14) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 15) UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE--ROSETTA LANDER NAMED PHILAE ESA release 08-2004 16) STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release __________________________________________________________________________ THE GROWING CASE FOR WATER ON MARS By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 3 February 2004 After more than a century of wild speculation, decades of serious searching, and years of collecting increasingly compelling evidence, there is suddenly a scientific and media buzz over whether Mars is a planet sculpted by water. Thing is, that question is already answered in the minds of most Mars experts. For the first billion years or two, Mars was almost surely warmer and wetter, most scientists agree. What lingers is a big, multi-part mystery of what happened to all the water, how long ago it disappeared, and whether it was around long enough--and under the right conditions--to have possibly incubated life. The latest news--a previously unheralded mineral called hematite has been detected by NASA's Opportunity rover--dribbled out late last week and over the weekend. It might turn out to be a key moment in Mars exploration history, but some scientists think it is more likely to represent just another piece in a huge puzzle of a planet that could remain largely enigmatic for years to come. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_hematite_040203.html. __________________________________________________________________________ EUROPE PLANS HUMAN MISSIONS TO MOON AND MARS By Jane Wardell From Associated Press and Space.com 3 February 2004 European scientists set out a route map Tuesday for manned missions to Mars that aims to land astronauts on the Red Planet in less than 30 years. Like U.S. President George W. Bush's proposed mission to Mars, the plan put forward by the European Space Agency involves a "stepping stone'' approach, which includes robotic missions and a manned trip to the Moon first. "We need to go back to the Moon before we go to Mars. We need to walk before we run," said Dr. Franco Ongaro, who heads the ESA's Aurora program for long-term exploration of the solar system, at a meeting of Aurora scientists in London. "These are our stones. They will pave the way for our human explorers. The ESA has planned two flagship missions to Mars--ExoMars would land a rover on the planet in 2009, and Mars Sample Return would bring back a sample of the martian surface in 2011-14. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/news/europe_moon_040203.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NEW NASA BUDGET SHOWS GAINS FOR MARS EXPLORATION Mars Society release 4 February 2004 The President's budget request for NASA for FY 2005 contains the following language. "Starting in 2011, NASA will also launch the first in a series of human precursor missions to Mars. These robotic testbeds will demonstrate technologies such as improved aerodynamic entry, Mars orbital rendezvous and docking, high precision landing, and resource extraction and utilization, that can greatly enhance future robotic capabilities and are key to enabling future human Mars missions. These missions will also obtain critical data for future human missions on chemical hazards, resource locations, and research sites and may prepare resources and sites in anticipation of human landings." (http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/55390main_07%20MEP.pdf) The Mars Exploration budget would be funded at $690.9 million, an increase of $95.8 million over the current fiscal year. The vast majority of the funds ($515.6 million) would be used to develop technology that "supports new space exploration vision." Such technology development programs and flight test missions are valuable steps that could help open the way for initiating a human Mars exploration program. The Mars Society therefore strongly endorses these and related budget requests that are part of the plan for the new space exploration initiative, and urges congress to pass the requested funding for these items for FY 2005. A full session devoted to strategy for insuring the success of the new space initiative will be held at the 7th international Mars Society Convention, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL Aug 19-22 2004. Registration is now open at www.marssociety.org. For further information about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org. __________________________________________________________________________ DARWIN DAY: MARK YOUR CALENDAR! By Edna DeVore and Diane Richards From Space.com 5 February 2004 One week from today, February 12, an international community of scholars and humanists from 18 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceana will celebrate the 185th birthday of Charles Darwin. "Darwin Day" began its life in 1995, the brainchild of Robert Stephens and fellow humanist, Arthur Jackson who have watched their celebration evolve into "an International Celebration of Science and Humanity as well as a year- round educational web site." The short term goal of the organizers is to increase awareness of Darwin Day and "build excitement" between now and 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, which program officials hope will be marked by global celebrations of Darwin's legacy, while "promoting understanding of science and critical inquiry within our global community." A brief look at this year's line up of events reveals the remarkable diversity of ideas that fall within the scope of Darwin's key insight about change over time and natural selection. Lecture titles include: "The Evolution of Evolution," "Design without Design," "Forensic Astronomy," and "Patterns of Warfare among Mississippian Native Americans." The event topics range from the husbandry of healthy zoo animals to rainforest diversity. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_devore_darwin_040205.html. __________________________________________________________________________ UQ RESEARCHERS FIND EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE ON MARS University of Queensland release 5 February 2004 University of Queensland researchers have supported the hypothesis that life once existed on Mars. Dr. John Barry, from UQ's Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, together with former UQ researcher Dr. Tony Taylor, found their proof in the water trap at the ninth hole of the Howestern golf course at Birkdale. Mud samples from the golf course contained magnetic crystals which matched those found in a meteorite discovered in Antartica in 1984. In 1996 NASA researchers announced that they had found primitive bacteria in that meteorite and since then debate has raged in the scientific community whether the organism were from Mars. Dr. Taylor, together with his PhD co-supervisor Dr. Barry, examined the mud samples using a world- first breakthrough in electron microscopy and found the fossil bacteria and the new samples were identical. "Tony developed a new technique to capture specimens for the electron microscope which allowed us to see through the bacteria and into the gel surrounding the magnetic crystals inside the bacterium," Dr. Barry said. "This gave us a lot more information about the structure than what we would have seen before." Dr. Taylor, who now works for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney, said this research seriously challenges doubts of skeptical scientists by discovering that many bacteria match the features found in the martian meteorite. "Our research shows that the structures found in the NASA meteorite were more than likely made by bacteria present on Mars four billion years ago, before life even started on Earth," said Dr. Taylor. Dr. Taylor said the discovery was the product of painstaking research conducted with other scientists in the 1990s that vastly improved imaging techniques to study bacterial structures. Ultraviolet light was the key and resulted in the detailed analysis of 82 different bacterial types--a major improvement on the 25 identified at that time. "We became very excited when we discovered that many of the bacteria found had the same biosignature, which resembles a tiny backbone surrounded by cartilage, as that of the martian fossils," Dr. Taylor said. Emeritus Professor Imre Friedmann, one of the original NASA scientists to make the life on Mars claim said he was thrilled by the news. "The study of Taylor and Barry now presents evidence that the same features occur in a wide range of bacteria that live on Earth today. The tiny structures, chains of crystals of the mineral magnetite, are comparable to animal skeletons on a microscopic scale," Professor Friedmann said. Dr. Barry and Dr. Taylor's research was published recently in the Journal of Microscopy. Contact: Andrew Dunne UQ Communications Phone: 07 3365 2802 Read the original news release at http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.phtml?article=5309. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/further_evidence_life_mars_meteori te.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA'S MOON-MARS PLANS TAKE SHAPE By Robert Roy Britt From Space.com 5 February 2004 Planning for NASA's return to the Moon is now in full swing and officials expect to meet the tight timetable of putting a robot there by 2008. Meanwhile, the focus of robotic Mars missions will soon shift to further prepare for human exploration. As analysts had expected, a stark financial and resource refocusing is underway at NASA in which robotic efforts will be planned less for pure science and more for supporting future human spaceflight. The first mission to the Moon will likely be an orbiter that generates NASA's first digital map of the pockmarked world, officials said Wednesday. It will be a reconnaissance craft designed to help prepare for a return of astronauts as early as 2015, as envisioned last month by President George W. Bush. The second new lunar foray, in 2009, will be with a robotic lander whose goals are not yet clear. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/news/moon_mission_040205.html. __________________________________________________________________________ ASTRONOMERS UNRAVEL SECRETS OF SIXTH-CENTURY COMET Cardiff University release 5 February 2004 Scientists at Cardiff University believe they have discovered the cause of crop failures and summer frosts some 1,500 years ago--a comet colliding with Earth. The team in the School of Physics and Astronomy, has been studying evidence from tree rings, which suggests that the earth underwent a series of very cold summers around 536-540 AD, indicating an effect rather like a nuclear winter. They believe this was caused by a comet hitting the earth and exploding in the upper atmosphere. The debris from this giant explosion was such that it enveloped the earth in soot and ash, blocking out the sunlight and causing the very cold weather. This effect is known as a plume and is similar to that which was seen when comet Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1995. Historical references from this period of history--known as the Dark Ages- -are sparse, but what records there are, tell of crop failures and summer frosts. The work was carried out by two Cardiff undergraduate students, Emma Rigby and Mel Symonds, as part of their student project work under the supervision of Dr. Derek Ward Thompson. Their findings are reported in the February issue of Astronomy and Geophysics, the in house magazine of the Royal Astronomical Society. The surprising result of the new work is just how small a comet is needed to cause such dramatic effects. The scientists calculate that a comet not much more than half a kilometer across could cause a global nuclear winter effect. This is significantly smaller than was previously thought. Dr. Ward Thompson said, "One of the exciting aspects of this work is that we have re-classified the size of comet that represents a global threat. This work shows that even a comet of only half a kilometer in size could have global consequences. Previously nothing less than a kilometer across was counted as a global threat. If such an event happened again today, then once again a large fraction of the earth's population could face starvation." The comet impact caused crop failures and wide spread starvation among the sixth century population. The timing coincides with the Justinian Plague, widely believed to be the first appearance of the Black Death in Europe. It is possible that the plague was so rampant and took hold so quickly because the population was already weakened by starvation. The work provides an alternative explanation for some of the effects discussed in the panspermia hypothesis, which has been propounded since the 1970s by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the University's Centre for Astrobiology, and the late Sir Fred Hoyle. This hypothesis states that the Earth was seeded in the past, and is still being seeded, with microorganisms from comets, which may have been responsible, not just for the Black Death but other pandemic outbreaks such as the 1918 outbreak of Spanish flu. Read the original release at http://www.cf.ac.uk/news/03-04/040204.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0402/07darkages/. __________________________________________________________________________ COULD OPPORTUNITY FIND LIFE ON MARS? INTERVIEW WITH ANDY KNOLL, PART II By Henry Bortman From Astrobiology Magazine 9 February 2004 Henry Bortman 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): One of the intriguing aspects of Rio Tinto as a research site is that even though the water in the river is highly acidic, there are bacteria living in it. When you look at the ancient hematite deposits in that region, do you see fossil bacteria? Andrew Knoll (AK): Yes, you do. In fact, one of the things that attracted me to work with my Spanish colleagues was not that it's an oddball environment today. While it's kind of fun to be interested in life on the environmental fringes today, most life--and much of what you can learn about biology today--comes from ordinary organisms living in ordinary circumstances. That's where 99 percent of the diversity of life is. On the other hand, there's a great question that can be asked at Rio Tinto. We can see the processes that formed the Rio Tinto iron deposits going on today; we can see the chemical processes; we can see what biology is in the environment. But the real question that one wants to keep in mind when thinking about Meridiani is: "What, if any, signatures of that biology actually get preserved in diagenetically stable rocks?" One is that. If you were lucky enough to have access to a microscope-- this would probably be at a resolution beyond what you could hope for from the microscopic imager--you could see individual microbial filaments that have been beautifully preserved. So that's the first good news is that diagenetically stabilized iron can retain a microscopic imprint of biology. The better news is that there are two features of biology that get preserved in the more eyeball-level textures in these rocks. One is that you sometimes get little bubbles forming because of gas emanation from metabolism. And some of those will actually roof over with iron minerals and can be preserved through diagenesis. And that's pretty much true through most sedimentary rocks that we find in the geologic column. You can get preserved gas spaces and those gas spaces are invariably associated with biological production of gases. AM: How invariably? AK: In our experience on Earth, it's pretty much 100 percent. What you'd want to ask is: "What processes other than biology might give rise to gases within a sediment on a planet?" That's something that you can do experiments on. I don't know that anyone's bothered to do them on this planet. Because, frankly, biology is so pervasive that that's the main game in town, anyway. But one could do the experiments. The other thing, which I feel even more strongly about, is that many times, where there are microbial populations, they form these beautiful groups of filaments that just string out across the surface. They almost look like the mane of a horse. Now the great thing is that, when minerals are deposited in these environments, they actually nucleate on these strings of filaments, and you get beautiful sedimentary textures that, again, look like the mane of a horse. You can see them in Yellowstone Park, in both siliceous and carbonate- precipitating strings. If you go to places like Mammoth Springs, you can see it happening today. And if you hike into the hinterland, you can see ancient examples of that, beautiful signatures preserved in the rock. In Rio Tinto, you can see iron depositing on these filaments; and in the 2 million year old terraces, you can see these filamentous iron textures. And there, again, I know of no process other than biology that could form those. So that's truly something to keep your eyes out for whenever you're looking at a precipitated rock on Mars. AM: And you could see these with Pancam? AK: If you took a Pancam to Rio Tinto or Yellowstone Park, they would jump out at you. Absolutely. AM: If it turns out that the bedrock at the Opportunity landing site is made up of sedimentary deposits, does that mean that when those sediments were laid down, there had to be liquid water around? AK: Very likely. AM: So if they were sedimentary, and Pancam saw some sort of texture that on Earth is indicative of biology, would that mean that Opportunity had come close to finding evidence of life on Mars? AK: Those are big ifs, but it would be a big day. Let's back up a second, because it gets to a little bit of philosophy about how you actually look for these things. A couple of years ago, NASA embarked on a funding campaign to essentially try and anticipate any kind of suggestively biological signature that might be found in any kind of exploration of another planet so that we wouldn't be seen to be scratching our heads. But the plain fact is that you can't anticipate anything you might see. So what I think is a more realistic scenario is that you do your exploration, and if, in the course of that exploration, you find a signal that is (a) not easily accounted for by physics and chemistry or (b) reminiscent of signals that are closely associated with biology on Earth, then you get excited. What will happen then, I can guarantee you, is that 100 enterprising scientists will go into the lab and see how, if at all, they can simulate what you see--without using biology. And I think that's the right thing to do. For things where the stakes are so high, I think one wants to be as careful and sober about this as you can be. And certainly that means knowing a lot more about the generative capacity of physical and chemical processes to implant both chemical and textural signatures in a rock than we know about today. Absent astrobiology, nobody would waste their time doing these things because, on Earth, we know that there has been biology for most of the planet's history. Biology is everywhere. Biology is pre-eminent in the signals that it imparts to sedimentary rocks. So who is going to spend five years of their time as a young scientist trying to generate a signal by abiological means that's closely associated with biology? However, you switch to Mars and there are a lot more reasons to do that kind of thing. AM: If one of the MER rovers found a rock that seemed to contain evidence of martian biology, would NASA want go back to that spot and bring it home? AK: You bet. Depending on what we find in Meridiani--not to prejudice what we find--it may make it either a very high-priority site for NASA to return with more sophisticated equipment and be a very top priority site for sample return; or we may write it off. That's the whole reason for this sort of incremental work. I actually like the whole architecture of NASA's plan to go one step at a time, do each step carefully, and in step two build on what you learned in step one. It makes sense. AM: I realize I'm asking you to speculate, here, but what do you think are the odds that Mars was once a living world? AK: I really don't know. But everything we've learned in the last few years suggests to me that water may have been episodic rather than persistent on Mars. And that lowers the probability for biology. If water is present on the martian surface for 100 years every 10 million years, that's not very interesting for biology. If it's present for 10 million years, that's very interesting. It is certainly not a given that we will find that Mars was a biological planet. Half of my brain keeps trying to throw out a percentage, and I know it's such a meaningless thing to do--I think I'm just going to not do it. But I can tell you that one of the best chances we're going to get for a number of years to address that question is right here in the iron deposits of Meridiani. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article820.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) FOR FLIGHT EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE LIFE SCIENCES NRA 04-OBPR-01 2 February 2004 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a solicitation for scientific research proposals. The release date for the NRA is February 2, 2004. This solicitation is for proposals to carry out space flight experiments in Low Earth Orbit; primarily on the International Space Station. Research emphases include Fundamental Biology on the model organisms: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans, Arabidopsis sp. and Brassica sp.; Biomedical Research and Countermeasures; and Human Factors. This solicitation will be available electronically via the Internet at http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_u/nra/current/NRA-04-OBPR-01/index.html beginning February 2, 2004. Notices of Intent Due: March 2, 2004 Proposals Due: May 5, 2004 Please note that NRA 04-OBPR-01 (US applicants) is synonymous with ILSRA- 2004 (non-US applicants). Paper copies of this NRA are available to those who do not have access to the Internet by calling 202-479-9030 extension 277 and leaving a voice mail message. Please leave your full name and address, including zip code, telephone number with area code, and the name of the NRA you are requesting. __________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ 9 February 2004 Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html R. R. Britt, 2004. The growing case for water on Mars. Space.com. University of Queensland, 2004. More support for life in martian meteorite. Universe Today. Terrestrial extreme environments articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html H. Bortman, 2004. Interview with Andrew Knoll, part I: from a river in Spain to a crater on Mars. Astrobiology Magazine. H. Bortman, 2004. Interview with Andy Knoll, part II: could Opportunity Find Life on Mars? Astrobiology Magazine. Human space exploration articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html R. R. Britt, 2004. NASA's Moon-Mars plans take shape. Space.com. J. Wardell, 2004. Europe plans human missions to Moon and Mars. Space.com. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html E. DeVore and D. Richards, 2004. Darwin Day: mark your calendar! Space.com. Pennsylvania State University, 2004. One order of snake legs, please. Astrobiology Magazine. Planetary protection articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles6.html Cardiff University, 2004. Comet blamed for 6th century "nuclear winter". Spaceflight Now. Extrasolar planets articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles7.html Reuters, 2004. Hubble detects oxygen, carbon near distant planet. CNN. __________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL releases 29 January - 3 February 2004 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Monday, February 2. 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=U_eRE7q7qmdO-3BCLCXxIg. C42 continued this week with Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) and Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) solar wind observations, uplink of commands for the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) for a flight software checkout mini-sequence and to send Instrument Expanded Blocks directly to the instrument, setting of an internal raw data parameter for the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, RPWS high frequency receiver calibrations, and clearing of the ACS high water marks. A C44 Sequence Change Request (SCR) meeting for the subsequence generation sub phase was held this week. Three SCRs were approved. These include adding real-time command windows to accommodate flight software normalization for CDA and VIMS, and changing the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer checkout activities from a background sequence activity to a separate mini sequence. The Navigation team has determined that the current DSN allocation for C44 is adequate for navigation accuracy for Saturn approach. No additional tracking is required. Preliminary and official port #2 for Science Operations Plan (SOP) Implementation for tour sequences S21 and S22 occurred this week. Preliminary port #1 for SOP Implementation for S23 and S24 also occurred this week. The Spacecraft Activity Sequence Files were merged and the reports sent out to the teams for review. The SOP Update process for S01 kicked off on Friday, January 30. The Decision meeting for tour sequence S02 was held as part of the Aftermarket process. At the meeting it was determined that all proposed changes could be accommodated within the allocated work units with enough margin for future changes. All requested changes were approved for further integration by the Magnetospheric Target Working Team. This week saw the conclusion of a Project Science Group (PSG) meeting at the California Institute of Technology and JPL in Pasadena, California. Discussions focused on the upcoming Phoebe flyby on June 11, 2004, and Saturn orbit insertion on June 30 (PDT) (July 1, GMT), as well as public affairs plans to support these key activities. Spacecraft and project status were also presented. PSG members roundly applauded a major, key milestone: the completion of science integration for the 4-year tour. Other highlights included formation of the Titan Science Group. This group will be responsible for Titan orbiter science planning and updates during the tour. Also discussed were dates for upcoming PSG meetings and a revision of the PSG meeting format in order to include more time for science reports. All teams and offices supported the Cassini/NASA Quarterly review held at JPL. The Instrument Operations Team Distributed Operations Coordinator compiled and released a test report from last week's DTF 21 Probe Relay data flow test. The test was to exercise the ability of the Huygens operations center in Darmstadt, Germany to receive 66Kbps real-time broadcast data as well as NERT TDS queries by Virtual Channel ID. The preliminary test report will be reviewed at next week's Probe Relay meeting. An announcement was made through the Smithsonian Institution's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams regarding an update to the rotation period of Phoebe, one of the Saturnian satellites to be observed by Cassini. Refer to Circular 8279 at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=lPpGyycroBFO-3BCLCXxIg or go directly to http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=m94wQqwl33VO-3BCLCXxIg. An article was released through Space.com regarding plans for increased exploration of Titan. For more information go to http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=UL0JeKHPYT1O-3BCLCXxIg. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS UPDATES NASA/JPL releases Opportunity Sees Tiny Spheres in Martian Soil NASA/JPL release 2004-051, 4 February 2004 NASA's Opportunity has examined its first patch of soil in the small crater where the rover landed on Mars and found strikingly spherical pebbles among the mix of particles there. "There are features in this soil unlike anything ever seen on Mars before," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the science instruments on the two Mars Exploration Rovers. For better understanding of the soil, mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, plan to use Opportunity's wheels later this week to scoop a trench to expose deeper material. One front wheel will rotate to dig the hole while the other five wheels hold still. The spherical particles appear in new pictures from Opportunity's microscopic imager, the last of 20 cameras to be used on the two rover missions. Other particles in the image have jagged shapes. "The variety of shapes and colors indicates we're having particles brought in from a variety of sources," said Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, AZ. The shapes by themselves don't reveal the particles' origin with certainty. "A number of straightforward geological processes can yield round shapes," said Dr. Hap McSween, a rover science team member from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They include accretion under water, but apparent pores in the particles make alternative possibilities of meteor impacts or volcanic eruptions more likely origins, he said. A new mineral map of Opportunity's surroundings, the first ever done from the surface of another planet, shows that concentrations of coarse-grained hematite vary in different parts of the crater. The soil patch in the new microscopic images is in an area low in hematite. The map shows higher hematite concentrations inside the crater in a layer above an outcrop of bedrock and on the slope just under the outcrop. Hematite usually forms in association with liquid water, so it holds special interest for the scientists trying to determine whether the rover landing sites ever had watery environments possibly suitable for sustaining life. The map uses data from Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer, which identifies rock types from a distance. "We're seeing little bits and pieces of this mystery, but we haven't pieced all the clues together yet," Squyres said. Opportunity's Moessbauer spectrometer, an instrument on the rover's robotic arm designed to identify the types of iron-bearing minerals in a target, found a strong signal in the soil patch for olivine. Olivine is a common ingredient in volcanic rocks. A few days of analysis may be needed to discern whether any fainter signals are from hematite, said Dr. Franz Renz, science team member from the University of Mainz, Germany. To get a better look at the hematite closer to the outcrop, Opportunity will go there. It will begin by driving about 3 meters (10 feet) tomorrow, taking it about halfway to the outcrop. On Friday it will dig a trench with one of its front wheels, said JPL's Dr. Mark Adler, mission manager. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, today is reformatting its flash memory, a preventive measure that had been planned for earlier in the week. "We spent the last four days in the testbed testing this," Adler said. "It's not an operation we do lightly. We've got to be sure it works right." Tomorrow, Spirit will resume examining a rock called Adirondack after a two-week interruption by computer memory problems. Controllers plan to tell Spirit to brush dust off of a rock and examine the cleaned surface tomorrow. Each martian day, or "sol," lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 33rd sol on Mars at 2:43 AM Thursday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 13th sol on Mars at 3:04 PM Thursday, PST. Mars Exploration Rover mission status NASA/JPL release 2004-052, 5 February 2004 NASA's Opportunity rover drove about 3.5 meters (11 feet) late Wednesday toward a rock outcrop in the wall of a small crater on Mars, and mission controllers plan to send it the rest of the way to the outcrop late Thursday. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, successfully reformatted its flash memory on Wednesday. Flash is a type of rewritable memory used in many electronic devices, such as digital cameras, to retain information even while power is off. Problems with the flash memory interfered with Spirit's operations from January 22 until this week. Engineers prescribed the reformatting to prevent recurrence of the problem. On Thursday, Spirit's main assignment is to brush off an area on the rock nicknamed "Adirondack" to prepare for a dust-free examination of its surface. On Friday, controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, plan to have Spirit grind off a small patch of Adirondack's outer surface and inspect the rock's interior. Spirit may start driving over the weekend toward a crater about 250 meters (about 270 yards) to the northeast. For Opportunity, halfway around Mars from Spirit, controllers changed plans Thursday morning. They postponed a trenching operation until the rover gets to an area of its landing-site crater where the soil has a higher concentration of large-grain hematite. That mineral holds high interest because it usually forms under wet conditions. The main science goal for both rovers is to find geological clues about past environmental conditions at the landing sites, especially about whether conditions were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life. Instead of trenching, Opportunity will be commanded after it next wakes up to drive about 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) farther, possibly to within arm's reach of one of the rocks in the exposed outcrop. Before it began driving on Wednesday, Opportunity finished using its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for the first time. This spectrometer, which assesses what chemical elements are present, took readings on an area of soil that the rover had previously examined with its microscope. Each martian day, or "sol," lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 34rd sol on Mars at 3:22 AM Thursday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 14th sol on Mars at 3:43 PM Friday, PST. Healthy Spirit Cleans a Mars Rock; Opportunity Rolls NASA/JPL release 2004-053, 6 February 2004 NASA's Spirit has returned to full health and resumed doing things never attempted on Mars before. "Our patient is healed, and we're very excited about that," said Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, mission manager for Spirit. Spirit temporarily stopped communicating January 22; the problem was later diagnosed as a memory-management issue. Engineers regained partial control of the spacecraft within days and reformatted Spirit's flash memory Wednesday to prevent recurrence of the problem. JPL's Glenn Reeves, flight software architect for the Mars Exploration Rovers, said Friday, "We're confident we know what the problem is, and we have a procedure in place we believe can work around this problem indefinitely." Spirit's first day of science operations after the memory reformatting featured the first brushing of a rock on a foreign planet to remove dust and allow inspection of the rock's cleaned surface. Steel bristles on the rover's rock abrasion tool cleaned a circular patch on the rock unofficially named Adirondack. The tool's main function is to grind off the weathered surface of rocks with diamond teeth, but the brush for removing the grinder's cuttings can also be used to sweep dust off the intact surface. The brushing on Thursday was the first use of a rock abrasion tool by either Spirit or its twin rover, Opportunity. The brush swirled for five minutes, said Stephen Gorevan of Honeybee Robotics, New York, lead scientist for the rock abrasion tools on both rovers. "I didn't expect much of a difference. This is a big surprise," Gorevan said about a picture showing the brushed area is much darker than the rest of the rock's surface. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the greatest interplanetary brushing of all time." One reason scientists first selected Adirondack for close inspection is because it appeared relatively dust free compared to some other rocks nearby. "To our surprise, there was quite a bit of dust on the surface," said Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Ariz., lead scientist for the rovers' microscopic imagers. Spirit was instructed Friday afternoon to grind the surface of Adirondack with the rock abrasion tool. After the grinding, the turret of tools at the end of the rover's robotic arm will be rotated to inspect the freshly exposed interior of the rock. Controllers plan to tell Spirit tomorrow to begin driving again. Meanwhile, halfway around Mars, NASA's Opportunity drove early Friday for the second day in a row. It arrived within about a half a meter (20 inches) of the northeastern end of a rock outcrop scientists are eager for the rover to examine. "We expect to complete that approach tomorrow," said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager for Opportunity. During Friday's drive, Opportunity did not travel as far as planned. The rover is climbing a slope of about 13 degrees, and the shortage in distance traveled is probably due to slippage in the soil, Wallace said. The main task for both rovers is to explore the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life. Each martian day, or "sol," lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 35th sol on Mars at 4:02 AM Saturday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 15th sol on Mars at 4:23 PM Saturday, 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, DC. Images and additional information about the project are available from 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/article821.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article822.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article823.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article825.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article826.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/02/05/mars.rovers.ap/index.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/opportunity_update_040204.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rovers_update_040205.html http://www.space.com/news/marsps_shift5_040205.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rovers_update_0402065.html http://www.space.com/news/marsps_shift5_040205.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zy.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040207spiritrat.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040208rovers.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rover_sees_spheres_martian_soil.ht ml __________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 29 January - 4 February 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Tractus Fossae Pit Chain (Released 29 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=7HFHYmbx3xBO-3BCLCXxIg The First MOC High Resolution View of the Beagle 2 Landing Ellipse (Released 30 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=G9Pr_O4fXdNO-3BCLCXxIg Dune and Dust Devil Tracks (Released 31 January 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=aRyg0TuSXQ5O-3BCLCXxIg Ripples in Tempe Mensa Region (Released 01 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=VJUH-2_mnypO-3BCLCXxIg Defrosting South Polar Sand (Released 02 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=urtx7RKlov5O-3BCLCXxIg Large Bright Ripples (Released 03 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=t5fVhMhmADhO-3BCLCXxIg Sedimentary Rocks of Aram Chaos (Released 04 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=P37091_fUW1O-3BCLCXxIg All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=pc7tJCUcqxlO-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 2-6 February 2004 Peace Sign (Released 2 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=9QFEOubCxZ5O-3BCLCXxIg Tree with Moon (Released 3 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=DaG4OC3Lqu9O-3BCLCXxIg The Eye of Mars Is Upon You (Released 4 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=pDU1uqITUoFO-3BCLCXxIg Lace (Released 5 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=KeAGgjAFhOlO-3BCLCXxIg Bang! Pow! (Released 6 February 2004) http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=11ejW6eXviVO-3BCLCXxIg All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=kv1YNHOeEpFO-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. __________________________________________________________________________ UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE--ROSETTA LANDER NAMED PHILAE ESA release 08-2004 5 February 2004 With just 21 days to the launch of the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet mission, the spacecraft's lander has been named "Philae". Rosetta embarks on a 10-year journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Kourou, French Guiana, on 26 February. Philae is the island in the river Nile on which an obelisk was found that had a bilingual inscription including the names of Cleopatra and Ptolemy in Egyptian hieroglyphs. This provided the French historian Jean-François Champollion with the final clues that enabled him to decipher the hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone and unlock the secrets of the civilization of ancient Egypt. Just as the Philae Obelisk and the Rosetta Stone provided the keys to an ancient civilization, the Philae lander and the Rosetta orbiter aim to unlock the mysteries of the oldest building blocks of our Solar System--comets. Germany, France, Italy and Hungary are the main contributors to the lander, working together with Austria, Finland, Ireland and the UK. The main contributors held national competitions to select the most appropriate name. Philae was proposed by 15-year-old Serena Olga Vismara from Arluno near Milan, Italy. Her hobbies are reading and surfing the internet, where she got the idea of naming the lander Philae. Her prize will be a visit to Kourou to attend the Rosetta launch. Study of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko will allow scientists to look back 4600 million years to an epoch when no planets existed and only a vast swarm of asteroids and comets surrounded the Sun. On arrival at the comet in 2014, Philae will be commanded to self-eject from the orbiter and unfold its three legs, ready for a gentle touchdown. Immediately after touchdown, a harpoon will be fired to anchor Philae to the ground and prevent it escaping from the comet's extremely weak gravity. The legs can rotate, lift or tilt to return Philae to an upright position. Philae will determine the physical properties of the comet's surface and subsurface and their chemical, mineralogical and isotopic composition. This will complement the orbiter's studies of the overall characterization of the comet's dynamic properties and surface morphology. Philae may provide the final clues enabling the Rosetta mission to unlock the secrets of how life began on Earth. "Whilst Rosetta's lander now has a name of its own, it is still only a part of the overall Rosetta mission. Let us look forward to seeing the Philae lander, Osiris, Midas and all the other instruments on board Rosetta start off on their great journey this month," said Professor David Southwood, ESA Director of Science. Further information on the ESA Rosetta mission can be found at http://www.esa.int/rosetta. Contact: ESA Media Relations Service 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/rosetta_lander_named_philae.html. __________________________________________________________________________ STARDUST STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 6 February 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. 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=FKf1fsZ_g_1O-3BCLCXxIg. This past week, Deep Space Maneuver #4 was successfully performed. The maneuver utilized the same mode that will be used for Earth return in January 2006. During the burn, all solar array segments were verified to be working properly, indicating that no damage occurred while inside the coma of Comet Wild 2. 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=BUdXD1iX5mlO-3BCLCXxIg. __________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 7.