Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 27, 29 June 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. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors, and are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or by Lyon College. 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 at 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 SPACE SIMULATOR--MODELING THE UNIVERSE ON A BUDGET Los Alamos National Laboratory release 2) DARK DAYS DOOMED DINOSAURS, SAY PURDUE SCIENTISTS By Chad Boutin 3) I WANT MY SCI-TV By Leslie Mullen 4) THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL: AQUATIC TO COSMIC DESTINATIONS By Leonard David 5) MARTIAN SAND LIFE: EVIDENCE AND PREDICTIONS By Francisco J. Oyarzun 6) NASA RESEARCHERS CONSIDER MOBILE LUNAR BASE CONCEPTS NASA/ARC release 04-64AR Announcements 7) "RETURN TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS"-SATURN EXPLORATION PRESENTATIONS AT LYON COLLEGE Lyon College release 8) SECOND CONFERENCE ON EARLY MARS Lunar and Planetary Institute release 9) PUBLIC INVITED TO VIEW CASSINI BROADCAST AT NASA EXPLORATION CENTER NASA/ARC release 04-62AR 10) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas Mission Reports 11) CASSINI UPDATES NASA, ESA and University of Arizona releases 12) DEEP IMPACT MISSION UPDATE NASA/JPL/Ball Aerospace release 13) MARS ROVER SURPRISES CONTINUE; SPIRIT, TOO, FINDS HEMATITE NASA/JPL release 2004-161 14) MARS EXPRESS UPDATES ESA releases 15) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 16) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release __________________________________________________________________________ THE SPACE SIMULATOR--MODELING THE UNIVERSE ON A BUDGET Los Alamos National Laboratory release 22 June 2004 For the past several years, a team of University of California astrophysicists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have been using a cluster of roughly 300 computer processors to model some of the most intriguing aspects of the Universe. Called the Space Simulator, this de facto supercomputer has not only proven itself to be one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, but has also demonstrated that modeling and simulation of complex phenomena, from supernovae to cosmology, can be done on a fairly economical basis. According to Michael Warren, one of the Space Simulator's three principal developers, "Our goal was to acquire a computer which would deliver the highest performance possible on the astrophysics simulations we wanted to run, while remaining within the modest budget that we were allotted. Building the Space Simulator turned out to be a excellent choice." The Space Simulator is a 294-node Beowulf cluster with theoretical peak performance just below 1.5 teraflops, or trillions of floating point operations per second. Each Space Simulator processing node looks much like a computer you would find at home than at a supercomputer center, consisting of a Pentium 4 processor, 1 gigabyte of 333 MHz SDRAM, an 80 gigabyte hard drive and a gigabit Ethernet card. Each individual node cost less than $1,000 and the entire system cost under $500,000. The cluster achieved Linpack performance of 665.1 gigaflops per second on 288 processors in October 2002, making it the 85th fastest computer in the world, according to the 20th TOP500 list (see www.top500.org). A gigaflop is a billion floating-point operations per second. Since 2002, the Space Simulator has moved down to #344 on the most recent TOP500 list as faster computers are built, but Warren and his colleagues are not worried. They built the Space Simulator to do specific astrophysics research, not to compete with other computers. It was never designed to compete with Laboratory's massive supercomputers and, in fact, is not scalable enough to do so. The Space Simulator has been used almost continuously for theoretical astrophysics simulations since it was built, and has spent much of the past year calculating the evolution of the Universe. The first results of that work were recently presented at a research conference in Italy by Los Alamos postdoctoral research associate Luis Teodoro. Further analysis of the simulations, in collaboration with Princeton University professor Uros Seljak, will soon be published in the prestigious journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. In addition to simulating the structure and evolution of the Universe, the Space Simulator has been used to study the explosions of massive stars and to help understand the X-ray emission from the center of our galaxy. The Space Simulator is actually the Laboratory's third generation Beowulf cluster. The first was Loki, which was constructed in 1996 from 16 200 MHz Pentium Pro processors. Loki was followed by the Avalon cluster, which consisted of 144 alpha processors. The Space Simulator follows the same basic architecture as these previous Beowulf machines, but is the first to use Gigabit Ethernet as the network fabric, and requires significantly less space than a cluster using typical computers. The Space Simulator runs parallel N-body algorithms, which were originally designed for astrophysical applications involving gravitational interactions, but have since been used to model more complex particle systems. In addition to Warren, the developers of the Space Simulator include Los Alamos staff members Chris Fryer and Patrick Goda. Los Alamos' Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program provided funding for the Space Simulator research. LDRD funds basic and applied research and development focusing on employee-initiated creative proposals selected at the discretion of the Laboratory director. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission. Read the original news release at http://www.lanl.gov/worldview/news/releases/archive/04-058.shtml. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/space_simulator_models_universe.ht ml. __________________________________________________________________________ DARK DAYS DOOMED DINOSAURS, SAY PURDUE SCIENTISTS By Chad Boutin Purdue University release 23 June 2004 Though the catastrophe that destroyed the dinosaurs' world may have begun with blazing fire, it probably ended with icy darkness, according to a Purdue University research group. By analyzing fossil records, a team of scientists including Purdue's Matthew Huber has found evidence that the Earth underwent a sudden cooling 65 million years ago that may have taken millennia to abate completely. The fossil rock samples, taken from a well-known archaeological site in Tunisia, show that tiny, cold-loving ocean organisms called dinoflagellates and benthic formanifera appeared suddenly in an ancient sea that had previously been very warm. While some scientists have long theorized that a meteorite's fiery collision with Earth was in some way responsible for the mass extinction of many dinosaur species, the discovery provides the first physical evidence of the global cooling that likely followed the impact. "This is the first time anyone has found a fossil record indicating the Earth cooled significantly at that time," said Huber, an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences in Purdue's School of Science. "It is likely that the object that struck the Earth hurled huge quantities of sulfate aerosols high into the atmosphere, which darkened and cooled the planet's surface for several years afterward. "This discovery, which certainly has relevance to theories about dinosaur extinction, is also significant because it confirms our computer models of the Earth's climate--they predict that the climate would respond in this way under the circumstances. That's encouraging for those of us who are trying to understand what our climate is doing now." The research, which Huber conducted with first author Simone Galeotti of the University of Urbino, Italy, and Henk Brinkhuis of the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, appears in the current (June 2004) issue of the scientific journal, Geology. Though dispute continues over what caused the dinosaurs' extinction, many scientists are convinced that a meteorite several miles wide struck the Earth at Chicxulub (pronounced "CHIX-a-lube") off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, causing a global catastrophe that wiped out nearly all large land animals. The details of this catastrophe are still poorly understood, though the heat from the explosion likely caused a worldwide atmospheric firestorm that within hours killed many large land animals-- most famously, the dinosaurs (for recent evidence supporting this theory, see related Web site, http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2004/168.html). The evidence Huber's team has uncovered provides a complimentary story: after the initial firestorm abated, the particles hurled into the atmosphere from the impact cooled the Earth's surface by filtering out much of the sunlight. "Whatever dinosaurs survived the initial cataclysm, whether by burrowing underground or hiding in the water, would have emerged to find their world rapidly growing cold and dark," Huber said. "Without warmth or sunlight, nourishment got scarce in a hurry." The team found evidence of the cooling in rocks found at El Kef in Tunisia, a site that shows the boundary in time between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago. This so-called "K-T boundary" is well-known as the time of the mass extinction that wiped out most dinosaurs. In the El Kef rocks, which during the Cretaceous were submerged beneath a warm-water ocean, Huber's colleagues found fossilized dinoflagellates that ordinarily appeared only in colder regions. "The fossils indicate that something suddenly made the water cold enough to support these tiny critters," Huber said. "We theorize that the meteor strike produced huge quantities of sulfate particles, such as are often blown high into the atmosphere during a volcanic eruption, and these particles shielded the Earth's surface from sunlight. The decrease in solar energy ultimately caused a long cold spell, called an 'impact winter,' that persisted for years." A reasonable theory, Huber said, is that the oceans cooled because they lost most of their heat to the chilly atmosphere above, which was no longer being heated by the sun. Had this cooling effect continued long enough, the surface of the oceans might have frozen solid, turning Earth into a giant snowball. "The oceans evidently retained enough residual heat to remain liquid while the aerosols slowly left the atmosphere," he said. "Our climate models indicate that a snowball Earth would develop after an eight-year-long impact winter, but as the oceans did not freeze completely at the K-T boundary, the winter probably lasted five years or less." Huber said that while life on the planet's surface was probably back on the road to recovery 30 years or so following the impact, the fossil records show the cold-loving dinoflagellates were present at El Kef for as long as 2,000 years afterward. "It took much longer for the oceans to get back to normal," Huber said. "Prolonged feedback effects may have kept the ocean depths cold for many centuries." The research results are good news for scientists, Huber said, because they bolster existing theories about the behavior of Earth's climate. "This evidence is encouraging because it suggests that our computer models are correct in predicting the climate's response to a major perturbation," he said. "Our computer simulations indicate that if you turned off the sun today, this sort of winter would engulf the planet. Finding data about an impact winter 65 million years ago is encouraging, because it means that historical evidence lines up with our theory and models of climate." These models need to be as accurate as possible, he added, if we are to comprehend the effects of aerosol particles on global warming. "The results point to the critical role of the potential cooling effects of aerosols, which is very important for predicting the effects of humans on climate," he said. "Although human influences on aerosols are much more subtle than those thought to have resulted from the K-T boundary event, coal-fired power plants and biomass burning are also important aerosol sources. A better representation of aerosols' effects is crucial for understanding future climate changes as well as those in the deep past." Huber is affiliated with the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, which promotes and organizes research and education on global climate change and studies its impacts on agriculture, natural ecosystems and society. Contacts: Chad Boutin Phone: 765-494-2081 E-mail: cboutin@purdue.edu Matthew Huber Phone: 765-494-0652, E-mail: huberm@purdue.edu Purdue News Service Phone: 765-494-2096 E-mail: purduenews@purdue.edu Read the original news release at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2004/040623.Huber.darkout.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-04j.html. __________________________________________________________________________ I WANT MY SCI-TV By Leslie Mullen From Astrobiology Magazine 23 June 2004 Talk to any scientist for long, and you'll discover that they first fell in love with science through movies, books, or TV. Scientists are not the only ones who love science in their entertainment. Among the top grossing movies of all time are the Star Wars films, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and Jurassic Park. Science fiction novels have legions of fans, and science is the basis for popular TV dramas like "CSI" and "Star Trek," as well as for reality shows like "Myth Busters" on the Discovery Channel. Yet for all its popularity, science entertainment apparently does little to educate. In a recent survey by the National Science Foundation, only 50 percent of respondents knew that it takes the Earth a year to go around the Sun. About the same number of people didn't know that an electron is smaller than an atom, or that ancient humans and dinosaurs lived at different times. One of the problems with using entertainment to educate is that the science is often wrong. Web sites like "Bad Astronomy" and "Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics" go into amusing detail about the mistakes and poor information contained in certain movies and TV shows. But as Phil Plait, the creator of "Bad Astronomy" says on his web site, "Don't get me wrong: I love science fiction. When I was a kid I lived on a straight diet of 'Lost in Space', 'Star Trek' and 'Space: 1999.' I still do! Even though the science in these shows is usually pretty bad, they do serve the great purpose of getting people excited about science, space and astronomy." Getting people excited about space exploration is a goal of the President's Commission on the Moon, Mars and Beyond. In his testimony to the Commission, TV Producer John Bernardoni noted that America is on the edge of losing its technological dominance to other countries. "Somebody told me that China graduated 300,000 aerospace engineers to our 58,000," said Bernardoni. "I was at the National Space Symposium when I heard that. Japan graduated something like 225,000. That's scary--you talk about outsourcing, it's going to make what's happening now look pretty silly. If anybody really wants this to be an international effort, they're not going to have to worry about it--it will be an international effort because, like it or not, that's where all the people will be coming from." A New York Times article published on May 3 reported that Americans are losing their scientific dominance to the rest of the world. Everything from the number of Nobel Prizes and patents awarded to the number of scientific papers published has fallen in the U.S., while those numbers have increased in other nations. Bernardoni says one way to generate more interest among the youth of America is for government to fund more missions to space, and for the entertainment industry to create more programming about science. Bernardoni talked about his own boyhood fascination with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, and how his interest was fueled by movies like Forbidden Planet, It Came from Outer Space, The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds. "I was at a meeting where a group of scientists were griping about why more kids weren't signing up for aerospace," says Bernardoni. "I stood up and said, 'Why should they? There is no big audacious goal, therefore there are no missions. If there are no missions, there are no jobs. So what's the point?' I said, 'You want to get kids pumped up? You've got to have a vision. You get them pumped up through MTV, you get them pumped up through video games, you get them pumped up though 'The Simpsons.' You've got to go where they live, you've got to go to the music that their peers like--that's how you get to kids, you do not get to kids through job fairs.'" For many people, science means a dull textbook and a teacher writing incomprehensible equations on a chalkboard. But Costas Efthimiou, a teacher of mathematical physics at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, is using entertainment to get his students excited about science. In a course called "Physics in Films," Efthimiou and his colleague Ralph Llewellyn use movies to illustrate core concepts. For instance, 2001: A Space Odyssey is used to discuss centripetal and centrifugal force, and artificial gravity. The movie, Contact, is used to discuss topics such as relativity, space travel, wormholes, life beyond Earth, and Drake's formula. Efthimiou says they also show movies that depict "bad science"-- for instance, scenes from the movie, Armageddon. "Bad movies are probably the best for educational purposes, since they maximize the contrast with real science," says Efthimiou. "Also, 'good movies' are rated as boring by the students; they adore Armageddon and Independence Day but they dislike Contact and really hate 2001: A Space Odyssey." The class uses "Fermi problems" to find approximate solutions to situations presented in the films. In a Fermi problem, the goal is to get an answer within an order of magnitude (typically a power of ten). The physicist Enrico Fermi was known for his ability to make approximate calculations with little or no actual data--so-called "back of the envelope" solutions. The students in Efthimiou's class are presented with a Fermi problem based on a situation in a film, and create a model using simple formulae from physics. Even without having definite knowledge or exact numbers to work with, by making reasonable assumptions about the situation, they are able to come up with an approximate answer. Efthimiou has found that examination results have improved dramatically since he began the course. More students are enrolling, and faculty who once resisted teaching the traditional course are now signing up to teach "Physics in Films." His students, who are mostly non-science majors, often have had bad experiences with science, or they have come to believe that science is difficult and uninteresting. Efthimiou says the public school system does little to engage students in science, and the physical sciences and mathematics are often denigrated or "dumbed down." But Efthimiou also blames the entertainment industry, since it often projects negative stereotypes of scientists. Because of biases that have been part of their early science education, many people find it easy to accept these negative representations. Efthimiou says one of the goals of his course is to make students more aware of how science is portrayed in the media. "We do not ask that they dismiss the entertainment industry because science is portrayed so badly most of the time, but we do ask that they should not passively assume that what they see in the big or small screen is reality," says Efthimiou. "If we persuade people to think about what they see, to check it against real-life situations or examples discussed in the course, and to draw conclusions as to its validity or impossibility, then we have succeeded in creating a public that has adopted the scientific method--and society will benefit tremendously." Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1032.html. __________________________________________________________________________ THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL: AQUATIC TO COSMIC DESTINATIONS By Leonard David From Space.com 23 June 2004 Future travelers will be putting down their luggage in far-flung places, underwater, in the air and around the planet. They'll get amazing views from bizarre living quarters that build on "outrageously successful" billion-dollar projects on Earth, and they'll take adventures that have long been the province of science fiction. That's the vacationing landscape of the 21st Century envisioned by various travel analysts. Thomson Holidays, a leading travel and destination group based in the United Kingdom, just issued a report on the future of leisure travel. The report is an outgrowth of the Future Holiday Forum, an event Thomson organized late last year to bring together architects, technologists, travel journalists, experts on social trends of the future, as well as authorities on sustainable tourism. The conclusions are a sweeping preview of the changing needs and expectations of globetrotting travelers two decades out. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/hotel_future_040623.htm l. __________________________________________________________________________ MARTIAN SAND LIFE: EVIDENCE AND PREDICTIONS By Francisco J. Oyarzun 29 June 2004 These days of June 2004, I see no less than four lines of evidence to indicate that some life remains today on Mars, associated with sand. To wit: Line 1. The Dark Dune Spots studied by Gánti, Horváth, et al.[1]: seasonal spots that form only on sand dunes, between about 60ºS and 82ºS, never crossing the edge of a dune. If they are truly biological, then there is a simple explanation: the organisms hide in the porous (and easily traversable) sand when conditions are bad, and come to the surface only when conditions are right (sun shines round-the-clock and melts a thin layer of water under the ice). Line 2. "Organic" shapes in closeups of sand taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). They include, on top of sand banks such as "Serpent", the unexpected monolayer of pebbles(?) for which a physical explanation is wanting, and which include some remarkably complex shapes, plus, within the sand itself, apparently segmented filaments and other "organic" shapes that I pointed out in my previous essay for Marsbugs [2]. Figure 1 shows another example (Meridiani, Sol 89). [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/sandRose.jpg] Figure 1. Sand "rose"; left is unretouched, right has 35% normal edge sharpening. From http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/089/1M136084090EFF1500P2906 M2M1.JPG and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/089/1M136083989EFF1500P2956 M2M1.JPG. We see a fiber, about two pixels wide (~60 microns), leading up to a pair of diverging curls enveloping some smaller structures; the fiber itself appears kinked and with knobs, as if the knobs were buds, and the curls and their content appear finely segmented. Granted, the overall unity could be an illusion; the knobs could be grains of sand (even though, in the sharpest image, they do not give that impression), but we undeniably have that fiber (among at least four kinds of fiber other than manmade ones: see my previous report [2]), and, coincidentally, we have yet another example of a radially-symmetric fuzz of gossamer fibers, at 11 o'clock from center. I invite the reader to verify, that close inspection of most well-focused pictures of freshly disturbed sand, from Gusev as well as Meridiani, reveals non-random patterns like those in Figure 2: bilateral symmetry, radial symmetry, filaments, branching, repetition/segmentation, at a level of complexity that we normally associate with living organisms. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/pillbugJumbleTint.jpg] Figure 2. Organic shapes from "Serpent" sand bank (Spirit Sol 73), 35% normal edge sharpened; right, tinted. From http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/m/073/2M132842785EFF2000P2977 M2M1.JPG. Critics have pointed to pseudofossils, tufa, helictites, and various speleothems on Earth as examples of organic-looking inorganic structures. I have yet to see such an example, however, that was not formed in a water-rich environment, and I have yet to be shown a strictly inorganic fiber that was sticky, as the "cobwebs" in my previous report appear to be. Line 3. Sand "snakes" in reticulate patterns, that often stop dead at a small stone, as illustrated in Figure 3, which contrasts the "snakes" with a normal-looking sand wave right next to them (also, there are some suspect filaments around the "cock's head", bottom left). Wind alone cannot form such nitid "snakes" unless they have somehow been reinforced. If the reinforcing agent is biological, then the underside of stop-stones could be a "home base": I would expect the "snake's" hypothetical content to angle downwards at the stone. Such a conjecture could be resolved by the Spirit team if they decided to address the issue: a disturbance to a sand "snake", and closeup photograph thereof, might reveal an abundance of filaments, or something more surprising. (As of this writing, it appears that not enough team members are yet willing to question last year's "dead Mars" paradigm.) [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/G111sandSnakes.jpg] Figure 3. Sand "snakes"; unretouched, from http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/111/2N136234863EFF3600P1818 R0M1.JPG. While other evidence accumulates, let me point out that burying oneself in a raised, wind-exposed, gallery of sand (that shields against UV but is permeable to gases) makes perfectly good sense for a non-photosynthetic organism that is able to exploit the simultaneous presence of carbon monoxide and oxygen in the atmosphere (800ppm and 1300ppm respectively). The perennial question of water may also be answered by sand: every time ambient humidity exceeds 100%, the result upon smooth rock is frost; between salty grains of sand, however, the result could be water-hogging brine. Line 4. Within a minority of craters, depressions and canyons, at mid- latitudes: dark areas, olive-green to deep emerald green when imaged in color. As I illustrate in Figure 9 below, such dark areas vary in intensity over martian seasons, and, over longer periods, can vary considerably in extent (Figures 11 and 12). An example of emerald green can be seen in Figure 4. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/ESA_ReullVert300dpi.jpg ] Figure 4. Reull Valles, 41ºS, by ESA Mars Express, 15 January 2004. From http://www.esa.int/export/images/ob_22_reull_v,1.jpg. Regardless of what one might initially surmise to cause the green coloration, the big question is: what keeps it green? The pervasive martian dust should have covered it long ago, as we clearly see happening in Figure 5, this year; not eons ago. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/ESAdustSinkAlborTholus. jpg] Figure 5. Albor Tholus, 19.3ºN, by ESA Mars Express, 19 January 2004. From http://www.esa.int/export/externals/images/ob_32_albor_p.jpg. From greenish dune streaks to the "Ultreya Abyss" Figure 6 shows MOC photographs of two craters with dark interiors, "cousins" of Bonneville (within the much larger Gusev). If the darkness were simply the result of wind removing some of the lighter-colored dust, one should expect the raised parts of the little double crater to be darker than the more hidden parts, yet one observes the opposite. Figure 7 shows the result of dust devils having sucked up some dust from a crater, and we see that the visual effect is quite different. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/MOC_BonnevilleCousins.g if] Figure 6. [http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/12/02/2003.12.02.R0901707.medium .jpg] Figure 7. Source: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/12/02/. Figure 8, below, shows the haunts of the Spirit rover (at 10m per pixel in the 72dpi original): Bonneville is the lower of the three dark craters. What determines that so many similar craters on that picture are light- toned inside? Are the physical conditions really that different? Or are they just different enough to allow or not allow some dark and highly stressed life form to take hold? [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/MOC_BonnevilleEnvirons1 0mpp.gif] Figure 8. Bonneville environs, from http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/01/03/2004.01.03.gusev10m.gif. I don't have an exact date for Figure 8, but its tone and contrast correspond approximately to the lower member of the next pair, taken in July of 2003. The upper member, from a month before Spirit's landing, has much less contrast, and said contrast is consistent with high-resolution images taken in January 2004, shortly after landing (example: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/01/23/). Also, we can see that many a dust-devil track, visible in July, come December has been obliterated. Spirit press releases have commented that atmospheric dust diminished between January and March, 2004; certainly there have been no dust storms between landing and early June. I surmise then, that the "December" half best represents the amount of fine dust cover in Gusev, when Spirit reached the rim of Bonneville and took the panorama of Sol 68 (March 12), a piece of which I show next, in Figure 10. [http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/01/05/2004.01.05.R071606.R121091 .medium.jpg] Figure 9. Source: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/01/05/2004.01.05.R071606.R121091. medium.jpg. The color-rendered Bonneville panorama is widely disseminated, in various sizes and "enhancements"; for Figure 10 I've used a 9.2 MB NASA original which, apparently, has been superseded by a version almost thrice as large but inferior in sharpness as well as color. From top to bottom, the clip shows (a) the stony lower edge of the crater rim; (b) dunes that look naturally wind-combed but are almost uniformly greenish-dark; (c) dust- colored sand with short sharp greenish streaks; (d) the hard floor, dust- colored with no streaks. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/BonnevilleAlgae.jpg] Figure 10: Sands of Bonneville. Prediction 1: to the extent that the changes in contrast (detected via satellite) are cyclical, one should expect in coming months that the greenish dunes get darker, and the streaks grow more pronounced. To test this prediction, we shall have to wait for the ESA Mars Express satellite to do its best; but Prediction 2 (farther down) should be resolved by the end of July 2004. Contrast Figure 10 with the streaky crater I showed in black-and-white (Figure 6): I find it unbelievable that dust devils can draw such sharp and narrow streaks (confined to the sand banks!), as for instance the snaky one, lower right (and yes, Bonneville does host a few "sand snakes" as well). I thus boldly present hypothesis A: 1. Some sandy depressions on Mars harbor a photosynthetic life form, that lives in the sand, and is able to push through the clay-colored dust that periodically covers it. 2. Said photosynthetic life form is what makes some craters and other depressions dark. (Greenish pigments notwithstanding, I do not mean to imply oxygenic photosynthesis; in fact, the presence of carbon monoxide in the martian atmosphere makes it thermodynamically favorable to fix CO and release CO2). As an example of multi-year change, I offer the so-called "Big" crater near the Pathfinder landing site, imaged by the Viking I Orbiter in June of 1976, and by the MOC in April 1998. Links and captions for both are at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/4_25_98_pathfinder_release/. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/Pathfinder1976June27mpp .gif] Figure 11. From http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/7_3_98_mpfsite_release/vo_ctx.gif. North is up in both cases. The Viking image (Figure 11) clearly shows, inside the "Big" crater, a macula much darker than a shadow, that takes up about one-sixth of the area of the crater. Twenty-two years later, said macula is reduced to a few spots. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/Pathfinder1998April5mpp .gif] Figure 12. From http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/4_25_98_pathfinder_release/25603_sub.g if. This change has nothing to do with "defrosting patterns" (as Dr. Malin has called the seasonal Dark Dune Spots), nor with dust devils, nor with dark slope streaks that happen suddenly. They are slow changes that happen, at mid-latitudes, in a minority of craters and other depressions. In the "other depressions" category, I greatly look forward to the "Inner Basin" of Columbia Hills (don't we all?), shown here in perspective in Figure 13. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/SpiritToColumbiaPerspec tive.jpg] Figure 13. Source: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040521a/x_pubeng_3DC olumbiaHillsSouth-A136R1_br.jpg. To give an idea how dark that Inner Basin is, Figure 14 shows an MOC close-up, rotated so that North is up. (Colorized, but the MOC lacks a filter for green.) There are ongoing forum discussions (for example, at http://www.markcarey.com/mars/forum.html) that are assuming that the darkness is a deep shadow, and are calling the largest dark feature the "Ultreya Abyss" on the assumption that it is very deep, possibly a cave entrance. [http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/MOC_ColumbiaInnerBasin. jpg] Figure 14. From http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040506a/09-AK-02- Columbia-Hills-Flyover-B101R1.jpg. Let us congratulate the Spirit team for leading the rover in that direction! If that succeeds, then sometime in July, I may get egg on my face by proclaiming, now, Prediction 2: Ultreya is not an abyss, but a depression that harbors a high concentration of dark photosynthesizing organisms. References [1] "Dark Dune Spots" Gánti, T., A. Horváth, S. Bérczi, A. Gesztesi, E. Szathmáry, Dark Dune Spots: Possible Biomarkers on Mars? Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 33, 515-577. The online Astrobiology Magazine has run several articles on the subject, e.g. http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article &sid=738. [2] "Organic" shapes were reported on by F.J. Oyarzun in Marsbugs 11, numbers 17 and 18 (April 2004); said report can be accessed in English and in Spanish, from http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/. Contact: Francisco J. Oyarzun E-mail: francisco-o@earthlink.net Read the original article at http://homepage.mac.com/ttelos/BioMars/OrganisMER/sandLife.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA RESEARCHERS CONSIDER MOBILE LUNAR BASE CONCEPTS NASA/ARC release 04-64AR 29 June 2004 Landing mobile bases on the moon is an idea whose time has come, according to a NASA researcher. Lunar bases that can travel on wheels, or even legs, will increase landing zone safety, provide equipment redundancy and improve the odds of making key discoveries by enabling crews to visit many lunar sites, according to Marc Cohen, a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center, in California's Silicon Valley. Cohen recently presented his concept in a research paper at the 2004 American Institute of Physics Forum in Albuquerque, NM. "If you set up a base at a fixed location on the moon, you are very limited in the sites of scientific interest that you can reach," Cohen said. "What it comes down to is if you're landing a habitat on legs and wheels, it doesn't take a lot more investment to make it highly mobile, provided you have enough energy resources that would enable it to travel great distance across the moon with or without the crew onboard," Cohen explained. Linked mobile moon habitats might travel like treaded trains without tracks, or they could cross the moonscape in a line like Conestoga wagons crossing the American West. Walking or rolling habitats could dock to one another, or circle close together, when they reach a rest or research site, according to designs suggested by engineers over that last three decades, Cohen noted. In contrast, a common scenario for exploration of the moon is that one or more astronauts would travel to a remote site in a pressurized or unpressurized "rover". An unpressurized rover trip would only last hours because the astronauts would be in spacesuits for the entire trek. A pressurized rover could sustain astronauts for a much longer trip, lasting days or weeks. "If you are trying to conduct research with pressurized lunar vehicles, you run into many safety issues," Cohen said. To avoid life-threatening or other compromising situations that might occur with only one rover traveling to a remote place, a second rover might travel with the first. "But what if the second rover runs into a problem, too--the same or a different problem? Well, that means a third rover," Cohen said. "So, why not make the entire base mobile, so that all the resources, reliability and redundancy of the lunar mission move with the excursion crew?" Cohen reasoned. "In addition, there's risk if you land lots of immobile modules in one spot--there is a danger you'll have a very long commute to a place of scientific interest, or can't get there. Then you've wasted billions of dollars. Mobile habitats greatly reduce the risk of finding yourself on the wrong place on the moon," Cohen added. Another advantage of mobile moon habitats is that they will be able to move out of the lunar landing zone, which could be hazardous. "The landing zone poses the problem that once a habitat lands on the moon, it is not prudent to land another vehicle within several kilometers because of safety concerns from ejecta in a normal landing, and in case of an explosive failure on impact," Cohen said. Cohen suggests that mobile habitats must have robust radiation shielding for them to be practical. "Radiation protection remains a challenge and a potential showstopper, as it does for all lunar base and rover concepts," Cohen said. However, there are potential shielding concepts that may well be reasonable, according to Cohen. The Office of Exploration Systems, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, funds this research. Publication size images are available on the World Wide Web at http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2004/lunarbase/lunarbase.html and http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2004/mobitat/mobitat.html. More information about space architecture is on the Internet at http://www.spacearchitect.org. Contact: John Bluck NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-5026 or 604-9000 E-mail: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov __________________________________________________________________________ "RETURN TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS"-SATURN EXPLORATION PRESENTATIONS AT LYON COLLEGE Lyon College release 24 June 2004 The Cassini-Huygens probe will arrive in orbit around Saturn on June 30th. On that same evening, Lyon College astrobiologist and Solar System Ambassador, Dr. Dave Thomas, will give a presentation on the Saturn exploration program and discuss recent happenings with the Cassini-Huygens program. Thomas's presentation, "Return to the Lord of the Rings" will be held in conjunction with the Lyon College Upward Bound Math & Science and APPLE programs. The presentations will be held in room 016 of the Derby Center for Math and Science on the Lyon College campus in Batesville, AR at 6:00 and 7:30 PM. The events are free and open to the public. The Solar System Ambassadors Program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers information and excitement about real missions that explore our solar system. Further information about the Solar System Ambassadors Program--including Cassini-related events in other areas--is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. Contact: David J. Thomas Phone: 870-698-4269 E-mail: dthomas@lyon.edu __________________________________________________________________________ SECOND CONFERENCE ON EARLY MARS Lunar and Planetary Institute release 28 June 2004 The influx of new data received from the MER rovers, Mars Express, and other recent spacecraft missions to Mars; progress in early climate modeling; the growing evidence of the role of water in the planet's evolution; and the rapid pace of new discoveries about the origin and diversity of life on Earth have reinvigorated interest in both the conditions that prevailed on Mars during its first billion years of geologic history and their implications for the development of life. The purpose of the conference is twofold: (1) to consider how impacts, volcanism, and the presence of abundant water affected the physical and chemical environment that existed on Mars 4 G.y. ago, particularly as it related to the nature of the global climate, the existence of a primordial ocean, the origin of the valley networks, the geologic and mineralogic evolution of the surface, and the potential presence of local environments that may have been conducive to the development of life and the preservation of its signature in the geologic record3; and (2) to discuss the investigations that might be conducted by present and future missions to test the hypotheses arising from (1). For more information, or to submit an abstract, visit the conference Web site, http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/earlymars2004. Abstract deadline: 13 July 2004, 5:00 PM U.S. Central Daylight Time. __________________________________________________________________________ PUBLIC INVITED TO VIEW CASSINI BROADCAST AT NASA EXPLORATION CENTER NASA/ARC release 04-62AR 28 June 2004 The Exploration Center at NASA Ames Research Center will be open on Wednesday, June 30, from 6:30 PM to 11:00 PM PDT so San Francisco Bay area news media representatives and the public can view live televised coverage and commentary of the Cassini Saturn Orbital Insertion (SOI) event. After a nearly seven-year voyage from Earth, the Cassini spacecraft is scheduled to swing into the orbit of Saturn during the SOI event. The spacecraft's main engine will burn for 96 minutes, allowing it to be captured by Saturn's strong gravity. After ongoing mission coverage and commentary from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, NASA Television is scheduled to air a live "status" news briefing at 10 PM PDT. In addition, researchers from NASA Ames who are part of the Cassini-Huygens mission will be available for news interviews. The Exploration Center is located in the large white tent that formerly housed Space Camp California at the main gate to Moffett Field. The Exploration Center features a dynamic array of interactive displays, exhibits and demonstrations about space exploration that are designed to excite, inform and educate the public. __________________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ 29 June 2004 Human space flight articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html L. David, 2004. The future of travel: aquatic to cosmic destinations. Space.com. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html C. Boutin, 2004. Dark days doomed dinosaurs, say Purdue scientists. SpaceDaily. __________________________________________________________________________ CASSINI UPDATES NASA, ESA and University of Arizona releases Cassini Opens a Cosmic Time Capsule NASA release 2004-158, 23 June 2004 Like a woolly mammoth trapped in Arctic ice, Saturn's small moon Phoebe may be a frozen artifact of a bygone era, some four billion years ago. The finding is suggested by new data from the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini scientists reviewed data from the spacecraft's June 11, 2004, flyby of the diminutive moon. They concluded Phoebe is likely a primordial mixture of ice, rock and carbon-containing compounds similar in many ways to material seen in Pluto and Neptune's moon Triton. Scientists believe bodies like Phoebe were plentiful in the outer reaches of the solar system about four and a half billion years ago. These icy planetesimals (small bodies) formed the building blocks of the outer solar system and some were incorporated into the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. During this process, gravitational interactions ejected much of this material to distant orbits, joining a native population of similar bodies to form the Kuiper Belt. "Phoebe apparently stayed behind, trapped in orbit about the young Saturn, waiting eons for its secrets to be revealed during its rendezvous with the Cassini spacecraft," said Dr. Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "All our evidence leads us to conclude, Phoebe's surface is made of water ice, water-bearing minerals, carbon dioxide, possible clays and primitive organic chemicals in patches at different locations on the surface," said Dr. Roger N. Clark, team member for the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "We also see spectral signatures of materials we have not yet identified." Cassini's observations gave scientists the first detailed look at one of these primitive icy planetesimals. Phoebe's mass was determined from precise tracking of the spacecraft and optical navigation, combined with an accurate volume estimate from images. The measurements yield a density of about 1.6 grams per cubic centimeter (100 pounds per cubic foot), much lighter than most rocks, but heavier than pure ice at approximately 0.93 grams per cubic centimeter (58 pounds per cubic foot). This suggests a composition of ice and rock similar to Pluto and Triton. Spectral measurements, light intensity as a function of color or wavelength, confirmed the presence of water ice previously detected by Earth-based telescopes. The measurements provided evidence for hydrated minerals on Phoebe's surface, and detected carbon dioxide and solid hydrocarbons similar to those found in primitive meteorites. "One intriguing result is the discovery of possible chemical similarities between the materials on Phoebe and those seen on comets," said Dr. Robert H. Brown, team leader for the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, University of Arizona, Tucson. Evidence that Phoebe might be chemically kin to comets strengthens the case that it is similar to Kuiper Belt Objects. Measurements taken by the composite infrared spectrometer were used to generate temperature maps. The maps show the surface of Phoebe is very cold, only about 110 degrees above absolute zero (minus 163 degrees Celsius, or minus 261 degrees Fahrenheit). Even colder nighttime temperatures suggest a fluffy, porous surface layer. "One of the first results from this map is the surface of Phoebe has been badly chewed up, probably by meteorite impacts," said Dr. John Pearl, a Cassini co-investigator for the composite infrared spectrometer, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "We are discovering Phoebe is a very complex object, with large variations in topography." Cassini also made radar observations of Phoebe's enigmatic surface, making it the first spacecraft radar observations of an outer-planet moon. The results are consistent with the dirty, rocky, icy surface suggested by other observations. "We have conducted our first analysis of an outer solar system resident akin to Kuiper Belt Objects," said Dr. Dennis Matson, project scientist of the Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL. "In two short weeks, we have added more to what we know about Phoebe than we had learned about it since it was discovered 100 years ago. We did this by having multiple instruments conducting investigations all at one time during our flyby." Scientists May at Last have Settled the Debate on the Origin of Saturn's Moon, Phoebe University of Arizona release, 23 June 2004 Scientists have long doubted that Phoebe came from the same disk of material that formed Saturn and most of its moons. Phoebe has an unusual orbit that is inclined to Saturn's equator, revolves backward with respect to both Saturn's rotation and orbital motion, and travels in the opposite direction of Saturn's other satellites. Phoebe is widely believed to have wandered past Saturn and been captured by that planet's mighty gravitational field. Where it wandered from was the question. "All our evidence leads us to conclude that Phoebe's surface is made of water ice, water-bearing minerals, carbon dioxide, possible clays and primitive organic chemicals in different locations on the surface," VIMS team member Roger N. Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver said a few days after the flyby. "We also see spectral signatures of materials that we have not yet identified." It is clear that the materials in Phoebe's surface bear little resemblance to the predominantly rocky material found in asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. The materials that make up Phoebe formed farther out in the solar system, where it is cold enough for them to remain stable. "One intriguing result of the VIMS measurements is the discovery of possible chemical similarities between the materials on Phoebe and those seen on comets," said VIMS team leader Robert H. Brown of the University of Arizona. Short period comets are thought to sit among other primitive solar system debris in the Kuiper belt, until tugged by Neptune's gravity toward the inner solar system. Evidence that Phoebe might be chemically kin to comets strengthens the case that it's similar to Kuiper Belt Objects. The VIMS instrument is an imaging spectrometer that produces a special data set called an image cube. It takes an image of an object in many colors simultaneously. An ordinary video camera takes images in three primary colors (red, green, and blue) and combines them to produce images as seen by the human eye. The VIMS instrument takes images in 352 separate colors, spanning a realm of colors far beyond those visible to humans. All materials reflect light in a unique way. So molecules of any element or compound can be identified by the colors they reflect or absorb, their "signature" spectra. The VIMS team knew the basic chemical make-up of Phoebe only a few days after flyby. That Phoebe likely comes from the Kuiper belt and not from the Mars- Jupiter asteroid belt is another "first" for the Cassini mission, Brown noted. Cassini has become the first spacecraft to flyby a Kuiper belt object, he said. Cassini flew by Phoebe on June 11. Cassini will conduct a critical 96- minute main-engine burn before going into orbit around Saturn on June 30 (July 1 Universal Time). During Cassini's planned four-year tour it will conduct 76 orbits around the Saturn system and execute 52 close encounters with seven of Saturn's 31 known moons. NASA Announces Saturn Mission Coverage NASA note N04-098, 24 June 2004 At approximately 10:36 PM EDT, June 30, 2004, the Cassini- Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn. After nearly a seven-year journey, it will be the first mission to orbit Saturn. The international cooperative mission plans a four-year tour of Saturn, its rings, icy moons, magnetosphere, and Titan, the planet's largest moon. NASA has a series of media briefings, live television shots and feeds from Mission Control scheduled from June 29 to July 3, 2004. Media representatives planning to cover events at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, should contact the Media Relations Office at 818/354-5011 for credentials. To book satellite interviews, contact Jack Dawson at 818/354-0040 or e-mail: jack.b.dawson@jpl.nasa.gov. NASA TV coverage Tuesday, June 29 Noon to 1:00 PM EDT - News briefing: Saturn mission overview and status 3:00 to 7:00 PM EDT - Live satellite interviews via NASA TV Wednesday, June 30 Noon to 1:00 PM EDT - News briefing: final mission status before Saturn arrival 2:00 to 3:00 PM EDT - News briefing: "17 countries, 7 years, 1 planet, The International Aspects of Cassini" 5:00 to 5:45 PM EDT - "Ringside Chat" press Q&A 6:00 to 7:00 PM EDT - Live satellite interviews via NASA TV 9:30 PM to 12:40 AM July 1 EDT - Live commentary from mission control of Cassini-Huygens arrival at Saturn Thursday, July 1 1:00 to 2:00 AM EDT - News briefing: Post-Saturn arrival 5:00 to 7:00 AM EDT - Live satellite interviews via NASA TV 8:00 to 11:00 AM EDT - Live commentary of first images taken during orbit insertion 1:00 to 2:00 PM EDT - News briefing: Cassini Saturn arrival first pictures 3:00 to 7:00 PM EDT - Live satellite interviews via NASA TV Friday, July 2 2:00 to 3:00 PM EDT - News briefing on preliminary science results Saturday, July 3 News briefing, time TBA, depending on mission science results The schedule of briefings and other events is subject to change. Schedules are available in the JPL newsroom and homepage at www.jpl.nasa.gov. NASA TV is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. Audio only of NASA TV coverage is available at: 321-867-1220/1240/1260/7135. For information about NASA TV or to view live webcasts on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. Internet coverage For mission news and images on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. Information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, including an electronic copy of the press kit, press releases, fact sheets, status reports, briefing schedules and images, is available on the Internet at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Cassini/Huygens Nears Insertion into Saturn's Orbit ESA release 33-2004, 23 June 2004 The ESA/NASA Cassini/Huygens mission, launched in October 1997, is currently heading for Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The ESA probe Huygens will be the first ever to land on the surface of a moon in the outer Solar System, and as it does so, the NASA Cassini orbiter will continue to explore Saturn and its rings. On 1 July CEST (30 June Pacific Daylight Time), after a journey of almost seven years and four gravity-assist swing-by maneuvers, the spacecraft will be inserted into its orbit around Saturn and will reach its closest approach to the planet. The Huygens probe will be detached from the mother ship on 25 December and is due to land on Titan in January next year. The Saturn orbit insertion event can be followed at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) at Darmstadt, Germany, on 1 July, from 05:00 to 09:00. Several project representatives will be present. The event can also be followed at ESA HQ in Paris and at ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, in Italy. At each site, ESA specialists will be available for interviews. The ESA TV service will provide extensive live coverage of all international press conferences, the orbital insertion operations on the night of 30 June to 1 July, and the presentation of the first images and results at JPL. All transmission and satellite details are published online and will be continuously updated at http://television.esa.int. The ESA live TV line transmission of the orbital insertion will also be transmitted on Astra 2C, the satellite reception details being as follows: Astra 2C at 19 degrees East, Transponder 57, horizontal, MPEG-2, MCPC, Frequency 10832 MHz, Symbol rate 22000 MS/sec. FEC=5/6. Cassini Significant Events for 17-23 June 2004 NASA/JPL release, 25 June 2004 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, June 23rd. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm. After an almost seven year trek to Saturn, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is less than one week away from reaching its goal. On June 30th at 7:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Cassini will execute a 96 minute burn that will provide a change in speed of 626 m/s, and allow it to be captured by Saturn's gravity. The closest approach to Saturn throughout the entire mission occurs at about 9:00 PM, shortly before burn completion, a mere 20,000 km above the cloud tops. Cassini will pass through the plane of the rings between the F and G rings, fly directly above the ring plane during the burn, then cross descending between the F and G rings. This allows for exciting observations of the mysterious rings after burn completion from a vantage point ten times closer than at any other time in the mission. After data collection is complete, the spacecraft will turn to Earth and play back the data it has collected. Cassini will then encounter Titan, on July 2nd, only 36 hours after Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI), for a flyby at an altitude of 339,000 km. After the playback of data from the Titan flyby, Orbit Trim Maneuver-001 (OTM) will execute. This maneuver will be used to "clean-up" the trajectory after SOI. The spacecraft enters Solar Conjunction on July 4th, when Cassini is behind the Sun as seen from Earth. At that time, communication will be limited for the next eight days. The spacecraft is programmed to take a number of unique science observations during SOI. Being so close to the planet allows the Magnetometer Subsystem (MAG) to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field. Small irregularities in the field so close to the planet can reveal clues about the structure of the very deep interior and core of Saturn, and help to understand how magnetic fields are generated. Concurrent with these observations, the Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument will be listening for radio wave evidence of lightning from the planet, waves in the ionosphere, and large meteoroid impacts on the rings. After the burn is complete, the spacecraft will be oriented in two different directions--generally not looking straight down--to allow coverage of as much of the rings as possible in the time available, while simultaneously allowing the magnetic fields to be measured. Ring properties are known to vary on very fine scales. Being able to resolve fine scale structure is essential to all of Cassini's remote sensing instrument objectives. The instruments will measure different properties, such as composition, temperature, and localized clumpy structure. Several activities occurred during preparation for SOI. A series of commands was sent to initialize and verify the SOI critical sequence, among them pointing the spacecraft to the initial attitude, and transition from reaction wheel to thruster control. The instruments were placed in their proper configuration for the event. The SOI critical sequence began executing on Tuesday. This marked the start of continuous coverage by the Deep Space Network, which will continue until after the clean-up maneuver on July 3rd. Other spacecraft activities included the uplink and start of execution of tour sequence S02, the uplink and verification of Probe Checkout 14, VIMS ring mosaics, ISS observations of a full rotation of Saturn in three methane and nearby continuum filters for cloud and haze sounding, ISS data collection for the creation of movies of the A and C rings while simultaneously searching for satellites in the ring gaps. Seven of Saturn's moons, namely Dione, Enceladus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Mimas, Rhea and Tethys were also observed this week. Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM)-22 was cancelled due to the excellent trajectory conditions achieved with TCM-21. The Navigation team released a new reference trajectory that extends from now through the four years of the tour. T2004-01 was updated with new satellite ephemerides, planetary ephemerides, and spacecraft orbit determination solution. For this trajectory, an Iapetus flyby altitude constraint was relaxed so that several other constraints could be met, achieving a better overall trajectory for science purposes. Sequence development activities are proceeding on schedule. Science Operations Plan (SOP) Implementation of tour sequences S29 and S30 were completed and closed with a wrap-up meeting. These products have now been archived and will be dusted off in December of 2006 for the start of the Aftermarket process. The official port #1 merged products for S04 as part of the SOP Update process, and S31/S32 as part of the SOP Implementation process have been delivered to the ACS team for end-to-end pointing validation. SOP Implementation for S33/S34 began this week. A waiver assessment meeting for S03 currently in the Science and Sequence Update Process was cancelled due to the absence of new waiver requests in the system. Scientists met at a workshop in Tucson, Arizona to jointly analyze the Phoebe data in preparation for Wednesday's press conference. The press conference, held at JPL, provided a forum for team members from ISS, VIMS, UVIS, and CIRS to present their initial findings. Phoebe appears to be a primordial mixture of ice, rock and carbon-containing compounds similar in many ways to material seen in Pluto and Neptune's moon Triton. This composition indicates Phoebe formed in the outer solar system where it is cold enough for such compounds to be stable. These findings lend confirmation to theories that Phoebe could be a Kuiper belt object. The Cassini K-4 Literacy program is now online both on the home page (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm) and on the NASA Education Portal page (http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/informal/features/F_Extreme_Exp loration_Extra.html). K-4 literacy uses the science and technology of Cassini-Huygens in language arts format to teach science, reading, and writing skills to our nation's youngest learners. The program has been successfully tested with diverse learners in underserved schools. Over 700 teachers have been reached regarding the program through literacy conferences. The Cassini Mission Literacy Program is now on MERLOT as a distinguished, high-quality source of learning material. MERLOT (http://www.merlot.org ) is an online community of faculty who are collaborating to increase the quantity of high quality web-based, interactive teaching and learning materials. Last week's Phoebe flyby generated the largest web traffic ever to the Cassini site. The previous "month" high was May 2004 with ~230,000 unique visitors for the entire month. For 18 days, nearly 600,000 unique visitors viewed spectacular images of Phoebe. The estimate of the number of unique visitors is low, since for services like America Online, all patrons from AOL to the site are seen as 1 visitor. For the latest Phoebe images go to http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Getting Closer To Titan NASA/JPL image advisory 2004-162, 25 June 2004 [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06080] Irregular bright and dark regions of yet unidentified composition and character are becoming increasingly visible on Titan's surface as Cassini approaches its scheduled first flyby of Saturn's largest moon on July 2, 2004. This view represents an improvement in resolution of nearly three times over the previous Cassini images of Titan. Titan's surface is difficult to study, veiled by a dense hydrocarbon haze that forms in the high stratosphere as methane is destroyed by sunlight. This image is different from previous Titan images by Cassini because it was taken through a special filter, called a polarizer, which is designed to see through the atmosphere to the surface. Cassini will conduct a critical 96-minute burn before going into orbit around Saturn on June 30 (July 1 Universal Time), with its first scheduled flyby of Titan on July 2. Scientists Find that Saturn's Rotation Period is a Puzzle NASA/JPL release 2004-164, 28 June 2004 On approach to Saturn, data obtained by the Cassini spacecraft are already posing a puzzling question: how long is the day on Saturn? Cassini took readings of the day-length indicator regarded as most reliable, the rhythm of natural radio signals from the planet. The results give 10 hours, 45 minutes, 45 seconds (plus or minus 36 seconds) as the length of time it takes Saturn to complete each rotation. Here's the puzzle. That is about 6 minutes, or one percent, longer than the radio rotational period measured by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew by Saturn in 1980 and 1981. Cassini scientists are not questioning Voyager's careful measurements. And they definitely do not think the whole planet of Saturn is actually rotating that much slower than it did two decades ago. Instead, they are looking for an explanation based on some variability in how the rotation deep inside Saturn drives the radio pulse. The radio sounds of Saturn's rotation, which are also the first sounds from Saturn studied by Cassini, are like a heartbeat and can be heard by visiting http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/cassini/0604/ and http://www- pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio. "The rotational modulation of radio emissions from distant astronomical objects has long been used to provide very accurate measurements of their rotation period," said Dr. Don Gurnett, principal investigator for the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument, University of Iowa, Iowa City. "The technique is particularly useful for the giant gas planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, which have no surfaces and are covered by clouds that make direct visual measurements impossible." The first hint of something strange about that type of measurement at Saturn was in 1997, when a researcher from Observatoire de Paris reported that Saturn's radio rotation period differed substantially from Voyager. Dr. Michael D. Desch, Cassini Radio Plasma Wave Science team member, and scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, has analyzed Saturn radio data collected by Cassini from April 29, 2003, to June 10, 2004. "We all agree that the radio rotation period of Saturn is longer today than it was in during the Voyager flyby in 1980," he said. Gurnett said, "Although Saturn's radio rotation period has clearly shifted substantially since the Voyager measurements, I don't think any of us could conceive of any process that would cause the rotation of the entire planet to actually slow down. So it appears that there is some kind of slippage between the deep interior of the planet and the magnetic field, which controls the charged particles responsible for the radio emission." He suggests the solution may be tied to the fact that Saturn's rotational axis is nearly identical to its magnetic axis. Jupiter, with a more substantial difference between its magnetic axis and its rotational axis, shows no comparable irregularities in its radio rotation period. "This finding is very significant. It demonstrates that the idea of a rigidly rotating magnetic field is wrong," said Dr. Alex Dessler, a senior research scientist at the University of Arizona, Tucson. In that way, the magnetic fields of gas giant planets may resemble that of the Sun. The Sun's magnetic field does not rotate uniformly. Instead, its rotation period varies with latitude. "Saturn's magnetic field has more in common with the Sun than the Earth. The measurement can be interpreted as showing that the part of Saturn's magnetic field that controls the radio emissions has moved to a higher latitude during the last two decades," said Dressler. "I think we will be able to unravel the puzzle, but it's going to take some time," said Gurnett. "With Cassini in orbit around Saturn for four years or more, we will be in an excellent position to monitor long-term variations in the radio period, as well as investigate the rotational period using other techniques." Cassini Spacecraft at Saturn's Doorstep NASA/JPL release 2004-166 29 June 2004 Saturn is now a day away for the Cassini spacecraft, a seasoned traveler that began its journey nearly seven years ago. On June 30 at 7:36 PM Pacific Time (10:36 PM EDT), Cassini will begin executing a series of commands to enter orbit around the ringed planet. The spacecraft will fire its main engine for a crucial 96 minutes to slow down and be captured in orbit about Saturn. Besides launch, orbit insertion is the next most critical part of the mission. "Everything has to go just right. The burn must occur for all 96 minutes, the turns must occur at the right time, the computers must keep the sequence going even in the event something unexpected should happen," said Robert T. Mitchell, program manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "The spacecraft has been programmed to continue even in the event of an emergency. With a one-way light time of 1 hour and 24 minutes, we had to teach the spacecraft to take care of itself. We don't want Cassini to call home if a problem arises, we want it to keep going. That is precisely what we've told the spacecraft: Don't stop, keep going until you've put in all 96 minutes of burn," he said. During the orbit insertion, Cassini will fly closer to Saturn than at any other time during the spacecraft's planned four-year tour of Saturn. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the planet and rings at close range. It will pass approximately 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) above Saturn's cloud tops, closer than any other spacecraft in history. It will also be flying about 10 times closer to the rings than at any other point in the mission Cassini carries 12 instruments that will study the planet, rings and moons in extensive detail. Riding aboard Cassini is a second spacecraft, the Huygens probe, built by the European Space Agency. It carries half a dozen instruments that will study Titan, Saturn's largest moon, a prime target for both Cassini and the Huygens probe. Titan is the only moon in the solar system to have a dense atmosphere and resembles the early Earth in deep freeze. "In a sense, Cassini and the Huygens probe are like time machines that will take us back to examine a world we've never seen before, a world that may resemble what our own world was like 4.5 billion years ago," said Dr. Jean-Pierre Lebreton of the European Space Agency, who is mission manager and project scientist for the Huygens probe. Eighty-five minutes before the engine burn, Cassini will rotate to point its main antenna dish forward. The Italian-built antenna, 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter, will offer shielding against dust particles the spacecraft may hit as it crosses a gap in the rings. The spacecraft will continue transmitting a monotone "carrier" signal with a secondary antenna for tracking from Earth. Cassini will pass twice through a known gap between the F and G rings, first while ascending shortly before the burn, then whilve descending shortly after the burn. The engine burn will slow the spacecraft by 626 meters per second (1,400 miles per hour). Five science instruments will be on during the burn, and others will be used shortly after the engine cuts off. The magnetometer will measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field to understand the physics of Saturn's magnetic dynamics. Lightning may also be detected. Another instrument will provide a record of the dust hits as the spacecraft flies through the ring plane. These observations may tell scientists the size of these tiny particles and the thickness of that ring region. The remote sensing instruments will assess the rings' composition, temperature, and structure. Then the spacecraft will be oriented for the outbound ring plane crossing. After crossing the ring plane in the descending mode, Cassini will look back at the sunlit face of the rings to take more data before turning to Earth to transmit its data. "Should something happen during the burn, the science sequence will stop," said Dr. Dennis Matson, project scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL. "We are prepared to live with this outcome. Getting into orbit is the priority. Getting the science is extra credit." The Cassini-Huygens mission 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, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The VIMS team is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO. For the latest images and more information about the mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Contacts: Carolina Martinez Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-9382 Donald Savage NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1727 Robert H. Brown Phone: 520-626-9045 E-mail: rhb@lpl.arizona.edu Cassini VIMS Homepage: http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/ Heidi Finn Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO Phone: 720-974-5859 Gary Galluzzo University of Iowa, Iowa City Phone: 319-384-0009 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1040.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/23/space.saturn.phoebe.reut/index.ht ml http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/cassini_scitues_040622.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/phoebe_follow_040624.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zb.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zc.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zd.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040623phoebehighres.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040625titan.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/deeper_analysis_phoebe_flyby.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cassini_best_view_titan.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/article_1483.html __________________________________________________________________________ DEEP IMPACT MISSION UPDATE NASA/JPL/Ball Aerospace release June 2004 This month, guest writer Monte Henderson, Deep Impact project manager for Ball Aerospace gives us the update for the mission. The stacking of Deep Impact's flyby and impactor spacecraft was the inaugural activity for a series of important tests that will be performed on the flight system prior to both spacecraft being shipped to the launch site. This test series, collectively known as the Environmental Test phase, validates the flight system's performance capabilities in the various extreme conditions the spacecraft will see during the launch, the cruise phase, and the final encounter with Tempel 1. At Ball Aerospace, many of our spacecraft systems undergo testing on a piece of equipment called the "Wooly Wobbler." The Wooly Wobbler, named after the innovative Ball Aerospace engineer (Dick Wooly) who created it, is a turntable that oscillates (wobbles) two or three degrees in a circular direction. The Wobbler allows us to determine with high precision where a spacecraft's center of gravity lies. There are several instances during the mission for which the spacecraft must be in perfect balance and knowing and maintaining that center of gravity is critical during those times. After completion of the Wobble testing, both spacecraft were returned to the test stand for performance testing. After all environmental tests it is important to know that all the flight subsystems still perform correctly so a full set of verification tests for all systems are run. The DI flight system completed the testing with good results in all cases. Deep Impact also performed well on its solar array deployment test, where the mechanisms that release the solar array panels from their launch position were tested using the same commands that will be used in flight. Once prior testing was determined to be successful, Deep Impact made one giant leap... outside the clean room for the first time since we began assembling it. Moving a spacecraft, either on a special wheeled cart or with a crane, is a stressful time for all of us on the program, and many extra precautions are taken to make sure these moves go smoothly. Often at Ball Aerospace, a spacecraft is moved from our large clean room to our testing facilities through a long series of hallways. The spacecraft must be bagged in an anti-static material and attached to a grounding line. The grounding line is attached to a grounding fixture in the clean room and it trails behind the spacecraft as we move it through the halls. The grounding line ensures that we minimize the risk of static discharge to the system. Deep Impact's flight system is too large for the halls and doorways, and had to be moved through large doors and outside between buildings. The same precautions are taken when moving outside. Deep Impact was bagged and grounded to make its journey to the testing facilities. Deep Impact spent several days in our large electro-magnetic interference chamber where it underwent radiated susceptibility testing to make sure the flight system can withstand the exposure to electro-magnetic interference it will have to endure during launch. Next, the Deep Impact spacecraft underwent a self-compatibility test to test all of Deep Impact's components independently to make sure there was no electro- magnetic interference between individual components within the flight system. The flight system completed the testing with no problems detected. Verification tests were successfully run again, and then, the spacecraft moved down the hall to the acoustic test facility so we could see how they will be affected by the low frequency noise we will encounter during the launch. The spacecraft was bombarded with 145db (decibels) of sound. Rock concerts are typically 112 db of sound. Again, no problems were detected. After successful completion of a series of verification tests, the spacecraft were moved on their cart to our vibration test facility and the stacked spacecraft were transported by a crane onto our vibration table. During this test, vibrations were introduced on the spacecraft both vertically and horizontally up to 2000 times per second. This massive amount of shaking simulates the vibrations the flight system will encounter during the launch phase of the mission. The flight system passed these tests with no mission significant anomalies discovered. Through out these physical tests, we have also been exercising the flight system with Mission Scenario Tests (MSTs). The MSTs are essentially dry runs of the various phases of the Deep Impact mission, such as launch, trajectory change maneuvers, flyby encounter, and impactor encounter. The MSTs allow us to test the flight system using the exact same sequences of commands that will be used during the actual mission phase. Deep Impact will spend much of the summer and early fall in additional environmental tests, such as thermal vacuum testing prior to our shipment date in October. Then, the flight system, and many of us, will be making a trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida to make sure Deep Impact gets off the ground successfully. Our launch period opens on December 30th, and we will be ready. Read the original news release at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/update-200406.html. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS ROVER SURPRISES CONTINUE; SPIRIT, TOO, FINDS HEMATITE NASA/JPL release 2004-161 25 June 2004 On challenging slopes that NASA's Mars rovers began exploring this month, both Spirit and Opportunity have found new surprises for the folks back home. Spirit rolled up to a knobby rock just past where the "Columbia Hills" start to rise from the surrounding plain. It touched the rock with a mineral-identifying instrument at the tip of its robotic arm and detected hematite. Hematite identified from orbit was NASA's key reason for choosing Opportunity's landing site halfway around Mars from these hills within Gusev Crater. Opportunity, continuing its descent into "Endurance Crater," has found unexpected similarities between lower layers of rock it is examining for the first time and an overlying layer at "Eagle Crater" where, months ago, the rover discovered evidence that water once soaked the area. "It's gratifying how well these machines keep performing, considering they've now nearly doubled their original three-month missions on Mars," said Chris Voorhees, rover mechanical systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. By the end of next week, Spirit will have worked on Mars for half a year. It has driven more than three times the design requirement of one kilometer (0.6 mile). The only symptom of wear or aging on either rover so far is increased friction in one wheel on Spirit. The rover team at JPL is beginning to consider good sites for the solar-powered robots to spend the period of martian winter when reduced daily sunshine cuts power supply to a minimum. In the nearer term, though, team members are eager to follow through on the new scientific findings. Spirit's hematite finding is in a rock dubbed "Pot of Gold," about the size of a softball. "This rock has a shape as if somebody took a potato and stuck toothpicks in it, then put jelly beans on the ends of the toothpicks," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments. "How it got this crazy shape is anyone's guess. I haven't even heard a good theory yet." Dr. Doug Ming, a rover science-team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, said, "There's apparently some type of weathering, a removal of material, but we're still trying to determine whether it's by chemical or mechanical processes." Further study of Pot of Gold could also help scientists assess what the hematite in it tells about past environmental conditions. "Hematite can form in a few different ways. Most of them require water, but it can also result from a dry, thermal oxidation process," Ming said. "It was hematite identified from orbit that made Meridiani Planum a compelling place to send Opportunity. There, we've learned that the hematite is indeed part of a water story. At Gusev we're just at the starting stage." After examining Pot of Gold with the microscopic imager and two spectrometers on Spirit's arm, the rover backed away from the rock to re- approach at a better angle for using its rock abrasion tool to expose the rock's interior. In the rough and slippery terrain, that maneuver took several days. The other nearby rocks may also be inspected before Spirit resumes longer drives exploring the Columbia Hills area. Also, engineers are planning an attempt to redistribute lubricant in Spirit's balky right front wheel before the rover leaves its current vicinity. Team members presented both rovers' status at a press conference at JPL today. Opportunity has driven far enough into the stadium-sized Endurance Crater to put it within arm's reach of three layers of rock beneath a sulfate-rich layer. That area is similar to what Opportunity first examined in the shallower "Eagle Crater," where it landed in January. "We're trying to systematically characterize the stratigraphy of the crater as we drive down, analyzing each unit chemically and mineralogically with all the instruments available," said Nicholas Tosca, a science-team affiliate from the State University of New York, Stony Brook. The first two newly accessed layers resemble the upper layer in having sulfate salts and spherical concretions; both are signs of formation of the rocks under wet conditions. Squyres said, "I had thought we might see just basalt below the top salty layer, but instead it's salty as far as we've been able to see so far. Every time we see more sulfates as we work down this stack, it adds to the amount of water that was necessary to make this happen." 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. Daily MER updates are available at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spirit.html http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunity.html Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Dwayne Brown NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1726 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1038.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzd.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040625formations.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPRESS UPDATES ESA releases Melas Chasma in Valles Marineris ESA release, 22 June 2004 On 2 May 2004, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft obtained images from the central area of the martian canyon Valles Marineris, called Melas Chasma. The images were taken at a resolution of approximately 16 meters per pixel. The displayed region is located at the southern rim of the Melas Chasma at latitude 12°S and longitude 285°E. The images were taken during orbit 360 of Mars Express. This region shows several clues to the morphological and geological development of the Valles Marineris. The images show many traces of volcanic activity and possibly water-related acitivity. However, a lot of the surface has been altered by subsequent geological processes, such as wind erosion and quakes. Although many questions about the geological development of the Valles Marineris canyon have remained unanswered until now, the detailed HRSC image data may help to find some answers. Using HRSC data, scientists can focus on morphology--the evolution of rocks and landforms. They can also analyze the light reflected by the canyon to understand which type of rocks it is made from. The color images were created using the HSRC nadir (vertical) and color channels. The perspective view was created by using the stereo channels to a create a digital model of the terrain. The 3D (anaglyph) image was produced from the nadir channel together with one stereo channel. Please note that some image resolutions have been reduced for use on the internet. For more information on Mars Express HRSC images, you might like to read our updated "Frequently Asked Questions" (http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMJBQXLDMD_0.html). Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM69E3VQUD_0.html. MARSIS deployment on hold ESA release, 24 June 2004 The deployment of the MARSIS antenna on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft has been delayed until later this year. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) will seek evidence of underground water, either frozen or liquid, up to five kilometers beneath the surface of the Red Planet. The antenna consists of two 20-meter long hollow booms that are folded up like a concertina on board Mars Express. When a pyrotechnic mechanism is fired, the booms will spring out like a jack-in-a-box. The antenna was due to be deployed from the spacecraft on 20 April. This was delayed due to concerns that the antenna might swing back with a greater range of motion than expected after opening, possibly hitting the spacecraft. Data from the most recent mathematical models carried out by the antenna's manufacturer, Astro Aerospace, USA, suggested the instrument's deployment might have more movement than previously thought. MARSIS scientists have since been reviewing the Astro Aerospace data and making their own measurements to re-assess the likely behavior of the antenna in space. At the end of this review period, they will make their recommendations to the ESA, after which the final decision on whether to deploy will be taken. Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMXEO3VQUD_0.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-04o.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-04p.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 17-23 June 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Light-toned Layers in Kasei (Released 17 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/17/index.html Windblown Dunes (Released 18 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/18/index.html Layered Rocks in Crater (Released 19 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/19/index.html Layered Rocks in Melas (Released 20 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/20/index.html Exposing Memnonia Terrain (Released 21 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/21/index.html Amenthes Crater Cluster (Released 22 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/22/index.html Tithonium Dust Devil (Released 23 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/23/index.html All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. __________________________________________________________________________ MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 21-25 June 2004 Albor Tholus by Day and Night (Released 21 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040621A.html Arsia Mons by Day and Night (Released 22 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040622A.html Gusev Crater by Day and Night (Released 23 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040623A.html Crater Ejecta by Day and Night (Released 24 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040624A.html Noctus Labyrinthus by Day and Night (Released 25 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040625A.html All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 27.