Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 12, Number 8, 4 March 2005 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, but individual authors retain the copyright of specific articles. 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) LIFE ON MARS? NEW DATA REVEAL PLACES TO SEARCH Brown University release 2) DIGGING AND SNIFFING FOR LIFE ON MARS By Leonard David 3) PANSPERMIA: GETTING THERE FROM HERE By Richard Godwin 4) EARTH'S CHILDHOOD ATTIC: EXPLORING THE OTHER GLOBE By Bernard Foing 5) CAN BIOREGENERATIVE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS MAKE STRAWBERRIES? From SpaceDaily 6) THE RESOURCES OF THE MOON AND BEYOND By Dennis Wingo 7) NASA ASTROBIOLOGIST IDENTIFIES NEW "EXTREME" LIFE FORM NASA/MSFC release 05-020 8) 2050 WORLD POPULATION TO HIT 9.1 BILLION By William M. Reilly 9) INVESTIGATING TITAN'S SURFACE By Jonathan Lunine 10) NASA STUDY SUGGESTS GIANT SPACE CLOUDS ICED EARTH NASA release 05-066 11) EVOLUTION: IT'S ONLY A THEORY, BUT ONE WORTH TEACHING By Edna DeVore Announcements 12) NASA OFFERS PRIZES TO STUDENTS WITH REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS NASA release 05-057 13) RECRUITING AUTHORS FOR IAF SESSION AT FUKUOKA MEETING rom the NAI Newsletter 14) SYMPOSIUM ON "SELF-ORGANIZATION IN NONEQUILIBRIUM CHEMICAL SYSTEMS" AT PACIFICHEM 2005 From the NAI Newsletter 15) THERMOPHILE 2005 "FROM EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION" From the NAI Newsletter 16) PLANETARY PROTECTION CLASS--APRIL 19-21, SANTA CRUZ, CA From the NAI Newsletter Mission Reports 17) NASA'S CASSINI SPACECRAFT CONTINUES MAKING NEW SATURN DISCOVERIES NASA/JPL release 2005-034 18) MARS ROVERS BREAK DRIVING RECORDS, EXAMINE SALTY SOIL NASA/JPL release 2005-038 19) MARS EXPRESS UPDATES ESA releases 20) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 21) MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 22) ESA'S COMET CHASER TO FLY BY EARTH ESA release __________________________________________________________________________ LIFE ON MARS? NEW DATA REVEAL PLACES TO SEARCH Brown University release 18 February 2005 Mars Express, Europe's first mission to the Red Planet, has generated a slew of new data about the mineral composition of the planet's dry, dramatic surface. In six new papers published online by the journal, Science, an international team reveals clues about the planet's past hidden in the rock. Brown University geoscientist John Mustard co-authored three of the Mars papers, currently published on the Science Express web site (http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress/recent.shtml). Mustard said this research shows areas that contain water or may have otherwise been amenable to life forms millions of years ago. "If you want to resolve the big question about life on Mars, you want to go to the right places and get samples," Mustard, associate professor of geological sciences, said. "The new research tells us where some of those places may be." Mustard is part of a French-led team studying data from OMEGA, a spectrometer aboard Mars Express that uses visible and infrared light to map the surface composition of the planet. Using the OMEGA data: * Researchers found a diverse and complex mix of surface materials: silicates, ices and frosts, and hydrated minerals and sediments. Some areas, such as Terra Meridiani, where the Opportunity rover now operates, were rich in acidic sulfates. Rocks in other places, for example around the Syrtis Major volcanic plateau, were richer in clay and hydrated minerals. These are more neutral in pH, and thus more likely to support life. * Researchers found kieserite, gypsum and polyhydrated sulfates--all sulfate minerals that contain water in their crystal structure--in canyons and buttes around the planet. Mustard said this shows that water was common and widespread during the first billion years of Mars' roughly 4.6- billion-year history. These minerals were even found inside Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system. * Researchers found the rock-forming mineral olivine as well as low- and high-calcium pyroxene across the Mars surface. Scientists expected to find hydrated minerals in the northern lowlands because of a theory that an ancient ocean once covered these rolling plains. But OMEGA data showed that the northern lowlands are composed of volcanic rock not altered by water, making the ocean theory less likely. Based on these findings, Mustard said Syrtis Major, Valles Marineris and Terra Meridiani would all be strong candidates for rock and soil sampling for future Mars missions. Mustard has designed a next-generation spectrometer that will be on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which NASA plans to launch in August. The European Space Agency and NASA funded the Science Express work. Read the original news release at http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2004-05/04-089.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-life-05c.html. __________________________________________________________________________ DIGGING AND SNIFFING FOR LIFE ON MARS By Leonard David From Space.com 22 February 2005 Mars is undergoing intensive, simultaneous scrutiny by the largest number of spacecraft ever to explore the red planet. While orbiters conduct sensor sweeps of the martian landscape, the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers continue their extraordinary surface sojourns. The flood of scientific data continues to expose the truth about Mars. But still to be nailed down: Was the planet once a home for life, perhaps even a hangout for biology today? Ground-breaking investigations are just that. Some scientists see Mars underground as breathing room for a subsurface biosphere. If true, drilling down to come up with martian life may be in order. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050222_mars_methane.html. __________________________________________________________________________ PANSPERMIA: GETTING THERE FROM HERE By Richard Godwin From Ad Astra and Space.com 22 February 2005 ...With all those "Billions and Billions" of planets, there has to be life right? More than likely is my answer. But here's the rub! On our one little planet, which has created in excess of probably 50 billion different species of life, only one of those 50 billion has developed a complex language. In fact we're using it right now. A complex language is more likely than not an imperative to creating a space faring civilization or at least a technological society and as far as we know, we're it. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/adastra/adastra_fermi_050222.html. __________________________________________________________________________ EARTH'S CHILDHOOD ATTIC: EXPLORING THE OTHER GLOBE By Bernard Foing From Astrobiology Magazine 23 February 2005 The European Space Agency's SMART missions--Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology--are designed to test new spacecraft technology while visiting various places in the solar system. SMART-1 is now at the moon, mapping the surface mineralogy. Future missions can use the technology being tested by SMART-1 to go to Mars, Venus, Mercury, comets, and the sun. SMART-1 flew to the moon using a new type of ion propulsion system. These engines work by expelling a continuous beam of charged particles--ions-- out the back, which then pushes the spacecraft forward. Because SMART-1 is also testing miniaturized instruments, it is tiny by spacecraft standards, weighing only 367 kilograms (809 pounds). It could fit into a cube just one meter (3.3 feet) across, although the solar panel wings extend out about 14 meters (46 feet). In this article, Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist at ESA and Project Scientist for SMART-1, describes how lunar discoveries could improve our understanding of Earth's history. The SMART-1 survey of mineral resources will be the first geologic map of the moon. We are using the infrared spectrometer on SMART-1 to take spectra of the lunar soil, which tells us the distribution of minerals on the surface. Some minerals were created by volcanism, others by impacts, so they've seen different types of pressures and temperatures. This shows up as different crystalline structures. By measuring the spectral fingerprints of these crystals, we can reconstruct the history of the different minerals. Another scientific objective is to study how the moon responds to solar X- rays. When solar X-rays strike the moon, different elements such as magnesium, silicon, aluminum and iron emit X-rays at different wavelengths. By measuring those emissions, we are going to show where these elements are present on the surface. This will add to our understanding of the moon's composition. Is the moon made of green cheese, or something else? When we know the composition of the moon, we can better understand the historical relationship between the moon and the Earth. We believe now-- at least this is the prevailing scenario--that the moon was created 4.5 billion years ago when there were still a lot of planetary embryos (called planetismals) floating around in the solar system. When the Earth was very young, only 10 to 50 million years old and still a global ocean of magma, a body about the size of Mars impacted the Earth. This impact blasted a mixture of materials, from both the impactor and from Earth, into orbit around the primitive Earth. This material then re-condensed to form the moon. By measuring the chemical makeup of the moon now, and knowing what we think was the makeup of the Earth back then, we will be able to better understand how much of the early Earth is incorporated into the moon, and what happened during this great impact event. Future missions might be able to collect samples from the lunar surface. Some of these samples could be meteorites--asteroids or perhaps rocks from Venus, Mars and the Earth. In particular, there might be meteorites from one planet that has completely disappeared now--the early Earth. Because of tectonic evolution and erosion reshaping the continental crust, the early Earth is gone. But 3.8 billion years ago, when there was a period of heavy asteroid bombardment, some pieces of this early Earth could have been projected onto the moon. Those rocks would now be buried under some protective layers. The moon is the childhood attic of the Earth. It is where we put the toys in the closet, and we didn't play with them for 4 billion years. But now we can go back and look at them--we can go back to the moon and get some of these samples of the early Earth. Maybe there would be still some organics embedded into the samples there, and maybe even some trace of an organism that predates the oldest organism we've found so far in the Earth's fossil record. But collecting those samples requires a very well organized strategy, and that is something we could put as an objective for future robotic or maybe even human missions. It may be that humans are needed to spot the best places where there will be some layers from this Earth ejecta on the moon from 3.8 billion years ago. We could also look for rocks from early Venus, since we believe early Venus was also reshaped in a 50 to 100 million-year time scale. But for samples of early Mars, I believe it would better to go to Mars itself. Because Mars is a geologically less active world than the Earth, there are still some very old terrains there that we could access. Future missions that will rely on technologies we are now testing with SMART-1 include the BepiColombo mission to Mercury and the Solar Orbiter, which will study the sun close-up. We are also planning astrophysics and fundamental physics missions, such as LISA, a gravitational wave detector. LISA will rely on a micropropulsion thruster to maintain, within nanometric accuracy, the positions of three spacecraft separated by a million kilometers. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1456.html. __________________________________________________________________________ CAN BIOREGENERATIVE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS MAKE STRAWBERRIES? From SpaceDaily 23 February 2005 What will it be like for our future astronauts, traveling through the dark expanse of space to the Moon, Mars and beyond, millions of miles from everything they know and love? It could get a little lonely out there, surrounded by gray walls, knobs and computer screens. But scientists at Kennedy Space Center in Florida are trying to provide NASA's space travelers with a connection to Earth by growing and caring for live plants they can also eat. A variety of fruits and vegetables are being grown in the Space Life Sciences Laboratory at Kennedy. Peppers, tomatoes and several kinds of strawberries from around the world are being tested to see which type will best support astronaut crews physically and psychologically. This is part of the Bioregenerative Life Support Systems project, which also deals with oxygen revitalization, crew diet supplementation, and water purification for space. Read the full article at http://www.space-travel.com/news/food-05b.html. __________________________________________________________________________ THE RESOURCES OF THE MOON AND BEYOND By Dennis Wingo From Ad Astra and Space.com 23 February 2005 Last year about this time I began writing a book called Moonrush, Improving Life on Earth with the Moon's Resources. This book was in response to the January 14, 2004 announcement by President Bush regarding his "vision" for space exploration. Vision is a word in the bible that reads, "Where there is no vision the people perish." The translation of vision from the original Hebrew is "sense of purpose." A year later we need to focus on what our "sense of purpose" is in this exploration program. What is our purpose in doing this? Is it science? International prestige? Educational inspiration? All these reasons are bandied about, but history shows that none really capture the public's broad support. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/adastra/adastra_moon_resources_050223.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA ASTROBIOLOGIST IDENTIFIES NEW "EXTREME" LIFE FORM NASA/MSFC release 05-020 23 February 2005 The end of a scientific journey--started five years ago in a frozen tunnel deep below the Alaskan tundra--came in January for NASA astrobiologist Dr. Richard Hoover. It proved a long, arduous journey for Hoover and his colleagues to complete the process of identifying a unique new life form. For the life form itself, a new bacterium dubbed Carnobacterium pleistocenium, the journey to discovery took much longer--some 32,000 years. The bacterium--the first fully described, validated species ever found alive in ancient ice--is NASA's latest discovery of an "extremophile". Extremophiles are hardy life forms that exist and flourish in conditions hostile to most known organisms, from the potentially toxic chemical levels of salt-choked lakes and alkaline deserts to the extreme heat of deep-sea volcanoes. NASA and its partner organizations study the potential for life in such extreme zones to help prepare robotic probes and, eventually, human explorers to search other worlds for signs of life. This search is a key element of the Vision for Space Exploration, the ambitious effort to return Americans to the Moon and to conduct robotic and human exploration of Mars and other worlds in our Solar System, which might conceal life forms unimaginable to us--thriving in conditions few Earth species could tolerate. In 1999 and 2000, Hoover, a researcher at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, time-traveled back to the Pleistocene via the U.S. Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, or "CRREL tunnel". The research site near Fox, Alaska, just north of Fairbanks, was carved by the Army Corps of Engineers in the mid-1960s to enable geologists and other scientists to study permafrost--the mix of permanently frozen ice, soil and rock--in preparation for construction in the early 1970s of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. Hoover initially went to the CRREL tunnel in search of "psychrophiles"-- organisms that live only at extremely low temperatures. Hoover initially suspected the samples he collected there, from ice more than 30 millennia old, were diatoms, or microscopic, golden-brown algae. But closer study at the nearby University of Alaska revealed not diatoms but something much more interesting--an assortment of bacterial cells, many of which came to life as soon as the ice thawed. Hoover and his collaborator, microbiologist Dr. Elena Pikuta of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, studied the samples at the National Space Science and Technology Center, the research consortium operated by NASA and Alabama universities. They found the samples contained anaerobic bacteria that grew on sugars and proteins in total absence of oxygen. The bacteria had frozen near the end of the Pleistocene Age, which extended from about 1.8 million years ago to just 11,000 years ago--and earned the new organism its name. Further testing revealed the organism was not a psychrophile at all, but a "psychrotolerant"--not an organism that thrives only at very cold temperatures, but one capable of enduring deep cold that resumes normal activity when temperatures rise. Hoover, Pikuta and their collaborators--Damien Marsic of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Professor Asim Bej of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Jane Tang and Dr. Paul Krader of the American Type Culture Collection in Manassas, VA--published their discovery in the January issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. The bimonthly periodical, the official journal of record for new bacterial species, is produced by the Society for General Microbiology. "Astrobiologists ask, 'Is life strictly terrestrial in origin, or is it a cosmic imperative, an undeniable, universal biological truth?' That possibility is central to our desire to explore the universe," Hoover said. "The existence of microorganisms in these harsh environments suggests--but does not promise--that we might one day discover similar life forms in the glaciers or permafrost of Mars or in the ice crust and oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa." Although many people think of bacteria merely as a cause of illness or decay, Hoover and Pikuta are quick to defend the organisms, which they call highly advanced marvels of natural engineering. There are approximately 7,000 validly described species of bacteria, though far more are surmised to exist. The vast majority are harmless to humans. Only a very few--less than 1 percent of all known species--are dangerous. And many, Hoover noted, are valuable to human life, aiding us in numerous ways: culturing wine, dairy products and other foods; assisting in the biological extraction of gold and other precious metals from ore wastes; and aiding production of valuable proteins and life-saving drugs. Carnobacterium pleistocenium could even offer new medical breakthroughs. "The enzymes and proteins it possesses, which give it the ability to spring to life after such long periods of dormancy, might hold the key to long-term, cryogenic--or very low temperature--storage of living cells, tissues and perhaps even complex life forms," Hoover said. "Life is far more diverse, and far more resistant to conditions we consider hostile, than was thought possible only a decade or two ago," he adds. "Studying these organisms helps us understand that life may be far more widespread in the cosmos than we previously imagined." Living cultures of the new bacterium have been deposited in the American Type Culture Collection, in the Microbial Collection at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and in the Japan Collection of Microorganisms in Saitama, Japan. For more information about the National Space Science and Technology Center, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news and http://www.nsstc.org/. Contact: Steve Roy NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Phone: 256-544-0034 Read the original news release at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2005/05-020.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.livescience.com/othernews/050223_arctic_life.html. __________________________________________________________________________ 2050 WORLD POPULATION TO HIT 9.1 BILLION By William M. Reilly From UPI and SpaceDaily 24 February 2005 Global population is expected to increase by 2.6 billion people, to 9.1 billion in 2050--the equivalent of adding China and India's population today--the United Nations said Thursday. The increase is equal to the population of the world in 1950. The hike is expected mainly in developing countries. Hania Zlotnik, director of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affair, told reporters at U.N. World Headquarters in New York that "the world population is going to stabilize at about 9 billion." Zlotnik said about 9 billion was "the magic number." "It is going to be a strain on the world. But it seems feasible. It doesn't seem that there's a crisis coming." Read the full article at http://www.terradaily.com/news/human-05f.html. __________________________________________________________________________ INVESTIGATING TITAN'S SURFACE By Jonathan Lunine From Astrobiology Magazine 2 March 2005 Jonathan Lunine, a professor of planetary science and physics at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, is also an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini/Huygens mission. Lunine presented a lecture entitled "Titan: A Personal View after Cassini's first six months in Saturn orbit" at a NASA Director's Seminar on January 24, 2005. This edited transcript of the Director's Seminar is Part 1 of a 4-part series. Much of the evidence for the nature of geology on Titan comes from the radar data from Cassini. The imaging system has also provided excellent information, as has the VIMS, the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer. But they are limited by the atmosphere, where haze scatters light and methane absorbs it. The first radar images came from the Titan flyby in October. About 1 percent of the surface was mapped, and some very interesting features were seen that tell us something about the potential for internal activity and cryovolcanism on Titan. The radar found one feature on Titan that looks like radar data of basaltic flows on the Earth or on Venus. On those planets, lobate, rough terrains are the result of lava that's poured out and then hardened on the surface. But Titan doesn't have basaltic flows. Titan presumably has a rock core, but we assume it's differentiated, because if it were undifferentiated and the rock were to melt and have volcanism, it would melt the ice and Titan would differentiate anyway. So the flow feature on Titan is not rock. Furthermore, the heat flow on Titan, due to accretional, radiogenic and also some tidal heating, is quite a bit less than 10 percent the Earth's mean heat flow. So the lava-like feature on Titan must be something else--presumably cryovolcanism, the melting of water ice. The other striking thing about the radar and imaging data is that they show there's between a handful and no impact craters on Titan. We expect that the thick atmosphere of Titan would screen out impactors that are smaller than a kilometer, so craters less than 10 kilometers in size should not be present. But we ought to see bigger craters. When we look at the other Saturnian satellites, like Tethys, they're covered with craters both large and small. Titan's lack of craters indicates a very young surface. Craters are either being obliterated by resurfacing, or they're being buried by organics--tens or hundreds of meters of organic deposits. It could be both. The DISR camera on Huygens--the descent imager spectral radiometer--had a side-looking, a downward-looking, and an upward-looking imager. The upward-looking was designed to look for the solar aureole, to see optical effects that will allow for the shape and size of the haze particles to be determined. But the probe was swinging so wildly at high altitudes that the side-looking imager saw the solar aureole. The camera saw dendritic features flowing into a dark flat area, and we thought, maybe the darkest regions are liquid. The probe landed in either a dark area or the boundary between a darker and brighter terrain, and that landing area was solid. The Huygens probe returned 80 minutes of data while it was on the surface of Titan, and it was still transmitting when the Cassini orbiter got low enough on the horizon that the communications lock was lost. Ground-based radio telescopes on Earth were still listening to the probe for at least another hour more. It was the Energizer bunny in terms of battery performance. The probe was designed only for an atmospheric descent--the European Space Agency did not want to design a lander--but there was a possibility of up to 30 minutes of transmission on the surface. Just in case the probe survived, the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) had a heated inlet. That was a brilliant decision, because it's how we found out that liquid methane is at the landing site on Titan. Three minutes after landing, the GCMS detected an increase in methane, which lasted for an hour, and maybe longer--the instrument was probably getting cold by that point because everything was tailing off. We don't know how much the heated inlet and the lamp on the DISR were heating the surface, because we don't know how far into the surface the Huygens probe actually went. The inlet itself is heated to 90 degrees Celsius, well over the critical point of methane. The methane probably didn't see that temperature below the surface. But there was clearly a condensed phase of methane that was being heated and vaporized and found its way into this GCMS inlet and continued in a stable manner for over an hour. So this was not a little patch of methane, this was a lot of methane. That is the smoking gun, or vaporizing gun, that these dendritic features were carved by methane. But what about the ethane? If there's ethane/methane there, the ethane is a product of the methane photolysis. Shouldn't we see ethane in the GCMS? The answer is, yes we should, but it wasn't seen. Now, maybe the ethane's not there. It drained away, or the photochemistry is not occurring in any significant level as we understand it, or ethane is not the primary product of that chemistry. Or perhaps the temperature to which the subsurface was being subjected by the heated inlet was low enough that ethane, which is three orders of magnitude lower vapor pressure at 95 degrees Kelvin than methane, simply wasn't being vaporized to the same extent. That's possible, and still to be determined. The impact was detected and measured by the surface science package. The surface is soft--it has the consistency of wet sand. But there is either a hard crust right at the top of that, or the probe hit a pebble first, and then bounced into the soft stuff. Wet sand is consistent with liquid methane in a water-ice matrix, or a solid organic matrix of some kind. The pebbles we see in the surface image are either ice, or they're some organic crud. We just don't know. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1466.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA STUDY SUGGESTS GIANT SPACE CLOUDS ICED EARTH NASA release 05-066 3 March 2005 Eons ago, giant clouds in space may have led to global extinctions, according to two recent technical papers supported by NASA's Astrobiology Institute. One paper outlines a rare scenario in which Earth iced over during snowball glaciations, after the solar system passed through dense space clouds. In a more likely scenario, less dense giant molecular clouds may have enabled charged particles to enter Earth's atmosphere, leading to destruction of much of the planet's protective ozone layer. This resulted in global extinctions, according to the second paper. Both recently appeared in the Geophysical Research Letters. "Computer models show dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust accumulating in Earth's atmosphere during the solar system's immersion into a dense space cloud," said Alex Pavlov, principal author of the two papers. He is a scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The resulting dust layer hovering over the Earth would absorb and scatter solar radiation, yet allow heat to escape from the planet into space, causing runaway ice buildup and snowball glaciations. "There are indications from 600 to 800 million years ago; at least two of four glaciations were snowball glaciations. The big mystery revolves around how they are triggered," Pavlov said. He concluded the snowball glaciations covered the entire Earth. Pavlov said this hypothesis has to be tested by geologists. They would look at Earth's rocks to find layers that relate to the snowball glaciations to assess whether uranium-235 is present in higher amounts. It cannot be produced naturally on Earth or in the solar system, but it is constantly produced in space clouds by exploding stars called supernovae. Sudden, small changes in the uranium-235/238 ratio in rock layers would be proof interstellar material is present that originated from supernovae. Collisions of the solar system with dense space clouds are rare, but according to Pavlov's research, more frequent solar system collisions, with moderately dense space clouds, can be devastating. He outlined a complex series of events that would result in loss of much of Earth's protective ozone layer, if the solar system collided with a moderately dense space cloud. The research outlined a scenario that begins as Earth passes through a moderately dense space cloud that cannot compress the outer edge of the sun's heliosphere into a region within the Earth's orbit. The heliosphere is the expanse that begins at the sun's surface and usually reaches far past the orbits of the planets. Because it remains beyond Earth's orbit, the heliosphere continues to deflect dust particles away from the planet. However, because of the large flow of hydrogen from space clouds into the sun's heliosphere, the sun greatly increases its production of electrically charged cosmic rays from the hydrogen particles. This also increases the flow of cosmic rays towards Earth. Normally, Earth's magnetic field and ozone layer protect life from cosmic rays and the sun's dangerous ultraviolet radiation. Moderately dense space clouds are huge, and the solar system could take as long as 500,000 years to cross one of them. Once in such a cloud, the Earth would be expected to undergo at least one magnetic reversal. During a reversal, electrically charged cosmic rays can enter Earth's atmosphere instead of being deflected by the planet's magnetic field. Cosmic rays can fly into the atmosphere and break up nitrogen molecules to form nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxide catalysts would set off the destruction of as much as 40 percent of the protective ozone in the planet's upper atmosphere across the globe and destruction of about 80 percent of the ozone over the polar regions according to Pavlov. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Contacts: Gretchen Cook-Anderson NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-0836 John Bluck NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Phone: 650-604-5026/9000) Jim Scott University of Colorado, Boulder Phone: 303-492-3114 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050503_mass_extinctions.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/clouds_space_cooled_earth.html __________________________________________________________________________ EVOLUTION: IT'S ONLY A THEORY, BUT ONE WORTH TEACHING By Edna DeVore From Space.com 3 March 2005 My prior column was composed at 35,000 feet above North America as I surveyed the landscape from the air. The patterns etched by geological evolution are visible at altitude. Closer up, fossils tell the story of earlier life upon our continent. Gazing to the heavens, astronomers gather evidence of the evolution of planets, stars, galaxies-the whole universe evolves. Natural history museums host large collections of extant and extinct life that document biological evolution. Yet, as I noted, teaching evolution remains controversial in America. A flood of e-mail ensued. Many were supportive; some asked questions. Several negative and hostile emails were openly critical of my assertion that American schools should teach evolution in science classrooms to "leave no child behind". In addition to rejecting evolution for religious reasons, several people claimed that there was not sufficient evidence, that scientists could not all agree, or that evolution is "only a theory", which they equate with an unfounded idea. Evolution is supported by evidence. There are several thousand peer- reviewed scientific journals where the evidence is presented in article after article. Natural history museums house large collections of fossils that document the history of life. Geologists and astronomers have a massive amount of observational evidence of the long-term change in physical systems: stars, galaxies, planets, interstellar dust, asteroids, etc. Biologists observe and document the patterns of the evolution of life: for example, the fossil record, DNA, and the observation of evolution in action such as the adaptive evolution of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that now pose a serious threat to human health. Selective breeding in agriculture generated our crops and domestic animals over thousands of years; agriculture is evolution in action. Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_devore_theory_050303.html. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA OFFERS PRIZES TO STUDENTS WITH REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS NASA release 05-057 23 February 2005 NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is offering up to four $9,000 fellowships to students with ideas that can dramatically advance the Vision for Space Exploration. The NIAC Student Fellows Prize program provides opportunities for creative college students to develop revolutionary advanced concepts in aeronautics, space, and the sciences. "The NIAC encourages potential student fellows to focus their thoughts and stretch their imagination decades into the future. It encourages an aggressive pursuit of concepts that will leap-frog the evolution of today's systems and that can be the framework for future NASA missions and programs," said NIAC Associate Director, Dr. Diana Jennings of the Universities Space Research Association, which runs NIAC for NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, manages the program for the agency. NIAC seeks concepts that stretch the imagination and that are based on sound scientific principles. Student fellows are required to team with an experienced mentor in an aerospace-related field from academia or industry. The deadline for proposal submissions is April 15, 2005. Awards will be announced in May. For information, previously sponsored proposals, application procedures, eligibility and program requirements on the web, visit: http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/students/call/NIAC_Student_Fellows_2005- 2006.pdf http://www.niac.usra.edu/index.html For information about NASA and the Vision for Space Exploration on the web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/explore_main.html. Contacts: Michael Braukus/J. D. Harrington NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1979/5241 Bill Steigerwald NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Phone: 301-286-5017 __________________________________________________________________________ RECRUITING AUTHORS FOR IAF SESSION AT FUKUOKA MEETING From the NAI Newsletter 25 February 2005 John Rummel and Gerda Horneck are Co-Chairing a session at the International Astronautical Congress, and are recruiting authors for an IAF session at the Fukuoka, Japan meeting October 17-21, 2005. A.1.7, "Robotics and Human Mission to Mars and beyond: Challenges in Astrobiology and Planetary Protection." With evidence of past water and present-day ice on Mars, oceans within Jupiter's Moons, and abundant organics on Titan, there are compelling solar system targets for Astrobiology. This session will focus on astrobiology opportunities in future missions, astrobiology instrument concepts, and planetary protection measures to enable future discoveries and preserve Earth's biosphere. The abstract due date is March 12th, and instructions can be found at http://www.iac-paper.com. __________________________________________________________________________ SYMPOSIUM ON "SELF-ORGANIZATION IN NONEQUILIBRIUM CHEMICAL SYSTEMS" AT PACIFICHEM 2005 From the NAI Newsletter 25 February 2005 A symposium on "Self-organization in Nonequilibrium Chemical Systems" will be held at PACIFICHEM 2005 Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, December 15-20, 2005. Self-organization under nonequilibrium conditions is a hot topic. We can see dynamic behaviors such as rhythm, pattern, and chaos in systems ranging from biological cells to the biosphere. Chemical reactions are the bases for the self-organized phenomena in living and nonliving systems; biochemical reactions regulate the metabolism in all organisms and support their lives, and geochemical reactions control the global climate. Chemical reactions can also generate several types of patterns on solid materials under nonequilibrium conditions. This symposium focuses on temporal and spatio-temporal self-organized phenomena appearing in chemical systems under nonequilibrium conditions. Sessions related to the following fields will be included: Nonequilibrium Pattern Formation, Electrochemistry, Polymer & Materials Chemistry, Biochemistry & Chemical (and/or Molecular) Evolution, Environmental chemistry, and so on. The following scientists will give invited talks: Irving Epstein (Brandeis), Rustem Ismagilov (Chicago), Raymond Kapral (Toronto), Gustavo Martinez-Mekler (UAEM), Shuji Nakanishi (Osaka), Kenneth Showalter (WVU), (Jack Hudson (UVA)),Shigeru Kondo (RIKEN), Kyong J Lee (Korea U), (Dan Luss (Houston)), Takeko Matsumura (MLL Co.), (Howard Petty (Michigan)), Qui Tran-Cong-Miyata (KIT), Tomohiko Yamaguchi (AIST), and Kenichi Yoshikawa (Kyoto). (Speakers in parentheses are not confirmed yet.). We welcome contributed talks and poster presentations as well. More information is available at the following URLs: (1) About our symposium http://www.pacifichem.org/c_symposia/c_symp_123.htm (2) Abstract submission (the deadline is April 13, 2005) http://www.pacifichem.org/c_abstracts/ Additional information will be also posted at http://www.chem.fsu.edu/STEINBOCK/pacifichem2005.htm as it becomes available. __________________________________________________________________________ THERMOPHILE 2005 "FROM EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION" From the NAI Newsletter 25 February 2005 The 8th International Thermophile Conference, "From Evolution to Revolution," will be held at the Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland Australia, September 18-22, 2005. The very positive response and feedback from the first announcement has assisted the conference committee enormously in the planning of not only the scientific content of the conference but also the social programs. Please accept our appreciation and thanks to the many who responded so positively. The conference site, http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/thermophile05/, has now been updated with new and revised information. The highlights of the changes include: Brochure for Download: A brochure is available for download that outlines the scientific and social programs. It also provides information on whom to contact for accommodation requirements, how to register for the conference and also includes a registration form. Abstract Submission: Call for abstract submission is now open and abstracts can be submitted until the 24th May 2005. All abstracts should be submitted electronically online and information on how to submit is available. Please let us know if you have problems with the use of the online submission tool. Invited Speakers and Speaker List: We hope to update this list in 2-3 weeks time. Partners Program: The choices for leisure activities in the Gold Coast are enormous. We hope to provide information and suggestions on a few select packages. __________________________________________________________________________ PLANETARY PROTECTION CLASS--APRIL 19-21, SANTA CRUZ, CA From the NAI Newsletter 25 February 2005 This NASA-developed course is designed to familiarize current and future planetary protection practitioners with the NASA and COSPAR Planetary Protection Programs. The course will review all applicable policies, practices and procedures necessary to implement a successful planetary protection program and will emphasize integration of the managerial, administrative and laboratory components of planetary protection. To find out more and to register for this class contact Amy Baker at 303-972-4849 or tasalb@attglobal.net. __________________________________________________________________________ NASA'S CASSINI SPACECRAFT CONTINUES MAKING NEW SATURN DISCOVERIES NASA/JPL release 2005-034 24 February 2005 NASA's Cassini spacecraft continues making new and exciting discoveries. New findings include wandering and rubble-pile moons; new and clumpy Saturn rings; splintering storms and a dynamic magnetosphere. "For the last seven months it has been a nonstop, science-packed mission. It has been a whirlwind, and already we have many new results," said Dr. Dennis Matson, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. Weak, linear density waves caused in Saturn's rings by the small moons Atlas and Pan have yielded more reliable calculations of their masses. The masses imply the moons are very porous, perhaps constructed like rubble piles. They are similar to the moons that shepherd Saturn's F ring, Prometheus and Pandora. Another discovery was a tiny moon, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) across, recently named Polydeuces. Polydeuces is a companion, or "Trojan" moon of Dione. Trojan moons are found near gravitationally stable points ahead or behind a larger moon. Saturn is the only planet known to have moons with companion Trojan moons. The new findings, published in this week's edition of the journal, Science, include refinements in the orbits of several of Saturn's small satellites. One intriguing result is the eccentric and slightly inclined orbit of Pan in Saturn's A ring. The orbit's shape is significant, as it indicates the type of interaction the moon has with the ring material surrounding it. If Pan's orbit remains eccentric due to this interaction, then planets growing in a disc of material surrounding a star may also have eccentric orbits. This may help explain the eccentric paths of planets orbiting other stars. Several faint Saturn rings have been discovered in Cassini images. Some lie in various gaps in the rings and may indicate the presence of tiny embedded moons acting as shepherds. Several of the rings are kinked, likely evidence of nearby moons. Scientists also found Saturn's winds change with altitude, and small storms emerge out of large ones. For the first time, Cassini images captured possible evidence of processes that may maintain the winds on Saturn. The observations offer a glimpse into the process which transfers energy by convection from Saturn's interior to help sustain strong winds. Other results improve the understanding of Saturn's complex magnetic environment. "Saturn's magnetosphere is truly unique. It's dynamically similar to Jupiter's, but in places it chemically resembles water-based plasmas surrounding comets," said Dr. David Young. Young is Cassini principal investigator for the plasma spectrometer instrument from the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. Another surprising find was made by the ion and neutral mass spectrometer instrument, which measured molecular oxygen ions above Saturn's ring plane. "This is at first surprising since the rings are made of water ice," said Dr. Hunter Waite, principal investigator for the spectrometer from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "This may have important consequences for the identification of spectral features to use in the search for life on extrasolar terrestrial planet systems." The abundance of molecular oxygen on Earth is uniquely tied to biology. But these new measurements at Saturn suggest there are lifeless processes associated with cold icy surfaces that may produce an independent pathway for the formation of molecular oxygen in atmospheres. Cassini Significant Events for 11-23 February NASA/JPL release, 25 February 2005 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired today from the Goldstone tracking station. 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 (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm). During the fifth week of S08, OTM-14 was successfully executed, Cassini flew past Enceladus for a non-targeted flyby, and passed through Saturn periapsis. For images and information on the Cassini mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. 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 Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. Contacts: Carolina Martinez Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-9382 Dolores Beasley NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1753 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1458.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1459.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1460.html http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/25feb_titan2.htm http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/phoebe_craters_050225.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050301_saturn_update.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-05zc.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-05zd.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-05ze.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-05zf.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-titan-05o.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-titan-05p.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050226portrait.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050227radiation.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050224science.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050224phoebecraters.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/050224magnetosphere.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/oxygen_no_life.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturn_dragon_storm.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rainbows_titan.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturn_rad_belts.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS ROVERS BREAK DRIVING RECORDS, EXAMINE SALTY SOIL NASA/JPL release 2005-038 2 March 2005 On three consecutive days, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity accomplished unprecedented feats of martian motion, covering more total ground in that period than either Opportunity or its twin, Spirit, did in their first 70 days on Mars. Spirit, meanwhile, has uncovered soil that is more than half salt, adding to the evidence for Mars' wet past. The golf-cart-size robots successfully completed their three-month primary missions in April 2004 and are continuing extended mission operations. Opportunity set a one-day distance record for martian driving, 177.5 meters (582 feet), on February 19. That was the first day of a three-day plan transmitted to the rover as a combined set of weekend instructions. During the preceding week, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had sent Opportunity and Spirit an upgrade of the rovers' software, onboard intelligence the rovers use for carrying out day-to-day commands. The new record exceeded a two-week old former best by 13 percent. As on all previous long drives by either rover, the traverse began with "blind" driving, in which the rover followed a route determined in advance by rover planners at JPL using stereo images. That portion lasted an hour and covered most of the day's distance. Then Opportunity switched to "autonomous" driving for two and a half hours, pausing every 2 meters (6.6 feet) to look ahead for obstacles as it chose its own route ahead. The next day, Opportunity used its new software to start another drive navigating for itself. "This is the first time either rover has picked up on a second day with continued autonomous driving," said Dr. Mark Maimone, rover mobility software engineer at JPL. "It's good to sit back and let the rover do the driving for us." Not only did Opportunity avoid obstacles for four hours of driving, it covered more ground than a football field. Opportunity has a favorable power situation, due to relatively clean solar panels and increasing minutes of daylight each day as spring approaches in Mars' southern hemisphere. This allows several hours of operations daily. On the third day of the three-day plan, the robotic geologist continued navigating itself and drove even farther, 109 meters (357 feet), pushing the three-day total to 390 meters (nearly a quarter mile). In one long weekend, Opportunity covered a distance equivalent to more than half of the 600 meters that had been part of each rover's original mission-success criteria during their first three months on Mars. Opportunity has now driven 3,014 meters (1.87 miles) since landing; Spirit even farther, 4,157 meters (2.58 miles). Opportunity is heading south toward a rugged landscape called "etched terrain," where it might find exposures of deeper layers of bedrock than it has seen so far. Spirit is climbing "Husband Hill," with a pause on a ridge overlooking a valley north of the summit to see whether any potential targets below warrant a side trip. As Spirit struggled up the slope approaching the ridgeline, the rover's wheels churned up soil that grabbed scientists' attention. "This was an absolutely serendipitous discovery," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments. "We said, 'My gosh, that soil looks very bright. Before we go away, we should at least take a taste." The bright patch of disturbed soil, dubbed "Paso Robles," has the highest salt concentration of any rock or soil ever examined on Mars. Combined information gained from inspecting it with Spirit's three spectrometers and panoramic camera suggests its main ingredient is an iron sulfate salt with water molecules bound into the mineral. The soil patch is also rich in phosphorus, but not otherwise like a high-phosphorus rock, called "Wishstone," that Spirit examined in December. "We're still trying to work out hand here," Squyres said. Meanwhile, scientists are re-calibrating data from both rovers' alpha particle X-ray spectrometers. These instruments are used to assess targets' elemental composition. The sensor heads for the two instruments were switched before launch. Therefore, data that Opportunity's spectrometer has collected have been analyzed using calibration files for Spirit's, and vice-versa. Fortunately, because the sensor heads are nearly identical, the effect on the elemental abundances determined by the instruments was very go back and review the results for the mission so far and re-compute using correct calibration files. "The effect in all cases was less than the uncertainties in results, so none of our science conclusions are affected," Squyres said. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has managed NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project since it began in 2000. Images and additional information about the rovers and their discoveries are available on the Internet at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. Contacts: Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-6278 Dolores Beasley NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1753 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-mers-05s.html http://www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-mers-05v.html http://www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-mers-05w.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_lucky_050303.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/050302driving.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/opportunity_breaks_records.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS EXPRESS UPDATES ESA releases ESA's Mars Express Sees Signs of a "Frozen Sea" ESA release, 23 February 2005 The discovery of what could be a frozen sea close to the martian equator, protected from disappearing by a thin layer of volcanic ash, was reported this week at the First Mars Express Science Conference in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The water that formed the sea appears to have originated beneath the surface of Mars, and to have come out through a series of fractures known as the Cerberus Fossae, from where it flowed in a catastrophic flood. It collected in a vast area about 800 kilometers long and 900 kilometers wide with a depth of about 45 meters. As the water started to freeze, floating pack ice broke up into rafts. These became later covered in ash and dust from volcanic eruptions in the region. Ice is unstable at the surface of Mars because of the low atmospheric pressure, and sublimates away (changes straight from ice to vapor without passing through the liquid state) into the atmosphere, but some of the ice rafts appear to have been protected by layers of volcanic dust. While the entire sea froze solid, the unprotected ice between the rafts sublimated to leave 'ice plateaus' surrounded by bare rock. The sparse cratering of this region shows that it cannot have formed more than about five million years ago, meaning this is a relatively young feature. The question remains as to whether the frozen body of water is still there, or whether the visible floes are just the remains of the sublimation process. Two observations suggest that the ice is still there: first, the submerged craters are too shallow, indicating most of the ice is still in the craters; and second, the surface is too horizontal--if the ice had been lost, there would be a greater height variation. These findings were presented on 21 February at ESA's Mars Express Science Conference at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, where about 250 scientists from all over the world are discussing the first year of scientific results from Mars Express. The complete scientific paper by Dr. J. Murray et al. describing the frozen sea results will be published by the journal, Nature, in March 2005. Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/esaSC/Pr_3_2005_h_en.html. First Mars Express Science Conference--Summary ESA relese, 25 February 2005 After a week of major announcements about Mars and the results from ESA's Mars Express mission, ESA held a press briefing on 25 February to present the main conclusions of the First Mars Express Science Conference. See further details at http://www.esa.int/esaSC/Pr_4_2005_s_en.html. Glacial, volcanic and fluvial activity on Mars ESA release, 25 February 2005 These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, were released at the First Mars Express Science Conference this week. They show the areas of focused research-- water, ice, glaciers and volcanism. These two images of the martian north polar ice cap show layers of water ice and dust for the first time in perspective view. The close-up view (right) is the upper right section of the image above. Here we see cliffs which are almost 2 kilometers high, and the dark material in the caldera- like structures and dune fields could be volcanic ash. In the image above, also at the north pole, the Mars Express spacecraft saw fields of volcanic cones. Some are up to 600 metres high. They appear to indicate very recent volcanic activity. The question remains, is it on-going activity? The two smaller images are close-up top views of two cones: the left one is visible in the lighter top part of the main image, and the right one is just visible half way down the dark side of the slope. The image above is Kasei Valles, one of the largest outflow channels on Mars, and contains a lot of evidence for glacial and fluvial activity over much of the planet's history. Kasei Valles has been imaged before by the HRSC during orbit 61 from an altitude of 272 kilometers. These images are located about 29° North and 300° East. The scour marks in the valley, shown in the image on the left, are most likely due to glacial erosion than by water erosion. This is contrary to what was previously thought. The glacier that caused this valley was fed by water from the Echus Chasma region, which was driven out from underneath the surface by volcanic activity. Water was released by heating from volcanic activity in the channel floor as relatively recently as 20 million years ago. Echus Chasma is the source region of the Kasei Valles channel. This perspective image was taken by Mars Express during orbit 97. It shows that liquid water was present on the surface of Mars thousands of millions of years ago. Gigantic waterfalls poured over the 4000-meter high cliffs, and fed a lake in the valley. Later, when the planet became cooler, the lakes froze and glaciers formed, carving the giant Kasei Valles. These perspective views of the western side of the Olympus Mons caldera show evidence of ice/snow and water. The close-up image (right) shows detail in the left side of the scarp above. On the eastern side of the giant volcano, lava produced between 200 million and 20 million years ago melted a snow and ice layer on the volcanic shield, with the result that liquid water was on the surface as recently as 20 million years ago. On the western side, lava produced between 200 million and 2.5 million years ago mobilized underground water and formed glaciers as recently as four million years ago. These findings were presented on 21 February at ESA's Mars Express Science Conference at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, where about 250 scientists from all over the world are discussing the first year of scientific results from Mars Express. The color images were processed using the HRSC nadir (vertical view) and three color channels. The perspective views were calculated from the digital terrain model derived from the stereo channels. Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMLF6D3M5E_0.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1455.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1462.html http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1464.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050222_mars_ice.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_believe_050225.html http://www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-water-science-05b.html http://www.marsdaily.com/news/marsexpress-05e.html http://www.marsdaily.com/news/marsexpress-05f.html __________________________________________________________________________ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 17 February - 2 March 2005 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Crater in Acidalia (Released 17 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/17/ Sedimentary Rocks in Melas (Released 18 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/18/ December's Dunes (Released 19 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/19/ Inverted Channel (Released 20 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/20/ Ganges Landslides (Released 21 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/21/ Mars at Ls 160 Degrees (Released 22 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/22/ Iani Sedimentary Rocks (Released 23 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/23/ Hecates Tholus Channels (Released 24 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/24/ Polar Pits (Released 25 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/25/ Ripples and Rocks (Released 26 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/26/ Pavonis Mons Features (Released 27 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/27/ Features in Argyre (Released 28 February 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/28/ Mars at Ls 176 Degrees (Released 01 March 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/03/01/ Northern Plains Surfaces (Released 02 March 2005) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/03/02/ 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 12-25 February 2005 THEMIS Images as Art #41 (Released 21 February 2005) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050221A.html THEMIS Images as Art #42 (Released 22 February 2005) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050222A.html THEMIS Images as Art #43 (Released 23 February 2005) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050223A.html THEMIS Images as Art #44 (Released 24 February 2005) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050224A.html THEMIS Images as Art #45 (Released 25 February 2005) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050225A.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. __________________________________________________________________________ ESA'S COMET CHASER TO FLY BY EARTH ESA release 23 February 2005 ESA's comet-chaser Rosetta will make a fly-by of planet Earth on 4 March 2005, and sky watchers should be able to see it with telescopes or binoculars if the sky is clear! Read on for details of ESA's "Rosetta Up Close" photo contest. Rosetta is approaching Earth from an area in the sky between the constellations Leo and Sextans, and should first become visible to large amateur telescopes around 26 February 2005. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to Earth at about 23:10 CET and come within 1900 kilometers, at which time it will be over Mexico, having already passed over Europe. Watchers in Europe may have best evening view On the evening of the closest approach, sky watchers in Europe will be favorably placed to follow this event using smaller telescopes or binoculars. Unfortunately, Rosetta is not expected to become visible to the naked eye from Europe as it will still be about 10 000 kilometers away until it disappears below the horizon. However, amateur astronomers using video or photo-imaging in conjunction with a telescope should have a great viewing opportunity--weather permitting. They may even be able to see Rosetta's solar panels, which extend over 32 meters; the high-gain antenna may also be distinguishable. After sunset on 4 March, it will appear to travel from south east to south west, moving from the constellation Sextans towards the setting Sun, crossing the complete sky. It will move faster as it heads west, disappearing below the horizon around 23:00 CET. As seen from Europe it will only reach a "magnitude" of about +8 or +9 on the brightness scale used by astronomers. This is dimmer than a typical faint star and not readily apparent to the eye. Rosetta swings between Earth and Mars This fly-by maneuver will swing the three-ton Rosetta spacecraft around our planet and out towards Mars, where it will make a fly-by on 26 February 2007, only to come back again to Earth. Fly-bys are necessary to accelerate the spacecraft, using planetary gravity, such that the orbital velocity of the target comet can eventually be matched. This is the first of four planet fly-bys (three times with Earth, once with Mars) that Rosetta will carry out in its long journey to its target, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta will reach the comet in 2014, enter into orbit and deliver a lander, Philae, onto the surface. Moon to serve as "dummy" asteroid A number of activities are planned during the current fly-by. A few hours before the closest approach the spacecraft will be pointed towards the Moon and the remote sensing and several other instruments will be switched on for calibration purposes. After this fly-by, one of the two Navigation Cameras will be switched on to test Rosetta's ability to track asteroids using the Moon as a 'dummy' asteroid. Rosetta is scheduled to fly past two asteroids, Steins in September 2008 and Lutetia in July 2010, during which this tracking mode will be used to keep the spacecraft instruments centred on target. "Rosetta Up Close" photo contest Sky watchers everywhere are invited to submit their photos of Rosetta passing Earth to ESA's 'Rosetta Up Close' photo contest. Details of the contest, rules, prizes and submission procedures will be posted shortly on the ESA web site (www.esa.int). Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMMTBYEM4E_Expanding_0.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/rosetta_earthflyby_050225.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/comet-05f.html. __________________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 12, Number 8.