Download Marsbugs Vol. 11, No. 30

Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter
Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College,
Batesville, Arkansas 72503-2317, USA. [email protected]
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,
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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.
At 20 times the size of Earth, the largest sunspot observed since the November 2003 series of solar storms is
now pointed directly at Earth. Its unusually large size also means that it is now visible to the naked eye
(although you should never look at the Sun without a proper filter). The implications of this spot have
scientists on the edge of their seats—if the active region generates coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive
explosions with a potential force of a billion megaton bombs, it will be a fairly direct hit to Earth and its
satellites and power grids. The last large solar events occurred in the fall of 2003 when seventeen major
flares erupted on the Sun. Currently, sunspot group AR 10652 has generated several medium-sized flares
and CMEs over the past three and a half days. This view is from the SOHO spacecraft’s Michelson Doppler
Imager (MDI) instrument from July 23, 2004, at 16:00 UTC. Over the next few days, the region has the
potential for unleashing more and larger solar storms. The SOHO is located in an orbit approximately one
million miles from Earth in order to gain an unobstructed view of the Sun. It carries 12 instruments and is a joint NASA/ESA mission. More information is available at
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16616.
Page 7
BOEING DELIVERS JIMO SPACECRAFT DESIGN
PROPOSAL
Boeing release
CHINA TO LAUNCH SECOND MANNED SPACE MISSION
IN 2005
From Agence France-Press and SpaceDaily
Page 7
INSIDE THE GIANTS: PUZZLING DIFFERENCES IN
JUPITER AND SATURN
By Robert Roy Britt
THE SPILLPROOF EARTH—ELECTRONS TO PASS THE
"WHITE GLOVE" OVER A SPACEPROBE
From Astrobiology Magazine
Page 9
UNIQUE OBSERVATIONS OF NEWBORN STAR
PROVIDE INFORMATION ON SOLAR SYSTEM'S ORIGIN
Vanderbilt University release
NASA PLAYS KEY ROLE IN LARGEST
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIMENT IN HISTORY
NASA/GSFC release 2004-242
Page 10
HOWLING AT THE MOON: SPACE ENTREPRENEURS
SEE RED OVER MARS FAVORITISM
By Leonard David
Page 10
METEORITE FROM OMAN RECORDS ITS LUNAR
LAUNCH SITE AND DETAILED HISTORY
By Lori Stiles
Page 11
NASA INVITES PUBLIC TO EXPLORE "RED PLANET"
VIA INTERNET
NASA/ARC release 2004-74AR
Page 12
THE DARKENING EARTH: LESS SUN AT THE EARTH'S
SURFACE COMPLICATES CLIMATE MODELS
By David Appell
Page 12
HOW SPECIAL IS THE SOLAR SYSTEM?
Royal Astronomical Society release
LIFE ON MARS LIKELY, SCIENTIST CLAIMS
By Leonard David
Articles and News
Page 2
Page 3
Page 3
Page 4
ET FIRST CONTACT "WITHIN 20 YEARS"
By Marcus Chown
Page 4
RESEARCHERS REVIEW EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF
MODERN ALGAE
Texas A&M University release
Page 4
SCRIPPS RESEARCHERS DOCUMENT SIGNIFICANT
CHANGES IN THE DEEP SEA—CLIMATE AND FOOD
SUPPLY FLUCTUATIONS MAY HOLD MAJOR
CONSEQUENCES FOR LIFE IN THE ABYSS
Scripps Institution of Oceanography release
Page 5
EAVESDROPPING ON OLYMPUS—LET THE GAMES
BEGIN
From Astrobiology Magazine
Page 6
SPINNING BRAINS
By Patrick L. Barry and Tony Phillips
Page 12
Page 7
DOUBLE WHAMMY: ASTEROIDS DELIVERED ONETWO PUNCH
By Robert Roy Britt
Announcements
Page 7
ANALYSIS: BUSH STANDS BY HIS SPACE PLAN
By Frank Sietzen
Page 7
SPACE SCIENCE PIONEER VAN ALLEN QUESTIONS
HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT
By Leonard David
Page 12
NASA SELECTS FUTURE MISSION CONCEPTS FOR
STUDY
NASA/JPL release 2004-186
Page 13
NASA INVESTIGATORS SELECTED FOR HUMAN AND
ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY
NASA release 2004-248
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
Page 13
NASA RELEASES BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR EXPLORATION
NASA release 2004-249
Page 14
NASA ANNOUNCES SPACE RADIATION MATERIALS
RESEARCH GRANTS
NASA release 2004-255
Page 14
ESA IS LOOKING FOR FEMALE VOLUNTEERS FOR A
BED-REST STUDY IN TOULOUSE NEXT YEAR
ESA release 45-2004
Mission Reports
Page 14
2
Page 17
MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS UPDATES
NASA/JPL releases
Page 18
MARS EXPRESS IMAGES
ESA releases
Page 19
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
NASA/JPL/MSSS releases
Page 19
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
NASA/JPL/ASU releases
Page 20
ROSETTA: MONITORING NEW AVIONICS SOFTWARE
ESA release
CASSINI UPDATES
NASA/JPL releases
BOEING DELIVERS JIMO SPACECRAFT DESIGN PROPOSAL
Boeing release
explore Jupiter’s three ice-covered Galilean moons Ganymede, Callisto and
Europa and would launch no earlier than 2015, as outlined in the national
Vision for Space Exploration.
19 July 2004
Boeing delivered its conceptual design proposal Friday, July 16, for the
Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), a spacecraft that could become the nation’s
first nuclear-fission-powered exploration vehicle with technologies applicable
to future Mars and lunar missions. The JIMO reactor would provide more
than 100 times more usable onboard power than has been available to
previous science probes and demonstrate nuclear reactors can be operated
safely and reliably in space to provide electrical power needed for propulsion
and scientific exploration.
Boeing’s analysis of the proposed mission would have the JIMO spacecraft
embark on a direct five- to eight-year interplanetary journey to reach the icy
moons avoiding the time intensive gravity assists often used to sling
chemically propelled space probes toward their final destinations. Once at
Jupiter, the available power and propulsion systems would give JIMO the
capability to explore each icy moon extensively for 30 days or more,
providing unprecedented science data about the frozen worlds. The spacecraft
would extensively explore the moons’ composition, history and potential for
sustaining life. The venture supports the Vision for Space Exploration and
NASA’s main goal to explore the universe and search for life.
"Boeing believes that the prudent use of nuclear power is one key to safely
and reliably conducting the exploration initiatives NASA is undertaking for
America’s future," said Joe Mills, Boeing vice president leading the
company’s JIMO efforts. "The Boeing team has a long heritage of successful
nuclear power programs and brings technical and management expertise to
support the government in this critical area."
The Boeing JIMO program is being led by Phantom Works in partnership
with Boeing NASA Systems along with support from Electron Dynamic
Devices Inc., for electric propulsion research; Boeing Satellite Systems for
spacecraft engineering; and Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power for power
conversion and management technologies.
A Boeing-led team of engineers and program planners is working with JPL on
a groundbreaking initiative that heralds a new era in space science and
exploration. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft would be the
nation’s first nuclear fission reactor-powered scientific spacecraft. It is part
of NASA’s Project Prometheus, the space agency’s endeavor to develop safe
nuclear power and high-efficiency electric propulsion to open the solar
system. With the planet Jupiter as its backdrop, this artist's rendering shows
JIMO orbiting the ice-covered Jovian satellites Callisto, Ganymede and
Europa. One purpose of the mission is to begin studying the subsurface water
ocean suspected to exist on Europa, which could harbor simple
extraterrestrial life. JIMO would be the first probe to have the power to orbit
multiple planetary objects for weeks at a time. John J. Rankin, artist.
"Through Project Prometheus, NASA is developing space nuclear power and
electric propulsion technologies that have the potential to revolutionize space
exploration. As envisioned, JIMO would change how humans explore the
solar system," said Mike Mott, Boeing NASA Systems vice president and
general manager. "The Boeing team has the large-scale systems integration
capability and experience to make it a success."
Boeing submitted the proposal in conjunction with its ongoing $11.8 million
Phase A study contract with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), one of three
awarded last year to study options for the reactor, power conversion, electric
propulsion and other JIMO subsystems. The orbiter’s proposed mission is to
Boeing’s partners include BWX Technologies Inc., Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., and General Dynamics Electric Boat. A JIMO spacecraft
contractor is expected to be selected in the fall of 2004. Phase B would
include the development of system requirements and a preliminary design of
the spacecraft. Phase C/D would follow next for the full-scale design,
fabrication, integration and test of the space system. Phase E would include
launch and post-launch operations. NASA may then contract for up to three
additional spacecraft for missions to other outer planet destinations.
Phantom Works is the advanced research and development unit and catalyst of
innovation for Boeing. Through its Integrated Defense Advanced Systems
group, it provides leading edge systems and technology solutions to Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), one the world's largest space and defense
businesses.
For more information about the Boeing JIMO
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/prometheus/.
Contacts:
Tanya E. Deason-Sharp
Boeing NASA Systems
Phone: 281-226-6070
E-mail: [email protected]
Glen Golightly
Boeing Phantom Works
Phone: 714-372-4742
E-mail: [email protected]
initiative,
visit
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
3
Regina W. Carter
BWX Technologies, Inc.
Phone: 434-522-5158
E-mail: [email protected]
Emilia Reed
Ball Aerospace Technologies & Corp
Phone: 303-939-6551
E-mail: [email protected]
Neil Ruenzel
General Dynamics Electric Boat
Phone: 860-433-8556
An additional article on this subject is available at
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0407/27jimo/.
INSIDE THE GIANTS: PUZZLING DIFFERENCES IN JUPITER AND
SATURN
By Robert Roy Britt
From Space.com
20 July 2004
Scientists aren't sure what the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn look like or how
the planets formed. But a new study of their insides suggests they took
different paths to giant status. Researchers modeled 50,000 what-ifs of
internal structure using real data from the two planets and lab experiments that
show how material behaves under extreme pressure. They found Saturn has a
huge core and Jupiter may have none.
"Heavy elements are concentrated in Saturn's massive core, while those same
elements are mixed throughout Jupiter, with very little or no central core at
all," said Didier Saumon of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The result, published last week in the Astrophysical Journal, agrees with
similar studies but is far more comprehensive. "These conclusions are now
very firm," Saumon said in a telephone interview.
Read the full article at
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planet_formation_040720.html.
UNIQUE OBSERVATIONS OF NEWBORN STAR PROVIDE
INFORMATION ON SOLAR SYSTEM'S ORIGIN
Vanderbilt University release
21 July 2004
A new study has caught a newborn star similar to the sun in a fiery outburst.
X-ray observations of the flare-up, which are the first of their kind, are
providing important new information about the early evolution of the sun and
the process of planet formation. The study, which was conducted by a team of
astronomers headed by Joel Kastner of the Rochester Institute of Technology
and included David Weintraub from Vanderbilt, is reported in the July 22
issue of the journal Nature.
Last January, Jay McNeil, an amateur astronomer in West Kentucky,
discovered a new cloud of dust and gas in the Orion region. Previously the
cloud, now named the McNeil nebula, was not visible from earth. But a new
star inside the dark cloud had flared up in brightness, lighting up the
surrounding nebula. Looking back at the images taken of this part of the sky
revealed that a young star about the size of the sun had burst into visibility last
November. Despite the fact that hundreds of telescopes scan the sky nightly,
the discovery of a new star is an extremely rare event, having occurred only
twice in the last century. What made this star even more special was the fact
that it appears to be an extremely young star-far less than a million years oldthat is about the same mass as the sun. Astronomers know of fewer than a
dozen of these stars, which they call FU-Orionis-type. Although this is the
third FU-Orionis that has been caught in the act of flaring, it is the first that
has occurred in modern times when its behavior could be monitored not only
in visible light, but also in radio, infrared and X-ray wavelengths.
"In FU-Orionis stars, these outbursts are very brief," says Weintraub,
associate professor of astronomy. "They brighten by as much as 100 thousand
times in a few months and then fade away over a number of months."
In this X-ray image taken with the Chandra X-ray
Observatory in early March, the small orange object
near the center is v1647. Photo courtesy of David
Weintraub.
Knowing that time was short, Kastner and Weintraub submitted an emergency
request for viewing time on the orbiting Chandra X-ray observatory. Because
X-rays are generated by extremely violent events, they provide a critical
window for observing extreme stellar flare-ups of this sort. The astronomers
were granted two viewing times in early and late March. Using Chandra, the
astronomers discovered that the star, which has been officially named V1647
Ori, was a very bright X-ray source in early March, but its X-ray brightness
had decreased substantially by the end of the month before the star
disappeared from view behind the sun. At the same time, the new star was
fading in visible and infrared wavelengths.
In addition, the astronomers learned that Ted Simon from the Institute for
Astronomy in Hawaii had taken some serendipitous X-ray images of the same
area in 2002 for another purpose. These showed no X-rays coming from the
V1647 Ori's location at that time, supporting the idea that the recent X-ray
production was directly associated with the star's flare-up. Kastner and
Weintraub propose a novel mechanism to explain their observations. Many
stars, including the sun, produce X-rays by a mechanism that depends on the
star's rotation rate and convection depth. But the astronomers calculate that
the temperature of the gas that is producing the X-rays at V1647 ORI is
substantially higher than can be explained by this traditional mechanism.
Observations of V1647 Ori indicate that it possesses a "protoplanetary" disk-a
thin disk extending out from a star's equator that contains dust and gas left
over from the star's formation and from which planets form. Kastner and
Weintraub argue that the flare was touched off by a sudden avalanche of disk
material falling onto the surface of the star and that this was the source of the
intense X-rays as well as the other forms of radiation. If their hypothesis is
correct, X-ray observations may help discriminate between young stars that
possess protoplanetary disks and those that don't, Weintraub says.
There is a disagreement among astronomers about whether FU-Orionis stars
undergo outbursts of this sort only once, several times or dozens of times
before they settle into maturity. Other astronomers who have looked further
back in the astronomical records for V1647 Ori have found that it also flared
up in 1965, which provides added support for the multiple outburst theories.
Other participants in the study were Michael Richmond at the Rochester
Institute of Technology, Nicolas Grosso and H. Ozawa at the Laboratoire
d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, A. Frank at the University of Rochester, Kenji
Hamaguchi at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Arne Henden at the
U.S.
Naval
Observatory.
Kastner and Weintraub have been awarded time to conduct additional
observations on Chandra so that they can measure the X-ray activity of the
new star beginning in October when it becomes visible once again.
Read the original news release at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases?id=13096.
An additional article on this subject is available at
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0407/22newbornstar/.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
ET FIRST CONTACT "WITHIN 20 YEARS"
By Marcus Chown
From New Scientist
21 July 04
If intelligent life exists elsewhere in our galaxy, advances in computer
processing power and radio telescope technology will ensure we detect their
transmissions within two decades. That is the bold prediction from a leading
light at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View,
California. Seth Shostak, the SETI Institute's senior astronomer, based his
prediction on accepted assumptions about the likelihood of alien civilizations
existing, combined with projected increases in computing power.
Shostak, whose calculations will be published in a forthcoming edition of the
space science journal Acta Astronautica, first estimated the number of alien
civilizations in our galaxy that might currently be broadcasting radio signals.
For this he used a formula created in 1961 by astronomer Frank Drake which
factors in aspects such the number of stars with planets, how many of those
planets might be expected to have life, and so on. Shostak came up with an
estimate of between 10,000 and one million radio transmitters in the galaxy.
Read the full article at
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996189.
RESEARCHERS REVIEW EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF
MODERN ALGAE
Texas A&M University release
21 July 2004
Trees and grass are usually the only "heroes" that come to mind for
consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen for planet Earth, but they
have allies in the water: phytoplankton, or in another word, algae.
Phytoplankton are mostly single-celled photosynthetic organisms that feed
fish and marine mammals. They are responsible for nearly 50 percent of the
earth’s annual carbon-dioxide consumption and more than 45 percent of the
oxygen production. Despite the important roles of modern phytoplankton,
their evolutionary origins and rise to prominence in today’s oceans was an
unresolved question in marine science.
In the first study that looks at phytoplankton from combined perspectives of
biology, chemistry and geology, researchers from three countries, including
Texas A&M University at Galveston Assistant Professor Antonietta Quigg,
who specializes in algae ecology and chemistry, examined modern
phytoplankton development and reviewed their evolutionary history. Findings
of the project appear in the current issue of Science magazine. Funding for
the study is supported by a grant through the National Science Foundation
Biocomplexity program, which aims to make new advances by bringing
people together from different fields.
4
house gases on life in the ocean at present and in the future. "One way to do
that is to understand what was happening in the past," Quigg says. "If we
have a theory or an idea, we could look in the past and check if that idea
works." She says since some algae do very well with increase carbon dioxide
and some do poorly, the evolutionary history will tell, with increased carbondioxide, what changes there may be in the types of algae in the water and how
that will affect the fish and marine mammals that eat the algae.
"If you have an ocean full of algae that use a lot of carbon-dioxide, then we
may be able to resolve the problem of green house effect," Quigg says. "But
if you have an ocean full of algae that do not like to use carbon-dioxide, then
you are in big trouble. Carbon-dioxide will keep increasing."
Quigg started participating in the study as a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers
University and continued the research after she joined Texas A&M at
Galveston. Other coauthors of the article are Paul G. Falkowski, professor of
biochemistry, biophysics and physiological adaptation, Oscar Schofield,
associate professor of marine biology and ocean optics, Miriam E. Katz,
assistant research professor at Rutgers University, Andrew H. Knoll, professor
of evolutionary biology at Harvard University, John A. Raven, professor of
biology at University of Dundee, UK, and F. J. R. Taylor, professor of biology
at University of British Columbia, Canada.
Read the original news release at
http://www.tamu.edu/univrel/aggiedaily/news/stories/04/072104-5.html.
An additional article on this subject is available at
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04zzu.html.
SCRIPPS RESEARCHERS DOCUMENT SIGNIFICANT CHANGES
IN THE DEEP SEA—CLIMATE AND FOOD SUPPLY
FLUCTUATIONS MAY HOLD MAJOR CONSEQUENCES FOR LIFE
IN THE ABYSS
Scripps Institution of Oceanography release
22 July 2004
Although it covers more than two-thirds of Earth's surface, much of the deep
sea remains unknown and unexplored, and many questions remain about how
its environment changes over time. A new study led by scientists at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has
shed new light on significant changes in the deep sea over a 14-year period.
Scripps Institution's Henry Ruhl and Ken Smith show in the new issue of the
journal, Science, that changes in climate at the surface of the ocean may be
impacting communities of larger animals more than 13,400 feet below the
ocean surface. Important climatic changes such as El Niño and La Niña
events are well known to affect regional and local areas, but Ruhl and Smith
describe how such changes also can extend to the deep ocean, one of Earth's
most remote environments.
Despite the early origins of cyanobacteria, an essential component of modern
phytoplankton, the ancestors of the majority of phytoplankton that dominate
the modern seas did not appear until 250 million years ago, the researchers
note. This is fairly recent in geological terms. Cyanobateria appeared 3.8
billion years ago. A cyanobacterium is a single-celled photosynthetic
organism, which with the help of sunlight could make carbon dioxide and
water into oxygen and energy providing chemicals.
The researchers showed that modern phytoplankton began to form at a time
when the low oxygen conditions characterized much of the world’s oceans.
Since a cyanobacterium was capable of producing oxygen and nutrients,
another bacterium, or a one-celled organism, ate the cyanobacterium, kept a
part of the cyanobacterium undigested, and let it function as an oxygen and
energy generating organelle. This added the photosynthesis function to the
eater, and transformed it into the phytoplankton that would later dominate the
sea.
The researchers found that changes in sea level, water chemistry and the
amount of carbon-dioxide in the water, and even the evolution of grass-eating
animals on land all contributed to the rise of the three dominant phytoplankton
groups. For example, rising sea levels provided more ecospace for the
phytoplankton, promoting increased diversity among the phytoplankton.
Quigg, coauthor of the Science magazine article said the study could help
scientists understand the effects of increased carbon dioxide, or the green
Scientists prepare to launch a "sled" used for capturing images of the deep
sea environment. The sled takes nearly two-and-a-half hours to reach its
destination more than 13,000 feet deep.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
"Large animals, the kind you would be able to see if you were standing on the
bottom of the ocean, may be impacted by climate just the same as animals in
shallow water or terrestrial environments," said Ruhl.
In 1999, Smith and colleague Ronald Kaufmann showed that seafloordwelling animals were experiencing a long-term food shortage. The new
study indicates that food supplies have since increased and that climate, food
supplies and the abundance of large animals on the seafloor are linked.
Since 1989 members of Smith's laboratory team have studied a deep-sea
location in the eastern North Pacific Ocean approximately 136 miles west of
Point Conception off the central California coast. "Station M," as the location
is known, has been the site of one of the longest time-series studies of any
abyssal area in the world.
"It's important to study these places on a long timescale because you can't
predict what is going to happen by just studying it once," said Smith, a
research biologist in the Marine Biology Research Division at Scripps. "If
you have changes such as these in such a large portion of the globe, you've got
to pay attention to it."
Ruhl and Smith use time-lapse photography, sediment traps and a host of
other equipment to capture basic ecological information related to the seafloor
community.
5
E-mail: [email protected]
Read the original news release at
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/article_detail.cfm?article_num=640.
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1102.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04zzv.html
EAVESDROPPING ON OLYMPUS—LET THE GAMES BEGIN
From Astrobiology Magazine
22 July 2004
As the world prepares for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, one can ask the
question: "Are we on Earth the only ones who will watch the games?"
Recall that a key story point in the Carl Sagan novel, Contact, relies on the
unique premise that we are not the only onlookers. Sagan's scenario depends
on the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as symbolically transmitting our
existence beyond the solar system. Earth inhabitants showed their interest in
contests for national pride and athletic skills to a listening audience on the
nearby star Vega. In the novel and screenplay based on the book, our own
message in a bottle then boomerangs back to us, as a greeting from another
world that they have heard us.
The plot device that the Earth leaks intelligent signals has appeared in many
science fiction stories of first contact. Broadcasting early radio shows or even
reruns of I Love Lucy to another culture on the home world, much less another
planet, has long been a source of potential bemusement. How would such a
randomly selected reflection of our culture be interpreted?
Left: an image of the animal, Psychropotes longicauda, on the seafloor at
Station M. Right: tracks made by the sea urchin, Echinocrepis sp., are clearly
visible from the camera sled.
The Science paper illustrates a stark contrast in the community structure of the
10 most dominant mobile animals before and after the powerful 1997-1998 El
Niño/La Niña event. Animals examined as part of the study include deepocean sea cucumbers, urchins and brittle stars. While numbers of some
animals decreased when food supplies were low during the 14-year period,
certain other species seemed to thrive on such conditions. For a number of
possible reasons, some of these animals may have a competitive advantage
during food shortages.
During their many trips to Station M, the researchers worked aboard the
Scripps research vessel New Horizon. Each expedition began with a 30-hour
trip out of San Diego heading northwest covering 300 miles. The researchers
typically remained at Station M for a week or more to complete the various
tasks necessary to retrieve, maintain and deploy instrumentation.
One of the key pieces of equipment they used is a camera mounted on a "sled"
that moves across the ocean bottom. Once lowered overboard, the device
takes nearly two-and-a-half hours to reach its more than 13,000-foot-deep
destination. A small animal-collecting net also makes the trip so the scientists
can retrieve and inspect the various animals seen in the photography. The
camera records about one photograph every five seconds. One hour of images
can lead to weeks of analysis for the scientists. Forty-eight such photo
transects (one transect can be nearly one mile across) were analyzed as part of
the study.
"The ocean is a source of food for human populations, but it's also a place of
waste disposal," said Smith. "It's important to consider how you impact the
deep sea. In that view it's puzzling that we don't study the deep sea in more
detail."
Funding for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation.
Contacts:
Mario Aguilera or Cindy Clark
Phone: 858-534-3624
Left: the first TV transmission from Earth, the 1936 Berlin games, and now
the farthest strong signal from an electromagnetically-leaking planet.
Because of the Second World War these were to be the last Olympics until
1948. Right: Arecibo, the world's largest dish, radio telescope (in Puerto
Rico).
Perhaps Sagan chose to single out first transmission as the 1936 Berlin Games
because the content is so antithetical to what we might have hoped for. Or in
an ideal case, a warlike contest of brawn and nationalism seems less than what
one might have planned as a friendly greeting. What as a species could show
us as less prepared for greeting another civilization than the way we greet
each other? After all the '36 Games advertised the politics of a nationalistic
Germany, on the precipice of the bloodiest war in human history, when
virtually no part of our globe could remain untouched by battle and conflict.
Even the notion of competitive games or a contest to rank national and
individual power, while oftentimes used historically to trigger truces or peace
talks, also represents a metaphor for unabashed cultural ambitions and
seemingly arbitrary or artificial borders that simply disappear when viewed
from space.
In that context, what maturity can humans portray to species even more unlike
ourselves, not just athletically but intellectually, culturally or morally? As
David Grinspoon noted on this dilemma in his book, Lonely Planets: The
Natural Philosophy of Alien Life, an advanced civilization observing
happenings on Earth might easily reply to our first signal: "Humans of the
planet Earth, you want to encounter other beings? First you have to learn to
live with your different people?" Was this challenge encapsulated by the
1936 Berlin Olympics?
From his years in designing SETI strategies, University of Washington
Professor, Woody Sullivan thinks what Hollywood did with Carl Sagan's
book, Contact, particularly the first half, is about as close as a popular film
can get to what it's like to do real SETI research. Much of the opening
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
sequence owes a debt to Sullivan, since he spearheaded the scientific
understanding that the Earth is leaking electromagnetic signals all the time,
mainly from TV and some military radars. Twenty-five years ago, "most
SETI was set up mainly to look at beacons from another civilization. But we
don't have a devoted beacon broadcasting from Earth even. A priori, we don't
know that a civilization would set up a beacon. But we Earthlings are leaking
all the time, just from our daily activities."
Just as the film, Contact, begins, the viewer is taken on a voyage, as if riding
such a signal from the depths of the universe until it zooms back towards
Earth. Before Sullivan's work, previous SETI strategists more often thought
of broadcast sources from another civilization as likely to be directed beacons,
or singularly devoted transmitters. Instead Sullivan supposed a viewpoint
about the more constant background noise, one that unavoidably might date
back to the film's key plot-point when the advanced civilization finds the first
terrestrial TV broadcast—the carrier signal when Adolf Hitler hauntingly
introduced the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. "These are not great examples
of our civilization," said Sullivan.
"I call this eavesdropping," continues Sullivan. "Sometimes when you
eavesdrop, you get a better idea of what is really going on, say at a party. So
when another civilization is eavesdropping on us, they may actually get a
better idea about what is going on with Earth. There is more to Earth, as a
planet, than what we could send on the gold record that traveled on the
Voyager spacecraft. We, as a planet, are not just about listening to Chuck
Berry."
It is, according to Sullivan, easy to miss whether TV coverage of the
Olympics can serve as an effective SETI message. Particularly when the
picture itself, the moving color image, is the least of what an advanced
civilization might want to watch, the physics of TV is more important than the
actual content carried. Sullivan notes "the input is not actual TV programs in
the broadcast signal. But I was talking first about the video carrier, which is a
single frequency carrier. Your TV locks onto it. You can't get the whole
program information. From another planet, you could get a lot or dozens of
those carriers, about a rotating planet with Doppler shifts. That communicates
a lot of information to a receiver."
Whether the 1936 or 2004 Olympics represents a global signal that we leak
apparently has less to do with the event itself and more to do with the
electromagnetic spectrum. Sullivan considers "what signals we Earthlings are
optimally leaking to our neighbors... should be broadly spread, strong, and
possibly discernable as an intelligent signal... So for a good signal for
reception, you want to balance a trade-off between both powerful and broadarea beaming."
Sitting down to watch the Olympics from 10 to 100 light-years away may not
reveal much of interest about a race of carbon-based bipeds. We will leak the
2004 Games to travel into deep space, just like we did with the 1936 Games.
Most of what qualifies as signals of sufficient persistence and strength have a
small probability of reaching just the right antenna. But chances are better
that another civilization will not be caught watching our TV.
6
SPINNING BRAINS
By Patrick L. Barry and Tony Phillips
From NASA Science News
23 July 2004
One day, astronauts might travel through the solar system onboard spinning
spaceships. Can human brains adapt?
Next time you go to a playground, try this. Bring along a ball and a friend,
and get on the merry-go-round. Try throwing the ball to your friend across
the ride from you, or even just a few feet beside you, and see if they can catch
it on the first attempt. They won't be able to, guaranteed. In fact, your throw
will be way off. You'll feel your arm pulled strangely to one side as you make
the throw, and once in flight, the ball will veer wildly.
Physicists call this the "Coriolis effect," and it happens on any spinning
platform. Hurricanes swirl because of the Coriolis effect, the spinning
platform being Earth itself. Contrary to popular belief, Coriolis forces do not
control your bathroom drains—Earth doesn't spin that fast. But playing ball
on a merry-go-round is definitely a Coriolis experience.
Space travel could be a Coriolis experience, too. Researchers have long
known that spinning spaceships like a merry-go-round could solve a lot of
problems. In weightlessness, astronaut's bones and muscles weaken. It's
tricky to eat and drink, and even use the bathroom. Inside a spinning
spaceship, on the other hand, there would be an artificial gravity (due to
centrifugal forces) that keeps bodies strong and makes everyday living easier.
An artist's concept of a spinning spaceship. Image credit: John Frassanito &
Associates, Inc.
The problem is, spinning spaceships also come with a strong Coriolis effect.
Tossed objects veer. Reach out to touch a button ... and your finger lands in
the wrong spot. Could astronauts adapt to this? And if so, could they adapt
well enough to perform dependably in the life-threatening environment of
space?
That's what researchers James Lackner and Paul DiZio are trying to figure out.
With support from NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research, these
two scientists are performing a series of experiments with people in rotating
chambers to learn how well astronauts might adjust to life onboard spinning
spaceships. They also hope to find training techniques that could help ease
the transition from non-spinning to spinning, and back again.
Sullivan concludes TV is only one way we declare ourselves outside our solar
system: "Military radar, called the Ballistic Military Early Warning System or
BMEWS, is a very powerful broadcast, but carries no real information. There
are a couple other strong radars on the planet. The strongest radar is Arecibo,
but it covers a very tiny bit of sky. The odds that you were in that patch, or
broadcast path, is unlikely."
Whatever the source of our leaked signals, there is a timeliness to considering
how we decorate our own local solar neighborhood. As the SETI Institute's
Jill Tarter, often cited as the inspiration for the lead scientist in the movie,
Contact, describes: "When you realize that you live in the first generation of
humans with access to a technology that might answer the age-old question,
'Are we alone?' all other scientific questions fade in importance."
Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1093.html.
A rotating room used by Lackner and DiZio in their
experiments at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation
Laboratory, Brandeis University.
"Experiments done in the 1960s seemed to show that people did not adapt
well to rotation," says Lackner, the Meshulam and Judith Riklis Professor of
Physiology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. "But in those
experiments, the subjects didn't have well-defined goals for their movements.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
We've found that when a specific goal is given for the motion, people adapt
rather quickly."
7
ANALYSIS: BUSH STANDS BY HIS SPACE PLAN
By Frank Sietzen
From UPI and SpaceDaily
Given specific motion goals (such as reaching out to touch a target), people in
their study learned to move accurately after only 10 to 20 attempts. Such a
rapid adjustment surprised the researchers.
26 July 2004
Says DiZio, an associate professor of psychology at Brandeis, "we speculate
that when a goal is present, the brain dictates the desired motion to the
muscles more precisely. Deviations from that motion are detected more
readily by sensory feedback to the brain."
President George W. Bush's new space exploration plan has received a burst
of hard-core support in Congress, aimed at blocking any attempt to cut its
funding, and backed up by a rare veto threat from the president himself. This
development has emerged in the wake of action by a House appropriations
subcommittee last week, which cut the administration's NASA budget request
for fiscal year 2005 by more than $1 billion.
Why should people have this natural ability to adapt to rotation? Our bodies
and brains might have evolved, to a degree, to deal with the Coriolis effect.
Every time you turn and reach for something simultaneously, you have a brief
Coriolis experience: turning atop an office chair; playing basketball; spinning
to see what made that strange noise behind you! In each case, your brain
makes on-the-fly Coriolis adjustments.
Other discoveries surprised the researchers, too. For example, after rotating
for a while, people in their study no longer perceived the Coriolis effect. The
veering pull on their arms and legs seemed to vanish. Their brains had
compensated for it, so their minds no longer took notice of it. Even stranger,
when test-subjects first return to a non-rotating environment, they report
feeling a Coriolis-pull in the opposite direction. It's just a trick of the mind,
notes DiZio. After another 10 to 20 attempts at a goal-oriented motion, their
brains readjust to the non-rotating world, and the phantom effect goes away.
DiZio and Lackner have found that people can adapt to rotational speeds as
fast as a carnival-ride-like 25 rpm. That's about as fast as people turn their
bodies during day-to-day life. For comparison, a spinning spaceship would
likely rotate more slowly, perhaps 10 rpm, depending on the size and design
of the craft.
To exert more control over the conditions of their experiment, the researchers
have tried something innovative: simulating the Coriolis effect with a robotic
arm. Seated subjects would try to make certain motions with their arm while
the robotic arm gently pulls on their wrist in a way that mimics the Coriolis
effect. The advantage of this approach is that the robotic arm can be
reprogrammed to pull in a variety of ways, thus testing how subjects respond
to different conditions. Using the arm, DiZio and Lackner have discovered
that people can adapt to a small, variable force even when it's masked by a
larger, constant force. So, for example, astronauts should be able to adapt to a
variable Coriolis effect in spite of some constant background force, such as
the steady push of a spacecraft's ion-propulsion thrusters.
Many questions remain un-answered. Do results based on arm motions apply
to the whole body? Does carrying heavy tools make a difference? After
adapting once, can a person re-adapt more easily later? What's the best way to
train astronauts for life in a rotating home? Lackner and DiZio plan to tackle
these questions and more as their research continues in the months to come.
Read the original article at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/23jul_spin.htm.
DOUBLE WHAMMY: ASTEROIDS DELIVERED ONE-TWO PUNCH
By Robert Roy Britt
From Space.com
26 July 2004
A pair of 35-million-year-old craters on Earth thought to have been carved by
comets now appears to be the result of a broken asteroid that generated a
slowly delivered shower of debris over millions of years. One crater is in
Chesapeake Bay off the Maryland coast. The other, called the Popigai crater,
is in north-central Siberia. Estimates of their age suggest they were created a
mere 10,000 years apart. Scientists had thought a comet shower of some sort
had left the two scars.
Read the full article at
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_shower_040726.html.
Bush had sought an FY 2005 NASA budget of $16.2 billion, a $866 million
increase over the current year. The subcommittee, however, approved a
NASA budget of $15.149 billion. That amount would not only slash the
entire increase the administration had requested, but also would cut NASA to
$229 million below the FY 2004 amount. Every element of the new space
exploration plan was cut, as were all other programs related to it.
Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel04zp.html.
SPACE SCIENCE PIONEER VAN ALLEN QUESTIONS HUMAN
SPACEFLIGHT
By Leonard David
From Space.com
26 July 2004
A leading space scientist has called to question the validity of human
spaceflight, suggesting that sending astronauts outward from Earth is
outdated, too costly, and the science returned is trivial. The human
spaceflight critic is no stranger to space—in fact he’s a pioneer in the space
science arena from the premier days of satellites orbiting Earth.
James van Allen, Regent Distinguished Professor at the University of Iowa, is
the noted discoverer of radiation belts encircling Earth. His seminal finding—
labeled the Van Allen radiation belts—stemmed from the scientist’s
experiment that flew on Explorer 1, America’s first satellite to successfully
orbit the Earth back on January 31, 1958.
Van Allen’s appraisal of manned space missions—"Is Human Spaceflight
Obsolete?"—is carried within the pages of the Summer 2004 volume of Issues
in Science and Technology.
Read the full article at
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/vanallen_spaceflight_040726.html.
CHINA TO LAUNCH SECOND MANNED SPACE MISSION IN 2005
From Agence France-Press and SpaceDaily
27 July 2004
China is expected to launch its second manned spacecraft, Shenzhou VI, on a
five-day mission in the second half of next year, state media quoted a Chinese
space expert as saying Tuesday. Huang Chunping, chief of the China Manned
Space Program's rocket carrier system, added China would realize its dream
of space walk with the launch of Shenzhou VII, although he did not specify a
date, Xinhua news agency reported.
Read the full article at
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040727185643.og7higl6.html.
THE SPILLPROOF EARTH—ELECTRONS TO PASS THE "WHITE
GLOVE" OVER A SPACEPROBE
From Astrobiology Magazine
27 July 2004
Texas A&M nuclear researchers are working with the NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory to examine how electron beam technology can sterilize spacecraft
components. Dr. Suresh Pillai, director of the National Center for Electron
Beam Food Research, and Dr. Lee Braby, a research professor in the
department of nuclear engineering, received a grant from NASA to investigate
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
how electron-beam irradiation can contribute to keeping future spacecrafts
from seeding other planets and moons inadvertently.
"Deep space missions must be properly sterilized to distinguish between
organisms brought from Earth and those that may be indigenous to other
planetary bodies, such as Mars," Pillai said in a Texas A&M report. This
concern culminated in the wording of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which
said that nations should pursue studies of solar system bodies "so as to avoid
their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of
the Earth."
"Electron-beam irradiation is potentially a better solution than dry-heat
sterilization, the key NASA-approved technique," said Pillai. When this
method of sterilization is used, electrons are accelerated between two charged
anodes and cathodes until they are sufficiently fast to damage the biology of
whatever microbes might be tyring to hitch-hike an unwanted extraterrestrial
voyage. The technique is already widely used in the plastics and food
preservation industries.
8
The research will revolve around heat-sensitive materials such as lowtemperature adhesives, polymers used in making lander balloons and printed
circuit board materials. The focus will be on developing electron-beam
technology for spacecraft materials and components.
"The proposed work will advance electron-beam sterilization technology to an
operational level," Pillai said. "This will be a major advance towards adding a
new and highly capable sterilization technique to the current limited NASA
planetary protection tool set."
NASA's instruction on planetary protection expresses this careful approach to
protecting from cross contamination: "The conduct of scientific investigations
of possible extraterrestrial life forms, precursors, and remnants must not be
jeopardized. In addition, the Earth must be protected from the potential
hazard posed by extraterrestrial matter carried by a spacecraft returning from
another planet.
Therefore, for certain space-mission/target-planet
combinations, controls on organic and biological contamination carried by
spacecraft shall be imposed in accordance with directives implementing this
policy."
Requirements for forward decontamination vary from Category I, for missions
to bodies of no biological interest (for example, the Sun), to Category IV,
where a spacecraft will land on a planet of potential biological interest.
Category V is reserved for missions that visit another solar system body (other
than the Moon) and return to Earth.
The category five catastrophe
A thin section of Strain 121, the so-called "unboilable
bug" which survives high-pressure autoclave heating to
a record breaking 121 degrees Celsius, or about 250
degrees Fahrenheit. "Growth at 121 C is remarkable,"
reported discoverers of Strain 121, Lovley and Kashefi,
"because sterilization at 121°C, typically in pressurized
autoclaves to maintain water in a liquid state, is a
standard procedure, shown to kill all previously
described microorganisms and heat-resistant spores."
(The white bar equals one micron.) Image credit:
Derek Lovley, U. Mass., Amherst.
NASA's Planetary Protection Program aims to preserve pristine conditions
both going outwards and when returning future samples to Earth. John
Rummel of the Office of Planetary Protection and Michael Meyer of NASA's
Astrobiology Program wrote that Earth is surprisingly hard to wipe off what
otherwise might appear to retain its pristine mint conditions. "On Earth,"
noted Meyer and Rummel, "living organisms are distributed throughout our
planet: in rock at depths of over 1,000 meters (about 3,000 feet), in soil frozen
for more than 3 million years, in 110-degree Celsius (230-degree Fahrenheit)
seawater and so on. Life can reach high abundances in the right environments
(a human body contains about 50 percent nonhuman cells, by number, and
sheds about 50,000 living cells per day). It is impossible, under normal
conditions, to visit Earth and not encounter life." By a similar token, outgoing
spacecraft have to be wiped clean using a combination of heat, low-humidity
and gamma irradiation in those cases where the electronics are suited for such
exposures.
Pillai said dry-heat sterilization involves heating components at 110°C for at
least 40 hours. Unlike dry heat, electron beams sterilize at relatively lower
temperatures and involve radiation-damage to microbial DNA for the
techniques success at preserving spacecraft cleanliness.
"Unfortunately, many components are heat sensitive and undergo
deterioration making them incompatible with heat sterilization," Pillai said.
David Grinspoon, a planetary scientist who spearheaded the Magellan mission
to Venus, noted that fictional accounts of space probes spreading microbes
into another potentially unprotected biosphere has been a traditional concern.
"You may not know it," wrote Grinspoon, "but NASA is guarding you against
this danger through the Office of Planetary Protection, which is charged with
preventing the inadvertent spreading of life between worlds during space
exploration... NASA is also making concerted efforts to prevent 'forward
contamination,' in which we would be the evil alien invaders who seed other
planets with Earth bugs. NASA crashed the Galileo spacecraft into Jupiter...
in an effort to avoid the remote possibility that the spacecraft would one day
smash into Europa and cause an unforgivable planetary pandemic on that
watery moon. ...[The Mars probes, Spirit and Opportunity] have all been
carefully sterilized so that we will not return to Mars one day to find Earthly
life forms that we accidentally deposited in an earlier voyage."
The only samples that have been returned to Earth so far have come from the
moon. Astronauts on the Apollo missions returned 379 kilograms (835
pounds) of rock and soil from the Moon, and three Russian spacecraft (Luna
16, 20 and 24) also returned moon samples. The samples were kept in sealed
containers until they arrived at their respective laboratories for study. Some
proposals discuss having both the European Space Agency and NASA launch
martian sample return missions by 2011, with samples returning to Earth by
2016.
Sample return missions currently in progress include spacecraft designed to
sample a comet, an asteroid, and the solar wind. Although life is not likely to
be found in these places, the precursor chemicals that make life possible may
be present. NASA's Stardust mission, launched in 1999, will reach comet
Wild 2 in January 2004. Stardust will return to Earth with both cometary and
interstellar dust particle samples in January 2006. NASA's Genesis mission
was designed to collect solar wind samples. The spacecraft was launched in
August of 2001 and has now collected particles coming off the sun. The
samples will be returned to Earth in September 2004. Japan's MUSES-C
spacecraft, launched May 2003, is headed for asteroid 1998 SF36. After its
arrival in June 2005, the spacecraft will gather up to one gram of material
from a variety of sites on the asteroid. The samples are expected to arrive
back on Earth by June 2007. In looking forward to these and other missions,
any addition to the tools available for handling life's bountiful productivity
may broaden the kinds of future space hardware that passes our own planet's
ultimate "white glove" test.
Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1100.html.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
NASA PLAYS KEY ROLE IN LARGEST ENVIRONMENTAL
EXPERIMENT IN HISTORY
NASA/GSFC release 2004-242
9
also allow researchers and Brazilian policy makers to discuss ways to use
LBA results to create public policies for the Amazon region that foster a
healthy environment and provide for sustainable development.
27 July 2004
Researchers from around the globe participating in the world’s largest
environmental science experiment, the Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere
Experiment in Amazonia (LBA), will, fittingly, convene in Brazil this week.
From July 27-29, some 800 researchers will attend the Third International
Scientific Conference of the LBA in Brasilia, Brazil, to discuss key findings
on how the world’s largest rainforest impacts the ecological health of
Amazonia and the world. Never before has so much information about the
Amazon been assembled for presentation at once.
Forest Clearing in Central Rondonia, Brazil (1986-1997). These Landsat
images show forest clearing in Central Rondonia, Brazil between 1986 and
1997. The red areas are still forested. Image credit: NASA.
NASA plays a key role in LBA research. Satellites provide data for studying
land use changes and their impacts on climate. Scientists hope to learn more
about the Amazon forest’s role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) traps heat and adds to global warming.
Plant life absorbs CO2 from the air during photosynthesis and stores it in
stems, leaves and roots. In order to understand regional and global carbon
balances, researchers must quantify how much carbon is taken up by the
rainforest as well as how much is released back to the atmosphere when
forests are cleared or burned.
In the Amazon, deforestation, selective logging, fires and forest re-growth all
play major roles in the carbon balance. In the Brazilian Amazon region alone,
annual clear-cutting and burning of forests cover about 20,000 square
kilometers (7,700 square miles or about the area of New Jersey). NASA data
products from various instruments on the Landsat series of satellites have
documented the history of deforestation in the Amazon since the 1970s. LBA
researchers have found ways to measure both logging area and logging
damage using Landsat and experimental new sensors on NASA’s EO-1
satellite.
Amazon River, Brazil. A Landsat Image of the Amazon River, Brazil, on
November 30, 2000. Image credit: NASA, Landsat.org, Center for Global
Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University.
LBA is partly funded by NASA. Also, scores of projects that feed the
Amazon experiment depend heavily on NASA’s vast expertise in satellite
information, computer modeling, and providing infrastructure for large-scale
field campaigns. The overall experiment concentrates on how the Amazon
forest and land use changes within the region affect the atmosphere, and
regional and global climate. In turn, LBA also studies how climate changes
influence the biological, chemical and physical functioning of the forest itself.
Ecosystem models and NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites
have helped scientists understand how the exchange of carbon between the
forest and atmosphere differs over the course of the year. Also, LBA studies
have found forest uptake of CO2 is not enough to keep pace with carbon that is
returned to the atmosphere when forests are cut. Burning practices to clear
fields for farming often result in fires spreading to adjacent forests. These
large fires create air pollution and can contribute to respiratory problems in
people. Thick smoke has forced airports to close, and has caused highway
accidents. Satellite retrievals of concentrations of airborne particles from
NASA’s MODIS instrument have been used by Brazil’s Center for Weather
Prediction and Climate Studies to create models that can predict fire risk and
smoke transport in near-real time.
Satellite data also help scientists study how particles from fires impact climate
and weather. These particles, known as aerosols, can both heat and cool the
air, depending on size, shape and color.
Scheduled to end in 2006, LBA is considered an international scientific
success, with 61 projects completed and 59 in progress. The efforts include
more than 1,000 researchers from institutions in Brazil, the United States,
eight European countries and several other countries of the Amazon Basin
(Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador). LBA is financed by
Brazilian funding agencies, NASA and the European Union.
For information and images about this research on the Internet, visit
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0727lba.html.
LBA Study Sites. LBA sites span the Amazon from the headwaters in the
Andes, along the river and its tributaries in the Amazon Basin, to the River’s
mouth in coastal Brazil. Image credit: Map courtesy LBA science team,
adapted by Robert Simmon.
Contacts:
Gretchen Cook-Anderson
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-0836
Topics discussed at the conference will include: the carbon cycle, the water
cycle, human land use, ecosystem processes and human health, agricultural
applications, and other topics relating to the Amazon. The conference will
Krishna Ramanujan
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Phone: 607-273-2561
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
10
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/eo-04zzzg.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0407/27environment/
HOWLING AT THE MOON: SPACE ENTREPRENEURS SEE RED
OVER MARS FAVORITISM
By Leonard David
From Space.com
28 July 2004
The ability of NASA to rise to the occasion and put into practice U.S.
President George W. Bush's vision for space exploration appears to be up for
grabs as his 2005 budget request now founders in Congress. Meanwhile
entrepreneurs believe the U.S. space agency's preoccupation with Mars is
eclipsing in importance our closest celestial neighbor: the Moon.
Throughout its history, NASA has prided itself on meeting precise, right-tothe-second launch windows. This time, however, the stakes are higher than
the targets the agency typically shoots for.
Yet while NASA undergoes an internal overhaul, financial roadblocks have
appeared. The President's 2005 budget request, containing the seed money for
his ambitious Moon-to-Mars and beyond plan, has so far been rejected by a
congressional panel, removing $1.1 billion from the $16.2 billion request.
Read the full article at http://www.space.com/news/rtm_nasa_040728.html.
METEORITE FROM OMAN RECORDS ITS LUNAR LAUNCH SITE
AND DETAILED HISTORY
By Lori Stiles
University of Arizona release
29 July 2004
Scientists have pinpointed the source of a meteorite from the moon for the
first time. Their unique meteorite records four separate lunar impacts. They
are the first to precisely date Mare Imbrium, the youngest of the large
meteorite craters on the moon. That date, 3.9 billion years ago, is a new key
date for lunar and even terrestrial stratigraphy, the scientists say, because life
on Earth would have evolved only after heavy meteorite bombardment ended.
X-ray tomograph showing the interior of the meteorite. White are feldspar
fragments, olivine and pyroxene appear dark, and the fine-grained matrix
gray. Note the textural change in to top part of the image marking the
regolith, and the large rock clast in the center of the image. Image credit:
EMPA, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
"The desert in Oman is the new place to find meteorites," said A. J. Tim Jull
of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Jull directs the National Science
Foundation Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Laboratory. He
analyzed beryllium and carbon isotopes that told how long the meteorite was
in space after it was launched from the moon and how long ago it fell to Earth
at Oman.
Scientists who've acquired the special permits needed to search for meteorites
in Oman and North Africa during the past half-dozen years have been amply
rewarded, Jull said. Seven of the 30 known lunar meteorites have been found
in Oman, and five have been found in North Africa. One was found in
Australia and the rest have been found in Antarctica. Hot or cold, arid
climates preserve meteorites from quickly weathering, Jull noted.
Gnos, Al-Kathiri and Hofmann recognized in the field that the meteorite was
of lunar or martian origin because it wasn't magnetic. Meteorites from
planetary bodies don't contain metal. And, typical of lunar rocks, it was
greenish colored and contained white angular feldspar inclusions.
But when they tested it with a Geiger counter, they found it was no typical
lunar rock. They found it contained high levels of radioactive uranium,
thorium and potassium. Gamma ray-spectroscopy lab tests told them that the
ratios between these elements fit only one enigmatic group of lunar rocks
called "KREEP," the acronym of K for potassium, REE for rare earth
elements, and P for phosphate.
"At that moment, it was clear that the rock had something to do with the large
Imbrium impact basin, the right eye of the man in the moon," Gnos et al.
report on the Web at http://www.geo.unibe.ch/sau169. The Imbrium impact
basin on the lunar nearside is the only area where KREEP rocks are found.
KREEP rocks are known both from samples returned by the Apollo missions
and by NASA's Lunar Prospector Orbiter radioactivity survey in 1998-99.
Photograph of SaU 169 obtained during initial inspection in the lab.
Maximum dimension is 7 cm. Image credit: Peter Vollenweider.
Geologists who found the meteorite and scientists from Swiss, Swedish,
German, British, and Arizona laboratories who analyzed the unique stone
report their work in the July 30 issue of Science. Swiss geologist Edwin Gnos
is first author of the article titled "Pinpointing the Source of Lunar Meteorite:
Implications for the Evolution of the Moon." Gnos, Ali Al-Kathiri and Beda
Hofmann found the 206-gram (7-ounce) meteorite in Oman on January 16,
2002. The geologists were on a joint meteorite search expedition sponsored
by the Government of Oman, the Natural History Museum of Berne and the
University of Berne.
The scientists conducted a battery of laboratory tests to piece together a
detailed history of the meteorite, named Sayh al Uhaymir (SaU) 169. They
summarize SaU 169's history:

At 3.909 billion years ago, plus or minus 13 million years An asteroid
collides with the moon, forming the 1160 km (720-mile) diameter
Imbrium impact basin. Crushed and molten rocks mix and solidify to
form the main rock type in meteorite SaU 169.

At 2.8 billion years ago, a meteorite hits the moon, forming the 25 km

(15-mile) diameter Lalande crater south of the Imbrium basin. The
impact blasts material, including the main rock type in SaU 169, from
depth and deposits it as an ejecta blanket around the crater. The ejecta
there mixes with other lunar soil.

At 200 million years ago, another impact brings the rock that will
become a meteorite to within a half-meter (20 inches) of the lunar
surface.

At less than 340,000 years ago, another impact hits the moon, producing
a crater a few kilometers in diameter and ejects SaU 169 from the moon.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
The scientists studied NASA images and identified a young, 3 km (1.8-mile)
diameter crater 70 km (43 miles) north-northeast of Lalande as the meteorite's
likely launch site. Jull measured beryllium 10 in SaU 169 and determined the
meteorite's moon-to-Earth transit time at around 300,000 years. He also
measured carbon 14 in SaU 169, which shows the meteorite fell in presentday Oman around 9,700 years ago, plus or minus 1,300 years.
11
geologic features hidden in thousands of images of the surface. The Web site
is located at http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landingsites/index.html.
"The initial reason to create Marsoweb was to help scientists select potential
Mars landing sites for the current Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission,"
according to Virginia Gulick, a scientist from the SETI Institute, Mountain
View, CA, who works at NASA Ames Research Center, located in
California's Silicon Valley. "The Web site was designed just for Mars
scientists so they could view Mars data easily," she added.
But when the first Mars Exploration Rover landed on Mars in January, the
general public discovered Marsoweb. More than a half million "unique
visitors" found the page, and the Web experienced about 26.7 million "hits" in
January.
"An interactive data map on Marsoweb allows users to view most Mars data
including images, thermal inertia, geologic and topographical maps and
engineering data that includes rock abundance," Gulick said. Thermal inertia
is a material's capacity to store heat (usually in daytime) and conduct heat
(often at night). "The engineering data give scientists an idea of how smooth
or rocky the local surface is," Gulick explained.
Rock slice of SaU 169. The two main lithologies visible are impact melt
breccia (light colored) and regolith (dark area). Note that both rock types
contain abundant rock fragments comprising magmatic and volcanic rocks,
metamorphic rocks, and rock breccias. Volcanic rock and rock breccias are
restricted to the regolith part. Image credit: Peter Vollenweider.
"Without the Apollo and Luna sampling programs, and especially the huge
advance in knowledge of the Moon acquired during investigations in the last
20 30 years, we would only be able to tell that SaU 169 is an exceptional
lunar rock," the scientists said on their web site. "Without background
information from such missions as Clementine and Lunar Prospector, we
could never have linked ages and chemical data with lunar surface
information."
"SaU is a rock which demonstrates impressively how rocks can travel, like a
ping-pong-ball, from one body to another," they said.
Related web sites
SaU 169 meteorite: http://illite.unibe.ch/sau169/
NSF-Arizona AMS Lab: http://www.physics.arizona.edu/ams/index.html
University of Arizona science news: http://uanews.org/science
Contacts:
Lori Stiles
UA News Services
Phone: 520-621-1877
A. J. Tim Jull
Phone: 520-621-6816
E-mail: [email protected]
Edwin Gnos
Phone: (+41) 31 631 84 93 (office), (+41) 31 631 39 36 (lab)
E-mail: [email protected]
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://cl.extm.us/?fe821c757d6c027b71-fe28167073670175701c72
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_rock_040729.html
NASA INVITES PUBLIC TO EXPLORE "RED PLANET" VIA
INTERNET
NASA/ARC release 2004-74AR
29 July 2004
NASA scientists have modified a scientific Web site so the general public can
inspect big regions and smaller details of Mars' surface, a planet whose alien
terrain is about the same area as Earth's continents. After adding "computer
tools" to the "Marsoweb" Internet site, NASA scientists plan to ask volunteers
from the public to virtually survey the vast red planet to look for important
To examine a large number of distinctive or interesting geologic features on
the red planet close up would take an army of people because Mars' land
surface is so big. Such a multitude of explorers—modern equivalents of
America's early pioneers—may well survey details of Mars through personal
computers.
Researchers hope that volunteers will help with an upcoming Mars imaging
experiment. NASA scientists are getting ready for the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) that will fly on the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, slated for launch in August 2005.
Gulick, co-investigator and education and public outreach lead of the HiRISE
team, said that the experiment's super high-resolution camera will be able to
capture images of objects on Mars' surface measuring about a yard (one
meter) wide.
User-friendly 'Web tools' soon will be available to the science community and
the public to view and analyze HiRISE images beginning in November 2006
and to submit image observation requests, according to HiRISE scientists. If
all goes according to plan, a request form will be on the Internet for use by
scientists and the public about the time of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
launch in 2005. Marsoweb computer scientist Glenn Deardorff, Gulick and
other HiRISE team members are now designing Web-friendly software
"tools" to allow the public to examine and evaluate HiRISE images.
"We will ask volunteers to help us create 'geologic feature' databases of
boulders, gullies, craters—any kind of geologic feature that may be of
interest," Gulick explained. "Scientists or students can use these databases to
propose theories about Mars that could be proven by future exploration."
Preliminary details about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE's exploration
of Mars are on the World Wide Web at http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/hirise/.
The current Marsoweb site includes animated "fly-throughs" of some Mars
locations. The site also permits users to fine-tune Mars images for brightness,
contrast and sharpness as well as make other adjustments.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, operated by the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Exploration Rover and
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions for the NASA Office of Space
Science, Washington, DC.
Contact:
John Bluck
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Phone: 650-604-5026 or 604-9000
E-mail: [email protected]
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_web_040802.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/public_invited_help_catalog_mars.
html
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
THE DARKENING EARTH: LESS SUN AT THE EARTH'S SURFACE
COMPLICATES CLIMATE MODELS
By David Appell
From Scientific American
Much to their surprise, scientists have found that less sunlight has been
reaching the earth's surface in recent decades. The sun isn't going dark; rather
clouds, air pollution and aerosols are getting in the way. Researchers are
learning that the phenomenon can interact with global warming in ways that
had not been appreciated.
"This is something that people haven't been aware of," says Shabtai Cohen of
the Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences in Bet Dagan, Israel.
"And it's taken a long time to gain supporters in the scientific world." Cohen's
colleague Gerald Stanhill first published his solar dimming results 15 years
ago.
Read the full article at
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=5&articleID=000C
3AAE-D82A-10F9-975883414B7F0000.
HOW SPECIAL IS THE SOLAR SYSTEM?
Royal Astronomical Society release
12
University of Leicester, UK
Phone: +44 (0)116 2231802
E-mail: [email protected]
Professor Andrew King
University of Leicester, UK
Phone: +44 (0)116 2522072
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Mario Livio
Space Telescope Science Institute, USA
Phone: +1 410 338 4439
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Jim Pringle
University of Cambridge, UK
Phone: +44 (0)1223 337513
E-mail: [email protected]
LIFE ON MARS LIKELY, SCIENTIST CLAIMS
By Leonard David
From Space.com
3 August 2004
3 August 2004
On the evidence to date, our solar system could be fundamentally different
from the majority of planetary systems around stars because it formed in a
different way. If that is the case, Earth-like planets will be very rare. After
examining the properties of the 100 or so known extrasolar planetary systems
and assessing two ways in which planets could form, Dr. Martin Beer and
Professor Andrew King of the University of Leicester, Dr. Mario Livio of the
Space Telescope Science Institute and Dr. Jim Pringle of the University of
Cambridge flag up the distinct possibility that our solar system is special in a
paper to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society.
In our solar system, the orbits of all the major planets are quite close to being
circular (apart from Pluto’s, which is a special case), and the four giant planets
are a considerable distance from the Sun. The extrasolar planets detected so
far—all giants similar in nature to Jupiter—are by comparison much closer to
their parent stars, and their orbits are almost all highly elliptical and so very
elongated.
"There are two main explanations for these observations," says Martin Beer.
"The most intriguing is that planets can be formed by more than one
mechanism and the assumption astronomers have made until now—that all
planets formed in basically the same way—is a mistake."
In the picture of planet formation developed to explain the solar system, giant
planets like Jupiter form around rocky cores (like the Earth), which use their
gravity to pull in large quantities of gas from their surroundings in the cool
outer reaches of a vast disc of material. The rocky cores closer to the parent
star cannot acquire gas because it is too hot there and so remain Earth-like.
The most popular alternative theory is that giant planets can form directly
through gravitational collapse. In this scenario, rocky cores—potential Earthlike planets—do not form at all. If this theory applies to all the extrasolar
planet systems detected so far, then none of them can be expected to contain
an Earth-like planet that is habitable by life of the kind we are familiar with.
However, the team is cautious about jumping to a definite conclusion too soon
and warns about the second possible explanation for the apparent disparity
between the solar system and the known extrasolar systems. Techniques
currently in use are not yet capable of detecting a solar-system look-alike
around a distant star, so a selection effect might be distorting the statistics—
like a fisherman deciding that all fish are larger than 5 inches because that is
the size of the holes in his net.
It will be another 5 years or so before astronomers have the observing power
to resolve the question of which explanation is correct. Meanwhile, the
current data leave open the possibility that the solar system is indeed different
from other planetary systems.
Contacts:
Dr. Martin Beer
Those twin robots hard at work on Mars have transmitted teasing views that
reinforce the prospect that microbial life may exist on the red planet.
Results from NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers are being looked over by
a legion of planetary experts, including a scientist who remains steadfast that
his experiment in 1976 proved the presence of active microbial life in the
topsoil of Mars.
"All factors necessary to constitute a habitat for life as we know it exist on
current-day Mars," explained Gilbert Levin, executive officer for science at
Spherix Incorporated of Beltsville, Maryland.
Levin made his remarks here Monday at the International Symposium on
Optical Science and Technology, the 49th annual meeting of Society of PhotoOptical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
Read the full article at
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_microorganisms_040803.html.
NASA SELECTS FUTURE MISSION CONCEPTS FOR STUDY
NASA/JPL release 2004-186
29 July 2004
NASA has selected nine studies, including one from the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, to investigate new ideas for future mission
concepts within its Astronomical Search for Origins Program. Some of the
new mission ideas will survey one billion stars within our own galaxy;
measure the distribution of galaxies in the distant universe; study dust and gas
between galaxies; study organic compounds in space and investigate their role
in planetary system formation; and create an optical-ultraviolet telescope to
replace NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The products from these concept
studies will be used for future planning of missions complementing the
existing suite of operating missions, including NASA's Hubble and Spitzer
Space Telescopes, and developmental missions such as the James Webb
Space Telescope and Terrestrial Planet Finder.
Each of the selected studies will have eight months to further develop and
refine concepts for missions addressing different aspects of Origins Program
science. The Origins Program seeks to address the fundamental questions:
"Where did we come from?" and "Are we alone?" NASA received 26
proposals in response to this call for mission concepts.
The selected proposals and their principal investigators are:

A Background Limited Infrared-Submillimeter Spectrograph for Spica:
Revealing the Nature of the Far-Infrared Universe, Matt Bradford, JPL,
Pasadena, CA. The study will enable far-infrared spectroscopy of the
galaxies that make up the far-infrared background out to distances of
some of the farthest galaxies known today. Its spectral surveys will
chart the history of creation of elements heavier than helium and energy
production through cosmic time. (Note: Spica is a Japanese mission).
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004

Origins Billion Star Survey, Kenneth Johnston, U.S. Naval Observatory,
Washington, DC. The survey will provide a complete census of giant
extrasolar planets for all types of stars in our galaxy and the
demographics of stars within 30,000 light-years of the Sun.

The Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope, David Leisawitz,
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. This imaging and
spectral Michelson interferometer operating in the mid- to far-infrared
region of the spectrum. Its very high angular resolution in the farinfrared will enable revolutionary developments in the field of star and
planet formation research.

Cosmic Inflation Probe, Gary Melnick, Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory, Cambridge, MA. The probe will measure the shape of
cosmic inflation potential by conducting a space-based, near-infrared,
large-area redshift survey capable of detecting galaxies that formed early
in the history of the universe.

High Orbit Ultraviolet-visible Satellite, Jon Morse, Arizona State
University, Tempe. This mission will conduct a step-wise, systematic
investigation of star formation in the Milky Way, nearby galaxies and
the high-redshift universe; the origin of the elements and cosmic
structure; and the composition of and physical conditions in the
extended atmospheres of extrasolar planets.




Hubble Origins Probe, Colin Norman, Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD. This mission seeks to combine instruments built for the
fifth Hubble servicing mission: Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and Wide
Field Camera 3. This new space telescope at the forefront of modern
astronomy will have a unifying focus on the period when the great
majority of star and planet formation, heavy element production, blackhole growth and galaxy assembly took place.
The Astrobiology Space Infrared Explorer Mission: A Concept Mission
to Understand the Role Cosmic Organics Play in the Origin of Life,
Scott Sandford, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. This is a
mid- and far-infrared space observatory optimized to spectroscopically
detect and identify organic compounds and related materials in space,
and understand how these materials are formed, evolve and find their
way to planetary surfaces.
The Baryonic Structure Probe, Kenneth Sembach, Space Telescope
Science Institute, Baltimore, MD. The probe will strengthen the
foundations of observational cosmology by directly detecting, mapping
and characterizing the cosmic web of matter in the early universe, its
inflow into galaxies, and its enrichment with elements heavier than
hydrogen and helium (the products of stellar and galactic evolution).
Galaxy Evolution and Origins Probe, Rodger Thompson, University of
Arizona. The probe will observe more than five million galaxies to
study the mass assembly of galaxies, the global history of star formation,
and the change of galaxy size and brightness over a volume of the
universe large enough to determine the fluctuations of these processes.
More information on NASA's Origins Program is available on the Internet at
http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Contacts:
Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Phone: 818-354-0880
Donald Savage
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-1727
An additional article on this subject is available at
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/search_for_origins_shortlist.html.
13
NASA INVESTIGATORS SELECTED FOR HUMAN AND ROBOTIC
TECHNOLOGY
NASA release 2004-248
30 July 2004
NASA's Office of Exploration Systems has selected the proposals of 50
NASA investigators from its ten field centers to support the human and
robotic technology goals and objectives of the Vision for Space Exploration.
Total value of the work is approximately $570 million through fiscal year
2008.
"The Office of Exploration Systems was created to assist the agency in
achieving its new strategic direction of establishing human and robotic space
exploration as its primary goal," said Associate Administrator Rear Admiral
Craig E. Steidle, USN (Ret.). "The selection of these investigators and the
technologies they have proposed will help NASA meet the challenging goals
and objectives of leaving low-Earth orbit and returning to the moon and then
Mars. These technologies may also benefit our lives on Earth much like the
Apollo missions led to the development of medical diagnostic tools such as
the CT scan."
The selection was made in response to an intramural call for proposals and is
the first of several steps towards developing new partnerships among NASA,
industry and academia. The Human and Robotic Technology (H&RT)
investment portfolio resulting from these partnerships will have a positive
affect on future exploration missions. The selected proposals support the
following H&RT programs: Advanced Space Technology Program,
Technology Maturation Program, and Innovative Technology Transfer
Partnerships Program.
For the names of the winning proposals and more information about
Exploration Systems on the Internet, visit http://exploration.nasa.gov/. For
more information about NASA on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov.
Contact:
Michael Braukus
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-1979
NASA RELEASES BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR
EXPLORATION
NASA release 2004-249
30 July 2004
NASA's Office of Exploration Systems has released a Broad Agency
Announcement (BAA) for Human and Robotic Technology (H&RT) systemof-systems that will seek research and technology development proposals in
support of the nation's Vision for Space Exploration. The Vision for Space
Exploration gives NASA a new focus and clear objectives to establish a
sustained and affordable human and robotic space exploration program to
explore the solar system, first returning to the moon and then Mars.
"The Office of Exploration Systems is opening up its programs to industry
and academia," said Associate Administrator Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle,
USN (Ret.). "This is a significant opportunity for vendors to become involved
in an open competitive process. We have adopted a new approach to reach
outside expertise to work with us in developing partnerships that will benefit
the nation's goals for space exploration."
This BAA is open to industry, universities and nonprofit organizations in
support of the Advanced Space Technology Program (ASTP) and the
Technology Maturation Program (TMP). The BAA is open for one year
through July 27, 2005. ASTP is seeking proposals in areas such as advanced
concepts, technology databases, advanced materials, health management
technologies, energy storage, advanced chemical propulsion, and space
communications and networking. TMP is seeking proposals in areas such as
highly-reliable/autonomous deep-space cryogenic-propellant refueling
systems; robust and reconfigurable habitation systems; space assembly,
maintenance and servicing systems; and surface environmental management
systems.
For more information about Exploration Systems on the Internet, visit
http://exploration.nasa.gov/. For more information about NASA on the
Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
Contact:
Michael Braukus
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-1979
NASA ANNOUNCES SPACE RADIATION MATERIALS RESEARCH
GRANTS
NASA release 2004-255
2 August 2004
14
days following the bed-rest period they will undergo similar tests, for
comparison with the baseline data.
The research protocols come from a variety of international research teams
selected through strict review by international experts. These protocols will
assess the three groups to draw conclusions relating to specific areas including
muscle condition, blood parameters, cardiovascular condition, changes in
immune system, bone formation and psychological wellbeing. All research
areas, objectives and protocols of the study have been approved by the
responsible French ethical committee in Toulouse and will comply fully with
all applicable national and international laws and regulations.
NASA has selected 19 researchers to conduct ground-based research in space
radiation biology and space radiation shielding materials. Sponsored by
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, this research will use the
NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (SRL) and the Alternating Gradient
Synchrotron at the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory
on Long Island, NY. The SRL provides beams of radiation that are the same
type and energy as found in space. They will be used for studies in radiation
physics and biology in order to accurately predict and manage radiation risk in
space. NASA received 70 proposals in September 2003 in response to this
research announcement. All proposals were peer-reviewed by scientific and
technical experts from academia, government and industry. The awarded
grants total approximately $13.5 million.
With the European Space Agency's future plans for human space exploration,
the results expected from this research will prove valuable in planning longduration human missions. This research will also have clinical significance on
Earth, advancing knowledge and pointing to improved methods to assist
recovery by bedridden patients, and providing countermeasures to conditions
associated with reduced physical activity.
"To enable the accomplishment of the Vision for Exploration, protecting
humans from the damaging effects of cosmic radiation is one of the most
critical problems that NASA must solve," said Guy Fogleman, associate
director for human health and performance. "These newly selected research
projects are an integral part of NASA's strategy to solve this problem," he
added.
Contacts:
Franco Bonacina
ESA Media Relations Division
Phone: +33 1 5369 7155
Fax: +33 1 5369 7690
For more information on space research and a listing of the selected
researchers, listed by state, along with their institutions and their research
titles, please see http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/.
Contacts:
Dolores Beasley
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-1753
ESA IS LOOKING FOR FEMALE VOLUNTEERS FOR A BED-REST
STUDY IN TOULOUSE NEXT YEAR
ESA release 45-2004
Details of the requirements to be met by candidates, the conditions of
participation and the application to become one of the participants in the
Female Bed-Rest Study can be found at: www.medes.fr/ltbrw. Information
can also be obtained by phone: +33 825 82 54 84 for international calls
(€0.20/min) and 0 825 82 54 84 from inside France (€0.15/min).
Peter Jost
Life Science Medical Doctor
Directorate of Human Spaceflight
Phone: +31 71 565 6612
Fax: +31 71 565 3661
E-mail: [email protected]
CASSINI UPDATES
NASA/JPL releases
Saturn's Rings Offer a Fresco of Color
NASA image advisory 2004-185, 22 July 2004
3 August 2004
In preparation for a 60-day Female Bed-Rest Study, which starts in
January/February 2005, an official call for candidates to participate as test
subjects has been issued. The study is a joint venture between the European
Space Agency (ESA), the French space agency (CNES), the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Canadian Space
Agency (CSA). It will be carried out by MEDES, the French Institute for
Space Medicine and Physiology, in its clinical research facility at the Rangueil
hospital in Toulouse, France. The Bed-Rest Study will need 24 female
candidates who will remain in bed, slightly tilted head down at six degrees
below horizontal, for a total of 60 days, to simulate the physiological effects
of an extended period in weightlessness as experienced by astronauts. Within
the framework of various research protocols, the study will assess the role of
nutrition and physical exercise in countering the adverse effects of longduration weightlessness on female astronauts.
So far little is known of how the female body is affected by weightless
conditions. This is because the majority of previous ground-based studies
have been carried out on male volunteers, and because relatively few women
have flown in space to date. The study will help advance knowledge of
gender differences in the experience of extended exposure to weightlessness.
The 24 test subjects will be split into three groups of eight. One will be the
control group, receiving no extra stimulus over the course of the 60-day bedrest period. The second group will undertake an exercise program whilst in
bed during this time. The third will receive a nutritional supplement over the
course of the 60 days. For the 21 days prior to the 60-day bed-rest period, the
test subjects will take part in the collection of baseline data. During the 20
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05421
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
With shimmering pinks, hues of gray and a hint of brown, a newly released
image of Saturn's rings resembles a fresco where nature is the painter.
The Cassini spacecraft captured this exquisite natural color view a few days
before entering orbit around Saturn.
The images that make up this composition were obtained from Cassini's
vantage point beneath the ring plane with the narrow angle camera on June 21,
2004. The image was taken at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers (4 million
miles) from Saturn.
The brightest part of the rings, curving from the upper right to the lower left in
the image, is the B ring. Many bands throughout the B ring have a
pronounced sandy color. Other color variations across the rings can be seen.
Color variations in Saturn's rings have previously been seen in Voyager and
Hubble Space Telescope images. Cassini images show that color variations in
the rings are more distinct in this viewing geometry than they are when seen
from Earth.
Saturn's rings are made primarily of water ice. Since pure water ice is white,
it is believed that different colors in the rings reflect different amounts of
contamination by other materials, such as rock or carbon compounds. In
conjunction with information from other Cassini instruments, Cassini images
will help scientists determine the composition of Saturn's ring system.
In the 1980s, two Voyager spacecraft flew by Saturn as did Pioneer 11 in
1979. Those fly-by missions raised tantalizing questions that can now be
addressed by Cassini's planned four year tour. Scientists have waited 25 years
for an opportunity to answer these questions.
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,
D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed,
developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space
Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For this and other images and information about the Cassini-Huygens mission,
visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. Images are
also available at the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Cassini Significant Events for 15-21 July 2004
NASA/JPL release, 23 July 2004
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, July 21. 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/presentposition.cfm.
15
magnetosphere, and Imaging Subsystem observations of the southern
hemisphere of Iapetus.
Spacecraft activities included a reaction wheel assembly bias and the removal
of the Saturn Orbit Insertion critical sequence from the SSRs. This activity
involved the uplink of several real-time commands over a period of three
days. The procedure executed normally.
The Cosmic Dust Analyzer discovered a dust particle carrying an electrical
charge of almost 10 fC at a Saturn distance of 26 Rs and -16 degrees latitude.
This is the first such detection in the Saturn environment, and the first since
detection of particle charges in 2000. The charges of previous interplanetary
particles were below 4 fC. The signal detected now is more than two times
stronger and it is well above the detection threshold of about 1 fC.
Science Operations Plan (SOP) Implementation of tour sequences S31/S32
has completed and a wrap up meeting is scheduled for next week. Official
port #1 for SOP Implementation of S33/S34 occurred with the delivered files
merged and the resulting products delivered to ACS for end-to-end pointing
profile analysis. SOP Implementation for S35/S36 began this week. SOP
update preliminary port#1 for tour sequence S05 occurred this week. The
files were merged and a report identifying problem areas to be worked was
generated and distributed to the team.
The Integration and Test Laboratory has begun retesting the Probe Relay and
Release sequences. This activity will be ongoing for several weeks.
At the final sequence change request and waiver disposition meeting for S03,
it was determined that a re-evaluation of star ID (SID) suspend commanding
built for the sequence was needed. As there was margin remaining in the
development schedule, it was decided to slip delivery of the final products,
receipt of review of final products, delivery of the final package, and the final
approval meeting by two days. ACS analysis subsequently showed no issues
related to SID Suspend commanding. Final sequence products are now
available, and the final Sequence Integration & Validation package has been
distributed to the team. A command approval meeting (CAM) was held to
approve 7 of the 9 instrument expanded block files to be uplinked to the
spacecraft prior to the start of S03. The remaining files will be CAMed later
in the week.
A delivery coordination meeting was held this week for Telemetry, Tracking,
Command & Data Management software v28.2.1. A Software Review /
Certification Requirements meeting was held for Ion and Neutral Mass
Spectrometer 9.0 flight software (FSW). This delivery includes the functions
in an FSW patch that was applied during C44 and S01, as well as double
buffering of the bus interface unit (BIU), use of DTSTART interrupt, and
writing status information to BIU memory. The FSW was accepted for
operational use with one follow-up action item. The software is scheduled to
be uplinked to the spacecraft on September 1.
On July 21, Cassini once again provided an image that was used as
Astronomy Picture of the Day. This spectacular picture of the shadow of
Saturn on the rings, along with all the most recent images may be viewed at
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.
Titan's Purple Haze Points to a Fuzzy Past
NASA image advisory 2004-187, 29 July 2004
Encircled in purple stratospheric haze, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, appears as
a softly glowing sphere in this colorized image taken on July 3, 2004, one day
after Cassini's first flyby of that moon. Titan has a dense atmosphere
composed primarily of nitrogen with a few percent methane. The atmosphere
can undergo photochemical processes to form hazes.
Images like this one reveal some of the key steps in the formation and
evolution of Titan's haze. The process is thought to begin in the high
atmosphere, at altitudes above 400 kilometers (250 miles), where ultraviolet
light breaks down methane and nitrogen molecules. The products are believed
to react to form more complex organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen
and nitrogen that can combine to form the very small particles seen as haze.
On-board science activities this week included solar wind measurements by
the Magnetospheric and Plasma Science (MAPS) instruments, Ultraviolet
Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observations of Saturn's aurora and inner
This ultraviolet view of Titan has been falsely colored. The main body is
colored pale orange as seen in true color images. Above the orange disc are
two distinct layers of atmospheric haze that have been brightened and falsely
colored violet to enhance their visibility. It is not currently understood why
there are two separate haze layers. This and other questions await answers as
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
the four-year Cassini tour continues, with many more planned flybys of Titan.
The upcoming October 2004 flyby of Titan will be 30 times closer than that of
July 2.
16
Validation (PSIV) Cycle 1 integrated sequence products. One version
contained the background sequence only; the other version included the
background sequence, a science mini-sequence, and an Ion and Neutral Mass
Spectrometer mini-sequence.
During the course of last week, 108 Cassini-related papers were presented at
this year's Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) meeting in Paris,
France. On Saturday, an all-day Cassini session was very well attended. Each
team presented invited papers along with additional scientific papers.
A Titan workshop is planned for early September at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center. At this workshop the Cassini Orbiter observations of the
atmosphere of Titan and other relevant ground-based observations will be
reviewed. Participants will re-assess their understanding of the upper
atmosphere of Titan with the specific objective of validating the engineering
models of Titan's atmosphere that are to be used for the final Huygens probe
release preparatory activities. The workshop is open to all Cassini-Huygens
scientists and invited non Cassini-Huygens scientists. Check the Goddard
web site for more information.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06090
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
For this and other images and information about the Cassini-Huygens mission,
visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. Images are
also available at the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Cassini Significant Events for 22-28 July 2004
NASA/JPL release, 30 July 2004
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking
station on Wednesday, July 28. 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.
Cassini Outreach participated in ASTROCON2004, a meeting of the
Astronomical League (AL), Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers
(A.L.P.O.), American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) and
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) July 20-24, 2004 in Berkeley
CA. Around 300 mostly amateur astronomers from around the USA and from
Finland and Australia attended. Cassini Outreach participated in a solar
system panel discussion, provided outreach material for a JPL Solar System
Ambassador display table, and visited several conference venues with Cassini
connections. Chabot Space & Science Center (Oakland, CA) was showing
Ring World, and had a model of Cassini prominently displayed near the
entrance. Lick Observatory (San Jose, CA) staffers were shown the Cassini
images of the Keeler Gap in Saturn's A ring. At the closing banquet aboard
the USS Hornet aircraft carrier (Alameda, CA), speaker Apollo 12 astronaut
Alan Bean was presented with a set of Cassini postcards and stickers. After
looking at the images he commented to Cassini Outreach "What a successful
mission Cassini is"!
The Cassini Project Science Office hosted the first monthly telecon of science
results from the mission this week. The Cassini-Huygens Analysis and
Results of the Mission (CHARM) is an informal telecon where invited
speakers discuss recent released findings from the spacecraft's 4-year tour of
Saturn. Telecons are held on the last Tuesday of every month. The next
scheduled CHARM telecon will occur Tuesday, August 31. Contact
[email protected] for more information.
The new Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) worldwide members map can
be
seen
on
the
SOC
members'
page
at
http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/images/members-worldmap.gif. SOC currently has 340
members in 43 US states and also in 43 countries around the world.
On-board science activities included Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph
observations of Saturn's aurora as well as solar wind measurements by the
suite of Magnetospheric and Plasma Science instruments. Spacecraft events
included the uplink of instrument expanded block files, the background
sequence, and an ACS reaction wheel assembly bias all in preparation for S03.
S03 begins execution on board the spacecraft on Friday July 30.
A wrap up meeting was held for Science Operations Plan (SOP)
Implementation of tour sequences S31/S32. The products have been archived
and will resurface in February of 2007 for the start of the Aftermarket process.
Analysis of the Port 1 S33/S34 products by the Attitude Control System Team
has concluded. Teams are now making revisions for preliminary Port 2 next
week. SOP update official port#1 for tour sequence S05 occurred this week.
The files were merged and a report identifying problem areas to be worked
was generated and distributed to the team.
The Aftermarket decision meeting to determine what changes will be accepted
for S07 was cancelled. The number of requested changes was less than the
number of allocated work units for this sequence and is well within the
resources of the team to implement.
As part of S03 development activities, a command approval meeting was held
for Cosmic Dust Analyzer flight software load files. These files will be
uplinked to the spacecraft next week. Development of S04 continued with the
publication of two versions of the Preliminary Sequence Integration and
Cassini and Mars Outreach hosted the International Storytelling Center at
CalTech this week. Scientists, engineers and outreach staff from both areas
are participating in the event.
A beautiful picture of Saturn's Rings was Astronomy Picture of the Day on
July 23. Please link to http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for additional articles, images
and information.
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
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington,
D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed,
developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space
Science Institute, Boulder, CO.
Contacts:
Carolina Martinez
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Phone: 818-354-9382
Heidi Finn
Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations
Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO
Phone: 720-974-5859
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1097.html
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1101.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zzb.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zzc.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-titan-04r.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zze.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zzf.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040719dione.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040721rhea.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040722ringscolor.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040723tethys.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040726mimas.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040727titan.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040728titanhaze.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040730titanpurple.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/tethys_revealed.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/icy_enceladus.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturns_death_star_mimas.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cassini_closer_to_titan.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cassini_crescent_view_titan.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/titans_purple_haze.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/icy_tethys.html
17
On sol 199, Spirit completed a 6-hour early morning alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer reading on Mastodon. After a midday nap to conserve energy,
Spirit took pictures with the microscopic imager to create a mosaic of the rock
abrasion tool hole. Spirit then placed the Mössbauer instrument in the hole
and began a 20-hour overnight reading.
Sol 200, ending on July 26, was a busy day for Spirit. Spirit completed the
overnight Mössbauer reading on the rock abrasion tool hole, took a midday
nap, stowed the arm, bumped back to take pictures and readings of the hole
with the panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer, then
drove about 52 feet (16 meters). Due to the nature of the terrain, the drive was
done in 6-wheel mode to minimize errors (rather than the current standard 5wheel mode to conserve the aging right front wheel). Engineers carefully
targeted Spirit's drive to end in a location with favorable tilt to the north to
point the solar panels toward the Sun, giving Spirit as much power as possible
as the Sun hangs low in the sky during martian winter.
Spirit will continue to drive up the Columbia Hills and search for more rock
outcroppings.
Opportunity Sees Double
30 July 2004
Opportunity marked its 180th sol on Mars without pausing to celebrate.
Originally slated for missions of 90 sols each, both Spirit and Opportunity
have passed the double-mission milestone and are continuing their
phenomenal journeys of discovery. On sol 177 Opportunity performed a twohour rock abrasion tool grind on the target "Diamond Jenness," then took the
resulting hole's picture with the microscopic imager. Surface debris and the
bumpy shape of the rock apparently contributed to a shallow and irregular
hole, only about 2 millimeters or 0.08 inches deep, not enough to take out all
the bumps and leave a neat hole with a smooth floor. The alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer examined the rock's composition in the abraded area during
early morning of sol 178.
MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS UPDATES
NASA/JPL releases
Spirit Survives 200 Sols!
28 July 2004
On sol 198, Spirit completed a long overnight reading by the Mössbauer
spectrometer on a rock target called "Sabre," then ground a second rock
abrasion tool hole on a target called "Mastodon." The alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer was placed in the fresh hole in preparation for a reading, which
was started during the overnight Odyssey communication pass.
A rock outcrop with a view of the surrounding landscape beckons NASA's
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on sol 203 (July 29, 2004) of its journey of
exploration on the red planet. This view is a mosaic of images taken by the
rover's navigation camera at a position labeled as Site 80, near the top of the
"West Spur" portion of the "Columbia Hills." Directly ahead are rock
outcrops that scientists will examine for clues that might indicate the presence
of water in the past. In the upper right-hand corner is the so-called "sea of
basalt," consisting of lava flows that lapped onto the flanks of the hills.
This self-portrait of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity comes
courtesy of the Sun and the rover's front hazard-avoidance camera. The
dramatic snapshot of Opportunity's shadow was taken as the rover continues
to move farther into "Endurance Crater."
The team decided that sol 178 would be used to grind into "Diamond Jenness"
again in hopes of deepening the hole. The sequence went extremely well with
the rock abrasion tool grinding almost an additional 5 millimeters (about 0.2
inches). The rover then started a Mössbauer spectrometer reading of the
deepened hole.
On sol 179 the rover completed the Mössbauer integration, gathered some
remote-sensing data, then positioned the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
the abraded hole for an early-morning integration at cold temperature on sol
180. This double integration of the hole (once on sol 178 at an intermediate
depth and then a second one at full depth) will give the science team a unique
opportunity to evaluate how the composition changes with depth.
On sol 180, which ended on July 27, the rover stowed its arm and drove back
up the slope about 1.5 meters (about 5 feet), then turned a little to the right to
go back down about 0.5 meters (about 1.6 feet). The drive up was to gain a
vantage point from which to image the abraded hole in "Diamond Jenness"
with the panoramic camera and to evaluate characteristics of the driving on
this particular terrain. The drive back down and to the right served to position
the rover for potentially proceeding farther into the crater (avoiding a sandy
patch to its left). It also left the rover at a better angle for communications in
the afternoon. The drive went well, with less slip that anticipated, reinforcing
the team's confidence in driving back up out of the crater on some future sol.
18
Loose sand fragments were transported by wind, and impacted on the
bedrock, slowly removing parts of the surface, like a sand-blaster. If the
winds blow in the same direction for a long enough period, "wind-lanes", as
shown in the picture, can occur. On Earth, the remnants of these features
which have not been eroded away are called "yardangs". Where the surface
consists of more resistant material, the force of the wind may not be strong
enough to cause this sand-blasting. This might be the reason for the three flat
regions (the first in the foreground on the left, and the others top right), which
measure about 17 by 9 kilometers.
Fractured crater near Valles Marineris
27 July 2004
In general, the rover continues to perform well, benefiting from a
predominantly northward tilt and the greater solar-array energy that affords.
The Mars Odyssey orbiter continues to perform as the rover's primary source
of data return. The location on the slope of "Endurance Crater" and intensive
use of the instrument arm hinder rover drivers from orienting Opportunity
optimally for the radio relays to Odyssey. The level of communication is
acceptable for now and the team expects that, some sol, Opportunity will
venture back out of the crater to explore to new places. When the rover is on
flatter ground, the team can optimize communications with Odyssey more
often.
Daily MER updates are available at:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spirit.html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunity.html
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/07/19/mars.rovers.ap/index.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzy.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzz.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzza.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzzb.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzzc.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzzd.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzzzg.html
MARS EXPRESS IMAGES
ESA releases
"Yardangs" on Mars
23 July 2004
(http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMG6OV4QWD_0.html)
This perspective image of a fractured crater near Valles Marineris on Mars
was obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the
ESA Mars Express spacecraft. The image was taken during orbit 61 in
January 2004 with a resolution of 12.5 meters per pixel. It shows part of a
cratered landscape to the north of the Valles Marineris, at 0.6°S latitude and
309°E longitude, with this crater having a fractured base.
This crater has a rim diameter of 27.5 kilometers and is about 800 meters
deep. It is not known yet how these fractures are generated. On Earth,
polygonal fractures may occur in contracting material, which breaks at weak
zones. For example, we may see this appearing in cooled lava, dried clay or
frozen ground.
Perspective view of deposits in Melas Chasma
2 August 2004
This image of the southern part of Valles Marineris, called Melas Chasma,
was obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the
ESA Mars Express spacecraft. This image was taken at a resolution of
approximately 30 meters per pixel. The displayed region is located at the
southern rim of the Melas Chasma, centred at Mars latitude 11°S and Mars
longitude 286°E. The images were taken on orbit 360 of Mars Express.
This perspective view has been turned in such a way that the observer has a
view of the southern scarp, almost 5000 meters high. The basin on the floor
of the valley is on the opposite side, bordered by a ridge. On its flanks it is
possible to make out some layering. However, the nature of the bright
material, possibly some kind of deposit, is still unknown.
(http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMN6GV4QWD_0.html)
This image of "yardangs", features sculpted by wind-blown sand seen here
near Olympus Mons on Mars, was obtained by the High Resolution Stereo
Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft. This image was
taken during orbit 143 with a resolution of 20 meters per pixel. This scene
shows a structure south of Olympus Mons, at 6°N latitude and 220°E
longitude, which was probably formed by the action of the wind.
This perspective view was created by using the nadir (vertical view) channel
and one stereo channel of the HRSC to produce a digital model of the terrain.
Please note that image resolution has been reduced for use on the internet.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
19
Spotty Dunes (Released 27 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/27/index.html
Outcrop in Iani (Released 28 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/28/index.html
All of the Mars Global Surveyor images
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html.
are
archived
at
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.
(http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMFKTV4QWD_0.html)
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1097.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-04r.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-04s.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/fractured_crater_mars.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/new_perspective_melas_chasma.ht
ml
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
NASA/JPL/MSSS releases
16-28 July 2004
The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the
Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available.
Boulder Tracks (Released 15 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/15/index.html
Terra Sirenum Slope (Released 16 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/16/index.html
Melas Sedimentary Rocks (Released 17 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/17/index.html
Troughs Near Ascraeus (Released 18 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/18/index.html
South Polar Terrain (Released 19 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/19/index.html
Polar Barchans (Released 20 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/20/index.html
Light and Dark Slope Streaks (Released 21 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/21/index.html
Gordii Fossae Troughs (Released 22 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/22/index.html
Polar Layers and Dunes (Released 23 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/23/index.html
Layers in Oudemans (Released 24 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/24/index.html
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
NASA/JPL/ASU releases
19-23, 26-30 July 2004
Channel Floor Yardangs (Released 19 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040719a.html
Yardangs and Crosshatching (Released 20 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040720a.html
A Change of Direction (Released 21 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040721a.html
A Question of Interpretation (Released 22 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040722a.html
Complete Makeover (Released 23 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040723a.html
Decorrelation Stretch near Cerberus Fossae (Released 26 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040726A.html
Canyon in DCS Color (Released 27 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040727A.html
DCS Color near Mare Cimmerium (Released 28 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040728A.html
Kaiser Crater DCS (Released 29 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040729A.html
DCS in Hesperia Planum (Released 30 July 2004)
http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040730A.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.
South Polar Terrain (Released 25 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/25/index.html
ROSETTA: MONITORING NEW AVIONICS SOFTWARE
ESA release
Galle Scene (Released 26 July 2004)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/26/index.html
2 August 2004
In the reporting period (23 July to 30 July 2004) the spacecraft was monitored
daily to ensure the correct behavior of its avionics systems after the upload
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 30, 3 August 2004
and activation of the new version 7 of the on-board software. Taking the
opportunity of this period of daily contact a number of tests were carried out,
which in turn served as confidence checks of the functionality of the new
software:

the two Navigation Cameras were checked out on 25 July and the first
pictures received showed the Earth-Moon system from a distance of 70
million km

for the first time the new strategy for reaction wheel offloading in an
optimized attitude was used on 27 July, to reduce fuel consumption in
high disturbance torques conditions the redundant Transfer Frame
Generator (TFG) and Decoder were tested as part of the redundancy
commissioning

a special Star Tracker test was carried out on 29 July to track stars that
have been identified for elimination from the catalogue

a new thermal characterization exercise was carried out on 29 July, to
observe the thermal behavior of the spacecraft when the Sun is shining
on the –Z side with an inclination of 50 degrees over the +X axis.
The TC files containing the patch commands for the redundant avionics
processors have been uplinked to the on-board mass memory. The patch of
the redundant processors to the new software version 7 is planned for the
beginning of August.
At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 212)
Rosetta was at 71.9 million kilometers from the Earth. The one-way signal
travel time was 3 minutes 59 seconds.
Read
the
original
news
release
e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=35642.
End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 30.
at
http://sci.esa.int/science-
20