Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter
Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville,
Arkansas 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu
Marsbugs is published on a weekly to monthly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editor,
except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors, and are not
necessarily endorsed by the editor or by Lyon College. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting the editor. Information concerning the scope
of this newsletter, subscription formats and availability of back-issues is available at http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs. The editor does not condone "spamming"
of subscribers. Readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing lists. Persons who have information that may be of
interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editor.
Articles and News
Announcements
Page 1
PENMANSHIP IN BOXING GLOVES: PLANNING FOR
MARS, THE STAFFORD WAY
Edited from testimony of General Thomas Stafford
Page 9
16TH ANNUAL NASA PLANETARY SCIENCES SUMMER
SCHOOL
Lunar and Planetary Institute release
Page 3
STUDY MAY CAST DOUBT ON SOME 1996 EVIDENCE
OF PAST LIFE ON MARS
NASA/JSC release J04-025
Page 9
SPACE LIFE SCIENCES ISSUE OF ADVANCES IN SPACE
SCIENCE
By David J. Thomas
Page 4
NASA AMBASSADORS 2004, NOW COMING TO A
FORUM NEAR YOU
NASA/JPL release 2004-117
Page 9
49TH SPIE MEETING—PLAN NOW TO ATTEND!
Meeting announcement
Page 9
Page 5
LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE COULD BE JUST ABOUT
EVERYWHERE
By Dan Whipple
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX
By David J. Thomas
Mission Reports
Page 5
SCIENTISTS CONFRONT "WEIRD LIFE" ON OTHER
WORLDS
By Leonard David
Page 10
NASA GENESIS SPACECRAFT ON FINAL LAP TOWARD
HOME
NASA/JPL release 2004-118
Page 5
CHARGED WITH PLANETARY DESTINY
Edited testimony of Russell L. Schweickart
Page 11
MARS ROVER ARRIVAL AT DEEPER CRATER
PROVIDES A TEMPTING EYEFUL
NASA/JPL release 2004-119
Page 7
LIFE FINDER
Edited testimony of Jonathan Lunine
Page 12
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
NASA/JPL/MSSS release
Page 12
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
NASA/JPL/ASU release
Page 12
ROSETTA: FIRST SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
ESA release
Page 8
TWO ARCHITECTURES CHOSEN FOR TERRESTRIAL
PLANET FINDER
NASA/JPL release
PENMANSHIP IN BOXING GLOVES: PLANNING FOR MARS, THE
STAFFORD WAY
Edited from testimony of General Thomas Stafford
From Astrobiology Magazine
We have not been in deep space with humans since 1972. We then envisioned
two exploration missions out to Mars. One's a short duration mission of 60
days, and the other one would go up to 500 days, in the second mission and
that would take us to the year 2019.
4 May 2004
The way the Apollo Program was started, then NASA Administrator, Mr.
Webb, told the Vice President [Lyndon Johnson] after one day's deliberation
that they could go to the Moon and back in this decade, for $20 billion. And
the final cost was $22.4 billion, starting from scratch.
In the early 1990's, former astronaut Thomas Stafford was asked to come up
with a plan for human missions to the Moon and Mars. In his most recent
testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Moon, Mars and Beyond,
Stafford revisited that reference design adding his unique perspective. The
informal commentary provided a fascinating exchange on what to do and
what not to do in mission planning.
I thought it would be interesting to go back just briefly in history to set the
parameters. On July 20, 1989, President Bush said, on the 20th anniversary of
the first lunar landing, that we ought to set our sights for space exploration for
the 21st century this time to return to the Moon to stay and then go on to
Mars, by 2019. He then reactivated the space council, with Vice President
Quayle as the chairman. The Space Council then asked for a 90-day study of
NASA and how they would carry out this vision of returning to the Moon and
going on to Mars when this was completed. We came up with four different
architectures, ten recommendations, and then the supporting technologies that
would take us forward.
If you look up on the wrap-up on NASA back in the early 1960's, that was
building the infrastructure, building the Johnson and Marshall Space Centers.
And the Cape was strictly palmettos, rattlesnakes, and palm trees. In 6 years,
that was built to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and we launched the
first Saturn flag. And most of it was done with a slide rule too.
The Saturn V and Apollo were probably the simplest interface, like a meat
cleaver and in the two spacecraft, just the thrust chamber pressures from the
stages and tank pressures, lit up with I think two wires in case we had to take
over and fly by hand the Saturn V, which we could do. That was it. It was the
cleanest interface.
[Relating to today's recommendations to the moon and Mars, one should]
push the state of the art when required, very important. And be sure the
outlines and technology we push have acceptable risks. Next one, optimum
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
use of man-in-the-loop technology, don't burden a man where a robot or
machinery can do better. In aviation we see it, the 727 started out, and three
people in the 727? And now we are down to 777, with 2 people in the cockpit
flying very safe. And that was a big debate if you will remember back in the
1980's, and also again on Apollo, the original one, the computer program, it
was unbelievable, we wore out our fingers. Pete Conrad and I helped to
rewrite the program after the tragic fire and the stand down for a period of
time. So there's a lot of things that computers and machines can do, and let
them do it and let the man be optimized in what they can do.
Limit development time to no more than 10 years and actually the longer it
takes, the cost goes up. Redundant and primary systems versus a big reliance
on onboard inside maintenance—the Space Station has some of that, but out
to the Moon it will be difficult, and Mars it will be tough to do anything on
that one.
Ten years is the outer limit, and probably the long pole in that tent would be
the nuclear part on that. But, you know, the basic part to get started for the
initial operational capability, because you do have some elements that have
some heavy lift with the Space Shuttle, you modify it and work from that.
Allowing software to run unchecked, becomes a constraint rather than support
element. I think if you look at Apollo, one of the long poles in the tent was
the software. Used to have black Saturdays all the time and we did not have
that many words in the computer. And the same with the Space Shuttle, the
software was one of the main constraints on getting that airborne, and also the
software on the Space Station, unbelievable
from the original lines of code to where it's set
up now.
The last one, when you are wrong, say you're
wrong. That was a picture I shot on Apollo 10.
We disproved the British Flat Earth Society.
The Earth is round.
Looking back.
credit: NASA.
Image
Well, the architectures we came up with were,
the first one was, we take the minimum
resources there, and that's the Mars exploration.
And what this was, it was an exploration to go
back to the Moon and then do their science and
exploration, but also do the best simulation we
could of going on to Mars.
Why should we go back to the Moon? That question was asked among our
groups. Why should we go to the Moon, we've been there. But then as we
continue into these months of deliberation, it was determined that the Moon
made an ideal testing place. We can also do science there. You would take
the type of habitat, the rovers, the spacecraft that you would have on Mars,
you can test those on the Moon, it's only 3 days away. And it's operated in
deep space.
[To get to] Mars, we can have a window every 26 months, and the amount of
energy it takes repeats itself in the sinusoid every 15 years. And 2003
happens to be the minimum energy year, and we saw these two rovers up
there now, transited out to Mars in only 6 months, sometimes it takes well
over a year to get out there. And so from the time we started the Synthesis
Group we saw that 2018 will be an era of minimum energy and we would start
down on that curve, starting with 2014 and going out there.
But the exploratory part first would be done there on the Moon, and you
would simulate what you were going to do on Mars and you could simulate
the transit time. You go down to the Moon and work back, and you'd have a
large safety factor because Mars with 38 percent of the gravity of the Earth
and the Moon, 16 percent of the gravity, you have a good safety factor to
work with and you would simulate then what you would do on Mars, on the
Moon to take care of that. The next one, science emphasis, this requires far
more resources. You would look at areas like a large baseline interferometer
telescopes looking into deep space where theoretically you could see planets
around stars, you would then have also more on Mars. This is a far more
ambitious type of architecture. The next one, the Moon to stay, this
emphasized human presence this would be a build-up, we'd have initial
operational capability and then we'd have follow-on operational capability and
from that we'd then also have the Mars exploration similar to architecture one.
And then the space resource utilization, that was what we called the wild card,
far more resources required, but also could present a far better return back
here to the Earth. And again, at the end of the one-year study, it's here,
2
America at the threshold—there were 80-some boxes of books presented to
NASA behind that, but that's what we had.
[The first option is most like the current one]. It was just to the Moon to do
some minimum exploration and to verify, you know, that the equipment you
had would go on to Mars... The Gemini and Apollo program built one on top
of the other and this is built in the same way and here we had what came out.
You see the explorations in sciences, one of them is the human presence. And
then space resource development. So this was the first one, and then we had
the second one. The Moon to stay was the third one I mentioned, and the
fourth was the space resource development, but they all had that common
theme of exploration and science, of human presence and space resource and
development. So you could take various parts of them.
The next one that came in was the space exploration initiative's requirements
into the heavy lift program. This is somewhat modified as you know, because
when the administration changed in the end of 1992, the space exploration
initiative was pretty much zeroed out. The DoD continued on with
expendable launch vehicle, with the evolved expendable launch vehicle, but
they have capabilities that are somewhat limited as far as I think 40,000 to
50,000 pounds. And to do this and go back to the Moon and on to Mars, you
need far more than that. We estimated in our recommendations that we have
approximately 150 to 250 metric tons to low Earth orbit.
The one thing that has changed too is miniaturization has continued on with
respect to electronics. The payloads and the landing parts and material
developments on the lunar surface of Mars has gotten slightly less, so
therefore, you could do it with less lift into low Earth orbit. As we continued
on, we used Jet Propulsion Laboratory running trajectories and simulations.
We said that to go back to the Moon, and for chemical propulsion was
adequate as we did in Apollo. But to go beyond that, to Mars, like, I'm going
from memory now, but to go from low Earth orbit to lunar orbit and back to
landing, is around 5 kilometers a second. To go from low Earth orbit to Mars
orbit, depending where you are, the 15-year sinusoid varies from about 8
kilometers per second to 24 kilometers per second, so that is a big amount of
delta. You have to add to get out there.
It became obvious the nuclear thermal rocket technology development, we
determined, was the only real practical way to go to Mars. For the Moon,
chemical propulsion was perfectly acceptable as we did it. But to go to Mars
and the amount of energy required, you basically would like for humans to
have a nuclear thermal rocket. We had that capability developed in the United
States in the late 1960's and the early 1970's with the NERVA program, it
showed a specific impulse of 845 seconds, it was run continuously on one
occasion for over an hour and did about 28 automatic start-ups and shut
downs, but there was not a mission for it, so it was canceled. It was the
opinion of the group after all the study that the nuclear thermal rocket
technology needed to be developed for the mission to Mars.
It can be perfectly safe in the way that you have all the safety factors with—
nuclear physics that in case for some reason it happens it doesn't go on, it's not
going to give you any radioactivity anywhere. The only time you have radio
activity is when you pull the control rods and by then, you are in Earth's orbit
headed out. So it's not going to affect anything here on Earth.
The next one, space nuclear power technology based on [Space Exploration
Initiative's] SEI requirements—to do adequate work for in set to processing,
for adequate work on both the Moon and particularly Mars, you needed spacebased electrical nuclear power. This could also, we determined later on, be
used for low level propulsion—the trajectory—to speed you up using ion
propulsion or—magnetoplasma dynamics. I also want to commend Sean
O'Keefe, within the first 2 to 3 months of his administration, he put forth the
NASA nuclear initiatives to start developing this type of technology.
The number one priority is crew safety. In Apollo, it was 99.999 percent.
Mission success was 0.90. And Apollo 13 was not a success in terms of
finishing the mission. We were 0.99 out there as far as crew safety. Again,
you know, it's not risk free. This has been well demonstrated.
Focused life science experiments—the biggest risk going out there, you know,
if you assume that you've got your systems down where the systems failure
would be very low is going to be radiation. I think this question was asked
about risk, and we understand that fairly well. You have galactic cosmic
radiation, very difficult to shield against however, it's not that hard. We
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
understand that the main thing is the solar radiation, and it goes in a cycle.
But also you can have a series of unpredicted flares.
If you go back in history, we were good on Apollo, but we were also lucky.
After Apollo 8, a large flare occurred. And then in the last year we did the
last two Apollo missions, Apollo 16 was in April of 1972, Apollo 17, the last
one was in December. On August of 1972, one of the largest solar flares ever
recorder erupted instantly even though we are trying to track and predict it.
And had those two crewmen been on the surface, they would have received
possibly up to a lethal dose of radiation. They might have made it back to the
lunar module and to orbit, but they would have a fairly short life span. It is a
risk, but there are ways to shield against it, and we will discuss that in just a
few minutes.
But we do understand about the risk to humans, and in [the need for] focused
life science experiments. The human body needs about 6 1/2 pounds of water
a day—2.5 pounds of oxygen and approximately 1.5 pounds of solid food, and
most Americans get more than that.
Dry ice and frost on Mars. Image credit:
Viking project/JPL .
At the Johnson Space
Center, they did run closed
life support to recycle
oxygen and water, and for
people up to 90 days, it
worked
very
good,
practically no loss of water
or oxygen. This is one of
the criteria to go out to the
Moon and particularly to
Mars. If you have to carry
all that water and oxygen,
it's very difficult to do that.
They did a 90-day, four-person closed-loop study, and it was finished [at
Johnson Space Center] in 1997. They completely closed the water loop and
the oxygen loop and amount of water and oxygen loss was very minimal. So
this type of technology needs to be put on board and demonstrated, and taken
to the Moon and Mars, it drastically reduces your gross take-off weight.
The heavy lift program, the—we've discussed that before. I probably
discussed a lot of those just going through the iterative efforts and, today the
Shuttle modified, I think it can take between 60 and 80 metric tons. It would
take several of those together with a series of—even though you want to keep
the basic joining in space to a minimum, but it's advanced a lot in the past 12
years and it's amazing. Today with CAD, with the Internet, from Russia,
Japan, from the European countries, we have put together a precise interface,
and I've even been surprised how well the Space Station has gone together and
fitted real well. It's probably not as much as of a basic problem as we outlined
at that time, so there's been some improvement.
The nuclear thermal rocket we discussed. I think very definitely that this
needs to be done, and we've got—it will take a period of time, and this to me
is the long pole in the tent going to Mars is that nuclear thermal rocket. The
space nuclear power technology of—that would go up to five megawatts, we
estimated. And the minimum we would start with would be 100 kilowatts.
And the Prometheus Program at NASA has now started up, but the program at
which it's under—the Jupiter Icy Moon Orbit program—JIMO I'm concerned
that this needs to really be focused and have adequate attention from
management to get this nuclear development completed. Had a previous one
on space—from NASA, as far as space nuclear power, and it was not too
much of a success. I think it was
the SP-100.
These life science experiments—
this is ongoing also, and you need
to have suits on, and lightweight
pressure suits. Because if any of
you have ever worn a pressure
suit and not fitted right, it's like
doing a penmanship contest using
boxing gloves. It's very difficult.
3
dexterity. This was ongoing when it was canceled. There needs to be effort
there, there has been lots of progress, but for a fairly small expenditure of
money, a further improvement in those suits can be done.
So you would like to have the same dexterity you have here at sea level, but I
think it's probably going to be impossible, but you can get close to it. And
most of those suits, we had 3.5 pounds per square inch pressure in Gemini,
and Apollo about 4.1, and today on the Space Station about 4.3 pounds per
square inch.
The Russians have a unique system, and if you get into trouble, you can lower
the pressure. We can't. That's how Leonov saved his life and got back on. It
was risky, but you can lower the pressure. They have had the same problem
with their pressure suits, but with adequate development, we can have some
very effective suits. If you are going to live on the Moon for a long period of
time or Mars, you will have to have the pressure suit that's very good and not
tax so much of your strength.
Let's go! I have the technology priorities. There. And again we have—this
was the order of priorities of the supporting technologies for this, and we have
talked about—but that was a priority. If you don't have heavy lift, it will be
impossible to do this, nuclear thermal propulsion, extra power.
Cryogenic transfer and long-term storage [is important], particularly on the
Mars mission with liquid hydrogen. Even on the best installation, you lost
close to 1 percent a day on boil-off. The installation and technology is better,
but that's a problem. Russia has had automated docking from the Soyuz to the
Mir and now the Space Station. It's an engineering problem, 50 to 100 tons of
docking. It can be done with the right torque to inertia ratios. And that's
something that needs to be completed.
The radiation effects and the shielding. We came up with adequate shielding
around 16 grams per centimeter squared of water. And the best thing to
negate the radiation coming in is really the hydrogen atom, and from this, the
best thing is really water. And with that, that would stop all the solar flare and
any secondary radiation that would come forward.
Telerobotics, very important point when you are on the Moon or Mars, that
you could have a series of efforts there between both the human and the
robotic-type spacecraft controlled by the flight crews. The closed life support
systems, that was mentioned briefly, you have to close the loop for oxygen
and for water. Now, we said it was not feasible to try to close the loop for
food. Just in either the Moon or Mars missions that we looked at. And that
would take us way out through past 2020.
If you are really going to be there on that third architecture for a long time, the
Moon to stay for a long time, you would look at possibly recycling the food,
but basically it did not make sense as far as the other missions. You could
take that with you. You could afford the amount of payload in the low Earth
orbit.
Transhab came out of Lawrence Livermore Lab, an inflatable structure with a
reentry vehicle. This is a habitation quarter, inflatable, very light weight.
Turns out the way it was built, you see the gray areas at the top and bottom,
this type of structure, it was demonstrated, it really has more micrometeorite
protection than the Space Station does that's flying right now. And
furthermore with water tanks around, it adequately shields you from radiation,
from solar radiation and a little galactic cosmic radiation.
[The trip to Mars is] something like 240 days if you do chemical and 100 days
or less if you do nuclear thermal propulsion. With just a slight increase in
nuclear thermal, you can cut the transit time down from 240 days to 130. And
if you have any electrical power propulsion, therefore ion propulsion, you can
cut it down to about 60 days. Now, this drastically reduces your gross lift-off
weight and directly relates to cost and staging and everything else.
Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article953.html.
Prototype of nuclear-fueled JIMO
spacecraft with its heavily finned
shape. Image credit: NASA/JPL.
When we started training underwater after my second mission, Gemini
astronaut Gene [Cernan] lost 10 1/2 pounds in 2 hours outside and we had a
tough time getting him back in. There needs to be a lot of development in
pressure suits—lighter weight, far more flexible, particularly in the gloves and
STUDY MAY CAST DOUBT ON SOME 1996 EVIDENCE OF PAST
LIFE ON MARS
NASA/JSC release J04-025
5 May 2004
The scientific debate over whether a meteorite contains evidence of past life
on Mars continues to intensify, with colleagues of the team that announced the
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
4
possibility in 1996 revealing new findings that may cast doubt on some of that
earlier work.
For information about space research on the Internet, visit
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/.
"These new findings illustrate the excellent scientific process that was ignited
by the announcement in 1996 of possible meteorite evidence of past life on
Mars," said Dr. Steven Hawley, Associate Director, Office of Astromaterials
Research and Exploration Science at the Johnson Space Center. "As work on
this fundamental question continues, it is quite likely the final answer may not
be known until Mars samples can be retrieved for study by scientists there or
back on Earth."
Contact:
William Jeffs
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
Phone: 281-483-5111
In the recent study, a team of scientists based largely at JSC found that a
mineral in Mars meteorite ALH84001 that had been asserted to be most likely
caused by an ancient microscopic organism may have been caused by a nonbiological process. The team, led by D. C. Golden of Hernandez Engineering
Inc. in Houston and including many NASA scientists from the Office of
Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, will have its work
published in the May/June issue of American Mineralogist. The same office
includes Dave McKay, Everett Gibson and several other scientists who
contributed to the 1996 findings.
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-04g.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/05marslife/
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/research_doubts_life_meteorite.ht
ml
The new paper reports that magnetite, an iron-bearing mineral found in
martian meteorite ALH84001, was likely caused by inorganic processes, and
that those same processes can be recreated in the laboratory, forming
magnetite identical to that found in the Mars meteorite.
5 May 2004
Magnetite crystals in ALH84001 have been a focus of debate about the
possibility of life on Mars. The 1996 study led by McKay suggested that
some magnetite crystals associated with carbonate globules in ALH84001 are
biogenic because they share many characteristics with those found in bacteria
on Earth. A study led by Kathie Thomas-Keprta in 2000 showed that some of
the magnetite crystals in ALH84001 carbonate globules are characterized by
elongation, a "unique habit" identical to magnetite grains produced by bacteria
on Earth.
Golden and his team first investigated whether an inorganic process can
produce magnetite crystals identical to those in ALH84001 claimed by
Thomas-Keprta's team to be biogenic. Then, they sought to replicate the tenet
of McKay's 1996 hypothesis that the purported biogenic magnetite grains in
ALH84001 are identical to those produced by a bacterium called MV-1.
Golden's team concluded that the shapes of the MV-1 and ALH84001
elongated crystals differ. Their study concluded that inorganic processes can
make the magnetite crystals in ALH84001, so any claim to a biological source
is uncertain. Golden's team found that decomposition of iron-bearing
carbonate under high heat produced magnetite crystals identical to those found
in ALH84001.
Read the original news release at
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/news/releases/2004/J04-025.html.
NASA AMBASSADORS 2004, NOW COMING TO A FORUM NEAR
YOU
NASA/JPL release 2004-117
While two rovers roam Mars and the Cassini spacecraft nears Saturn, NASA's
Solar System Ambassadors find themselves busier than ever this year, leading
events across the nation in malls, classrooms and on the radio to share the
wonders of space exploration with the public. The program, in its seventh
year, consists of 374 volunteers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia
and Puerto Rico. A new and diverse crop of ambassadors who joined the
program in early 2004 has helped reach 22.3 million people-94 percent of last
year's total count-in less than five months.
"Through the efforts of these enthusiastic volunteers, NASA's space
exploration programs become personalized in communities across the nation,"
said Kay Ferrari, coordinator of the program at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Solar System Ambassadors reach people where
they live."
The Solar System Ambassador program is part of NASA's mission to inspire
the next generation of explorers. Ambassadors arrange events such as star
parties, public exhibits, classroom presentations and library programs. JPL
offers them special training opportunities, including teleconferences with
leaders of interplanetary missions. It also supplies materials, such as the latest
pictures from JPL-managed NASA spacecraft.
"The strength of the inorganic process provided here is that not only does it
produce elongated magnetite crystals identical to those of the ALH84001
meteorite, but also it produces a whole range of features found in the
meteorite," said Golden, a mineralogist at JSC.
McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at JSC, stands by his 1996 findings.
"We originally proposed a suite of four lines of evidence which, taken
together, were consistent as a package with a possible biological origin,"
McKay said. "The Golden group has singled out one very specific feature, the
shape of the magnetite crystals, to try to discredit the whole biogenic
hypothesis. Their alternative inorganic hypothesis, thermal decomposition of
carbonate, will not explain many of the features described by us in
ALH84001. A plausible inorganic model must explain simultaneously all of
the properties that we and others have suggested as possible biogenic
properties of this meteorite."
ALH84001 was discovered in 1984 in the Allan Hills region of Antarctica by
an annual expedition of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Meteorite
Program. Its martian origin was not recognized until 1993. One of about 30
meteorites discovered on Earth thought to be from Mars, it is a softball-sized
igneous rock weighing 1.9 kilograms (4.2 pounds). With the exception of
ALH84001, all are less than 1.3 billion years old. ALH84001 is 4.5 billion
years old.
To view the study on the Internet, visit
http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/AmMineral.html.
Solar System Ambassadors are based in each State and Puerto Rico. Image
credit: NASA/JPL.
"A few months ago, I talked about Mars to a wildly enthusiastic group of 5-to7-year-olds. They knew the names of the planets and something about each
one," said Brother Laurence Harms, a solar system ambassador and a
Benedictine monk in the Episcopal Church who holds planetarium lectures at
the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California. "I am also
working with a friend of mine who is an amateur astronomer and probation
officer to prepare programs for the boys and girls at Juvenile Hall."
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
Solar System Ambassador Mary-Frances Bartels discussed her role in the
program while heading a radio discussion group for the Rocky Mountain
Radio League, based in Littleton, CO.
SCIENTISTS CONFRONT "WEIRD LIFE" ON OTHER WORLDS
By Leonard David
From Space.com
"I have already been contacted to speak at an elementary school later this
year, so I'm preparing for that," said Tina Cano, an attorney from Austin,
Texas, who is so fascinated with the solar system, she holds a master's degree
in space studies. "I also hope some political leaders will attend a community
outreach program I'm planning, since I am here in the state capitol."
7 May 2004
The Solar System Ambassadors help the public follow the excitement of space
exploration and get the latest results from spacecraft such as the Mars
Exploration Rovers, currently making extraordinary discoveries on the red
planet; Genesis, collecting solar wind particles for return to Earth; Cassini,
about to orbit Saturn; and more.
"As an ambassador I would like to build a working relationship with local
schools, science centers, planetariums and observatories to allow children to
observe and study stars and planets, all of which are very different and
beautiful in their own ways," said Solar System Ambassador Csaba Palotai, a
research assistant at the University of Louisville Comparative Planetology
Laboratory in Louisville, KY.
"I want to share some of the beauty of astronomy and space science, and the
passion for its pursuance," said Gary Fujihara, a solar system ambassador
from Hilo, Hawaii, who works as a public outreach officer for the University
of Hawaii. He has been fascinated with space since childhood through
watching television shows like 'Lost in Space' and 'Star Trek,' as well as
coverage of NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space missions.
"I am working with many private, public and charter schools from grades K12, including Waimea Middle School, which is a NASA Explorer School,"
Fujihara said. "We have coordinated several events and activities including
solar viewing through a specially equipped telescope with astronomers on
hand. We planned exciting activities this year to coincide with National
Space Day on May 6 and Sun-Earth Day (Venus transit) on June 8."
Online information is available about the Solar System Ambassador program,
including a full list of ambassadors in your area, at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador. JPL is managed for NASA by the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Contact:
Charli Schuler
Phone: 818-393-5467
LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE COULD BE JUST ABOUT EVERYWHERE
By Dan Whipple
From United Press International and SpaceDaily
6 May 2004
The chemistry that underlies life on Earth is abundant throughout the
universe—in comets, in the interstellar medium, in the atmospheres of planets,
in the outer solar system bodies and in living organisms, an astrophysicist told
United Press International.
"If these are made everywhere, perhaps life is everywhere," said Emma
Bakes, a principal investigator with NASA's Ames Research Center in
California and with the SETI Institute. SETI stands for the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
"You have the chemical foundation spread throughout the entire galaxy," she
said. "We're not special. I would bet—if I had a million dollars—I would bet
that life is widespread across the universe."
Bakes spoke on the topic at a meeting of the American Physical Society.
Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04zw.html.
5
What are the limits of organic life in planetary systems? It's a heady question
that, if answered, may reveal just how crowded the cosmos could be with
alien biology. A study arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the
National Research Council (NRC), has pulled together a task group of
specialists to tackle the issue of alternative life forms—a.k.a. "weird life".
To get things rolling, a workshop on the prospects for finding life on other
worlds is being held here May 10-11. The meeting is a joint activity of the
NRC's Space Studies Board's Task Group on the Limits of Organic Life in
Planetary Systems and the Committee on the Origin and Evolution of Life.
Sessions on Earth biology, possible Mars habitats, looking for life on
Europa—a moon of Jupiter—as well as on Titan, a natural satellite of Saturn,
are featured topics on the wide-ranging meeting agenda.
Read the full story at
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astrobiology_nrc_040507.html.
CHARGED WITH PLANETARY DESTINY
Edited testimony of Russell L. Schweickart
From Astrobiology Magazine
8 May 2004
Testimony of Russell L. Schweickart, Chairman, B612 Foundation, before the
Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space of the Senate Commerce
Committee, 7 April 2004, before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science,
Technology and Space dealing with defense against asteroid impacts.
First I'd like to thank you for the invitation to speak with you today about this
emerging public policy issue of near Earth objects (NEOs) threatening life on
Earth. One might have thought, just a few years ago, that the subject of
asteroids was one for space wonks and wanna-be astronauts and astronomers.
But today the realization is rapidly dawning on the media and the general
public that asteroids are a subject of more than passing interest!
More and more people are coming to know that some few of these asteroids
do not silently pass the Earth, but indeed crash in, largely unannounced. On
the rare occasions when this happens they can wreak havoc of a magnitude
unprecedented in human history. At the upper limit impacts by large asteroids
have caused global destruction leading to the virtually instantaneous
extinction of life for most of the species living at the time. The dinosaurs
were momentary witnesses to a billion megaton event of this kind 65 million
years ago. At the lower limit of concern, but occurring much more frequently,
we are dealing with events with an explosive force of 10-15 megatons. It is
worth pointing out, however, that these small, most frequent events are more
powerful than the blast from the most powerful nuclear weapon in the current
U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Given the extremely low frequency of these natural events in combination
with the extremely grave consequences when they occur, we find ourselves
challenged to properly place this subject in our normal list of priorities.
Inattention to infrequent events, regardless of their impact, is the "default"
solution of choice given the crowd of issues continually burning around our
feet. Therefore the Committee is to be congratulated for its foresight and
exemplary public service in realizing the importance of dealing with this issue
now.
History
Perhaps the best logic path to bring the Committee to appreciate our
recommendations for action is to briefly outline the key realities the founders
of the B612 Foundation faced when we first came together back in October
2001. We are primarily a group of technical experts familiar with or working
within the fields of space exploration and planetary science. We are
astronauts, astronomers, engineers and a few others who are knowledgeable
about the subject of comets and asteroids and their history of impacts with the
Earth and other solar system bodies. We came together out of a deep concern
that the threat to life implied in our knowledge of near Earth asteroids (NEAs)
was not resulting in any organized effort to take action to protect the public
from this hazard. We came together to explore whether or not something
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
could be done, and if so, whether we could trigger a program to protect the
public.
In summary, we faced the following facts:
1) Asteroid impacts with Earth have, do, and will continue to occur with
devastating consequences to life.
2) Our detection program (the Spaceguard Survey) has produced a good
statistical characterization of the overall threat and actual knowledge that
at least 60% of the asteroids larger than 1 kilometer in diameter will not
strike the Earth in the next 100 years.
3) Many impacts by asteroids less than 1 km in diameter, however, which
occur hundreds of times more frequently than those over 1 kilometer,
will cause unacceptable devastation at both local and regional levels.
4) The increasing capability of our detection programs in the next several
years will result in a dramatic increase in the discovery rate of these
smaller but very dangerous asteroids.
5) The media and the general public will become ever more aware of this
threat and concerned that something should be done about it.
6) A known threat that can potentially destroy millions of lives AND can
be predicted to occur ahead of time, and prevented, cannot responsibly
go unaddressed.
This inexorable logic led us to decide to take action and examine whether
preventive measures could be taken to mitigate this threat, and if so, what
specific course of action we would recommend.
6
asteroid from an Earth impact a decade or so later. What was missing
however was knowledge about the structure and characteristics of asteroids
detailed enough to enable successful and secure attachment to it.
Second we recognized that before we would be able to gather such detailed
information about NEAs there would likely be many public announcements
about near misses and possible future impacts with asteroids which would
alarm the general public and generate a growing demand for action. We felt
strongly that there needed to be some legitimate answer to the inevitable
question which will be put to public officials and decision makers, "and what
are you doing about this?"
These two considerations led us to the conclusion that the most responsible
course of action would be to mount a demonstration mission to a NEA (one of
our choosing) which would accomplish two essential tasks: 1) gather critical
information on the nature of asteroid structure and surface characteristics; and
2) while there, push on the asteroid enough to slightly change its orbit thereby
clearly demonstrating to the public that humanity now has the technology to
protect the Earth from this hazard in the future.
We furthermore determined that this demonstration mission could be done
with currently emerging capabilities within 10-12 years. We therefore
adopted the goal of "altering the orbit of an asteroid, in a controlled manner,
by 2015".
Reflecting the work that we have done to bring this goal to realization, a
number of us wrote a descriptive article for Scientific American magazine
entitled, The Asteroid Tugboat. Scientific American published it in the
November 2003 issue of the magazine. I have provided reprints of this article
to the Committee and I would like to submit a copy with this testimony and
ask that it be incorporated in the record.
Implementation
A key to implementing this mission is NASA's Prometheus Program. Shortly
after B612 Foundation began work on outlining a mission to explore and
deflect an asteroid NASA announced the formation of its Prometheus Program
to develop and demonstrate technologies to permit routine human and robotic
activity in space "beyond low Earth orbit".
The asteroid belt is estimated to contain over 1 million asteroids
with diameter exceeding one kilometer. Image credit: NASA
The challenge
It became immediately clear to us that the combination of advanced
propulsion technologies and small space-qualified nuclear reactors, both
operating in prototype form already, would be powerful enough, with
reasonable future development, to deflect most threatening asteroids away
from a collision with the Earth, given a decade or more of advance warning.
Nevertheless we saw two immediate problems.
Left: this color image of Eros was acquired by NEAR's multispectral imager
on February 12, 2000, at a range of 1100 miles (1800 kilometers). Image
credit: NASA. Right: Artist's concept of Muses-C spacecraft, flying down
toward the asteroid. Image credit: ISAS.
First we lack the specific knowledge of the characteristics of NEAs necessary
to design anything approaching a reliable operational system. We could
readily show that the technology would exist within a few years to get to and
land on an asteroid. We also determined that after arriving at the asteroid we
would have enough propulsive energy available to successfully deflect the
The key technologies which NASA recognized would enable this capability
are identical with what we had determined were necessary to demonstrate the
capability to land on and deflect a near Earth asteroid, i.e., high performance
electric propulsion systems and the space nuclear electric power systems to
power them. Shortly after announcing the Prometheus Program NASA
announced the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission complete with
schematic representations of the spacecraft. Integral to the design of this
mission were the very high performance engines and space nuclear power
system which would be necessary to enable our B612 mission. We therefore
adopted, as an explicit element of our design, the JIMO/Prometheus
capabilities, recognizing that this was the most likely path to meeting the
demonstration goal that we had set.
Mounting a mission to assure the public that when we discover an asteroid
"with our name on it" we can deflect it from a life threatening impact on Earth
does not require the development of additional new technologies. The key
capabilities required are already "in the pipeline" of the existing Prometheus
Program. No new NASA money is required, nor is a change in NASA's
mission called for. What is required is that the B612 mission be incorporated
within the Prometheus Program as a matter of policy.
Indeed, if one examines the technical requirements associated with the B612
mission, one sees not only a mission ideally suited to demonstrating the
Prometheus technology, but a mission notably less demanding than the
currently planned JIMO mission. One could then quite easily consider the
B612 mission as either a follow-on or a precursor to the JIMO mission,
depending on NASA's technical judgment as to where it fits most logically in
their mission model.
The B612 mission also fits well into the President's Space Exploration
Initiative. This mission both utilizes and graphically demonstrates the key
enabling technologies for routine future operations "beyond low Earth orbit".
It is an ideal way to demonstrate the technology and the greatly enhanced
propulsive capability implicit in the Prometheus exploration program. In
executing such a mission humankind will, for the first time in its history, have
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
altered the trajectory of a cosmic body, a demonstration of evolving capability
in space technology and exploration if there ever was one!
1)
Additional perspective
2)
A few final comments are perhaps appropriate. Near Earth asteroids are a
reality which is here to stay. In fact they will become far more prominent in
the public mind as time goes on and our detection of them continues to
improve. It is therefore appropriate that we take a more circumspect look at
these sometimes unruly, but ever-present, neighbors. Near Earth asteroids are,
in fact, both a threat and an opportunity. Certainly we need to learn more
about our capability to protect life here on Earth, and the sooner the better.
Visiting asteroids can also teach us a great deal about the origins of the solar
system, and perhaps even the origins of life. Unlike the material of the Earth,
which has been melted and processed through extensive geologic activity, the
materials of small asteroids have not been so extensively reprocessed. They
are fossil building blocks left over from the formation of the planets and as
such can teach us a great deal about the original material from which the
planets formed.
Perhaps even more important, asteroids, and especially the near Earth
asteroids, are also the most readily accessible and rich reservoir of nonterrestrial resources available to us. The new space initiative has emphasized
our determination to return to the Moon and then extend our capability
outward to Mars and beyond. One of the purposes advocated for returning to
the Moon is to explore and potentially develop the capability to utilize the
resources there for human benefit. The possibility of extracting oxygen, water
and perhaps other materials from lunar soils has long been advocated as a
potential capability for reducing the cost of future space operations.
Yet these same resources, and others in rich abundance, characterize the
makeup of asteroids. Unlike lunar materials, which are largely depleted of
heavy minerals, the asteroids are quite rich in metallic elements, as well as
those minerals which may provide water and oxygen. Furthermore it is
significantly less expensive to fly to and from selected near Earth asteroids
than to and from the Moon due to the virtual absence of gravitational forces
associated with these bodies.
When commercial, entrepreneurial activity emerges into deep space it will
undoubtedly include the development and exploitation of in-situ resources and
services. Given the critical importance of benefit/cost analysis in any
commercial venture it would be surprising if utilization of asteroidal
resources, especially water, is not one of the first deep space initiatives
attracting private capital.
Given then the infrequency of actually having to deflect an asteroid in order to
avoid an Earth impact it is unlikely that humanity will ever need to develop a
stand-alone planetary defense system. However, given the commercial, as
well as the scientific value implicit in near Earth asteroids it is highly likely
that operations to and from the asteroids will become a routine part of human
space operations. One can readily imagine a time when visiting, using and
even moving near Earth asteroids becomes a routine human capability.
Simply calling on the "Ace Asteroid Mining and Moving Company" to nudge
asteroid 2018 FA322 gently out of the way may then be all that is required to
prevent an otherwise devastating event.
While the above scenario is somewhat fanciful, it is, given time, only slightly
so. In the meanwhile, in the immediate future, we will be discovering an
increasing number of potentially life threatening NEAs and the public will
become justifiably concerned. Without a legitimate answer to this concern for
their safety this concern could morph into alarm.
While many lives are lost every year in natural disasters of one kind or
another, there are few natural disasters that can reliably be predicted, much
less prevented. Throughout human experience we have been faced with
comforting and compensating the devastated after the disaster is over. With
near Earth asteroid impacts, however, we are confronted with a massive
natural disaster that can be both predicted and prevented, and the public will
come to understand that this is the case.
Given the justifiable public expectation of being protected from both natural
and manmade disasters it is incumbent on us to address this known threat
responsibly. We therefore make the following specific recommendations:
3)
7
We call on the Congress to task NASA with increasing the capability of
the current Spaceguard Survey consistent with the recommendations of
the recent NASA Near-Earth Object Science Definition Team report.
We call on Congress to direct NASA to incorporate the B612 mission
goal of demonstrating the capability of landing on, exploring, and
deflecting an asteroid as part of its Prometheus Program.
We call on Congress to request that OSTP initiate a high level study to
develop a U.S. Government policy for both national and international
response to the deflection of near Earth asteroids.
Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article961.html.
LIFE FINDER
Edited testimony of Jonathan Lunine before Moon to Mars Presidential
Commission
From Astrobiology Magazine
9 May 2004
Dr. Jonathan I. Lunine is professor of planetary science and physics and the
chair of the theoretical astrophysics program at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Lunine is also a distinguished visiting scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, and an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini mission to Saturn
and on the James Webb Next Generation telescope. He testified before the
President's Commission on the Moon, Mars and Beyond on April 16, 2004.
I was told that my purpose here is to address the "beyond" element in the
President's initiative and that's the "way beyond" element, apparently. I'm
supposed to skip over the entire solar system and go directly to the search for
Earths around other stars. And so I'll begin with a recurring dream that I had
as a child growing up in the middle of New York City. In this dream, I was
standing in an open field, night was falling, the stars came out in incredible
brilliance. You don't see that in New York City except at the Hayden
Planetarium. And the planets of our own solar system were there with unreal
clarity. Suddenly, in this dream, I was moving through this cosmos seeing the
stars that passed me, wondering what strange worlds awaited me at the other
end of this journey. I never got to the other end before waking up.
That's actually an appropriate metaphor for the human aspiration of finding
other Earths around other stars. For four centuries before that, there were
millennia of wondering and speculation and philosophy. Four centuries after
the start of the Copernican revolution we still don't know whether a planet like
the Earth exists in an appropriate orbit around another star. We know of 120
planets around other stars that are the size of Jupiter and Saturn, and those
planets are abundant enough to tell us that the universe makes planets in
abundance. It's an easy process; part of the star formation process. And most
importantly, the technology for detecting Earth-sized planets is rapidly
maturing.
We as a nation do know how to detect Earths around the nearest stars in the
sky, the nearest stars to our own solar system, and therefore how to begin to
implement the "beyond" part of the President's vision. It doesn't require
astronauts; it does require putting into space potentially two different kinds of
telescopic systems one that works at optical wavelengths and the other at
infrared wavelengths. Our eyes work in the optical. The infrared we think of
as heat radiation, but it is simply light of longer wavelengths than what our
eyes can see.
So what are the advantages of both the optical and the infrared? Well, these
contain different clues to the nature of a planet the composition of its
atmosphere, its temperature variation, the presence of clouds. The infrared is
better at determining temperature and the abundance of certain gases that we
think of as part of a habitable planet. The optical part of the spectrum is better
at looking for variability, looking for clouds. In the optical part of the
spectrum, we can actually do this with a single telescope in space that's
equipped with a device called a coronagraph that masks the light of the parent
star.
[To detect Earth-like planets], the telescope would have to have a diameter at
least six meters long; it could be shorter in width if need be, and it's within the
capability of space-borne systems today. The other system would be an
interferometer, which would work in the infrared. Coronagraphs don't work
as well in the infrared; interferometers work somewhat better in the infrared.
And here one would have several telescopes along a beam that would combine
the light in a very precise way so that the star that one is looking at is blocked
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
out completely, and that allows planets potentially to be detected from under
the glare of that parent star.
There is what is called an interference pattern due to the combining of light
from several mirrors in this telescope system, and an Earth is about a billion
times less bright than the parent star. This device could be mirrors arrayed
along a girder, or it could be free-flying spacecraft that are precisely aligned
with each other. Its technology is less mature than the coronagraphic
technology, and so the coronagraph is likely to fly first. But with the two
concepts, both called Terrestrial Planet Finder [TPF], we have the solid
foundation for a program that would discover and characterize habitable
planets around other stars before humans return to the Moon in force.
The coronagraph could fly in 2013 or 2014, perhaps, after a period of time
here in 2007 to '11 when some precursor missions that are already on the
books such as Kepler, SIM and next-generation space telescopes look for
giant planets and also for Earths in close orbits around stars. The
interferometer might fly in 2018. Now, I'm not advocating a plan that
excludes astronauts, because really TPF, which is embodied by these two
missions, is the gateway to something much grander, something that might
require the intervention of astronauts in space or on the Moon.
8
2014 and very quickly discovers, let's say, two Earth-sized planets around
separate, nearby stars. In version one of the story, the family is sitting around
the campfire; the kids ask their mother whether there are aliens in space and
she replies that nobody knows. But she also says that there might be planets
like our Earth spinning around some of the stars in the sky. So the family all
looks up and the conversation ends as it always has through history in
ambiguity, because no one ever knows if there are other Earths beyond our
solar system.
In version 2 of this story, after TPF is flown, the same question is asked by the
kids. But now the scientist walks their kids away from the campfire out into
an open field and points to a certain set of constellations in the sky, and she
points to two stars in particular and says, "Do you see these two stars? Each
of them we know has an Earth orbiting around it, much like our own Earth
orbits our sun. We know that there is air and there are clouds around that
particular planet, the one around that star, and so there are plans to look more
closely at it to see if there are signs of life." And then she concludes, "Maybe
some day when your children's children's children are alive, they will go to
that distant world to touch its soil and meet whoever or whatever is there."
If Earth-like planets are discovered around nearby stars, we'll want to know
many things about them. Do they have continents and oceans? Is there plant
life that's generating energy by photosynthesis?
(Answering these questions) requires a much larger device, which I'll call Life
Finder, which is a large enough system that the light can be so finely divided
that one could find the telltale signature of chlorophyll or other similar
pigments associated with photosynthesis on this planet. Conceivably one
could resolve this planet, perhaps seeing details on the scale of half the size or
a third of the size of the planet itself. I don't know what that type of system
would look like. It's a long way off, two decades or more. And for that
reason, the Commission should not recommend jumping directly to this very
large Life Finder mission, which is a human-tended observatory on the Moon
or somewhere in space for detecting and making the initial characterization of
Earths around other stars. This can be done with TPF, and to try to do it with
Life Finder would set the search back by a decade or more.
Earth as seen by the departing Voyager spacecraft: a tiny, pale blue dot.
Image credit: NASA.
No other generation before us in the whole history of humanity could lay
claim to the second scenario. But we possibly can within a decade.
Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article962.html.
TWO ARCHITECTURES CHOSEN FOR TERRESTRIAL PLANET
FINDER
NASA/JPL release
10 May 2004
Comparison of Mars, Venus and Earth in water bands,
showing the clear presence of water on Earth uniquely.
Image credit: NASA Workshop, Pale Blue Dot.
TPF could provide an incredible boost in interest in going to the Moon or
sending astronauts to places like the stable Lagrange 2 point, if, in fact, TPF
discovers that there is an Earth around a nearby star and there is then a strong
desire to find out what the nature of that planet really is. So what I'm
recommending is that over the coming decade the search for other Earths and
the return of humans to destinations beyond Earth orbit take separate paths,
with the intent that they meet again after both having seen their initial
successes separately and not before.
I want to close by briefly sketching two versions of a story that takes place in
2014. A scientist takes her kids camping, and in version one NASA has not
flown TPF because it's tied the search for other Earths to the establishment of
a lunar base, and so nothing has flown yet. In the second version, TPF flies in
Included in the nation's new vision for space is a plan for NASA to "conduct
advanced telescope searches for Earth-like planets and habitable environments
around other stars." To meet this challenge, NASA has chosen to fly two
separate missions with distinct and complementary architectures to achieve
the goal of the Terrestrial Planet Finder. The purpose will be to take family
portraits of stars and their orbiting planets, and to study those planets to see
which, if any, might be habitable, or might even have life. Both missions
would launch within the next 10 to 15 years.
The two missions are:
Terrestrial Planet Finder-C: a moderate-sized visible-light telescope, similar to
the 4- by 6-meter (13.1- by 19.6-foot) version currently under study, to launch
around 2014. Onboard coronagraph instrumentation will use a central disc
and other specialized techniques to block the glare of a star, allowing
detection and characterization of dimmer planets around it.
Terrestrial Planet Finder-I: multiple spacecraft carrying 3 to 4 meter (9 to 13
foot) infrared telescopes flying in precise formation, to launch before 2020,
and to be conducted jointly with the European Space Agency. Combining the
infrared, or heat radiation gathered by the multiple telescopes, using a
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
technique called interferometry, will simulate a much larger telescope. This
will enable the mission to detect and study individual planets orbiting a parent
star observed by TPF-C and also new ones beyond the reach of TPF-C.
9
least one session will be held August 2-6, 2004, at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The school is intended for science and
engineering graduate and post-doc students who have a strong interest in
careers in planetary exploration. An intensive team exercise introduces
students to the process of developing a mission concept into reality.
DEADLINE for applications is June 4, 2004.
There is no registration fee. Partial financial support is available to a limited
number of individuals. More information and an application form can be
found on line at http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/pscischool/.
SPACE LIFE SCIENCES ISSUE OF ADVANCES IN SPACE SCIENCE
By David J. Thomas
5 May 2004
The journal, Advances in Space Science, just released an issue dedicated to
astrobiology and space medicine. Unfortunately, this journal does not provide
open access even on a time-delayed basis. However, interested readers can
access the abstracts online (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/57382004-999669991-499900), and then contact the authors for reprints.
49TH SPIE MEETING—PLAN NOW TO ATTEND!
Meeting announcement
11 May 2004
Join us in Denver to meet with the researchers, scientists, engineers, managers
and end users who are forging new innovations in nanotechnology and
organic materials, optical systems engineering, radiation technologies, remote
sensing and space technology, and signal and image processing and sensors.
Over 2,500 submissions from 48 countries have been received for the 60
conferences that are part of this symposium, almost 70 educational courses are
being offered, and over 220 companies will be exhibiting their newest product
developments at this dynamic event. We also have a number of special
member functions, exhibit seminars, panel discussions, workshops, an
exciting nanotechnology plenary session, and technical group meetings
planned.
Top: TPF-C; bottom: TPF-I. Image credits: NASA/JPL.
Observing extra-solar planets in both visible and infrared light allows
scientists to obtain a rich set of data to understand what chemical processes
may be going on at various levels in a planet's atmosphere and surface. That
leads to understanding of whether a planet ever could or actually does harbor
life. A review of these two plans will be conducted over the summer by
NASA and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Astronomy and
Astrophysics. Two other architectures that were studied, the large visible
coronagraph and the structurally connected infrared interferometer, will be
documented and further studies concluded this summer.
Terrestrial Planet Finder is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. It is
part of NASA's Origins program, a series of missions and studies designed to
answer the questions: Where did we come from? Are we alone?
Contact:
Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Phone: 818-354-0880
Read the original news release at
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_architectures.cfm.
An additional article on this subject is available at
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-04n.html.
16TH ANNUAL NASA PLANETARY SCIENCES SUMMER SCHOOL
Lunar and Planetary Institute release
5 May 2004
To prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists to participate in
future missions of solar system exploration, applications are now being
accepted for the 16th Annual NASA Planetary Sciences Summer School. At
We look forward to your participation and hope to see you in Denver at the
SPIE 49th Annual Meeting! [This meeting includes several sessions on
astrobiology].
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX
By David J. Thomas
http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/
11 May 2004
Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles
http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html
L. David, 2004. Scientists confront "weird life" on other worlds. Space.com.
NASA Johnson Space Center, 2004. Study may cast doubt on some 1996
evidence of past life on Mars. SpaceDaily.
NASA Johnson Space Center, 2004. Study may cast doubt on 1996 report of
past Mars life. Spaceflight Now.
NASA Johnson Space Center, 2004. New research doubts life in martian
meteorite. Universe Today.
D. Whipple, 2004. Life in the universe could be just about everywhere.
SpaceDaily.
Human space exploration articles
http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html
National Research Council, 2004. Review of NASA's Longitudinal Study of
Astronaut Health. National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
T. Stafford, 2004. Penmanship in boxing gloves. Astrobiology Magazine.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
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Planetary protection articles
http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles6.html
spacecraft was traveling at a speed relative to Earth of 1.26 kilometers per
second (2,800 miles per hour).
R. L. Schweickart, 2004.
Magazine.
Helicopter flight crews, navigators and mission engineers are preparing for the
return of the spacecraft. The will dispatch a sample return capsule that will
re-enter Earth's atmosphere for a planned mid-air capture at the U.S. Air Force
Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 8. To preserve the delicate particles
of the Sun, specially trained helicopter pilots will snag the return capsule from
mid-air using custom-designed hooks. The flight crews for the two
helicopters assigned for Genesis capture and return are comprised of former
military aviators and Hollywood stunt pilots.
Charged with planetary destiny.
Astrobiology
Extrasolar planets articles
http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles7.html
J. Lunine, 2004. Life finder. Astrobiology Magazine.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2004.
Terrestrial Planet Finder. SpaceDaily.
Two architectures chosen for
Astrobiology and extreme environments book list
http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/astrobiology_books.html
National Research Council, 2004. Review of NASA's Longitudinal Study of
Astronaut Health. National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
NASA GENESIS SPACECRAFT ON FINAL LAP TOWARD HOME
NASA/JPL release 2004-118
5 May 2004
NASA's Genesis spacecraft flew past Earth on Saturday in a loop that puts it
on track for home—and a dramatic mid-air recovery September 8. The
Genesis mission was launched in August of 2001 to capture samples from the
storehouse of 99-percent of all the material in our solar system—the Sun. The
samples of solar wind particles, collected on ultra-pure wafers of gold,
sapphire, silicon and diamond, will be returned for analysis by Earth-bound
scientists. The samples Genesis will provide will supply scientists with vital
information on the composition of the Sun, and will shed light on the origins
of our solar system.
"Genesis has been way out there collecting samples from space for a long
time," said Genesis project manager Don Sweetnam of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Saturday, we brushed past Earth just beyond the
Moon's orbit. On September 6, we will again approach Earth at lunar
distance, but this time we are going to come on in carrying NASA's first
samples from space since Apollo 17 carried the last moon rocks back in
December of 1972."
This graph shows the events that will occur during the recovery of the Genesis
sample return capsule in September 2004. The sample return capsule will
separate from the remainder of the spacecraft about 4 hours before it
encounters the Earth's atmosphere. Friction will initially slow the capsule,
followed by deployment of two parachutes, a small drogue chute, then a
larger main parachute. Two helicopters will be waiting to grab the capsule's
parachute in mid-air as it glides toward Earth, so that it will not come in
contact with Earth materials and contaminate its cargo of solar wind samples.
Image credit: NASA/JPL.
The Earth flyby occurred at about 3:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time on
Saturday, May 1, at an altitude of 386,000 kilometers (239,850 miles) above
the planet's surface—just beyond the Moon's orbit. At that time, the
Helicoptor boom snags parafoil attached to descending Genesis capsule. A
specially modified helicopter with a boom and winch underneath snags the
parafoil chute attached to a model Genesis sample return capsule. The hook
on the end of the boom collapses the chute, allowing the helicopter to retrieve
the capsule in mid-air. This is necessary to ensure the purity of the solar wind
samples inside. This photo was taken during successful trials of this novel
capsule recovery technology. Image credit: NASA/JPL.
A large parafoil chute allows the Genesis sample return capsule to
glide slowly toward Earth. A large main parachute attached to the
Genesis sample return capsule allows it to glide slowly toward Earth
where it can be retrieved by a helicopter. Mid-air retrieval of a
parachuting space vehicle is not new. For Genesis, however, a
recently demonstrated breakthrough in mid-air retrieval technology
will be used. The Genesis mission's main parachute will be a
rectangular lifting chute: a parafoil lifting body that acts somewhat
like a wing. Capture tests with the lifting chute have a 100% success
rate. Image credit: NASA/JPL.
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
JPL manages the Genesis mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and
operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology, the home institute of Genesis's principal investigator Dr. Don
Burnett.
More information about Genesis is available at
www.jpl.nasa.gov/genesis. More information about the actual capture and
return
process
is
available
at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/genesis/mission/recgallery.html.
11
Squyres said. "The question that has intrigued us since we left Eagle Crater is
what preceded that. Was there a deep body of water for a long time? Was
there a shallow, short-lived playa? We don't know."
Contact:
D. C. Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Phone: 818-393-9011
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article960.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/genesis-04c.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/05genesis/
MARS ROVER ARRIVAL AT DEEPER CRATER PROVIDES A
TEMPTING EYEFUL
NASA/JPL release 2004-119
6 May 2004
Scientists and engineers celebrated when they saw the first pictures NASA's
Opportunity sent from the rim of a stadium-sized crater that the rover reached
after a six-week trek across martian flatlands. Multiple layers of exposed
bedrock line much of the inner slope of the impact crater informally called
"Endurance." Such layers and their thicknesses may reveal what the
environment on Mars was like before the salty standing body of water
evaporated to produce the telltale rocks that were explored in the tiny "Eagle"
Crater. That's where Opportunity spent its first eight weeks on Mars.
"It's the most spectacular view we've seen of the martian surface, for the
scientific value of it but also for the sheer beauty of it," Dr. Steve Squyres of
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, said about a color panorama of Endurance
Crater released at a news conference today at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. He is the principal investigator for the science
instruments on both Opportunity and its twin Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit.
This image is a portion of a previously released approximate true-color image
(PIA05163) of the rocky outcrop lining the inner wall of "Eagle Crater." It
was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera.
Studies of this ridge revealed that it was once soaked in a body of salt water.
Scientists are preparing to explore another larger and deeper crater called
"Endurance" for signs of what geologic events preceded the salt water. Image
credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
The strategy for seeking answers is to examine older rocks from deeper layers,
so Opportunity was sent on drives totaling about 800 meters (half a mile) to
reach the deepest crater nearby, Endurance. This crater excavated by the
impact of a tiny asteroid or a piece of a comet is about 130 meters (430 feet)
wide and, from the highest point on the rim, more than 20 meters (66 feet)
deep, 10 times as deep as Eagle. An exposure of outcrop in a cliff high on the
inner wall across from the rover's current positiuon reveals a stack of layers 5
to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) tall. Other exposures around the inner slope of the
crater may be more accessible than the cliff, and chunks from the same layers
may have been thrown out onto surrounding ground by the crater-forming
impact.
"There is a rock unit below what we saw at Eagle Crater," Squyres said. "It
looks fundamentally different from anything we've seen before. It's big. It's
massive. It has a story to tell us."
This approximate true-color image taken by the panoramic camera on the
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the impact crater known as
"Endurance." Scientists are eager to explore Endurance for clues to the red
planet's history. The crater's exposed walls provide a window to what lies
beneath the surface of Mars and thus what geologic processes occurred there
in the past. While recent studies of the smaller crater nicknamed "Eagle"
revealed an evaporating body of salty water, that crater was not deep enough
to indicate what came before the water. Endurance may be able to help
answer this question, but the challenge is getting to the scientific targets: most
of the crater's rocks are embedded in vertical cliffs. Rover planners are
currently developing strategies to overcome this obstacle. Presently,
Opportunity is perched 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) away from the crater's
edge. Endurance is roughly 130 meters (430 feet) across. This image mosaic
was taken by the panoramic camera's 480-, 530- and 750-nanometer filters on
sols 97 and 98. It consists of a total of 258 individual images. Image credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell.
In coming days, Opportunity will circle the rim of Endurance, observing the
crater's interior from various angles. Scientists and engineers have begun to
identify interesting science targets and assess how difficult it would be for the
rover to descend partway into the crater and climb back out. "We will need to
decide whether the science is compelling enough to send the rover into a
crater it might never leave, or whether to explore other sites first before
entering Endurance," said Orlando Figueroa, director of the Mars Exploration
Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
At Eagle Crater, an outcrop of bedrock only about the height of a street curb
yielded evidence that the site was once covered by a body of salty water deep
enough to splash in. "That was the last dying gasp of a body of water,"
Brian Cooper, leader of JPL's squad of rover drivers for Spirit and
Opportunity, said the initial view of the crater doesn't settle accessibility
questions yet. "The slope right in front of us averages 18 to 20 degrees.
Getting into the crater is no problem, but we have a lot more work to do to
assess whether we could get back out. That depends on soil properties and
slippage, as well as slope." The planned circuit around the rim will also
require careful navigation. "If you don't go close enough to the lip, you can't
look in, but if you go too far, you could fall in," he said. "We're going to have
a very interesting few weeks."
When NASA sent astronauts to the lunar surface more than 30 years ago, it
was decided not to allow them to enter craters as fresh and steep as
Endurance, but Opportunity may be able to do what no human has done
before on another planet.
Scientists and engineers working with the other rover, Spirit, are also
examining images of a destination area to identify possible targets of study
and to assess how well the rover can get to them. However, that destination
area, informally named "Columbia Hills," still lies several weeks of travel
ahead of Spirit. Images and surface-temperature information from the NASA
orbiters Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey are supplementing Spirit's
own increasingly detailed pictures of the hills.
Nighttime surface
temperatures indicate that some areas within the hills are rockier than others,
said Amy Knudson, a rover science team collaborator from Arizona State
University, Tempe.
"The hills represent a different rock unit, likely older than the plains we're
on," Knudson said. "There are intriguing features in the hills and we want to
investigate the processes that formed them. We're especially interested to see
if water played any role."
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
12
Martian "Brain" (Released 05 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=dHEySFaxPQxO-3BCLCXxIg
All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Od7vyikUJ3tO-3BCLCXxIg.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took this panoramic camera image
mosaic of the "Columbia Hills" at 4:15 PM local solar time on sol 122 (May
7, 2004). Spirit will spend the next 37 sols or more approaching the base of
the highest peak seen in this image. Rover controllers and scientists are
sending Spirit to this faraway location because the hills there are likely an
older unit of rock and may provide insight into the past environment at Gusev
Crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
NASA/JPL/ASU release
Daily MER updates are available at:
http://marSrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spirit.html
http://marSrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunity.html
Polar Color (Released 3 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=g5pfhnw8LsBO-3BCLCXxIg
Donald Savage
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-1547
Additional articles on this subject are available at:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article952.html
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article954.html
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article959.html
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article963.html
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rovers_update_040506.html
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rovers_autumn_040506.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzi.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzj.html
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040506endurance.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/nasa_considers_descend_crater.ht
ml
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
NASA/JPL/MSSS release
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.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, DC. Images and additional information about the project are
available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell
University at http://athena.cornell.edu.
Contacts:
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Phone: 818-354-6278
archived
3-7 May 2004
Dune-filled Crater in Color (Released 4 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=PihBppecIi1O-3BCLCXxIg
Crater Floor in Color (Released 5 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=rUA7zc3KcYtO-3BCLCXxIg
Cut Crater in Reull Vallis (Released 6 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=k4eLTTQ7ZxFO-3BCLCXxIg
Colored Chaos (Released 7 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=SX8bGnPWXxNO-3BCLCXxIg
All
of
the
THEMIS
images
are
archived
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=G83iDWJCYxBO-3BCLCXxIg.
at
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.
29 April - 5 May 2004
ROSETTA: FIRST SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
ESA release
The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the
Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available.
10 May 2004
Arkhangelsky Dunes (Released 29 April 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=h-kJ-wjefdtO-3BCLCXxIg
Payload commissioning activities continued in the reporting period. For the
first time a scientific activity was executed: the observation of comet Linear.
Four remote sensing instruments, MIRO, ALICE, VIRTIS and OSIRIS took
measurements and images during this special pointing operation.
Small, Bouldery Crater (Released 30 April 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=ORAjvQHOQKNO-3BCLCXxIg
Frosty Dune Field (Released 01 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=84LCy3zQo-BO-3BCLCXxIg
Pollack Crater 'White Rock' (Released 02 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Q6GC9CwUkFBO-3BCLCXxIg
Alcoves in a Xanthe Crater (Released 03 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=TfgIyFeW_b1O-3BCLCXxIg
Clouds over Opportunity Site (Released 04 May 2004)
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=4yHQM9p_Us9O-3BCLCXxIg
The second slot of OSIRIS commissioning was completed on the first day of
the reporting period.
Overall the activities of this long OSIRIS
commissioning slot were successful and most of the objectives achieved.
However, some of the data collected in the previous passes were lost due to a
suspected instrument software crash at the end of the period; for this reason a
delta OSIRIS commissioning of about two days will be scheduled in the near
future.
The covers of the two ROSINA sensors, DFMS and RTOF, were successfully
opened after having released the locks via pyro firing. This was done in
preparation for the upcoming commissioning operations, planned for the
second half of May. The new version of the on-board software for ROSINA
was uplinked and successfully verified. The second slot of RSI (Radio
Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 20, 11 May 2004
Science Investigation) commissioning was successfully completed according
to plan.
On the subsystem side an important activity was the pressurisation of the
Reaction Control Subsystem in view of the upcoming deep-space manoeuvre.
The firing of the 12 pyro valves that connected the high-pressure helium tank
to the fuel tanks via the pressure regulators was successfully executed on 6
May and the regulated pressure of 17 bar was achieved shortly after.
Monitoring of the pressure evolution is still continuing at the end of the
reporting period.
Close monitoring of the thermal environment continues. The temperature of
the thruster modules on the +X side of the spacecraft continues to slowly
increase with the decreasing distance to the Sun. At the end of the reporting
period the hottest thruster module, number 7, had reached 65°C. Adjustments
to the on-board thermal control table, to cope with the increasing spacecraft
temperature, were uplinked to the spacecraft.
At the end of the last New Norcia pass in the reporting period (DOY 128,
02:26) Rosetta was at 27.5 million km from the Earth. The one-way signal
travel time was 1 min 31 seconds. For further information please contact:
SciTech.editorial@esa.int.
An
additional
article
on
this
subject
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rosetta-04o.html.
End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 20.
is
available
at
13