Marsbugs Vol. 11, No. 1 - Lyon College: Liberal Arts...

Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology NewsletterVolume 11, Number 1, 2 January 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. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting the editor. Information concerning the scope of this newsletter, subscription formats and availability of back-issues is available from the Marsbugs web page (http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs). The editor does not condone "spamming" of subscribers. Readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing lists. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editor.

Articles and News

THE TOP SCIENCE STORIES OF 2003From Scientific American

Page 2 THE DARK DUNES DEBATE: SHOULD MARS EXPRESS RESOLVE SEASONAL BLOTCHES?From Astrobiology Magazine

Page 3 ISIDIS, MARTIAN IMPACT BASIN: AN INTERVIEW WITH COLIN PILLINGERFrom Astrobiology Magazine

Page 4 MARS EXPLORATION AND THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IS A PRIORITY SAYS UK SCIENCE MINISTERBeagle 2 Team release

Page 5 PLANETARY SURVIVOR STRATEGY: OUTEAT, OUTWEIGH, OUTLAST! Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics release 03-26

Page 5 DINNER WITH CAPTAIN KIRK: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM SHATNERFrom Astrobiology Magazine

Page 7 BACTERIA DISCOVERED IN 4,000 FEET OF ROCK FUELS MARS COMPARISONBy Mark Floyd

Page 7 DESTINATION: GUSEV CRATERBy Karen Miller

Page 8 CLARK ASKS INPUT FROM SPACE COMMUNITYMars Society release

Page 8 MARTIAN CHRONICLES XIV: PROVING GROUNDSFrom Astrobiology Magazine

Page 9 ASTROBOT BIFF STARLING PREPARES FOR MARS LANDINGFrom SpaceDaily

Announcements

Page 9 MARSFEST '04By Chris Vancil

Page 10 NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEXBy David J. Thomas

Mission Reports

Page 10 SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS STILL WAITING TO HEAR FROM BEAGLE 2 ON MARSESA release

Page 10 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY OF THE BEAGLE 2 "THINK TANK"Beagle 2 Team release

Page 11 ODYSSEY REPORTS STILL NO CONTACT WITH BEAGLE 2Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK) release

Page 12 MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUSNASA/JPL release 2003-174

Page 12 MAJOR MARS EXPRESS SCHEDULED ORBIT CHANGE SUCCESSFULESA release

Page 13 MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGESNASA/JPL/MSSS release

Page 13 NASA COMET HUNTER CLOSING ON QUARRYNASA/JPL release 2003-175

THE TOP SCIENCE STORIES OF 2003From Scientific American

24 December 2003

Below, and in no particular order, are 25 of the stories that most impressed us here at Scientific American.com. Some are included on the basis of their significance, others for sheer fun.

1. Skulls of Oldest Homo sapiens Recovered 2. Gecko-Inspired Adhesive Sticks It to Traditional Tape 3. SARS: Caught Off Guard 4. China's Great Leap Upward 5. Four-Winged Dinosaur and the Dawn of Flight 6. New Drug May Mitigate Peanut Allergy 7. Healing the Grid 8. The Infant Universe, In Detail 9. The Cold Odds against Columbia 10. Pet Prairie Dogs Suspected in U.S. Monkeypox Outbreak 11. New Study Finds Agent Orange Use Was Underestimated 12. Large Fish Populations Imperiled 13. Harvesting Hydrogen Fuel from Plants Gets Cheaper

14. Mare Gives Birth to Own Clone 15. Electronic Paper Speeds Up for Videos 16. Number of Threatened Species Tops 12,000 17. Autopsies, No Scalpel Required 18. 100 Years of Flight: The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers 19. Ink Analysis Smudges Case for Forgery of Vinland Map 20. Scientists Discover New Frog Family 21. E-mail Study Corroborates Six Degrees of Separation 22. Celebrating the Genetic Jubilee: A Conversation with James

Watson23. Astronomers Find Most Ancient Planet Yet24. Decaf Coffee Plants Developed 25. Claim of Nonhuman-Induced Global Warming Sparks Debate

Read the stories at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0001F041-96D1-1FE8-96D183414B7F0000.

THE DARK DUNES DEBATE: SHOULD MARS EXPRESS RESOLVE SEASONAL BLOTCHES?From Astrobiology Magazine

29 December 2003

Experiments planned on board Mars Express may provide clues to what is happening in the mysterious dark dunes and craters on Mars. Although hundreds of thousands of images have been part of previous mapping missions, as much as ninety-seven percent of the planet remains unexplored at high resolution.

As part of its two to four year survey, the Mars Express orbiter passes within 250 kilometers [150 miles] of the surface at closest approach. Employing seven major instruments for its on-the-spot analyses, the orbiting Mars Express will be able to identify signs of water in liquid, solid, or vapor form on Mars. During each orbit, the overhead spacecraft will collect data from Mars between a half-hour to an hour, while spending the rest of its time broadcasting those results back to Earth.

Its onboard camera offers high-resolution stereo views of Mars. Its comprehensive maps will feature 10 meter resolution, but some particularly interesting regions will get a close-up view to 2 meters [about the size of small car, as seen from orbit]. So scientists are now deciding where some of the more interesting places to start mapping are. One spot may be the dunes and crater floors. Images from earlier orbiting cameras continues to fuel such visual detective work, none perhaps more than the waxing and waning of dark "colony-like" blotches recorded by the Mars Orbital Camera. The heated discussion has become known as "the dark dunes" debate.

A recent European Space Agency (ESA) meeting agreed that the seasonal variation in dark and light spots seen on Mars is certainly fascinating. They concluded that the dark dunes might well be worth a detailed look by the recently successfully achieved orbit of Mars Express, the European Space Agency's Mars mission. Agustin Chicarro, ESA project scientist for Mars Express, called the meeting after the spots began fuelling controversy here on Earth in the summer of 2002. "As a geologist, I found the spots quite perplexing and very exciting. I wanted to tap a broad spectrum of expert opinion to decide whether they warrant closer examination by Mars Express," he said.

The dark dunes debate began when András Horváth, Tibor Gánti and Eörs Szathmáry from the Planetarium and the Institute for Advanced Study, Budapest, suggested that the spots could be colonies of martian microbes which wax and wane with the season. The spots appear on dunes found on the floors of craters in the south and north polar regions.

The Hungarian team has examined the southern spots in detail. "They appear in late winter and by summer they have disappeared. They appear first at the margins of the dune fields and rarely appear on the ridges of dunes," Szathmary told the meeting.

Their location (which is independent of the elevation of the land) and shape (which is circular on flat surfaces but elongated on slopes) seems to be at odds with a physical explanation alone, say the Hungarian scientists who have proposed a biological explanation instead. A pocket of water, which would normally evaporate instantly in the thin martian atmosphere, is trapped around them by the overlying ice. As this ice layer thins, the microorganisms show through gray. When it has completely melted, they rapidly desiccate and turn black. This explains why many dark dune spots have a black center surrounded by a gray aureole, say the Hungarian scientists.

On the other side of the debate, Michael Malin and Kenneth Edgett, designers of the Mars Orbital Camera on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which recorded the images of the spots, had previously suggested an explanation involving evaporation and re-freezing of predominantly carbon dioxide ice. Their hypothesis is the dark dunes are not biological. The Mars Orbiter Camera has already taken more than 120,000 pictures of Mars. Many of the camera's images have sharp enough resolution to show features as small as a school bus. An online gallery of pictures taken by the camera is available (http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/). The meeting considered these and other possibilities.

The location and shape of the spots is at odds with a physical explanation. (A) Spots develop on the dark dunes rather than on the stony soil nearby. (B) Spots are also ellipsoid in shape or even (C) fan-shaped. Image credits: NASA/JPL/MSSS.

Russell Crater and mudflows

Another fascinating place has been suggested by a pair of German scientists, who have examined close-up martian dune images and found what appears to resemble terrestrial mudflows. On Earth, particularly in alpine and arctic regions, such a debris trail is left behind when fine-grained soil mixes with liquid water from intense rainfall or sudden melting of surface ice and frost.

The researchers—Dennis Reiss and Ralf Jaumann—published their findings in a recent edition of the Geophysical Research Letters. The pair are scientists at the Institute of Space Sensor Technology and Planetary Exploration, German Aerospace Center, in Berlin. The article's title, "Recent debris flows on Mars: Seasonal observations of the Russell Crater dune field," suggests the intriguing location for some of the best satellite images of what the researchers conclude may be recent, liquid water on Mars.

While a full explanation is ambiguous, the scientists note that the two key ingredients—seasonal thawing, sandy soil with slopes—seem consistent with what may be a brief and relatively recent summer noon of liquid water in Russell Crater. Based on the lack of small craters in the dune fields, the team estimates its surface age at 100 to 10,000 years—a recent soil pattern. The researchers conclude that on the dunes of Russell Crater: "liquid water may be stable over a limited period around noon/early afternoon in late spring/early summer under current climatic conditions," and likely within the last thousand years.

Close-up view

Experiments on board Mars Express could help to determine whether the same had happened on Mars. Several instruments on the Mars Express orbiter can observe selected areas of the martian surface at very high resolution.

"If the dark dune spots are selected as targets for analysis, many outstanding questions about the spots could be answered," said Chicarro.

OMEGA, the infrared mapping spectrometer, for example, could determine the mineral composition of the spots, allowing some hypotheses to be eliminated. PFS, the planetary Fourier spectrometer, could measure the amount of carbon dioxide and water ice present, the temperature of the spots compared with their surroundings and the pressure of the local atmosphere.

2Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 1, 2 January 2004

MARSIS, the radar sounder, could determine the thickness of the ice and the HRSC, the camera, could take high-resolution, 3D, full-color images of the spots. The radar uses a large 40 meter antenna to collect the sound waves that bounce off any density pockets below the rusty-red soil. If pockets of water are found to a depth of 2 kilometers [1.2 miles], then theories of active hydrology on Mars will be borne out. Subterranean aquifers are considered one possible way in which liquid water could exist in the frigid, hostile conditions, where the atmosphere is about one percent of the Earth's pressure.

Images and data from orbit may eliminate some hypotheses, but proof of life on Mars will require landers and possibly humans to see the evidence firsthand. A future Mars lander could carry a Raman spectrometer capable of detecting the sorts of pigments used by microbes on Earth to harness solar energy for photosynthesis and to protect them from UV, Wynn-Williams told the meeting. Opportunities to fly this and other innovative instruments to Mars could be provided by Aurora, ESA's program of planetary exploration currently under discussion.

Malcolm Fridlund, project scientist for Darwin, an ESA mission to search for life on extrasolar planets, however, ended the meeting on a philosophical note which expressed an understandable sentiment.

"I find it hard to believe," he said "that martian life, the last vestiges of a fertile time 3.5 billion years ago, has hung on by a thread for all this time until humans have developed the technology to find it."

Imaging by Mars Express should last at least one martian year (687 days), with further operations possibly extending into 2008.

Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article738.html.

ISIDIS, MARTIAN IMPACT BASIN: AN INTERVIEW WITH COLIN PILLINGERFrom Astrobiology Magazine

29 December 2003

On Christmas day, the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Beagle 2 lander is believed to have touched down on the surface of Mars, in a region known as Isidis Planitia. Beagle 2 contained a suite of scientific instruments designed to search directly for evidence of life on Mars. Although scientists expected to receive a signal from the lander shortly after touchdown, they have not yet detected one. They remain hopeful, however; there will be more opportunities to communicate with the spacecraft in the coming week. Earlier this month, Astrobiology Magazine spoke with Professor Colin Pillinger (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK), who heads the group that conceived and developed Beagle 2, and that is responsible for its scientific mission.

Astrobiology Magazine (AM): Can you start by describing the goal of the Beagle 2 experiments?

Colin Pillinger (CP): Very briefly, it's to see whether there was, is or could be life on Mars.

AM: And is the Gas Analysis Package experiment the main experiment that you plan to do to determine that?

CP: Yeah, but we see this as a total package. I don't want to find myself in a position of having information which I can't interpret in context. We want to understand the chemistry of rocks, the mineralogy of rocks. We'll look at them with our microscopes and we'll see the environment in which we find them with our panoramic cameras. We will then analyze them using the Gas Analysis Package to see whether there are minerals deposited from water, whether there is organic matter which could be the relict material of organisms that lived in the water, and so on.

We're going to try to take samples from inside rocks so that they are much more pristine material than you find on the outsides of rocks, and we're looking for soils beneath the surface, particularly one which is likely to have been protected by a large rock. So it's the whole package. We like to think of this as a holistic experiment. It's a complete laboratory.

AM: Beagle 2 will conduct the first biology tests on Mars since NASA's sent its two Viking landers there in 1976. Viking's results were very controversial. How will the design of Beagle 2's experiments help you avoid similar ambiguities?

CP: Viking did a very noble job. They had three experiments, which were configured to see whether there were any actively metabolizing organisms on the planet. When they got results which could be interpreted as actively metabolizing organisms, they got very concerned, because they had an experiment onboard called the Gas Chromatograph (GCMS), which couldn't detect any organic matter. So their interpretation was that the chemistry of [the martian surface] was playing them a big confidence trick and giving them that they impression that they had found biology, when in fact they didn't.

I'm not doing a metabolism experiment. The thing which is crucial as far as I'm concerned is we need to see whether we can detect any organic [biologically produced] matter. We know that there is organic matter in martian meteorites. My impression is that it's more than should be there, more than can be accounted for by contamination. Now I want to go back to Mars and see whether or not there's organic matter in martian rocks on the surface, where I can discount the contamination problem because these rocks haven't been to Earth.

And the way in which I plan to detect organic matter is to burn it. One of the failings of the GCMS experiment could be—and I'm not saying it is, I'm saying could be—that if there was any organic matter there, it was sufficiently chewed up—almost converted to graphite, or elemental carbon—that it would not break down [in the GCMS experiment] to give you a signal. However, any form of carbon will burn to release its carbon into carbon dioxide.

If you burn a sample of rock, or heat it up, you should see any organic matter burning to give you CO2, and at a higher temperature, you should see mineralogical carbonates breaking down to give you CO2 as well. You can separate these two things according to the temperature regime at which [they burn].

If you find the two carbon-containing phases, the inorganic (carbonates) and the organic, together, you have to measure the isotopic fractionation between them. I'm looking for carbonate as evidence that water was there. And also to give me a handle on the isotopic composition of the martian atmosphere, the basic material with which any biology might be working. On Earth, the organic material that co-exists with the carbonate is always enriched in carbon-12, due to biology, relative to the carbonate. This has been borne out on 10,000 samples on Earth. People have spent their lives working on this stuff, analyzing every sedimentary sample that they can lay their hands on. And it's always true.

AM: Isn't there still a possibility, though, that you could get a false positive or a false negative?

CP: Well, part of the reason that I want to do things in a way in which I have all the information to hand is that when I get something I want to be confident that the results I get are in context. I hate snapshots, or one piece of the jigsaw. So we'll do all the experiments that we said and we'll try and put the whole thing together and say, does this thing fit in a holistic way?

This is almost what went wrong with Viking: they took snapshots of things when they didn't have the other information. And then they were forced—as quite rightly they should have done—into saying, well look guys, we could have been being fooled here. And they did absolutely the right thing and said, there's another interpretation you could put on these results, and in fact we think the other interpretation is more logical than saying we found life on Mars was. They were very, very excellent scientists that made this interpretation.

Everybody can always find something confusing that they haven't thought of. But we have to do the experiments and look at the results, not go in there with closed eyes and say, this result must mean this. You have to look at everything, at all the information you get.

AM: Can you talk a little bit about the factors that went into choosing Isidis Planitia as the landing site?

CP: Everything we could possibly think of went into choosing Isidis. We wanted somewhere we could keep the scientists happy and somewhere the engineers wouldn't throw a wobbly. The engineers want low altitude, which makes the parachute work better; they don't want the place strewn with rocks, it could burst the gas bags; they don't want slopes because they give you lateral velocity that you don't like; nobody wanted to go to high latitudes, because it gets cold up there; we chose the northern hemisphere because it was going toward spring and summer, and of course the altitude there as well.


We liked a place where there was a potential of different kinds of rocks. So Isidis is nice because it's an in-fill basin, which might have lots of materials from the southern highlands washed down into it. We chose a place south of two recognizable sizable craters because we felt there was a possibility that some materials had been ejected from the floor of the craters.

AM: Beagle 2 was developed and deployed on a shoestring budget. There are some people in the scientific community who thought it was never going to get launched.

CP: Some of our people thought it was never going to get launched, let's put it that way. The more they thought that, the more we were determined it would. So thank you very much for those stimulating comments, all you people out there who thought it wasn't going to get launched.

AM: Can you talk a bit about your approach and your philosophy. How did you manage to pull it off?

CP: You don't have any money, you think harder. That sums it up.

AM: It's been almost 30 years since the Viking experiments. Why do you think it took so long for somebody to try biology experiments again?

CP: I don't think people weren't trying. I think there were a lot of failures of missions designed to go to Mars. And we don't necessarily know what experiments were on some of those Russian missions. But all of them had to get down before they could do any experiments.

I think the real thing that is driving us back to wanting to look at whether there is life on Mars is something that Viking did that nobody anticipated, nobody planned. It was that they were able to show that we have martian meteorites on Earth and the martian meteorites clearly led us to believe that the conditions on Mars are more appropriate for life than we had believed from Viking. It wasn't that Viking didn't find life, it was that they thought the conditions were just so horrid, so harsh, nobody anticipated that life could exist there.

The discovery of water in martian meteorites was made just after Viking. Of course, we didn't know then they were martian meteorites. But we found evidence of water trickling through martian meteorites, we found carbonates in martian meteorites that was definitely indigenous. And we found organic matter.

I believe that the organic matter is there in an amount that can't just be explained by contamination. However, I can't prove it. And if I can't prove something, I just simply say, right, what are we going to do next? Go find another experiment. So we think we've got a lot of exciting things that Mars can teach us, and we've designed an experiment and a space system that is going to answer the question that we've raised. That's all we can do, is design the best experiment we can do. And I don't mind if it finds something completely different. One of the great things about science is that you never can predict all the answers to the experiments. You always get some things that you haven't anticipated. And therein is the way knowledge progresses. If you could predict all the answers, it would be really boring. Dreadful. I'd go and do something else like become an accountant. And I've got nothing against accountants.

AM: Why do you think it was ESA that did this and not NASA?

CP: 'Cause I told them they had to. ESA didn't want to take this lander at first. They were anticipating that they were going to recover Mars 96 with a launch which took place in 2003 while Mars was [nearby] and therefore it was feasible for them to do it. It was me who went there and said, hang on guys, since Mars 96 was designed, we've had all this stuff come from Mars meteorites, and the evidence is very compelling that we dismissed life on Mars too soon. I think we should go back with a lander.

And they said, we don't have the money, we don't have the technology, we don't have the time. And I said well, I think the public want to know so much about this—this was just after the martian fossil story [the discovery of fossil-like structures in the martian meteorite ALH84001]—that I think the money can be found from somewhere. And I'll go find it.

I went back and talked to a lot of people, and I said, are you prepared to work on a project that's going to Mars with no money, so we're going to have to get out there and try and convince people to give us some? And they said, we

don't want to miss this chance of going to Mars. We'll join you. And companies joined me, and universities joined me and individuals joined me and even little old ladies rang me up and said, we think you're doing great.

So that's the reason why we're doing it. It's the Beagle team that's sending a lander to Mars, and we've convinced ESA—and that wouldn't have happened without a review from NASA—that we were a technically sound project, and what's more that we had a scientifically exciting project. Both of those things are important. This is not a me-too mission. It's not just, can we land on Mars and take a picture? This is hot science that is going to be done using high-class technology, and everybody in this project has contributed to that.


MARS EXPLORATION AND THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IS A PRIORITY SAYS UK SCIENCE MINISTERBeagle 2 Team release

29 December 2003

The latest attempts to communicate with Beagle 2 via the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft have been unsuccessful. However, the Beagle 2 team has not given up hope and continues to be optimistic that efforts to contact the lander will eventually be successful. This message was also reinforced by Lord Sainsbury, UK Minister for Science and Innovation, who this morning joined members of the Beagle 2 team to answer questions about the status of the project.

"While we're disappointed that things have not gone according to plan, we are determined that the search should go on, both the search to make contact with Beagle 2 and also (the search) to answer the long term question about whether there is life on Mars," said Lord Sainsbury.

"There's clearly still a good opportunity to make contact with Beagle 2 with Mars Express when it comes into action, and that has to be the first priority at this point. I think everything is being done by the "tiger team" in Leicester to make contact with Beagle 2 and I want to wish them every success in their efforts."

"We are looking at a number of possible failure modes that we might do something about," said Dr. Mark Sims, Beagle 2 mission manager from the University of Leicester.

"We are working under the assumption that Beagle 2 is on the surface of Mars and for some reason cannot communicate to us. In particular, we're looking at two major issues. One is communications, and there are also related timing and software issues.

"We've got a few more Odyssey contacts, the last one being on 31 December. Then we have four contacts with Mars Express already pre-programmed into Beagle, assuming the software is running, on 6, 12, 13 and 17. The 6 and 12 are when Mars Express is maneuvering into its final orbit, so they are not optimum for Beagle 2 communications. The 13th and 17th are very good opportunities for Mars Express."

According to Dr. Sims, one of the scenarios the team was investigating—a timer and hardware reset—now seems unlikely, and can probably be ruled out. However, other possible slips of the onboard time may have been caused by software or problems of copying data between various parts of memory. Possibly, all of the stored command times have been lost.

"None of these can yet be eliminated," he said.

After the tenth contact attempt, Beagle 2 will move into communication search mode 1 (CSM 1), taking advantage of the ability of the software on board Beagle 2 to recognize when dawn and dusk occur on Mars by measuring the current feeding from the solar arrays.

"When we get into CSM 1 mode, Beagle 2 will start putting additional contacts on its time line, independent of the clock value," said Mark Sims. "This will happen after 31 December."

The team is also looking at sending blind commands to Beagle 2. This is helped by Beagle going into CSM 1 mode.

"The team has come up with a method of fooling the receiver into accepting


commands without having to talk back to the orbiter," said Dr. Sims. "We have an agreement with JPL to reconfigure Odyssey to provisionally attempt this on 31 December, the last programmed Odyssey pass."

Malin Space Science Systems has also provided the Beagle 2 team with a picture of the landing site taken by the camera on Mars Global Surveyor 20 minutes after the spacecraft's scheduled touchdown. It shows that the weather was quite good on the day Beagle landed, so it was unlikely to be a factor in the descent. The next opportunity to image the landing site with Mars Global Surveyor will not be until 5 January.

The image showing the centre of Beagle 2's landing ellipse also shows a 1 km wide crater. There is just an outside possibility that the lander could have touched down inside this crater, resulting in problems caused by steep slopes, large number of rocks or disruption to communication from the lander. This image is now available on the Beagle 2 and PPARC Web sites (http://www.beagle2.com/resources/landingphotos.htm).

While the Lander Operations Control Centre in Leicester continues its efforts to communicate with the Beagle 2, Lord Sainsbury took the opportunity to inform the media that the UK government is keen to continue the innovative robotic exploration effort begun with the lander.

"Long term we need to be working with ESA to ensure that in some form there is a Beagle 3 which takes forwards this technology," he said. "I very much hope that the Aurora program, which is now being developed by ESA, will take forward this kind of robotic exploration.

"We've always recognized that Beagle 2 was a high risk project, and we must avoid the temptation in future to only do low risk projects.

"I'd like to use this opportunity to add my thanks to all those helping our efforts to make contact with Beagle 2. I think the amount of international collaboration one gets on these occasions is very, very impressive and very encouraging to the team."

"We should not ignore the importance of Mars Express, which has three British-designed instruments on board and which looks set for success," he added.

"Finally, can I use this opportunity to wish the Americans every success with its two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity."

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/031229crater.html.http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_crater_beagle_2.html

PLANETARY SURVIVOR STRATEGY: OUTEAT, OUTWEIGH, OUTLAST! Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics release 03-26

29 December 2003

Of the first 100 stars found to harbor planets, more than 30 stars host a Jupiter-sized world in an orbit smaller than Mercury's, whizzing around its star in a matter of days (as opposed to our solar system where Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the Sun). Such close orbits result from a race between a nascent gas giant and a newborn star. In the October 10, 2003, issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers Myron Lecar and Dimitar Sasselov showed what influences this race. They found that planet formation is a contest, where a growing planet must fight for survival lest it be swallowed by the star that initially nurtured it.

"The endgame is a race between the star and its giant planet," says Sasselov. "In some systems, the planet wins and survives, but in other systems, the planet loses the race and is eaten by the star."

Although Jupiter-sized worlds have been found orbiting incredibly close to their parent stars, such giant planets could not have formed in their current locations. The oven-like heat of the nearby star and dearth of raw materials would have prevented any large planet from coalescing. "It's a lousy neighborhood to form gas giants," says Lecar. "But we find a lot of Jupiter-sized planets in such neighborhoods. Explaining how they got there is a challenge."

Theorists calculate that so-called "hot Jupiters" must form farther out in the disk of gas and dust surrounding the new star and then migrate inward. A challenge is to halt the planet's migration before it spirals into the star. A Jupiter-like world's migration is powered by the disk material outside the planet's orbit. The outer protoplanetary disk inexorably pushes the planet inward, even as the planet grows by accreting that outer material. Lecar and Sasselov showed that a planet can win its race to avoid destruction by eating the outer disk before the star eats it.

Our solar system differs from the "hot Jupiter" systems in that the race must have ended quite early. Jupiter migrated for only a short distance before consuming the material between it and the infant Saturn, bringing the King of Planets to a halt. If the protoplanetary disk that birthed our solar system had contained more matter, Jupiter might have lost the race. Then it and the inner planets, including Earth, would have spiraled into the Sun.

"If Jupiter goes, they all go," says Lecar.

"It's too early to say that our solar system is rare, because it's easier to find 'hot Jupiter' systems with current detection techniques," says Sasselov. "But we certainly can say we're fortunate that Jupiter's migration stopped early. Otherwise, the Earth would have been destroyed, leaving a barren solar system devoid of life."

Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

Contact: David AguilarDirector of Public AffairsHarvard-Smithsonian Center for AstrophysicsPhone: 617-495-7462Fax: 617-495-7468 E-mail: [email protected]

Christine LafonPublic Affairs SpecialistHarvard-Smithsonian Center for AstrophysicsPhone: 617-495-7463Fax: 617-495-7016E-mail: [email protected]

Read the original article at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0326.html.

An additional article on this subject is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0312/29planetary/.

DINNER WITH CAPTAIN KIRK: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM SHATNERFrom Astrobiology Magazine

29 December 2003

This featured "Dinner with..." series builds on the classic thought experiment: "Which 5 people would you invite to dinner, and how would you seat them?" While the field of astrobiology historically rests on many "shoulders of giants"—too many for one dinner party, the Astrobiology Magazine has selected some initial candidates for our dinner party, and then asks them to introduce their area of expertise in a brief question and answer format. Previous dinner conversations excerpted in their own words have included Darwin, Orville Wright, Da Vinci, Simon Newcombe—all giants in science. This dinner departs from historical characters to the genre of speculative science and giants of the screen, to include one of the most memorable characters to pioneer what today continues to fuel interest in space exploration: Captain James T. Kirk.

Contrary to what many suppose from the short three year run on NBC for the original Star Trek series, Shatner's forty-five years of filmography now encompasses more than 107 productions, nine of which he has writing credits on. Shatner visited NASA in 2002, to research the book, I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact, and explore how many of the technologies envisioned in Star Trek's television series and movies are now becoming realties.


http://www.beagle2.com/resources/landingphotos.htm

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_crater_beagle_2.html

Tonight's dinner introduces William Shatner—science fiction author, actor, director—as he seeks to go with Astrobiology Magazine where no man has gone before.

Q: If NASA called and offered you a spot on the Shuttle when it flies again, would you take it?

William Shatner: No, thank you! I've developed claustrophobia and I have sleep apnea.

Q: What do you believe is the most important message to be derived from Star Trek?

William Shatner: Don't interfere in other people's lives or think that yours is the shining example of the way things are supposed to be.

Q: Do you know of anybody that has changed his or her life because of you or Captain Kirk?

William Shatner: I've met maybe thousands of people who claim their lives were changed because of watching Star Trek. It's a bit overwhelming.

Q: From the moment you learned you got the part in Star Trek, the original series, to the final scene you filmed in Star Trek: Generations, what was the one emotion that you think best describes your experience playing Captain James T. Kirk?

William Shatner: Gratitude.

Q: What do you think Gene Rodenberry would think about his creation now and what, if anything, could the producers do to improve the current product?

William Shatner: Unfortunately, the current product seems to have come to an end, which would be of no end of grief to Gene. I think perhaps the producers missed the essentials of Star Trek—that is, the colorful characters in conflict with each other and the outer world.

Q: What life lessons did you learn from creating and acting the persona of Captain James T. Kirk?

William Shatner: How to memorize ten pages in a day; how to stay alert for eighteen hours at a time; how to focus my forces when I needed them.

Q: Has your opinion of Star Trek: The Motion Picture changed with the director's version?

William Shatner: No, it didn't change too much. I thought [was] it a little long and it got longer.

Q: During your long career, which character, from a book or movie, would you have liked to play?

William Shatner: I don't really think that way; I try not to live in regret or play the game of what might be. I try to stay focused on what is and what is possible. ...I'd like to be a mutant from X-Men 2.

Q: What is your favorite book of all the books you have written and why?

William Shatner: Probably Star Trek Memories was one I enjoyed tremendously. It brought back a lot of memories and I had to interview a lot of people I cared for very much. It was a good experience all the way around.

Q: Why is science fiction still being treated like a mediocre genre in Hollywood?

William Shatner: I really don't think it is being treated like a mediocre genre. More money is being spent on science fiction extravaganzas than on anything else. Computer graphics is the darling of Hollywood and most of it is being utilized for science fiction projects.

Q: If you could play any character in a Star Wars movie, who would it be and why?

William Shatner: Yoda, because it's all a voice-over—no make-up and good hours.

Q: If you were to meet any of the cast of the original Star Wars saga for dinner or coffee, what would you discuss and what would you ask them?

William Shatner: I'm fascinated by Lucas himself. I've never met him, but I admire the way he has used money to make better films technically, which is something the major studios don't do. So even though he's not a cast member, I'd want to meet him since he's creative and smart to do R&D in film and sound.

Q: In real life, have you ever had any type of ET or Close Encounter experiences?

William Shatner: No, I haven't, although a tabloid once printed one about me. Mind you, I was going to join the group that were waiting for the space ship on the other side of the comet, but I was too busy and they left without me.

Q: What would be your ideas about the ideal conditions in regards to you having personal contact with aliens?

William Shatner: Perhaps drunk.

Q: It is curious that you have not written to my knowledge any more books in this "Mars Universe" [Man 0'War and Law O'War]. Are you planning to continue to write more books or had you planned to keep these two books as a duology?

William Shatner: I think the Mars series are some of the best work I've done. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough demand for more of them. I'm sorry the publisher decided not to ask for more.

Q: If you could have a conversation with anyone from the past who would it be and what would you talk about?

William Shatner: One of the characters of history that interests me is Alexander the Great. We could talk about military tactics, why he didn't accept the invention of the saddle and odd things like that.

Q: Do you see mass communications eventually going to end up with the "few" controlling what the majority sees and hears?

William Shatner: I think the very word "mass communication" means not only a mass that receives information, but a mass that will send it as well. It would seem likely that the future would open up for broadcasting.

Q: Do you prefer working in front of or behind the camera?

William Shatner: When I'm behind the camera, I yearn to be in front and when I'm In front, I yearn to say, "action!"

Q: When there's nothing on the plate for you to do, what does William Shatner do to pass the time?

William Shatner: Eat the plate.

Q: Have you gone to the "Star Trek Experience" [in Las Vegas] and done the motion simulator ride?

William Shatner: Actually, I've already had the Star Trek experience. It was a great ride.

Q: What career do you think you would have chosen if you had not become an actor and author?

William Shatner: A petty thief. And I hate pettiness.

Q: If things were ever to go ahead, in terms of context and story, where would you hope to see Jim Kirk upon his return?

William Shatner: I would like to see Jim Kirk in heaven with little angels tucked under his arm. Old Jim trying to make out with an angel. Now that's a story.



BACTERIA DISCOVERED IN 4,000 FEET OF ROCK FUELS MARS COMPARISONBy Mark FloydOregon State University release

A team of scientists has discovered bacteria in a hole drilled more than 4,000 feet deep in volcanic rock on the island of Hawaii near Hilo, in an environment they say could be analogous to conditions on Mars and other planets. Bacteria are being discovered in some of Earth's most inhospitable places, from miles below the ocean's surface to deep within Arctic glaciers. The latest discovery is one of the deepest drill holes in which scientists have discovered living organisms encased within volcanic rock, said Martin R. Fisk, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Results of the study were published in the December issue of Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems, a journal published by the American Geophysical Union and the Geochemical Society.

"We identified the bacteria in a core sample taken at 1,350 meters," said Fisk, who is lead author on the article. "We think there could be bacteria living at the bottom of the hole, some 3,000 meters below the surface. If microorganisms can live in these kinds of conditions on Earth, it is conceivable they could exist below the surface on Mars as well."

The study was funded by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Oregon State University, and included researchers from OSU, JPL, the Kinohi Institute in Pasadena, CA, and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The scientists found the bacteria in core samples retrieved during a study done through the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Program, a major scientific undertaking run by the Cal Tech, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, and funded by the National Science Foundation. The 3,000-meter hole began in igneous rock from the Mauna Loa volcano, and eventually encountered lavas from Mauna Kea at 257 meters below the surface. At one thousand meters, the scientists discovered most of the deposits were fractured basalt glass—or hyaloclastites—which are formed when lava flowed down the volcano and spilled into the ocean.

"When we looked at some of these hyaloclastite units, we could see they had been altered and the changes were consistent with rock that has been 'eaten' by microorganisms," Fisk said.

Proving it was more difficult. Using ultraviolet fluorescence and resonance Raman spectroscopy, the scientists found the building blocks for proteins and DNA present within the basalt. They conducted chemical mapping exercises that showed phosphorus and carbon were enriched at the boundary zones between clay and basaltic glass—another sign of bacterial activity. They then used electron microscopy that revealed tiny (two- to three-micrometer) spheres that looked like microbes in those same parts of the rock that contained the DNA and protein building blocks. There also was a significant difference in the levels of carbon, phosphorous, chloride and magnesium compared to unoccupied neighboring regions of basalt. Finally, they removed DNA from a crushed sample of the rock and found that it had come from novel types of microorganisms. These unusual organisms are similar to ones collected from below the sea floor, from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and from the deepest part of the ocean—the Mariana Trench.

"When you put all of those things together," Fisk said, "it is a very strong indication of the presence of microorganisms. The evidence also points to microbes that were living deep in the Earth, and not just dead microbes that have found their way into the rocks."

The study is important, researchers say, because it provides scientists with another theory about where life may be found on other planets. Microorganisms in subsurface environments on our own planet comprise a significant fraction of the Earth's biomass, with estimates ranging from 5 percent to 50 percent, the researchers point out.

Bacteria also grow in some rather inhospitable places. Five years ago, in a study published in Science, Fisk and OSU microbiologist Steve Giovannoni described evidence they uncovered of rock-eating microbes living nearly a mile beneath the ocean floor. The microbial fossils they found in miles of core samples came from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Fisk said he became curious about the possibility of life after looking at swirling tracks and trails etched into the basalt. Basalt rocks have all of the elements for life

including carbon, phosphorous and nitrogen, and need only water to complete the formula.

"Under these conditions, microbes could live beneath any rocky planet," Fisk said. "It would be conceivable to find life inside of Mars, within a moon of Jupiter or Saturn, or even on a comet containing ice crystals that gets warmed up when the comet passes by the sun."

Water is a key ingredient, so one key to finding life on other planets is determining how deep the ground is frozen. Dig down deep enough, the scientists say, and that's where you may find life. Such studies are not simple, said Michael Storrie-Lombardi, executive director of the Kinohi Institute. They require expertise in oceanography, astrobiology, geochemistry, microbiology, biochemistry and spectroscopy.

"The interplay between life and its surrounding environment is amazingly complex," Storrie-Lombardi said, "and detecting the signatures of living systems in Dr. Fisk's study demanded close cooperation among scientists in multiple disciplines—and resources from multiple institutions. "That same cooperation and communication will be vital as we begin to search for signs of life below the surface of Mars, or on the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn."

Contacts:Mark FloydPhone: 541-737-0788

Martin FiskPhone: 541-737-5208

Read the original news release at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2003/Dec03/bacteria.htm.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04a.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/life_discovered_hilo_rock.html

DESTINATION: GUSEV CRATERBy Karen MillerFrom NASA Science News

30 December 2003

On January 3, Spirit, NASA’s 400-pound rover, is scheduled to land on what may be a dried-up lake bed on Mars. "There’s not much doubt: this site contained a body of liquid water, at least for some amount of time," says Jim Garvin, NASA’s Lead Scientist for Mars Exploration.

A Mars Global Surveyor image of Gusev Crater. The arrow indicates the direction of possible water flow into the crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS.

The site is Gusev Crater, a 90-mile wide hole in the ground that probably formed three to four billion years ago when an asteroid crashed just south of


http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/life_discovered_hilo_rock.html

Mars’ equator. There’s a channel system that drains into it, which probably carried liquid water, or water and ice, into the crater. "It’s hard to imagine the landscape looking this way unless water was somehow involved," says Garvin.

Right now, inside the crater, researchers expect to find sediments, which may be nearly 3,000 feet thick. These sediments, which, researchers hope were deposited by water, may have been covered by dust and sand that’s blown into the crater over the past two billion years. But if there was once water in Gusev, its signature should still be there.

Water, of course, is important because it could signal an environment once-friendly to life. The landscape seen from orbit is very persuasive. But researchers can’t be certain that Gusev contained liquid water until they examine the site up close.

"The Gusev landscape we see today could have been modified by lava, ice, and winds," notes Garvin. "Aspects of it could have been formed by standing water, or by intermittent floods." Spirit carries a suite of tools that will find out.

The rover will be able to grind away the surface cover on rocks and analyze minerals inside. It will be able to view its surroundings with unprecedented detail and precision. It can scoot over to the most interesting rocks it finds in order to examine them more closely. With these tools and others, Spirit will work to find out what really happened.

One clear sign of past water will be in the rocks. For example, if indeed Gusev once held a giant lake (more than 10 times the size of the famous Crater Lake here in the US) certain key minerals are likely to be found in its rocks. Spirit might find evaporites—minerals formed as water dries up. Salt or gysum are familiar ones here on Earth. Salt’s component parts—sodium and chloride—are separated, dissolved in sea water, but as the water dries up, the sodium and chloride join together to form the mineral "halite," for example.

An artist's concept of the Mars rover Spirit approaching an interesting rock. Image credit: NASA.

On Mars, Spirit might find evaporites like gypsum, or calcium magnesium sulfate. It might also find minerals involving carbonates (i.e., calcium carbonate). These are sometimes, although not always, produced by or from living organisms. But they are almost always a sign of water—"at least here on Earth," notes Garvin.

Another sign will be in the way the sediments are organized. For example, if the sediments were blown in by winds, the layers may be more erratic, to reflect the changing directions of airflow (as in fossil dunes here on Earth). If they were deposited by water, they are more likely to be layered evenly, one on top of the other in rhythmic stacks.

The most exciting result, says Garvin, would be proving that liquid water existed at the surface of this site for a long time. "Persistent standing bodies of water are possible habitats for life," he explains.

But whatever information Gusev yields will be important. Water or not, life or not—whatever it tells us will help determine the course of future explorations on Mars.

Read the original article at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/30dec_gusevcrater.htm.

CLARK ASKS INPUT FROM SPACE COMMUNITYMars Society release

31 December 2003

The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark has extended an invitation to Mars Society members and the space community at large to post their opinions and thoughts about space policy at http://space.forclark.com, with the express understanding that such input will be taken very seriously as the Clark campaign prepares an official policy statement regarding the future of the space program. Those who do not want to take the time to officially register on the site or be seen as Clark supporters by doing so can take a quick poll there on space issues and the presidential campaign, instead.

This opportunity builds on previous Mars Society political outreach work in which candidates Howard Dean, Richard Gephardt, Dennis Kucinich, and Wesley Clark have all expressed support for human Mars exploration. In addition, the Bush White House continues to prepare a space policy that is likelier to support Mars as the goal for America's space program due to the delay of its release until after the arrival of the NASA Spirit rover in Gusev Crater on the night of January 3rd.

The Mars Society is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse any candidates. We urge all candidates and political parties to support human Mars exploration. Supporters of other candidates should contact their campaign offices and urge them to prepare specific Mars-friendly space policies or make higher-profile statements of support for space and Mars exploration, especially as Spirit and Opportunity reach the Red Planet.

For further information about the Mars Society, visit our web site at www.marssociety.org.

MARTIAN CHRONICLES XIV: PROVING GROUNDSFrom Astrobiology Magazine

31 December 2003

Two rovers are reaching the end of their half-year journey to Mars. Where the two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) are now can be continuously monitored in-flight. Experiments performed by the MERs will help to determine whether water might have once existed in volume on the red planet. The two Mars Exploration Rovers are targeting what imagery indicates might have been ancient dry lake beds and other geologically interesting sites in early 2004.

The Martian Chronicles series gives an inside view of what it takes for scientists to deliver a complex mars mission. The journal entries are from Cornell's Steve Squyres, the Principal Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers' scientific package called Athena. The chronicles begin sequentially from the beginning of July 1999, four years before launch, and will culminate in the dramatic landing of the twin rovers on Mars in January 2004. The expected mission time roaming the red planet is ninety days, from January to April. As Spirit and Opportunity speed toward Mars, more than three hundred scientists and engineers here on Earth will learn how to act in unison to master the art of commanding two very complex robots to do science on another world.

"Mars is getting pretty big in the windshield now," said Steven Squyres, Cornell professor of astronomy. He reminded Mars' watchers that while a good landing will be important, for the scientists, research is the thing. "This is a marathon," he said.

Although the rovers' primary mission is to search for evidence of water on Mars, Squyres cautioned that important findings are unlikely to occur immediately after landing. "The best stuff could come in February, March, April," he said. Rover Spirit, he said, will plod the martian landscape carefully. "It doesn't zip. It is more like a Galapagos turtle."


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In late November, Squyres and his science team completed the last operations-readiness test at JPL. The team simulated five martian days of driving a practice rover, using the vehicle's version of a geologist's rock hammer, the rock abrasion tool, or RAT. "We use it to remove the outer layers of a rock so that we can see what lies underneath," said Squyres in his online diary.

The team spotted a rock to study, nicknaming it Fromage, which means "cheese" in French. "Bait for the RAT, get it?" joked Squyres. "We drove the rover to Fromage, stuck out the arm, and used the RAT to grind a beautiful circular hole in it. Then we stuck [the Athena] instruments into the hole and got fantastic data. It was by far our coolest [test] yet. It was nice to finish up on such a high note."

The chronicles include an insider's view of hardware tests and site selection to problem solving and science planning on the surface of Mars .

December 13, 2003

It's less than three weeks until Spirit lands. Our last operations readiness test is over. The final flight software has been loaded onto both Spirit and Opportunity, and we've finished and tested all of the instrument commands for the first week after we land. Final pre-landing health checks are done on all the instruments. The spacecraft are ready to go.

Down here on Earth, we're a little less ready. Once these things hit the ground, our whole team is going to be completely consumed by flight operations for months. So the focus now is getting our lives in order so that we won't have too many distractions when the time comes. Dentist appointments. Haircuts. Drivers license renewals. Flu shots. All the little things we've neglected for the past six months while we've been getting ready to land, or that we know we won't have time for for who knows how many months after we land.

And then there's the matter of sleep. It's too bad we can't save it up now, because we're not going to be getting a lot of it after landing! But least we're trying to make sure that everybody gets rested and healthy, so that we start off in good shape. Anyway, the plan is that in another couple of weeks the team will be as ready for all this as Spirit and Opportunity are now.

December 23, 2003

We're ready. As I write this, it's twelve days until Spirit lands at Gusev Crater. Everything is done now except the final trajectory correction maneuvers, and even those are close to being upon us.

After all these years, it's hard to believe that we're finally almost there. Our science payload first came together as a rough idea about a decade ago, built up from instrument concepts that had already been in work for years before that.

We began figuring out how to put it on a rover back in '95, and we've been designing and building flight hardware in earnest since '97. Starting in 2000, an army of hundreds of incredibly talented and dedicated engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and elsewhere raced to make the concept a reality in time for launch. We made it to the launch pad against some pretty long odds, and now we're about to make it to Mars. Twice.

And there, starting on the night of January 3rd, all those years of work are going to come down to a six-minute make-or-break plunge through the martian atmosphere. Heck of a way to make a living, eh? But I wouldn't trade it for anything.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been advising my team to rest up, take it easy, spend some time with their families, and get ready for the stress and fatigue of flight operations. I'm going to take my own advice now, and make this the last web page update for the next twelve days or so. The next time you hear from us, Spirit will be in Gusev Crater.


ASTROBOT BIFF STARLING PREPARES FOR MARS LANDINGFrom SpaceDaily

1 January 2004

Biff Starling—one of two intrepid spacefarers in The Planetary Society's web adventure, the Astrobot Diaries—is preparing for arrival on Mars when NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit bounces down on Saturday, January 3, 2004.

"Way cool!" Exclaimed Biff. "I've got my handholds all picked out, and I'm ready to bounce!"

Bolted to each of NASA's two Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft is a mini-DVD provided by The Planetary Society to carry to the surface of Mars the names of 4 million people collected by NASA. The Astrobots, representations of robotic mini-figures suited up for space, appear as part of the structure that mounts the mini-DVD onto each spacecraft.

The Planetary Society, in cooperation with the LEGO Company, designed the Astrobot Diaries as a program to enable young people and adults alike to journey vicariously to the Red Planet with the Mars Exploration Rover mission.

Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04b.html.

MARSFEST '04By Chris Vancil

30 December 2003

Saturday, January 10, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PMThe Museum of Flight in Seattle

On Christmas Day 2003, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Expresswith went into orbit, Britain's Beagle 2 lander hopefully touched downon the martian plains of Isidis Planitia, marking the firstextraplanetary visit of an ESA probe. A few thousand kilometers awayand two weeks later, on January 3rd of this year, NASA/JPL's lands itsgolf-cart-sized robotic explorer "Spirit" in Mars' Gusev Crater. Andon January 24th, Spirit's twin, "Opportunity", will touch down atMeridiani Planum on the other side of the red planet. Never before hassuch an international armada of spacecraft converged on anotherplanet, and the National Space Society Seattle Chapter, Mars SocietyPuget Sound and the Planetary Society join the Museum in celebratingthis historic "Earthling invasion" with a full day of Mars-relatedprograms, exhibits, video screenings and live feeds from NASA TV.

Leading off the formal programs is an 11:00 AM multimediapresentation by JPL Solar System Ambassador Dr. Ron Hobbs. His talkentitled "Return to Mars" places the current ESA and NASA missions inthe context of almost forty years of martian exploration that began in1965 when Mariner 4 captured twenty-one photographs of the planet asit flew by. At 1:00 PM, Dr. Hobbs moderates a panel discussion amonglocal Mars experts, including: Professor Adam Bruckner, chair of theDepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University ofWashington; Conway Leovy, who worked on the Mariner 6 and 7 and VikingLander science teams; Jeff Slostad, who worked on the robotic arm ofthe ill-fated Mars Polar Lander; and James Tillman who was aco-investigator on the Viking Lander weather sensors. These men knowtheir Mars science and hardware! Don't miss their wide-rangingdiscussion.

Delivering the MarsFest keynote address at 3:00 PM is special guestDr. Robert Zubrin. Founder and current president of the Mars Society, Dr. Zubrin is a tireless promoter of human exploration of Mars, aswell as a respected engineer and scientist and a best-selling author.Following the discussion, he will sign copies of his most recent book,Mars on Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic(J. P. Tarcher, 2003), which details the dramatic story of the MarsSociety's scientific expeditions to build and test simulated habitatsfor martian exploration in the terrestrial Arctic and the U.S. desertSouthwest.

MarsFest requires regular museum admission:


Adults (18-64) $11.00; Seniors $10.00; Youth 5-17 $6.50; children under 4free; adult groups of 10 or more $10 each; part of "City Pass" Program.

The Museum of Flight 9404 E Marginal Way SouthSeattle, WA 98108Phone: 206-764-5700

NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEXBy David J. Thomashttp://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/

2 January 2004

Astrobiology and planetary engineering articleshttp://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html

Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. Christmas vigil ensues: red planet's moment of truth. Astrobiology Magazine.

Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. The dark dunes debate: should Mars Express resolve seasonal blotches? Astrobiology Magazine.

Astrobiology Magazine, 2003. Isidis, martian impact basin: an interview with Colin Pillinger. Astrobiology Magazine.

K. Miller, 2003. Destination: Gusev Crater. NASA Science News.

Terrestrial extreme environments articleshttp://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html

M. Floyd, 2003. Bacteria discovered in 4,000 feet of rock fuels Mars comparison. SpaceDaily.

Extrasolar planets articleshttp://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles7.html

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 2003. Planetary survivor strategy: outeat, outweigh, outlast. Spaceflight Now.

SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS STILL WAITING TO HEAR FROM BEAGLE 2 ON MARSESA release

27 December 2003

Two attempts to communicate with Beagle 2 during the last 24 hours—first with the 76 meter (250 feet) Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, UK, and then this morning with the Mars Odyssey orbiter—ended without receiving a signal. Despite this outcome, fresh attempts to scan for a signal from Beagle 2 will be made over the coming days.

Meanwhile, scientists and engineers are eagerly awaiting ESA's Mars Express spacecraft return close enough to Mars to try to establish contact with Beagle 2. This may be possible from 4 January 2004. Mars Express was always intended to be the prime communication relay for Beagle 2, and the lander team is hopeful that a link can be established at that time if it has not already been achieved with Mars Odyssey.

"We need to get Beagle 2 into a period when it can broadcast for a much longer period," says Professor Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2 lead scientist. "This will happen around the 4 January after the spacecraft has experienced a sufficient number of communication failures to switch to automatic transmission mode."

Both Professor Pillinger and Professor David Southwood, ESA Director of Science, agreed that the best chance to establish communication with Beagle 2 would now seem to be through Mars Express. At present, Mars Express is far from the planet and preparing to fire its engines for a major trajectory change that will move it into a polar orbit around Mars.

"We will have no satisfaction until we have a full mission" said Professor Southwood. "Today I'm certainly frustrated, but I'm still confident: let's wait now until the mothership will have the possibility to get in contact with her

baby. With Mars Express we will be using a system that we have fully tested and understand."

Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM6JA374OD_index_0.html.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.astrobio.net/news/article734.htmlhttp://www.astrobio.net/news/article736.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/031227search.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/beagle_2_search_continues.html

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY OF THE BEAGLE 2 "THINK TANK"Beagle 2 Team release

28 December 2003

As part of the Media update on 27th December, Professor Alan Wells (Lander

Operations Control Centre, University of Leicester) outlined details of the work being undertaken by the Beagle 2 team to assess the current situation. A specialist team, titled the "Analysis and Recovery Think Tank", has been established to concentrate on understanding the reasons for Beagle 2's apparent failure to make contact with Earth, and to address the steps that may be taken to resolve these problems.

During the media briefing Professor Wells took time to explain the precise nature of the earlier attempts to make contact with the spacecraft, and detailed the remaining opportunities as follows.

A series of 15 scheduled communication sequences were programmed into Beagle 2's software prior to its separation from Mars Express on Friday 19th December. Routine communication with Mars Express before the separation confirmed that these commands had been successfully uploaded to the lander.

After touchdown the planned communication sessions should have automatically been triggered, by the onboard 'clock', to correspond with the known passing of the orbiting spacecraft Mars Odyssey (NASA), and later on in the mission, Mars Express (the ESA "mother ship"). A number of the pre-programmed sessions were also scheduled to correspond with times when the landing site is in "sight" of the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope. Any signal picked up by Jodrell, or an alternative telescope, will only serve to confirm the well-being of Beagle 2—it does not offer an opportunity for two-way communication; this can only be achieved via Mars Odyssey or Mars Express.

If the lander software is running as planned, and according to the initial timing dictated by the onboard clock, a number of the programmed communication sessions have already passed.

Sessions 1 and 3 (between 04:54 and 06:14 on Christmas Day morning and between 17:33 and 18:53 on Boxing Day evening respectively) both occurred during the martian night, and were intended to open communication with Mars Odyssey. In the planned communication sessions with an orbiting spacecraft, Beagle switches into "listening" mode for 80 minutes. During the pass over the landing site Mars Odyssey will send out a series of "hails" which, if picked up by Beagle, will enable the lander's receiver to lock onto the signal from the orbiter and activates the lander's transmitter and communications can proceed (any reply from Beagle would be "headed" up with the call sign composed by Blur). No response was received by Mars Odyssey to indicate that the "hail" messages had reached Beagle 2 during either of the above sessions.

When a planned communication session is intended for reception by the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, Beagle 2 is configured to send a repeating unmodulated signal, transmitting for 10 seconds then remaining inactive for 50 seconds, for a duration of 80 minutes.

Sessions 2, 4 and 6 (between 22:20 and 23:40 on Christmas Day evening, between 23:00 and 24:20 on Boxing Day night and between 22:56 and 00:16 27th December respectively) coincided with opportunities to view the surface of Mars with the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Unfortunately no signal was detected by the giant telescope.

Session 5 (between 6:17 and 7:37 on the morning of 27th December) occurred


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http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/031227search.html

during the martian day, and Beagle 2 should have again been in its "listening" mode at a time when Mars Odyssey was passing over the landing site. Sessions occurring in the martian daytime differ from those occurring during the night as Beagle would automatically send any stored data when sunlight is available to charge the battery. Beagle is programmed to "concentrate" on receiving data at night time to avoid draining the battery with power intensive data transmission. However, again the telemetry returned by Mars Odyssey to Earth did not contain any evidence of communication between the orbiter and lander.

The remaining scheduled communications sessions are as follows.

Sessions coinciding with Mars Odyssey pass:* Session 7 — 28/12/03 (18:57 - 20:17 GMT)* Session 8 — 29/12/03 (07:41 - 09:01 GMT)* Session 9 — 30/12/03 (07:24 - 08:44 GMT)* Session 10 — 30/12/03 (20:20 - 21:40 GMT)* Session 11 — 31/12/03 (09:04 - 10:24 GMT)

Please note that any signal from Beagle 2 (either directly to the Jodrell Bank radio telescope or via an orbiting spacecraft) will take at least 9 minutes to reach earth, owing to the vast distance that it must travel.

One possible explanation that has been raised for the apparent silence is the potential for incompatibility between the systems on board Beagle and those used by Mars Odyssey. The Beagle team has been in constant contact with the Jet Propulsion Lab, in Pasadena, and fellow scientists there are presently checking through data and records in order to ascertain whether there may be any problems with the transmitters and receivers aboard Odyssey. It is important to note that neither of the communication routes attempted so far has ever been tested, therefore it is possible that the best opportunity for successful communication may arise when Mars Express achieves its final orbit and can take part in the search for Beagle.

A backup has been built into the communication schedule such that if 10 scheduled sessions pass unsuccessfully then Beagle 2 will switch to an emergency mode "search mode 1". Planned Jodrell contact sessions are included in the count because Beagle can have no way of knowing whether these 'one-way' sessions have been successful. When the lander switches to search mode 1 it will proceed to attempt a communication with the best daytime and best nighttime orbiter pass each day—these times are calculated according to an onboard model of the orbits of both Mars Odyssey and Mars Express.

Session 10 is scheduled for the evening of 30th December, and if a regular contact has not been made by this time 'search mode 1' will be activated, increasing the opportunity for communication with a 'passing' orbiter or for detection of Beagle 2 by radio telescope from Earth.

If a further 10 communication sessions are unsuccessful, Beagle will then switch to "search mode 2". The second emergency mode involves the production of a signal throughout the martian day (power is still conserved during the night). With two "search mode 1" sessions taking place each day, the adoption of search mode 2 would, in theory, begin on January 5th—soon after the date when Mars Express is first available for communication.

A further explanation for the lack of contact between Beagle and the Earth is that the onboard clock may have been corrupted during the entry, descent, and landing stage of the mission. If this is indeed the case, the above scheduled communication sessions may not have corresponded accurately with the passage of Mars Odyssey over the landing site or with the viewing windows afforded to the Jodrell Bank telescope. It is possible that Beagle 2 is signaling correctly but not at a time when Mars Odyssey is passing or when Jodrell Bank can "see" Mars. Consequently, when Beagle assumes "search mode 1" and begins signaling more regularly it may be possible for Odyssey or Jodrell to pick up the "additional" transmissions.

In addition, a further radio telescope at the University of Stanford, California will begin the hunt for a signal from Beagle 2 the evening of 27th December. The telescope at Stanford has a viewing window that is one hour longer than that afforded to Jodrell Bank—therefore the opportunity for a signal to be picked up, if it is being transmitted at an unexpected time, will also be increased. The Stanford telescope has previously been used to monitor faint sources of radiation in deep space. Consequently it is thought that there may be some potential for it picking up other indicators of activity on Beagle besides the expected transmitter signal. The onboard processors will produce

low levels of radiation that may be weakly "visible" to the telescope—this might be considered comparable to looking for signs of Beagle's "heartbeat", rather than listening for its "bark"! It was, however, noted that these systems on Beagle have been shielded to protect them from sources of external radiation hence any signal from this internal source may be extremely small. Radio telescope scientists have special ways of distinguishing small signals from other background "noise".

Members of the Beagle 2 team are also exploring the possibility of "recruiting" other radio telescopes to hunt for the signal from Mars. A telescope on the other side of the Earth would allow the search to continue at different times. It is understood that staff at the Parkes telescope (Sydney, Australia) are investigating whether they have appropriate detection equipment to look for Beagle 2.

Whilst it may not be possible to establish two way communications with Beagle 2 via a radio telescope it will aid the team to pinpoint the lander's location, and provide a time reference point. If the onboard clock has been corrupted it is likely to affect the absolute timing of the communication windows rather than the relative timing.

In order to address the potential problems associated with an incorrect clock setting on Beagle 2, a "blind command" was transmitted by Mars Odyssey during the pass over the landing site yesterday morning (27 December 2003 - session 5). The hope is that Beagle may be able to receive such signals, but is not currently able to transmit. The effect of this command would be to reset the onboard clock with the aim of resynchronizing the process and prompting an opportunity for successful communication.

"Blind commands" can also be used by the Lander Operations Control Centre (LOCC) to control other processes onboard Beagle 2, without the requirement for two-way communication. Commands to control the motors operating the central hinge, or the hinges controlling the solar arrays may be sent via Mars Odyssey or Mars Express to affect some minor repositioning of the lander—this approach may be used to correct any potential problems that might have occurred with the opening of the arrays, or if the lander is inappropriately positioned, for example, leaning at a restrictive angle against a rock.

Such a strategy is not without considerable risk because any command may impact other processes taking place on the lander. It is also very difficult to command a spacecraft without any information about its current status—imagine trying to drive a radio-controlled car around a track without being able to see or hear the movement, or even know what the track looks like! The LOCC team will be able to make a risk assessment by testing the implication of any proposed activity on a working replica of the Beagle lander in their control center at the University of Leicester.

Finally Professor Wells reassured the gathered media that the team were still in good spirits, and dedicated to the challenge ahead — and promised that, "We'll keep going until every possibility has been exhausted".

28 December 2003, 01:20 GMT

No signal received by the Stanford University telescope but equipment was not operating to its highest level of performance.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.marsdaily.com/2004/031231184143.l1g4zyxm.htmlhttp://www.space.com/missionlaunches/mars_update_031229.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/beagle2-03b.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/031227tigerteam.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/eighth_beagle_attempt_fails.html

ODYSSEY REPORTS STILL NO CONTACT WITH BEAGLE 2Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK) release

30 December 2003

The sixth attempt by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to communicate with Beagle 2 was made this morning, but, as on previous occasions, no data were received. The next Mars Odyssey communication opportunity will take place at 20:20 GMT this evening. The results of this session will be announced on the Beagle 2 and PPARC Web sites. Other opportunities to communicate with Beagle 2, including pre-programmed sessions with Mars Express, are listed on the Beagle 2 Web site.


http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/eighth_beagle_attempt_fails.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/beagle2-03b.html

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/mars_update_031229.html

http://www.marsdaily.com/2004/031231184143.l1g4zyxm.html

The next Beagle 2 press briefing is scheduled to take place at the Media Centre in Camden on Sunday 4 January. Details will be confirmed on the Web sites at a later date.

Beagle 2 has been pre-programmed to send a pulsing on-off signal once a minute (10 seconds on, 50 seconds off) during daylight hours on Mars. Some 9 minutes later, this call home should reach Earth after a journey of about 100 million miles (157 million km). The planned communication times are detailed in the landing timeline at http://www.beagle2.com/landing/timeline.htm.

For further details on Beagle 2 and Mars Express see the following web sites: http://www.beagle2.comhttp://www.pparc.ac.uk/Marshttp://www.esa.int/mars

Contacts:Peter BarrattE-mail: [email protected]

Gill OrmrodPhone: +44 (0)1793-442012E-mail: [email protected]

Julia MaddockPhone: +44 (0)1793-442094E-mail: [email protected]

Beagle 2 Media CentreThe Open University - Camden Offices1-11 Hawley CrescentCamden, London NW1 8NPPhone: +44 (0)1908-332015 or +44 (0)1908-332017Fax: +44 (0)1908-332016

MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUSNASA/JPL release 2003-174

29 December 2003

NASA's Spirit rover spacecraft fired its thrusters for 3.4 seconds on Friday, December 26, to make a slight and possibly final correction in its flight path about one week before landing on Mars. Radio tracking of the spacecraft during the 24 hours after the maneuver showed it to be right on course for its landing inside Mars' Gusev Crater at 04:35 January 4, 2004, Universal Time (8:35 PM January 3, Pacific Standard Time.) Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars three weeks later.

"The maneuver went flawlessly," said Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

This was Spirit's fourth trajectory correction maneuver since launch on June 10. Two more are on the schedule for the flight's final three days, if needed. Adler said, "It seems unlikely we'll have to do a fifth trajectory correction maneuver, but we'll make the final call Thursday morning after we have a few more days of tracking data. Right now, it looks as though we hit the bull's-eye."

The adjustment was a quick nudge approximately perpendicular to the spacecraft's spin axis, said JPL's Chris Potts, deputy navigation team chief for the NASA Mars Exploration Rover project. "It moved the arrival time later by 2 seconds and moved the landing point on the surface northeast by about 54 kilometers" (33 miles), Potts said. The engine firing changed the velocity of the spacecraft by only 25 millimeters per second (about one-twentieth of one mile per hour).

For both NASA rovers approaching Mars, the most daunting challenges will be descending through Mars' atmosphere, landing on the surface, and opening up properly from the enclosed and folded configuration in which the rovers arrive. Most previous Mars landing attempts, by various nations, have failed.

Each rover, if it arrives successfully, will then spend more than a week in a careful sequence of steps before rolling off its lander platform.

The rovers' mission is to examine their landing areas for geological evidence about past environmental conditions. In particular, they will seek evidence about the local history of liquid water, which is key information for assessing whether the sites ever could have been hospitable to life. Opportunity will land halfway around Mars from Spirit.

As of 13:00 Universal Time (6:00 AM PST) on New Year's Day, Spirit will have traveled 481.9 million kilometers (299.4 million miles) since launch and have will have 5.1 million kilometers (3.2 million miles) left to go. Opportunity will have traveled 411 million kilometers (255 million miles) since its July 7 launch and will have 45 million kilometers (27.9 million miles) to go, with three remaining scheduled opportunities for trajectory correction maneuvers.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, at http://athena.cornell.edu.

Contact:Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CAPhone: 818-354-6278

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rover_photos_031230.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04a.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/031231edl.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/031231landing.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/031231preview.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_course_correction.html

MAJOR MARS EXPRESS SCHEDULED ORBIT CHANGE SUCCESSFULESA release

30 December 2003

This morning, at 09:00 CET, the first European mission to Mars registered another operational success. The Mars Express flight control team at ESOC prepared and executed another critical maneuver, bringing the spacecraft from an equatorial orbit into a polar orbit around Mars. All commands were transmitted to Mars Express via ESA's new Deep Space Station in New Norcia, Australia. This morning, the main engine of Mars Express was fired for four minutes to turn the spacecraft into a new direction, at a distance of 188,000 kilometers from Mars and about 160 million kilometers from Earth. On 4 January 2004, this new polar orbit will be reduced even further.

Fascinating ESA science mission ahead

In a polar orbit, Mars Express can now start to prepare its scientific observation mission as planned, working much like an "Earth-observation satellite" but around Mars. From the second half of January 2004, the orbiter's instruments will be able to scan the atmosphere, the surface and parts of the subsurface structure of Mars with unmatched precision.

The MARSIS radar, for example, will be able to scan as far as four kilometers below the surface, looking for underground water or ice. The High Resolution Stereo Camera will take high-precision pictures of the planet and will begin a comprehensive 3D cartography of Mars. Also, several spectrometers will try to unveil the mysteries of martian mineralogy and the atmosphere, as well as influences from the solar wind or seasonal changes.

Mars Express closes in on Beagle 2 landing area

The change of orbit by the Mars Express orbiter will allow increasingly closer looks at the Beagle 2 landing site, which measures 31 kilometers by 5 kilometers. In this narrowing polar orbit, the orbiter will fly directly over the landing site at an altitude of 315 kilometers on 7 January 2004, at 13:13 CET. The reduced distance, the ideal angle of overflight and originally foreseen communication interfaces between the "mother" and "baby" will increase the probability of catching signals from the ground.


http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spirit_course_correction.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/031231preview.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/031231landing.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/031231edl.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04a.html

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rover_photos_031230.html

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rover_photos_031230.html

http://athena.cornell.edu/

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/

mailto:[email protected]



http://www.esa.int/mars

http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Mars

http://www.beagle2.com/

http://www.beagle2.com/landing/timeline.htm

Ongoing European co-operation and international support

The Mars Express flight control team of ESA in Darmstadt, Germany, is in regular contact with its colleagues of the Beagle 2 team and with NASA ground stations. In addition, ESA receives regular support or offers of support from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the UK, Westerborg telescope in the Netherlands, Effelsberg telescope in Germany and Stanford University's telescope in the USA. ESA is grateful for this spirit of dynamic international co-operation on its first mission to Mars.

Next status report on the Mars Express mission

Comprehensive information is available on ESA'S Mars special pages at http://mars.esa.int or via the telephone info box on 0049 6151 90 2609. In the case of major news on the mission, the media will be informed immediately.

Read the original release at http://www.esa.int/export/esaSC/SEMA1D374OD_index_0.html.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-04a.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/status.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_express_orbiting_safely.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_express_orbit_change.html

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGESNASA/JPL/MSSS release

27-31 December 2003

The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available.

Terby Sedimentary Rocks (Released 27 December 2003)http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=8YKy-qF0pr9O-3BCLCXxIg.

Alba Patera (Released 28 December 2003)http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=SuTr6wDC4ahO-3BCLCXxIg.

Dust-Raising Event (Released 29 December 2003)http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Dp5-fR5-P3ZO-3BCLCXxIg.

Fretted Terrain Valley Floor (Released 30 December 2003)http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=BoPW1GE65CJO-3BCLCXxIg.

18 Minutes After Beagle 2 Landing (Released 31 December 2003)http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=kKQs9m0H6ThO-3BCLCXxIg.

All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=FQpeaOC0zuFO-3BCLCXxIg.

Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.

NASA COMET HUNTER CLOSING ON QUARRYNASA/JPL release 2003-175

30 December 2003

Having trekked 3.2 billion kilometers (2 billion miles) across cold, radiation-charged and interstellar-dust-swept space in just under five years, NASA's Stardust spacecraft is closing in on the main target of its mission—a comet flyby.

"As the saying goes, 'We are good to go,'" said project manager Tom Duxbury at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "There are significant

milestones ahead that we need to achieve before we reach the comet on January 2, but we have a great team of engineers and scientists that have trained hard for this moment, and we have a spacecraft that is in great shape."

All this intense earthly preparation is directed at Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt 2), a ball of dirty ice and rock, about as big as 20 Titanics laid end-to-end. Discovered in 1978, Wild 2 orbits the Sun once every 6.39 years on a trajectory that carries it nearly as close to the Sun as Mars is, and as far away from the Sun as Jupiter. On January 2 at 11:40:35 am PST, the 5.4-kilometer-wide (3.3-mile) comet will sail past the 5-meter-long (16-foot) Stardust spacecraft at a distance of about 300 kilometers (186 miles) and at a relative speed of 21,960 kilometers per hour (13,650 miles per hour). The plan is thus because Stardust is a sample return mission.

"In recent decades, spacecraft have passed fairly close to comets and provided us with excellent data," said Dr. Don Brownlee of the University of Washington, principal investigator for the Stardust mission. "Stardust, however, marks the first time that we have ever collected samples from a comet and brought them back to Earth for study."

Clad for battle behind specially designed armored shielding, Stardust will document its passage through the hailstorm of comet debris with two scientific instruments that will scrutinize the size, number and composition of dust particles in the coma—the region of dust and gas surrounding the comet's nucleus. Along with these instruments, the spacecraft's optical navigation camera will be active during the flyby and should provide images of the dark mass of the comet's nucleus. Data from all three will be examined after the encounter.

The chain of events began nine days out from the comet when Stardust deployed its "cometary catcher's mitt," a tennis-racket-shaped particle catcher of more than 1,000 square centimeters (160 square inches) of collection area filled with a material called aerogel. Made of pure silicon dioxide, like sand and glass, aerogel is a thousand times less dense than glass because it is 99.8 percent air. The high-tech material has enough "give" in it to slow and stop particles without altering them radically.

"The samples we will collect are extremely small, 10 to 300 microns in diameter, and can only be adequately studied in laboratories with sophisticated analytical instruments," said Brownlee. "Even if a ton of sample were returned, the main information in the solids would still be recorded at the micron level, and the analyses would still be done a single grain at a time."

After the sample has been collected, the collector will fold down into a return capsule, which will close like a clamshell to secure the sample for a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range in January 2006. The capsule, holding microscopic particles of comet and interstellar dust, will be taken to the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, where the samples will be carefully stored and examined.

Scientists believe in-depth terrestrial analysis of cometary samples will reveal a great deal not only about comets but also related to the earliest history of the solar system. Locked within the cometary particles is unique chemical and physical information that could provide a record of the formation of the planets and the materials from which they were made.

Stardust, a project under NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, highly focused science missions, was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information on the Stardust mission is available at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov.

[As of 13:00 PST, all indications are that the Stardust had a successful flyby of Comet Wild 2 today. Data playback is in progress.]

Contact:D.C. AglePhone: 818-393-9011

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.astrobio.net/news/article742.htmlhttp://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/31dec_stardust.htmhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/stardust_update_031230.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04a.html


http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04a.html

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/stardust_update_031230.html

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/31dec_stardust.htm?list52260

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=FQpeaOC0zuFO-3BCLCXxIg

http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=kKQs9m0H6ThO-3BCLCXxIg

http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=BoPW1GE65CJO-3BCLCXxIg

http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Dp5-fR5-P3ZO-3BCLCXxIg

http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=SuTr6wDC4ahO-3BCLCXxIg

http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=8YKy-qF0pr9O-3BCLCXxIg

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_express_orbit_change.html

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_express_orbiting_safely.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/status.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-04a.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04b.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04c.htmlhttp://spaceflightnow.com/stardust/status.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/stardust_shields_itself.html

End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 1.


http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/stardust_shields_itself.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/stardust/status.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04c.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stardust-04b.html

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