Marsbugs Vol. 11, No. 23
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Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004
Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas 72503-2317, USA. [email protected]
Marsbugs is published on a weekly to monthly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editor, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors, and are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or by Lyon College. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting the editor. Information concerning the scope of this newsletter, subscription formats and availability of back-issues is available at http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs. The editor does not condone "spamming" of subscribers. Readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing lists. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editor.
Articles and News Mission Reports
Page 1 WHAT TO WEAR ON MARS Page 8 LESSONS LEARNT FROM BEAGLE 2 AND PLANS TO By Ryan Smith IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY Page 2 DINOSAURS DIED WITHIN HOURS AFTER ASTEROID ESA release HIT EARTH 65 MILLION YEARS AGO University of Colorado release Page 10 CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS NASA/JPL release Page 2 PEBBLES FROM AN OVERHEATED EARTH? By Geoff Koch Page 11 CASSINI/HUYGENS APPROACHING SATURN AND TITAN Page 3 SURVIVAL OF THE SMALLEST: MINI-MICROBES ESA release 28-2004 REDEFINE EXTREME LIVING By Robert Roy Britt Page 11 SATURN SEEN FROM FAR AND NEAR NASA release 2004-131 Page 3 NASA'S NEW MISSION: MOON, MARS TO BE FIRST STOPS ON OUR JOURNEY THROUGH SOLAR SYSTEM Page 12 CASSINI-HUYGENS MISSION STATUS REPORT By David A. King NASA/JPL release 2004-134
Page 4 ATOM: CONVERSATION WITH LAWRENCE KRAUSS Page 13 MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS From Astrobiology Magazine NASA/JPL release 2004-132
Page 5 NASA RELEASES MISSION REQUIREMENTS FOR Page 14 MARS EXPRESS: ARSIA MONS VOLCANO IN 3D PROPOSED JUPITER MISSION ESA release NASA release 2004-130 Page 15 MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES Page 6 RAW INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE DETECTED IN NASA/JPL/MSSS release PLANETARY CONSTRUCTION ZONES NASA release 2004-167 Page 15 MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release Page 7 YOUNG PLANET CHALLENGES OLD THEORIES By Leslie Mullen Page 15 ROSETTA'S SCIENTIFIC "FIRST"—OBSERVATION OF COMET LINEAR Announcements ESA release 29-2004
Page 8 NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas
WHAT TO WEAR ON MARS to the peer review process required for publication. "It is the best project I've By Ryan Smith seen in over a decade," he said. University of Alberta release "I don't know why we decided to design a space suit," Yarmuch said. 21 May 2004 "Nothing like it had ever been designed in the class before, so I guess that was the main attraction." As if getting to Mars weren't hard enough, astronauts also have to worry about what to wear when they arrive. Their concerns: exposure to micrometeor The three materials engineering sandstorms, radiation, and a hyper-cold climate. students began by studying, layer by layer, the space suits NASA developed However, three undergraduate students at the University of Alberta—Jennifer for trips to the moon. Suits made for Marcy, Ann Shalanski, and Matthew Yarmuch—addressed the problem in Dr. Mars, however, will require much more Barry Patchett's Materials Design 443 class and have published their findings thought than the ones produced for the in the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance. Students in the lunar landings, Yarmuch said. "Mars class are asked to take something that already exists and improve its has nothing for atmosphere. There's performance and design by using new materials. Patchett said that the space some carbon dioxide, but that's about it suit for Mars is the first design created in the class that he felt could stand up for gases."
Jennifer Marcy and Dr. Barry Patchett. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 2
and Jason Lillegraven and California Academy of Sciences Researcher Sylvia Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a magnetosphere to protect it from radiation Hope. and meteors and micrometeors, and astronauts exploring the martian surface will also have to deal with average temperatures of –55 C and low recorded at "The kinetic energy of the ejected matter would have dissipated as heat in the a frightening –133 C. In creating their design, the students tried to balance upper atmosphere during re-entry, enough heat to make the normally blue sky these concerns with the need to create a suit that astronauts could move about turn red-hot for hours," said Robertson. Scientists have speculated for more in as they explored. than a decade that the entire surface of the Earth below would have been baked by the equivalent of a global oven set on broil. "The gravitational force on Mars is about one-third of that on Earth, so if you built the suit with lead to protect the astronauts from the radiation, it would The evidence of terrestrial ruin is compelling, said Robertson, noting that tiny still end up weighing a few hundred kilograms, and the poor guys wouldn't be spheres of melted rock are found in the Cretaceous-Tertiary, or KT, boundary able to move," Yarmuch said. around the globe. The spheres in the clay are remnants of the rocky masses that were vaporized and ejected into sub-orbital trajectories by the impact. A The suit includes ball bearings and bearing and compression rings, and one of nearly worldwide clay layer laced with soot and extra-terrestrial iridium also the 12 layers of material the students incorporated into their design is Demron, records the impact and global firestorm that followed the impact. a new polymeric created by a company called Radiation Shield Technologies (RST). As the students completed their theoretical design using computer- The spheres, the heat pulse and the soot all have been known for some time, aided design software, they didn’t worry about costs, which "would have been but their implications for survival of organisms on land have not been very high" if they produced an actual suit, Yarmuch said. explained well, said Robertson. Many scientists have been curious about how any animal species such as primitive birds, mammals and amphibians managed to survive the global disaster that killed off all the existing "We asked RST for an estimate on the cost of Demron, but because it's such a dinosaurs. Robertson and colleagues have provided a new hypothesis for the new product and we were only asking them for a speculative price, they didn't differential pattern of survival among land vertebrates at the end of the even want to give us a number," Yarmuch said. "Ultimately, we designed it Cretaceous. They have focused on the question of which groups of without concern for cost—we went cutting edge on everything." vertebrates were likely to have been sheltered underground or underwater at the time of the impact. Two of the reviewers on the editorial board for the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance are from NASA, Patchett noted, so perhaps one Their answer closely matches the observed patterns of survival. Pterosaurs day parts of the U of A students' space suit design will be incorporated into a and non-avian dinosaurs had no obvious adaptations for burrowing or suit built by NASA. swimming and became extinct. In contrast, the vertebrates that could burrow in holes or shelter in water—mammals, birds, crocodilians, snakes, lizards, "That would be very cool," Yarmuch added. "The development of a real suit turtles and amphibians—for the most part survived. to be used on a real mission to Mars is probably still a couple of decades away at least, but I think our research will help point future researchers in the right Terrestrial vertebrates that survived also were exposed to the secondary direction." effects of a radically altered, inhospitable environment. "Future studies of early Paleocene events on land may be illuminated by this new view of the KT Related links: catastrophe," said Robertson. The U of A Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering web site http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/cme/ Located on the CU-Boulder campus, CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr. Barry Patchett's U of A web page http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/cme/nav03.cfm? Contact: nav03=23568&nav02=23293&nav01=23089 Doug Robertson Phone: 303-492-3694 The Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance web site http://www.asminternational.org/content/Journals/JournalofMaterialsEngineer Owen Toon Phone: 303-492-1534 ingandPerformance/engperf.htm Jim Scott Read the original news release at Phone: 303-492-3114 www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/expressnews/articles/printer.cfm?p_ID=5829. Greg Swenson Additional articles on this subject are available at: Phone: 303-492-3113 http://www.astrobio.net/news/article987.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-base-04i.html Read the original news release at http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2004/168.html. DINOSAURS DIED WITHIN HOURS AFTER ASTEROID HIT EARTH 65 MILLION YEARS AGO Additional articles on this subject are available at: University of Colorado release http://www.astrobio.net/news/article994.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/05/27/dinosaur.hot/index.html 24 May 2004 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-04h.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/asteroid_wiped_dinosaurs_hours.h According to new research led by a University of Colorado at Boulder tml geophysicist, a giant asteroid that hit the coast of Mexico 65 million years ago probably incinerated all the large dinosaurs that were alive at the time in only PEBBLES FROM AN OVERHEATED EARTH? a few hours, and only those organisms already sheltered in burrows or in By Geoff Koch water were left alive. The six-mile-in-diameter asteroid is thought to have hit From Stanford News Service and Astrobiology Magazine Chicxulub in the Yucatan, striking with the energy of 100 million megatons of TNT, said chief author and Researcher Doug Robertson of the department of 25 May 2004 geological sciences and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. The "heat pulse" caused by re-entering ejected Analysis of 3.2-billion-year-old pebbles has yielded perhaps the oldest matter would have reached around the globe, igniting fires and burning up all geological evidence of Earth's ancient atmosphere and climate. The findings, terrestrial organisms not sheltered in burrows or in water, he said. A paper on published in the April 15 issue of the journal, Nature, indicate that carbon the subject was published by Robertson in the May-June issue of the Bulletin dioxide levels in the early atmosphere were substantially above those that of the Geological Society of America. Co-authors include CU-Boulder exist today and above those predicted by other models of the early Earth. The Professor Owen Toon, University of Wyoming Professors Malcolm McKenna research implies that carbon dioxide, perhaps aided by another greenhouse gas Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 3 such as methane, helped to keep the planet warm enough for life to form and evolve. Stanford geologists Donald R. Lowe and Dennis K. Bird, and senior 26 May 2004 Stanford researcher Robert E. Jones, also contributed to the research. A world of mini-microbes discovered deep under ice in Greenland reveals "The early mix of greenhouse gases is relevant to the evolution of atmospheric apparent survival skills that could come in handy on Mars or other extreme oxygen and the conditions in which life arose," said Angela Hessler, a worlds: get small and hang in there. The tiny creatures are smaller than most geology professor at Grand Valley State University, who completed the commonly known bacteria and have endured at least 120,000 years in subzero research as a doctoral student at Stanford University. "A more detailed temperatures, crushing pressure, low oxygen levels and almost no nutrients. picture of early Earth might serve as a proxy for exploring the history of They were found in ice core samples taken nearly 2 miles (3,000 meters) nearby planets in the solar system." below a glacier. Researchers said they could be a million years old. The microscopic critters are all less than 1 micron wide and some are less than 0.2 Early to rise? microns. Most bacteria, which also are too small to see without a microscope, are between 1 and 10 microns. Scientists are still trying to figure out if Scientists have long agreed that some sort of greenhouse effect started newfound microbes—there are several varieties—were dormant or living relatively soon after the Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago. Microbial normal, energy consuming lives. life appeared as early as 3.8 billion years ago when the sun was 25 percent dimmer than it is today. Absent some process to retain and amplify heat, the Read the full article at planet would have been a frozen wasteland and the first bacteria would not http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/microbe_limits_040526.html. have appeared so soon. An additional article on this subject is available at The exact mix of these ancient greenhouse gases is poorly understood, in large http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-04zz.html. part because of the paucity of data. Weathering rinds — discolorations near the surface of pebbles that give evidence of reactions that occurred billions of NASA'S NEW MISSION: MOON, MARS TO BE FIRST STOPS ON years ago with the primeval atmosphere — offer useful evidence. But the OUR JOURNEY THROUGH SOLAR SYSTEM steady churning of the Earth's crust through plate tectonics ensured that most By David A. King, Director NASA Marshall Space Flight Center of these pebbles, and all their accompanying information, have long since been recycled. 26 May 2004
The researchers say the pebbles they analyzed, found in drill cores taken at the The new Vision for Space Exploration calls for NASA to return humans to the Royal Sheba gold mine in South Africa, were rolled into smooth, round Moon, where they will lay the groundwork for exploration missions to Mars shapes in a 3.2 billion-year-old river or stream system. "This outcrop [in and beyond. Robotic missions will come first, but later human crews will South Africa] is unique in its preservation," Bird said. "Few remain that explore our Solar System. Imagine traveling through space and setting foot haven't been modified in some way by tectonic and metamorphic processes." on other worlds, then living and working there. That gets the heart pounding, doesn't it? Rising atmosphere This is a great and challenging endeavor we are engaged in, one that Hessler's geochemical analysis of the rinds, which include an iron-rich exemplifies our nation's pioneering spirit, and NASA wants every American carbonate, allowed the team to determine the minimum amount of carbon to share in the excitement and the benefits every step of the way. We in dioxide in the atmosphere when the carbonate was formed. This amount is NASA are already hard at work to enable safe, affordable human missions several times higher than the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere beyond Earth orbit. First, we will safely return the Space Shuttle to flight, today, consistent with the current understanding that life evolved in a getting back to the business of flying people to and from space. We will use dramatically different environment than exists today. the Shuttle to complete the International Space Station, where we will study the effects of long-term space exposure on the human body, preparing our Other research by the Stanford group suggests that carbon dioxide levels travelers for the journeys to come. gradually declined during the 500 million years after the formation of the pebbles. As the continents became stable, and surface weathering and Then we will return to the Moon—not as a final destination, but as a stepping photosynthesis evolved, it is likely that carbon dioxide was more readily stone to other worlds. On its surface, we will learn to live and work in removed from the atmosphere. otherworldly environments. We will make use of lunar resources and develop the capabilities we need to conduct sustained robotic and human missions Methane, another greenhouse gas produced by decaying biomass, may have anywhere in the Solar System. combined with carbon dioxide to maintain warm or even hot surface temperatures. Earlier work by the study's authors suggests that surface From the Moon, we will set our sights on Mars, our nearest planetary temperatures on the 3.2-billion-year-old Earth may have topped 60 degrees neighbor—and the one most like our own. Did the Red Planet once support Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). life? Will it again? This question has captured the human imagination for centuries. We intend to answer the first question as visitors, and the second as Geologic samples with evidence of atmospheric chemistry in the Archaean inhabitants. Eon, the first two billion years of Earth's history, are separated by 500 million years. So despite the new information in the Nature study, attempts to But Mars is just one possible objective. Other destinations could include the understand Earth's ancient history still involve lots of inferences and educated icy moons of Jupiter, which might conceal oceans capable of sustaining life, guesses. and even asteroids that could reveal new secrets about the origins and makeup of the universe. We also will identify sites for large, deep-space observatories The authors, whose research was funded by the NASA Exobiology Program —descendants of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray and the National Science Foundation, agree on the need for more hard Observatory—that will open new windows into the cosmos, revealing to evidence. "There can be little doubt about the importance of empirical humanity the secrets of the stars. geologic observations for constraining future climate models of Earth's early atmosphere," they wrote. These are challenging objectives, ones only a great nation can take on and accomplish. We Americans are bold in spirit but also practical; we want to Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article988.html. know what is the value of this mission of exploration and discovery, and how will we pay for it. First, the value: to begin, we need only look at the many An additional article on this subject is available at thousands of jobs nationwide that result from space activities. Add to that http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-04g.html. millions of dollars in NASA research grants to colleges and universities, and contracts to industry. Money the nation invests in NASA is spent on Earth, SURVIVAL OF THE SMALLEST: MINI-MICROBES REDEFINE not in space. And that investment produces real, tangible rewards. Since the EXTREME LIVING 1950s, NASA has been a leader in our nation's technological progress. By Robert Roy Britt Medical procedures, wireless telephones, satellite television, household smoke From Space.com detectors, dental braces, cordless power tools—these are just a few of the Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 4 advances made possible by the U.S. space program. And as NASA advances perhaps several stars, and the very elements that make us up were forged the current state of technology to enable our new exploration initiative, many inside fiery stellar furnaces. I was not prepared when I began, however, for new innovations will emerge, and will be applied in business and industry to the truly remarkable journey I ultimately wrote about. improve our economy and our quality of life. One of the joys, and trials, of writing is the experience of learning how much Perhaps most importantly, the Vision for Space Exploration will inspire our one hadn't known about various subjects in advance. I knew when I decided nation's youth as only NASA can, motivating whole generations to study to take up the challenge of the "Atom" that the experience would be math, science and engineering and to pursue careers in aerospace and other qualitatively different from anything I had done before. The prospect of using technical fields. Our nation's future prosperity and security depends on the lives of an atom to present a literary view of the history of the universe, maintaining a technically competent national workforce. Our youth are our including the romances of our own human drama, became more seductive the inheritors, the beneficiaries of our investment in the future, and we owe them more I thought about it. It was also clear that this story would involve not a future rich in purpose and possibility. merely physics and astrophysics, but at the very least geophysics, geology, astronomy, biology and paleontology. Frankly, initially this challenge was So how much will this ambitious program cost the average taxpayer? Today, also an attraction. NASA receives less than one penny of every American tax dollar. The budget associated with the Exploration mission does not change that. Most of the AM: The concept of moving from the infinitesimal to the infinite has the necessary funding will come from the reorientation of NASA's existing classic visualization, called "Powers of Ten" which is attributed to a variety of budget, focusing our resources on this mission of exploration and all its illustrators but typically begins at the sub-atomic and zooms out to great associated requirements. This is no small challenge, but we are meeting it distances in factors of ten. A 1950's European version covered around 40 head-on, resolved to make every American proud of their investment in our powers, and a 1970's version with Phillip Morrison narrating covered another future in space. 5 to 10 orders more. The 1990's version probably is most famous in the opening sequence to the movie "Contact" where a twist is given to the I am tremendously excited to be part of this effort, especially in light of the zooming, because the viewer is travelling with an electromagnetic wave, and benefits that will result from it: knowledge of the universe, and our place in it; thus involves not only spatial zoom, but time travel. Can you comment on technological advances that will make life on Earth better and safer for this, particularly is this journey by powers of ten in scale useful as a tutorial or everyone; and the fulfillment of our destiny as a nation of explorers seeking heuristic? new frontiers. LK: I think it provides a very useful tutorial about scales in the Universe... For half a century, our accomplishments in space have been a source of great perhaps the only problem with it is that it turns out, in fact, that if I draw a line pride for America. But for all our achievements, the space age is still very from the Earth to the limits light has traveled since the Big Bang, this line has much in its infancy. Now we will resume our journey beyond Earth, and in only a 1 in 1000 chance of intersecting a galaxy. The odds of finding a needle the years to come will take greater strides than ever before. Now we embark in a haystack are not much worse. So one problem with the zoom to infinity on a journey of discovery to distant worlds—one that promises to increase our as depicted in these is they show not enough black, empty space in between. knowledge, ignite our imaginations and make our spirits soar. AM: Are we any closer to understanding this trip from the atom to the Big Contact: Bang, only if the element of "time" is involved? June Malone Phone: 256-544-0034 LK: It turns out that we are forever shielded from direct visual observation of the initial Big Bang because as we look farther and farther out, we are Read the original article at guaranteed to hit a wall. The likelihood that our light ray will be scattered by http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/background/king1.html. a proton or an electron before it could reach us approaches 100 percent, so that the primordial soup is opaque, more like tomato soup than consommé. An additional article on this subject is available at We cannot see into it, we can see only its surface. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-04zd.html. AM: On the cover art, the background illustration for Atom shows particle ATOM: CONVERSATION WITH LAWRENCE KRAUSS tracks spiraling with opposite polarities. In choosing to follow an oxygen From Astrobiology Magazine atom as the tracer for life on earth, does that bias the journey towards animal evolution, since oxygen gas is more a waste or poison for the earliest life 26 May 2004 here? Or is the atom's odyssey all the various combinations, from carbon dioxide, water, oxygen and ozone that comprise the "stuff of life" chemically? Lawrence Krauss, the department chair of physics at Case Western Reserve University , is the author of a half-dozen books, ranging from The Physics of LK: I actually picked oxygen at the beginning without fully understanding the Star Trek, to his most recent astrobiology book, Atom, which takes up the remarkable relationship between oxygen and life. The more I learned, classic challenge to see the universe in an atom—and vice versa. however, the more perfect it seemed, because I wanted to trace the changes that took place in an oxygen atom's "life-cycle" on Earth as it began as part of Stephen Hawking wrote, "Lawrence Krauss has Carl Sagan's knack of a geological cycle, then became a part of life as a waste product, and then expanding the imagination and explaining the mysteries of the universe in became an integral part of animal life through respiration. All phases are simple terms." Unique to his authoritative writing, Krauss draws on his equally important, I think. experience and judgments as an active research cosmologist with over 180 scientific publications and numerous popular articles discussing issues related Thus, your question assumes that oxygen as a plant waste product is less to physics, science, and society. In 2003, his recent astrophysical research important to life than in animal respiration, which I don't think is the case. It article was the January 3rd cover for the prestigious Science magazine [The does stand to reason, however, that present-day life evolved out of bacteria Age of Globular Clusters in the Milky Way: Constraints on Cosmology]. that thrived without oxygen, perhaps without light and only in hot water. In the first place, in the early Earth, there was no free oxygen. Next, in the Astrobiology Magazine had the opportunity to talk with the bestselling author absence of oxygen, there was no ozone layer to protect life against the about his book, Atom, subtitled "A Single Oxygen Atom's Odyssey from the extreme ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun. While there is little doubt Big Bang to Life on Earth... and Beyond". that life can survive such conditions, this may nevertheless have inhibited its growth on the surface of the oceans and on land. Astrobiology Magazine (AM): How did the idea of following the oxygen atom from the small to the large and back again first come to you as a AM: Most attempts to detect spectral properties from planetary atmospheres narrative for describing the relationship between the big bang and life on have a kind of rank order of the importance given to these chemical earth? combinations, with oxygen as ozone near the top. This ranking often is higher than water itself, at least for remote sensing in the atmosphere. The Lawrence Krauss (LK): Well, for some time, I had always felt that one of appearance of ozone on earth was more about radiation protection from UV the most poetic aspects of all of science is the fact that we are all star children, than a classic nutrient or waste balance in what is required as biological literally, as each and every atom in our bodies was once inside of a star, Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 5 prerequisites. Could a dead rocky planet get ozone or keep it without the action of some form of biology? As for porphyrin, eventually microbes hit upon this ringlike molecule. At the center of its ring of carbon atoms, a single iron atom can be located, in which LK: I doubt it. But also remember that many forms of life do not need case this is called a heme group. The particular structure of this group allows oxygen. electrons to flow easily within it. In this way, they can be accepted from outside, move to the middle during transport, and then be redeposited Biochemical arguments suggest that sulfur-eating bacteria, or methane- elsewhere. The development of these structures and of the associated energy producing fermenters, are likely to have predated more sophisticated transfer and production processes they mediate is of crucial importance to our photosynthetic bacteria. In fact, before photosynthesis there was quite likely oxygen atom on Earth. For it makes way for the two most profound chemosynthesis. Here primordial life forms would have lived without oxygen developments in the history of life: photosynthesis and, later, respiration. By and in the dark. They would not have been powered, as plants are, by the sun, these two processes, not only would life be forever changed but so would the but rather by the heat of the Earth. Earth.
AM: Why did life on Earth flourish, while the surface of Mars is a wasteland? AM: In the last part of the book, you quoted Yogi Berra, "The future ain't what it used to be," and discuss various scenarios for the mortality of life such LK: Probably because our sister planet was just a little too small. as global catastrophes. The magazine did an excerpt of many scientists' reflections on "A Perfect World" and immediately the theme emerged that AM: It is often said that the three key findings for astrobiology were: population growth was the greatest near-term catastrophe, while life extremophiles, extrasolar planets and a sense that water may be more prolongation or extension was the greatest near-term biological hope. There ubiquitous even in our own solar neighborhood (in meteors like the Mars' was necessarily some tension between those two outcomes. Lafayette, Europa, and the ice frost on polar Mars). In some cases, this picture has evolved quite suddenly, for instance, with 100-plus extrasolar From the point of view of a physicist seeing the changes in biology, do you planets found in just the last decade (and none known before around 1995). In have a best candidate for the near-term risks and also how the planet might your work, do you find one prong of this triad to be most compelling recover? scientifically: life living in extremes, lots of candidate planets, or water? LK: I think the near-term risks involve social problems having to do with LK: I find the existence of extremophiles the most compelling new scarce resources related to energy production and usage. Global warming is development. going to happen, and produce disasters, but I also see destroying the ocean ecosystems as a possible disaster. Perhaps the recovery will involve The first cells were probably more accustomed to the darkness and the putrid developing sentient life-forms that use less energy. For example, I see no smell of sulfur associated with hydrothermal vents. Every year one reads of obstructions to the creation of intelligent, self-aware, self-programmable, new forms of life discovered in places ranging from the relatively benign computing machines. hydrothermal vents to the acidic, toxic, sweaty regions at the bottom of deep oil wells. Most compelling of all, perhaps, is the recent discovery that the tree If this occurs, these machines will have a tremendous evolutionary advantage of life has merely three branches, not five [plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and over purely biological machinery. We will, I believe, soon be able to protists (sophisticated single-celled animals)], and that the one closest to the manipulate living systems on scales currently unthinkable. It seems to me that root involves bacteria that live in hot environments, the hyperthermophiles. this combination of technologies has one logical outcome. Humans if they are Hyperthermophiles defy all conventional wisdom. These forms of life not to compete with the machines of their own invention, will inevitably be forced only can thrive in environments that normalize sterilize materials, in excess of to do what will ultimately become possible to do, namely, integrate their the normal boiling temperature of water at sea level, 100 degrees Celsius, they biology with computer technology. require such temperatures. These arguments suggest that all life on Earth today descended from species that liked it hot. If it is possible, it will happen, as I expect cloning, genetically selective reproduction, and a host of other practices that have not yet begun to give AM: Atom has a poetic parallel to William Blake's famous "the world in a ethicists nightmares will also happen. grain of sand", but in this case even a more radical step from what must necessarily be inanimate for oxygen but presumably even Blake's grain of Of course this is the optimistic outlook, from my perspective. Alternatively, sand is not completely sterile or devoid of life in a microbial sense. You as I have alluded, there is the possibility that scarce resources on a hot, comment in the book that "Remember that the motor that drives life is simply polluted planet, mixed with a possible victory of superstition and myth over based on the movement of electrons," and go on to compare oxygen as an logic and rationality, will result in numerous devastating wars, and perhaps electron acceptor combined with hydrogen, an electron donor. the establishment of theocracies that suppress scientific thought, well before technological progress reaches the stage I desribed. Human civilization then Do you consider the fundamental unit that might bridge biology and physics is takes a giant step backward. now just on the cusp of what we call 'inanimate', such as the biomolecules (RNA, DNA, oxygen, water), or is it more of a process like metabolism AM: You also authored the book, The Physics of Star Trek, prior to (electron transfers) or photosynthesis? In other words, is life a product or a undertaking, Atom. Do you personally find the vision of Star Trek, as many process? species who journey into space, to be forward-looking to a certain stage of evolution or just wishful thinking scientifically? LK: That is the million dollar question, of course... and I don't have the answer! As a physicist, I guess I tend to concentrate on processes more than LK: Star Trek is primarily wishful thinking! But of course wishful thinking is objects, and thus I find metabolism fascinating, and to me the most also a part of science... and sometimes it pays off. compelling characteristic of life. AM: The epilogue's closing lines are "Sisyphus was smiling." Would you AM: One key chemical structure shared by both chlorophyll and hemoglobin conclude that Sisyphus is smiling because of his own cyclical journey, or is the porphyrin ring which is itself devoid of oxygen, but the larger molecule because he doesn't see an alternative to pushing up his rock on the same hill makes carbohydrates. Did your theme of one atom's odyssey ever flirt with and thus as a kind of comic acceptance? following carbon atoms or carbon-based life, rather than oxygen, as its tracer? LK: I believe Sisyphus is smiling because the struggle is what makes life LK: I originally thought of carbon, but in retrospect that would have been a worth living. The voyage is often far more enlightening than reaching the poorer candidate, I believe. The transformations that oxygen is a part of are destination. more fascinating, I think. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article989.html. Carbon can bond in a hugely diverse set of combinations, with bonds of different types for different purposes. Oxygen however will occupy a very NASA RELEASES MISSION REQUIREMENTS FOR PROPOSED special role. For as far as we know, only oxygen atoms can combine to form JUPITER MISSION molecules with the ability to power a civilization. So one might say, life is NASA release 2004-130 powered by oxygen, and fed by carbon. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 6
26 May 2004 required for electric propulsion could be used in orbit to power a significantly enhanced suite of instruments not even conceivable with previous power NASA has issued its mission design requirements to three industry teams for a systems." proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons. The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission is part of NASA's Project Prometheus, Systems in Washington. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter is a spacecraft with a program studying a series of initiatives to develop power systems and an ambitious proposed mission that would orbit three planet-sized moons of technologies for space exploration. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, managed Jupiter—Callisto, Ganymede and Europa—that may harbor vast oceans by JPL, would be the first NASA mission utilizing nuclear electric propulsion, beneath their icy surfaces. The mission would be powered by a nuclear which would enable the spacecraft to orbit each of these icy worlds to perform reactor and launched sometime in the next decade. extensive investigations of their makeup, history and potential for sustaining life. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Associate Administrator retired Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle of NASA's Technology in Pasadena, manages the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Office of Exploration Systems said, "The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission for NASA's Office of Exploration Systems, Washington, DC. requirements represent our new way of doing business, tracing exploration strategies to the technology maturation programs that will enable this exciting For more information visit: mission and the other missions that make up Project Constellation." http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/prometheus.htm http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jimo/index.cfm. The Request for Proposal was released this week to the three previously qualified industry teams led by Boeing, Huntington Beach, CA; Lockheed Contacts: Martin, Denver, CO; and Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach, CA. These Carolina Martinez three companies are currently working under study contracts investigating Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA conceptual designs for the mission. The proposals are due July 16, 2004. Phone: 818-354-9382
Michael Braukus NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1979
Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclearspace-04f.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/27jimo/ http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/icy_moons_mission_information.h tml
RAW INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE DETECTED IN PLANETARY CONSTRUCTION ZONES NASA release 2004-167
27 May 2004 The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter is an ambitious proposed mission to orbit three planet-sized moons of Jupiter—Callisto, Ganymede and Europa—which NASA has announced new findings from the Spitzer Space Telescope, may harbor vast oceans beneath their icy surfaces. The mission would launch including the discovery of significant amounts of icy organic materials in 2012 or later. sprinkled throughout several "planetary construction zones," or dusty planet- forming discs, which circle infant stars. These materials, icy dust particles The scope of the initial contract is to co-design the spacecraft through the coated with water, methanol and carbon dioxide, may help explain the origin preliminary design with the government team. A contract modification will of icy planetoids like comets. Scientists believe these comets may have be issued after preliminary design to implement the design, to integrate and endowed Earth with some of its water and many of its biogenic, life-enabling test the spacecraft and to integrate the spacecraft with the reactor module and materials. mission module. JPL would be responsible for delivering the mission module, which would include instruments procured competitively via a NASA announcement of opportunity. The launch vehicle will be supplied by NASA. The Department of Energy's Office of Naval Reactors would be responsible for the reactor module. To ensure the technologies demonstrated are consistent and coordinated with the Vision for Space Exploration, Project Constellation is managed within the Office of Exploration Systems.
"Although the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission may not launch until the next decade, the study of revolutionary new technologies in spacecraft design is underway in the areas of power conversion and heat rejection, electric propulsion, radiation hardened electronics and materials, and telecommunications," said Karla Clark, industry studies lead and deep space avionics project manager for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Mission.
Three cross-cutting science themes identified by the NASA-chartered science definition team would drive the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter science investigations. The themes are to evaluate the degree to which subsurface oceans are present on these worlds; to study the chemical composition of the moons, including organic materials, and the surface processes that affect them; and to scrutinize the entire Jupiter system, particularly the interactions between Jupiter and the moons' atmospheres and interiors. In this artist's conception, a possible newfound planet spins through a clearing in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc. This clearing was "The scientists have told us what they want," said John Casani, project detected around the star CoKu Tau 4 by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. manager for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission at JPL. "When you Astronomers believe that an orbiting massive body, like a planet, may have consider the five-to-eight year trip to Jupiter, going from one moon to the swept away the star's disc material, leaving a central hole. Image credit: next, not only flying by but orbiting each moon, this will require a unique NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech). nuclear power and electric propulsion system. The large amount of power Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 7
Drs. Dan Watson and William Forrest of the University of Rochester, NY, Spitzer's exquisitely sensitive infrared eyes can see planet forming discs in identified the ices. They surveyed five very young stars in the constellation great detail. "Previously, scientists could study only a small sample of discs, Taurus, 420 light-years from Earth. Previous studies identified similar but Spitzer is already on its way toward analyzing thousands of discs," Werner organic materials in space, but this is the first time they were seen said. unambiguously in the dust making up planet-forming discs. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph instrument, which breaks apart infrared light to In another finding, Spitzer surveyed a group of young stars and found see the signatures of various chemicals, was used to observe the organic ices intriguing evidence that one of them may have the youngest planet detected. and the clearing within CoKu Tau 4's disc. Spitzer's infrared array camera The observatory found a clearing in the disc around the star CoKu Tau 4. found the new stars in RCW 49. Papers on the research will appear in the This might indicate an orbiting planet swept away the disc material, like a September 1, 2004, issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Supplements. vacuum leaving a cleared trail on a dirty carpet. The new findings reveal the For images and information about the research on the Internet, visit structure of the gap more clearly than ever before. Because CoKu Tau 4 is http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu or http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov. For only about one million years old, the possible planet would be even younger. information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visit As a comparison, Earth is approximately 4.5-billion years old. http://www.nasa.gov.
"These early results show Spitzer will dramatically expand our understanding Contacts: of how stars and planets form, which ultimately helps us understand our Nancy Neal/Dwayne Brown origins," said Dr. Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist at NASA's Jet NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, which manages the mission. Phone: 202-358-1547/1726
Spitzer also discovered two of the farthest and faintest planet-forming discs Whitney Clavin ever observed. These discs surround two of more than 300 newborn stars Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA uncovered for the first time in a stunning new image of the dusty stellar Phone: 818-354-4673 nursery called RCW 49. It is approximately 13,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/youngest_planet_040527.html "Preliminary data suggest all 300 or more stars harbor discs, but so far we've http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-04o.html only looked closely at two. Both were found to have discs," said Dr. Ed http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/27spitzer/ Churchwell of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, principal http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spitzer_finds_youngest_planet.htm investigator of the RCW 49 research, with Dr. Barbara Whitney of Space l Science Institute, Boulder, CO. YOUNG PLANET CHALLENGES OLD THEORIES By Leslie Mullen From Astrobiology Magazine
28 May 2004
The Spitzer Space Telescope has detected the youngest planet ever found, claim NASA scientists. Planets are thought to take many millions of years to form after a star is born, but the discovery of a million-year old star with a planet already in orbit around it means scientists may have to rethink planetary formation models.
Edward Churchwell, an astronomer with the University of Wisconsin and a principal investigator for GLIMPSE (Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire), said the new findings "knocked our socks off. We were really excited."
The star CoKu Tau 4 is surrounded by a dusty disc, which is typical of very young stars. A star is born inside a dense cloud of gas and dust. Within this cloudy envelope, a flat, dusty disc encircles the star, and planets develop from the material in this disc. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph (IRS) observed a clearing in the dusty disc around CoKu Tau 4. The clearing is about 10 AU in size, or 10 times the Earth-Sun distance. The theory is that a planet orbiting CoKu Tau 4 at about 10 AU scooped up much of the inner disc material, and prevents the dusty outer ring of material from falling in towards the star. Such empty regions separating a star from its dusty disc have been seen before, but never in so young a star. Because CoKu Tau 4 is about one million years old, the possible planet would be even younger.
In the standard core accretion model of planet formation, dusty grains hit and One of the most prolific birthing grounds in our Milky Way galaxy, a nebula clump together as they swirl around a star. Over time, these clumps grow called RCW 49, is exposed in superb detail for the first time in this new image bigger and bigger, eventually becoming proto-planetary lumps that acquire from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Located 13,700 light-years away in the even more material through gravity. Scientists believe gas giant planets like southern constellation Centaurus, RCW 49 is a dark and dusty stellar nursery Jupiter form first in a solar system, gathering much of the dust and gas of the that houses more than 2,200 stars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/E. star's original disc. It is thought that gas giants take about 4 million years to Churchwell (University of Wisconsin). form through core accretion.
Planet forming, "protoplanetary," discs are a natural phase in a star's life. A Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has an star is born inside a dense envelope of gas and dust. Within this envelope, and alternative theory that could account for a gas giant forming so early in the life circling the star, is a flat, dusty disc, where planets are born. of CoKu Tau 4. In his disc instability model, points of instability within the dusty disc create gravity wells that form clumps. These clumps increase in "By seeing what's behind the dust, Spitzer has shown us star and planet density to become gas giant proto-planets in only a few thousand years. formation is a very active process in our galaxy," Churchwell said. "If that planet actually formed by disc instability, that has profound implications for the prevalence of planetary systems similar to our own," says Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 8
Boss. "That means you can make gas giant planets—a major component of http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html our own solar system—in a short time scale, in even the shortest-lived disc." D. A. King, 2004. Moon, Mars to be first stops on our journey through Solar Another explanation for the cleared region around the star could be an unseen System. SpaceDaily. stellar companion (a binary star system), but scientists have failed to find even the faintest glimmer of a companion star. The clearing also could be caused R. Smith, 2004. All dressed up and ready to explore. SpaceDaily. by the formation of asteroids and comets, or by the heat and light of the star blowing the material outwards. But the inner edge of the dusty disc is very R. Smith, 2004. Mars: all dressed up—students fashion space suits for Mars. sharp, says Dan Watson, an astronomer with the University of Rochester, NY, Astrobiology Magazine. who works with the IRS science team on Spitzer. Watson says that only a planet could be responsible for such a sharply defined inner margin, and Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles planetary formation is also the only explanation that could give the degree of http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html clearing seen around CoKu Tau 4. I. A. Chen and J. W. Szostak, 2004. Membrane growth can generate a "I expect Spitzer will discover many more of these important objects, each transmembrane pH gradient in fatty acid vesicles. Proceedings of the one a unique laboratory into disc evolution, and quite likely planet formation," National Academy of Sciences USA, 101(21):7965-7970. says Anne Kinney, director of the Astronomy and Physics Division of the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. G. Koch, 2004. Pebbles from an overheated Earth? Astrobiology Magazine.
Spitzer also detected icy organic materials in the dust discs encircling other L. Mullen, 2004. Young planet challenges old theories. Astrobiology young stars. These stars are in the constellation Taurus, 420 light years from Magazine. Earth. The icy particles are coated with water, methanol and carbon dioxide. These ice grains could develop into comets, which could then provide water NASA, 2004. Raw ingredients for life detected around young stars. and organic materials to any terrestrial planets that eventually may form. Spaceflight Now. Scientists believe comets provided the early Earth with some of the water and organic materials that made life possible. This is the first time such icy NASA, 2004. Raw ingredients for life detected in planetary construction organic materials were seen unambiguously in the dust of planet-forming zones. SpaceDaily. discs. University of Colorado, 2004. Asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs in hours. "We've seen evidence from these observations with Spitzer that there are ices Universe Today. and simple organic compounds such as methanol in these discs," says Boss. "The UV (ultraviolet) flux in addition, if it's in a disc (in a star-forming University of Colorado, 2004. Dinosaurs died within hours after asteroid hit region), could perhaps convert these ices into more advanced organic Earth. SpaceDaily. compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons." University of Colorado, 2004. Dinosaur era ended instantly. Astrobiology Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the building blocks for more Magazine. complex organic molecules, and they appear to be widespread throughout the universe. PAHs may have played a vital role in the origin of life on Earth. University of Pennsylvania, 2004. Thick siderite marine beds suggest high
CO2 levels in early atmosphere. SpaceDaily. "Even amino acids—alanine and guanine—can form, as has been shown by laboratory studies, by UV irradiation of simple ices," adds Boss. "So one can Extrasolar planets articles imagine a system where the formation of life-bearing elements is hastened http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles7.html along by pre-biotic chemistry that occurs in the disc, even before things start getting going on a habitable planet." R. R. Britt, 2004. Astronomers see evidence for youngest planet. Space.com.
Papers on the research will appear in the September 1 issue of the journal, NASA, 2004. Spitzer finds youngest planet. Universe Today. Astrophysical Journal Supplements. The Spitzer Space Telescope is the fourth of NASA's Great Observatories, which include the Hubble Space LESSONS LEARNT FROM BEAGLE 2 AND PLANS TO Telescope (visible light), the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE COMMISSION Gamma Ray Observatory. The Spitzer Space Telescope detects infrared OF INQUIRY radiation, or heat, from distant, cold, and dust-obscured celestial objects. ESA release Launched on August 25, 2003, the Spitzer Space Telescope is orbiting the sun, trailing behind and receding from the Earth. This unusual orbit allows 24 May 2004 the telescope to avoid the Earth's heat, and it also prevents the Earth from blocking the telescope's field of view. The telescope will move away from The Mars Express spacecraft, carrying the Beagle 2 lander, was launched on 2 Earth at about a tenth of an AU per year. The Spitzer Space Telescope has a June last year, arriving in the vicinity of Mars in December. The separation of projected life span of five years. Beagle 2 from Mars Express occurred on 19 December. The satellite continued its mission with its successful insertion into a Mars orbit on 25 Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article993.html. December, the day on which Beagle 2 was due to land. The first radio contact with Beagle 2 was expected shortly after the scheduled landing time but no NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX signal was received. Many radio contacts were attempted over the following By David J. Thomas days and weeks, but without result. By early February it became clear that http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ there was no prospect of communicating with Beagle 2 and a joint ESA/UK inquiry was set up to investigate the circumstances and possible reasons that 1 June 2004 prevented completion of the Beagle 2 mission.
Terrestrial extreme environments articles The report was commissioned jointly by Lord Sainsbury and ESA’s Director http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles2.html General, Jean-Jacques Dordain. It is not therefore a public inquiry. The Commission of Inquiry was led by ESA’s Inspector General, René Bonnefoy, R. R. Britt, 2004. Survival of the smallest: mini-microbes redefine extreme with David Link (former Director at Matra-Marconi Space, now EADS- living. Space.com. Astrium(UK)) as co-Chairman. The Commission of Inquiry, which included senior managers and experts from within Europe and also NASA and Russia, SpaceDaily, 2004. Tiny microbes in Greenland glacier may define limits for held several meetings in the UK and in ESA, interviewing the key actors, life on Earth. SpaceDaily. directors, managers, scientists, and engineers, who participated in the development of Beagle 2. The report has been submitted to the UK Minister Human space flight articles for Science and Innovation and the Director General of ESA and accepted. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 9
No single technical failure or shortcoming was unambiguously identified but a few credible causes for Beagle 2’s loss were highlighted. More importantly, the Board made it clear that there were programmatic and organisational reasons that led to a significantly higher risk of Beagle 2 failure, than otherwise might have been the case.
The scope of the Inquiry covered a wide range of important issues of concern to the UK, ESA and other Member States in ESA. Some of these matters are necessarily confidential between governments and the Agency and cannot be released. Furthermore, the development of Beagle 2 entailed close working relations between many firms in the UK. Many of those firms invested their own funds in the project and formed relations which remain commercially sensitive.
Although deciding that the Report should remain confidential, we believe it is important that the full set of Recommendations is published together with our appreciation of lessons learnt. You will, of course, have an opportunity to hear at first hand about our plans to implement those Recommendations and to ask questions.
Lessons learnt
The Inquiry Board has not singled out any act by any individual, nor any technical failure that in itself could have been the unique cause of failure of Beagle 2. In the Inquiry Board’s work, many individual decisions were analysed. However, there are institutional lessons to be learnt, many of which flow from treating the lander as an instrument, which at the time was the standard practice. The Commission has proposed a set of 19 Recommendations on which the UK Government, ESA and the Beagle 2 project team are agreed. They can be grouped in three parts: 1) those concerning best practice when selecting a complex project – such as the Beagle 2 lander—assessing its overall benefits and risks, planning means to manage and mitigate risks and ensuring that it is fully integrated within the overall management of the mission; 2) those concerned with technical factors which may have contributed to the loss of Beagle 2, for example specification, development and testing of the airbags; 3) and those concerning technical enhancements for future landers which would have aided our understanding of events during Beagle 2’s descent and subsequently improved our ability to find it or reactivate it.
In 1997, due to the failure of an earlier Russian mission, equipment was available for a mission to Mars. At the same time it was known that Mars would be at a point of closest approach to Earth during the summer of 2003. As a result ESA Member States selected the Mars Express mission, though the schedule was tight, and ESA invited proposals to consider the addition of a lander. Three European teams proposed landers and Beagle 2 was selected. It is now clear that the very high potential scientific benefits of the project may have contributed to a collective institutional underestimate by us all of the corresponding means to identify and mitigate risks that arose during development and subsequently proved difficult to resolve due to the very tight financial, mass and schedule constraints imposed by the rigid schedule set by that closest point of approach, and by overall budget constraints.
Implementation plan
1. ESA will return to Mars but next time the approach must have the capacity to handle the complexity, and scientists, engineers and industry will need to agree from the start the formal partnership arrangements and responsibilities that will apply throughout; 2. Any future complex instrument or lander must be implemented under the same management process as the mission spacecraft. BNSC has already led the way in implementing such a new policy with the European MIRI instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope. Nevertheless, scientific groups will be fully integrated into those overall arrangements; 3. A dedicated Exploration Directorate in ESA has been set up to coordinate technical requirements and approaches Europe-wide and will take responsibility for securing European capabilities for crucial elements for planetary missions; 4. Confidential Debriefing will be given to all scientific groups and industrial companies in Beagle 2 on request; 5. ESA Member States will be confidentially debriefed on the implications of this new approach in future programs and to partnership arrangements. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 10
The recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry: Recommendation 13 Recommendation 1 Planetary probe missions involving high-level shocks from pyros and other Future lander missions should be under the responsibility of an Agency with events should undergo representative shock environmental testing at system appropriate capability and resources to manage it. The lander/orbiter mission level. should be managed as an integrated whole. Nationally-funded science instruments should be included in the lander on the same basis as on the Recommendation 14 orbiter. Adequate and realistic deployment tests should be performed, and sufficient time and resources must be available in the development of a new planetary Recommendation 2 mission. For future science payloads which are critical to overall mission success or have a very high public profile, the ESA Executive should make a formal, Recommendation 15 comprehensive assessment of all aspects of the proposals including technical, Elimination of internal connectors for mass saving should be avoided if at all management and finance, and advise Space Science Policy Committee (SPC) possible. But if unavoidable, a stringent system of check and independent accordingly before acceptance. If the assessment is not positive, ESA should crosscheck should be followed during the final wiring operation. advise the SPC not to accept the proposal. Recommendation 16 Recommendation 3 A back-up for the entry detection event (T0) must be included in the design of Sponsoring Agencies of nationally-funded contributions to ESA projects planetary entry probes. should ensure that the required financing is committed at the outset to meet the estimated Cost at Completion and require that a structured development Recommendation 17 program is established. Future planetary entry missions should include a release of the back cover and front shield, which is aerodynamically stable and analytically predictable to Recommendation 4 avoid uncontrolled contact of front shield with the lander. In addition to the ESA-led reviews of interfaces, formal Project Reviews of nationally-funded contributions to ESA missions should be undertaken by the Recommendation 18 sponsoring Agency to a standard agreed with ESA and should cover the entire Sufficient difference between ballistic coefficients of all separated items, e.g., project. back covers assembly and the main parachute, or other positive means, must be ensured to exclude collision after separation. Recommendation 5 When an independent review of a nationally-funded project, such as the Recommendation 19 Casani review of Beagle 2, is commissioned, it is essential that ESA and the Adequate competencies in air bag and parachute technology must be available Sponsoring Agency ensure that its recommendations are properly for future European planetary missions, making best use of existing expertise dispositioned and those which are agreed are actioned and followed up e.g., in USA and Russia. through a formal process. The Beagle 2 inquiry was launched on February 11 by Lord Sainsbury, UK Recommendation 6 Minister for Science and Innovation, and Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director For future projects, Heads of Agreement or similar formal arrangements General, to investigate the circumstances and possible reasons that prevented between co-operating entities, ESA, and national sponsors, should be put in completion of the Beagle 2 mission. Such inquiries are routine in the event of place at the outset of projects and should include formal consultations at key unsuccessful space missions. The Inquiry Commission was set up jointly stages of the projects to jointly consider its status. between ESA and BNSC and was chaired by the ESA Inspector General. The Commission included senior managers and experts from Europe and also from Recommendation 7 NASA and Russia. Its remit was to: Fixed price contracting should be avoided solely as a mechanism for 1) assess the available data/documentation acquired during development, controlling costs, and used only where the sponsor and contractor are in integration and testing of the Beagle 2 lander on Earth and that alignment on the requirements and scope of the work and the sharing of risks pertaining to the cruise phase operations prior to release of the spacecraft between them. Both parties should be confident that the contractor has to Mars; sufficient margins to manage his uncertainties and risks. 2) analyze the programmatic environment (i.e. decision processes, funding level and resources, management and responsibilities, interactions Recommendation 8 between the various entities) throughout the project; For future high-profile/high-risk projects, ESA and any Sponsoring Agency 3) identify possible issues and shortcomings, both programmatic and should manage the expectations of the outcome of the project in a balanced technical, in the above and in the approach used, which might have and objective way to prepare for both success and failure. contributed to the loss of the mission. All members of the Commission have signed a non-disclosure agreement. Recommendation 9 At the start of a program, the funding authority (authorities) should require The Beagle 2 project was led by the Open University, providing the science that there is system-level documentation. This is necessary to provide all lead, and EADS-Astrium, the prime industrial contractor responsible for the partners with the technical requirements for the project and sufficient design main design, development and management of the lander. The Beagle 2 description and justification such that the margins and risks being taken in lander was funded through a partnership arrangement involving the Open each partner’s area of responsibility are visible. University, EADS-Astrium, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Office of Recommendation 10 Science and Technology and ESA. Funding also came from the National Future planetary missions should be designed with robust margins to cope Space Science Centre and the Wellcome Trust. UK principal investigators for with the inherent uncertainties, and they should not be initiated without Beagle 2 in the UK came from the Open University (gas analysis package), adequate and timely resources to achieve that. Leicester University (environmental sensors and x-ray spectrometer) and Mullard Space Science Laboratory (imaging systems). Recommendation 11 Future planetary entry missions should include a minimum telemetry of BNSC is a partnership of Government Departments and Research Councils critical performance measurements and spacecraft health status during mission with an interest in the development or exploitation of space technologies. critical phases such as entry and descent. BNSC is the UK Government body responsible for UK civil space policy, to help gain the best possible scientific, economic and social benefits from Recommendation 12 putting space to work. For future planetary entry missions, a more robust communications system should be used, allowing direct commanding of the lander for essential actuations and resets without software involvement – enabling recoveries in catastrophic situations. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 11
Contacts: opened, and the oxidizer side of the propulsion system un-isolated. The BNSC spacecraft is now ready to support TCM-20 on May 27, 2004. Press Enquiries: 020 7215 0806/0905 Out of hours: 020 7215 3234/3505 Starting on Monday, May 24, the Cassini Imaging Team increased the Public Enquiries: 020 7215 5000 frequency of its postings of images to one per day (five days per week) for the Textphone (for people with hearing impairments): 020 7215 6740 enjoyment of scientists and members of the public alike. http://www.bnsc.gov.uk The Multi Mission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) supported the ESA generation and delivery of three sets of "critical" Optical Navigation images in Franco Bonacina, Head of Media Relations Division the last week. Two of the events occurred on non-prime-shift and were Phone: +33(0)1 53 69 7155 staffed for potential manual intervention. All these deliveries were made Fax: +33(0)1 53 69 7690 successfully and on-time by the automated processes—no intervention required. Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMLKAHHZTD_index_0.html. In the last week, 625 ISS images arrived and were distributed along with 369 Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) cubes. The total number Additional articles on this subject are available at: of ISS images acquired since the start of Approach Science is now 7413, and http://www.astrobio.net/news/article990.html the number of VIMS cubes is 1311. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/05/24/britain.europe.mars.ap/index.ht ml In support of the Phoebe encounter, the flight team is holding an Operations http://www.space.com/news/beagle_update_040524.html Readiness Test (ORT) for the Phoebe Live Update Process. This week the http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/24beagle2report/ files generated during last week's live update process were run through the http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/esa_beagle_2_study.html Integrated Test Laboratory for validation. In addition, it was decided to forgo the remaining portions of the ORT to allow for an earlier Navigation CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS convergence and a more relaxed schedule for actual Phoebe operations. NASA/JPL release The port #1 end-to-end pointing analysis for tour sequences S29 and S30 has 20-26 May 2004 been completed. The Teams will now review the analysis reports and correct any problems in time for preliminary port #2 on June 7. The science The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking operations plan implementation process for tour sequences S31 and S32 began station on Wednesday, May 26. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state this week. A Tour Process meeting was held Wednesday, May 26, to discuss of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and the impacts the new reference trajectory has on the integrated science plan and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web the possible options available to deal with those changes. page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm. A sequence change request approval meeting was held as part of the process to develop tour sequence S03. Four requests were approved.
A delivery coordination meeting was held for Navigation software version T1.4. During last week's internal SOI review, Navigation identified two "must-do" fixes for this software. One was for ARDVARC, the automated radiometric data visualization and real-time correction software, and the other for PVTOEXP which converts spacecraft trajectory "P" files from NAV-IO format to "Export" DSN format. The 4.1 version was approved and has been installed for operations use.
The Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) is a Cassini informal education program, comprised of about 300 mostly amateur astronomers in 43 states around the US and in 42 countries around the world. A Saturn Observation Campaign observing event will be held at Monrovia's Library Park at the corners of Myrtle and Lime Streets, in Monrovia, California from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Saturday May 29. There will be at least two and maybe more telescopes aimed at Saturn and Jupiter or the moon. A local middle school science class has been invited and a nice crowd is expected. Saturn will look best earlier rather than later in the evening.
Saturday night is also the date of the Griffith Observatory Star Party, hosted by the Los Angeles Amateur Astronomers and the LA Sidewalk Astronomers. On-board activities this week included the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) The Griffith Observatory event runs from 2:00 PM for solar to 10:00 PM once Titan movie which searches for evidence of cloud motion to measure winds. a month. The Griffith Observatory satellite is located immediately south of ISS also continued to study the orbits of the ring-region satellites to improve the LA Zoo and the Autry Museum in the northeast corner of Griffith Park. our understanding of short- and long-term dynamical evolution. The Glendale, California (http://www.griffithobs.org/satellite.html). Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) continues to map the Saturn magnetosphere in neutral and ion photon emissions to derive the distribution Saturn is getting low in the western sky, and by next month, it won't be visible and density of atomic and molecular species. Deep space calibrations were again—at least at a decent hour for viewing—until late 2004. This weekend performed for the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), and a high will be a great time to see Saturn, with Mars nearby, Venus and Jupiter and frequency calibration for the Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) even the 3-day waxing moon. instrument. The ISS NAC was commanded to perform a power-on reset to clear any possible residual problems prior to some critical Optical Navigation As Saturn grows closer through the eyes of the Cassini spacecraft, both activities. These activities then occurred without incident. Cassini and the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope snapped spectacular pictures of the planet and its magnificent rings. Cassini is approaching Saturn Remaining on-board activities centered on preparations for Trajectory at an oblique angle to the Sun and from below the ecliptic plane. Cassini has Correction Maneuver 20. This maneuver is significant in that it adjusts the a very different view of Saturn than Hubble's Earth-centered view. For the spacecraft's orbit for its approach to Saturn, and is the same type of maneuver first time, astronomers can compare views of equal sharpness of Saturn from that will be used for Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI). This week a checkout was two very different perspectives. For more information go to performed for Rocket Engine Assembly-B, the main engine cover was http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://hubblesite.org/news/2004/18. Five Cassini images were released in the past week. These images are available on Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 12 the gallery section of the Cassini web site at approaching Saturn at an oblique angle to the Sun and from below the ecliptic http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/latest/index.cfm. plane. Cassini has a very different view of Saturn than Hubble's Earth- centered view. For the first time, astronomers can compare views of equal Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and sharpness of Saturn from two very different perspectives. the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.
Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article995.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04h.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04k.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/21cassinititan/ http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/24cassinimoons/ http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/25cassinishadows/ http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/shadow_saturns_rings.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/swirls_on_saturn.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturn_rings_and_moons.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/detailed_image_saturn_storms.htm l
CASSINI/HUYGENS APPROACHING SATURN AND TITAN ESA release 28-2004
26 May 2004
Launched in October 1997, the ESA/NASA Cassini-Huygens mission is currently heading for Saturn. While ESA’s Huygens probe will be the first ever to land on the surface of a moon in the outer Solar System, NASA’s Cassini orbiter will continue to explore Saturn and its rings. After an almost seven-year journey and four gravity-assist swing-by manoeuvres the spacecraft will be inserted into its orbit around Saturn on 30 June (Pacific Daylight Time, 1 July CET) and reach its closest approach to Saturn. The Huygens probe will be detached from its mother ship on 25 December and land on Titan in January next year.
On 3 June a press conference will take place at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, with ESA participation, to present the mission and outline milestones and upcoming media activities. Media representatives can follow this press conference from ESA/ESOC, where several project representatives will be present, together with David Southwood, ESA Director of Science, or from one of the other ESA establishments. They are requested to complete the attached reply form and fax it to the Communication office at the establishment of their choice. The ESA TV service will also broadcast the press conference via Eutelsat W1. Further information concerning the retransmission schedule can be found on http://television.esa.int. Hubble Photo Credit: NASA, ESA and Erich Karkoschka (University of The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperation between NASA, the European Arizona), Cassini Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Space Agency and ASI, the Italian space agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, The view from Hubble, taken on March 22, 2004, is so sharp that many is managing the mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington. individual Saturnian ringlets can be seen. When Cassini returned its picture of Saturn on May 16, it was so close to the planet that the imaging science Contacts: subsystem narrow-angle camera could not fit the whole planet in its field-of- Franco Bonacina view. Cassini is still about 20 million kilometers (about 12.4 million miles) ESA Media Relations Division away and only 36 days from reaching Saturn. Phone: +33.(0)1.5369.7155 Fax: +33.(0)1.5369.7690 Hubble's exquisite optics, coupled with the high resolution of its Advanced Camera for Surveys, allow it to take pictures of Saturn which are nearly as Don Savage sharp as Cassini's, even though Hubble is nearly a billion miles farther from NASA Public Affairs, Office of Space Science Saturn than Cassini. Cassini will ultimately far exceed the resolution of Phone: +1.202.358.1727 Hubble during its close encounter with Saturn. Cassini's sharpness began to Fax: +1.202.358.3093 surpass Hubble's when it came to within 23 million kilometers (14 million miles) of Saturn earlier this month. ESA web site: http://saturn.esa.int NASA web site: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov Camera exposures in four filters (blue, blue-green, green and red) were combined to form the Hubble image, to render colors similar to what the eye SATURN SEEN FROM FAR AND NEAR would see through a telescope focused on Saturn. The subtle pastel colors of NASA release 2004-131 ammonia-methane clouds trace a variety of atmospheric dynamics. Saturn displays its familiar banded structure, and haze and clouds of various 26 May 2004 altitudes. Like Jupiter, all bands are parallel to Saturn's equator. Even the magnificent rings, at nearly their maximum tilt toward Earth, showe subtle As Saturn grows closer through the eyes of the Cassini spacecraft, which is hues, which indicate the trace chemical differences in their icy composition. hurtling toward a rendezvous with the ringed world on June 30 (July 1, Universal Time), both Cassini and the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope Cassini has two cameras, a wide angle and narrow angle. This narrow angle snapped spectacular pictures of the planet and its magnificent rings. Cassini is image was made using a combination of three filters (red, green, blue) and Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 13 was taken at a range of 24.3 million kilometers (15.1 million miles). The Phoebe is an oddly shaped moon with a dark surface. It orbits in the opposite view is from 13 degrees below the equator. Enceladus, one of Saturn's 31 direction from the motion of most other bodies in the solar system. The known moons, appears near the south pole at the bottom of the image. The backwards-revolution leads scientists to believe that it is an object captured color differences between the Hubble and Cassini images are mainly due to from distant Kuiper Belt, making it an interesting target. "The Phoebe flyby the different sets of filters used. may offer the first glimpse of what the frigid bodies at the edge of the solar system look like," said Dr. Bonnie Buratti, scientist on the Cassini-Huygens More than two decades have passed since a spacecraft last visited Saturn— mission at JPL. "These bodies, which include Plut objects left over from the NASA's Voyager-2 flew by Saturn in August 1981. Since 1990, Hubble has formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago." produced high-resolution Saturn images, tracking storms and auroral activity while providing crisp views of the rings over time and from various angles. After the Phoebe flyby, Cassini will be on course for Saturn. On arrival date June 30 (July 1 Universal Time), Cassini will become the first orbiter around Cassini will begin a four-year mission in orbit around Saturn when it arrives Saturn. "The two Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft flew by the planet and saw on June 30, 2004 (July 1, 2004 Univeral Time). Six months later it will it from a distance two or three days at a time. With Cassini, we will be in the release its piggybacked Huygens probe for descent through Titan's thick city limits for four years," said Dr. Dennis Matson, project scientist for atmosphere. Cassini at JPL. "The difference is like driving by the Grand Canyon versus stopping, getting off and enjoying the sights for The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with On arrival, Cassini will begin a 96-minute burn designed to put the spacecraft the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space into Saturn's orbit. As part of getting the spacecraft into orbit, Cassini will Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the twice cross between known gaps in the rings. As a precautionary measure, the European Space Agency. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative spacecraft will use its antenna as a shield to protect it from tiny particle hits. mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of A prime target for Cassini and the piggyback Huygens probe built by the Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space European Space Agency is the smoggy moon Titan. "In the 350 years since Science, Washington, DC. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras the discovery of Titan we have come to see it as a world with surprising were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. similarities to our own, yet located almost 1.5 billion kilometers (900 million miles) from the Sun," said Dr. Jonathan Lunine, Huygens interdisciplinary Hubble images and additional information on Hubble are available at scientist and professor of planetary science and physics at the University of http://hubblesite.org/news/2004/18. Cassini images and information are Arizona, Tucson. "With a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere and p compounds available athttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. important in the chain of chemistry that led to life on Earth."
Contacts: Six months after reaching Saturn, Cassini will release the wok-shaped Carolina Martinez/Nancy Lovato Huygens probe towards Titan on December 24, 2004 (December 25 Universal Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Time). The event will be by far the most distant descent of a robotic probe on Phone: 818-354-9382 another object in the solar system. On January 14, 2005 (Jan. 15 Universal Time), Huygens will enter Titan's atmosphere, deploy its parachute, and begin Cheryl S. Gundy its scientific observations of Titan. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD Phone: 410-338-4707 The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Additional articles on this subject are available at: a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04i.html Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's office of Space Science, Washington, http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0405/26saturn/ DC. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturn_from_hubble_cassini.html
CASSINI-HUYGENS MISSION STATUS REPORT NASA/JPL release 2004-134
28 May 2004
The Cassini spacecraft successfully performed a critical six-minute trajectory correction maneuver May 27 to put it on course with its first encounter, Saturn's outermost moon Phoebe, set for June 11. The spacecraft is operating normally and is in excellent health.
"The maneuver is very critical for getting us into Saturn orbit because it is the first checkout of the bipropellant pressurization system after nearly five years of dormancy," said Todd Barber, propulsion engineer for Cassini at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "It sets the stage for Saturn orbit insertion on June 30."
During the course of its trip, Cassini has traveled 3.4 billion kilometers (2.1 billion miles). "We couldn't have asked for a smoother ride," said Robert T. Mitchell, program manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL. "All the instruments are performing well, and for almost seven years we have traveled without any major hitches. The excitement is building as we are getting ready to put Cassini in orbit around the ringed planet." The orbiter has relied on three radioisotope thermoelectric generators to power all the electrical components, including the 12 science instruments. The European-built Huygens probe on board Cassini carries six instruments.
"If the road to Saturn were a highway, the Cassini orbiter would have passed the sign along the road that says 'Saturnian County line,'" said Jeremy Jones, chief navigator for the Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL. "The next exits are Phoebe, 9 million kilometers (5.4 million miles) ahead, Saturn 19 million kilometers (12 million miles) ahead." Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 14
For the latest images and more information about the Cassini-Huygens sleep" mode to stretch the robot's power supply. Opportunity has managed mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. only one to two hours of activity on many recent days while it has been examining a stadium-sized impact crater from vantage points around the rim. Contacts: Shutting down more completely overnight will conserve enough battery Carolina Martinez charge to add several hours of science operations during the day, according to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Jim Erickson, Mars Exploration Rover deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Phone: 818-354-9382 Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Donald Savage There is a calculated tradeoff—an increased risk that, without an overnight NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC heater running, one of the six scientific instruments might be disabled by the Phone: 202-358-1727 cold. The susceptible instrument is Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer, called the Mini-TES. It makes infrared observations used for Additional articles on this subject are available at: identifying minerals from afar to help the science team decide where to send http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04j.html the rover. Its observations also provide close-up evaluation of rock and soil http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040527burn.html targets, and thermal information about surface materials and the atmosphere.
MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS "The Mini-TES gives us vital insight into the minerals in rocks and the role of NASA/JPL release 2004-132 liquid water in their formation, so this choice is a carefully considered decision to weigh the risk of losing this capability against the benefit of 26 May 2004 continuing and increasing Opportunity's ability to do all the other exploration- oriented things this rover can do," said Dr. Jim Garvin, lead scientist for Mars NASA's solar-powered Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is beginning on and lunar exploration at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. Thursday what controllers expect to be frequent use of an overnight "deep
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its panoramic camera to take the images that make up this full-resolution mosaic of the "Columbia Hills." Spirit acquired these images on sol 131 (May 16, 2004), when it sat less than one kilometer (0.62 miles) away from its target, the base of the hills. Spirit will reach the base before sol 160 and begin an in-depth exploration of the interesting geologic features that make up these hills. The image is approximately 5,300 pixels wide by 400 pixels high and was assembled from six adjacent sets of panoramic camera images. It is an approximate true-color rendering made from the camera's 750-, 530- and 480- nanometer filters. A small amount of image filtering was applied to bring out some of the subtle, geologic details found in the hills. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
This view in approximately true color reveals details in an impact crater informally named "Fram" in the Meridian Planum region of Mars. The picture is a mosaic of frames taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the rover's 88th martian day on Mars, on April 23, 2004. The crater spans about 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter. Opportunity paused beside it while traveling from the rover's landing site toward a larger crater farther east. This view combines images taken using three of the camera's filters for different wavelengths of light: 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers. Image credit: NASA/ASU/Cornell.
Both Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, have already provided several Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, principal investigator for weeks of bonus operations after successfully completing their primary the rovers' science instruments, said, "Deep sleep is going to buy us back a missions: three months of examining geological evidence about past huge amount of capability to drive farther, take more pictures, use the arm environments at their landing sites. more." The deep sleep mode turns off a heater for the miniature thermal emission spectrometer as well as the troublesome heater in the arm. The As the Mars' southern-hemisphere winter advances and dust accumulates on spectrometer's heater uses less power but provides important protection. the solar panels, the amount of electricity the rovers can generate is Scientists and engineers decided not to use deep sleep agaivn after May 6 until decreasing. The decline is more serious for Opportunity because the robotic the spectrometer had completed high-priority observations from two different arm of that rover has a heater with a malfunctioning switch. The switch overlook points of the crater informally named "Endurance." Those cannot be turned off. A properly functioning thermostat turns the heater off observations were completed Tuesday. during the day, but the heater stays on overnight even when it's not needed. The amount of energy wasted was not enough to hinder Opportunity from Tests on Earth indicate the spectrometer's beam splitter, a disc of potassium succeeding in its primary mission, but is now sapping about one-third of the bromide salt about the size of a four-coin stack of quarters, would become rover's diminished amount of solar-generated electricity. ruined somewhere in the temperature range of minus 50 to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 58 to minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit). "Deep sleep gives us a way to turn that heater off overnight," said Opportunity Mission Manager Matt Wallace of JPL. The capability to do so results from a Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, lead scientist for the software upgrade transmitted to both rovers in April. The first use of deep instrument, said, "The thermal models predict that with deep sleep, we'll go to sleep, on Opportunity on May 6, verified its benefit to the useful power about minus 48 Celsius. That has me concerned because it's getting close." supply. The May 6 deep sleep did no damage, but next time the temperature could go lower, and it probably will drop lower during deep sleep later in the martian Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 15 winter. Christensen concurs with the decision to take that risk in order for the Contact: rover to have adequate power for its otherv activities. "We always knew that Guy Webster as dust built up and we ran low on power, eventually there would come a time Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA when we couldn't use the Mini-TES heater," he said. "We're getting to that Phone: 818-354-6278 point sooner because of the stuck heater on the arm." Additional articles on this subject are available at: Meanwhile, engineers and scientists are assessing how well Opportunity http://www.astrobio.net/news/article991.html would be able to climb out of Endurance Crater. The assessment will aid in http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/05/27/marsrovers.ap/index.html deciding whether to send the rover into the crater for up-close examination of http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzo.html rock layers there. Opportunity may complete a circuit around the crater's rim http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzp.html by mid-June and be ready for a decision about entering the crater. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzq.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040526status.html Spirit, halfway around Mars, resumed normal operations May 23 after engineers diagnosed a software glitch that halted the rover's activities on May MARS EXPRESS: ARSIA MONS VOLCANO IN 3D 21. The symptoms resembled a problem seen about a week earlier, where ESA release again the computer encountered a conflict between two onboard tasks. However the errors are understood and the two incidents are unrelated. If they 24 May 2004 recur, neither poses a threat to the rovers' health. Spirit is now less than 700 meters (0.4 miles) from the base of the "Columbia Hills," having traveled This image of the Arsia Mons shield volcano was taken by the High more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) since landing. Controllers are optimistic Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express. This that Spirit will reach the base of the hills by mid-June. image shows a spectacular zone of collapse features on the southern flank of the giant shield volcano Arsia Mons (located at 239°E longitude and 10°S JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars latitude, see the Mars map image). Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer and from Cornell University athttp://athena.cornell.edu.
Daily MER updates are available at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spirit.html http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunity.html
The image was taken from an altitude of about 400 kilometers during orbit 263 of the Mars Express spacecraft. The original image resolution was 20 meters per pixel, but the versions shown here have been reprocessed to reduce the volume of data for use on the internet. The main red-green anaglyph image, covering an area of 38 kilometers by 53 kilometers, is a detail section of the top left of the black and white image below, which covers an area of 80 kilometers by 105 kilometers.
The total height difference in the land surfaces in these scenes is about 7 kilometers, and some individual collapse pits have a depth of 2 kilometers. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 16
The pits probably formed when lava erupted from the side of Arsia Mons. When lava, or molten rock, finds its way to the surface, it produces several Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars veins and chambers. These slowly empty as the lava erupts and runs down the orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March volcano flanks. Some of the lava reaching the surface cools down and 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of becomes solid, often building a roof over the emptied chamber. The resulting Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by voids collapse due to the weight of the overlying material. At several places, JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space the walls of the pits have been modified by later landslides. The overall trend Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the of the collapse zone runs from the south-west to the north-east, following MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates exactly a giant zone of crustal weakness in the Tharsis region, along which the the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion three large volcanoes Arsia, Pavonis and Ascraeus Montes are aligned. Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release
24-28 May 2004
Acidalia Planitia Crater (Released 24 May 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040524a.html
Rampart Crater Ejecta (Released 25 May 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040525a.html
Acidalia Planitia Crater (Released 26 May 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040526a.html
Moreux Crater (Released 27 May 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040527a.html
South Polar Cap (Released 28 May 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040528a.html
The 3D images require stereoscopic glasses to view. For more information on All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html. Mars Express HRSC images, you might like to read our updated "Frequently Asked Questions" NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission (http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMJBQXLDMD_0.ht for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal ml). Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Read the original news release at Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM2EAHHZTD_0.html. Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. An additional article on this subject is available at Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from http://www.astrobio.net/news/article992.html. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES ROSETTA'S SCIENTIFIC "FIRST"—OBSERVATION OF COMET NASA/JPL/MSSS release LINEAR ESA release 29-2004 20-26 May 2004 26 May 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. ESA's comet-chaser Rosetta, whose 10-year journey to its final target Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko started on 2 March, is well on its way. The Ascraeus Caldera Wall (Released 20 May 2004) first phase of commissioning is close to completion and Rosetta has http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/20/index.html successfully performed its first scientific activity—observation of Comet Linear. The commissioning activities, which started a couple of days after Lycus Sulci Slope Streaks (Released 21 May 2004) launch, included the individual activation of all instruments on board the http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/21/index.html Rosetta orbiter and the Philae lander. This first check-out worked flawlessly and showed that the spacecraft and all instruments are functioning well and in Apsus Vallis Region (Released 22 May 2004) excellent shape. The commissioning tests also paved the way for Rosetta's http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/22/index.html first scientific activity: observation of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), which is currently traveling for the first and only time through the inner Solar System Dipping Rock Layers (Released 23 May 2004) and offered Rosetta an excellent opportunity to make its first scientific http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/23/index.html observation.
Ganges Sedimentary Rocks (Released 24 May 2004) On 30 April, the OSIRIS camera system, which was scheduled for http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/24/index.html commissioning on that date, took images of this unique cometary visitor. Later that day, three more instruments on board Rosetta (ALICE, MIRO and Dust Event (Released 25 May 2004) VIRTIS) were activated in parallel to take measurements of the comet. http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/25/index.html Although the parallel activation of the instruments was not planned until later in the year, the Rosetta team felt confident that this could be done without any Dark Polar Dunes (Released 26 May 2004) risk because of the satisfactory progress of the overall testing. http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/05/26/index.html The first data from the remote-sensing observations confirm the excellent All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at performance of the instruments. The four instruments took images and http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html. Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 23, 1 June 2004 17 spectra of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) to study its coma and tail in different wavelengths, from ultraviolet to microwave. Rosetta successfully measured The successful observation of Comet Linear was a first positive test for the presence of water molecules in the tenuous atmosphere around the comet. Rosetta's ultimate goal, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which will be Detailed analysis of the data will require the complete calibration of the reached in 2014. Rosetta will be the first mission to undertake a long-term instruments, which will take place in the coming months. The OSIRIS camera exploration of a comet at close quarters whilst accompanying it on its way produced high-resolution images of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) from a towards the Sun. distance of about 95 million kilometers. An image showing a pronounced nucleus and a section of the tenuous tail extending over about 2 million The unprecedented in-depth study conducted by the Rosetta orbiter and its kilometers was obtained by OSIRIS in blue light and is available at Philae lander will help scientists decipher the formation of our Solar System http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/spcs/rosetta/rosetta20040526a.tif. around 4600 million years ago and provide them with clues of how comets may have contributed to the beginning of life on Earth. In particular, the Philae lander, developed by a European consortium under the leadership of the German Aerospace Research Institute (DLR), will analyse the composition and structure of the comet's surface.
After Rosetta's first deep-space manoeuvres were carried out on 10 and 15 May with the highest accuracy, the first phase of commissioning is set to be completed in the first week of June. Rosetta will then go into a quiet "cruise mode" until September, when the second phase of commissioning is scheduled to start. These activities, including the interference and pointing campaign, will last until December. The Rosetta spacecraft is well under way on its epic 10-year voyage, to do what has never before been attempted— orbiting and landing on a comet.
Rosetta was built under the prime contractorship of Astrium Germany, leading an industrial team of more than 50 contractors from 14 European countries and the United States.
Contact: ESA Media Relations Division Phone: +33(0)1.53.69.7155 Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rosetta_focuses_linear.html.
End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 23.