Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology NewsletterVolume 12, Number 27, 3 August 2005

Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu

Marsbugs is published on a weekly to monthly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editor, but individual authors retain the copyright of specific articles. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors, and are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or by Lyon College. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting the editor. Information concerning the scope of this newsletter, subscription formats and availability of back-issues is available at http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs. The editor does not condone "spamming" of subscribers. Readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing lists. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editor.

Articles and News

Page 1 NEW MEASURES NEEDED TO KEEP NASA SPACECRAFT FROM CONTAMINATING MARS National Academies release

Page 2 OXYGEN PARADOX RESEARCH TO BE PRESENTED AT GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCEBy Eric Ramirez

Page 2 JAPAN RESEARCHERS TO BE SEALED IN "MINI-EARTH" TO PLAN FOR SPACE LIFEFrom Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily

Page 2 MYSTERY METHANE MAKER WANTED DEAD OR ALIVEBy David Tenenbaum

Page 3 LOOKING FOR LIFE ON MARS IN AUSTRALIA'S OUTBACKFrom Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily

Page 4 SCIENTISTS GIVE BOOST TO CLIMATE CHANGE PREDICTIONSMassachusetts Institute of Technology release

Page 4 NASA DEVELOPS A NUGGET TO SEARCH FOR LIFE IN SPACENASA feature

Page 5 SPITZER FINDS LIFE COMPONENTS IN YOUNG UNIVERSENASA/JPL release 2005-123

Page 6 BIG POSSIBILITIES FOR SMALL STARSBy Peter Backus

Page 6 NASA SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TENTH PLANETNASA release 05-209

Page 7 PIONEER ASTRONAUTICS DEMONSTRATES A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR FLYING AROUND MARSPioneer Astronautics release

Page 8 PROVING THE CASE: IS METHANE THE FIRST DIRECT SIGN OF EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIFE?By David Tenenbaum

Page 9 EVOLUTIONARY ACCIDENT PROBABLY CAUSED THE WORST SNOWBALL EARTH EPISODE, STUDY SHOWSCalifornia Institute of Technology release

Page 10 MARS, THE BLUE ECOSYNTHESIS Based on drawings and image commentary by Thierry Lombry

Announcements

Page 11 NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE (CYCLE-4)NAI release

Page 11 GRIFFIN RIGHT HAND MAN TO SPEAK AT MARS SOCIETY CONVENTION Mars Society release

Mission Reports

Page 11 CASSINI UPDATESNASA/JPL releases

Page 15 MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS UPDATENASA/JPL release

Page 15 MARS EXPRESS: WATER ICE IN A CRATER AT THE MARTIAN NORTH POLEESA release

Page 16 MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGESNASA/JPL/MSSS release

Page 16 MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGESNASA/JPL/ASU release

Page 16 MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER UPDATESMultiple agencies' releases

NEW MEASURES NEEDED TO KEEP NASA SPACECRAFT FROM CONTAMINATING MARS National Academies release25 July 2005

Over the coming decade, NASA should develop and implement new methods and requirements to detect and eliminate microorganisms on robotic spacecraft sent to Mars to prevent possible contamination of the planet, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. If microbes aboard a spacecraft were to survive the trip to Mars and grow there, they could interfere with scientific investigations to detect any life that might be native to Mars. Existing techniques for cleaning spacecraft are outdated and typically eliminate only a fraction of microorganisms, said the committee that wrote the report.

Recent scientific findings suggest that liquid water could be present at many locations on Mars and that some organisms on Earth might survive in extreme, Mars-like conditions—such as very low temperatures and high salt concentrations. These discoveries have bolstered the case that Mars could be—or have been—hospitable to life and have created urgency to update policies and practices to prevent Mars contamination, the report says.

"Ongoing Mars missions have shown that the planet may have environments where some Earth microbes could grow," said Christopher F. Chyba, committee chair and professor of astrophysics and international affairs at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. "Although we don't know for sure if this could happen, we need to understand whether liquid water exists in Martian near-surface environments, as well as the nature of microorganisms that are in our clean rooms and

Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 12, Number 27, 3 August 2005

spacecraft. It will take a while to carry out the needed research and development, so we need to start in earnest now."

NASA currently uses screening techniques that detect heat-resistant and spore-forming bacteria on spacecraft and then reduces their numbers by cleaning the spacecraft and, in certain circumstances, baking components with dry heat. But these screening methods are not designed to give a comprehensive tally of the microbes present on the spacecraft, and dry heat can be applied only to spacecraft materials that can withstand high temperatures, the report notes.

NASA should sponsor new research efforts aimed at preventing Mars contamination, the committee said, such as new techniques for detecting biological molecules that do not require time for growing laboratory cultures and could speed spacecraft sterilization and assembly in clean rooms. Also, methods that determine genetic sequences of organisms and link them to known microbial species could allow NASA to tailor sterilization techniques toward spacecraft contaminants of greatest concern. NASA should also investigate alternative cleaning methods—such as the use of radiation or vapor disinfectants—for their effectiveness in killing different types of microorganisms and for their effects on various spacecraft materials.

NASA should develop a certification process to compare detection and cleaning methods and select the most promising ones, begin testing and validating improved techniques within the next three years, and fully implement selected new techniques in time for spacecraft to launch in 2016. Until NASA conducts the research needed to transition to a modern approach for planetary protection, the agency should apply more stringent sterilization levels to all Mars landing spacecraft, the committee said. An independent review panel should be created by NASA and meet every three years to review new knowledge about the Martian environment and recommend updates, as needed, to Mars protection requirements.

The study was sponsored by NASA. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that provide science and technology advice under a congressional charter.

Copies of Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars will be available this fall from the National Academies Press; phone: 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or order on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu. Read the report online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11381.html?onpi_newsdoc07252005. Reporters may obtain a pre-publication copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed below).

Contacts: Patrice Pages, Media Relations OfficerMichelle Strikowsky, Media Relations AssistantOffice of News and Public InformationPhone: 202-334-2138E-mail: news@nas.edu

OXYGEN PARADOX RESEARCH TO BE PRESENTED AT GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCEBy Eric RamirezLyon College release25 July 2005

Dr. David J. Thomas, associate professor of biology at Lyon College, has been invited to share research at an upcoming conference for geoscientists, Earth System Processes 2. The Geological Society of America and the Geological Association of Canada are organizing the meeting. Earth System Processes 2 will be held August 11 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Approximately 350 geoscientists are expected to attend.

Dr. Thomas' research covers a topic known as the "Oxygen Paradox." The paradox states that photosynthetic organisms would need antioxidant systems to protect them. So, according to the paradox, it would be necessary for photosynthesis and antioxidant systems to evolve together. Antioxidants are important to all oxygen-using life because some by-products of using oxygen, called free radicals, are

harmful and cause cellular breakdown. Which leads to the real question behind all of this: Which came first?

"It's a chicken or the egg type problem?" Dr. Thomas said. Thomas tested two different organisms under an environment and atmosphere similar to primordial Earth and his results yielded that photosynthesis might have evolved first.

This all began in 1995 when Dr. Thomas was working with antioxidants for his dissertation. The Oxygen Paradox had been posed sometime between the late '70s and early '80s. His current research started over a year ago when Dr. Thomas received a grant from the NASA/Arkansas Space Grant Consortium. Lyon students who have helped with the research include CaSandra Spurlock and Christy Schuchardt, both of whom graduated from Lyon this year, as well as John Boling and Tiffany McSpadden, two undergraduate students at Lyon.

"I know that I don't want to do this for a career, but I certainly know how to grow bacteria," said Tiffany McSpadden, who was busy moving test tubes into the refrigerator.

Dr. Thomas' research tells a lot about early life on Earth. According to Thomas, "We take photosynthesis for granted. The first organisms to photosynthesize were actually poisoning nearby organisms."

And what about other planets? He remembered talking with Dr. Julian Hiscox from the University of Leeds in England and discussing what kind of characteristics a martian microbe would need to survive on Mars. Thomas said that the surface of Mars was highly oxidized, much like rust, and that in order for anything to live on Mars it would require "very robust antioxidant systems."

All of Dr. Thomas' research was performed at the laboratories in the new Derby Center at Lyon College. Thomas pointed out that one of the greater things about Lyon College is that post-graduate students can do significant research.

Read the original news release at http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/groups/Public%20Relations/thomas_to_share_researchl.htm.

JAPAN RESEARCHERS TO BE SEALED IN "MINI-EARTH" TO PLAN FOR SPACE LIFEFrom Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily26 July 2005

Japanese researchers said Tuesday they would seal themselves in a "mini-Earth" in an experiment in self-sufficiency to plan for future life in space. Two researchers will spend one week in the controlled ecosystem at Rokkasho in the northern prefecture of Aomori, growing plants such as rice, breeding goats and recycling their water, oxygen and excreta. Apart from the goats, the researchers will be completely on their own, save for outside energy and the Internet. The facility to be set up by the Institute for Environmental Sciences will be 500 square meters (5,380 square feet) with separate spaces for the humans, animals and plants.

Read the full article at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-05zzzf.html.

MYSTERY METHANE MAKER WANTED DEAD OR ALIVEBy David TenenbaumFrom Astrobiology Magazine27 July 2005

The detections of methane in the martian atmosphere have challenged scientists to find a source for the gas, which is usually associated with life on Earth. One source that can be ruled out is ancient history: methane can survive only 600 years in the martian atmosphere before sunlight will destroy it. If the global concentration of methane on Mars is 10 ppb, then an average of 4 grams of methane is being destroyed every second by sunlight. That means about 126 metric tons of methane must be produced each year to ensure a steady concentration of 10 ppb.

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There is an outside chance that the methane is being delivered to Mars by comets, asteroids, or other debris from space. Calculations show that micrometeorites are likely to deliver only 1 kilogram of methane a year—far short of the 126-ton replacement level. Comets could deliver a huge slug of methane, but the interval between major comet impacts averages 62 million years, so it's unlikely that any comet delivered methane within the past 600 years.

If we can rule out methane delivery, then the methane must be manufactured on Mars. But is the source biology, or processes unassociated with life?

In hot water?

A small percentage of Earth's methane is made through non-biological ("abiogenic") interactions between carbon dioxide, hot water and certain rocks. Could this be occurring on Mars? Perhaps, says James Lyons of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCLA.

These reactions require only rock, water, carbon and heat, but on Mars, where would the heat come from? The planet's surface is stone cold, averaging minus 63 degrees C. Volcanoes could be a source of heat. Geologists think the most recent eruption on Mars was at least 1 million years ago—recent enough to suggest that Mars is still active, and therefore hot deep below the surface.

A trickle of methane averaging 4 grams per second could come from such a geological hot spot. But any martian hot spot must be deep and well-insulated from the surface, since the Thermal Emission Imaging System on Mars Odyssey found no locations that are at least 15 degrees C warmer than the surroundings. However, Lyons thinks it's still possible that a deep body of magma could be supplying the heat.

In one computer model of simplified martian geology, a cooling body of magma 10 kilometers deep, 1 kilometer wide, and 10 kilometers long created the 375 to 450 degrees C temperature that drives abiogenic methane generation at mid-ocean ridges on Earth. Such a body of hot rock, Lyons says, "is perfectly sensible, there's nothing strange about it," because Mars probably retains some heat from planetary formation, much like Earth.

"It encourages us to think that this is a plausible scenario for explaining methane on Mars, and we would not see the signature of that dike (body of hot rock) on the surface," says Lyons. "That's the angle we are pursuing; it's the simplest, most direct explanation for the methane detected."

Past the looking glass

Although no one can rule out abiogenic sources for the methane on Mars, when you find methane on Earth, you are usually seeing the work of methanogens, ancient anaerobic microbes that process carbon and hydrogen into methane. Could methanogens live on Mars?

To find out, Timothy Kral, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Arkansas, began growing five types of methanogens 12 years ago in volcanic soil chosen to simulate martian soil. He's now shown that methanogens can survive for years on the granular, low-nutrient soil, although when grown in Mars-like conditions, at just 2 percent of Earth's atmospheric pressure, they become desiccated and go dormant after a couple of weeks.

"The soil tends to dry out, and we have been able to find viable cells; they are still alive, but they don't produce methane anymore," Kral says.

Methanogens need a steady source of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. While carbon dioxide is abundant on Mars, "hydrogen is a question mark," Kral says.

Vladimir Krasnopolsky, a research professor at Catholic University of America in Washington DC, detected 15 parts per million of molecular hydrogen in the atmosphere of Mars. It is possible that this hydrogen is escaping from a deep source in the martian interior which methanogens could use. If methanogens are deep inside Mars, the methane gas they produce would slowly rise toward the surface. Eventually it could reach

a pressure-temperature condition where it would get trapped in ice crystals, forming methane hydrate.

"If there were a subsurface biosphere, methane hydrate would be an inevitable consequence, if things behave as they do on Earth," says Stephen Clifford of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.

Frost dusts the red plains of southern Mars in early spring. Mars' mean annual temperature is -55 °C. Image credit: MSSS/JPL/ NASA.

And there's a fringe benefit, Clifford adds. Methane hydrates, "would be an insulating blanket that would substantially reduce the thickness of frozen ground on Mars, from several kilometers at the equator, to maybe less than a kilometer." In other words, methane hydrate would both store evidence of life and insulate any life that remained from the ultra-cold surface temperatures.

Although data on conditions a kilometer or so below the martian surface are non-existent, the growing picture of the complexity, size and adaptability of Earth's underground biosphere certainly improves the chance that life exists in comparable conditions inside Mars. Earth's underground biosphere is composed largely of microbes, some of which live at depths, pressures and chemical conditions once thought inhospitable to life.

Deep inside Mars may be a hardscrabble place to make a living, but methanogens are no wimps, Kral says. "They are tough, durable. The fact that they have been around probably since the beginning of life on Earth, and continue to be the predominant life form below the surface and deep in the oceans, means they are survivors, they are doing extremely well."

Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1660.html.

LOOKING FOR LIFE ON MARS IN AUSTRALIA'S OUTBACKFrom Agence France-Presse and SpaceDaily28 July 2005

Australian scientists are planning to build a "space station" in the remote outback to simulate the conditions future human explorers could face on Mars. Mars Society Australia says the station will be the final step in a worldwide experiment which has seen similar projects set up in the Canadian Arctic, the Utah desert and Iceland.

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"The idea is that if you have these places around the world, each place has its own unique Mars-like qualities or characteristics," spokeswoman Jennifer Laing told AFP Thursday.

The station, designed to simulate living quarters which could be landed on Mars, will be 36 meters (118 feet) long and include cabins, generators, airlocks and docking hatches plus a garage to house a "rover" to explore the surrounding area.

SCIENTISTS GIVE BOOST TO CLIMATE CHANGE PREDICTIONSMassachusetts Institute of Technology release28 July 2005

Researchers from MIT, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and several other government and academic institutions have created four new supercomputer simulations that for the first time combine mathematical computer models of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and sea ice. These simulations are the first field tests of the new Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF), an innovative software system that promises to improve predictive capability in diverse areas such as short-term weather forecasts and century-long climate-change projections.

Using the new Earth System Modeling Framework, researchers coupled an atmosphere model and an ocean model that had not interacted before. This image depicts the sea surface temperature after five iterations of the simulation. The collaborators on this field test are MIT and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Image credits: Shep Smithline, GFDL; Chris Hill, MIT.

Although still under development, groups from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and research universities are using ESMF as the standard for coupling their weather and climate models to achieve a realistic representation of the Earth as a system of interacting parts. ESMF makes it easier to share and compare alternative scientific approaches from multiple sources; it uses remote sensing data more efficiently and eliminates the need for individual agencies to develop their own coupling software.

"The development of large Earth system applications often spans initiatives, institutions and agencies, and involves the geoscience, physics, mathematics and computer science communities. With ESMF, these diverse groups can leverage common software to simplify model development," said NASA's Arlindo da Silva, a scientist in Goddard's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office.

The newly completed field tests, known as interoperability experiments, show that the new approach can be successful. Although most of the experiments would require exhaustive tuning and validation to be scientifically sound, they already show that ESMF can be used to assemble coupled applications quickly, easily and with technical accuracy. The MIT experiment combines an atmosphere-land-ice model from NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory with an MIT ocean-sea ice model known as MITgcm (http://mitgcm.org/). This may ultimately bring new insights into ocean uptake of carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gases and information on how this process affects climate.

Christopher Hill, principal research scientist in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and a member of the MIT

Climate Modeling Iniatiative, led development of the software at MIT. The ESMF research team plans to release the software to the scientific community via the Internet later this month.

Contact:Denise Brehm, MIT News OfficePhone: 617-253-2704E-mail: brehm@mit.edu

Read the original news release at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/climate-software.html.

An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mit_goddard_scientists_climate_change_predictions.html.

NASA DEVELOPS A NUGGET TO SEARCH FOR LIFE IN SPACENASA feature27 July 2005

Astrobiologists, who search for evidence of life on other planets, may find a proposed Neutron/Gamma ray Geologic Tomography (NUGGET) instrument to be one of the most useful tools in their toolbelt. As conceived by scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD, NUGGET would be able to generate three-dimensional images of fossils embedded in an outcrop of rock or beneath the soil of Mars or another planet. Tomography uses radiation or sound waves to look inside objects. NUGGET could help determine if primitive forms of life took root on Mars when the planet was awash in water eons ago.

Principal Investigator Sam Floyd holds the device that will be used this summer when he and his team test the NUGGET concept at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. Image credit: NASA.

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Similar to seismic tomography used by the oil industry to locate oil reserves beneath Earth's surface, NUGGET would look instead for evidence of primitive algae and bacteria that fossilized along the edges of extinct rivers or oceans. As on Earth, these remains could lie just a few centimeters beneath the surface, compressed between layers of silt. If a mechanical rover that explores planet surfaces were equipped with an instrument like NUGGET—capable of peering beneath the surface—then it might be able to reveal evidence of life beyond Earth.

"This is a brand new idea," said Sam Floyd, the principal investigator on the project, funded this year by Goddard's Director's Discretionary Fund. If developed, NUGGET would be able to investigate important biological indicators of life, and quickly and precisely identify areas where scientists might want to take samples of soil or conduct more intensive studies. "It would allow us to do a much faster survey of an area," Floyd said.

This sealed tube contains a bacterial ecosystem which can form layered structures such as by the rock shown in the image below. Image credit: NASA.

The proposed instrument, which could be carried on a rover or a robot lander, is made up of three fundamentally distinct technologies—a neutron generator, a neutron lens, and a gamma-ray detector. At the heart of NUGGET is a three-dimensional scanning instrument that beams neutrons into a rock or other object under study. When the nucleus of an atom inside the rock captures the neutrons, it produces a characteristic gamma-ray signal for that element, which the gamma-ray detector then analyzes. It's also possible to plot the location of the elements. After this process, information can then be turned into an image of the elements within the rock. By seeing images of certain existing elements, scientists could tell whether a certain type of bacteria had become fossilized inside the rock.

Although the concept of focusing neutrons is not new, the ability to focus them is. Thanks to a Russian scientist who devised the method in the 1980s, scientists today can direct a beam of neutrons through a neutron lens made up of the thousands of long, slender, hair-size glass tubes. The bundle of tubes is shaped so that the neutrons flowing down them can converge at a central point. Since the method's invention in the 1980s, manufacturing practices have made this type of optical system feasible for space exploration.

The advantage of this technology is that it can create a higher intensity of neutrons at a central point on the object. This increased intensity allows a higher-resolution image to be produced. Floyd and his co-investigators, Jason Dworkin, John Keller, and Scott Owens, all from NASA GSFC, plan to conduct experiments this summer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) using one of NIST's neutron-beam lines. By focusing neutrons into various samples (one of which is a meteorite), they hope to make a three-dimensional image of the meteorite's internal structure.

"If we're successful, we'll be in position to say whether a space flight instrument is feasible," Floyd said, adding that his research should give

Goddard the lead role in developing a new class of instruments to support missions for NASA's search of life in the future.

Jason Dworkin, an astrobiologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, holds a stromatolite, a layered sedimentary rock formed by bacteria eons ago. If such a rock were discovered on Mars, it could indicate that primitive life had once taken root on the red planet. Image credit: NASA.

Read the original article at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/nuggets.html.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1662.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-05zzzj.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/nasa_develops_nugget_to_search_life.html

SPITZER FINDS LIFE COMPONENTS IN YOUNG UNIVERSENASA/JPL release 2005-12328 July 2005

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found the ingredients for life all the way back to a time when the universe was a mere youngster. Using Spitzer, scientists have detected organic molecules in galaxies when our universe was one-fourth of its current age of about 14 billion years. These large molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are comprised of carbon and hydrogen. The molecules are considered to be among the building blocks of life.

This artist's conception symbolically represents complex organic molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, seen in the early universe. These large molecules, comprised of carbon and hydrogen, are considered among the building blocks of life. Image credit: NASA/JPL.

These complex molecules are very common on Earth. They form any time carbon-based materials are not burned completely. They can be found in sooty exhaust from cars and airplanes, and in charcoal broiled hamburgers and burnt toast. The molecules, pervasive in galaxies like

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our own Milky Way, play a significant role in star and planet formation. Spitzer is the first telescope to see these molecules so far back in time.

"This is 10 billion years further back in time than we've seen them before," said Dr. Lin Yan of the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. Yan is lead author of a study to be published in the August 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. Previous missions—the Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the Infrared Space Observatory—detected these types of galaxies and molecules much closer to our own Milky Way galaxy. Spitzer's sensitivity is 100 times greater than these previous infrared telescope missions, enabling direct detection of organics so far away.

Since Earth is approximately four-and-a-half billion years old, these organic materials existed in the universe well before our planet and solar system were formed and may have even been the seeds of our solar system. Spitzer found the organic compounds in galaxies where intense star formation had taken place over a short period of time. These "flash in the pan" starburst galaxies are nearly invisible in optical images because they are very far away and contain large quantities of light-absorbing dust. But the same dust glows brightly in infrared light and is easily spotted by Spitzer.

Spitzer's infrared spectrometer split the galaxies' infrared light into distinct features that revealed the presence of organic components. These organic features gave scientists a milepost to gauge the distance of these galaxies. This is the first time scientists have been able to measure a distance as great as 10-billion light years away using the spectral fingerprints of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

"These complex compounds tell us that by the time we see these galaxies, several generations of stars have already been formed," said Dr. George Helou of the Spitzer Science Center, a co-author of the study. "Planets and life had very early opportunities to emerge in the universe."

Other co-authors include Ranga-Ram Chary, Lee Armus, Harry Tepliz, David Frayer, Dario Fadda, Jason Surace, and Philip Choi, all of the Spitzer Science Center. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph was built by Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Its development was led by Dr. Jim Houck of Cornell.

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite was a joint scientific project sponsored by the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The Infrared Space Observatory was a European Space Agency mission with Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and NASA.

For information on the Spitzer Space Telescope visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media. For more information on NASA missions and programs visit http://www.nasa.gov.

Journal reference:Lin Yan et al., 2005. Spitzer detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and silicate dust features in the mid-infrared spectra of z~2 ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Astrophysical Journal, 628:604-610, http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJ/v628n2/62095/brief/62095.abstract.html.

Contact:Gay Yee Hill Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CAPhone: 818-354-0344

Read the original news release at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-123.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050728_organic_stuff.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/spitzer_finds_polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbons.html

BIG POSSIBILITIES FOR SMALL STARSBy Peter BackusFrom Space.com28 July 2005

Our galaxy is well-placed for viewing in mid-summer and mid-winter. In July, the star clouds of the Milky Way feature the bright blue-white stars of the Summer Triangle: Deneb, Vega, and Altair, and the red giant Antares in the heart of the scorpion. Six months later, from the other side of the Earth's orbit, we see the blue-white stars of Orion and the Dog Stars, Sirius and Procyon. The bright red giants Betelgeuse and Aldebaran are rubies in the January night. The splendor of these jewels of the night, when viewed far from city lights, inspires a sense of awe and wonder. It's a beautiful but misleading view of the stars in our galaxy; we're literally missing most of the picture.

Most of the stars in our galaxy, and presumably all galaxies, are small red stars called M dwarfs. If you haven't looked through a telescope, I can guarantee that you've never seen an M dwarf star. They are intrinsically very faint. The largest and brightest have about half the mass of the Sun but emit only a few percent as much energy as the Sun. The smallest are more than four thousand times fainter. They are difficult to study and few astronomers devote themselves to the task. Yet, these small stars may turn out to be the most important stars for astrobiology.

Read the full article at http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_small_stars_050728.html.

NASA SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TENTH PLANETNASA release 05-20929 July 2005

A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions of the solar system. The planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, CA. The discovery was announced today by planetary scientist Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, whose research is partly funded by NASA. The planet is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet, Brown said. Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, the planet is the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects.

Discovery images of the new planet. The three images were taken 1½ hours apart on the night of  October 21st, 2003. The planet can be seen very slowly moving across the sky over the course of 3 hours. Image credit: M. Brown.

"It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," said Brown, who made the discovery with colleagues Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, CT, on January 8.

Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz first photographed the new planet with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on October 31, 2003. However, the object was so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.

"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, who is a professor of planetary astronomy.

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Artist's concept of the view from the planet, looking back towards the distant sun. Image credit: Robert Hurt (IPAC).

Scientists can infer the size of a solar system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. The reflectance of the planet is not yet known. Scientists can not yet tell how much light from the sun is reflected away, but the amount of light the planet reflects puts a lower limit on its size.

"Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as Pluto," says Brown. "I'd say it's probably one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size.

"We are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system," Brown added.

A view of the solar system from the north down. The four circles show the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The yellow dot in the center is the Sun. The Earth, if it were shown, would be inside the yellow dot representing the Sun. The orbits of the two outermost planets, along with their current positions, are also shown. Image credit: M. Brown.

The size of the planet is limited by observations using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has already proved its mettle in studying the heat of dim, faint, faraway objects such as the Kuiper-belt bodies. Because Spitzer is unable to detect the new planet, the overall diameter must be less than 2,000 miles, said Brown.

A name for the new planet has been proposed by the discoverers to the International Astronomical Union, and they are awaiting the decision of this body before announcing the name.

For more information see http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.

Contacts:Dolores BeasleyNASA Headquarters, Washington, DCPhone: 202-358-1753

Jane PlattJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CAPhone: 818-354-0880

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1664.htmlhttp://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7751http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29jul_planetx.htmhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_large_object.htmlhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-05k.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/10th_planet_discovered.html

PIONEER ASTRONAUTICS DEMONSTRATES A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR FLYING AROUND MARSPioneer Astronautics release29 July 2005

The new flight system is called a gashopper. The vehicle system works by acquiring CO2 from the Martian atmosphere with a pump (Mars atmosphere is 95% CO2), storing it in liquid form, then sending it through a preheated pellet bed to turn it into hot rocket exhaust to produce thrust for a flight vehicle. The flight vehicle could either be a ballistic vehicle similar to the DCX vertical takeoff rocket, or a winged airplane that would take off and land like a Harrier, then transition to horizontal flight.

Mars Ship One takes off.

On Mars, a ballistic gashopper would be capable of flights of tens of kilometers per hop. A winged aircraft would be capable of hundreds of kilometers per flight. After each landing, a small rover could be deployed for local exploration. While it is doing this, the gashopper would refuel from the atmosphere, using power from the solar panels on its wings to drive its CO2 acquisition pump. This procedure would take about a month, then the rover would be recalled, the pellet bed reheated, and the gashopper flown to a distant landing site to explore again.

The net result is a system that can fly repeatedly on Mars, conducting numerous aerial surveys and surface exploration at many diverse sites with a single spacecraft. Furthermore, unlike surface rovers, the gashopper would not be blocked by terrain obstacles. Also, since its exhaust is CO2, it would not contaminate landing sites with organics from a conventional rocket exhaust (which might confuse sensors looking for indigenous organics).

In a series of tests conducted during the final weeks of July 2005, Pioneer Astronautics demonstrated the gashopper concept in flight at the Platte Valley airport near Brighton, Colorado. The test vehicle, named "Mars Ship One," was run through fast taxi tests, then flown at speeds between 60 and 100 mph. Mars Ship One has a wingspan of 14 ft and a dry mass of 118 lb, making it a full scale representative in mass and size

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of a gashopper airplane that might be used on a robotic mars exploration. During the late July tests, flight ranges of about 1660 ft were obtained, with the pellet bed preheated to 800 C and 13 lbs of propellant in the tank. On Mars, with a hotter pellet bed, high rocket nozzle expansion ratios, 1/3 Earth gravity, lighter aerospace grade materials, larger propellant loads, and higher flight speeds, such a system could be expected to travel about 100 kilometers per flight.

Mars Ship One in flight.

The Gashopper airplane program was funded by NASA Langley Research Center with an SBIR Phase 1 contract to Pioneer Astronautics. Robert Zubrin was the Principal Investigator at Pioneer Astronautics, while Chris Kuhl was the program Technical Monitor at NASA Langley. Other members of the Pioneer Astronautics team included: Gary Snyder, Electronics Lead; Dan Harber, Aerodynamics Lead; Nick Jameson, Mechanisms design; Mike Hurley, Pilot; Kyle Johnson, Intern, and James Kilgore, Machinist.

The Pioneer Astronautics Mars Gashopper Airplane Team, from left: Gary Snyder, Dan Harber, Nick Jameson, James Kilgore, Robert Zubrin, and pilot Mike Hurley.

"We call her 'Mars Ship One,'" Dr. Zubrin said, "because the desert skies of Mars are its oceans, and she is the first craft designed to navigate them. A 1600 ft flight is a humble beginning for Martian aviation, but then so was the 700 ft achieved at Kitty Hawk. All great things start out small. Someday vehicles descended from her with give us the freedom to travel at will across the Red Planet."

Mars Ship one will be on display for public viewing at the 8th International Mars Society Convention, university of Colorado, Boulder, August 11-14, 2005. Information about and Registration for the Convention is now open at www.marssociety.org.

Read the original news release at http://www.pioneerastro.com/gha.html.

PROVING THE CASE: IS METHANE THE FIRST DIRECT SIGN OF EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIFE?By David TenenbaumFrom Astrobiology Magazine1 August 2005

Are microbes making the methane that's been found on Mars, or does the hydrocarbon gas come from geological processes? It's the question that everybody wants to answer, but nobody can. What will it take to convince the jury?

This high-resolution color photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979, and relayed to Earth by Orbiter 1 on June 7. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. Image credit: NASA/ JPL.

Many experts told Astrobiology Magazine that the best way to judge whether methane has a biological origin is to look at the ratio of carbon-12 (12C) to carbon-13 (13C) in the molecules. Living organisms preferentially take up the lighter 12C isotopes as they assemble methane, and that chemical signature remains until the molecule is destroyed.

"There may be a way of distinguishing the origin of methane, whether biogenic or not, by using stable isotope measurements," says Barbara Sherwood Lollar, an isotope chemist at the University of Toronto.

But isotope signals are subtle, best performed by accurate spectrometers placed on the martian surface rather than on an orbiting spacecraft orbit. And there are complications. For one thing, an average martian methane level of 10 parts per billion (ppb) may be too faint for accurate isotope measurement, even for a spectroscope placed on Mars. Also, the 12C to 13C ratio of methane alone is not always proof of life. For example, the "Lost City" hydrothermal vent field in the Atlantic Ocean did not show a clear isotope signature, says James Kasting, professor of earth and mineral science at Penn State University.

"The methane is not that strongly fractionated, but they still think it might be biological," says Kasting. "At Lost City, you can't figure out if it's biological or not by the isotopes. How are we going to figure that out on Mars?"

By expanding the search, responds Sherwood Lollar. Instead of measuring only carbon, she suggests measuring hydrogen isotopes, because biological systems also prefer hydrogen (H) to the heavier deuterium (2H).

A second approach would look at the longer, heavier hydrocarbons—ethane, propane and butane—that are related to methane, and that sometimes appear with biogenic or abiogenic methane. Sherwood Lollar detected these hydrocarbons while investigating abiogenic methane trapped in pores in ancient rocks in the Canadian Shield, a large deposit of Precambrian igneous rock. "When the water gets trapped over very, very long time periods," she says, an abiogenic reaction between water and rock makes methane, ethane, propane and butane.

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If the longer-chain abiogenic hydrocarbons are ever detected in the martian atmosphere, how could we distinguish them from similar hydrocarbons that are the breakdown products of kerogen, a remnant of decomposing living matter? The answer, Sherwood Lollar repeats, could be found in the isotopes. Abiogenic hydrocarbon chains would contain a higher proportion of heavier isotopes than the hydrocarbon chains derived from the breakdown of kerogen.

"Future missions to Mars plan to look for the presence of higher hydrocarbons as well as methane," Sherwood Lollar says. "If this isotopic pattern can be identified in martian methane and ethane for instance, then this type of information could help resolve abiogenic versus biogenic origin."

Gathering more evidence

Isotopes figure prominently in several upcoming space missions that could slake the growing thirst for evidence on the methane mystery:

The Phoenix lander, scheduled for launch in August 2007, will go to an ice-rich region near the North Pole, and "dig up dirt and analyze the dirt, along with the ice," says William Boynton of the University of Arizona, who will direct the mission. The lander's mass spectrometer will measure isotopes in any methane trapped in the soil, if the concentration is sufficient. "We won't be able to measure the isotope ratio [in the atmosphere], because it won't be a high enough concentration," Boynton says.

Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled for launch sometime between 2009 and 2011, is a 3,000-kilogram, six-wheel rover packed with scientific instruments. The tunable laser spectrometer and mass spectrometer-gas chromatograph may both be able to ferret out isotope ratios of carbon and other elements.

Beagle 3, a successor to Britain's lost-in-space Beagle 2, may carry an improved mass spectrometer capable of measuring carbon isotope ratios, but the project has yet to be approved. The craft would not launch until at least 2009.

From these launch dates, it's clear the jury on this who-dun-it must remain sequestered for years, until hard data on the source of methane on Mars can be aired in the scientific courtroom. At this point, it's fair to say that many expert witnesses take the possibility of a biogenic source rather seriously. For example, Vladimir Krasnopolsky, who led one of the teams that found methane on the planet, says, "Bacteria, I think, are plausible sources of methane on Mars, the most likely source." But he expects the microbes to be found in oases, "because the martian conditions are very hostile to life. I think these bacteria may exist in some locations where conditions are warm and wet."

Tell it to the judge

That observation points to a possible win-win situation for those who want to find life on Mars, says Timothy Kral of the University of Arkansas, who grows methanogens for a living. If, as calculations suggest, asteroids and comets are not a likely to be delivering methane to Mars, then either methane-making organisms must be living in the subsurface, or there is a place where it's warm enough for abiogenic generation.

"Even though it is not an indication of life directly, it's an indication that there is warming," says Kral. In those conditions, "there is heat, energy for organisms to grow."

A lot has changed in the past year. Kral, who has spent a dozen years growing methanogens in a simulated martian environment, says, "Prior to last year, when people asked if I thought there was life on Mars, I would giggle. I would not be in this business if I did not think it was possible, but there was no real evidence for any life. Then, all of a sudden, last year, they found methane in the atmosphere, and we suddenly have a piece of real scientific evidence saying that it's possible" that Mars is the second living planet.

Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1665.html.

EVOLUTIONARY ACCIDENT PROBABLY CAUSED THE WORST SNOWBALL EARTH EPISODE, STUDY SHOWSCalifornia Institute of Technology release1 August 2005

For several years geologists have been gathering evidence indicating that Earth has gone into a deep freeze on several occasions, with ice covering even the equator and with potentially devastating consequences for life. The theory, known as "Snowball Earth," has been lacking a good explanation for what triggered the global glaciations. Now, the California Institute of Technology research group that originated the Snowball Earth theory has proposed that the culprit for the earliest and most severe episode may have been lowly bacteria that, by releasing oxygen, destroyed a key gas keeping the planet warm.

In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Caltech graduate student Robert Kopp and his supervising professor, Joe Kirschvink, along with alumnus Isaac Hilburn (now a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and graduate student Cody Nash, argue that cyanobacteria (or blue-green algae) suddenly evolved the ability to break water and release oxygen about 2.3 billion years ago. Oxygen destroyed the greenhouse gas methane that was then abundant in the atmosphere, throwing the global climate completely out of kilter.

Though the younger sun was only about 85 percent as bright as it is now, average temperatures were comparable to those of today. This state of affairs, many researchers believe, was due to the abundance of methane, known commercially as natural gas. Just as they do in kitchen ranges, methane and oxygen in the atmosphere make an unstable combination; in nature they react in a matter of years to produce carbon dioxide and water. Though carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse gas, methane is dozens of times more so.

The problem began when cyanobacteria evolved into the first organisms able to use water in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen into the environment as a waste product. More primitive bacteria depend upon soluble iron or sulfides for use in photosynthesis; the switch to water allowed them to grow almost everywhere that had light and nutrients. Many experts think this happened early in Earth history, between 3.8 and 2.7 billion years ago, in which case some process must have kept the cyanobacteria from destroying the methane greenhouse for hundreds of millions of years. The Caltech researchers, however, find no hard evidence in the rocks to show that the switch to water for photosynthesis occurred prior to 2.3 billion years ago, which is about when the Paleoproterozoic Snowball Earth was triggered.

For cyanobacteria to trigger the rapid onset of a Snowball Earth, they must have had an ample supply of key nutrients like phosphorous and iron. Nutrient availability is why cyanobacterial blooms occur today in regions with heavy agricultural runoff. Fortunately for the bacteria, Earth 2.3 billion years ago had already entered a moderately cold period, reflected in glacially formed rocks in Canada. Measurements of the magnetization of these Canadian rocks, which the Caltech group published earlier this year, indicate that the glaciers that formed them may have been at middle latitudes, just like the glaciers of the last ice age. The action of the glaciers, grinding continental material into powder and carrying it into the oceans, would have made the oceans rich in nutrients. Once cyanobacteria evolved this new oxygen-releasing ability, they could feast on this cornucopia, turning an ordinary glaciation into a global one.

"Their greater range should have allowed the cyanobacteria to come to dominate life on Earth quickly and start releasing large amounts of oxygen," Kopp says.

This was bad for the climate because the oxygen destabilized the methane greenhouse. Kopp and Kirschvink's model shows that the greenhouse may have been destroyed in as little as 100,000 years, but almost certainly was eliminated within several million years of the cyanobacteria's evolution into an oxygen-generating organism. Without the methane greenhouse, global temperatures plummeted to -50 degrees Celsius. The planet went into a glacial period so cold that even equatorial oceans were covered with a mile-thick layer of ice. The vast majority of living organisms died, and those that survived, either underground or at hydrothermal vents and springs, were probably forced

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into bare subsistence. If correct, the authors note, then an evolutionary accident triggered the world's worst climate disaster. However, in evolving to cope with the new influx of oxygen, many survivors gained the ability to breathe it. This metabolic process was capable of releasing much energy and eventually allowing the evolution of all higher forms of life.

Did cyanobacteria, like these Chroococcidiopsis, cause global cooling by producing oxygen? Image credit: D. J. Thomas.

Kirschvink and his lab have earlier shown a mechanism by which Earth could have gotten out of Snowball Earth. After some tens of millions of years, carbon dioxide would build up to the point that another greenhouse took place. In fact, the global temperature probably bounced back to +50 degrees Celsius, and the deep-sea vents that provided a refuge for living organisms also had steadily released various trace metals and nutrients. So not only did life return after the ice layers melted, but it did so with a magnificent bloom.

"It was a close call to a planetary destruction," says Kirschvink. "If Earth had been a bit further from the sun, the temperature at the poles could have dropped enough to freeze the carbon dioxide into dry ice, robbing us of this greenhouse escape from Snowball Earth."

Of course, 2.3 billion years is a very long time ago. But the episode points to a grim reality for the human race if conditions ever resulted in another Snowball Earth. We who are living today will never see it, but Kirschvink says that an even worse Snowball Earth could occur if the conditions were again right.

"We could still go into Snowball if we goof up the environment badly enough," he says. "We haven't had a Snowball in the past 630 million years, and because the sun is warmer now it may be harder to get into the right condition. But if it ever happens, all life on Earth would likely be destroyed. We could probably get out only by becoming a runaway greenhouse planet like Venus."

Journal reference:Robert E. Kopp, et al, 2005. The Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth: a climate disaster triggered by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10.1073/pnas.0504878102, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0504878102v1.

Contact: Robert TindolPhone: 626-395-3631 E-mail: tindol@caltech.edu

An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.terradaily.com/news/iceage-05n.html.

MARS, THE BLUE ECOSYNTHESIS Based on drawings and image commentary by Thierry LombryFrom Astrobiology Magazine3 August 2005

[All images by Thierry Lombry.]

Terraforming was once solely the province of science fiction. In the 1930s, Olaf Stapledon wrote of electrolyzing a global sea on Venus in order to prepare it for human habitation in Last and First Men. Jack Williamson coined the term "terraforming" in the 1940s in a series of short stories. And in 1951, Arthur C. Clarke gave the concept wide exposure with his novel, The Sands of Mars. Kim Stanley Robinson picked up the terraforming torch in the 1990s with his epic trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars.

Scientists began to think seriously about terraforming in the 1960s, when Carl Sagan published several articles dealing with the possibility of terraforming Venus. NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay prefers the term "ecosynthesis" to terraforming, since the chance to recreate Earth-like conditions will be technologically challenging.

"I don't think we can terraform Mars, if terraforming is, as it was originally defined, making Mars suitable for human beings," says McKay. "But what we could do is make Mars suitable for life. Human beings are a particular subset of life that require particular conditions. And it turns out oxygen in particular is very hard to make on Mars. That is, I think, beyond our technological horizons—it's a long time in the future. But warming Mars up, and restoring its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, restoring its habitable state, is possible. It's sort of a stretch of the word terraforming, but if you want to call that terraforming, that's possible. Bob McElroy coined the phrase "ecosynthesis" for that, and I think that's a better word."

Illustrator Thierry Lombry has produced some of the most fascinating and detailed visualizations showing how the martian landscape might be modified over hundreds or thousands of years.

Mars, the red

Today Mars is a cold world, dry and arid. Its dust could be toxic, carcinogenic, and allergenic. It is an inhospitable world.

Mars, the red.

The mean temperature is below freezing, but it varies from -125°C in winter to +20°C at the equator in summer. Due to the low pressure of

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the atmosphere and the cold, the soil is compact, and at night carbonic frost covers the red rocks. Fallen rocks, fractures, partly buried craters and extinct volcanoes are the sole traces of surface activity. Winds and tempests pull dust into the atmosphere, giving it a pink-orange color.

Mars, the brown—the next millennium

Five hundred years after terraforming, billions of tons of photosynthetic bacteria and greenhouse gases have been injected in the atmosphere. Mirrors angled to intensify sunlight, along with the engineered explosions of several volcanoes, have re-warmed the surface.

Mars, the brown.

The temperature rises, melting any subsurface water. This water turns craters into lakes and ponds, and rivers snake across the surface. Atmospheric dust slowly falls back to the ground, giving the sky a more bluish color. The air is not breathable yet. The first settlers explore the planet.

Mars, the blue—the next epoch

Hundreds to thousands of years pass, depending on the intensity of terraforming efforts. The only frozen subsurface water is in the polar regions. The mean temperature is 10°C, and reaches 35°C in summer at the equator. In the top tens of centimeters underground, the temperature remains above freezing, even in winter.

Mars, the blue.

The sky is blue, rivers and lakes have invaded the planet as in ancient martian times past. The ground is verdant, covered with thick moss and lichens, and even some grasses adapted to temperate conditions. Life has acclimatized. Now shrubs, flowers and even insects or fishes could survive. However, terraforming efforts have to be maintained because Mars is too small to retain its atmosphere.

The air is breathable, so explorers do not need oxygen masks. Mars the blue can begin to sustain the first human settlements.

Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1667.html.

NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE (CYCLE-4)NAI release25 July 2005

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) announces, through the release of this Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN), an opportunity for the submission of team-based proposals for membership in the Institute. Proposals should clearly articulate an innovative, interdisciplinary, astrobiology research program, together with plans to advance the full scope of NAI objectives as defined in the Institutes's Mission Statement. It is expected that $5-6M will be available for this selection in the first award year, leading to the award of approximately three to five Cooperative Agreements.

The Cooperative Agreement Notice can be accessed at http://nspires.nasaprs.com.

CAN Release Date: July 25, 2005Notices of Intent Due: August 26, 2005Proposals Due: October 28, 2005

GRIFFIN RIGHT HAND MAN TO SPEAK AT MARS SOCIETY CONVENTION Mars Society release1 August 2005

Chris Shank, Special Assistant to NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will speak at the 8th International Mars Society Convention, August 11-14, 2005 at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to his work as Administrator Griffin's Special Assistant, Chris Shank served as a staff member of the House Space subcommittee and as a Lt. Colonel in the US Air Force. Since joining NASA, he has had a key role in coordinating the development of NASA plans to implement President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration, which aims to send human explorers back to the Moon and on to Mars, as well as dealing with many other issues the space agency is currently facing.

Chris Shank's talk is entitled "NASA's New Plan." It will be given in a plenary session on the morning of August 13. For the past two months, Griffin's team has been working out the plan to reach for the Moon and Mars. The results of their efforts have been closely held. Shank's talk may be their first public revelation.

Registration for the conference is now open at www.marssociety.org.

CASSINI UPDATESNASA/JPL releases

Cassini Reveals Saturn's Eerie-Sounding Radio EmissionsNASA/JPL release 2005-119, 25 July 2005 Saturn's radio emissions could be mistaken for a Halloween sound track. That's how two researchers describe their recent findings, published in the July 23 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. Their paper is based on data from the Cassini spacecraft radio and plasma wave science instrument. The study investigates sounds that are not just eerie, but also descriptive of a phenomenon similar to Earth's northern lights. "All of the structures we observe in Saturn's radio spectrum are giving us clues about what might be going on in the source of the radio emissions above Saturn's auroras," said Dr. Bill Kurth, deputy principal investigator for the instrument. He is with the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Kurth made the discovery along with Principal Investigator Don Gurnett, a professor at the University. "We believe that the changing frequencies are related to tiny radio sources moving up and down along Saturn's magnetic field lines."

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Samples of the resulting sounds can be heard at www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/cassini/. The radio emissions, called Saturn kilometric radiation, are generated along with Saturn's auroras, or northern and southern lights. Because the Cassini instrument has higher resolution compared to a similar instrument on NASA's Voyager spacecraft, it has provided more detailed information on the spectrum and the variability of radio emissions. The high-resolution measurements allow scientists to convert the radio waves into audio recordings by shifting the frequencies down into the audio frequency range. The terrestrial cousins of Saturn's radio emissions were first reported in 1979 by Gurnett, who used an instrument on the International Sun-Earth Explorer spacecraft in Earth orbit. Kurth said that despite their best efforts, scientists still haven't agreed on a theory to fully explain the phenomenon. They will get another chance to solve the radio emission puzzle beginning in mid-2008 when Cassini will fly close to, or possibly even through, the source region at Saturn. Gurnett said, "It is amazing that the radio emissions from Earth and Saturn sound so similar." Other contributors to the paper include University of Iowa scientists George Hospodarsky and Baptiste Cecconi; Mike Kaiser (currently at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.); French scientists Philippe Louarn, Philippe Zarka and Alain Lecacheux; and Austrian scientists Helmut Rucker and Mohammed Boudjada.

Cassini Finds Recent and Unusual Geology on EnceladusNASA/JPL release 2005-121, 26 July 2005

As Cassini approached the intriguing ice world of Enceladus for its extremely close flyby on July 14, 2005, the spacecraft obtained images in several wavelengths that were used to create this false-color composite view. Image credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has obtained new, detailed images of the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The data reveal distinctive geological features and the most youthful terrain seen on the moon. These findings point to a very complex evolutionary history for Saturn's brightest, whitest satellite. Cassini's July 14 flyby brought it within 175 kilometers (109 miles) of the surface of the icy moon. The close encounter revealed a landscape near the south pole almost entirely free of impact craters. The area is also littered with house-sized ice boulders carved by unique tectonic patterns found only in this region of the moon.

The tortured southern polar terrain of Saturn's moon Enceladus appears strewn with great boulders of ice in these two fantastic views—the highest resolution images obtained so far by Cassini of any world. Image credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

As white as fresh snow, Enceladus has the most reflective surface in the solar system. Previous Cassini flybys revealed Enceladus, in contrast to Saturn's other icy moons, has lightly cratered regions, fractured plains and wrinkled terrain. The new findings add to the story of a body that has undergone multiple episodes of geologic activity spanning a considerable portion of its lifetime. The moon's southernmost latitudes have likely seen the most recent activity.

These same latitudes may also bear the scars of a shift in the moon's spin rate. If true, this speculation may help scientists understand why Enceladus has a tortured-looking surface, with pervasive crisscrossing faults, folds and ridges. The most remarkable images show ice blocks about 10 to 100 meters (33 to 328 feet) across in a region that is unusual in its lack of the very fine-grained frost that seems to cover the rest of Enceladus. "A landscape littered with building-sized blocks was not expected," said Dr. Peter Thomas, an imaging-team member from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. "The minimal cover of finer material and the preservation of small, crossing fracture patterns in the surrounding areas indicate that this region is young compared to the rest of Enceladus." False color composites of this region, created from the most recent images, show the largest exposures of coarse-grained ice fractures seen anywhere on the moon, which also supports the notion of a young surface at southern latitudes. Some of the latest images may hint at the answer. The images revealed additional examples of a distinctive "Y-shaped" tectonic feature on Enceladus. In this unusual element, parallel ridges and valleys appear to systematically fold and deform around the south polar terrains. "These tectonic features define a boundary that isolates the young, south polar terrains from older terrains on Enceladus," noted Dr. Paul Helfenstein, an associate of the imaging team also at Cornell University. "Their placement and orientation may tell us a very interesting story about the way the rotation of Enceladus has evolved over time and what might have provided the energy to power the geologic activity that has wracked this moon." The apparent absence of sizable impact craters also suggests the south pole is younger than other terrain on Enceladus. All these indications of youth are of great interest to scientists, who have long suspected Enceladus as one possible source of material for Saturn's extensive and diffuse E ring, which coincides with the moon's orbit. Young terrain requires a means to generate the heat needed to modify the surface. Other Cassini instrument teams are working to understand data about the

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temperature, composition, particles and magnetic field. Together with image interpretation, these data can create a more complete picture.

As it swooped past the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus on July 14, 2005, Cassini acquired high resolution views of this puzzling ice world. From afar, Enceladus exhibits a bizarre mixture of softened craters and complex, fractured terrains. Image credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

These Cassini images are available on the Web at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org.

Cassini Significant Events for 21-27 July 2005NASA/JPL release, 29 July 2005

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Wednesday, July 27, from the Goldstonetracking stations. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm.

Thursday, July 21 (DOY 202):

The live IVP update kick-off meeting for DOY 212 was held today. Targets listed in the kick-off package are Mimas, Dione, Rhea, Saturn, and Tethys. Additional rocks being observed during the update period are Pallene, Atlas, Janus, Epimetheus, Pan, Pandora, Telesto, and Prometheus.

Turbulent swirls churn in Saturn's atmosphere while the planet's rings form a dazzling backdrop. The rings' complex structure is clearly evident in this view. Image credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

A special meeting was held today to present the results of a study comparing the actual data volume used by the science instruments, against the data volume allocated to the instrument in the data policing tables. This study is the result of work done by Science Planning and looks specifically at the S08 and S10 sequences. It is anticipated that the Target Working Teams and Orbiter Science Teams will work with the instrument teams to better optimize the bit allocations.

The Solar Conjunction separation angle reached two degrees today. With the Sun between the spacecraft and Earth, Cassini has entered a period of communications degradation lasting approximately seven days. Science this week was limited to Magnetospheric and Plasma Science instruments, as they took measurements of both the bow shock and magnetopause to study their structure in detail.

Cassini Outreach presented a Saturn Observation Campaign workshop, which included "how to plan a school star party". Twenty five new Los Angeles area NASA Explorer School teachers attended, then held their own star party and observed the night sky.

Friday, July 22 (DOY 203):

A really nice shot of Tethys with Saturn is Astronomy Picture of the Day today. The Encounter Strategy Meeting for Enceladus 2 through Titan 6 and OTMs 26 through 28 occurred today.

Saturday, July 23 (DOY 204):

Minimum Sun-Cassini separation angle of 0.3 degrees occurred today. Apoapsis occurred marking the start of Cassini's 12th orbit around Saturn.

Sunday, July 24 (DOY 205):

Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) observed a strong solar Type II burst at ~15 hr UT on July 24 (DOY 205). This Type II is probably from solar active region AR0786 that is on the backside of the Sun as seen from Earth but front side for Cassini. This region has been extremely active over the past several weeks. SOHO reports a full

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backside halo CME at the appropriate light time corrected to account for the RPWS observation. Estimated launch speed is 3000 km/sec.

The shock, if it propagates to 9 AU, is predicted to arrive at Saturn August 2-4, with an arrival date of August 4 for minimum deceleration conditions. The big uncertainty on this one is the launch speed since its backside and only a flank is visible in the image. The WIND/WAVES team measured the same radio burst from 1 AU and got a slower shock speed of 1750 km/sec instead of 3000 km/sec, which means that the shock would not reach Saturn until about 6 August.

Monday, July 25 (DOY 206):

An end-to-end test was run in the Integrated Test Laboratory this week using the 050505 reference trajectory to test flight software patches for CDS and AACS, the Titan 7 flyby, a representative orbit trim maneuver, and other changes. In mid-August we will test the Titan 7 portion again with the new 050720 reference trajectory released on July 18. The Spacecraft Operations Office plans to uplink both patches in the early September timeframe. The final sequence approval meeting for S13 was held. Uplinks of the Instrument Expanded Block files and the background sequence will begin on July 27.

JPL has put out a news release regarding Cassini's observations of the radio emissions of Saturn. Apparently the emissions are quite eerie, could be mistaken for a Halloween sound track, and are descriptive of a phenomenon similar to Earth's northern lights according to findings published in the July 23 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. The full news release along with samples of the sounds can be viewed/heard at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Tuesday, July 26 (DOY 207):

No new waiver requests have been submitted for the S14 preliminary sequence phase 1, so the waiver disposition meeting scheduled for today was cancelled. Reaction Wheel status at launch + 7.8 years, a status report on Langley atmospheric drag simulations for Titan flybys, and a summary of Radio Science requests for DSN tracking submitted for 2006 were discussed at a Mission Planning Forum held today. The S15 Science and Sequence Update Process (SSUP) Kickoff Meeting was held this morning. Following the meeting the stripped subsequence files were published to the program file repository for team review.

JPL put out an additional press release this week regarding unusual geology observed on Enceladus during the flyby last week. Detailed images of the South Polar Region reveal distinctive geological features and the most youthful terrain seen on that moon. These findings point to a very complex evolutionary history. To review the images and the text of this press release go to http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

An image of spongy looking Hyperion was Astronomy Picture of the day today. Cassini Outreach was interviewed for a new local Public Broadcast radio show called "After Sunset" which aired July 26.

Cassini exited the period of solar conjunction today. Separation angle reached 4 degrees and the final non-operational commands were sent for purposes of link characterization. Instrument real-time commanding and science acquisition—put on hold for the last seven days—will now recommence at pre-conjunction levels.

Wednesday, July 27 (DOY 208):

A Delivery Coordination Meeting was held for Telecom Forecaster Predictor Version 4.0. Although there were a number of changes, the most significant ones were updated DSN station models to include the new X/X/Ka feed. Science Planning hosted a Cassini internal Tour Science Talk covering Iapetus and Enceladus data, and Iapetus formation. Uplink Operations sent five instrument expanded block files to the spacecraft in preparation for the start of S13 execution. Based on SSR memory read-outs, it was verified that the spacecraft properly received all the loads.

This image shows the surprise that startled Cassini scientists on the composite infrared spectrometer team when they got their first look at the infrared (heat) radiation from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. There is a dramatic warm spot centered on the pole that is probably a sign of internal heat leaking out of the icy moon. The data were taken during the spacecraft's third flyby of this intriguing moon on July 14, 2005. Image credits: NASA/ JPL/Space Science Institute.

Cassini Finds an Active, Watery World at Saturn's EnceladusNASA/JPL release 2005-124, 29 July 2005 Saturn's tiny icy moon Enceladus, which ought to be cold and dead, instead displays evidence for active ice volcanism. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found a huge cloud of water vapor over the moon's south pole, and warm fractures where evaporating ice probably supplies the vapor cloud. Cassini has also confirmed Enceladus is the major source of Saturn's largest ring, the E-ring. "Enceladus is the smallest body so far found that seems to have active volcanism," said Dr. Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging-team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Enceladus' localized water vapor atmosphere is reminiscent of comets. 'Warm spots' in its icy and cracked surface are probably the result of heat from tidal energy like the volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. And its geologically young surface of water ice, softened by heat from below, resembles areas on Jupiter's moons, Europa and Ganymede." Cassini flew within 175 kilometers (109 miles) of Enceladus on July 14. Data collected during that flyby confirm an extended and dynamic atmosphere. This atmosphere was first detected by the magnetometer during a distant flyby earlier this year. The ion and neutral mass spectrometer and the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph found the atmosphere contains water vapor. The mass spectrometer found the water vapor comprises about 65 percent of the atmosphere, with molecular hydrogen at about 20 percent. The rest is mostly carbon dioxide and some combination of molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide. The variation of water vapor density with altitude suggests the water vapor may come from a localized source comparable to a geothermal hot spot. The ultraviolet results strongly suggest a local vapor cloud. The fact that the atmosphere persists on this low-gravity world, instead of instantly escaping into space, suggests the moon is geologically active enough to replenish the water vapor at a slow, continuous rate. "For the first time we have a major clue not only to the role of water at the icy moons themselves, but also to its role in the evolution and dynamics of the Saturn system as a whole," said Dr. Ralph L. McNutt, ion and neutral mass spectrometer-team member, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD.

Images show the south pole has an even younger and more fractured appearance than the rest of Enceladus, complete with icy boulders the size of large houses and long, bluish cracks or faults dubbed "tiger stripes." Another Cassini instrument, the composite infrared spectrometer, shows the south pole is warmer than anticipated. Temperatures near the equator were found to reach a frigid 80 degrees Kelvin (minus 316 Fahrenheit), as expected. The poles should be even colder because the

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Sun shines so obliquely there. However, south polar average temperatures reached 85 Kelvin (minus 307 Fahrenheit), much warmer than expected. Small areas of the pole, concentrated near the "tiger stripe" fractures, are even warmer: well over 110 Kelvin (minus 261 Fahrenheit) in some places. "This is as astonishing as if we'd flown past Earth and found that Antarctica was warmer than the Sahara," said Dr. John Spencer, team member of the composite infrared spectrometer, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO.

This image shows the warmest places in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The unexpected temperatures were discovered by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer during a close flyby on July 14, 2005. The image shows how these temperatures correspond to the prominent, bluish fractures dubbed "tiger stripes," first imaged by Cassini's imaging science subsystem cameras. Working together the two teams were able to pinpoint the exact location of the warmest regions on Enceladus. Image credits: NASA/ JPL/Space Science Institute.

Scientists find the temperatures difficult to explain if sunlight is the only heat source. More likely, a portion of the polar region, including the "tiger stripe" fractures, is warmed by heat escaping from the interior. Evaporation of this warm ice at several locations within the region could explain the density of the water vapor cloud detected by other instruments. How a 500-kilometer (310-mile) diameter moon can generate this much internal heat and why it is concentrated at the south pole is still a mystery. Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer detected a large increase in the number of particles near Enceladus. This observation confirms Enceladus is a source of Saturn's E-ring. Scientists think micrometeoroids blast the particles off, forming a steady, icy, dust cloud around Enceladus. Other particles escape, forming the bulk of the E ring.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. For information on the Cassini mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. Contacts:Carolina Martinez Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CAPhone: 818-354-9382

Erica Hupp or Dolores Beasley NASA Headquarters, Washington, DCPhone: 202-358-1237 or -1753 Preston Dyches Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations Space Science Institute, Boulder, COPhone: 720-974-5859

Gary Galluzzo University of Iowa, Iowa CityPhone: 319-384-0009

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1661.htmlhttp://cl.exct.net/?ffcd16-fe5b16777362027c7d14-fe28167073670175701c72http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-05zzm.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-05zzo.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/dim_on_the_darkside_cassini.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/wind_world_tethys_mimas.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/active_watery_world_at_enceladus.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/atmospheric_illusion_saturn_clouds.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rhea_bright_blemish.html

MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS UPDATENASA/JPL release2 August 2005

Spirit has reached a target-rich area of the Columbia Hills. In the week of July 21 to 28, 2005, Spirit performed extensive investigations on two rocks, "Descartes" and "Bourgeoisie." Spirit has also acquired coordinated panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer observations of several nearby rock targets.

Opportunity continued its trek south toward "Erebus Crater," making 61 meters (200 feet) of progress over two sols of driving. The rover is approaching greater quantities of outcrop as it heads south, and the team is excited at the possibility of using the robotic arm before reaching Erebus. This week, restricted sols allowed the team to drive only every other sol. Next week, however, there will be a shift back to an early planning cycle that will allow driving every sol if desired.

Current MER updates are available at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-05zzze.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-05zzzf.html

MARS EXPRESS: WATER ICE IN A CRATER AT THE MARTIAN NORTH POLEESA release28 July 2005

These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole. The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 meters per pixel. The unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5° North and 103° East. The crater is 35 kilometers wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometers beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the center of the crater is residual water ice.

This white patch is present all year round, as the temperature and pressure are not high enough to allow sublimation of water ice. It cannot be frozen carbon dioxide since carbon dioxide ice had already disappeared from the north polar cap at the time the image was taken (late summer in the Martian northern hemisphere).

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Perspective view of crater with water ice—looking east. Image credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).

There is a height difference of 200 metres between the crater floor and the surface of this bright material, which cannot be attributed solely to water ice. It is probably mostly due to a large dune field lying beneath this ice layer. Indeed, some of these dunes are exposed at the easternmost edge of the ice.

Faint traces of water ice are also visible along the rim of the crater and on the crater walls. The absence of ice along the north-west rim and walls may occur because this area receives more sunlight due to the Sun's orientation, as highlighted in the perspective view. The color images were processed using the HRSC nadir (vertical view) and three color channels. The perspective views were calculated from the digital terrain model derived from the stereo channels.  The 3D anaglyph images were created from the nadir channel and one of the stereo channels. Stereoscopic glasses are needed to view the 3D images Image resolution has been decreased for use on the internet.

Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808BE_0.html.

Additional articles on this subject are available at:http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1663.htmlhttp://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-05y.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/water_ice_in_cater_at_north_pole.html

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGESNASA/JPL/MSSS release21-27 July 2005

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

Polygon-Cracked Plain (Released 21 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/21

Bouldery Trough (Released 22 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/22

Carbon Dioxide Landscape (Released 23 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/23

Triple Impact (Released 24 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/24

Martian Gullies (Released 25 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/25

Mars at Ls 249 Degrees (Released 26 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/26

Collapse Pits (Released 27 July 2005)http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/07/27

All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html.

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

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGESNASA/JPL/ASU release25-29 July 2005

Refilled Crater (Released 25 July 2005)http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050725A.html

Crater Ejecta (Released 26 July 2005)http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050726a.html

Eroded Ejecta (Released 27 July 2005)http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050727a.html

Radial Erosion (Released 28 July 2005)http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050729a.html

Craters Filling Fraters (Released 29 July 2005)http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20050729a.html All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER UPDATESMultiple agencies' releases

NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report E05-008NASA/KSC release, 1 August 2005

Mission: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Launch Vehicle: Lockheed Martin Atlas V 401 Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Date: August 10, 2005 Launch Window: 7:54 - 9:39 AM EDT

The MRO spacecraft has been mated with the Atlas V for the last phase of launch preparations. This will be the first government civil launch of an Atlas V. The launch vehicle will perform an Integrated Systems Test (IST) later today to verify electrical compatibility. The final stages of the launch campaign begin with the Flight Readiness Review on August 4, and the Launch Readiness Review is August 8.

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UA Team Heads for Launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and HiRISE By Lori Stiles, University of Arizona release, 1 August 2005

NASA plans to launch a new orbiter called Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on August 10 as the next step in its ambitious Mars exploration program. MRO will return more data about the red planet than all previous Mars missions combined, according to the U.S. space agency. More than 40 University of Arizona researchers, family members and friends leave for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida next week to cheer the launch. The soon-to-fly orbiter payload includes UA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)—the largest-diameter telescopic camera ever sent to another planet.

"HiRISE is going to both resolve old mysteries and raise new questions about Mars," said HiRISE principal investigator Alfred S. McEwen of UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. "It's also going to address specific questions related to future Mars exploration."

HiRISE, two other cameras, a spectrometer, a radar instrument and a radiometer aboard MRO will examine Mars from the top of its atmosphere to its underground layers. Scientists will use MRO to study the history and distribution of martian water, characterize landing sites for future missions—including UA's 2007 Phoenix Mission to Mars—and provide a high-data-rate communications relay between Mars lander missions and Earth. Professor McEwen and his team will plan HiRISE observations, upload commands, monitor instrument performance, retrieve, process and analyze image data at the HiRISE Operations Center, called "HiROC," located in the Lunar and Planetary Lab's Sonett Building on the UA campus in Tucson.

"The HiRISE team is more than excited to see the successful launch of MRO," HiRISE co-investigator and HiROC manager Eric Eliason said. "We've invested a lot of hard work to ensure HiRISE is the best possible camera for this mission. We've been practicing and rehearsing how to command our instrument. We've been developing software to process and analyze returned images and now we're looking forward to finally having some real images of Mars."

The 145-pound (65 kg) HiRISE camera—the largest instrument on the MRO payload—features a 20-inch (half-meter) primary mirror, the largest on any telescope ever sent beyond Earth orbit. HiRISE will take ultra-sharp photographs over 3.5-mile (6 kilometer) swaths of the martian landscape, resolving rocks and other geologic features as small as 40 inches (one meter) across. It will take pictures in stereo and color, too, while it zooms along at more than 7,800 mph (3 and 1/2 km per second) about 190 miles (300 km) above Mars' surface.

"HiRISE is capable of getting such views over any selected region of Mars, providing a bridge between orbital remote sensing and landed missions," McEwen said.

MRO's planned orbit is more than 20 percent lower than the average for any of the three current Mars orbiters, which are NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express. Low orbit is an advantage when it comes to seeing Mars at higher resolution than ever before. The orbiter will reach Mars in March 2006. The spacecraft will gradually adjust its elliptical orbit to a circular orbit by aerobraking, a technique that creates drag using the friction of careful dips into the planet's upper atmosphere. MRO's 25-month primary science phase begins in November 2006. HiROC researchers say they expect to process 1,000 gigantic high-resolution images and 9,000 smaller high-resolution images during the science phase of the MRO mission.

"These are huge images, and we've been developing techniques to deal with images as large as 20,000 pixels wide and 60,000 pixels long," McEwen said.

It would take 1,200 typical computer screens to display all of a large HiRISE image at full resolution. HiROC will acquire a large-format

printer for making photographs up to five feet wide and 10-to-15 feet long, McEwen added.

The HiRISE team has also been developing HiWeb, an Internet site that expert Mars scientists and the general public worldwide can use to suggest HiRISE imaging targets. HiRISE is called "the people's camera" because anyone can suggest places on Mars for HiRISE to photograph and because the images will be made publicly available as soon as possible. Operations staff member Ingrid Daubar and senior software developer Christian Schaller suggested a people-friendly metaphor for what they will do at HiROC.

"Basically, you can think of what we do as aiming and focusing the HiRISE camera, pushing the button to take a picture, downloading the pictures to our computers and then processing the pictures," Daubar said. "Of course, it's really much more complicated than that."

The first milestone after launch will be when McEwen and the HiRISE team make their first observations of actual targets in the solar system on September 8, 2005. They have targeted Earth's moon and the Omega Centauri star cluster to calibrate HiRISE and check its in-flight performance. It may take several days for the big images to arrive at HiROC.

What will HiRISE look at first when the science mission begins in November 2006? First planned targets include candidate landing sites for the 2007 Phoenix Mission to Mars, led by Peter Smith of UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

"We actually have only a limited time before winter arrives at Mars' north pole and lighting conditions deteriorate, so we want to do that quickly," McEwen said.

And if Spirit and Opportunity are still roving, photographing the Mars Expedition Rover landing sites is very high priority, McEwen said. Views of past Mars mission landing sites—the successful Pathfinder and Viking missions, and possibly the unsuccessful Mars Polar Lander and Beagle 2 landing sites—are also of interest, he added. Then HiRISE will tackle a huge list of science priorities, McEwen said.

MRO weighs more than two tons fully fueled. To loft so big a spacecraft, NASA will use a powerful Atlas V launch vehicle for the first time on an interplanetary mission.

The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation of Boulder, CO, designed, built and tested the $40 million HiRISE camera.

Contacts:Alfred S. McEwen Phone: 520-621-4573 E-mail: mcewen@lpl.arizona.edu

Eric EliasonPhone: 520-626-0764 E-mail: eeliason@lpl.arizona.edu

Ingrid DaubarPhone: 520-626-0763E-mail: ingrid@lpl.arizona.edu

Christian Schaller Phone: 520-626-0767 E-mail: schaller@lpl.arizona.edu

An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/050727_mro_prepare.html.

End Marsbugs, Volume 12, Number 27.

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