MARSBUGS:  The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter

Volume 2, Number 5, 5 May 1995.



Co-editors:



David Thomas, Life Sciences Department, Belleville Area College, 

Belleville, IL 62221, USA, thomasd@basenet.net (basegrp.com).



Julian Hiscox, Microbiology Department, BBRB 17, Room 361, 

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2170, 

USA, julian_hiscox@micro.microbio.uab.edu.



MARSBUGS is published on a monthly to quarterly basis as 

warranted by the number of articles and announcements.  Copyright 

exists with the co-editors, except for specific articles, in 

which instance copyright exists with the author/authors.  E-mail 

subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either 

of the editors.  Contributions are welcome, and should be 

submitted to either of the two editors.  Contributions should 

include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along 

with the author(s)' correspondence address.

-----------------------------------------------------------------



INDEX



1)	AVIAN DEVELOPMENT STUDIED ON MIR SPACE STATION

	NASA press release.



2)	THE PERSPECTIVE FROM SPACE IS CRITICAL TO EARTH STUDIES	

	NASA press release.



3)	MARS PATHFINDER UPDATE 

	By Brian Muirhead.



4)	THE NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY'S 14TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL SPACE 

DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE



5)	THE THERMAL EMISSION SPECTROMETER NEWS

	By Ken Edgett.



6)	SPACE FRONTIERCON IV:  SPACE - FICTION OR FRONTIER?



-----------------------------------------------------------------



AVIAN DEVELOPMENT STUDIED ON MIR SPACE STATION

NASA release:  95-57



Scientists have taken the first steps toward understanding how 

microgravity affects the development of birds with the successful 

"fixing," or preservation, of fertilized quail eggs aboard the 

Russian space station Mir.  The eggs are part of a group of eggs 

launched aboard a Russian Progress transport vehicle earlier this 

month and then transferred to Mir.  Crewmembers will fix the 

remaining eggs at later stages of development before they hatch.   

The preserved eggs will be returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle 

Atlantis as part of the STS-71 mission.  This mission, 

tentatively scheduled for a June launch, will mark the first time 

a U.S. Space Shuttle docks with Mir.  A second group of 

fertilized quail eggs is scheduled to be transported to Mir later 

this year.



The quail experiment, known as Incubator II, is one of the basic 

biology experiments being conducted as part of the Shuttle/Mir 

science program.  Gary Jahns, Ph.D., is the Shuttle/Mir payload 

manager at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA.	"The 

primary objective of the 11 principal investigators is to answer 

key questions about the effects of microgravity on avian 

development," Jahns explained.  "From the beginning this was 

developed as a joint U.S./Russian experiment, with investigators 

from both countries sharing all samples."



Ames' Life Sciences Division developed special fixative 

containers and glove bags to provide three layers of containment 

for the potentially hazardous fixatives required by U.S. 

investigators.  "This hardware allows the cosmonauts to work 

safely with much better fixatives than have been allowed on Mir 

in the past, enabling far more detailed analysis of returned 

samples," Jahns said.



Next year, plans for the experiment are more ambitious.  "Current 

plans are to fly adult quail to Mir in March 1996," Jahns 

continued.  "The first group will include three female and one 

male quail.  During the initial stages of the research, 

astronauts will put the eggs that we anticipate will be 

fertilized in space into an on-board incubator.  Scientists will 

study the eggs at various stages of development," Jahns said.  



They will be returned to Earth either on the Space Shuttle or on 

a Soyuz vehicle.  "The hardware concepts developed and tested as 

part of the joint Shuttle/Mir project will be of great benefit to 

the development of future hardware being designed for the 

international Space Station," Jahns said.  "In addition, using 

facilities on Mir will give U.S. researchers the unique 

opportunity to explore many areas of growth and development that 

have, to date, been unavailable to the U.S. research community."



Jahns said that the international cooperation in the Shuttle/Mir 

program offers tremendous opportunities for both American and 

Russian scientific communities.  "The integration of U.S. and 

Russian space resources offers the research communities a greater 

capability to perform critical research than would have been 

possible if the two programs had remained isolated," he said.



"This avian experiment continues 20 years of fruitful 

collaboration between NASA and the Russian Institute of 

Biomedical Problems, located in Moscow."

-----------------------------------------------------------------



THE PERSPECTIVE FROM SPACE IS CRITICAL TO EARTH STUDIES	

NASA release:  95-54



The following statement by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin 

was released today to mark the 25th anniversary of Earth Day.



In the 25 years since the first Earth Day, we have changed the 

way we think about our planet.  Apollo astronauts captured the 

Earth as a blue marble against a vast background of darkness--

beautiful, but fragile and finite.  Our missions to other planets 

have revealed them to be fascinating and diverse, but also 

lacking any obvious signs of life.  We know of no place like 

Earth.	NASA has developed a program, called Mission to Planet 

Earth, that captures the spirit of exploration and focuses it 

back on our own planet.  Only from space can we obtain the global 

perspective needed to better understand how all of the parts of 

the Earth's environment--air, water, land and life--interact and 

make life possible.  Mission to Planet Earth, for which NASA has 

partners across the U.S. government and around the world, has 

helped reveal the Earth's secrets.	To give just a few examples:



Working with other agencies and industry, NASA researchers helped 

establish that human industrial activities were threatening the 

ozone layer.  NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA) data now indicate that international 

treaties designed to protect ozone are beginning to work.



TOPEX/Poseidon, a satellite developed by NASA and the French 

space agency, is providing us with our first truly worldwide data 

on changes in global sea level, and is helping us better track El 

Nino, a physical change in the Pacific Ocean that dramatically 

alters weather patterns around the globe.  NASA researchers were 

able to track and measure the cooling effect that the 1991 

eruption of Mount Pinatubo had on the Earth's climate.  

Researchers around the world are still studying the volcano's 

effect on ozone levels in the tropics.  NASA research is helping 

us to understand natural disasters:  floods, earthquakes and 

severe storms.  By better understanding them, we can better 

prepare for them and lessen their damage.	



In the longer term, we will need to unravel other mysteries.  

Will the Earth get warmer?  Will sea levels rise, threatening 

coastal communities?  Will rainfall patterns shift?  How would 

climate change affect weather, the frequency of severe storms and 

the way we live?  These are the scientific challenges we will 

study in the next 25 years.	NASA is also participating in the 

Administration's initiative "Technology for a Sustainable 

Future."  This program cuts across the government to identify and 

promote technologies that simultaneously protect the environment 

and promote economic competitiveness.  NASA's part of the 

initiative, called Insight 2000, is a joint effort with NOAA and 

the Department of the Interior.  This program aims to identify 

users of environmental data beyond the scientific community--

state and local governments, educators, industry, not-for-profit 

groups--and get useful data to them.



NASA's environmental research goes beyond Mission to Planet 

Earth.  The Office of Aeronautics is working with industry to 

develop cleaner-burning engines for tomorrow's airplanes.  These 

airplanes will use less fuel and cause less damage to the 

atmosphere.  Within the agency, NASA has developed an extensive 

environmental management program in all its activities.  We 

instill efficient management practices through pollution 

prevention and waste minimization.  We embrace the principles of 

environmental justice and pursue "green" use of resources.  We 

will redouble our commitment to achieve compliance with 

environmental laws and regulations.



In more than 35 years of space travel, we have looked out at the 

Universe and found that for the time being the Earth is the only 

place we can live.  We have also looked back and seen that our 

planet is not a collection of separate environments, but a single 

global environment, protected by a fragile shell of air.  On 

Earth Day 1995, we look forward to the next 25 years, as NASA 

continues to help humanity understand its environment and how it 

is changing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------



MARS PATHFINDER UPDATE 

Brian Muirhead, Mars Pathfinder Project Flight System 

Administrator

April 24, 1995



Flight System Status Report

 

The Mars Pathfinder Flight System Team of over 400 engineers and 

technicians all over the country is currently in the final stages 

of engineering model testing and flight hardware fabrication 

leading to the start of the spacecraft system-level Assembly, 

Test and Launch Operations (ATLO) phase on June 1st, 1995.  This 

phase is coming 18 months after project start in Nov. 1994 and 

lasts until launch which is scheduled for December 2, 1996.

 

Currently, the Attitude and Information Management (AIM) 

subsystem has just completed its engineering model functional and 

vibration tests and delivered its first full-function set of 

flight software operating on the approximatly 20-million-

instruction-per-second flight computer.  The Telecommunication

Subsystem has started integration and test with the flight deep 

space transponder, diplexer and command decoder unit.  The 

Mechanical Integration Subsystem has started assembly of the 

flight cruise stage structure which will then be delivered to the 

Propulsion Subsystem for integration with the propulsion 

hardware.  The lander petals, cabling and various actuators are 

in flight fabrication and assembly.  The Power and Pyro Switching 

subsystem is completing assembly and testing of its electronics 

and the solar arrays are starting assembly.  The Entry, Descent 

and Landing subsystem has just completed key tests to demonstrate 

parachute stability, rocket assisted deceleration performance and 

aeroshell structural integrity and is preparing for a very 

important airbag drop test sequence at the Plumbrook Station in 

Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Overall progress is excellent, with the team feeling very excited 

about the progress to date, with the fruits of many hours of hard 

work paying off in top quality hardware/software that is coming 

together and starting to work as a system.  The usual class of 

problems are occurring in this phase of a flight project such as 

electronic parts failures, noisy signals, test problems and 

delays, etc. but the team is knocking the problems down as 

quickly as they come up and no schedule or budget busting 

problems have appeared (yet!!!??).

 

Status

 

Design changes since Critical Design Review (CDR)

 

Added auxiliary transmitter and TMU for create a redundant 

downlink.

Added second area of EEPROM bringing total to 4 Mbyte. 

Bridle design significantly simplified.

 

Flight system is in final stages of detailed design (~91% by mass 

is detailed).  Most electronic Engineering Models are complete 

and in test Fabrication of Development Test Model and Flight 

mechanical hardware has begun.  Surface telecommunication 

performance has been reverified based on latest understanding

of Viterbi decoder and Block V receiver:  > 40 bps achievable 

based on actual mission geometry.  

Current open design :

	Entry, Descent & Landing (EDL) communications link.

	Airbag strength under horizontal impact with rocks.

	Auxiliary transmitter cable routing and performance.

 

People inside and outside the Project are reporting that 

Pathfinder is doing things right, is pioneering new ways of doing 

business and making a difference for the Project, JPL and NASA. 

People feel pressure but are enjoying their jobs:  the team feels 

empowered.

 

General system description

 

Delta II launched and spin injected to Mars Earth to Mars

 

	Spin stabilized, hydrazine propulsion

	Solar powered, low/medium gain antenna communication

 

Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL)

 

	Ballistic entry using ablative heat shield, SLA 561

	Temperature sensors in heatshield and backshell (Aeroshell 

Instrumentation Package)

	Parachute deploy and descend to ~55-65 m/s vertical

	Rocket assisted deceleration to 0 +/-20 m/s vertical, 20 m/s 

horizontal

	Airbag triggered just prior to landing (<50 g load), deflate 

and retract

 

Lander petals (3) open, expose solar array, high gain antenna, 

camera and rover

 

X-band downlink at 40 bps minimum over Low Gain Antenna (LGA) to 

70 meter Deep Space Network ground station



At least 1200 bps to 70 meter Deep Space Network ground station 

w/ 3.5 degree tracking accuracy on High-Gain Antenna (HGA)



Solar arrays with secondary battery provide at least 30 days 

nominal lifetime

 

Payload

 

	Rover, Alpha Proton X-ray Instrument (APX)

	Atmospheric Structure and Meteorology (ASI/MET)

	Lander mounted stereo camera

	Aeroshell instrumentation (thermocouples)

 

General subsystem descriptions

 

Attitude and Information Management (AIM) Hardware

 

	IBM R-6000, 32 bit architecture, single board computer

	32-bit parallel VME bus, hard backplane

	128 Mbyte mass memory

	4Mbyte EEPROM

	Cassini inherited Hardware Command Decoder/Critical Relay 

Controller

	(HCD/CRC), Reed-Solomon Downlink (RSDL), Remote Engineering 

Unit (REU) designs and ASIC's (Ground Data System [GDS] 

provides adjustments to command formats to allow use of HCD 

w/ Mars Observer GDS)

	Attitude control sun sensor (Adcole) and star scanner (Ball 

Aerospace)

 

Attitude and Information Management (AIM) Software

 

	Attitude control, command and control software written in C

	Integration of all flight software, including EDL, camera, 

ASI/MET, accelerometer

 

Mechanical Integration Hardware

 

	Cruise/lander structure (new designs, aluminum)

	Deploy devices (MISR and SIR-C heritage), standard pyro 

devices (NSI squibs)

	Active fluid loop heat rejection system (HRS)

	Standard cabling approach (use Teflon-Kapton-Teflon 

insulated wire)

 

General subsystem descriptions (cont.)

 

Entry, Descent and Landing

 

	Aeroshell (Heatshield and Backshell) (Viking design and 

materials)

	Parachute (Viking design with some new materials, low 

altitude testing)

	Rocket assisted deceleration (RAD) (based on aircraft 

ejection seat rockets & space qualified propellant)

	Airbags (new designs with proof of concept testing)

 

Power and Pyro Switching

 

	5.5 mil GaAs (gallium arsenide) cruise and lander solar 

arrays (existing technology)

	Lander 40 A-hr (amp-hour) Ag-Zn (gold-zinc) batteries 

(modified existing design, early testing)

	Shunt regulator and radiator (Cassini design)

	Power distribution, pyro switching (MSTI design)

 

Telecommunications

 

	X-band transponder, CDU from Cassini, procure new diplexer 

and switches

	Solid state amplifier (XSSPA) new development with Avantek 

power modules

	TMU, full custom ASIC (new design)

	High (comm. design), medium and low (modified Cassini 

designs) gain antennas

 

Propulsion

 

	Hydrazine mono-propellent, 4 Ti tanks w/PMD

	8 1 lbf thrusters (Olin/Rocket Research)



This Mars Pathfiner status report is available on the Mars 

Pathfinder home page:  http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/

-----------------------------------------------------------------



THE NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY'S 14TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL SPACE 

DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

 

CLEVELAND, OHIO  MAY 18-21, 1995

HOLIDAY INN, INDEPENDENCE

Held one week earlier than Memorial weekend.

 

PROPOSED SPEAKERS

WORKSHOPS



Dr. Guion Bluford

Astronomy



Dr. R. Lynn Bondurant

Rocketry



Michael Ciancone

Space Frontier Foundation



Charles Walker

Space Materials



Dr. Michael Fulda





Mae Jemison (invited by Ohio 

Aerospace Institute





Dr. Robert Zubrin

SPECIAL EVENTS



Gordon Woodcock

NASA Tours



Dr. David Webb

Music of the Heavens Concert





Cleveland Metroparks Zoo 

Rainforest Exhibit Tours



FEATURED  TOPICS





Student Robotic Lunar Rover 

Contest





Apollo/Soyuz (Then & Now)





NASA's Space Art Program





Teachers Seminar





Lunar & Mars Settlements





High School Student Day





Space Law





Star Gazing Party





Nano Technology





Art Exhibit & Auction





Astronaut Training





Simulated Trip to the Moon





Environment





Space Medicine





Out of the Foundry into the 

Frontier





Privitization of Space Program





Many Roads to Space Session







SPONSORS

Cuyahoga Valley Space Society; EXITUS, Inc.; Midwest Space 

Development Corporation; NASA Lewis Research Center.

 

CO-SPONSORS

AlliedSignal Aerospace; Cleveland Aerospace Professional 

Representatives Association; Ohio Wing of the Civil Air Patrol; 

Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Great Lakes Industrial 

Technology Center; Institute for the Social Science Study of 

Space; Middleburg Hts. Chamber of Commerce; Parma Philharmonic 

Orchestra; Tal-Cut Company.

 

 

Hotel Reservations:

 

Please call Holiday Inn Independence at 1-800-465-4329 (1-800-

HOLIDAY) or locally at 216-524-8050 to reserve your room at the 

special rate of $82.00 (US).  This is a flat rate, specially 

arranged by ISDC '95.

 

Air Travel:

 

Special discount air fares are available from American Airlines--

the official ISDC-95 airline.  Call 1-800-433-1790 and reference 

Star Number 0655 LN.  Door to door air cargo service also 

available.

 

ISDC '95

 

Join the excitement of the NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY'S 14th Annual

International Space Development Conference(ISDC '95) to be held  

in Cleveland, Ohio on May 18, 19, 20 & 21, 1995 (One weekend  

before the Memorial Day weekend.)

 

*****************************************************************

Please call the Holiday Inn Independence at 1-800-465-4329 to 

reserve your room at a flat fee of $82.00 US per night.

PLEASE CIRCLE YOUR CHOICE BELOW

 

Registration is $60.00 until April 15, 1995;

$70.00 until May 17, 1995;

$90.00 at the door; 

Students $25.00.

 

Meals - 

Thursday Lunch $11.00    

Thursday Dinner $19.00   

Friday Lunch $10.00

Friday Dinner $19.00

Saturday Lunch $12.00

Saturday Banquet $35.00

Sunday Lunch $12.00

ALL MEALS  $118.00

 

ISDC '95 Registration

 

NAME (please print)______________________________________________

 

ADDRESS__________________________________________________________

 

CITY___________________________STATE___________ZIP_______________

 

HOME PHONE____________________WORK PHONE_________________________

 

AMOUNT INCLUDED:  $____________________

 

(Please make checks/money orders payable to:  MSDC)

Mail to:  MSDC, 6167 Oakwood Circle, North Ridgeville, OH 44039-

2663  Phone:  (216) 826-0330  Fax:  (216)-826-0333

For further information email to either:  charles@tranquest.com 

or ff212@cleveland.freenet.edu

-----------------------------------------------------------------



THE THERMAL EMISSION SPECTROMETER NEWS

By Ken Edgett 

TES NEWS is the quarterly publication of the Arizona Mars K-12 

Education Program.  Initiated in 1992 to share news about the 

Mars Observer Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) experiment with 

educators and the interested public in Arizona, TES NEWS has 

evolved so that it now covers Arizona connections to the Mars 

Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder Missions.  These connections 

include the TES for Mars Global Surveyor and the Imager and Wind 

Sock experiments for Mars Pathfinder.  Other information about 

Mars missions, Mars science, etc. are covered, as well as topics 

relevant to the K-12 education outreach program.  



TES NEWS offers the reader a glimpse inside the workings of a 

real spacecraft instrument team (the TES team working at Arizona 

State University) and also provides this wider range of 

information.  Each issue also includes updated reading lists of 

recent books and articles (including fiction) related to Mars 

that may be found in local newstands and libraries (i.e., 

scientific journals are usually not mentioned unless there is a 

really vital review article).  



K-12 educators interested in receiving a hardcopy of TES NEWS and 

other announcements about Mars educational opportunities in 

Arizona may send on school letterhead a note that includes name, 

address, phone, fax, email, school, grades, and specialties to:  

K. Edgett, Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program, Department of 

Geology, Arizona State University, Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-

1404, USA.  Others, particularly interested parties not involved 

with K-12 education, are urged to help us save paper and money by 

reading TES NEWS over the Internet.  TES NEWS can be found on the 

WWW at URL: http://esther.la.asu.edu/asu_tes/tesnews_info.html 

our general URL with other educational material is: 

http://esther.la.asu.edu/asu_tes/

-----------------------------------------------------------------



SPACE FRONTIERCON IV:  SPACE - FICTION OR FRONTIER?



The Space Frontier Foundation, Space Studies Institute, and the 

California Space Development Council announce the Space Frontier 

Foundation's fourth annual conference:  SPACE FRONTIERCON IV:  

SPACE - FICTION OR FRONTIER? October 6 - 8, 1995 Los Angeles, CA.



Last year we discussed how we, Apollo's Children, must take back 

the dream of space settlement and commercial utilization.  This 

year, we continue this theme, reporting on why there is new 

excitement in the space community, excitement that can be shared 

by all of us.  Learn about bold new commercial initiatives, 

increased support within Congress for extending American 

enterprise into space.  



Planned topics and activities include:  

Return to the Moon...for a profit...and to stay. 

Cheap Access to Space...for a profit...and to stay. 

Cities in the Sky Space Tourism...if you could spend two nights 

at an LEO hotel for $10,000, would you? 

Sex in Space 

Interstellar Migration and Human Frontiers 

Mars Direct 

Media Coverage of Space...why can't they get it right and how we 

can help. 

Space Art Gallery and Auction 

What is Washington's role?  

How you can participate...Foundation activities that need you 

Plus a special event:  the Saturday evening banquet where the 

Foundation bestows three awards:  Vision-to-Reality 

(presented to the Delta Clipper team last year), Visions of 

the Future (presented to J. Michael Straczynski, creator and 

producer of Babylon 5), and the Foundation Service Award 

(presented to Tim Kyger, space development advocate). 

Much, much more...with six months to go, we're still working on 

additional topics!	



CONFERENCE TICKETS:  

until June 1st	$50	

June 2nd - Sept. 15	$60	

after Sept. 15	$70 

BANQUET TICKET:  $50	



This is just the first notice for this conference, and more will 

follow as we finalize hotel and meal prices, and additional 

activities.  It's just that we feel this conference is too 

important to delay its announcement until all administrative 

details are completed.  WE WANT YOU THERE...YOU'LL WANT TO BE 

THERE, RATHER THAN HEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU MISSED!  To register, 

please send a check payable to the Space Frontier Foundation, 16 

First Avenue, Nyack, NY 10960.  So we may keep you informed of 

breaking news, please provide:  Name, mailing address, day and 

evening phones, fax, and e-mail address.  Remember, if you are 

unsatisfied with the pace of space development, if you think that 

shuttles circling the Earth 300 miles up is not much advancement 

after traveling 240,000 miles to the Moon over 25 years ago...YOU 

WILL ENJOY THIS CONFERENCE.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

End Marsbugs Vol. 2, No. 5.





