MARSBUGS:  The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter

Volume 2, Number 7, 13 June 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 weekly 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.

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INDEX



1)	STUDENTS SELECTED FOR NASA SCIENCE TRAINING PROGRAM

	NASA press release.



2)	SETIQUEST VOL. 1, NO. 3 CONTENTS

	Larry Klaes, SETIQuest Editor.



3)	CALL FOR PAPERS:  SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE 

(SETI) IN THE OPTICAL SPECTRUM II.



4)	NASA LIFE SCIENCES DATA ARCHIVE ON WWW!



5)	MARS PATHFINDER INSTRUMENTS STATUS

	John Wellman, Mars Pathfinder Science and Instruments 

Manager.

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STUDENTS SELECTED FOR NASA SCIENCE TRAINING PROGRAM

NASA press release



Forty college students have been chosen by NASA to participate in 

an intensive six-week life sciences summer residence training 

program at the Kennedy Space Center, FL.  The program is for 

undergraduate college students majoring in life sciences, 

bioengineering and related science and engineering fields.



Now in its 10th year, the Space Life Sciences Training Program 

(SLSTP) is designed to attract college students to a career in 

space life sciences research.  Participants will gain insight 

into how space life sciences flight experiments are conducted, as 

well as explore current and future research opportunities.



Selected students will work with NASA researchers in developing 

flight and ground-based space life sciences experiments.  In 

addition to offering hands-on research experience, the curriculum 

provides a complete overview of the field of space life sciences 

through lectures by astronauts, as well as NASA and university 

scientists, and includes facility tours and special projects.



On occasion the students may have an opportunity to participate 

in the preparation and monitoring of actual Space Shuttle flight 

experiments.  The SLSTP will be held from mid-June through the 

end of July.



After the successful completion of the program, five semester 

hours of college credit will be offered to each student through 

Florida A&M University, which also is responsible for program 

promotion, student recruitment, selection, travel, housing, 

program evaluation and academic consultation.



The 40 students were selected competitively from approximately 

500 applicants.  Students in the program must be undergraduates 

majoring in science or engineering and have a minimum cumulative 

grade point average of 3.0/4.0.  More than 360 students have 

participated in the program since its inception in 1985.



SLSTP is sponsored by NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity 

Sciences and Applications and the Office of Human Resources and 

Education.



The students selected for the 1995 Space Life Sciences Training 

Program are:



Student

Hometown

College











Kineshia K. Abram

Columbia, MS

Jackson State U.



Lori A. Amason

Centralia, IL

Kaskaskia Jr. 

College



Robert W. Amerine

Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado State U.



Ellen Burts

Birmingham, AL

Stillman College



Matthew J. Carfrae

Cedar Rapids, IA

Marquette U.



Anita A. Chandrathil

Des Plaines, IL

U. of IL, Urbana-

Champaign



Myron A. Chornuk

Seattle, WA

U. of Washington



Calvin N. Collins

Tampa, FL

Hills Borough Comm. 

College



Kathryn M. Davis

Longview, TX

Texas A&M U.



Alisha B. Diggs

New Orleans, LA

Xavier U.



Lynn M. Evans

Pewee Valley, KY

Wittenberg U.



Mark G. Fagan

Hanna, WY

Wesleyan U.



Jill A. Gogel

Dale, IN

Purdue U.



Brian E. Grace

Nortonville, KY

Western Kentucky U.



George R. Hamilton

Rochester, NY

SUNY at Buffalo



Shelly Harper

Omaha, NE

Embry-Riddle 

Aeronautical U.



Clay H. Holdsworth

Wilbraham, MA

U. of Massachusetts



Felix A. Irizarry

Aquadilla, PR

U. of Puerto Rico



Christopher D. 

Jackson

Decatur, GA

Florida A&M U.



Claudine L. Joyner

Cleveland, TN

Cleveland State 

Comm. College



Bryan D. Lambird

El Toro, CA

U. of Southern CA



Amy J. Litscher

Lake Mills, WI

Beloit College



Belise L. Livingston

Deltona, FL

Spelman College



Justin R. Lohmeier

Jackson, MS

U. of Virginia



Kennda L. Lynch

Rockford, IL

U. of IL, Urbana-

Champaign



Gioia D. Massa

Big Arm, MT

Cornell U.



Suzanne K. Paris

Spring, TX

North Harris College



Eric E. Peterson

Napa, CA

Napa Valley College



Shawn W. Pyle

Finley, TN

Dyersburg State 

Comm. College



Demario L. Rollins

Tallahassee, FL

Florida A&M U.



Joy J. Serogum

Canton, IL

U. of IL, Urbana-

Champaign



Kathleen H. Sienko

Endicott, NY

U. of Kentucky



Amy P. Synder

Upper St. Clair, PA

Cornell U.



Ee T. Tay

Palm Bay, FL

U. of Florida



Donna L. Todacheene

Lukachukai, AZ

Haskell Indian 

Nations U.



Nirav N. Vakharia

Westlake, OH

Case Western Reserve 

U.



Brian H. Wayman

Hillsboro, MD

U. of Maryland 

Baltimore County



Valerie S. Weidner

University Park, MD

Duke U.



James B. Wohlwend

Derby, KS

Friends U.



Heidi A. Zeleznik

Myrtle Beach, SC

Coastal Carolina U.



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SETIQUEST VOL. 1, NO. 3 CONTENTS

By Larry Klaes, SETIQuest Editor



The third issue of SETIQuest Magazine is now available.  

SETIQuest is the new periodical of SETI and bioastronomy 

research.



The third issue contains the following articles:



1999:  The International SETI Year - Larry Klaes 



META I and II Status Reports and Program Backgrounds -

Guillermo A. Lemarchand



A History of the Ohio SETI Program - Dr. Robert S. Dixon Project 



Phoenix Starts in the South - Seth Shostak 



SERENDIP Status Report and Program Background - Robert Quist



Members of the SETI Community Meet in Atlanta - Lori Marino



First Call for Papers:  The Search for Extraterrestrial 

Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum -- Second 

International Conference on Optical SETI - Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley



Interstellar Probe Status - Larry Klaes 



Publications Watch:

Book Review - Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot by Nathan Cohen Books in 

Brief - Larry Klaes

Periodicals - Larry Klaes



You may receive the first issue of SETIQuest FREE by sending your 

*full regular mail address* to the following E-Mail account:



sqinqnet@pixelacres.mv.com



Or contact:



SETIQuest Magazine

Helmers Publishing, Inc.

174 Concord Street

Peterborough, NH 03458-0874

U.S.A.



Tel: (603) 924-9631

Fax: (603) 924-7408

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CALL FOR PAPERS:  SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (SETI) 

IN THE OPTICAL SPECTRUM II



January 31 - February 1, 1996



Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley, Chair

The Columbus Optical SETI Observatory

skingsle@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu.us



Dr. Guillermo A. Lemarchand, Co-Chair

Centro de Estudios Avanzados - Universidad de Buenos Aires and

Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia

lemar@seti.edu.ar





SPIE (The International Society For Optical Engineering)





PHOTONICS WEST '96

(OE/LASE '96 Symposium)

Lasers and Integrated Optoelectronics

January 27 - February 2, 1996

San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California, USA





Papers are requested on, but not limited to:



Optical (visible and infrared) and microwave SETI, optical and 

microwave antenna uplink gain limitations set by the technical 

capabilities of ETI civilizations, fundamental antenna uplink 

gain limitations set by thermal (kT) noise and gravitational 

effects in space, interstellar signal dispersion and 

scintillation effects at microwave and optical frequencies, the 

optical interstellar and atmospheric spectral windows, choice of 

"magic" frequencies for cw and pulsed beacons, choice of "magic" 

frequencies for the wideband data channel, identification of 

high-power lasers for interstellar communications, planetary 

lasers, suitable solar-type stars for the targeted optical and 

microwave search, detection of extrasolar planets, detecting 

pulsed and monochromatic laser beacons, free-space laser 

communications for deep space and interstellar links, 

diffraction-limited and light-bucket optical SETI receivers, 

optical SETI strategies, signal processing and data storage for 

cw and pulsed beacon optical SETI, real-time signal processing 

and statistical analysis of photon arrival times, detection and 

demodulation of wideband optical channels, generic demodulators 

for unknown ETI laser beacon and wideband channel modulation 

formats, the ultimate superhighway - the galactic internet?, 

interstellar video and video compression systems for effective 

interspecies communications, decoding the content of the message, 

serendipity and nanosecond astrophysics, impact of optical SETI 

on conventional optical astronomy, and the science educational 

aspects of SETI.



This conference's structure will include sessions on the 

following:



Wednesday Morning, January 31

Session 1 Introduction & Microwave SETI.



Wednesday Afternoon, January 31

Session 2 Optical SETI I.



Thursday Morning, February 1

Session 3 Interdisciplinary Science.



Thursday Afternoon, February 1

Session 4 Optical SETI II.



The emphasis will be on the optical approach to SETI - about two 

thirds of the 30 or more papers for this two-day conference will 

relate specifically to Optical SETI.  Regular papers are 

allocated 20 minutes for presentation, invited papers 30 minutes.  

The last session will conclude with a panel discussion.  There is 

also the option for a short course on MSETI and OSETI conducted 

by Seth Shostak (SETI Institute), Guillermo Lemarchand and Stuart 

Kingsley.



The OSETI II sessions will be held on Wednesday, January 31 and 

Thursday, February 1, 1996, respectively, after the associated 

Free-Space Laser Communications Conference VIII (Monday, January 

29 - Tuesday January 30).  Scientists and engineers attending the 

free-space laser communications conference are encouraged to 

attend OSETI II.  The registration fee covers attendance for all 

PHOTONICS WEST conferences.  The keynote speaker will be 

announced later in the year.



Those wishing to submit a paper should contact SPIE.  The 

Proceedings of the OSETI I Conference, Volume 1867 may be ordered 

from SPIE.  If you wish to get on the mailing list for 

announcements relating to OSETI II or require more details about 

the OSETI I conference proceedings, contact SPIE.



Please note the following deadlines:

Abstracts are due by July 3, 1995.

Technical Program will be finalized by July 31, 1995.

Manuscripts are due by January 2, 1996.

The published proceedings should be available by May 1, 1996.



Send abstracts by email in ASCII to: abstracts@spie.org or fax 

one copy to SPIE or mail four copies to:



Lasers and Integrated Optoelectronics

SPIE

P.O. Box 10

Bellingham, WA 98227-0010, United States.

Tel: (360) 676-3290

Fax: (360) 647-1445

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NASA LIFE SCIENCES DATA ARCHIVE ON WWW!



The Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) is happy to announce the 

release of their home page on the WWW.  The LSDA archives and 

distributes results of the NASA Life and Biomedical Sciences and 

Applications Division, space flight research program.  This NASA 

Division studies the effect of space flight and microgravity 

(weightlessness) on living systems, and is developing a 

scientific and technical foundation for humans to explore space. 

The LSDA provides a central repository of space life sciences 

data and access to data and information for future experiment 

planning and retrospective data analysis.



The homepage is at:



http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/life/nssdc/life_home.html

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MARS PATHFINDER INSTRUMENTS STATUS

By John Wellman, Mars Pathfinder Science and Instruments Manager

June 1995



The Mars Pathfinder science instrument payload consists of an 

Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP), an Atmospheric Structure 

Instrument and Meteorology (ASI/MET) package, and an Alpha Proton 

X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), with its deployment mechanism. The IMP 

is a multispectral stereo imaging system that will acquire 

complete panoramas of the landing vicinity, will perform various 

atmospheric observations and will support the operations of the 

Pathfinder rover. The ASI/MET will acquire profiles of the 

atmospheric temperature, pressure and entry vehicle acceleration 

during the entry phase and will continue as a surface meteorology 

station after landing. It also provides the electronic readout 

functions for the Aeroshell Instrumentation Package (AIP) that 

provides engineering information on the aerodynamic performance 

of the Pathfinder aeroshell during entry. The APXS is mounted on 

the rover via a deployment mechanism and will be placed in 

contact with rock and soil samples to acquire elemental 

composition information.



Deliveries of engineering models for each of the Mars Pathfinder 

instruments has been completed. A number of functional and 

environmental tests have been conducted. These will be followed 

by the testing of the flight instruments prior to delivery. The 

IMP and ASI/MET will be integrated with the Pathfinder Flight 

System Testbed (a computer simulation of the Pathfinder flight 

and ground systems) prior to integration with the flight lander. 

The flight APXS will be integrated with the flight rover prior to 

the rover/lander integration.



IMAGER FOR MARS PATHFINDER (IMP)



The Imager for Mars Pathfinder is being developed by Peter Smith 

of the University of Arizona. The major hardware elements are 

designed and fabricated by Lockheed Martin Company.



The engineering model was delivered to JPL in June, 1994 and has 

supported numerous tests as part of the Flight System testbed and 

as a stand-alone system.



It has been used in the University of Arizona "Mars Garden" to 

conduct simulations of the landed mission science operations on 

two separate occasions.



The flight unit, now undergoing final assembly steps, will be 

tested and calibrated over the summer months. Its electronic 

boards will be sent to JPL for final processing and environmental 

testing in conjunction with the other elements of the Pathfinder 

flight electronics. The completed camera will be delivered to 

Assembly Test and Launch Operations (ATLO) on November 1, 1995.



ATMOSPHERIC STRUCTURE INSTRUMENT/METEOROLOGY (ASI/MET) PACKAGE



This facility instrument is under development at JPL with Clayton 

LaBaw as Instrument Manager. A science advisory team, appointed 

by NASA is led by Dr. Al Seiff of San Jose State University. Test 

and analysis support is provided by NASA Ames Research Center.



The engineering model ASI/MET instrument has completed 

qualification testing for vibration and thermal vacuum. 

Representative sensors have been demonstrated in the lab and as 

part of the Mars Day activities at JPL in late January. The 

flight unit fabrication is 95% complete. Functional and 

environmental testing will commence within the next two weeks in 

support of an instrument delivery in June. A science test article 

wind sensor will be tested in the NASA Ames wind tunnel to 

provide a calibration for the flight unit.



ALPHA PROTON X-RAY SPECTROMETER (APXS) AND DEPLOYMENT MECHANISM



The APXS is a joint effort by the Max Planck Institute for 

Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, and the University of Chicago. Dr. 

Rudi Rieder of Max Planck Institute is the Priciple Investigator 

and provides the alpha and proton spectrometer portions. Dr. 

Thanasis Economou of the University of Chicago is responsible for 

the x-ray spectrometer as well as integration and test of the 

assembled instrument. Richard Blomquist of JPL is responsible for 

the deployment mechanism.



A breadboard unit and an engineering model of the APXS have been 

delivered to JPL. The engineering model has been integrated with 

its JPL-developed deployment mechanism. This assembly will be 

mated with the SIM rover (a flight prototype unit used for 

mobility testing on earth) and tested to develop the rover and 

deployment mechanism behaviors necessary to place the instrument 

in contact with soil and rock samples.



The flight unit, scheduled for a June 1, 1995 delivery will be 

integrated with the flight unit rover and maintained in a clean 

environment prior to launch. A duplicate flight sensor head will 

be maintained at the University of Chicago for long-term 

calibration using the flight radioactive sources, then integrated 

with the Pathfinder flight hardware at the Cape, before launch.

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End Marsbugs Vol. 2, No. 7.





