MARSBUGS:  The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter 
Volume 3, Number 2, 23rd April, 1996. 
 
Co-editors: 
 
David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of 
Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83843, USA, thoma457@uidaho.edu. 
 
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.  Subscribers are advised to make appropriate 
inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. 
 
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INDEX 
 
1).  BUILDING COMMUNITIES:  LET'S TALK MARS 
 
2).  RUSSIAN INSTRUMENT ON MARS LANDER WILL MONITOR ATMOSPHERIC DUST 
 
3).  NASA SCIENCE INSTITUTES PLAN RELEASED 
 
4).  NASA RELEASES PLAN FOR EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE 
 
5).  AND A NEW PLANET BEYOND 
 
6).  UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY DEVELOPS SPACE CROP 
 
7).  COMING NEXT ISSUE 
 
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1).  BUILDING COMMUNITIES:  LET'S TALK MARS 
(Communicated by Ken Edgett, Arizona State University). 
 
 
NASA's K-12 Internet Project is developing a one-on-one mentor and 
teacher partnership that will pair mentor scientists, engineers 
and researchers interested in all aspects of Mars with teachers who 
desire to learn more about the Red Planet and who will pass that 
knowledge on to their students and fellow teachers. 
 
A scientist-engineer-researcher mentor will connect with a single K- 
12 teacher. Details of the connection are up to those involved, but 
could include email, Web chat, or CUSeeMe. Mentors will be expected 
to respond regularly to their teacher, between 1-2 hours a week, but 
this is completely negotiable. Responsibilities will include: 
 
1) maintaining an ongoing relationship with teacher through the end 
of '96. 
 
2) being available for interacting with teacher on a "regular" basis 
 
Teachers will be responsible for sharing the information learned 
from the Mars mentors with their students and their peers by using 
the Internet to collaborate on science projects and taking their newly gained 
knowledge to teach real world science. 
 
Want to Participate? 
 
If you are interested in sharing your expertise about Mars with a K- 
12 teacher and their students, please send a message to Sandy Dueck 
at: sandy_dueck@nsigate.arc.nasa.gov 
 
By volunteering your time you will be making a direct contribution 
to educating kids! 
 
 
Building Communities is organised by the NASA K-12 Internet 
Initiative. It is made possible by funding from NASA's Information 
Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) program, part of 
the High Performance Computing and Communications program 
 
 
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2).  RUSSIAN INSTRUMENT ON MARS LANDER WILL MONITOR ATMOSPHERIC DUST 
 
A small, lightweight Russian laser-ranging device designed 
to measure dust and haze in the Martian atmosphere has been 
selected by NASA officials to fly aboard a U.S. Mars lander 
spacecraft due for launch in January 1999. 
 
Known as the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander, the mission will be 
the first ever sent to the polar regions of Mars, where it 
should encounter layers of icy terrain that represent a 
preserved record of the planet's climate history. 
 
The laser-ranging device, or lidar, will be provided to 
NASA by Dr. Vyacheslav Linkin of the Space Research Institute 
(IKI) of the Russian Academy of Science, under the sponsorship 
of the Russian Space Agency (RSA). 
 
"Measurements from this device should help us better 
understand the relationship between the amount of dust and 
aerosols in the lower-most part of the Martian atmosphere and 
the planet's regional weather conditions," said Wesley T. 
Huntress Jr., NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science. 
"In addition to this important science goal, the lidar will be 
the first Russian instrument to fly aboard a U.S. planetary 
spacecraft, so it represents a new degree of international 
co-operation in the exploration of our solar system." 
 
Mounted on top of the lander for a clear view of the 
Martian sky, the 2.2 lb. (approximately 1 kilogram) instrument 
will send short pulses of focused light into the atmosphere and 
then measure the amount of light scattered back.  This effect 
is similar to the way that automobile headlights reflect fog -- 
the thicker the fog, the more light that is scattered back to 
the car's driver.  The Mars-bound lidar device also can operate 
in a passive mode, where it uses the Sun as a light source and 
measures the brightness of the sky. 
 
The 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander also will carry a lightweight 
camera to take images of the surrounding terrain during the 
spacecraft's final descent, and an integrated surface science 
payload that includes a mast-mounted imager, a meteorological 
station, a soil composition analyser and a robotic arm to dig 
trenches in the icy soil of the south pole. 
 
A companion spacecraft to the Lander, called the 1998 Mars 
Surveyor Orbiter, will be launched in December 1998.  Russia's 
IKI is providing optical hardware for one of the Orbiter's 
instruments, the Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer. 
 
Both of these spacecraft are part of NASA's Mars Surveyor 
Program, a decade-long series of cost-capped missions to Mars 
featuring two launches every 26 months.  Lockheed Martin 
Astronautics, Denver, CO, is building both the 1998 Orbiter and 
Lander for NASA under a $94 million contract. 
 
The Mars Surveyor Program kicks off November 1996 with the 
launch of the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter.  The Mars 
Pathfinder Lander, developed under NASA's Discovery Program, 
will be launched in December 1996. 
 
 
Don Savage 
Headquarters, Washington, DC               March 1, 1996 
(Phone:  202/358-1547) 
 
NOTE TO EDITORS:  N96-14 
 
 
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3).  NASA SCIENCE INSTITUTES PLAN RELEASED 
 
NASA has released its NASA Science Institutes Plan 
report, following a six-month period of study by the NASA 
Science Institutes Team and modifications based on public comments. 
 
The NASA Science Institutes concept began May 19, 
1995, when NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin released 
results of an internal review conducted by the Agency's 
"Zero Base Review" (ZBR) Team.  The ZBR science 
recommendations included a proposal that science 
"institutes" be formed at many of NASA's Centres, with goals 
to strengthen the quality of NASA science, to bind NASA 
scientists more effectively to the external community and to 
increase the effectiveness of the links between the external 
community and NASA's immense engineering and technical resources. 
 
The report is available to media representatives by 
calling the NASA Headquarters Newsroom at 202/358-1600. The 
general public may obtain a copy by calling 202/358-2877. 
In addition to the report, a question and answer fact sheet, 
a Benchmarks Report, and a NASA Science Institutes Report 
Forward are available.  These documents are available on the 
internet via anonymous file transfer at: 
 
ftp.hq.nasa.gov in the directory pub/oss/inst/, or on the 
World Wide Web at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/ . 
 
 
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4).  NASA RELEASES PLAN FOR EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE 
 
Michael Braukus, Headquarters, Washington, DC.  March 29, 1996 
(Phone:  202/358-1979) 
INTERNET ADVISORY: I96-2 
 
NASA's Office of Space Flight and the Office of Life 
and Microgravity Sciences and Applications, Washington, DC, 
together have led the development of a strategic plan that 
lays the foundation for the exploration and development of space. 
 
	The plan defines the objectives and strategic thrusts of 
the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) 
Enterprise which is one of five strategic enterprises 
reflecting NASA's primary missions.  The HEDS mission is to 
open the space frontier by exploring, using and enabling 
the development of space and to expand the human experience 
into the far reaches of space. 
 
     This plan is available on the Internet on: 
 
      http://www.osf.hq.nasa.gov/heds/ 
 
 
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5).  AND A NEW PLANET BEYOND 
(Part of "SpaceNews Digest). 
 
And while you're marvelling at the sights of the solar system in the western 
sky, you may want to glance slightly eastward along the ecliptic to the constellation Cancer, where another planet 
outside our solar system has been discovered. The team of California astronomers who reported finding a couple 
of planets in Virgo and Ursa Major (and confirmed the existence of the one in Pegasus), have bagged another one. 
As part of an ongoing survey of 120 Sun-like stars, Geoffrey Marcy and Paul Butler examined 55 Cancri(also 
called designated rho-1 Cancri or HR 3522). Their spectroscopic observations of the 5.3-magnitude G8 star's 
radial velocity revealed that it is circled by a mass of no 
more than 80 percent that of Jupiter, every 14-3/4 days. The new planet 
orbits at a distance of 16.5 million kilometres, less than a third of the average distance between the Sun and 
Mercury. At that distance, Marcy notes that the surface temperature of the planet would be about 500 degrees 
Celsius. 55 Cancri is located at Right Ascension 8 hours 52.6 minutes, Declination +28.3 degrees, about 15 
degrees to the upper left of the star Pollux. 
 
 
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6).  UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY DEVELOPS SPACE CROP 
 
(Michael Braukus, Headquarters, Washington, DC., April 15, 1996 
(Phone: 202/358-1979) 
(Kurt Gufkarcht, Utah State University (Phone: 801/797-2206) 
RELEASE:  96-75 
 
 
The first crop developed specifically for growth in 
space has been developed at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. 
 
A space-age wheat variety, USU-Apogee, produces the 
equivalent of almost 600 bushels of grain per acre -- three 
times the top yields from most fields. 
 
It took more than a decade to develop a wheat suitable 
for space farms, where the artificial sun always shines, 
carbon dioxide levels are high and space is at a premium. 
Apogee thrives under those conditions.  Its heads emerge 23 
days after germination, about a week sooner than some 
varieties grown in controlled environments. 
 
So far, Apogee's baking characteristics pass muster, at 
least on Earth.  Making bread in space is still uncharted territory. 
 
The wheat variety's development was funded by NASA's 
Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications 
and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. 
 
On long-duration space missions, it will be more 
economical to provide life support supplies by producing 
food, such as Apogee, potable water and breathable air by 
recycling metabolic and other wastes. 
 
It's not known whether the new variety will make it to 
the moon or Mars, but it's likely to be grown on the 
International Space Station scheduled for completion in 2002. 
 
"We're tickled to death with Apogee," said space 
scientist Doug Ming, of NASA's Johnson Space Centre in 
Houston.  "We're seeing much higher yields than the other 
varieties we've tried.  It's also much shorter." 
 
Bruce Bugbee, the USU crop physiologist who developed 
the variety, has worked with NASA for almost 15 years.  He 
heads a NASA-supported university research facility to 
develop food crops for space in a complex consisting of 30 
computer-controlled growth chambers of various sizes, in 
addition to several greenhouses. 
 
Previously, the only wheat to be grown in space was 
Superdwarf, a short (about 10 inches tall) line that Bugbee 
originally found in Mexico.  Superdwarf's short height is an 
attribute, but it grew poorly and produced low yields in the 
prototype space farms, known as regenerative life support systems. 
 
Apogee, which is the term for the point in orbit 
farthest from Earth, is a dwarf hard red spring wheat, 
developed from thousands of segregating lines.  It produces 
few tillers, or branches, which tend to sap energy that a 
plant devotes to grain production. 
 
It fits the bill for space farming-- short (about 18 
inches tall when mature), producing an unusually large 
number of seeds, and luxuriant greenleaves.  Other wheat 
grown in controlled environments tended to develop yellow 
leaf tips characteristic of calcium deficiency, often 
killing 30 percent of the leaf. 
 
"Superdwarf required perfect conditions for growth. 
Apogee doesn't," Ming said. 
 
To boost growth and yields, plants destined for space 
are always bathed in light, at a constant temperature and in 
air enriched with carbon dioxide, Bugbee said.  Their roots 
never touch soil.  All are grown hydroponically or in a 
crumbly substrate. 
 
Apogee isn't likely to be as popular on Earth as other 
crop varieties.  Its yields are comparable to taller field 
varieties, but its shortness hampers harvest and limits its 
ability to compete with weeds. 
 
Bugbee provides free samples of Apogee to research 
laboratories around the world -- and to schools.  To receive 
seed of Apogee, contact Bugbee at the USU Crop Physiology 
Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-4820, 
(801) 797-2765, or e-mail (bugbee@cc.usu.edu). 
 
 
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7).  COMING NEXT ISSUE 
 
-The feasibility of interstellar propulsion. 
-Space and exobiology related magazines and societies. 
-Publication and book watch. 
 
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END. 
 

