MARSBUGS:  The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter 
Volume 3, Number 6, 15 July, 1996.

Co-editors:

David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, 
ID, 83844-3051, 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.

INDEX

1)	NEW MARSBUGS FTP SITE
	Dave Thomas

2)	NASA ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY (Mars landers)

3)	EDUCATORS INVITED TO HELP PLAN 'LIVE FROM MARS' TELECASTS
	JPL release
4)	EUROPE AND ITS PARTNERS ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE 
STATION
	ESA press release

5)	NASA NAMES LANDSAT 7 SCIENCE TEAM AND FUNDS PROMISING YOUNG EARTH 
SCIENTISTS
	NASA release 96-125
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NEW MARSBUGS FTP SITE
by Dave Thomas

Courtesy of the University of Idaho, back issues of Marsbugs are now available 
via anonymous FTP at ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs.  All back issues are 
currently available in ASCII (.txt) format.  As time allows, printer-ready 
versions of back issues in MS Word for Windows format will be placed in the 
site as well.  Please check out the site and send any comments to Dave Thomas 
at the address above.
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NASA ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY (Mars landers)

This notice constitutes a broad agency announcement as contemplated in FAR 
6.102(d)(2).  NASA Announcement of Opportunity:  Mars Pathfinder and Mars'96 
Lander Science Opportunities.  The National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) is interested in receiving proposals under a NASA 
Announcement of Opportunity (AO 96-OSS-01) for Mars Pathfinder and Mars'96 
Lander Science opportunities.  To maximize the science data return from these 
missions, this AO solicits proposals for research by individual investigators 
to participate as:  Mars Pathfinder Participating Scientists, Mars Pathfinder 
Atmospheric Structure Instrument/Meteorology Package (ASI/MET) Facility 
Instrument Scientists, and the Mars 96 Mars Oxidation Experiment (MOx) 
Facility Instrument Scientists.

Upon the AO's release date of July 25, 1996, the full text of the AO and 
appendices will be available electronically via the World Wide Web at the URL 
address:  "http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/solar_system/".  A Notice of Intent 
to propose is due by September 2, 1996, and may be electronically submitted to 
E-mail Address:  hlancast@leda.hq.nasa.gov.  Individuals not having access to 
the Internet may request printed copies by submitting a request to 
hlancast@leda.hq.nasa.gov.

For additional information contact:  Dr. Michael A. Meyer, Code SR, Office of 
Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Phone:  (202) 
358-0307; Internet mmeyer@hq.nasa.gov.  Participation in this program is open 
to all categories of organizations, both domestic and foreign:  industry, 
educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, NASA centers, and other 
Government agencies.  The opportunity will be open through October 25, 1996.
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EDUCATORS INVITED TO HELP PLAN 'LIVE FROM MARS' TELECASTS
JPL release

Educators and students get your passports and become virtual travelers to 
Mars!  NASA won't leave the public on the launchpad when the first two Mars-
bound spacecraft in a decade-long program of Mars exploration blast off from 
Cape Canaveral, FL, this fall.

Teachers and students visiting NASA host sites across the country will be able 
to follow these spacecraft to Mars and learn about the latest scientific 
discoveries through a series of "electronic field trips," designed to engage 
the public in international plans to continue exploring the most Earth-like 
planet in the solar system.  If that isn't enough, virtual travelers will be 
transported to the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997, to see Pathfinder's 
landing site on an ancient flood plain known as Ares Vallis.

It's all part of a new interactive series of telecasts, called "Live from 
Mars." NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in partnership with The Planetary 
Society in Pasadena and a program called "Passport to Knowledge," is inviting 
teachers across the country to attend a workshop on July 20 -- called "The 
Mars Virtual Teacher Training Conference" -- to learn more about the 
broadcasts and discuss plans for bringing them into classrooms via the 
Internet, video conferencing and public television.  The conference will be 
held at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, D.C.

The Mars Virtual Teacher Training Conference will take place in conjunction 
with a three-day celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Viking landing on 
Mars.  During the workshop, JPL will introduce a new educational CD-ROM on the 
next two missions to Mars, distribute classroom instruction modules to augment 
the Passport to Knowledge telecasts and outline NASA's objectives and 
strategies for exploring Mars over the next decade.  Elementary, middle and 
high school teachers may participate remotely via the Internet and video 
conferencing.

"Live from Mars" will consist of four telecasts airing before and during the 
Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions.  Cosponsored by NASA, the 
National Science Foundation and public television's K-12 Learning Services, 
the telecasts are part of a recent Internet initiative which created "Passport 
to Knowledge," an innovative approach to science education using interactive 
television and online computer networks to break the barriers of time and 
space.

Since its inception in 1994, Passport to Knowledge has aired several award-
winning educational programs.

"Live from Antarctica" brought contemporary research on such topics as Emperor 
penguins, Weddell seals, continental drift and the dynamics of ice sheets to 
classrooms all over the country.  "Live from the Stratosphere" transported 
students to the stratosphere aboard a NASA jet to learn more about the ozone 
hole, ultraviolet radiation and the interaction of Earth's upper atmosphere 
with the solar wind.  "Live from the Hubble Space Telescope" allowed 
youngsters to work with leading astronomers in analyzing the results of Hubble 
telescope observations of Neptune and Pluto.

The first two telecasts of "Live from Mars" are tentatively scheduled to air 
from 1 p.m.  to 2 p.m.  Eastern time on Tuesday, Nov.  19, 1996, and 1 p.m.  
to 2 p.m.  Eastern time on Thursday, April 24, 1997.  A third telecast 
originating from JPL, home of the Mars Pathfinder mission, is being planned 
for Pathfinder landing day on July 4, 1997.  The telecast, which will include 
the first pictures of the Martian surface to be taken by the spacecraft, will 
be followed by a fourth program to be scheduled in the months ahead.  All 
telecasts will be broadcast on NASA TV and at scheduled times on public 
television.

For additional information on the July 20 Mars Virtual Teacher Training 
Conference, contact Dr. Cheick Diarra, educational outreach director in the 
Mars Exploration Program Office at JPL, telephone (818) 354-5428; Andrea 
McCurdy, NASA K-12 Internet Initiative, via e-mail to
andream@quest.arc.nasa.gov; or Jan Wee, Passport to Knowledge, via e-mail to 
janw@quest.arc.nasa.gov.

Updated information on the Passport to Knowledge programs is available on the 
World Wide Web at http://www.quest.arc.nasa.gov.  Continually updated 
information on the 1996 Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions is 
available on the Internet at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mars.

Workshop registration forms and agendas can be obtained by writing or calling 
Judy Cole, Mars symposium coordinator, Science and Technology Corp., 101 
Research Drive, Hampton, VA, 23666, telephone (804) 865-8721, or by sending e-
mail to cole@stcnet.com.
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EUROPE AND ITS PARTNERS ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
ESA press release

The successful flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia with the European-built 
Spacelab in its cargo bay, which landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 
7 July, was not only the longest Shuttle mission - 17 days - to date but also 
brought the USA, Europe and Canada another important step closer to scientific 
utilization of the International Space Station.

The beginning of in-orbit assembly of the International Space Station is only 
about 500 days away:  the first element, the Russian-built Functional Payload 
Block (FGB transliterated from the Russian), will be launched into low Earth 
orbit in November 1997.

The STS-78 mission was launched on 20 June, carrying the Life and Microgravity 
Spacelab.  One of its main purposes was to study the effects that the near-
weightlessness or microgravity that space provides has on fundamental physical 
processes, such as crystallization, solidification, evaporation and 
condensation.  The other part of the scientific mission was devoted to gaining 
a better understanding of the effects of long-term spaceflight on astronauts' 
physical and mental condition.

Gravity is one of the four basic physical forces (the others are the 
electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak nuclear binding forces) and 
influences nearly all physical, chemical and biological processes.  The 
influence of gravity often masks our view of other forces and phenomena, or 
even acts as a disturbing force.  This is true in particular of processes 
which take place in very unstable and sensitive areas between two different 
states of matter, such as liquid/solid or liquid/vapor.  The study of such 
processes, which play a key role in many energy-conversion and industrial 
processes on Earth, in weightlessness, or "under microgravity conditions" as 
the specialists say, brings new insights that are applicable on Earth.

The European Space Agency provided four of the research facilities on board 
and over half the 41 experiments.  The facilities are:

-the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility, a furnace which generates a well-
defined heat profile of up to 1115 C in the experiment samples, and was used 
for metallurgical experiments and for the growth of semiconductor crystals,

-the Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility, which uses three different 
methods of growing protein crystals and applies interferometric means to 
determine concentration differences, 

-the Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit to study how bubbles, drops and particles 
react and interact during melting and solidification, and investigate 
convection, evaporation and condensation phenomena,

-the Torque Velocity Dynamometer, which looks rather like a piece of exercise 
equipment that would be found in a fitness center, used to perform precise 
investigations of the effects of spaceflight on astronauts' muscles.

In addition, ESA provided a set of very sensitive sensors, called the 
Microgravity Measurement Assembly, which were placed at various locations in 
the Spacelab and measured the level of microgravity and the impact of various 
disturbances caused, for example, by atmospheric drag or even the
astronauts' movements.  The measurements were relayed in real time to 
scientists working on the ground.

ESA financed the four facilities, which were developed and manufactured by 
various European industrial companies.  Under a cooperation agreement with 
NASA, ESA provides and supports facilities and in exchange makes half of their 
utilization available to NASA-selected researchers and their experiments.  The 
same type of exchange arrangement is envisaged for the early utilization phase 
of the International Space Station.

This flight also saw another first, the most extensive use of "telescience" to 
date.  Applying a technique that ESA is developing for the International Space 
Station, scientists can monitor and control their on-board experiments from 
their own laboratories, where they are able to make use of expertise, 
processing capabilities and reference facilities.  Such a capability is 
particularly important during long missions.  In addition to several remote 
sites across the USA, there were five sites in Europe:  in Toulouse (F), 
Aachen (D) Brussels (B), Naples and Turin (I).

This method of work will be widely used for the International Space Station 
which will remain in orbit for over 10 years, providing scientists with an 
ongoing, long-term opportunity for scientific research in space.
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NASA NAMES LANDSAT 7 SCIENCE TEAM AND FUNDS PROMISING YOUNG EARTH SCIENTISTS
NASA release 96-125

NASA has selected the team leader and other members of the science team for 
the future Landsat 7 remote-sensing satellite and awarded grants to promising 
Earth scientists in the early stages of their research careers.

Solicited in a September 1995 NASA Research Announcement, the recent 
selections also include interdisciplinary Earth scientists and additional 
researchers to work with data returned by instruments to be flown on the 
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Earth Observing System spacecraft.  
The total value of the awards to 198 scientists from 60 institutions is 
approximately $15 million.  All of the scientists will be working in support 
of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, a long-term comprehensive research 
effort to better understand the Earth as an integrated system of land, water, 
air and life.

The Landsat 7 science team will be led by Dr. Samuel Goward of the University 
of Maryland in College Park.  Other team members are based at universities in 
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, and New York; the U.S.  Geological Survey 
and Department of Agriculture; and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), 
Greenbelt, MD, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.

Landsat 7 is scheduled for launch in December 1998, with a main objective of 
continuing the record of remote- sensing measurements of Earth's land surfaces 
made by the Landsat series of satellites since 1972.  A small technology 
demonstration satellite developed under NASA's New Millennium program will fly 
in formation with Landsat 7 to evaluate an advanced hyperspectral imaging 
instrument that could extend the Landsat-type data set beyond the Landsat 
series.

Mission To Planet Earth's "New Investigator Program" (NIP) is designed to 
provide financial support to scientists and engineers at an early stage of 
their professional career.  NIP proposals were restricted to recent Ph.D.  
recipients graduating no more than five years before the issue date of the 
announcement.  The proposed investigations had to be based on analysis, 
interpretation, and significant use of data from space-based observations 
leading to an improved understanding of the Earth system and global climate 
change.  A long-term cost-sharing commitment by the associated
university was a secondary requirement for selection.  Twenty-one of 67 
submitted proposals were selected, with the researchers based at 18 
universities, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution near Boston, GSFC and 
JPL.

"NASA selected this group of outstanding young scientists to foster 
interdisciplinary Earth system science and education in support of its 
missions in the 21st century," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Lead Program Scientist 
in the Office of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

A complete list of the researchers selected and the topics of their proposals 
is available on the World Wide Web at the following URL:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/mtpe/eosresul.html
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End Marsbugs Vol. 3, No. 6.
