MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter 
Volume 3, Number 12, 1 October, 1996.

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 of this compilation exists 
with the 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.  Back 
issues may be obtained via anonymous FTP at:  
ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs.

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for 
scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related 
fields.  This newsletter is not intended to replace peer-reviewed journals, 
but to supplement them.  We, the editors, envision MARSBUGS as a medium in 
which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about 
exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events.  Exobiology is still a 
relatively young field, and new ideas may come out of the most unexpected 
places.  Subjects may include,  but are not limited to:  exobiology proper 
(life on other  planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), 
ecopoeisis/ terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial 
evolution, space physiology, biological life support  systems, and human 
habitation of space and other planets.
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INDEX

1)	NASA SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR FIFTH DISCOVERY MISSION
	NASA release 96-191

2)	VIEWS OF MARS SPACECRAFT PROCESSING AVAILABLE
	Internet advisory I96-8

3)	NASA LEWIS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MARS PATHFINDER MISSION
	From the NASA Lewis Office

4)	SECOND NEW MILLENNIUM FLIGHT WILL SEND MICROPROBES TO THE SURFACE OF 
MARS
	NASA release 96-192

5)	SCIENCE WRITER BRIEFING ON EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
	by Ray Villard

6)	WHITE HOUSE REVISION OF U.S. SPACE POLICY
	From the Washington Post

7)	A WISE ALLOCATION OF SPACE RELATED RESOURCES
	by Robert D. Brown

8)	ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:  METEORITES AND ORGANIC MATTER
	by Norman Hugh Redington and Karen Rae Keck

9)	FIRST GLOBAL IMAGE OF TOTAL ATMOSPHERIC OZONE OBTAINED FROM NASA 
INSTRUMENT ABOARD JAPANESE SATELLITE
	NASA release 96-188

10)	TRANSCRIPT OF EXCERPTED REMARKS BY NASA ADMINISTRATOR DANIEL S.  GOLDIN 
FOLLOWING THE LANDING OF SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS
	NASA release 96-193

11)	SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION'S FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
	by Charles "Pete" Conrad


NASA SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR FIFTH DISCOVERY MISSION
NASA release 96-191

The process of selecting the fifth flight in NASA's Discovery Program series 
of small, low-cost, highly focused planetary exploration missions has begun 
with the issuance of the formal Announcement of Opportunity by NASA's Office 
of Space Science, Washington, DC.  Due for launch before the end of September 
2002, the fifth Discovery mission must be developed and prepared for launch 
for less than $183 million (FY97 dollars), with mission operations and data 
analysis costs less than an additional $43 million.

"We're open to proposals that address any aspect of planetary science," said 
Dr. Wesley Huntress, Associate Administrator for Space Science at NASA 
Headquarters.  "We look forward to receiving a diverse group of mission 
concepts, in both cost and complexity."

Based on past history, more than a dozen proposals from both domestic and 
international teams with members from industry, educational institutions, non-
profit institutions, NASA centers and other government institutions can be 
expected, according to Ken Ledbetter, director of the Mission and Payload 
Development Division in the Office of Space Science.  If more than one mission 
can be accommodated within the stated budget, NASA will consider selecting 
more than one, he added.

Feedback from the previous round of Discovery selections has led to a more 
streamlined process for picking this fifth mission.  First-round proposals are 
due by December 11.  A subset of these proposals will be selected for detailed 
feasibility studies to run from April through August 1997, with final 
selection of the winning proposal tentatively scheduled for late September 
1997.

One NASA Discovery mission, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) 
spacecraft, was launched in February toward its planned orbital survey of the 
large asteroid Eros, beginning in January 1999.  The next Discovery mission, 
the Mars Pathfinder, is due for launch on December 2 toward a July 1997 
landing on the red planet, where it will photograph the surface, monitor the 
Martian climate and deploy a small surface rover.

The third Discovery mission, Lunar Prospector, was selected in February 1995.  
Due for launch in October 1997, this small orbiter spacecraft is designed to 
map the chemical composition of the lunar surface and survey the Moon's global 
magnetic and gravity fields at a level of detail greater than that achieved by 
any previous mission.  The fourth Discovery mission, Stardust, originated from 
the same group of proposals and was formally selected in November 1995.  
Following a February 1999 launch, Stardust is designed to gather first-time 
samples of interstellar dust and dust spewed from the comet Wild-2 and return 
them to Earth in 2006 for detailed analysis.

The complete text of the latest Discovery Announcement of Opportunity is 
available on the Internet at the following URL:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/research.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VIEWS OF MARS SPACECRAFT PROCESSING AVAILABLE
Internet advisory I96-8

Internet users can view NASA's preparations of two spacecraft that soon will 
be bound for Mars.  Still images of processing of the Mars Global Surveyor and 
Mars Pathfinder are available from the Kennedy Space Center, FL.  The 
pictures, which are "frame grabs" from television cameras, are updated every 
90 seconds.

The McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket that will launch the Mars Global 
Surveyor will be stacked on Pad A at Complex 17 starting Sept. 20.  Live video 
from the launch pad will be available and also will be provided from Pad 17-B 
for the Mars Pathfinder vehicle when stacking begins.

The Internet address for images of Mars Global Surveyor and the Delta launch 
vehicle at Complex 17 is:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/payloads/missions/mgs/video.html

The Internet address for Mars Pathfinder images is:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/payloads/missions/pathfinder/video.html

Mars Global Surveyor is scheduled to be launched November 6 and Mars 
Pathfinder on December 2.  Both spacecraft will be launched from Cape 
Canaveral, FL.  The missions are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NASA LEWIS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MARS PATHFINDER MISSION
From the NASA Lewis Office

The Mars Pathfinder probe, which will launch this December, is the first 
American probe to the surface of Mars since the Viking missions of the 1970s.  
NASA Lewis Research Center has been involved in the Mars Pathfinder mission 
nearly from the beginning.  The Mars Solar Energy Model (G. Landis and J. 
Appelbaum) provided an early demonstration that sufficient solar energy is 
available at Mars to provide operating power for a spacecraft and lander.  
This solar energy model was incorporated into the computer model used by JPL 
to design solar arrays for the Pathfinder lander, and the Sojourner rover.  
Since then, Lewis scientists have designed, built, and delivered hardware for 
three sensors incorporated onto the rover.  Also delivered were several small 
tungsten points for removing electrostatic charge accumulated during rover 
surface operations.

The Materials Adherence Experiment (MAE), will quantify how much dust settles 
out of the atmosphere.  The Viking landers showed that the atmosphere of Mars 
contains a large amount of suspended dust.  The MAE consists of two sensors.  
The first sensor is a solar cell (G.  Landis and P.  Jenkins) which will 
measure how much light is obscured from the cell by the dust that settles on 
it.  Results will show how opaque Mars dust is, and how rapidly it settles out 
of the Martian atmosphere.  The second sensor is a quartz crystal monitor (G. 
Hunter, G. Landis, L. Oberle) which will use a vibrating quartz crystal.  An 
adhesive surface on the crystal accumulates the dust, and resultant changes in 
crystal frequency indicate its mass.  Together, the two sets of measurements 
will provide excellent information on dust properties and deposition rates.

The Wheel Abrasion Experiment (WAE) will assess wheel wear (D. Ferguson and J. 
Kolecki).  WAE uses atomically thin metal films deposited on black anodized 
aluminum strips attached to a rover wheel.  A photocell monitors changes in 
film reflectivity as the rover moves and the surfaces wear.  Twice each 
Martian day, all the other rover wheels will be locked stationary while the 
test wheel alone is spun and allowed to dig into the Martian surface.  Marked 
abrasion will indicate a surface composed of hard, possibly sharply edged 
grains.  Lack of abrasion would suggest a somewhat softer surface.  WAE 
results will be correlated with ground simulations to determine which 
terrestrial materials behave most like Mars dust.  This knowledge will enable 
a deeper understanding of erosion processes on Mars and the role they play in 
Martian surface evolution.  All of the above results will be significant to 
future Mars mission designs.

Rover electrostatic charging will be controlled by fine, tungsten points 
mounted on the rover antenna base (J. Kolecki and M. Siebert).  Tests and 
calculations have confirmed the possibility that the rover will accumulate a 
large static charge during its surface operations.  (The charge is thought to 
occur when the dry Martian dust is compacted by the rover wheels.) Once this 
charge is accumulated, disruptive electrical discharges on or around the rover 
become possible.  Since actual Martian conditions are unknown, discharge 
points have been added to the rover as a precaution.  If the rover accumulates 
electric charge, some, or all of it will be removed to the atmosphere through 
the discharge points.  Atmospheric dust, blowing by the rover, will collect 
this charge, and eventually return it to the Martian surface.  Discharge 
currents through the points are predicted to be non-disruptive.

Information can be found electronically about the Pathfinder mission at the 
Pathfinder home page:
http://wwwmpf.jpl.nasa.gov/

Information on NASA Lewis role in Pathfinder can be found at:  
http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT1995/6000/6840s.htm (and at various pages 
linked from this page)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECOND NEW MILLENNIUM FLIGHT WILL SEND MICROPROBES TO THE SURFACE OF MARS
NASA release 96-192

Two small science probes will be sent to Mars in 1999 to demonstrate 
innovative new technologies brought to the forefront by NASA's New Millennium 
program.  Under terms of a new agreement between the New Millennium and Mars 
Exploration programs, the microprobes will hitchhike to Mars aboard NASA's 
1998 Mars Surveyor Lander.

"A successful demonstration of the microprobe technologies will enable a wide 
range of scientific activities that would not be affordable with conventional 
technologies," said Dr. John McNamee, manager of the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander 
and Orbiter project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.

"In particular, scientific investigations which require a relatively large 
number of surface stations distributed over the surface of Mars, such as 
seismic or meteorology networks, will be made possible by the microprobe 
concept," McNamee said.  "In addition, microprobe penetrators may be the most 
efficient and effective way of obtaining soil samples and measurements from 
below the sterilized Martian surface."

In the process of enabling future characterization of the Martian climate by a 
meteorological network, the Mars microprobes will complement the climate-
related scientific focus of the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander by demonstrating an 
advanced, rugged microlaser system for detecting subsurface water.  Such data 
on polar subsurface water, in the form of ice, should help put limits on 
scientific projections for the global abundance of water on Mars.  Future 
missions to the planet could use similar penetrators to search for subsurface 
ice and minerals that could contribute to the search for evidence of life on 
Mars.

The 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander will be launched in January 1999 and spend 11 
months en route to the Red Planet.  Just prior to its entry into the Martian 
atmosphere, the microprobes, mounted on the spacecraft's cruise ring, will 
separate and plummet to the surface using a single-stage entry aeroshell 
system.  Chosen for its simplicity, this aeroshell does not separate from the 
microprobes, as have traditional aeroshells on previous spacecraft, such as 
the Mars Pathfinder and the Viking landers of the mid-1970s.

The probes will plunge into the surface of Mars at an extremely high velocity 
of about 446 miles per hour (200 meters per second) to ensure maximum 
penetration of the Martian terrain.  They should impact the surface within 120 
miles (200 kilometers) of the main Mars '98 lander, which is targeted for the 
planet's icy south polar region.

Upon impact, the aeroshells will shatter and the microprobes will split into a 
forebody and aftbody system.  The forebody, which will be lodged between one 
to six feet underground, will contain the primary electronics and instruments.  
The aftbody, connected to the forebody by an electrical cable, will stay close 
to the surface to collect meteorological data and deploy an antenna for 
relaying data back to Earth.

The microprobes will weigh less than 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms) each and be 
designed to withstand both very low temperatures and high deceleration.  Each 
highly integrated package will include a command and data system, a 
telecommunications system, a power system, and primary and secondary 
instruments.  Nearly all electrical and mechanical designs will be new to 
space flight.

"In addition to a team of industrial partners that will help develop advanced 
technologies to be demonstrated during the mission, we have just selected 
Lockheed Martin Electro-Optical Systems as a primary industry partner to 
participate in the integration and test program for the microprobes," said 
Sarah Gavit, Mars microprobe flight leader at JPL.

Technologies proposed for demonstration on this second New Millennium flight 
include a light weight, single- stage entry aeroshell, a miniature, 
programmable telecommunication subsystem, power microelectronics with mixed 
digital/analog integrated circuits, an ultra low-temperature lithium battery, 
a microcontroller and flexible interconnects for system cabling.  In-situ 
instrument technologies for making direct measurements of the Martian surface 
will include a water and soil sample experiment, a meteorological pressure 
sensor and temperature sensors for measuring the thermal properties of the 
Martian soil.

"The Mars microprobe mission will help chart the course for NASA's vision of 
space science in the 21st century, a vision that incorporates the concept of 
'network science' through the use of multiple planetary landers," said Kane 
Casani, manager of the New Millennium program.  The probes will become the 
first technology to be validated in this new network approach to planetary 
science.

"Networks of spacecraft will address dynamic, complex systems," Casani said.  
"For example, a single lander can report on the weather at one spot on a 
planet, but a network of landers is needed to characterize the planet's 
dynamic climate.  Similarly, a single seismometer will indicate if a quake has 
occurred on a planet, but a network of seismometers can measure the size of a 
planetary core.  We need multiple spacecraft to go beyond our initial 
reconnaissance to completely characterize dynamic planetary systems the way we 
are able to do on Earth."

The New Millennium program is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space 
Science and Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC.  The Mars `98 
lander, managed by JPL for the Office of Space Science, is in development at 
Lockheed Martin Astronautics Corp., Denver, CO, under contract to JPL.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SCIENCE WRITER BRIEFING ON EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
by Ray Villard, Public Information Manager, Space Telescope Science Institute

The past year has seen rapid, breathtaking advances in the search for planets 
around other stars.  Scientists involved in this research will meet at the 
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, October 16-18 at a 
workshop entitled "Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System and the Next 
Generation of Space Missions."

In conjunction with the meeting, a science writer briefing will be held at the 
STScI on Wednesday, October 16, 1996 from 12:30 p.m.  to 2:30 p.m., where key 
conference participants will present a summary of the current state of 
knowledge in their respective fields.  The two-hour briefing/luncheon will 
discuss recent progress in the search for extra solar planets, future mission 
and program concepts, and the astrophysical context of planet detection.

The speakers and their topics are as follows:

Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA Headquarters
The Origins Program

Dr. Michael Shao, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM)

Dr. Mark Colavita, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ground-based Interferometric Studies of Stars

Dr. William Borucki, NASA Ames Research Center
Kepler (a mission to detect earth-sized planets by photometric means)

Dr. David Latham, Center for Astrophysics
Radial Velocity Searches

Dr. George Gatewood (University of Pittsburgh)
Astrometric Searches on the Ground and in Space

The science writers briefing will be held in the STScI Boardroom.  A deli 
lunch will be provided at a cost of $7.50 per person (payable to Cheryl Gundy 
on October 16).

All science writers and/or editors interested in attending this luncheon 
meeting should contact Cheryl Gundy by e-mail at "gundy@stsci.edu", telephone 
at 410-338-4707, or fax at 410-338-4579.  The deadline for registration is 
Friday, October 11.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHITE HOUSE REVISION OF U.S. SPACE POLICY

The White House's long awaited revision of the U.S.'s space policy is dicussed 
in the following article of the Washington Post:

Please visit the Post's WWW site and/or the article directly at:

<http://wp2.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/displaySearch?WPlate+26116+%28S 
awyer%29%3Abyline%26and%26%28NASA%29%3Adescription/>

(Good luck in re-typing this back into the Netscape URL request box.  
Hopefully you can cut-and-paste it)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A WISE ALLOCATION OF SPACE RELATED RESOURCES
by Robert D. Brown

We need a policy toward space research that is understood and widely supported 
by the "average" citizen of the planet regardless of national heritage.  I 
believe that a program designed to protect Earth from bolide impacts, 
regardless of their set-down sites on the planet, is a rationale that can be 
supported by most national governments and their citizens.

An assumption of your above comments is that an Earth Protection System (EPS) 
would be entirely Earth-based.  I disagree.  The "ideal" EPS would eventually 
(over hundreds of years) incorporate every science program NASA has presently 
conceived, and others that no one has yet contemplated.

There are, no doubt, impactors in space whose mass is so large that no humanly 
inspired intervention will alter a trajectory that takes them on a collision 
course with our planet.  So be it.  At the same time, the statistics show that 
there are far more potential impactors in space whose sizes are such that 
their impact(s) anywhere on Earth would devastate all of our civilization, but 
are within the scale of objects that we could (using existing and/or future 
technologies) deflect.

A multibillion dollar space program whose banner calls for the retrieval of 
fossilized microbes from the Martian surface, though philosophically pure, 
will never enjoy the broad support of those whose taxes pay for such efforts.  
In contrast, a program designed to place telescopic systems on the Martian 
surface (or, for example, Vesta) that facilitate our monitoring of the 
asteroid belt objects is technically within the same magnitudes of difficulty, 
but do not tie the "average" citizen's expectations of outcomes to the 
presence or absence of fossilized microbes somewhere beyond Earth.  Meanwhile, 
the retrieval of extra-terrestrial rocks that might shed light on this 
otherwise academic question, becomes a secondary objective without any 
additional financial/philosophical/political costs.

NASA's present leadership has "bet" the confidence of many future generations 
of Earthlings on the outcome of a short-sighted (and timed) Martian 
exploration program whose "apparent" logic is the overthrow of all of the 
studies and conclusions of NASA's last series of Martian explorations.  How 
"on Earth" did this happen!

I think it is time for a change in NASA's declared agenda, current leadership, 
or both...

...The Clinton Administration's announcement that the Mars exploration program 
will not seek to place humans on the Martian surface by 2018 is a wise 
decision, particularly when linked to an acceleration of robotic explorations 
of the Martian surface.  Perhaps the money the government has now "saved" the 
taxpayers can be more wisely directed toward the fulfillment of the 
Congressional mandate known as the "Shoemaker Report", a document prepared in 
the aftermath of the SL-9 impacts on Jupiter.  Indeed, now NASA could go well 
beyond the recommendations of the Shoemaker Report in its support of 
observational astronomers' survey of local portions of the universe, with the 
short, intermediate, and long term goals of assisting in the development of an 
Earth Protection System designed to deflect incoming asteroids and comets.  
The general public can comprehend the value of such an endeavor.

[Robert Brown's comments are part of ongoing discussions on the Usenet's 
sci.space.policy and sci.geo.geology.  Dr. Brown's opinions are not 
necessarily those of the editors.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:  METEORITES AND ORGANIC MATTER
by Norman Hugh Redington and Karen Rae Keck

This is to announce the second edition of the free annotated on-line 
bibliography, "Meteorites and Comets:  Organic Matter and Exobiological 
Hypotheses, 1834-Present," by Norman Redington and Karen Rae Keck.  Over 100 
additional references have been added since the first edition appeared on 
August 19.  An entire new section on the organic chemistry of astronomical ice 
has been created, and the section on comets has been improved.

We appreciate the time and effort of those who have written to us about this 
project, and especially of Dr. Max Bernstein of NASA Ames Research Center, who 
sent a list of fifty references which we had overlooked.  In the next month, 
we hope to add a section on meteorite-impact sonochemistry as well.

The bibliography is located at the Net Advance of Physics at:
http://web.mit.edu/~redingtn/www/netadv/bioast/clash/index.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST GLOBAL IMAGE OF TOTAL ATMOSPHERIC OZONE OBTAINED FROM NASA INSTRUMENT 
ABOARD JAPANESE SATELLITE
NASA release 96-188

Daily global mapping of the Earth's ozone layer from space has resumed with 
the acquisition of the first image from the U.S.  Total Ozone Mapping 
Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing 
Satellite (ADEOS) on September 12.

"We are extremely pleased with the quality of this first image" said P.K.  
Bhartia, TOMS Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, 
Greenbelt, MD.  "We're looking forward to continuing our monitoring of the 
global ozone situation and especially the upcoming season in the Antarctic."

ADEOS continues the series of TOMS total ozone and volcanic sulfur dioxide 
observations that began with the Nimbus-7 satellite in 1978 and continued 
through the operation of a TOMS on a Russian Meteor-3 satellite, until that 
instrument ceased functioning in December 1994.

Data from another TOMS instrument flying on the recently launched NASA TOMS-
Earth Probe spacecraft complements the global ADEOS data by providing high-
resolution imagery of atmospheric features related to urban pollution, biomass 
burning, forest fires, desert dust and small volcanic eruptions, in addition 
to ozone measurements.

In recent years, the depleting effects of industrial chlorofluorocarbons 
(CFCs) on ozone were demonstrated through the sudden appearance of the 
Antarctic ozone hole and other, more gradual losses in global ozone.  The 
principal mission of TOMS/ADEOS is to monitor global ozone trends during the 
period when CFC-related depletion is predicted to be near its maximum.

"Stratospheric concentrations of chlorine from CFC's are expected to peak near 
the end of the century and then decline as a result of the Montreal Protocol," 
said Arlin Krueger, Principal Investigator for the TOMS/ADEOS mission.  
"TOMS/ADEOS will help us track this prediction.  It also will continue to 
measure the concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere in the wake of 
volcanic eruptions, thus extending the existing database of more than 100 
eruptions, including Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 and El Chichon in 1982."

TOMS complements four of the Japanese instruments on ADEOS.  The Improved Limb 
Atmospheric Sounder measures the vertical profiles of ozone and other trace 
gases in polar regions, while the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases 
measures ozone beneath the orbital track, and the Retroreflector In Space 
determines trace gas profiles as ADEOS passes over ground-based laser 
stations.  In addition, TOMS will provide information to help correct data 
from the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner for atmospheric absorption at 
visible wavelengths.

ADEOS is an international global change research mission of the National Space 
Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) that includes instruments from the U.S., 
Japan, and France, with investigators from many other.  The satellite is a key 
part of an international environmental research effort that includes NASA's 
Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), a long-term, coordinated research program to 
study the Earth as a global environmental system.  The goal of MTPE is to 
allow humans to better understand natural environmental changes and to 
distinguish between natural and human-made changes and impacts.  MTPE-related 
data, which NASA distributes to researchers worldwide, is essential to helping 
humans make better informed decisions about their environment.

During its lifetime on Nimbus-7, TOMS helped make "ozone" a household word 
through its false-color images of the Antarctic ozone hole.  Even after 14 
years of operating the instruments, TOMS scientists are testing new concepts 
such as the monitoring of absorbing aerosols that are produced in fires, dust 
storms, and volcanic eruptions, estimation of ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation at 
Earth's surface, and detection of volcanic hazards to aviation.  TOMS measures 
ozone by comparing the level of ultraviolet light emitted by the Sun to that 
scattered from the Earth's atmosphere back to the satellite.

The first TOMS/ADEOS image is available electronically at the following URL:
http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/adtoms/adeos.html

The TOMS program is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 
for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT OF EXCERPTED REMARKS BY NASA ADMINISTRATOR DANIEL S.  GOLDIN 
FOLLOWING THE LANDING OF SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS
NASA release 96-193

"I had the privilege of spending just a few minutes with Shannon Lucid after 
landing, and I'm happy to say she's in great shape.  Her spirits are terrific.  
It's always inspirational being with Shannon; she's such a positive person.  
She's looking forward to getting together with her husband and family.  She'll 
be doing that very, very shortly.

I also would like to say that I didn't tell the press the proper thing.  I 
told them she was going to come out in a horizontal position.  She asked to 
come out standing up, so she came out under her own power.  I went into the 
crew transport vehicle and there she was sitting in a chair--just very, very 
comfortable, so she's in great shape.  She has to have a number of physical 
tests--we'll leave that to the 'docs' and Shannon--but her spiritual and 
emotional state is really terrific."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION'S FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
by Charles "Pete" Conrad

This has been an incredible year for America's space efforts, especially those 
aimed at lowering the cost of getting into space.  A lot of the progress being 
made is thanks in part to you and other supporters of the Space Frontier 
Foundation.

That's why I hope to see you in Hollywood during the weekend of October 18-20 
at the Foundation's Fifth Annual Conference.  The Theme is "Space:  Your 
Ticket To Ride".  I'll be chairing a panel on "Cheap Access to the Space 
Frontier"--you won't want to miss it!

Please give me the chance to thank you in person for your support of the 
Foundation and its vital work to open the space frontier to American free 
enterprise.  Send in your registration ASAP, and I'll see you in Hollywood!

For more information about the conference, point your web browser to:  
http://www.space-frontier.org, send e-mail to:
davida5625@aol.com, or call 1-800-78SPACE.
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End Marsbugs Vol. 3, No. 12.
