MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter
Volume 4, Number 2, 24 January, 1997.

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)	IN MEMORY OF CARL SAGAN
	by Mark Pallen

2)	SOIL CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT LIKELY TO FLY TO MARS AGAIN 
	By Diane Ainsworth

3)	BEST-YET IMAGES OF JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA TO BE PRESENTED
	NASA editors note N97-3

4)	ICE VOLCANOES RESHAPE EUROPA'S CHAOTIC SURFACE
	NASA release 97-12

5)	IN SEARCH OF HABITABLE MOONS
	Pennsylvania State University release

6)	BIORACK ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE:  ANOTHER STEP IN ESA'S 
PREPARATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
	ESA press note

7)	EMERGENCY REPAIR SAVES PATHFINDER WIND INSTRUMENT
	By Mark Whalen

8)	MONKEY DIES AFTER COMPLETING 14-DAY BION MISSION
	NASA release 97-9

9)	ROVER ROUNDUP
	Planetary Society

10)	LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--LIFE ON MARS

11)	LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--RETURN TO MARS

12)	MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORT
	JPL release
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IN MEMORY OF CARL SAGAN
by Mark Pallen

Carl Sagan, planetary astronomer, author and self-styled 
exobiologist, died on 20th December 1996.

I suspect that many Marsbugs readers will have drawn inspiration 
in their youth and in their adult life from the works and words 
of Carl Sagan.  I remember reading his book "The Cosmic 
Connection:  An Extraterrestrial Perspective" in my early teens.  
Living in a typical humdrum suburban lower middle class family, I 
was enthralled by the idea that adults such as Sagan could take 
seriously ideas like the search for extra-terrestrial life and 
terraforming of planets.  The fact that I subscribe to Marsbugs 
now is probably a direct result of reading Sagan's book over 
twenty years ago.

Many more eloquent than myself have published obituaries.  The 
following sites and the links within them will give the reader 
the chance to reflect on Carl Sagan's life and substantial 
contributions to exobiology, planetary science and humanity's 
attempts to understand itself and its place in the universe:

Scientific American Obituary:
http://www.sciam.com/explorations/010697sagan/010697explorations.
html

Michael Rapp's unofficial Carl Sagan Web site (everything you 
would want to know and more!):  
http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~mrapp/sagan/toc.html

CNN Obituary:
http://www.cnn.com/US/9612/20/sagan/

The Planetary Society's Carl Sagan Tribute Page:
http://planetary.org/tps/articlearchive/headlines/headln-
122296.html
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SOIL CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT LIKELY TO FLY TO MARS AGAIN 
By Diane Ainsworth
[from the JPL Universe]

An instrument similar to the U.S. instrument flown on the doomed 
Mars '96 mission--known as the Mars Oxidant Experiment (MOx)--is 
likely to fly on a future mission to Mars because of its 
scientific value in helping scientists understand the nature of 
oxidation reactions and soil chemistry on the surface of the red 
planet.

Mars '96, carrying instruments from 12 countries including the 
United States, France and Germany, was lost a day after its 
launch on Nov.  16, when the Proton launch vehicle's fourth-stage 
booster failed to catapult the spacecraft out of Earth's gravity 
and on its way to Mars.

During the last eight months, a team of engineers at JPL had made 
numerous trips to Moscow to complete the integration of the two 
identical MOx instruments, each mounted on a petal of two small 
Russian landers that were to be deployed on the surface of Mars 
in September 1997.  Despite the tragic setback of Mars '96, 
collaborative efforts with the Russians proved to be an 
invaluable learning experience for the U.S.  team.

"Final integration was an engineering milestone for the U.S.  
experiment, culminating a development effort which started in 
1992," said Mark Herring, project manager at JPL.  "In the course 
of our travels, we gained a lot of experience participating in 
this collaborative effort as part of an international mission."

MOx, built at JPL as part of the expanding U.S.-Russian 
cooperative effort in space exploration, was designed to measure 
the rate at which metals and organics corrode when exposed to the 
Martian environment.  The $8 million instrument was carried into 
space from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Russia, at 11:48 p.m.  
Moscow time (12:48 p.m.  Pacific time) on Nov.  16, but the 
spacecraft failed to leave Earth's orbit and plunged into the 
southeastern Pacific Ocean on Nov.  17, roughly between Easter 
Island and Chile.

The goal of the Mars '96 mission was to investigate the evolution 
of the Martian atmosphere, surface and interior.  The mission was 
to acquire, using a variety of instruments, wide-scale, 
comprehensive measurements of the physical and chemical processes 
that occur on Mars today and those that took place in the past.  
Loss of the mission leaves a gap in the science information that 
was to be gathered during NASA's 10-year-long program of robotic 
exploration.  Among others, scientists working on the MOx 
experiment, however, are optimistic that an experiment very 
similar to MOx will fly to Mars in the next century.

"The importance of the surface chemistry on Mars to our 
understanding of the Martian environment, including the search 
for life, makes MOx a leading contender for flight on a future 
mission," Herring noted.

The experiment was designed to further investigate the presence 
of a strong oxidizing agent in the Martian soil, which was 
inferred from the results of the biology experiments onboard the 
Viking landers in the mid- 1970s.

"We had hoped MOx would be able to tell us more about the 
surprisingly reactive properties of the Martian soil first 
detected by the Viking biology experiments and tell us if this 
reactivity is the cause of the complete absence of organics in 
the surface soil on Mars," added Dr. Christopher McKay, project 
scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, 
Calif., who plans to propose that a MOx-like instrument be built 
for a future mission to Mars.

"If we plan to search for the organic remnants of early life on 
Mars with future missions, then we have to understand the 
processes that are destroying these organics on the surface so 
that we know how deep we have to dig to reach unoxidized 
material," he said.  "Viking, for instance, dug under a rock as 
deep as 11 centimeters (4 inches) but found only oxidized sand."

MOx uses chemical sensor technology originally developed at the 
Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.  The instrument 
measures the oxidizing power of the Martian soil and atmosphere 
using a detector that monitors the change in reflectivity of a 
thin chemical film that is exposed to the Martian environment.  
The instrument, which weighs only 1.3 kilograms (3 pounds), 
relies on its own power source, a set of batteries, to carry out 
the measurements.

Upon landing and deployment, MOx would have operated 
autonomously, Herring said, according to a sequence that would 
have been programmed into its internal "read-only memory." While 
the mission was designed for a one-year lifetime, the operating 
life of MOx was limited by its battery power source.  Depending 
on the actual conditions on the surface of Mars, the operating 
time would have been between 80 and 160 days.

"The instrument's sensor head was located on a petal of each of 
the two Russian small stations and was comprised of eight sensor 
cell assemblies, four of which were designed to contact the soil 
and four that would have been exposed to the atmosphere," Herring 
said.  "Within each cell assembly there were six active sensing 
sites and six reference sites, for a total of 96 sites.

"The active sites were protected by thin membranes of silicon 
nitride, which would have protected the sensor films from 
premature oxidation," he explained.  "These membranes would break 
upon deployment, exposing the active films.  The reference sites 
would remain permanently sealed.  The sensor films were selected 
to provide a broad range of chemical reactions.  Each film type 
was duplicated in the air and soil cells."

Each of the 96 sensor sites was illuminated by two light-emitting 
diodes (LEDs), one operating at a wavelength of 590 nanometers 
and the other at 870 nanometers.  The reflected signal would have 
been measured by a silicon photodiode detector array.  The sensor 
sites were coupled to the LEDs and the detector array through 
fiber optics.

Data from the experiment promised to shed new light on a range of 
chemical activity occurring in the Martian environment and tell 
scientists whether oxidizing agents were present in the 
atmosphere.  The Martian atmosphere is 95.3 percent carbon 
dioxide; a few percent nitrogen and argon; and trace amounts of 
oxygen, carbon monoxide, water and ozone.  In addition, specific 
minerals in the Martian surface material may have been identified 
if their pattern of reactivity was sufficiently distinct.  Loss 
of the mission and new strategies for ensuring that a MOx-like 
instrument flies on a Mars mission in 2001 or thereafter will 
likely be addressed in the next several months.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

BEST-YET IMAGES OF JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA TO BE PRESENTED
NASA editors note N97-3

[I'm sorry that this is too late for the televised briefing, but 
the URL at the bottom is still good.  DJT]

New images from NASA's Galileo mission showing remarkably diverse 
styles of geologic resurfacing on Jupiter's icy moon Europa will 
be discussed in a press briefing at 1 p.m.  EST on Friday, Jan.  
17.  The briefing will originate from the auditorium at NASA 
Headquarters in Washington, DC, and will be carried live on NASA 
Television.

Most of the images to be discussed were taken during Galileo's 
close pass of the Jovian moon on Dec. 19, 1996, when the 
spacecraft came within 430 miles of Europa's surface, which may 
cover a liquid subsurface ocean.  Galileo flew more than 200 
times closer to Europa than the Voyager 2 spacecraft did in 1979.

Participants in the briefing will include Galileo imaging team 
scientists Dr. Ron Greeley and Dr. Robert Sullivan, both of 
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

NASA Television is available through the Spacenet 2 satellite on 
transponder 5, channel 9, 69 degrees West longitude, frequency 
3880 MHz, audio subcarrier 6.8 MHz, horizontal polarization.

Note:  The new images of Europa will also be available on the 
Galileo home page on Jan 17:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/
-----------------------------------------------------------------

ICE VOLCANOES RESHAPE EUROPA'S CHAOTIC SURFACE
NASA release 97-12

Ice-spewing volcanoes and the grinding and tearing of tectonic 
plates have reshaped the chaotic surface of Jupiter's frozen moon 
Europa, images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft reveal.  The 
images, captured when Galileo flew within just 430 miles (692 
kilometers) of Europa on Dec.  19, were released at a news 
briefing today at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.  Although 
the images do not show currently active ice volcanoes or geysers, 
they do reveal flows of material on the surface that probably 
originated from them, said Galileo imaging team member Dr. Ronald 
Greeley of Arizona State University, Tempe.

"This is the first time we've seen actual ice flows on any of the 
moons of Jupiter," said Greeley.  "These flows, as well as dark 
scarring on some of Europa's cracks and ridges, appear to be 
remnants of ice volcanoes or geysers."

The new images appear to enhance Europa's prospects as one of the 
places in the Solar System that could have hosted the development 
of life, said Greeley.

"There are three main criteria to consider when you are looking 
for the possibility of life outside the Earth -- the presence of 
water, organic compounds and adequate heat," said Greeley.  
"Europa obviously has substantial water ice, and organic 
compounds are known to be prevalent in the Solar System.  The big 
question mark has been how much heat is generated in the 
interior.

"These new images demonstrate that there was enough heat to drive 
the flows on the surface.  Europa thus has a high potential to 
meet the criteria for exobiology," Greeley added.

"This doesn't prove that there is an ocean down there under the 
surface of Europa, but it does demonstrate that it is a 
scientifically exciting place," said Galileo imaging team member 
Dr. Robert Sullivan, also of Arizona State University.

The images also reveal a remarkable diversity in the geological 
age of various regions of Europa's surface.  Some areas appear 
relatively young, with smooth, crater-free terrain, while others 
contain large craters and numerous pits, suggesting that they are 
much older.  The icy crust bears the signs of having been 
disrupted by the motion of tectonic plates.  "There appear to be 
signs of different styles of tectonism," said Greeley.  "In many 
areas we see that the crust was pulled apart in a spreading 
similar to the processes on the sea floor on Earth.  This is 
different from the tectonic processes at work on, say, Jupiter's 
moon Ganymede.  This suggests that Europa's interior may be 
different from Ganymede's."

Galileo scientists will have a better chance to understand 
Europa's interior when the spacecraft gathers gravity data on 
another flyby next November.  The gravity field is measured by 
tracking how the frequency of Galileo's radio signal changes as 
it flies past the moon.  This was not possible during the recent 
flyby because radio conditions were degraded as Jupiter passed 
behind the Sun from Earth's point of view.  Europa is 
crisscrossed by an amazingly complex network of ridges, according 
to Sullivan.  "Ridges are visible at all resolutions," he 
explained.  "Closely paired ridges are most common.  With higher 
resolution, ridges seen previously as singular features are 
revealed to be double."

Some of the ridges may have formed by tension in the icy crust:  
as two plates pull apart slightly, warmer material from below 
might push up and freeze to form a ridge.  Other ridges may have 
been formed by compression:  as two plates push together, the 
material where they meet might crumple to form the ridge.

In addition to ice flows and tectonics, Greeley and Sullivan 
noted that some areas on Europa seem to have been modified by 
unknown processes that scientists are still debating.  Greeley 
said that some areas, for example, seem to have been modified by 
"sublimation erosion"--the evaporation of water and other 
volatiles such as ammonia and methane into the vacuum of space.  
"Something is destroying the topography," said Greeley, "and this 
sublimation erosion is a good candidate for what is at work."

During last month's encounter, Galileo flew more than 200 times 
closer to Europa than the Voyager 2 spacecraft did in 1979.  
After a swing past Jupiter next week in what mission engineers 
call a "phasing orbit," Galileo's next targeted flyby will take 
it again past Europa as it passes within 364 miles (587 
kilometers) on Feb.  20.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the
Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, 
DC.

The new Galileo images of Europa are available on the Galileo 
home page:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/
-----------------------------------------------------------------

IN SEARCH OF HABITABLE MOONS
Pennsylvania State University release

University Park, Pa.--Recent identification of Jupiter-like 
planets around distant stars has raised hopes of extraterrestrial 
life outside our solar system, but not on the gas giants 
themselves.

"While gas giants probably will not support life, the moons 
orbiting these planets might meet the requirements necessary to 
sustain life," says Darren Williams, graduate student in 
astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State.

In today's (January 16) issue of the journal Nature, Williams, 
Dr. James F. Kasting, professor of geosciences, and Dr. Richard 
Wade, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, outline 
these requirements.

"First, the gas giant must orbit its star within the habitable 
zone--the zone around a star where the solar flux allows liquid 
water to exist," Williams says.  "If the orbit is too distant, 
water freezes.  If it is too close, high temperatures cause the 
hydrogen in water to be lost to space.  "

The researchers examined the known gas giants to see if they fell 
into their star's habitable zone.

"Only 16 Cyg Bb and 47 Uma B come near to being in the habitable 
zone," says Williams.  "Also, moons around gas giants must be 
able to sustain an atmosphere for billions of years and must also 
be close enough to their planet to have a stable orbit."

A moon's mass, the ionizing radiation it receives, the solar flux 
and the magnetic effects of the gas giant all play a part in 
trying to remove the atmosphere.

If a moon is too small, heating will cause the molecules of 
oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere to attain escape velocity--
the speed at which the moon's gravity will no longer hold them--
and disappear into space.  To retain oxygen and nitrogen, the 
moon must be at least 0.07 the size of the Earth.  But stellar 
heating is not the only consideration.  When ionized atomic 
nitrogen recombines with electrons, it may also be lost to space.  
A moon must be at least 0.12 the mass of Earth to keep from 
losing appreciable amounts of nitrogen by this process.

Another way to lose atmosphere is through the action of the gas 
giant's magnetosphere--the area in which the planet's magnetic 
field operates.  Moons in the magnetosphere lose atmosphere 
because of bombardment by trapped energetic charged particles.  A 
planet with its own magnetic field is protected from this effect, 
but, until recently, it was thought small bodies, like moons, did 
not have magnetic fields.

"The Galileo spacecraft's recent identification of a 
magnetosphere around Ganymede, which is only .03 the mass of 
Earth, suggests that some moons may not be affected by their 
planets magnetosphere," says Williams.  "We also know that 
Saturn's moon Titan travels in and out of the magnetosphere, but 
still has a dense nitrogen atmosphere.  This may not be the 
problem it was once thought."

To retain an atmosphere, moons must first form an atmosphere.  
Moons around extra solar gas giants might have received their 
water through bombardment by icy comets or carbonaceous 
asteroids, but research in our own solar system suggests that 
moons orbiting Jupiter-size planets have trouble retaining 
volatiles from comets.

If, however, moons originated in the outer part of stellar 
nebula, they may have incorporated large amounts of water.  These 
moons may have so much water that when in the habitable zone, 
they are oceanic with little dry land.  Between these watery 
moons and those devoid of water are inner moons like Jupiter's 
Europa which have a good balance of rock and water and are most 
likely to be Earth-like.

In the long term, habitable moons must also be able to compensate 
for the increasing brightness of their suns through time.  An 
increase in carbon dioxide, from volcanic activity, can cause 
greenhouse warming which compensates for a fainter sun.  As the 
moon ages--and the star becomes brighter--rock weathering 
continues to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but a 
decrease in geologic activity reduces the amounts of carbon 
dioxide replaced by geologic activity which, in turn, decreases 
greenhouse warming.  Normally, for a planet to retain internal 
heat and remain geologically active for 4.5 billion years, it 
must be at least 0.23 the mass of Earth or just over twice the 
mass of Mars.  This would be a large, planet-sized moon.

Moons close enough to gas-giants, however, may be warmed by tidal 
heating--the gravitation pull on the moon of the gas giant.  
These moons would support tectonic activity or at least 
individual volcanoes.

Williams is not the first to suggest moons of gas giants as 
likely locations for extraterrestrial life.  In the popular film 
"Return of the Jedi," the Ewoks race through a terrestrial-
looking landscape on the Forest Moon of Endor, in pursuit of the 
minions of Darth Vader, while the planet orbits a gas giant 
similar to Jupiter.

The planets 47 Uma B and 16 Cyg Bb are not perfect subjects for 
habitable moons.  47 Uma B lies just outside the habitable zone 
and 16 Cyg Bb has an orbit that is so eccentric it traverses the 
entire habitable zone dipping inside and outside the acceptable 
orbit.

While these are not perfect, there seems to be sufficient 
flexibility and variety of factors to suggest that given a large 
enough gas giant with large enough moons, life could evolve and 
persist.

Mr. Williams may be reached at (814) 863-7947 or
williams@astro.psu.edu
Dr. Kasting may be reached at (814) 865-3207 or
kasting@essc.psu.edu
Dr. Wade may be reached at (814) 865-0418 or wade@astro.psu.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------

BIORACK ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE:  ANOTHER STEP IN ESA'S PREPARATION 
FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
ESA press note

When the US Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on Sunday (12 
January) for the STS-81 mission to the Russian space station Mir, 
it carried the European Space Agency's Biorack facility on its 
fifth flight in space and its second of three to Mir.

The Biorack is being used during this nine-day mission to study 
the effects of radiation and the absence of gravity (i.e.  
microgravity) on plant, fungus, tissue and cell growth.  This 
research will help to determine the effects of long-duration 
spaceflight on organisms and prepare for the International Space 
Station.  The first element of the Space Station is scheduled to 
be later this year, in November.

The Biorack integrates several scientific facilities in a single 
rack--highly desirable given the limited room available onboard a 
spaceflight.  It offers incubators that permit experiments to be 
performed in different temperature controlled environments; 
simulated 1-g that allows investigator's to distinguish between 
effects induced by gravity and microgravity; and a "glovebox" or 
protected workspace for specimen handling.

Many of the 12 experiments being carried out during the flight, 
prepared by scientists from across Europe and one in the USA, are 
expected to provide information that can be used to prepare for 
both life and experimental work on board the International Space 
Station.  Those experiments include the following:

* Spaceflight conditions, namely cosmic radiation and 
microgravity, may have an influence on genetic processes in 
biological material.  This is important for all organisms, 
particularly as flights become longer.  Investigators are 
studying the effects on the DNA of a fungus as a step toward 
understanding the influence on the genetic processes in general
(Technical University of Munich, D).

* Bacteria can form a film on any surface submerged in or exposed 
to water, including the water systems for crew life support on 
board spacecraft.  To be able to provide the highest possible 
water quality on board and limit the crew's risk of infection, 
and to minimize the deterioration of water systems, experimenters 
are attempting to determine the effects of spaceflight and 
microgravity on the formation of such biofilms.  (Montana State 
University, Montana, USA)

* Biological material used in experiments that will be performed 
on board the International Space Station will have to be 
preserved to enable it to endure its transportation to the 
Station, a journey that will last from several days to a week and 
will be subjected to adverse conditions, including heavy 
vibrations, microgravity and radiation.  Scientists are looking 
at different methods of preserving different organisms and 
whether the basic properties of the specimens are affected.  
(Institutes in Amsterdam (NL), Zurich (CH), Louvain (B), Banyuls-
sur-Mer (F), Milan (I), and Montana (USA))

Some of the experiments will be further pursued when the Biorack 
is flown next, in May on board STS-84.  ESA astronaut Jean-
Francois Clervoy will be the payload commander on that mission 
and will oversee all of the Biorack experiments.

For further information, please contact ESA Public Relations 
Division 8/10, rue Mario Nikis F-75015-PARIS Tel:  
33.(0)1.53.69.71.55 Fax:
33.(0)1.53.69.76.90
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EMERGENCY REPAIR SAVES PATHFINDER WIND INSTRUMENT
By Mark Whalen
[from the JPL Universe]

It was an otherwise quiet Saturday morning for Gina Alleruzzo on 
Oct. 12.  She didn't have much planned for the day, maybe a 
little shopping.  Then the phone rang about noon.  It was her co-
worker Colin Mahoney, cognizant engineer for a wind instrument 
aboard the Pathfinder spacecraft.  Alleruzzo, a technician in the 
Electronics Packaging Group in Section 349, wondered what was up.  
"He never calls, especially on a Saturday," she noted.

It turns out that her low-key weekend would soon be history.  
Mahoney explained that she was needed to perform a bit of 
emergency "microsurgery." The patient? The Atmospheric Structural 
Instrument/ Meteorology Experiment (ASI/ MET), which was already 
packed aboard Pathfinder at Cape Canaveral.  A quality assurance 
inspection earlier that day by Don McQuarie of Section 506 
revealed breakages in tiny wires on the instrument's wind sensor, 
which will measure wind speed and direction on Mars, as well as 
temperature.  Alleruzzo, who built the instrument, was the 
logical choice to repair it.  However, Pathfinder was just about 
to be mated to its heat shield at the Cape.

There was no time to lose-the sensor had to be repaired over the 
next two days or the spacecraft would have to fly with the 
instrument unable to measure wind speed or to detect wind 
direction as accurately as planned.  The sensor has six elements, 
one of which is a wire around a fiberglass post.  The elements 
are wired in a series; if one breaks, the sensor is not 
operational.

Mahoney and Alleruzzo hopped a redeye flight to Florida that 
departed at 10:30 that night.  With no rest, she arrived at the 
Cape armed with a strand of wire about .08 millimeters (.003 
inches) thick, as well as a spare wind sensor.  She then 
confronted further complications:  Pathfinder's petals were 
already folded up into flight position, surrounding the broken 
sensor.

"I was worried because at first I couldn't see where it was 
broken," Alleruzzo said.  "I also couldn't see if the broken wire 
was tangled with another element."

Finally, with the aid of a microscope, she was able to see that 
only one of the six elements was broken.  But she was still faced 
with the daunting task of removing the damaged wire and then 
replacing it, having just 6 to 8 inches of work space between 
Pathfinder's closed petals.  After installing a protective cover 
over the instrument and carefully positioning herself under the 
spacecraft, she reached her hand around a bracket to wrap the 
delicate wire.  The job was completed in about an hour, and 
subsequent tests showed that the sensor was working once again.

"The flight launch preparation team and senior project staff were 
dubious that Gina could fix it because of the physical 
restrictions and delicacy of the job and because the petals were 
already folded up," noted Clayton LaBaw, ASI/MET instrument 
manager .

Alleruzzo's ability to perform the delicate work proved crucial 
to the survival of the instrument in part because of its position 
within the spacecraft.  The sensor is poised atop a mast that 
will stand upright after the spacecraft lands and its petals 
open.  "If the mast had to be removed from the petals, it might 
have taken two weeks to repair the instrument and reconfigure the 
spacecraft," Mahoney said.  "So the only option was to repair it 
on the spacecraft already folded up."

Alleruzzo's resourcefulness resulted in congratulations from 
Pathfinder Project Manager Tony Spear and Mars Program Manager 
Donna Shirley.  Alleruzzo, who has worked at JPL for three and a 
half years and has supported instrument manufacturing for 
numerous Lab missions, seemed to take the whole episode in 
stride.

"Whoever broke the wire probably didn't even know it happened," 
she said.  "Thanks to Don's final viewing, we discovered the 
damaged wind sensor in time to repair it.

"The flight team felt bad that the instrument was broken, but was 
elated that I was able to fix it," she said.  "It wasn't exactly 
an easy thing to do, but I knew I could do it."
-----------------------------------------------------------------

MONKEY DIES AFTER COMPLETING 14-DAY BION MISSION
NASA release 97-9

A rhesus monkey, one of two just returned to Earth after the 
Russian Bion 11 flight, died Jan. 8, 1997, post-operatively after 
all post-mission tests were completed at the Institute for 
Biomedical Problems in Moscow.  The cause of the animal's death 
is unknown at this time.  The death will be investigated 
separately by both the Russian Space Agency and NASA.

Ronald Merrell, M.D., Chairman, Department of Surgery,
Yale University, New Haven, CT, will determine a process for an 
independent investigation of the incident.  Merrell is the Chair 
of the NASA Bion Task Force.

The Bion program is a cooperative space venture among the U.S., 
Russian and French space agencies for the conduct of biomedical 
research using Russian-owned rhesus monkeys.  The 14-day Bion 11 
mission, carrying two rhesus monkeys, began on Dec. 24, 1996, 
with its launch from Russia's Plesetsk launch site.  The mission 
landed in Kazakhstan on Jan.  7.  The monkeys "were alert, active 
and knew the people who were there to greet them," according to 
Dr. Joseph Bielitzki, NASA's Chief Veterinary Officer, who 
observed the landing.

The monkeys were then transported to the Institute for Biomedical 
Problems where postflight testing was conducted.  The data 
collected are still being analyzed and will help U.S., French and 
Russian investigators understand how space flight affects the 
musculoskeletal system, as well as animal behavior and 
physiology.  Following the recovery period, the remaining monkey 
will be retired to the Institute of Medical Primatology (Russian 
Primate Center) at Sochi/Adler.
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ROVER ROUNDUP

Sponsored by The Planetary Society

Saturday, February 1, 1997
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Santa Monica Beach
(Opposite Loews Hotel at 1700 Ocean Ave)
Santa Monica, California

Admission:  Free

In conjunction with the 1997 International Conference on Mobile 
Planetary Robots, The Planetary Society will host a Rover Roundup 
on the beach in Santa Monica, a couple of blocks south of the 
Santa Monica pier.  The Roundup will feature robotics rovers that 
have been designed to explore other worlds remotely, just as 
Sojourner will explore Mars when Pathfinder lands on the Red 
Planet this summer on the 4th of July.

Ranging in size from a few inches to six feet, the rovers will 
traverse sand dunes and maneuver around rocky obstacles, 
controlled through teleoperations or by autonomous navigation.  
The international collection will feature rovers from all over 
the United States as well as from Russia, Japan and Germany.

Join the fun for a glimpse of the future in planetary 
exploration.

International co-sponsors:  NASA, JPL, AIAA, ESA, CNES, DARA, 
ISAS, NASDA, ASI, AKA, NPO Lavochkin and IKI.
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LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--LIFE ON MARS

Dr. Robert Jastrow, Director of the Mount Wilson Institute, will 
be the lead-off speaker in the MWOA (Mt. Wilson Observatory) 
Winter-Spring Lecture Series.

"Evidence for Life on Mars:  Implications for Humankind's Place 
in the Cosmos"

Altadena Public Library, 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 
Sunday, January 26, 1997
Refreshments at 1:30 PM
Lecture at 2:00 PM

Dr. Jastrow is the well known author of "God and the 
Astronomers," "Red Giants and White Dwarfs" and "A Journey to the 
Stars."  Dr. Jastrow will tie together the recent "life on Mars" 
discoveries, announcements, and controversies, with the new 
technology at Mt.  Wilson Observatory, designed to aid in the 
quest for extrasolar planets.

Jastrow is never boring, so don't miss this one.

Get to the library via the 210 fwy; exit north on Lake.  Go about 
2.5 miles, turn left on Mariposa.  Library is at the 2nd stop 
sign (Santa Rosa Ave), SW corner.
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LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENT--RETURN TO MARS

"Return to Mars:  Twenty Years After Viking"
Dr. Arden Albee
Watson Caltech Lecture
Wednesday, February 19, at 8 p.m.
Beckman Auditorium
Admission:  FREE

Shortly after Election Day two spacecraft embarked on return 
missions to Mars--the first since Viking 20 years ago and the 
first in a decade long program of robotic exploration of Mars.  
Only a few months earlier scientists had announced the possible 
discovery of fossil life in a meteorite recovered from the 
Antarctic.  These events have once again focused popular 
attention on Mars.

Mars is an extremely rich mission target because the scientific 
questions it poses touch on geology, geophysics, geochemistry, 
atmospheric physics, climatology, biology, and most of all, 
comparative planetology and the evolution of life.  Mars Global 
Surveyor will carry out an extensive orbital study of Mars using 
its suite of sophisticated remote-sensing instruments.  Mars 
Pathfinder will be the first mission to land on the Red Planet 
since Viking and will carry an autonomous rover to explore the 
surface.  Neither mission will directly address the question of 
life on Mars, but they will provide a rich storehouse of 
information for scientists to study, leading to still more 
directed questions about the planet.  Subsequent missions in 
1998, 2001, 2003, and 2005 will address fundamental questions 
about the evolution of Mars and in particular whether life ever 
evolved on Mars.
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MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORT
JPL release

Friday, 17 January 1997

On Monday of this week, Surveyor's flight team activated the Mars 
Orbiter Camera in preparation for four days of star imaging.  
Once per afternoon from Tuesday through Friday, the spacecraft 
turned to point the camera at a cluster of stars called the 
Pleiades.  Over the course of one hour on each imaging day, the 
camera observed stars within the cluster in order to perform 
focus checks.

Communications with the spacecraft during star imaging was not 
possible because the star-pointed orientation resulted in 
pointing the high-gain antenna away from the Earth.  
Consequently, all of the data from the camera was stored on 
Surveyor's solid-state recorders.  This data was transmitted back 
to Earth approximately three hours after the conclusion of each 
day's imaging.  The daily playback of camera data required 49 
minutes.  During that time, Surveyor transmitted 250 megabits of 
data at a downlink rate of 85,333 bits per second.

Next week, the onboard flight computer will activate heaters in 
the camera that will bake the epoxy structure of the camera to 
remove residual moisture.  A set of four more star images will be 
taken after the bakeout period ends in late March.  The star 
images taken this week will serve as a reference to assess the 
focusing capability of the camera after the bakeout.

Other activities this week included a two-hour radio-science 
calibration that occurred late in the evening on Wednesday.  This 
test involved using the spacecraft's ultra-stable oscillator to 
control the frequency or "tone" of Surveyor's radio transmissions 
to the Earth.  Normally, the spacecraft listens to a signal 
transmitted from the Earth as a reference to set the tone of the 
signal transmitted to Earth.  The oscillator functions as an 
electronic clock that can precisely control the tone of 
Surveyor's signal without listening to the Earth-based reference 
signal.

Future tests of the oscillator will occur approximately every 
other week until the spacecraft reaches Mars.  These tests are 
important because a stable radio signal as controlled by the 
oscillator will be critical toward the collection of scientific 
data at Mars.

After a mission elapsed time of 71 days from launch, Surveyor is 
16.05 million kilometers from the Earth, 136.00 million 
kilometers from Mars, and is moving in an orbit around the Sun 
with a velocity of 30.85 kilometers per second.  This orbit will 
intercept Mars on September 12th, 1997.  All systems on the 
spacecraft continue to be in excellent condition.
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End Marsbugs Vol.  4, No.  2.

