MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter
Volume 4, Number 12, 25 July, 1997.

Editors:

David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of 
Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA, thoma457@uidaho.edu or 
Marsbugs@aol.com.

Julian Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton 
Laboratory, Berkshire, RG20 7NN, UK.  Julian.Hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk 
or Marsbug@msn.com

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)	MARS PATHFINDER, IMP BRING MARS HOME TO EARTH
	University of Arizona News Services

2)	FROM DEEP BLUE TO DEEP SPACE:  IBM RS/6000 TECHNOLOGY 
EXPLORES NEW WORLDS; TAKES ON GREAT CHALLENGES AT HOME
	IBM News

3)	PLANET PLACE NAMES IN THE U.S.:  MARS MAY BE JUST AROUND THE 
CORNER
	U.S. Geological Survey

4)	NEW STUDIES OF MARTIAN METEORITE LAUNCHED
	NSF PR 97-50

5)	NASA TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP ASSESS RISK OF BONE PROBLEMS
	NASA release:  97-155
6)	NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY LECTURE SERIES:  SPECIAL EVENT!
	"Venus Revealed"

7)	MARS PATHFINDER MISSION STATUS
	JPL reports

8)	MARS PATHFINDER MIRROR SITES
	Choose the location nearest you
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MARS PATHFINDER, IMP BRING MARS HOME TO EARTH
University of Arizona News Services

July 7, 1997

Over the July 4 weekend, a science team lead by Peter H.  Smith 
of the University of Arizona became the most famous photographers 
in the solar system.  Smith heads the Imager for Mars Pathfinder, 
the camera taking stunning color and stereoscopic photos from the 
surface of Mars.

On Sunday morning, July 6, Smith showed the world IMP's "monster 
panorama" of the Mars landscape at Ares Vallis, the landing site.  
Mars Pathfinder geologists are ecstatic with the site, which 
presents them with what Dan Britt calls "a cornucopia of rocks" 
and soils that will help unravel the mystery of Mars' planetary 
evolution.  Britt is a planetary geologist with the UA Lunar and 
Planetary Lab and IMP team project manager.

Part of the panorama shows two peaks on the Martian horizon, 
about a mile from the lander.  The peaks resemble the twin peaks 
in the "M" in IMP's logo.  "It's fate, I believe," Smith said.

The panorama and many other IMP images are being posted on the 
World Wide Web.

"Please come in and look at the panorama and experience Mars for 
yourself," Smith urged everyone watching the July 6 news 
conference, televised from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 
Pasadena, Calif., on the NASA Select channel.

More than 100 million web viewers had accessed the Web site by 
Sunday.  Mars Pathfinder soon will be the largest Internet event 
in history, mission leaders say.

Images are availabale at two sites:
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov, which includes a listing of several 
mirror sites, and http://mars.sgi.com.

The new images also are being archived on the University of 
Arizona LPL site at http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/imp/index.html.

The IMP and the mission's rover, Sojourner, have begun to explore 
the terrain, starting with a nearby rock that scientists 
affectionately tag as "Barnacle Bill" for its lumpy surface.  
First good views and spectra on Barnacle Bill are to be 
downlinked today, July 7.
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FROM DEEP BLUE TO DEEP SPACE:  IBM RS/6000 TECHNOLOGY EXPLORES 
NEW WORLDS; TAKES ON GREAT CHALLENGES AT HOME
IBM News

July 7, 1997

The same IBM RS/6000 technology that took on Chess Grand Master 
Garry Kasparov has delivered NASA's Pathfinder to a safe landing 
on Mars.  From Deep Blue to deep space, IBM technology is 
exploring new worlds, will be powering the world's fastest 
supercomputer in the future, and is serving as host for the most 
popular Web sites of our time.

The flight computer aboard the Pathfinder, the RAD 6000, is based 
on a version of IBM's RS/6000 technology.  The RAD 6000 is the 
most powerful on-board flight computer ever used by the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory and the first commercially based processor 
to travel into deep space.  The computer, supplied by Lockheed 
Martin Federal Systems in Manassas, Virginia, contains a 
radiation-hardened single chip implementation of the RS/6000 
processor.

The RAD 6000 was responsible for over 100 pyro (explosive) events 
that allowed the Pathfinder to land safely on Mars, including 
deploying the parachutes, inflating the airbags, and firing the 
retro rockets.  In the coming month, the flight computer will 
continue to control such important activities as establishing and 
maintaining communications with Earth, Mars and the Sojourner 
rover, managing both the lander camera that will bring back 
images of the Martian landscape, and directing the lander's 
meteorological station used to study the makeup of the Martian 
atmosphere.

NASA developed the Pathfinder in less than three years at a cost 
of approximately $170 million, or less than the price of some 
major motion pictures.  This budget signals NASA's commitment to 
doing more with less in an age of fiscal restraint.  Economies 
were achieved by using commercially available hardware, like the 
RS/6000, which allowed NASA to more quickly begin developing 
specialized software for the mission.

RS/6000 background

The selection for the Pathfinder mission is a tribute to the 
performance and reliability of RS/6000 technology.  More than 
600,000 RS/6000 systems are in use by over 100,000 commercial and 
technical customers around the world.  The RS/6000 is IBM's 
family of computers that feature the Reduced Instruction Set 
Computing (RISC)-based PowerPC* chip and AIX*, IBM's UNIX**-based 
operating system.  IBM's RS/6000 products range in size and 
capability from laptops, workstations, workgroup and enterprise 
servers, to the RS/6000 SP*, the flagship "supercomputer" that 
challenged Kasparov.

From businesses working to become more efficient and profitable, 
to governments and universities seeking to solve the greatest 
challenges of our time, the RS/6000 supports a wide range of 
applications and provides the reliability, availability, and 
price/performance that today's information technology managers 
demand.

Among the many high-profile applications of RS/6000 technology:

* The Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory 
selected IBM to build what will be the world's fastest 
supercomputer, an RS/6000 SP.  When complete, the computer will 
serve as a watchdog for the nation's nuclear stockpile--allowing 
scientists to develop 3D simulations to analyze the effects of 
aging on our nation's nuclear weapons.  In a White House press 
conference, President Clinton said the computer will calculate in 
one second what it would take someone with a hand-held computer 
30,000 years to do.

* With more than 2,500 systems installed around the world, nearly 
40 percent of the U.S.  Fortune 100 companies have selected the 
RS/6000 SP for such demanding applications as data warehousing, 
online transaction processing, enterprise resource planning, and 
server consolidation.  The world's most successful companies rely 
on the SP to:  access and update huge data bases, including 
airline and hotel reservation systems; identify consumer buying 
habits that improve profitability and reduce expenses; coordinate 
the disparate departments of global corporations; and power the 
Web sites that attract millions of visitors each day.

* The IBM RS/6000 is rapidly becoming the Web server of choice--
powering sites as demanding as the U.S.  Tennis Open, Wimbledon, 
and the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.  Leading companies have 
recognized the performance and scalability of the RS/6000, 
including Charles Schwab.  Schwab uses RS/6000 to accommodate the 
rapid growth of its online trading service--which allows its 
customers to buy and sell securities over the Internet.

* Automakers, airline manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies 
around the world are reducing business costs and bringing 
products to market faster by using RS/6000 workstations and 
servers to design and develop new products.  In Dresden, Germany, 
RS/6000 workstations are helping to rebuild die Frauenkirche 
(Church of Our Lady), one of Europe's most treasured 
architectural landmarks that was destroyed during Allied Forces 
bombing raids in World War II.

* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International 
Business Machines Corporation.

** UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other 
countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.  AIX 
Version 4.2 is branded X/Open UNIX 95, signifying full compliance 
with the Single UNIX Specification (formerly known as Spec 1170).
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PLANET PLACE NAMES IN THE U.S.:  MARS MAY BE JUST AROUND THE 
CORNER
U.S. Geological Survey

July 15, 1997

Can't find a travel agent booking flights to Mars? Try exploring 
one of the 478 planet places right here in the United States.

For those determined to get to Mars there is always Mars, PA; or 
you can climb Mount Mars, CA; or cross over Mars Bridge in SC; or 
take a dip in Mars Lake, WI.  Of course no trip to Mars would be 
complete without touching down on Mars Landing Strip, OH.

If you don't want to limit yourself to Mars, try Neptune Island, 
NY, fly into Venus Airport, TX picnic on Uranus Ridge, ID, fish 
Saturn Creek, OR, swim in Mercury Lake, MI, or maybe a hike 
through Pluto Canyon, NV, is more to your liking.

When it comes to naming our towns, rivers, mountains, and other 
geographical features, the most common planet name in the U.S.  
is Mars which describes 185 features and the least common planet 
name is Uranus, which appears on 17 geographic locations.  Earth 
falls near the middle with about 47 geographic locations, aside 
from the actual planet, of course.

As much fun as they are, heavenly names, like all place names in 
the U.S., aren't handed out lightly.  The U.S.  Board of 
Geographic Names is responsible for standardizing more than 2 
million geographic names in the United States for use on Federal 
maps and publications.  The interagency Board considers about 400 
proposed new and revised names for geographic features that are 
submitted each year by citizens and organizations from across the 
country.  The U.S.  Geological Survey, as the Nation's largest 
civilian mapping agency, provides staff support for the domestic 
names work of the Board.

"A map is about the last place you want to spell a name wrong or 
put the wrong name on the wrong feature" said Roger Payne, 
Executive Secretary of the U.S.  Board.  "There are a lot of good 
reasons to keep track of what we call our hills, rivers, and 
swamps and where they are," Payne said.  "Is the rescue pilot 
going to the right mountain, is the proposed name of the new town 
already in use, and is it Mount Venus or Venus Mountain?"

The newly generated excitement over the Pathfinder Mission and 
the geological features being discovered and named on Mars is 
sure to renew interest in naming celestial bodies and features.

You can visit the Geographic Names and USGS Mars mission home 
pages at:

http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/ and 
http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/USGSFlag/Space/nomen/nomen.html
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NEW STUDIES OF MARTIAN METEORITE LAUNCHED
NSF PR 97-50

July 17, 1997

The National Science Foundation has awarded grants for seven new 
projects to study Martian meteorite ALH84001 in greater depth.  
The grants are part of a coordinated program with NASA to further 
investigate possible traces of ancient life in the Martian rock.

After the announcement last August that the meteorite may harbor 
fossils of ancient Martian life, NSF and NASA called for further 
research into the evidence.  The agencies set up a coordinated, 
interdisciplinary program which included joint review of research 
proposals.  NASA announced on June 19 that it had awarded 16 
individual grants under the program.

NSF's seven new grants, totaling nearly $800,000 for projects 
over two or three years, will use advanced instrumentation to 
further analyze the provocative rock.  Some projects will study 
ALH84001 itself.  Others will investigate analogous features in 
terrestrial rocks from environments that may resemble those of 
ancient Mars--hot springs and other extreme habitats of 
earthbound microbes--to provide a better context for 
understanding the tiny structures in the Martian rock.

Meteorite ALH84001 is one of about 8,000 meteorites collected in 
Antarctica by U.S.  researchers.  NSF is the lead agency for 
managing the collection and distribution of Antarctic meteorites, 
done in collaboration with NASA and the Smithsonian Institution.  
Samples of ALH84001 are being sent to the researchers from the 
Antarctic Meteorite Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in 
Houston.  The samples, typically only a few grams apiece, are 
handled similarly to the lunar samples collected during the 
Apollo program.

The new research will include scanning the meteorite for 
extremely fine-scale alteration of the mineral interface by 
microbes.  Other studies will focus on the meteorite's carbon 
isotopes to see if they reflect a ratio typical of microbial 
life, and develop a chemical method to fingerprint biological 
activity in meteorites using different isotopes of iron, some of 
which may be taken up preferentially by living organisms.

Still other projects will look at mineral particles--oxides and 
sulfides of iron--with potential as "biomarkers" (signs of past 
life) both in the Martian meteorite and in bacteria on Earth.  
Some researchers will attempt to:  fix the temperature and fluid 
composition under which the meteorite's minerals formed, 
presently an area of controversy; develop thermodynamic models 
for mineral alteration in hydrothermal environments; and 
delineate the rock's temperature history and its past 
infiltration by fluids.

Institutions receiving the grants are the University of 
Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, Iowa 
State University, Arizona State University, University of 
Minnesota, University of California-Santa Cruz, University of 
Hawaii, Washington University in St.  Louis, and the California 
Institute of Technology.
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NASA TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP ASSESS RISK OF BONE PROBLEMS
NASA release:  97-155

A portable device developed for the space program to examine how 
physical activity relates to bone density may someday serve as a 
way to assess a person's risk of osteoporosis.

The device, developed by researchers in the Life Sciences 
Division at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 
provides a record of the major forces people apply to their 
bodies throughout the day.  It does this by measuring and 
recording the interaction between the foot and the ground during 
daily activity.  This "loading" of the body plays an important 
role in maintaining muscle and bone strength in the lower limbs.

"This device was designed to quantify daily physical activity and 
daily musculoskeletal loading by measuring the ground-reaction 
force," said Dr. Robert Whalen, head of the Musculoskeletal 
Biomechanics Laboratory in the Gravitational Research Branch at 
Ames.  The device measures the force that occurs on the foot 
during each step.  The force can reach one and one-half times a 
person's body weight during walking and two to three times body 
weight during running.  "It's very important to monitor this 
force throughout the day because it also is responsible for high 
muscle and bone forces in the legs and critical bone regions such 
as the hip and pelvis," Whalen explained.

The force exerted on the body when it meets the ground is what 
keeps muscles and bones in the lower body strong.  If muscles and 
bones aren't used, they become significantly weaker, a problem 
encountered by astronauts during space flight, particularly by 
astronauts who do not exercise vigorously in space.  "Maintaining 
muscles and bones during long duration space flight is primarily 
a biomechanical problem," Whalen said.  "With current in-flight 
exercise devices, it is difficult to achieve force levels 
equivalent to levels achieved during normal daily activity on 
Earth.  We are investigating new ways to counteract these changes 
with devices capable of imposing Earth-equivalent levels of force 
on the body in space."

Whalen and Dr. Gregory Breit, researchers at Ames, are studying 
the relationship between the mechanical forces humans put on the 
skeleton every day and the structure of the skeleton.  "Bone is 
highly responsive to mechanical forces," Breit said.  "That may 
be the key to understanding why bone is lost gradually with age 
and why certain exercise programs can't build bone mass," Whalen 
added.

The key, Whalen explained, is determining how individuals can 
"load" their bodies to maintain muscle and bone strength.  Since 
our muscles generate their own forces, we are limited by how 
strong our muscles are.  "If you don't have the muscle strength, 
you can't exert high forces on bones to increase bone mass," 
Whalen said.  "As people age, a gradual decline in activity level 
and intensity contributes to a decline in muscle strength, and 
therefore our ability to load our bones also decreases." The 
result can be less dense, weaker bones that are more prone to 
fractures.

The device consists of two elements:  a force sensor resembling 
an insole that is worn in the shoe, and a small computer carried 
in a fanny pack.  A cable connects the sensor to the small 
computer, which samples the applied force 100 times per second.  
It stores only the significant maximum and minimum forces 
occurring during each loading or gait cycle, as well as the peak 
loading and unloading rate and the time at which each event 
occurred.  The device is capable of storing approximately two 
weeks of activity data.

Although scientists have used step-meters and activity logs to 
estimate a person's daily activity level and musculoskeletal 
loading history, Whalen said these devices don't give a reliable 
measurement of forces on the skeleton, due to differences among 
people and differences in the amount and "intensity" of their 
daily activities.  A person walking quickly will generally 
experience higher forces than when walking more slowly, for 
example.  The new device provides a reliable measure of the 
actual forces exerted on the body.

The Ames researchers are collaborating with the Palo Alto 
Veterans Administration Hospital and with Stanford University, 
Palo Alto, CA, to study how daily activity level and exercise 
influence bone density.  "Once we have enough data, we can get an 
idea of the daily physical activity level of an 'average' 
person," Breit said.  "Then people can decide if they are above 
or below average and what they need to do to improve.  In the 
future, we hope to understand bone adaptation well enough to 
assess whether an individual's bone density is consistent with 
his or her daily activity level."

Breit said that this device will allow measurement of an 
individual's activity to assess his or her risk of low bone 
density from low physical activity level and will allow an 
individual exercise prescription to improve the health of an 
older person.

For photographs or more information about the Musculoskeletal 
Biomechanics Laboratory, visit the Web site at URL:  
http://pioneer.arc.nasa.gov/~rwhalen/
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NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY LECTURE SERIES:  SPECIAL EVENT!
"Venus Revealed"
by David Harry Grinspoon

Thursday, July 31, 7:30 p.m.

Professor David Grinspoon of the University of Colorado, author 
of the book Venus Revealed, will talk about the history of and 
our current understanding of "Earth's twin." He says what we know 
of Venus can help protect the environment of Earth.

The lecture will be held at MIT Lab for Computer Science, 8th 
floor, room NE43-800, 545 Tech.  Square, on Main St.  at railroad 
tracks, Cambridge.  (617)258-2828.  Free, A/C, refreshments.

These meetings are sponsored by the Boston Chapter of the 
National Space Society (NSS); together with the MIT chapter of 
the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS).  
NSS sponsors lectures on space related topics, usually on the 
first Thursday of every month at the location listed above.
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MARS PATHFINDER MISSION STATUS
JPL reports

6 July 1997, 11:30 am PDT

Today is a working day on Mars.  Both the Imager for Mars 
Pathfinder and the Sojourner Rover have their work cutout for 
them today.

First, the Imager will be taking what the Mars Pathfinder team 
affectionately calls the "monster panorama." It will image the 
entire 360 degree view using both "eyes" and its red filter.  The 
use of spectral filters enables geologists to get a good idea of 
the composition of rocks and soil.

The resulting stereo image will also be an important planning 
tool for Sojourner controllers since they will be able to see in 
3 dimensions and plan for the upcoming activities accordingly.  
The rover driver will be able to put on his stereo goggles and 
plan the route the rover will be taking to get to the first 
designated target rock.

This rock, now named "Barnacle Bill" has interesting features 
that Mars Pathfinder scientists and geologists are eager to see 
close-up.  Today the rover will make a 20 degree turn and back up 
to this rock in order to place its Alpha Proton X-Ray 
Spectrometer (APXS) there.

Good news coming out of Mars Pathfinder Mission Control:  the 
data rate at which the lander communicates back to Earth has been 
increased to 8 kb/sec, an unprecedented communication rate this 
early in a mission.  This will allow more data to be received 
back here on Earth, and more commands to be sent up to Mars.

July 6, 1997
9 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

With a perfectly healthy lander and rover on the surface of Mars, 
scientists on the Mars Pathfinder team burned the midnight oil 
last night to design their first day of activities for the 
robust, 23-pound rover named Sojourner Truth.

The rover spent its first night on Mars very near the end of the 
rear ramp from which it exited the lander last night, taking 
measurements of the Martian soil with its alpha proton X-ray 
spectrometer.  At 3:45 p.m.  PDT today, the operations team at 
JPL "woke up" the rover by playing "Final Frontier," the theme 
song from the television program "Mad About You," in keeping with 
the traditional wake-up songs used to arouse the astronauts 
during space shuttle missions.

Two experiments for Sol 3 were radiated to Pathfinder earlier 
today.  The first is a soil mechanics experiment, in which the 
rover will lock five of its wheels, then turn the sixth wheel in 
both directions.  Scientists will observe the depth of the wheel 
tracks and the movement of a top layer of fine-grain material.  
The second experiment will send Sojourner to its first rock, 
nicknamed "Barnacle Bill," for its very rough, barnacle- like 
surface.

This traverse to Barnacle Bill will involve two maneuvers for the 
rover:  the first to turn its wheels approximately 70 degrees in 
the direction of the rock; the second maneuver to move backward 
with its fully deployed spectrometer until it touches the rock.  
The rover will travel approximately 36 centimeters (1.2 feet) to 
reach the rock.  Once the spectrometer has been placed against 
Barnacle Bill, Sojourner will spend the night gathering data on 
its composition.

"With any luck, we will get a picture of Sojourner holding hands 
with Barnacle Bill," said Brian Muirhead, deputy project manager, 
at a 6 p.m.  press briefing.

Among the most anticipated data expected to be returned tonight 
are 12-color, high resolution images that will be pieced together 
like a mosaic to create a 360-degree, color panorama, or "monster 
pan," of the landing site.  The color variations and higher 
resolution will help scientists identify more geological features 
worthy of exploration in this very rocky flood plain.  The first 
picture of the Pathfinder lander taken by the rover is also 
expected to be returned tonight.

Scientists pointed out other interesting rocks, soil deposits and 
features on the horizon in this evening's press briefing.  A pair 
of mountain peaks, nicknamed "Twin Peaks," revealed ribbons of 
different colored rock.  Scientists noted that the horizontal 
bands could be sedimentary layers or terraces cut by erosion.  
Angular rocks appearing in the foreground, all leaning in the 
same direction, suggest they were ejected from a nearby impact 
crater.  A variety of smooth round rocks suggested that they were 
transported by water in Mars' early evolution.

"In the initial analysis of these images, we see multiple 
episodes of flooding, not just one catastrophic event, but many," 
said Dr.  Ronald Greeley, of Arizona State University, a co- 
investigator on the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) team.

"We have a view of Mars that we have never seen before," added 
Dr.  Matthew Golombek, project scientist at JPL.  "We really have 
a grab bag of rocks here, varying in color, texture, fabric, 
sizes and shapes.  They are completely different from the Viking 
landing sites and from each other too."

Scientists expect to begin reporting results of the first day of 
science activities at a 10 a.m.  PDT press briefing at JPL.  
Meanwhile, all instruments and spacecraft systems continue to 
perform exceptionally well.  The operations team will be 
increasing Pathfinder's data rate to more than 8,000 bits per 
second tomorrow in order to maximize the return of science 
measurements.

July 7, 1997
1 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

Moderate weather yesterday, temperatures hovering around minus 76 
degrees Fahrenheit, pressure about 6.8 millibars, steady light 
winds blowing from the southeast.  Afternoon temperatures reached 
about 10 degrees Fahrenheit.  The forecast for today:  10 degrees 
Fahrenheit, cooling overnight to about minus 105 degrees 
Fahrenheit.

A little extreme for an Earthly weather report? Perhaps, but with 
that, scientists on the Mars Pathfinder mission today presented 
the first weather report from Ares Vallis, an outflow channel on 
the surface of Mars.

Four days into surface operations, the Mars Pathfinder lander, 
rover and instruments are performing perfectly and returning a 
wealth of new data on the rocks, soils and atmosphere of Mars.

"The site is everything we hoped it would be," said Dr.  Matthew 
Golombek, Pathfinder project scientist, at a 10 a.m.  PDT press 
briefing.  "We are finding more and more surprises as we look in 
detail at the rocks and terrain."

Images presented this morning included the first photograph of 
the lander taken by the rover.  The image showed final retraction 
of the airbags in a very high, puffy clump that blocked most of 
the lander from view.

Meanwhile, the lander's Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) camera 
has provided a new perspective on rocks and hills on the Martian 
horizon now that it is deployed on its mast and photographing the 
site at an elevation of 1.0 meters (3.2 feet) above the lander, 
said Dr.  Peter Smith, IMP principal investigator from the 
University of Arizona.

Another new image presented this morning showed Sojourner Truth, 
the 23-pound rover that has begun to explore rocks around the 
landing site, as it was gathering data overnight on "Barnacle 
Bill." This rock, which was about 36 centimeters (1.2 feet) from 
the rover after it exited the lander, is thought to be about 8- 
to-10-inches tall, Smith said, and has a very distinctive surface 
that looks almost as if it is covered with barnacle-shaped 
objects.

"Here we have proof that Sojourner sort of nestled up and kissed 
Barnacle Bill," Golombek said as the photograph was presented.

"We have also received data from the rover's first soil 
experiment.  The APXS (alpha proton X-ray spectrometer) is 
working perfectly," Golombek continued.  "However, because we 
started taking data earlier in the day than we originally 
planned, the temperatures on Mars were warmer than the detectors 
liked and we have a bit of noise in the spectra.  The team needs 
an extra day to try to figure out how to subtract that noise 
out."

The science team said a full chemical analysis of both the 
Martian soil and Barnacle Bill would be reported at tomorrow's 11 
a.m.  PDT press briefing.  Meanwhile, Sojourner will travel to a 
larger rock later today, called "Yogi," and study the composition 
of the soil around it using the alpha proton X-ray spectrometer.  
Several scientists have commented that a smooth depression of 
soil around the rock resembles a moat.

Looking south at a pair of sloping hills, called "Twin Peaks," 
that are about a mile away, Smith pointed out new observations 
made possible by the fully deployed IMP camera.  A depression in 
the landscape in front of the peaks suggests the presence of a 
channel.  "This is actually a channel back behind those rocks, 
we're on the edge of a channel," he said.

A high resolution close-up of the Martian soil near the base of 
the lander also revealed a texture perfectly preserved in the 
Martian environment.  Dr.  Jim Bell of Cornell University 
explained the calibration targets that are used to achieve the 
true color of the Martian landscape.  Color variations allow 
scientists to identify different types of minerals that are 
present in the environment.  The bright reddish color of the 
soil, for example, points to the presence of oxidized iron in 
surface materials.

"The surface of Mars is rusting," Bell said.  "We don't know when 
or how fast it's rusting, but we hope to find these things out.  
Not all of the surfaces are the same, though.  There's lots of 
diversity and variation in the landscape.  We can see some 
surfaces that are much less red, for example, and more consistent 
with volcanic rocks."

Building on comments made yesterday by Dr.  Ronald Greeley 
(Arizona State University) about the evidence for floods in this 
region, Dr.  Michael Malin, an interdisciplinary scientist, said 
the floods were so catastrophic that they would have filled up 
the Mediterranean basin here on Earth.  Evidence, he said, can be 
seen in the variety of rocks, sediments and "puddles" left in the 
Martian soil that materials from the highlands were swept into 
this flood basin.

A full color, 360-degree panorama of the Pathfinder landing site 
will be presented at tomorrow's 11 a.m.  press briefing, as will 
data about the composition of the Martian soil and Barnacle Bill.

Briefings are carried live on NASA TV, which is available on GE-
2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical 
polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.

July 8, 1997
3 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

The first in-situ chemical measurements ever obtained of a rock 
on Mars - nicknamed Barnacle Bill for its rough, barnacle-like 
surface - surprised scientists and raised questions about the 
duration of volcanic activity occurring on Mars in its early 
formation.

Dr.  Rudolph Rieder, of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, 
Germany, and principal investigator on the Alpha Proton X-Ray 
Spectrometer (APXS) team, reported that Barnacle Bill, an 8-to-
10-inch tall rock near the Mars Pathfinder lander, was unusually 
rich in silicon, which is more characteristic of Earth rocks than 
Martian rocks.  On Earth, volcanic rocks contain significant 
amounts of free silica in the form of quartz.  The rich silicon 
content puts Barnacle Bill in one of the most common categories 
of volcanic rocks on Earth, known as "andesites."

"It turns out this rock has some rather peculiar chemical 
characteristics, which make it very unlike the other SNC 
meteorites," said Dr.  Hap McSween, University of Tennessee, who 
is a participating scientist on the APXS team.  (The SNC 
meteorites are those found on Earth that are believed to be of 
Martian origin.)

"In particular, it has a very high content of silicon or silicon 
dioxide (quartz)," McSween said.  "It appears that Barnacle Bill 
falls into a category called 'andesites,' which are among the 
most common volcanic rocks on Earth."

Andesites are mixtures of very fine crystalline and other 
minerals that are formed through a process known as 
differentiation.  Differentiation is the process by which crustal 
materials deep within a planet's interior are repeatedly melted 
and remelted, thereby shaping and reshaping the surface of the 
planet.  Mars today has very few volcanoes and no continental 
plates like those found on Earth to suggest it was internally 
active for very long.  Barnacle Bill's chemical signature may 
throw that theory into question.

Today's weather report was similar to yesterday's:  at 3 p.m.  
local Mars time, it was about 5 degrees Fahrenheit, pressure was 
about 6.74 millibars, with very light winds out of the northwest.

"The weather on Mars is pretty boring," said Dr.  Jeffrey Barnes, 
Oregon State University, who is a member of the 
atmospheric/meteorological experiment.  "Northern summer in the 
subtropics on Mars is pretty much the same from day to day.  
Fifty or 60 days from now, we'll start to see dramatic changes 
with fall."

Atmospheric opacity - or how clear the sky is according to 
Pathfinder's atmospheric experiment - showed that Mars is 
moderately dusty up to about 40 kilometers (25 miles) above the 
surface.  The dust appears to be uniformly distributed, and is 
expected to rise as Mars approaches its dusty season in the fall, 
Barnes said.  The visibility on Mars was estimated to be about 32 
kilometers (20 miles) or more, roughly equivalent to a moderately 
smoggy day in Los Angeles.

The rover's next task later today will be to perform a chemical 
analysis of the soil around a large rock named "Yogi." Once the 
soil measurements are taken, Sojourner will then back up to the 
left side of the rock and begin a chemical analysis using the 
APXS instrument.

On the fifth day of surface operations since Pathfinder's 
historic July 4 landing, all spacecraft and rover systems 
continue to operate extremely well.  Pathfinder is returning data 
at an unprecedented rate of more than 8,500 bits per second and 
has returned 1,575 images of the Martian surface to date.  A 360- 
degree, color panorama of the Ares Vallis landing site is 
expected to be released within the next few days.

July 9, 1997
3 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

Six days after landing in an ancient outflow channel called Ares 
Vallis, the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover continue to operate 
extremely well, returning unprecedented amounts of data during 
daily downlink sessions.

Yesterday, Pathfinder returned 85 megabits of data on the Martian 
atmosphere, weather, soil and a rock called "Barnacle Bill," the 
first rock on Mars ever to be studied up close and personal.  
Additional rover and lander imaging was also returned.

Tonight the operations team will perform a low-gain antenna 
session
from 6:30 p.m.- 7 p.m.  PDT to acquire data on the health of the 
lander and rover.  A three-hour high-gain transmission will begin 
later this evening, at 10 p.m.  - 1:30 a.m.  PDT, at the higher 
data rate.

The rover has completed its soil analysis of the smooth, moat-
like terrain around a large boulder named "Yogi." After 
completing the analysis, the rover retracted the alpha proton X- 
ray spectrometer, then conducted a wheel abrasion experiment in 
which it dug into the soil and disturbed the crusty material as 
it was turning its wheels.  This soil abrasion test is one of 
many technology and mobility experiments planned for the rover to 
help engineers understand the dynamics of its mobility on Martian 
soil for future generations of rovers.

"We used the rover as sort of a bulldozer to push this rock and 
crusty material up," said Dr.  Matthew Golombek, Pathfinder 
project scientist at a 1 p.m.  PDT press briefing.  "Next the 
rover moved slightly to the left and imaged Yogi with its front 
cameras, then turned around and imaged the lander with its front 
cameras.  After that, the rover will photograph Yogi at close 
range.  That data will be returned tonight."

Further preliminary analysis of "Barnacle Bill" showed that its 
texture seems to be consistent with volcanic "andesites," the 
second most common volcanic rock on Earth, said Dr.  Jeff 
Johnson, of the U.S.  Geological Survey in Flagstaff, AZ, who is 
on the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) camera team.

Scientists will use reflectance spectra collected by the lander 
and rover cameras to determine whether the rock, which measures 
about 40 centimeters (1.3 feet) across and 1.1 to 1.5 centimeters 
(8-to-10-inches) tall, is a sedimentary rock composed of many 
different rock fragments, or whether it is "homogenous," which 
would be consistent with scientists' first impression that it is 
a volcanic rock.

On a lighter note, Dr.  Peter Smith, principal investigator of 
the IMP team, shared some of his personal insights on what it's 
like to be living on local Mars time, which means working on a 
24-hour, 37-minute clock each day.

"When you say good morning, and the sun is setting, now that's 
living on Martian solar time.  When your sunglasses start looking 
like this (holding up the red-and-blue stereo glasses used to 
view images in 3-D), that's living on Martian time.  When you 
start admiring strange-looking rocks and giving them names, then 
telling your friends, that's living on Martian time.  When your 
days are called Sols, and your nights are called days, that's 
living on Martian time.  But when you start laughing at the 
engineers' jokes, you know you're living on Martian time."

Next on the rover's schedule of investigations are two rocks that 
appear white or very light in color:  "Casper" and "Scubee- 
Dubee-Doo," located off to the left of the Pathfinder lander.  
Among the many images planned in the next week are shots of the 
Martian sunset and sunrise; pictures of the Martian moons Phobos 
and Deimos; and pictures of "Twin Peaks," two sloping hills that 
are about 800 meters (about half a mile) away from the landing 
site.

July 10, 1997
2 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

Seven days into surface activities on the Mars Pathfinder 
mission, all spacecraft systems and instruments are continuing to 
perform well.  The rover remains in excellent health and appears 
to be driving a little bit faster when left to its own devices 
than when it receives instructions from Earth.

"Basically the rover overshot its target rock, Yogi, by a little 
bit last night," explained Dr.  Justin Maki, of the University of 
Arizona, who is a member of the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) 
team.  Maki showed a movie of Sojourner as it approached the 
large boulder and began to climb up its side with one wheel.  In 
this type of dead reckoning, the rover performed just as it 
should have, which was to back off the rock once it knew the rock 
was in the way, then turned and moved away from the object.  
Although the rover travels about 1 centimeter per second (about 2 
feet per minute), it appeared to be moving a little bit faster on 
its own.

The science team targeted the left side of Yogi for alpha proton 
X-ray spectrometer study because it appears to be dark and free 
of Martian dust.  However, that side turned out to be tricky for 
the rover because of the rock's uneven contours and the slight 
depression in the soil beneath the rock.  The rover team will 
instruct Sojourner to attempt instrument placement again tonight.  
Multiple attempts to position the science instrument were 
anticipated, making this repeat attempt nothing out of the usual.

The navigation team also announced the Ares Vallis landing site 
coordinates today as 19.33 degrees north latitude, 33.55 degrees 
west longitude.

Dr.  Carol Stoker of NASA Ames Research Center showed some of the 
virtual reality products that her team is beginning to produce 
from the Pathfinder data during today's press briefing.  Data 
from the lander camera's stereo images are overlain with terrain 
models to create the three-dimensional perspective, which can 
then be rotated in any direction on any plane on a computer 
screen.  The 3-D perspective will be very useful to the science 
team in planning rover traverses and in analyzing data.

Dr.  Julio Magalhaes, also of NASA Ames Research Center, a member 
of the atmospheric structure instrument/meteorology package 
(ASI/MET) on board the Pathfinder lander, reported that 
atmospheric temperatures in the upper atmosphere of Mars are 
extremely cold.  The science team has recorded temperatures at an 
altitude of 80 kilometers (50 miles) above the surface as minus 
171 Celsius (minus 275 degrees Fahrenheit).  In the lower 
atmosphere, between 60 km to 13 km (37 to 8 miles), the 
temperatures are warmer and very close to those recorded by the 
Viking landers of the mid-1970s.

July 11, 1997
11:15 a.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

Commands for the next day of activities for Mars Pathfinder were 
not sent last night because the Pathfinder spacecraft's receiver 
had not been turned on in advance of the uplink session.

NASA's Deep Space Network conducts a routine frequency sweep 
before uplink sessions each day.  The Goldstone, CA station 
initiated this sweep yesterday at about 1:35 p.m.  PDT, when it 
came online.  Because Pathfinder's receiver is only turned on at 
specific times each day to conserve power, it was not scheduled 
to be turned on until 1:46 p.m., an 11-minute miscalculation.  
Therefore the planned command link to the spacecraft was not 
established.

The operations team did not discover the problem until it was 
ready to begin its downlink session at 9:12 p.m.  PDT last night.  
That 30-minute downlink would have been followed by a later 
downlink of data at 10:30 p.m.  to 12:20 a.m.

The lost transmission session did not impact the mission in any 
way, except to delay the rover and lander activities.  The 
operations team will retransmit the same set of sequences tonight 
during the 8 p.m.  PDT session.

Activities planned for today will repeat the tasks not completed 
yesterday, including backing Sojourner down from Yogi and 
repositioning its science instrument against the rock.  A full 
color panorama is also planned.

Meanwhile, all spacecraft and rover systems are performing well.  
Today is Sol 8 of the Mars Pathfinder mission.

July 11, 1997
2 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

After determining Pathfinder's landing site coordinates 
yesterday, the Mars Pathfinder navigation team today 
reconstructed the spacecraft's novel entry, descent and landing 
at a 12:00 Noon PDT briefing.  The team has been analyzing data 
acquired in the last week to come up with this preliminary 
landing profile.

Pathfinder was "right on the money," within a kilometer (6/10ths 
of a mile) of the target landing site, said Dr.  Sam Thurman, one 
of the entry, descent and landing team members.

The spacecraft's terminal velocity as it parachuted to the ground 
was about 60 meters per second (134 miles per hour).  An 
algorithm onboard the spacecraft that controlled the retro 
rockets recorded Pathfinder's speed at about 61.5 meters per 
second (140,000 miles per hour) at the time the RAD (rocket- 
assisted deceleration) rockets fired.

One issue of great importance to the Mars Global Surveyor team 
was Pathfinder's performance during descent, while it was 
subjected to the forces of the Martian environment.  The 
Pathfinder navigation team reported that the spacecraft did 
indeed pick up some horizontal wind velocity on the order of 
about 13 meters per second (20 to 25 miles per hour), which was 
still well within the limits of the descent and landing design.  
That information, however, will be very useful to the Mars Global 
Surveyor flight team when its spacecraft begins aerobraking 
through the upper atmosphere of Mars in order to circularize the 
spacecraft's orbit.

Pathfinder next fired its retro rockets at about 98 meters (321 
feet) above the ground, just slightly higher than the 90- meter 
(295-foot) predicted elevation target, but also well the 
parameters of the landing strategy.  The 65-foot bridle was cut 
at about 21 meters (65 feet) above the ground, with just four 
seconds before impact.

Pathfinder's airbags -- a new component of the spacecraft never 
before tested for a semi-hard landing -- hit the ground at a 
speed of about 18 meters per second (40 miles per hour) and 
skidded horizontally across the landscape at about 12.5 meters 
per second (28 miles per hour).  Pathfinder bounced about 15 
meters (50 feet) high after impact, then bounced about 14 or 15 
times more before coming to a stop.  In all, the spacecraft 
bounced and rolled for about 2.5 minutes and traveled about 1 
kilometer (6/10ths of a mile) before coming to a halt.

Activities for Sol 8 of Pathfinder's nearly flawless mission will 
include a set of commands to drive Sojourner off the large 
boulder, named Yogi, that it began to climb yesterday before 
automatically stopping itself.  The rover team will send the 
rover new commands to reposition itself near the rock and attempt 
to place the alpha proton X-ray spectrometer against the rock 
again.  The imaging team, meanwhile, released the famous "monster 
pan" today, a full, 360-degree color panorama of the Ares Vallis 
landing site.

July 17, 1997
11 a.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

Mars Pathfinder engineers reported a day of flawless operations 
of the lander and Sojourner Rover on Mars with the end of the 
mission's 13th day on Mars this morning, and also noted that they 
have found and are in the process of fixing a software bug that 
had caused the lander's computer to reset itself four times in 
recent days.

"The resets on the lander computer were caused by a software task 
that was unable to complete the task in the allotted time," said 
Flight Director Brian Muirhead.  "We found that the task was 
being cut short because it had not been given high enough 
priority to run through to completion.  Basically, we just need 
to add one instruction to the computer software to raise the 
priority of that task."

The problem was reproduced and isolated in testing at JPL.  
Further tests and verification will be completed today and 
tomorrow, with radio transmission of a software "patch" to change 
the lander's software scheduled for Saturday, Muirhead said.

Overnight, the Pathfinder team received all of the planned 58 
megabits of data expected from the lander, along with the first 
of eight image sectors that will be combined to create a so-
called "super-pan" high-resolution color panorama of the Martian 
terrain surrounding the spacecraft.  The rest of the images will 
be transmitted back to Earth over the next several days.

A new "rover movie" created from time-lapse images taken by the 
lander was returned overnight.  It shows Sojourner moving 2.5 
meters (about 8 feet) and closing in on the whitish rock dubbed 
Scooby Doo.  During the next Martian day, Sol 14, Rover drivers 
at JPL will bring the vehicle closer to the rock so Sojourner's 
alpha proton X-ray spectrometer can be placed against the rock.

On this Martian Day, Sol 13, Earth rise was at 5:27 p.m.  
yesterday, sunrise was at 9:35 p.m., Earth set was at 7:06 a.m.  
and sunset was at 9:33 a.m.

July 18, 1997
10:15 a.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

The Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover concluded their 14th 
successful day of operations on the surface of Mars today, JPL 
engineers reported.

Highlights of the scientific data returned overnight include a 
series of images that show Sojourner approaching the white rock 
Scooby Doo and deploying the rover's X-ray spectrometer 
instrument to study the rock's surface.  Imaging data from the 
lander's camera also included a high-resolution view of the 
northernmost of the Twin Peaks seen on the horizon from the 
landing site.

Pathfinder engineers said all subsystems on both the lander and 
rover performed flawlessly and that no resets of the lander's 
computer were detected.

On this Martian Day, Sol 14, Earth rise was at 6:07 p.m.  PDT 
yesterday, sunrise was at 9:15 p.m.  PDT, Earth set was at 7:46 
a.m.  PDT and sunset was at 10:12 a.m.  PDT.  The day's total 
data return from the Mars station was 58 megabits.

July 19, 1997
10 a.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

Last night's receipt of scientific data from Mars Pathfinder was 
delayed until tonight due to minor ground station problems that 
interfered with capturing all of Pathfinder's radio 
transmissions, mission engineers said today.

A short downlink opportunity and a problem with ground station 
computers combined to prevent most of Pathfinder's scientific 
data from being received last night.  But engineering data from 
the rover and lander show that both remain in excellent health as 
they completed the first day of their third week on the surface 
of Mars.

"All the telemetry from the lander and rover continue to show 
that we have two very healthy spacecraft," said project manager 
Brian Muirhead.  "We successfully completed the rover's seven-day 
prime mission and have finished the first week of its extended 
mission, and we are half-way through the lander's 30-day prime 
mission.  Everything looks good for continued operations with 
outstanding science return from both lander and rover," he said.

Last night's scheduled science data return will be retransmitted 
during the next Mars day, Sol 16, which begins tonight.  
Engineers also plan to send a new software patch to remove the 
software bug that had caused the lander's computer to reset 
itself earlier in the mission.  The next downlink session is 
scheduled to include images of the Martian moon Phobos, along 
with observations of early morning fog, measurements of the rock 
Scoobie Doo and images of various features around the lander.

Mission engineers said that overnight, Sojourner had successfully 
executed commands to move its wheels to scrape off the top layer 
of dust from the rock Scoobie Doo.  The rover's spectrometer was 
to have then repositioned its sensor to measure the newly 
revealed surface of the rock.  The extended sensor head, however, 
apparently overshot the edge of the rock and did not make 
contact.  Engineers will analyze data on the position of the 
rover and its spectrometer and plan to reposition the instrument 
tonight.

On this Martian Day, Sol 15, Earth rise was at 6:07 p.m.  PDT 
yesterday, sunrise was at 9:55 p.m.  PDT, Earth set was at 8:25 
a.m.  PDT and sunset was at 10:51 a.m.  PDT.  The day's total 
data return from the Mars station was 2 megabits.

July 20, 1997
1 p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time

The Pathfinder mission operations team commanded the lander early 
this morning and did obtain a carrier signal over the high-gain 
antenna starting at 3:14 a.m.  PDT for the normal period of about 
66 minutes, but the signal strength was below expected levels and 
no scientific data was received.

"This told us that the spacecraft was basically healthy but that 
there was a problem with the telecommunications link," said 
Project Manager Brian Muirhead.  A later attempt to communicate 
with the lander through its high-gain antenna from 7:03 to 7:27 
a.m.  PDT was not successful.

"The flight team is assessing the possible causes of the 
communication problem, said Muirhead.  "This morning's problem 
may be related to some extent to configuration problems between 
the spacecraft and the Deep Space Network, but more data is 
needed to fully assess the problem.  We are trying to 
troubleshoot a problem with very little information," he said.

The flight team is preparing sequences for a low-gain antenna 
communications session for about midnight tonight (July 20, 
Pacific Time).  A communications session with the high-gain 
antenna is planned for about 3:30 a.m.  PDT tomorrow, July 21.

"Since we have only limited windows to communicate with the 
spacecraft we must wait patiently for our next opportunity, 
Muirhead said.  "We will go through the usual steps that have 
worked for us before, and then we will get to the bottom of the 
problem as we have before." The telecommunications problem is not 
thought to be related to the reset problem previously experienced 
by the lander's computer.

The rover remains safely at the rock called Scooby Doo.  Earth 
will rise over the Sagan Memorial Station at 8:07 p.m.  PDT today 
July 20, and sunrise will be at 11:15 p.m.  Earth set is at 9:45 
a.m.  July 21.

An audio update on Pathfinder's status can be heard by calling 1-
800-391-6654.

For further information, please visit our website at 
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

MARS PATHFINDER MIRROR SITES
Choose the location nearest you


Corporate Mirror Sites:


Site					Site Address			Capacity 
										(Mega-Hits/Day)
Silicon Graphics, Inc.  	http://mars.sgi.com 		15
CompuServe			http://mars.compuserve.com	10
SUN Microsystems, Inc.	http://www.sun.com/mars 		 6

Mirroring the JPL Mars Pathfinder site is open to all U.S.  firms 
that qualify.

Public Sector Mirror Sites:


Location				Site Address			Capacity
										(Mega-Hits/Day)
NASA, AMES			http://mpfwww.arc.nasa.gov	 5
NASA, JPL 			http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov 	 5
NCSA - National Center for Supercomputer Applications
					http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/mars	 4 
Cornell Theory Center	http://mars.tc.cornell.edu 	 4
National Center for Atmospheric Research #1 
					http://www.mars.ucar.edu 	 4
San Diego Supercomputer Center
					http://mars.sdsc.edu		 4
NASA, KSC				http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/mars   2
NASA, JPL				http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mpfmir 1
National Center for Atmospheric Research #2
					http://mars.nlanr.net		 1
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center	
					http://www.psc.edu/Mars		 0.75
NASA, Lewis Research Center 
					http://marsmirror.lerc.nasa.gov0.5
Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology
					http://mars.pgd.hawaii.edu 	 0.5
The Catlin Gabel School	http://mars.catlin.edu		 0.5

International Mirror Sites:


Location			Site Address				Capacity
										(Mega-Hits/Day)
ESO 				http://mars.eso.org				 3
NASDA 			http://mars.tksc.nasda.go.jp/JPL	 2
Web2Mil		 	http://web2mil.intercanal.com/mars	 2 
Aalborg University	http://sunsite.auc.dk/mars		 1.5
Visuanet 			http://www.visuanet.com/jpl		 1.5
CNES 			http://www-mars.cnes.fr			 1
CSIRO			http://sparkli.tip.csiro.au/mars 	 1
CDSCC/JPL			http://tid.cdscc.nasa.gov/mars	 0.5
IKI				http://www.iki.rssi.ru/jplmirror/mars 0.25
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End Marsbugs, Vol.  4, No.  12








