MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter
Volume 4, Number 16, 21 November, 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 
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include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along 
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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)	ICE, WATER, AND FIRE:  THE GALILEO EUROPA MISSION
by Leslie L. Lowes

2)	TELEMEDICINE:  FROM SARAJEVO TO TIRANA, HOSPITALS WITH CLOSE LINKS
ESA release Nr 40-97

3)	LIFE IN DARK SOLAR SYSTEMS
by Clark M. Thomas

4)	AN EXPLANATION FOR FLOWING, LIQUID WATER ON ANCIENT MARS
University of Chicago News Office

5)	MOSS EXPERIMENT MAY HELP ANSWER LONG-STANDING BIOLOGICAL MYSTERY
by Pam Frost

6)	AUTHOR CALLS FOR MANNED MARS MISSION
by Denise Brehm

7)	MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORT
JPL release
------------------------------------------------------------------------

ICE, WATER, AND FIRE:  THE GALILEO EUROPA MISSION
by Leslie L. Lowes
Galileo Lead Outreach Coordinator
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Imagine yourself exploring worlds of extremes, a realm were the 
deep cold of space freezes water to brittleness, while nearby, hot 
molten rock flows near spewing fountains of sulfur.  Hung in space 
behind you is a brilliant globe sporting large, colorful clouds 
caught in centuries-old storms, with towering thunderclouds that 
change within hours.  The Galileo spacecraft has begun this new 
"Galileo Europa Mission" (or GEM), where it will spend two more 
years at Jupiter studying a range of ice, water, and fire:  the 
icy moon Europa, the thunderstorms of Jupiter, and the constant 
activity of the fiery volcanoes of Io.

After a six-year journey from Earth, Galileo arrived at Jupiter on 
December 7, 1995.  In moves designed to lock the spacecraft in 
orbit around the gaseous giant planet, Galileo swung by the moon 
Io, then fired its main engine, and in between, collected the 
precious data from the atmospheric probe it dropped five months 
earlier.  For two years and 11 orbits during its Prime Mission, 
Galileo has revealed an array of fascinating details about Jupiter 
and its moons.  While Jupiter's composition is reflective of the 
primordial mix, water rises and falls in the top cloudy layers, 
causing thunderstorm-like activity just next to dramatically dry 
spots.  Ganymede is the first moon in the solar system known to 
have its own magnetic field.  Callisto's covering of craters is 
layered with a fine dust.  Io's surface has been changing since 
the Voyagers saw it in 1979.  And scientists have now seen 
evidence that an ocean has existed in recent geologic history 
under Europa's crust of ice.

Originally scheduled to end its exploration on December 7, 1997, 
NASA and Congress have approved the extension of Galileo' studies 
through the last day of 1999, in three phases each with tightly 
focused objectives:  the Europa Campaign ("Ice"), Perijove 
Reduction/Jupiter Water Study/Io Torus Passages ("Water"), and the 
Io Campaign ("Fire").

Europa Campaign.  For the first eight orbits, spanning more than a 
year, Galileo will continue to search for further evidence of an 
ocean beneath the icy surface of the intriguing moon Europa, and 
determine if it sloshes still today.  Scientists will scan the 
surface for spewing, active ice volcanoes and other direct 
evidence.  They'll count craters, which will help date the youth 
of the moon's smooth surface.  They'll peek at Europa's layered 
interior by measuring the pull of its gravity, and look for 
variation in the thickness of the ice shell and in the depth of 
the ocean.  A flowing, salty subsurface ocean can generate a 
magnetic field, so scientists will try to determine if the 
magnetic signals nearest Europa are generated within.  Galileo 
will get detailed images and atmospheric data from around the 
globe, including Europa's polar regions, from closest approach 
heights ranging from 200 to 3600 km.  With three times better 
resolution than in the Prime Mission, some planned images will 
show details as small as 6 meters (the size of a truck!).  Heights 
of the relatively flat surface features will be determined from 
stereo imagery, and the distribution and composition of 
contaminants can be mapped as finely as 10 kilometers.

Perijove Reduction/Jupiter Water Study/Io Torus Passages.  
"Perijove Reduction" isn't some kind of fad diet, or a way to 
shrink the national debt--it's what we need to do to get the 
spacecraft in an orbit that is close enough to Jupiter to fly near 
Io.  For six months in mid-1999, Galileo will use the 
gravitational pull of Callisto in four successive orbits, along 
with thruster burns for fine-tuning, to halve the orbit's closest 
distance to Jupiter (called "perijove").  From the closest 
distances since Arrival Day, peering at Jupiter's atmosphere will 
reveal wind and storm pattern details, including the billowing 
thunderstorms that grow to heights several times those we have on 
Earth.  Water circulates vertically in Jupiter's top layers, 
leaving large areas drier than the Sahara desert, and others 
drenched like the tropics.  Mapping the distribution of water and 
its role in Jupiter's weather can also help us understand Earth's 
more fast-paced weather changes.  Once each orbit, during this 
passage from "ice" to "fire", Galileo will shoot through the Io 
torus, a donut-shaped cloud of charged particles that ring the 
orbit of Io, and map the density of sulfur which streams from Io's 
spewing volcanoes and sodium and potassium that gets "sand-
blasted" off the surface by sweeping particles caught in Jupiter's 
rotating magnetic field.  Callisto will be studied very minimally.

Io Campaign.  The closest Galilean moon to Jupiter, Io, is the 
most active body in the solar system, sizzling with dozens of 
molten sulfur and silicate volcanoes resulting from 100 meter high 
tides in its otherwise solid surface.  But the close-up picture of 
Io's forbidding environment remains a mystery.  Galileo's final 
two orbits in GEM will feature close flyovers from 500, then 300, 
kilometers away.  You might guess that scientists are trying to 
keep us all in suspense, waiting until the last part of the 
mission to glimpse fiery Io with breathtaking details (as small as 
6 meters) in kamikaze style! And suspense will indeed be high as 
Galileo flies right over Pillan Patera's active plume of frozen 
sulfur.  Waiting to explore Io until the end of the mission 
minimizes changes in perijove, leaving more time and resources for 
science studies.  It also lessens the exposure of the spacecraft 
to Jupiter's intense radiation, which grows in intensity the 
closer to the giant we come, which in the vicinity of Io is strong 
enough to kill a human.  Galileo has been exposed to different 
levels of radiation while it orbits Jupiter, and is expected to 
continue operating through the intense exposure of the Io 
campaign.  However, it will be exposed to enough radiation to 
pepper the camera's light detector with blinding hits to many 
pixels, and potentially cause the computer's bits to flip in 
random ways, causing Galileo to "safe" itself until further 
commands are received from the ground.  (It's hard to think with 
your bits flipped)!

Although engineers predict that through GEM, Galileo should have 
ample power from its radioisotope thermoelectric generators to 
power the spacecraft and its instruments, and plenty of propellant 
for its thrusters, the mission's essential tape recorder has 
already surpassed its design limit for stops and restarts.  If it 
fails beyond repair, Galileo's on-board computer will be loaded 
with a program that allows the instruments to take and transmit a 
very limited amount of data in real-time, significantly reducing 
the mission's scope.

In keeping with NASA's vision of lower-cost space exploration, 
GEM's design takes advantage of an already orbiting spacecraft to 
perform a tightly focused, lower-cost, higher-risk mission.  To 
achieve a cost of $15 million per year, the resources used by the 
spacecraft and ground operations have been trimmed to a minimum.  
20% of the original personnel will operate Galileo and analyze its 
reduced amount of data.  Engineering and science teams have 
automated and streamlined operational processes and software.  
When Galileo passes closest to Jupiter and the target moon for 
each orbit, only two days of data will be taken (versus seven in 
the Prime Mission).  In GEM, only minimal data on Jupiter's 
magnetic environment will be gathered while data is played back 
during the rest of the orbit.  Only commands to Galileo which are 
prepared in advance are allowed, turns of the spacecraft are kept 
to a minimum, and Galileo's health will be monitored with the 
lowest possible number of bits to allow maximum return of science 
data.  The GEM team will not contain expertise to deal with 
unexpected problems, so experts who've moved on to other jobs will 
be brought back in as a tiger team to assess serious problems and 
make recommendations.  Costly repairs may be deemed not worthwhile 
to make.  After GEM is completed, Galileo will no longer return 
science data, but will keep slicing through the intense radiation 
near Io's orbit, and regularly report on its health until it is 
silenced by radiation damage.

During the GEM mission of ice, water, and fire, Galileo will help 
pave the way for new investigations to these Jovian worlds of 
extremes, possibly confirming that an ocean presently exists on 
Europa, and locating some areas where the ice is thinnest.  This 
big step supports possible future Europa orbiting or ice boring 
missions looking into a key question for the 21st century--is 
there life on Europa?

You can follow Galileo through its journey on the internet at 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo.

GEM Facts
Mission starts:  Dec 7, 1997
Total cost:  $30 million
Europa encounters ("Ice"):  Dec 16, 1997 - Feb 1, 1999 (8 orbits) 
Perijove reduction/water study:  May 5, 1999 - Sep 16, 1999 (4 
orbits) 
Io closest approaches ("Fire"):  Oct 11, 1999 and Nov 26, 1999 (2 
orbits) 
End of mission:  Dec 31, 1999

		Closest		Closest	Best Camera	Best Composition 
		Flyby		Approach	Images		Temperature Map
					Height	Resolution	Resolution

Europa 	Dec 16, 1997	200 km	6 meters		10 km
Jupiter 	Sep 14, 1999	467,000 km10 meters		500 km
Io		Nov 26, 1999	300 km	6 meters		300 km
------------------------------------------------------------------

TELEMEDICINE:  FROM SARAJEVO TO TIRANA, HOSPITALS WITH CLOSE LINKS
ESA release Nr 40-97

Paris, France
13 November 1997

The partners involved in the first European pilot project for 
telemedicine via satellite will meet on 17 November at the Celio 
Military Polyclinic in Rome, to take stock of the first results of 
a joint effort that, for over a year, has put hospitals in Italy 
and Bosnia in close contact with each other thanks to space 
applications.

In September 1996, with the help of the European Space Agency, an 
innovative telemedicine network was activated to provide medical 
care services to the Italian Field Hospital involved in the 
peacekeeping mission in Sarajevo and to give further support to 
the health care structure of the University Clinical Centre of 
Sarajevo.  Two Italian hospitals were at that time linked with 
Sarajevo:  the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and the Celio 
Military Polyclinic in Rome.

The initiative, dubbed SHARED for Satellite Health Access for 
Remote Environment Demonstrator, exploited dedicated ground 
stations and satellite links to conduct medical consultations, 
online surgery mentoring and medical training between the three 
hospitals.

After a year of successful operation with Sarajevo, the network, 
which uses ground terminals and satellite capacity provided by 
ESA, is now being extended to include the Hospital "IDI" in 
Tirana.

Based on an enhanced version of the DICE multipoint 
videoconference system developed by European
industry for ESA, the telemedicine satellite network combines 
videoconferencing with real-time data exchange between multimedia 
computers and medical peripherals of medical images such as X-
rays, scans, pictures of pathology samples etc.  An additional 
feature is provided by an ISDN multipoint conference unit acting 
as a bridge between the satellite network and other hospitals 
connected to the terrestrial ISDN network.

The links between the hospitals are supported by up to four 
digital carriers of 384 kbps using capacity leased by ESA on the 
Eutelsat II-F4 satellite.

"We are very proud of having contributed to such a
humanitarian project that helps bring space within closer reach of 
human beings in their everyday life" said ESA Director General 
Antonio Rodota, who will attend the presentation of the first 
results of the SHARED project in Rome.

The SHARED project stems from co-operation between ESA, which has 
provided the communication infrastructure, the Italian Space 
Agency ASI, which has funded the pilot projects, throughout the 
ESA's ARTES programme, the Italian Ministry of Defense, which has 
the operational responsibility for the system, and TelBios, a 
consortium between the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and Alenia 
Aerospazio, Rome, which proposed and have coordinated the project.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LIFE IN DARK SOLAR SYSTEMS
by Clark M.  Thomas

14 November, 1997

Life as we know it exists only on planets, and possibly moons, 
surrounding stars.  At the same time much of the known universe is 
thought to be truly dark matter.  Truly dark matter would be 
matter that cannot be detected directly or indirectly from our 
place in space.  Black holes, for example, do not qualify as truly 
dark matter because they can be indirectly located.

The giant planet Jupiter is an example of an almost-star.  If its 
mass were only a few times larger Jupiter would start to glow.  
Coincidentally, both Jupiter and Saturn have a similar number of 
"planets" as our sun has true planets.  If it werent for the sun 
itself, then either Jupiter or Saturn could in isolation qualify 
as dark solar systems.  (I am herein using the word "solar" 
loosely, because each "sol" would not be a glowing sun.)

Jupiter and Saturn are derived from the same swirling cloud that 
became our sun and its system of planets and other objects.  There 
may be billions and billions of other undetectable swirling clouds 
that did not have enough mass to produce a glowing sun, but did 
have enough mass to produce a dark solar system.

The Earth is an example of a planet with a hot core.  This heat is 
caused by gravity, not by sunlight reaching its core.  At the 
surface are oceans with water possibly the result of bombardment 
by millions of comet snowballs.  Because these ancient comets may 
be distributed throughout many areas of the universe, it is 
reasonable to speculate that similar phenomena would occur in dark 
solar systems.

At the bottom of our oceans are chemosynthetic bacteria.  They do 
not rely on photosynthesis to live.  This fact has been known 
since 1977 when researchers off the Galapagos found water around a 
thermal vent teeming with bacteria, and surrounded by 30-inch-long 
worms, large clams, mussels, and strange fish with blue eyes.

Recent explorations below the surface of the land suggest that 
chemosynthetic microbial populations exist in phenomenal numbers 
within rock pores.  Such subterranean life may exist in nutrient 
soups up to several miles below the surface.  If such is true, 
then the Earth's photosynthetic biosphere may have far less 
biomass than the Earth's chemosynthetic biosphere.

Because (1) dark solar systems can form from dark clouds, and (2) 
because sufficiently large bodies generate their own internal 
heat, and (3) because oceans can form from deep space comets, and 
(4) because bacteria are at the bottom of the food chain, and (5) 
because not all bacteria need sunlight -- it is reasonable to 
hypothesize that there may be millions or billions of dark planets 
in the cosmic darkness incubating some forms of life.

cmthomas@earthlink.net
------------------------------------------------------------------


AN EXPLANATION FOR FLOWING, LIQUID WATER ON ANCIENT MARS
University of Chicago News Office

13 November 1997

There is ample evidence from photographs--provided by Viking, Mars 
Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor--of deep channels on the 
surface of Mars presumably cut by flowing liquid water.  How could 
Mars -- at Pathfinder's landing site a chilly minus 100 F -- once 
have been warm enough to have liquid water on its surface?

The answer, says a University of Chicago climatologist and his 
French colleague, is reflective carbon-dioxide ice clouds that 
retain thermal radiation near the planet's surface.  The 
scientists' theory is published in the Friday, Nov.  14, issue of 
the journal Science.

"This is a problem that has perplexed scientists ever since the 
'70s, when Viking provided the first detailed images of Mars," 
said Raymond Pierrehumbert, University of Chicago Professor of 
Geophysical Sciences.  "How can you account for Mars being warm 
enough to have flowing water, especially when the sun was actually 
fainter early in Mars' evolution?"

Pierrehumbert collaborated with French climatologist Francois 
Forget, from the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique du CNRS in 
Paris.

Previous models of the atmosphere of ancient Mars have 
incorporated carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to use effects 
similar to global warming to heat the planet.  "The problem was," 
said Pierrehumbert, "when you try to put enough CO2 in the 
atmosphere to warm it sufficiently, the carbon dioxide condenses 
out.  It was thought that the thick clouds that form as a result 
would reflect sunlight back to space and actually cool the planet.

"When we re-examined this, we found that this dry-ice 'blanket' 
actually warms the planet because it reflects infrared light back 
to the surface more than it reflects solar radiation outward."

The curious property of carbon dioxide ice clouds, as opposed to 
the water ice clouds found on Earth, is that the particles are 
large enough to scatter infrared light more effectively than 
visible light coming from the sun.  Ordinary, Earth-type clouds 
absorb heat from the planet's surface and re-emit it both back to 
the surface and to outer space, losing half of the heat in the 
process.

"But the carbon dioxide clouds act like a one-way mirror, and, 
although not a lot of sunlight gets through to the planet's 
surface, what does reach the planet is converted to heat, which 
the clouds then reflect back to the surface," said Pierrehumbert.  
"This mechanism produces a large enough effect that it can, in 
fact, warm the planet to the point where it is possible to have 
liquid water."

Pierrehumbert said this climate model provides some clues as to 
the types of life forms that might have evolved on Mars.  "If 
we're going to be looking for analogues of terrestrial life forms 
on Mars," he said, "then we should be looking for the kinds of 
organisms that might evolve in extreme environments, like the 
bottoms of oceans or in caves.

"The conditions on early Mars--some four billion years ago--were a 
little more like the conditions at the bottom of the ocean than 
like a rainforest.  It would have been dark, warm enough for 
liquid water, but without a large energy source for 
photosynthesis," he said.

Pierrehumbert and Forget's model also extends the habitable zone 
on extrasolar planets and increases the likelihood that life 
exists outside our solar system.  Previously, scientists thought 
that only planets orbiting within 1.37 astronomical units (one AU 
is the distance between Earth and the Sun) of a star could have 
water above the freezing point.  But if the planets have carbon 
dioxide ice clouds, they could have liquid water as far away as 
2.4 AU.  Mars is 1.52 AU from the Sun.

Similarly, carbon-dioxide ice clouds could have played a role in 
warming Earth when the Sun was fainter than it is today, 
preventing a global freeze that could have kept Earth locked 
forever in ice.  If the Earth had ever cooled to the point where 
its oceans had all frozen, it would never have warmed up again 
because too much solar radiation would have been reflected back to 
space by all of the surface ice.

Pierrehumbert and Forget say their model fits well with a theory 
proposed by Carl Sagan and Christopher Chyba, and published in 
Science earlier this year, that a methane and ammonia atmosphere 
warmed early Mars.  "The problem with methane," said 
Pierrehumbert, "is that it breaks down very quickly when exposed 
to sunlight, so you need a biological engine--life on Mars--to 
feed the atmosphere as the methane is depleted.  Our model 
provides the starting conditions under which life could have 
evolved and started the production of methane gas.  And once the 
gas forms, the carbon dioxide ice clouds actually shield the 
methane from sunlight and keep it from breaking down as quickly."

Pierrehumbert and Forget next plan to tackle the problem of what 
weather might have been like on early Mars, including the 
possibility of carbon dioxide blizzards and carbon dioxide-ice 
glaciers.

Pierrehumbert can be reached by e-mail at rtp1@midway.uchicago.edu 
Forget can be reached by e-mail at forget@lmd.Jussleu.fr
------------------------------------------------------------------

MOSS EXPERIMENT MAY HELP ANSWER LONG-STANDING BIOLOGICAL MYSTERY
by Pam Frost
Office of Communications
Ohio State University

28 Oct 1997

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Ohio State University biologists will send a crop 
of green moss into space aboard the Nov.  19 NASA space shuttle to 
determine how the moss grows in zero gravity.

The experiment, called SPM-A--a shortened and scrambled version of 
"Space Moss", may reveal vital clues as to how plant cells evolved 
and how plants grow.

According to Fred Sack, professor of plant biology and SPM-A 
project leader, scientists don't really understand how plants 
"know" to grow away from the earth and toward the sun.

"How plants sense the direction of gravity is a still a basic 
question in biology," said Sack.  "It's a puzzle that people have 
been studying long and hard for many years."

Sack has taken a stand on the issue.  He's suggested for the last 
decade that gravity pulls tiny starch particles inside plant cells 
to the bottom, and thus prompts plant shoots to grow in the 
opposite direction.  To test his idea, Sack looked to moss, a 
plant in which all growth initiates from a single, simple cell.

Sack said the simplicity of the moss makes it a good starting 
point for scientists to learn about how more complex plants sense 
gravity.

"The thing I love about this project is that in a single moss cell 
that is only 200 micrometers long, the trigger for growth occurs 
only at the tip of the cell, and that tip is exquisitely sensitive 
to the environment," said Sack.  "The tip holds many secrets, like 
how it integrates signals from light and gravity and causes the 
plant to grow."

Sack and Ohio State colleagues Volker Kern, a postdoctoral 
researcher, and Nathan White, an undergraduate plant biology 
student, will send two kinds of moss into space:  a wild variety 
that on Earth grows upward even in the dark, and a mutant variety 
that grows downward.  Both kinds of moss will travel in sealed 
containers lined with gelatin, water, and sugar to help the moss 
grow.  The containers are similar to laboratory petri dishes.

A Ukrainian cosmonaut will provide some of the moss plants with 
light during the two-week mission and leave others in the dark, 
then preserve them all for the trip home with a chemical fixative 
similar to formaldehyde.  To keep the poisonous fixative from 
contaminating the air inside the shuttle, the researchers asked 
NASA to modify the petri dishes so the cosmonaut may conduct the 
experiment by flipping switches outside the container.

Once the moss returns to Earth, researchers will compare it to 
moss they grew in their laboratory during the same period.  Sack 
said that moss growth in the laboratory will depend on whether the 
plants are of the normal or mutant variety, and whether they are 
exposed to light.

"These moss cells can jump though a lot of hoops," said Sack.  "In 
the dark they'll normally grow straight up, but if you give them 
light on one side, they'll grow toward the light."

What will the plants in space do when kept in the dark? "The 
filaments might grow randomly, or in a spiral," said Sack.  "When 
moss is growing deep in the soil on Earth, its tendency to grow 
away from gravity helps it find the light; without gravity to help 
it, we think the moss might send out filaments in all directions 
as if it is seeking the light.  We won't know until we examine the 
moss.  That's how the experiment on the space shuttle is going to 
help our work."

The researchers also plan to determine how the starch particles 
are distributed in cells grown in space compared to on the ground.  
They hope that this will tell them more about the effect of 
mechanical forces inside these cells.  This information, in turn, 
may help scientists understand how all cells have evolved to 
prevent their heavy interior components from sinking to the bottom 
due to gravity.

The researchers plan to take digital pictures of the moss cells 
and locate the starch particles with image software from the 
National Institute of Health.  Sack said that the researchers will 
then be better able to gauge the influence of the starch particles 
on the direction of plant growth.
------------------------------------------------------------------

AUTHOR CALLS FOR MANNED MARS MISSION
by Denise Brehm, News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

19 November, 1997

Speaking like a man with a mission, Dr. Robert Zubrin advocated 
his ideas for cheap, lightweight trekking to Mars in a 
presentation to the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium at its 
annual forum on November 12.

Dr. Zubrin is co-author of The Case for Mars:  The Plan to Settle 
the Red Planet and Why We Must as well as executive chairman of 
the National Space Society and president of Pioneer Astronautics.  
He maintains that NASA's former $450 billion concept of Mars 
travel, which included a 30- year timeline and a spaceship 
dependent on as-yet-undeveloped technology, was the antithesis of 
a successful expedition.

Instead, he models his plan for a Mars mission after the first 
successful European expedition of the Northwest Passage.  "Travel 
light, live off the land and go on a shoestring budget," he said.  
"It is only by looking at how humans have successfully explored 
the Earth that we can tell how they can successfully explore 
Mars." The reason for such a mission, he said, is to determine if 
Mars did, does or could support life.

Dr. Zubrin was a senior engineer at Martin Marietta Astronautics 
Co.  (now Lockheed Martin) in 1989 when the firm was asked to put 
together an alternative to NASA's Mars plan.  The Mars Direct plan 
that he and his colleagues came up with was the "the most radical" 
alternative to the NASA approach, he said.  It calls for launching 
a ship from Earth directly to Mars, rather than from the moon, as 
some plans require.

It also advocates going to Mars in the next few years, using 
available technology and methods previously employed only in 
unmanned missions.  "The crew and their habitat can be sent 
directly to Mars by the upper stage of the same booster rocket 
that lifts them out of Earth's orbit," he said.

By reducing the total mass being sent to Mars, we can get there in 
10 years or less using off-the-shelf propulsion systems, Dr. 
Zubrin said.  For example, the proposed Mars Direct booster 
rocket, called Ares, could be "built out of things found in 
junkyards today," he said.

A reduction in mass can be achieved by sending the mission in 
segments and by producing fuel for the return flight on Mars, 
instead of carrying it from Earth.  Dr. Zubrin said a working In-
Situ Propellant Production chemical plant has been built, and 
proves that making the fuel on Mars is a viable concept.

The first launch, an unmanned payload from Earth to Mars 
containing an Earth Return Vehicle and a small truck with a 
nuclear reactor mounted on it, could be ready by 2005, he said.

It would also carry with it the chemical plant and 6 tons of 
liquid hydrogen to use in manufacturing fuel for the return trip.  
The nuclear reactor would be used to energize the chemical plant 
after landing so it could begin its work -- combining the hydrogen 
with the carbon dioxide in the Mars atmosphere to produce methane 
fuel for the return trip, and water and oxygen for the crew's use 
when they arrive.

This payload would be joined by two separate launches in 2007:  
another package of supplies, and four crewmembers in the "Beagle" 
ship.  The crew would live on Mars, exploring and conducting 
scientific experiments.  After 180 days, the crew could come back 
to Earth, leaving behind living quarters (the "hab"), a greenhouse 
for experiments, a land rover, chemical and power plants, a 
stockpile of fuel and most of their scientific instruments.  
Everything could remain in readiness for the next group of
scientist/astronauts.

Dr. Zubrin does not see Mars as a short-term venture.  He believes 
it could easily become an enduring project if we send a launch up 
every two years.  The experiment could be transformed into a 
colony, staffed with people who could learn "the craft of living 
on Mars," he said.  Using supplies from Earth, they could build 
small factories and rely upon Mars's natural resources to 
manufacture other necessities such as additional building 
materials, he added.

Dr. Zubrin estimates the cost of the mission at $20 billion 
initially and $2 billion for each additional launch, which he 
calls "a very small price to pay for a new world." He encourages 
people who believe strongly in the need for Mars travel to contact 
elected officials in Washington and/or join the new Mars Society, 
established to promote and raise money for a mission to Mars.

Not going to Mars by 2005, he said, is "an abdication of human 
responsibility.  We shouldn't leave it until the year 3005."
------------------------------------------------------------------

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR FLIGHT STATUS REPORT
JPL release

14 November 1997

Operations on the Mars Global Surveyor mission continue to proceed 
smoothly one week after the resumption of aerobraking.  This week, 
the flight team performed several small thruster firings to 
gradually drop the low point of the orbit back into the upper 
fringes of the Martian atmosphere.

Currently, the low point of the orbit lies at an altitude of 77.3 
miles (124.4 km).  Friday night, at the high point of orbit #41, 
Surveyor will perform another thruster firing to slow down and 
lower the low point of the orbit by another four kilometers.  The 
new low point altitude will cause the spacecraft to experience an 
air resistance force of 0.21 Newtons per square meter on every 
subsequent aerobraking pass.

This amount of force is approximately one-third as strong as that 
proposed by the original plan, and is nearly equal to the average 
force as prescribed by the new mission plan.  To put these force 
values in perspective, chief navigator Dr. Pat Esposito estimates 
that the orbit period will shrink at a rate of about 24 minutes 
per revolution as a result of flying through the atmosphere.

After a mission elapsed time of 372 days from launch, Surveyor is 
183.58 million miles (295.44 million kilometers) from the Earth 
and in an orbit around Mars with a high point of 27,578 miles 
(44,383 km), a low point of 77.3 miles (124.4 km), and a period of 
34.8 hours.  The spacecraft is currently executing the P41 command 
sequence, and all systems continue to perform as expected.  The 
next status report will be released on Wednesday, November 26th.

Status report prepared by:

Office of the Flight Operations Manager
Mars Surveyor Operations Project
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91109
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End Marsbugs Vol.  4, No.  16


