MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 13, 11 May 1998.

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.  Article 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 and Word97 files suitable for 
printing may be obtained via anonymous FTP at:  
ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs.  Also, an official web page is 
under construction.  Currently it is part of 
http://members.aol.com/marsbugs/dave.html (right now, the page 
simply points to the FTP site).

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.


INDEX

1)	WHY STUDY COMETS?
By Don Yeomans

2)	SO YOU WANT TO "GET INTO" SETI
By Larry Klaes

3)	ALIEN SPACESHIPS, SETI, AND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS
By Larry Klaes

4)	REVIEW OF SHARING THE UNIVERSE BY SETH SHOSTAK
By Larry Klaes

5)	REAL (NOT REEL) DEEP IMPACTS:  SANDIA SCIENTISTS PREDICT WHAT 
AN ASTEROID STRIKE WOULD LOOK LIKE, REALLY
Sandia National Laboratory release

6)	INTERPLANETARY DUST MAY CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE, GRADUAL 
EXTINCTION
By Kristen Vecellio

7)	STUDY OF SULFIDES IN BACTERIA CASTS DOUBT ON EVIDENCE OF LIFE 
IN MARTIAN METEORITE ALH84001
Arizona State University release

8)	NEW GALILEO IMAGES
JPL release

9)	JPL EVENING LECTURES HIGHLIGHT ICY AND FIERY SPACE 
DESTINATIONS
JPL release

10)	THIS WEEK ON GALILEO
JPL release

11)	1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT
By John McNamee




WHY STUDY COMETS?
By Don Yeomans, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

April 1998



Life on Earth began at the end of a period called the late heavy 
bombardment, some 3.8 billion years ago.  Before this time, the 
influx of interplanetary debris that formed the Earth was so 
strong that the proto-Earth was far too hot for life to have 
formed.  Under this heavy bombardment of asteroids and comets, the 
early Earth's oceans vaporized and the fragile carbon-based 
molecules, upon which life is based, could not have survived.  The 
earliest known fossils on Earth date from 3.5 billion years ago 
and there is evidence that biological activity took place even 
earlierjust at the end of the period of late heavy bombardment.  
So the window when life began was very short.  As soon as life 
could have formed on our planet, it did.  But if life formed so 
quickly on Earth and there was little in the way of water and 
carbon-based molecules on the Earth's surface, then how were these 
building blocks of life delivered to the Earth's surface so 
quickly?  The answer may involve the collision of comets with the 
Earth, since comets contain abundant supplies of both water and 
carbon-based molecules.

As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the outer solar 
system formation process, comets offer clues to the chemical 
mixture from which the giant planets formed some 4.6 billion years 
ago.  If we wish to know the composition of the primordial mixture 
from which the major planets formed, then we must determine the 
chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation 
process - the comets.  Comets are composed of significant 
fractions of water ice, dust, and carbon-based compounds.  Since 
their orbital paths often cross that of the Earth, cometary 
collisions with the Earth have occurred in the past and additional 
collisions are forthcoming.  It is not a question of whether a 
comet will strike the Earth, it is a question of when the next one 
will hit.  It now seems likely that a comet struck near the 
Yucatan peninsula in Mexico some 65 million years ago and caused a 
massive extinction of more than 75% of the Earth's living 
organisms, including the dinosaurs.

Comets have this strange duality whereby they first brought the 
building blocks of life to Earth some 3.8 billion years ago and 
subsequent cometary collisions may have wiped out many of the 
developing life forms, allowing only the most adaptable species to 
evolve further.  Indeed, we may owe our preeminence at the top of 
Earth's food chain to cometary collisions.  A catastrophic 
cometary collision with the Earth is only likely to happen at 
several million year intervals on average, so we need not be 
overly concerned with a threat of this type.  However, it is 
prudent to mount efforts to discover and study these objects, to 
characterize their sizes, compositions and structures and to keep 
an eye upon their future trajectories.

As with asteroids, comets are both a potential threat and a 
potential resource for the colonization of the solar system in the 
twenty first century.  Whereas asteroids are rich in the mineral 
raw materials required to build structures in space, the comets 
are rich resources for the water and carbon-based molecules 
necessary to sustain life.  In addition, an abundant supply of 
cometary water ice can provide copious quantities of liquid 
hydrogen and oxygen, the two primary ingredients in rocket fuel.  
One day soon, comets may serve as fueling stations for 
interplanetary spacecraft.


SO YOU WANT TO "GET INTO" SETI

By Larry Klaes



The Dream

So you have spent your whole life hearing about, reading about, 
and seeing humanity's numerous interpretations of alien life 
beyond Earth.

You look up at a clear night sky full of stars and wonder if 
someone else is also sitting on some alien world around one of 
those suns, pondering the same thoughts as you.

Eventually, your intellectual curiosity builds to the point where 
you must do more than just read and think about alien beings:  you 
want to see for yourself if they really are out there, somewhere 
in our vast universe.

The Realities

First you discover that, despite everything you see and read about 
traveling to other star systems in science fiction, in reality we 
are a long way off from reaching even the nearest of suns with any 
kind of actual vessel.  Besides, with over 400 billion stars in 
our Milky Way galaxy alone, searching their countless worlds with 
star probes would take many generations of human lives to 
accomplish.

One reason for this dramatically slow processin addition to the 
huge number of previously mentioned star systemsis due, 
ironically enough, to the fastest achievable velocity in 
existencethe speed of light and radio waves.  The universal speed 
limit is about 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second.  To 
go any faster than this would require more energy than exists in 
the entire universe, and that just is not feasible.

Granted, light speed is incredibly fast, but even if you had a 
starship which could achieve 99 percent of that velocity, it would 
still take you 100,000 years (measured in Earth time, but not 
allowing for the accelerating and decelerating phases of the trip) 
just to go from one end of the galaxy to the other.  As for the 
various faster-than-light (FTL) proposals, such as cosmic 
wormholes and warp drives, they are still very much in the realm 
of theory.

Conversely, this also means thatdespite the endless reports of 
alien spaceships landing on Earth with crews of strange beings who 
slice up our cattle and abduct numerous members of our population 
for bizarre medical experimentsthe sheer volume of Milky Way star 
systems and the incredible amounts of space between them make the 
chances that so many alien races would construct large fleets of 
starships, find Earth, journey many light years to our planet, and 
then spend so much time here engaged in the aforementioned 
activities quite slim and even absurd.

Most often these reports of alien visitors turn out to be hoaxes 
or misinterpretations of natural and human-made phenomenon.  If 
anything, UFOs and abduction stories tell us far more about human 
psychology and culture than about anything or anyone from other 
worlds.

Then you learn that some genuine scientific methods for finding 
extraterrestrial life actually exist.  Some astronomers and 
engineers are using giant radio telescopes (and in a few cases so 
far, optical ones) to listen and look for signals from alien 
civilizations which may be trying to let the galaxy know that they 
exist and want to make contact with their celestial neighbors.  
Other scientists hope to find less advancedbut no less 
interestinglife forms on various planets and moons in our own 
solar system.

You are overjoyed that not everything about the Search for 
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is either just science 
fiction or destined for some future era.  You might actually be 
able to personally satisfy your desire to know if we are not 
alone.  Maybe you can even be sitting at the controls of the 
telescope when that first message from the stars reaches our blue 
planet, forever changing the course of human history and our place 
in the cosmos!


More Realities:  Can You "Do" SETI?

In an ideal world, the search for life beyond Earth would be one 
of the highest priorities for humanity.  To know if other beings
especially intelligent onesexist with us in the cosmos, to 
contact them and hopefully learn something of their perspectives 
on reality, and perhaps even more.  Large amounts of resources, 
time, and humanpower would be devoted to this ultimate quest for 
knowledge.

To anyone who knows how vast the universe is in terms of its size 
and quantities of celestial bodies, it should be the goal of every 
intelligence such as ours to seek out others in space to learn 
from them and find our true place in existence.  To quote from 
Carl Sagan:

"In a very real sense this search for extraterrestrial 
intelligence is a search for a cosmic context for mankind, a 
search for who we are, where we have come from, and what 
possibilities there are for our futurein a universe vaster both 
in extent and duration than our forefathers ever dreamed of."
(Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI), Carl 
Sagan, Editor, 1973, MIT Press, "Introduction", pp.  ix-x)

But noble intentions and plans do not always occur as hoped for in 
reality.  The concept of extraterrestrial life and the quest for 
it has been on a long and obstacle-laden road ever since the idea 
first appeared among a few brilliant thinkers in ancient Greece 
over two thousand years ago.  For millennia after, however, even 
thinking that intelligent beings could exist beyond Earth was 
considered blasphemy!  After all, we appeared to be at the Center 
of the universe, where everything literally revolved around us.  
Existence was made just for humanity by the godsto think that it 
could be shared by anyone else was considered an absurd idea.

Once we began to enlighten ourselves with science, philosophy, and 
technology, such attitudes began to shed away in favor of freely 
thinking about such possibilities.  We were no longer the Center 
of Everything, but rather Earth was just one of several planets 
orbiting what turns out to be an average yellow star among 
hundreds of billions of other suns in what turns out to be an 
average spiral galaxy in a universe with hundreds of billions of 
such star islands scattered throughout the vastness.

Of course with this freedom of thought and expression, some people 
went too far with the idea of extraterrestrial life and 
intelligence.  Percival Lowell stands out as a prime example here.  
In the 1890s, Lowell considered the straight lines perceived on 
the planet Mars to be a huge system of canals constructed by an 
advanced race of Martians to bring water from the planet's polar 
caps to their great cities along the equator.  The only evidence 
Lowell had for this was his imaginative speculation.

Lowell supported and promoted this idea with great gusto and 
publicity.  Many astronomers, however, felt Lowell was assuming a 
great deal from such scant and uncertain evidence.  When it 
finally became generally accepted that the "canals" were really 
just optical illusions created by the human eye and mind trying to 
make patterns out of the indistinct natural surface features on 
Mars, professional attitudes towards alien life turned negative.

Add to this the growing popularity of science fiction with its 
bug-eyed monster portrayals of ravenous, conquering aliens, and 
then the business of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) as alien 
spaceships doing all sorts of strange things to the populace, and 
astrobiology was given a major setback from which it is still 
recovering today.

It has taken a long time, but we are finally at a stage where 
searching for extraterrestrial intelligence is no longer 
completely considered a crazy or foolish idea.  The human race is 
finally beginning to grow up and expand its mental and physical 
horizons.  SETI is becoming accepted, especially once the 
scientist pioneers showed that it could be done, even though no 
definite signal of alien origin has yet been proven.

Your Choices

Now that you are riding in the wake of those who paved the way for 
you to make even considering doing SETI possible, which route do 
you want to take?  And what do you need to follow your plans?

The Professional Route

Before we go any further here, the first item I want to make clear 
is that at present, almost no one who is conducting professional 
SETI started out doing SETI in their careers.  Very few places 
conduct professional SETIThe SETI Institute (http://www.seti-
inst.edu) being among the most notable exceptionsand the majority 
of their employees came from careers in astronomy and engineering.  
Most other SETI projects, such as BETA 
(http://mc.harvard.edu/seti/) and SERENDIP 
(http://albert.ssl.berkeley.edu:80/serendip/), are run primarily 
by skilled volunteers with donated funds.

So if you want to hunt for aliens, you have to learn more than 
just how to sit at a monitor and wait for a needle to jump.  And 
don't expect to get paid as much as other professions in terms of 
financial rewards, if at all.  But usually one does not get into 
this field just for the material benefits.

Getting a degree in astronomy is my first recommendation.  You 
have to understand the fundamentals of the universe before you can 
truly begin to comprehend what life forms might be out there and 
why.  If you don't even have an idea of where to look for them, 
the search will be essentially a waste of time for you and 
everyone else.  The same applies to my recommendation of studying 
physics.

Knowledge of computers and radio technology is highly recommended, 
as conducting SETI takes up massive amounts of computer data 
crunching power.  SETI sifts through literally millions and 
billions of data bits per second, and trying to find some faint 
artificial signals in a universe full of very noisy natural 
objects is a job for nothing less than advanced computers which 
can work fast and handle lots of information at once.  Knowing how 
to work with such machines will be a big plus in SETI.

I would also recommend learning biology and chemistry.  The beings 
you hope to pursue may be quite different from anything you might 
find on Earth, but understanding the fundamentals of how life 
forms on this planet exist and function will give you a good base 
to work from.

Since you will be searching for intelligent beings who will have 
some form of advanced technological civilization (otherwise we 
won't be able to detect ETI from Earth with our current radio and 
optical telescopes), I would suggest studying sociology to learn 
about how cultures develop and function with themselves and 
others.  There certainly are a wide variety of human societies to 
study which will give you at least some ideas for what alien 
cultures just might be like and their motivations and methods for 
reaching out to the galaxy at large.

Plus all of this is good for you to know for your own intellectual 
benefit and personal growth.  Yes, this is my "it builds 
character" statement.

All Creatures Great and Small:  Becoming an Exobiologist

Of course the alien life you can search for does not necessarily 
have to be intelligent, at least on the technological civilization 
level.  NASA and many universities are developing very nice 
programs on searching for extraterrestrials of the much simpler 
kind.  Our latest journeys into the solar system with planetary 
probes have shown that some of our neighboring worlds might not be 
as hostile as once thought to microbes and other hardy and 
relatively unsophisticated creatures.

For example, NASA is quite interested in finding either fossils of 
Mars life that lived there several billion years ago, or microbial 
life that still thrives on the Red Planet, perhaps dwelling under 
the surface where conditions are a bit wetter, warmer, and safer 
than above ground.  Jupiter's smallest Galilean moon, Europa, 
appears to have a liquid ocean underneath its incredible ice 
crust.  Some scientists are speculating that conditions in those 
alien seas might be just right for harboring some aquatic 
Europans.

These are just two possibilities you could end up researching if 
you decide to become an exobiologista career that didn't even 
exist in any true form until well after the advent of the Space 
Age.  Much of the learning tools that applied to professional SETI 
also apply here, though with added emphasis on biology and 
chemistry.

You may initially think that finding an alien microbe won't be as 
thrilling as detecting a whole civilization of very intelligent 
beings.  But just look at the wonder and excitement generated by 
the possible microfossils found in Martian meteorite ALH84001 when 
their discovery was announced in 1996.

It is most important to realize that finding any kind of life form 
that did not originate on planet Earth will be the key evidence 
humanity needs to let us know that we are not alone in the 
universe.  And finding organisms in our solar system could happen 
long before we come upon beings from other planetary systems.

The Amateur Route

While you probably won't make a living at doing SETI the amateur 
way, the wonderful thing about living in this era is that the 
search technology has reached the point where any serious amateur 
astronomer (non-Ph.D.) with a few thousand dollars (or equivalent 
currency) for the right equipment can actually conduct a serious 
search for other galactic civilizations.  You can actually possess 
the technological ability to scan the skies with devices that 
would have been the envy of most professional institutions just a 
decade or two ago.

The extra beauty of doing your own SETI project is that you can 
essentially be your own boss as to how things are run.  SETI does 
not have to belong only to the "big" boys and girls.

Naturally, to conduct amateur SETI, it will help to have a more 
than casual interest in astronomy, a working knowledge of 
telescopesradio and optical, depending on which type of amateur 
SETI you want to pursue (more on that later)a working knowledge 
of computers, a good place to set up your observatory, plenty of 
free time, and some extra spending cash.  Yes, if you want to do 
serious astronomy and/or SETI, it can't be done properly as a 
weekend hobby.

Of course you can do this any way you want, but since we do not 
know who may be sending signals from out there by what methods, 
when, or where, a near-constant vigilance is the only way to be 
sure of catching their call when it comes.  And since it is likely 
that such signals will not be very powerful, especially to amateur 
equipment, it will also make a major difference as to how 
"serious" your equipment is as well.

Amateur SETI Organizations:  The Microwave Approach

Another nice thing in this era of computers and the Internet is 
that you don't have to be alone in pursuing your personal SETI 
dream.  There are some actual amateur SETI organizations which can 
help you with all aspects of your search plans.

If you want to find alien intelligences in the microwave (radio) 
realm, the most common pursuit at present, check in with The SETI 
League.  The League was founded by Richard Factor and Paul Shuch 
in 1995, in response to the United States' Government cutting all 
funds for NASA's SETI program, called the High Resolution 
Microwave Survey (HRMS), and the Superconducting Super Collider 
(SSC) in the early 1990s.

They felt that between the advancements in computer technology and 
the vast numbers of actual and potential radio astronomers around 
the world, a serious amateur effort could be mounted to have a 
constant global coverage of the sky, free from the budget-cutting 
politicians and scant time on the professionals' giant radio 
telescopes.

The SETI League's Web site (http::/www.setileague.org) contains 
just about everything you need to know about setting up your own 
radio telescope for the search.  They can also postal mail you the 
same information if need be.  There is also loads of information 
on SETI in general.

The Optical Approach

There is another way one can look for ETI transmissions that 
briefly gained prominence in the early 1960s, only to be 
overshadowed by the microwave field until just recentlythe 
optical spectrum.

While not as popular or well known to those with a casual 
knowledge of SETI due to microwave's dominance for the past three 
decades, optical SETI seeks to detect pulsed and continuous wave 
laser beacons signals in the visible and infrared spectrum.  To 
truly advanced societies, laser communications offer a way to 
transmit large amounts of audiovisual information over vast 
distances.  Seeing as we do not exactly know how ETI might 
communicate, looking for them in both the microwave and optical 
spectrums seems the only logical way to cover all the bases.

For the past several years, Dr. Stuart Kingsley of Ohio, who has 
often referred to himself as a "frustrated astronaut", has led the
effort to promote optical SETI for both amateurs and 
professionals.  He has designed his own system called the Columbus 
Optical SETI Observatory.  At first glance, it looks like the 
typical kind of observatory you would find in a serious amateur 
astronomer's back yard.  But Dr. Kingsley's choice of targets goes 
beyond planets and stars to the very beings which may dwell in 
other star systems.

Seeing as more amateurs have optical telescopes than radio ones, 
it can be relatively easy to adapt your system to conduct this 
kind of SETI.  Dr. Kingsley has provided a great deal of 
information on how to do this in his Web site at:  
http://www.coseti.org.

As with microwave, while you won't need a large radio dish, you 
will still require a dedication and seriousness to astronomy, a 
working knowledge of telescopes and computers, a good place to set 
up your observatory, plenty of free time, and some extra spending 
cash.

There is also "Retrospective Optical SETI", which does not require 
the availability of a telescope, but rather seeks to search 
through the existing historical record and database of stellar 
spectrographic plates that have accumulated over the past century, 
looking for anomalous spectral lines.  Such lines might indicate 
the presence of a laser beacon signal not previously noted, or was 
dismissed by an astronomer as a "glitch" or otherwise natural 
phenomenon in his or her equipment!

Beyond Radio and Lasers

Of course ETI might be sending messages through the Milky Way 
using techniques which are neither radio nor optical, but most of 
these methods are far beyond current amateurand in some cases 
professionalcapabilities.  Thus they will remain out of the main 
scope of this article.

You can read about these alternate signaling methods for your own 
intellectual curiosity in the following article at this Web site 
URL:
http://www.setiquest.com/lemav/lemav0n0.htm

Beyond the Observatory

If you prefer or decide not to become an active SETI scientist, 
but still want to make some kind of a living in the field, you can 
always pursue other avenues that while they may not allow you to 
find ETI in person, they can go a long way towards making those 
discoveries possible.

One avenue is to write about extraterrestrial life for periodicals 
and Web sites.  Though it sometimes helps, you do not have to be a 
professional exobiologist to get published on the subject matter 
in the popular science magazines.  Your research into alien life 
and its possible ways of being could go far in making 
breakthroughs in a field that still has so many unknowns to 
answer.

You can also write about astrobiology and SETI to explain its 
intricacies to the general public, a valuable service in its own 
right.  Just think, your work could inspire others to become 
scientists in the SETI field and elsewhere, just as you were 
probably once inspired by similar circumstances.

Most importantly, don't ever forget in your pursuit of alien life 
to enjoy what you are doing.  SETI and its related fields should 
always retain at least some of the wonder and excitement that drew 
you to it in the first place.  Never forget to keep reading, 
thinking, and speculating about life out there, whether you pursue 
this as a profession or just an "armchair" enthusiast.  You will 
do yourself and the field a great deal of good with this one basic 
point.

The Choice is Yours

Despite how it might seem at first glance, my goal with this 
article is not to discourage you from "doing" SETI.  Rather, I am 
presenting to you up front the realities of what is involved as 
the field stands now.  It would be worse for you to get all worked 
up and make elaborate plans about SETI, only to be shot down in 
midstream.  If exploring the stars is your dream, learn how to do 
it realistically, rather than be defeated out of lack of knowledge 
on the subject.

If you discover that you do not really want to pursue SETI beyond 
reading and thinking about it, then at least I hope I saved you 
some time and energy on the matter so that you can still enjoy the 
subject.  Remember, you do not have to make your own SETI station 
to participate in this great endeavor.  Thoughtful speculation can 
be just as helpful with so many unknown factors out there that 
have yet to be found.

However, if everything I have said has made you still determined 
to pursue either a professional career or serious amateur goal to 
do SETI, then more power to you!  At the very least, you will be 
well rewarded in terms of what you will discover about yourself 
and the universe as a whole.

And who knows, maybe someday you will be the one sitting at the 
observatory controls when the signal of a lifetime comes drifting 
in from deep space.  With a cosmos as large as ours, the 
possibilities are truly astronomical.


ALIEN SPACESHIPS, SETI, AND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS

By Larry Klaes


In late March of 1997, the Heaven's Gate cult in California 
committed mass suicide due in part to their belief that an alien 
spaceship was in our solar system riding behind Comet Hale-Bopp.  
This alleged star vessel supposedly contained intelligent beings 
superior to humanity both technologically and spiritually.  The 
cult believed these beings were going to "save" selected members 
of the human racesuch as themselvesand bring them to a "higher 
level", wherever and whatever that might be.  In the end, though, 
the spaceship never existed and the cult members only ended up 
decaying in a large suburban mansion.

While the cult's behavior is a rather extreme example, it 
showcases what many in the general public think about intelligent 
life beyond Earththat "they" are superior to us in every way and 
have fleets of crewed starships constantly coming here to prepare 
us for salvation from our primitive and ultimately destructive 
ways.

Of course many others think that aliens are actually here for our 
chunk of the celestial real estate and to turn us into food and/or 
slaves.  When one looks at the realities of the universe and 
biological evolution, however, the truth is probably quite 
different.

Most folks know little about how vast our cosmos is or even how it 
is set up.  We live on a rather small rock circling a small yellow 
star that is one of 400 billion in a huge collection of such 
luminous gas balls called the Milky Way galaxy.  Most of these 
stars average several light years apart, a distance which would 
take our first interstellar space probes, Pioneer and Voyager, 
tens of thousands of years to reach the realms of even the nearest 
stars.

In other words, we live in a galaxy that is so large and so 
populated with natural objects, it is ludicrous to imagine that 
beings of other star systems would know about us unless they were 
very nearby on a cosmic scale.  And what would we have to offer 
these beings that can cross interstellar distances, assuming such 
advanced intelligences exist and would want to make the journey?  
A sort of primitive anthropological study, perhaps.  However, this 
kind of exploration would probably keep the ETI from interacting 
us for a long time.

This is not to say that there are not ETI who explore other star 
systems, but many scientists find it doubtful that they are here 
in the numbers that the public reports every day, if there are 
even any ETI here at all!

Star travel is an expensive way to explore other systems, and you 
had better be darn sure that there is something (or someone) of 
interest to find before you send out your mission on a journey 
that could take years to centuries, depending upon the target and 
disavowing any faster-than-light drives or methods.

There is an easier way to explore and possibly communicate with 
beings on other worldsthe use of microwave and optical telescopes 
as supported by those who conduct the Search for Extraterrestrial 
Intelligence (SETI).  While a starship might take a lot to build 
and then risk much in the long journey from one world to the next, 
a radio or light beam can carry lots of information cheaply and 
almost certainly survive the voyage intact.  That is what the 
members of current SETI projects and others who support them think 
is the way we will first meet our extraterrestrial neighbors.

Granted this research may not have the glamour and drama of an 
alien craft hovering over a major city, but it seems more likely 
at this point.  It also does not require us to do more than build 
some rather inexpensive devices to listen and look for "them".  
Scanning the whole sky also increases the chances of finding ETI, 
rather than searching a few star systems at a time, as would be 
necessary with artificial star probes.

The SETI community's task at hand in part is to help the public 
understand how the universe is truly laid out and what would be 
required of any ETI to send starships rather than communicate 
through the ether.  If the public keeps thinking "they" are here, 
they will not support and fund efforts such scientific efforts to 
conduct the most likely way of ever knowing if we are not alone in 
the universe.

We must show them that not only are we not the physical center of 
the cosmos as once believed, but we are likely just one of many 
voices in the galactic chorus.  ETI may indeed "save" us, but it 
can happen only by our efforts to find and understand them first.  
In this way, humanity will grow up on a celestial scale.


REVIEW OF SHARING THE UNIVERSE BY SETH SHOSTAK
By Larry Klaes


In our current cultural fascination with the idea of alien beings 
from other worlds, most of it hokey at best and just plain wrong 
at worst, there is a definite need for some popular-level 
literature which helps to sort the rational wheat from the 
pseudoscience and Hollywood chaff.

Seth Shostak, Public Program Scientist at the SETI Institute in 
Mountain View, Californiawhere they conduct Project Phoenixhas 
created such a book.  Titled Sharing the Universe, Shostak gives a 
comprehensive and most readable survey of what we do (and 
especially do not) know about life beyond the planet Earth, and 
how we are going about searching for our fellow inhabitants of the 
universe.

Whether realized or not, most of the general public gets its 
"education" on science, history, and foreign cultures from the 
films and television programs they watch.

This is why physicists such as Lawrence M. Krauss write popular 
books using the series Star Trek and other science fiction 
programs to explain why most of the "science" and technology they 
present is either physically impossible or unobtainable for the 
foreseeable future.

Many people do come away from science fictions films thinking that 
evil alien monsters are waiting to pounce on Earth or that 
starships equipped with "warp" drives will be zipping us around 
the Milky Way galaxy in the next few centuries.  As for the 
latter, I do hope we are exploring the interstellar realm by the 
era Star Trek is set in.  However, unless there is some major 
breakthrough in physics and technology, I do not think Scotty will 
be fixing the mythical dilithium crystals on the Enterprise to 
give us Warp 8 to Alpha Centauri any time soon.

In each chapter of Sharing the Universe, Shostak usually starts 
off by presenting some relevant aspect of a popular science 
fiction film or series and then showing why it probably would not 
happen that way in reality.  I was pleased to see that Shostak did 
his homework when describing his representative science fiction.  
While some scientists may prefer that these forms of entertainment 
were not interwoven with serious science, Shostak realized that 
the public generally does not discriminate between what Hollywood 
puts on the screen and what biological evolution could actually 
produce on worlds circling distant suns.

For those who are concerned that Sharing the Universe is little 
more than knocking down bad Hollywood aliens and science, put 
those fears aside.  Shostak gives clear and interesting 
explanations on the latest data we have about astrobiology in all 
its forms.

He starts off with our current understanding about possible life 
havens in our own solar system, then works his way into the galaxy 
with the new planets being discovered around other stars.  Current 
thinking is that since we developed on a planet circling a sun, 
then other life forms may have done the same.  Finding other solar 
systems (though so far none quite like ours) is a hopeful step in 
the right direction.

The next chapters explore how alien life forms, especially the 
intelligent ones, might be created and evolve, and their possible 
behaviors.  Shostak focuses on the public's major fascination with 
aliens who want to find and interact with us.  The author deftly 
shows how most of the aliens portrayed in our entertainment are 
far more mundane and human than they may first appear to be, no 
matter how many tentacles or other appendages they might have.  
Real ETI may be very different from us in almost every way.  
Evolution does not always role the same dice twice, especially on 
worlds in distant star systems.

The aliens from Hollywood and abduction reports also show just how 
socially egocentric humans can be, probably because we have been 
isolated on just one planet for most of our existence with no 
other intelligent species to compare ourselves to.  They assume 
that every star-faring race in the galaxy thinks that Earth is the 
hottest spot to visit in the heavens, either to save humanity from 
its primitive ways or to knock us out of the competition for 
survival of the galactic fittest.

More than likely, if ETI do exist, they are completely unaware of 
humanity and Earth, as the Milky Way galaxy is so vast and 
abundant with billions of stars, planets, nebulae, and other 
celestial objects.

Even if they do know about us, why would they want to expend so 
much of the time, energy, and resources necessary to mount a long 
and dangerous interstellar expedition to gather information and 
materials from Earth?  They can probably find almost anything they 
want in major abundance throughout the rest of our vast galaxy, 
much of it likely without any current inhabitants.

Of course if ETI want to find and learn about humanity through 
interstellar means of communication, that is another matter.  
Sending messages through the galaxy is a practical and inexpensive 
endeavor.  Best of all, we can actually search for these signals 
right from our own planet with current technology!

The final chapters discuss how real SETI programs are conducted, 
what we may expect if ETI are trying to signal us, how humanity 
might react to the discovery, and what kind of responses we should 
send.  Though the main focus is on Microwave (radio) SETI, other 
methods, such as Optical SETI (detecting laser and infrared 
transmission beams) are discussed.  Since we do not know how ETI 
might communicate with each other or us, it is only prudent to 
utilize all the practical detection means at our disposal to 
ensure success.

Shostak answers the people who think that the government or 
various SETI programs have already found that ETI exist and are 
hiding evidence of these aliens from the public to avoid a 
cultural shock and panic.  Shostak relates the story of how one 
perceived detection incident with Project Phoenix in June of 1997
which turned out to be the signal from the SOHO solar satellite
was unintentionally leaked to the press within twelve hours after 
the signal was first found.  People just could not keep their 
mouths shut about what might have been the most important event in 
human history.

If a genuine ETI message had been discovered, no doubt by now 
human nature would have spread the word across our planet, 
regardless of any restriction attempts.  And considering how a 
real first find would boost the professional and personal lives of 
the folks who found it, why would they want to sit on such a gold 
mine once its authenticity had been determined?

In summation, I highly recommend Shostak's Sharing the Universe to 
anyone who wants the clear and exciting scientific picture of our 
long search for other minds in the cosmos.  I also recommend this 
book for those who are familiar with the subject, as it can serve 
as both a refresher and a guide when someone asks about the latest 
UFO report or if a certain alien species on Star Trek could really 
exist.

My only recommendation for the next edition (and I will presume 
this event, as new knowledge in the field keeps growing by leaps 
and bounds), is the addition of more photographs and diagrams to 
accompany the text, especially in color.

Perhaps by the next edition of Sharing the Universe, Seth Shostak 
won't have to fall back on explaining why aliens probably will not 
want to steal Earth's water or try to stop us from destroying the 
rain forests.  Because if the public reads this book, they will be 
ready to explore the real possibilities of extraterrestrial life 
through science, our best tool and hope if we are ever to learn 
the answers to all our questions about who and what is "out 
there".

The following is a Web site with ordering information for Sharing 
the Universe:
http://www.seti-inst.edu/books.html#sharing

Sharing the Universe, by Seth Shostak
Paperback, 216 pages
Published by Berkeley Hills Books
Publication date:  January 1998
Dimensions (in inches):  0.63 x 9.01 x 5.90
ISBN:  0965377431


REAL (NOT REEL) DEEP IMPACTS:  SANDIA SCIENTISTS PREDICT WHAT AN 
ASTEROID STRIKE WOULD LOOK LIKE, REALLY
Sandia National Laboratory release

5 May 1998

Steven Spielberg's new blockbuster moviewith its computer-
animated interpretation of a comet striking Earthpromises to be a 
big hit at the box office this summer.  But computer scientists at 
Sandia National Laboratories are creating some big hits of their 
own these days that they think may better approximate a real 
asteroid catastrophe.

Using virtual reality techniques, decades of experience in shock 
physics, advanced computer programs, and the world's fastest 
computer, the scientists have completed in recent weeks one of the 
largest hypervelocity impact physics calculations ever performed.

In the latest computing scenario, an asteroid 1.4 kilometers in 
diameter strikes the Atlantic Ocean 25 miles south of Brooklyn, 
N.Y.  To model the event the scientists broke up a 120-square-mile 
space that roughly approximates the New York City metropolitan 
area, the air above, and the water and earth below, into 100 
million separate cubes, or grids.  Sandia's teraflops 
supercomputer then calculated what happened inside each cube as 
the asteroid splashed down.  The cubes were reassembled to produce 
a three-dimensional moving picture of the collision.  The 
teraflops, currently the world's fastest computer, performs more 
than one trillion mathematical operations per second.

The simulation is no video game; the calculations take into 
account the real- world laws of physics governing time, 
temperature, pressure, gravity, the densities of water and earth, 
and hundreds of other considerations to create an accurate 
prediction.  What's more, the resulting computer simulation can be 
explored using interactive virtual reality techniques.  For 
instance, scientists can "fly through" the 3-D movie to get a 
better idea of what's happening on Coney Island if they want.

The work supports Sandia's Department of Energy mission to use the 
world's highest-performance computers to develop computer codes 
that can one day model the extremely complex physics that occur 
during a nuclear weapon blast.  In the absence of real-world 
nuclear testing, DOE and the weapons labs are developing 
continually more powerful supercomputers and computer codes to 
simulate the complex 3-D physics involved in nuclear-weapon 
performance and to accurately predict the degradation of nuclear 
weapon components as they age in the stockpile.  Simulating comet 
impacts provides an opportunity to test and improve the codes.

How did Spielberg do?

So what would happen during such an impact, really? According to 
the simulation, the impact would vaporize the asteroid, deform the 
ocean floor, and eject hundreds of cubic miles of superheated 
water vapor, melted rock, and other debris into the upper 
atmosphere and back into space.  Much of the debris would then 
rain down over the world for the next several hours and also form 
a high global cloud, says David Crawford of Sandia's Computational 
Physics and Mechanics Department.  The shock wave from the impact 
would level much of the New England region.  The heat would 
incinerate cities and forests there instantaneously.  The global 
cloud would then lower temperatures worldwide, and a global 
snowstorm likely would ensue and last several days to several 
weeks, initiating a "nuclear winter" that would create more 
hardships for earth's inhabitants.

An impact of this magnitude can be expected to occur on Earth 
about once every 300,000 years and approximates what scientists 
consider to be the "global catastrophe threshold," he says.

So how close is Spielberg's interpretation of the event to the 
teraflops' virtual predictions?

"The movie makers didn't have the benefit of the world's fastest 
computer, but they produced superior visuals that appear 
remarkably realistic," says Arthurine Breckenridge of Sandia's 
Computer Architectures Department.

In the movie preview, the comet strikes at an angle and raises a 
symmetrical steam cloud, she says, which probably wouldn't happen.  
"We now know that the vapor cloud produced by an impact is 
initially asymmetric, sending more material in the direction of 
the ricochet." The movie does realistically depict a tsunami that 
would surely follow an ocean impact, she says.

Spielberg's Deep Impact opens this Friday, May 8.  Another movie, 
Armageddon, which depicts an asteroid "the size of Texas" 
threatening to strike Earth, opens July 1.

An experiment you would never want to do

The teraflops simulations employ "massively parallel computing," a 
computing approach pioneered by Sandia in the late 1980s.  In 
massively parallel computing, thousands of discrete computing 
tasks are assigned to several hundred separate computing 
"processors" inside the supercomputer.  The computing tasks are 
accomplished simultaneously and their results reassembled.  All of 
today's high performance supercomputing employs a massively 
parallel approach.

In the most recent 100-million-cell calculation, the teraflops 
used 8,192 of its 9,000 processors.  The entire calculation lasted 
18 hours.  Sandia has done similar calculations on its high 
performance computers, including a 54-million- cell simulation of 
a comet striking the ocean.  In 1994, Crawford and Sandia 
scientist Mark Boslough accurately simulated what would happen 
when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere.  
Months later, the world's astronomers watched the Sandia-predicted 
event unfold in real life through the Hubble space telescope.

"A lot of major breakthroughs in science are going to come from 
these kinds of calculations," Boslough says.  He notes that the 
impact simulations are something that can't be done any other way.  
"It's almost like doing an experimentone you could never do.  One 
you would never want to do."

Sandia's teraflops computer is a joint development of DOE, Sandia, 
and Intel.  It represents the initial goal of DOE's Accelerated 
Strategic Computing Initiative, a ten-year program designed to 
move nuclear weapons design and maintenance from a test-based to 
simulation-based engineering approach.

Sandia is a multiprogram Department of Energy laboratory operated 
by Lockheed Martin Corp.  With main facilities in Albuquerque, 
N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has research and development 
programs contributing to national defense, energy and 
environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.


The simulations in Quick Time format, other illustrations, and 
links to information about other Sandia comet modeling work are 
available at http://sherpa.sandia.gov/asteroid/

A video tape containing the simulation and other Sandia comet-
modeling work is available from Sandia's media relations office; 
call (505) 844-5199.

Photo Captions:  [http://www.sandia.gov/media/comethit.htm]

[Comet hit simulation image 1]
This computer-generated image by Sandia National Laboratories' 
scientists shows the impact of a 1-km comet (or asteroid) hitting 
in the open ocean.  The comet and 300 to 500 cubic kilometers of 
ocean water would be vaporized nearly instantaneously by the 
tremendous energy of the impact.  The impact energy of about 300 
gigatons of TNT would be equivalent to about 10 times the 
explosive power of all the nuclear weapons in existence in the 
1960s at the height of the Cold War.

[Comet hit simulation image 2]
Five seconds after a 1.4 kilometer-wide asteroid crashes into the 
Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York, an impact plume 
containing superheated water, earth, and other debris blankets 
major portions of Long Island.  The viewpoint is from orbital 
altitude from a location about 100 kilometers west of New York 
City looking east.  Long Island trails off in the distance.  
Manhattan and Staten Islands are in the foreground.

[Comet hit simulation image 3]
Eleven seconds after impact, Long Island and the New York 
shoreline are engulfed in debris and superheated steam, and much 
of the material in the upper portions of the impact plume is on 
suborbital trajectories.  In both images, water is blue, land is 
brown, water vapor is white, and hot material (greater than 5,000 
Celsius) is orange.


INTERPLANETARY DUST MAY CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE, GRADUAL EXTINCTION
By Kristen Vecellio, University of Florida

7 May 1998

Space dust in the earth's atmosphere and changes in the planet's 
orbit may have started the gradual extinction of dinosaurs and 
other life thousands of years before a massive asteroid collision 
dealt the final blow, according to research from the University of 
Florida and the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The dust build-up, which rises and falls on about a 100,000-year 
cycle, also may answer some big questions researchers have about 
the history of earth's climate, said Stanley Dermott, chairman of 
UF's astronomy department.  

"A major, outstanding problem in present day geophysics is 
understanding the history of earth's climate," said Dermott.

The research will be published in the Friday (5/8) issue of the 
journal Science.  The earth's climate varies on a 100,000 year 
scale, and during that time the earth's eccentricity changes 
causing the earth to move closer or farther away from the sun.  
Current scientific thinking says this variation in the amount of 
sunlight reaching the earth, known as the Milankovich Effect, 
changed the earth's climate.

But Dermott and Stephen Kortenkamp, a postdoctoral fellow at the 
Carnegie Institution, both felt this assumption was unlikely.

"The amount of variation is extremely small," Dermott said.

Dermott and Kortenkamp did calculations spanning 1.2 million years 
to prove the amount of dust in the atmosphere did vary and that 
the eccentricity of Earth's orbit can make dust accumulation rates 
vary by a factor of 2 or 3.  Dermott said the earth gains nearly 
30 million kilograms of dust a year, and the amount of dust in the 
atmosphere could effect earth's climate.  

"However," Dermott said, "even that amount of dust is relatively 
small, so scientists still aren't sure exactly how much it could 
influence the climate."

Earth accumulates dust through gravitational focusing, an effect 
that causes the earth to pull dust particles toward it.  To gather 
information on dust levels, NASA launched a craft the size of a 
school bus into the earth's atmosphere and counted the number of 
particle impacts on the side of the craft over several years.  "It 
was a good record of the impact of dust striking earth," said 
Dermott.

Kortenkamp, a UF graduate, said that the effects of interplanetary 
dust on the climate will be similar to the effects of volcanic 
dust in the atmosphere.  Past volcanic eruptions have caused a 
detectable cooling of the earth's surface.  Volcanic dust settles 
in a couple of months and the cooling effect is short-term.

But the effects of space dust on the atmosphere can last much 
longer.  "The influx of interplanetary dust could remain at high 
levels for extended periods several hundred thousand years and 
therefore any associated cooling would also persist for this 
length of time," said Kortenkamp.

The researchers also examined the possibility that if the amount 
of dust in earth's atmosphere altered the climate, the change 
could cause gradual extinctions.

Dermott said every 100 million years the majority life on earth is 
destroyed by a catastrophic event, such as an asteroid striking 
Earth's surface, but history doesn't show an exact moment or date 
in time for the extinction of life.

Dermott and Kortenkamp are investigating the idea that if 
atmospheric dust effects the climate, then the dust may effect 
life on earth as well.  For example, an asteroid collision creates 
a dust wave that reaches earth 1 million years before the 
asteroid.  The dust may alter the climate enough to cause a 
gradual extinction before the asteroid hits earth's surface and 
causes a catastrophic event.

"While the issue is controversial, there are groups of 
paleontologists who have found evidence suggesting some mass 
extinctions were gradual, lasting for hundreds of thousands of 
years," Kortenkamp said.

To prove their theory, Kortenkamp said, a detailed analysis must 
be done of geological records looking for enhanced dust 
accumulation connected with gradual mass extinctions.


STUDY OF SULFIDES IN BACTERIA CASTS DOUBT ON EVIDENCE OF LIFE IN 
MARTIAN METEORITE ALH84001
Arizona State University release

The Martian meteorite ALH84001 gave people hope that it was 
evidence for extraterrestrial life because minerals found in it 
resembled minerals created by some unusual earthly bacteria.  Now 
it appears that the bacteria themselves contradict that claim.

In an article appearing in the May 8, 1998 issue of Science, a 
team led by two scientists from Arizona State University reports 
finding evidence for as many as three different iron sulfide 
minerals in two different bacteria known for generating magnetic 
compounds but not other iron sulfides normally found with them.

Using transmission electron microscope observations, the team, 
which includes ASU Geology and Chemistry/Biochemistry faculty 
members Mihaly Posfai and Peter R. Buseck, Iowa State University 
microbiologist Dennis A. Bazylinski, and California Polytechnic 
physicist Richard B. Frankel, found clear evidence of mackinawite 
and greigite and, possibly, cubic iron sulfide.

One of the iron sulfides they did not detect is pyrrhotite, a 
mineral that has been found in the now-famous Martian meteorite 
ALH84001 and that frequently occurs as a breakdown product of the 
other sulfides.  Though pyrrhotite's presence in the meteorite has 
been cited as possible evidence of past Martian bacterial life, 
the study's evidence suggests that the bacteria may actually 
prevent its formation.

The study found evidence that the bacteria first produce 
mackinawite, a nonmagnetic iron sulfide, which then naturally 
converts to the magnetic greigite.  It also suggests that this 
process may actually begin with cubic iron sulfide, which is 
unstable and rapidly becomes mackinawite.  In the geological 
environment the bacteria are found in, the reaction sequence would 
also eventually lead to greigite breaking down into pyrite and 
pyrrhotite, but that reaction does not occur when the bacteria are 
present.

The team's research finding contradicts an earlier study that 
found pyrite and pyrrhotite present in the bacteria.  As no 
subsequent study has been able to duplicate this result, the 
current team posits that earlier researchers may have confused 
cubic iron sulfide with these minerals, which give similar 
selected area electron diffraction patterns.


NEW GALILEO IMAGES
JPL release

8 May 1998

The following images taken by the Galileo spacecraft have been 
released on the Galileo home page:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo

* Europa Global Views in Natural and Enhanced Colors
* Europa "Ice Rafts" in local and color context
* View of Callisto at Increasing Resolutions
* Global Color Variations on Callisto
* The Galilean Satellites


JPL EVENING LECTURES HIGHLIGHT ICY AND FIERY SPACE DESTINATIONS
JPL release

5 May 1998

Three varied solar system locationsthe Sun, Pluto and Jupiter's 
moon Europawill be featured in two free public lectures on 
Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, and on 
Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena City College.  
Seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served 
basis.

The lectures, entitled "Ice & Fire:  Traveling to Difficult Solar 
System Destinations," will feature the three planned missions of 
the Outer Planets/Solar Probe project.  The three are Europa 
Orbiter, a mission to look for evidence of liquid oceans on 
Jupiter's icy moon, Europa; Solar Probe, which will travel closer 
to the Sun than any previous spacecraft; and Pluto-Kuiper Express, 
which will fly by Pluto and its moon Charon, and possibly into the 
Kuiper Disk, the cold, dark outer fringes of our solar system.  
The three missions are tentatively scheduled for launch between 
2003 and 2007

The lectures will be presented by Robert Staehle, deputy manager 
for the Outer Planets/Solar Probe project.  Staehle previously 
served as Ice and Fire Preprojects manager.  His space exploration 
career began when his student experiment "Bacteria Aboard Skylab" 
flew on the first American space station.  With his aeronautical 
and astronautical engineering background, Staehle worked on the 
Voyager mission and contributed to lunar and planetary exploration 
studies.  He learned from a variety of industries how to cut 
mission development costs and lead time dramatically, knowledge 
well-suited to the goals of the Outer Planets/Solar Probe 
missions.

Please note that the lectures on Deep Space 1, originally 
scheduled for May 14 and 15, have been rescheduled for August 20 
at JPL and August 21 at PCC.  The speaker will be Dr. Marc Rayman, 
chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager.

This lecture is part of the von Karman Lecture Series sponsored 
monthly by the JPL Media Relations Office.  A web site on the 
lecture series is located at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture.  For 
directions and other information, call the Media Relations Office 
at (818) 354-5011.


THIS WEEK ON GALILEO
JPL release

11-17 May, 1998

Galileo spends most of the week processing and transmitting to 
Earth science information stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape 
recorder.  All of the data on this week's schedule contains 
information describing Jupiter's icy moon Europa.  The data set 
returned this week was gathered by the spacecraft's camera, near-
infrared spectrometer and suite of fields and particles 
instruments during the spacecraft's close flyby of the moon, just 
over 6 weeks ago.

Some data from last week's schedule slipped into this week when 
Galileo released antenna time at the Deep Space Network's 70-meter 
antenna in Canberra, Australia.  The antenna time was released to 
support radio frequency observations of the newly identified gamma 
ray burst you may have heard about in the news.  The burst was 
located in a relatively close galaxy and the Canberra antenna was 
considered a key part for very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) 
observations required to study the event.

Last week's efforts to change the attitude control computer's 
onboard software have encountered a glitch.  It appears that the 
onboard software was successfully modified, but the effect on the 
gyroscopic data is not as expected.  The flight team will continue 
to gather and analyze spacecraft engineering data to determine 
what went wrong.  Another gyroscope performance test is scheduled 
this Friday.

This week's information processing and transmission activities 
continue to retrieve data from a section of the onboard tape 
recorder that has already been accessed once this orbit.  This 
second processing and transmission opportunity allows data gaps to 
be filled, re-processing of data with different parameters, or 
selection of entirely new data.

On the data return schedule we find two observations by the 
spacecraft's camera of a region of Europa characterized by dark 
spots.  Together they will provide a stereo topographic view of 
the area.  The camera team also returns an observation of a region 
containing characteristic triple bands.  Finally, the camera team 
returns an observation designed to provide photometric 
measurements of Europa's surface.  Photometry is the measurement 
of light intensities, which can then be used to help identify the 
different materials on the surface of Europa.

The near-infrared spectrometer team contributes to this week's 
schedule by scheduling the return of an observation of a region of 
Europa containing dark spots and pull-apart wedges.  The 
observation is expected to provide more information on the 
materials that make up this region of Europa.  Finally, the fields 
and particles instruments return measurements that will add to the 
repository of information describing the interaction of Jupiter's 
magnetic and electric fields with Europa.

For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to 
Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo


1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT
By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager

8 May 1998

Orbiter integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule 
with a major system test of the mapping mission scheduled for next 
week.  Troubleshooting of the various Pressure Modulator InfraRed 
Radiometer (PMIRR) anomalies is in progress.

Lander integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule.  
The lander will be moved into the thermal vacuum chamber on May 11 
and chamber pump down for cruise configuration thermal vacuum 
testing is scheduled for May 15.

For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit 
this website:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/


STARDUST Status Reports
By Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager

1 May 1998

Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations activities this week 
continued installation & testing of the Command and Data Handling 
unit, the Dust Flux Monitor sensor, the Medium Gain Antenna, the 
first Inertial Measurement Unit , and continuing interface work on 
the Navigation Camera.  The Sample Return Capsule spin balance 
testing was initiated and will continue through next week.

The project announced a second opportunity for the public to 
participate in the Stardust mission through its program to collect 
names that will be inscribed on a microchip and flown on a round-
trip to comet Wild 2 onboard the Stardust Sample Return Capsule.  
The name collection home page is at:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/signup.html

8 May 1998

Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities:  ATLO 
this week involved installation of the Solar Array Switching Unit 
(SASU), the test battery, and making harness modifications for the 
Navigation Camera.  The Sample Return Capsule (SRC) spin balance 
testing and ballasting was successfully completed.  The total SRC 
mass is about 46 kg (101 lbs).

Outreach:  The Project in collaboration the National Space 
Society, along with Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures, 
today announced a joint online campaign to collect one million 
names to be flown round-trip to comet Wild 2 onboard the Stardust 
Sample Return Capsule.  The campaign, "Make an IMPACT," is being 
launched in time for todays's nationwide release of the film, 
"DEEP IMPACT," and will continue through the summer.  The names 
will be printed onto a microchip to be placed aboard the craft 
later this year.  Already collected are the names of every member 
of the cast and crew of "DEEP IMPACT." Names can be submitted by 
going to the National Space Society website at 
http://nss.org/impact, the film's website at http://deep-
impact.com, or the signup page on the Stardust website:  
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/signup.html.

The Stardust Educator Fellowship Workshop was held this week at 
Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) in Denver.  This workshop 
involved the initial 10 Stardust Fellowship winners from 10 
states.  They were exposed to three days of intensive training on 
the mission and its science.  The Principal Investigator, Project 
Manager, LMA's Flight System Manager, and LMA's VP for Flight 
Systems participated along with a number of the Stardust team 
scientists and engineers.  The training is central to Stardust's 
nationwide teacher training initiative aimed at grades 4-8 and 
focused on teaching students about small solar system bodies such 
as comets and the engineering adventures to explore them.  The 
core Educator Fellows will return to their districts with 
materials and curricula to use with their own students and to 
provide training for other teachers.  An additional 15 Fellows 
will be chosen in the fall.  Stardust's Fellows Program is part of 
an educational outreach partnership between the Project, the 
Virginia-based Challenger Center for Space Science Education; the 
JASON Foundation for Education headquartered in Waltham, Mass.; 
and Omniplex Science Museum, Oklahoma City, OK.  The list of 
fellows and their affiliations is at:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fellows.html

For more information on the STARDUST missionthe first ever comet 
sample return missionplease visit the STARDUST home page:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov


End Marsbugs, Vol. 5, No. 13


