MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 15, 19 June 1998.

Editors:

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

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 and astrobiology (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)	SURVEYOR DATA REVEAL MORE EVIDENCE OF ABUNDANT WATER, THERMAL 
ACTIVITY IN MARS' PAST
JPL release

2)	COMETS PUMMELED EARTH 36 MILLION YEARS AGO
From the Planetary Society

3)	ANCIENT MYTHS AND TREE RINGS POINT TO GIANT COMET'S VISIT TO 
EARTH
Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council

4)	COSMIC CLOUD COULD BURST EARTH'S "BREATHING BUBBLE," NEW 
BARTOL COMPUTER SIMULATION SHOWS
University of Delaware release

5)	MARS ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER OBSERVES NORTH POLAR CAP, CLOUDS 
ON MARS
NASA release 98-072

6)	MARS SOCIETY CALLS FOR MOBILIZATION TO SAVE MARS 2001 MISSION 
ROVER
Mars Society release

7)	MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION GROWING FAST- ABSTRACT 
DEADLINE EXTENDED
Mars Society release

8)	BRITISH CHAPTER OF MARS SOCIETY FORMS
Mars Society release

9)	NEW PHOTOS OF MARS '98 ORBITER AND LANDER NOW AVAILABLE
JPL release

10)	NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
JPL release

11)	GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS
JPL releases

12)	STARDUST STATUS REPORT
Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager

13)	RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE LIFE SCIENCES:  GRAVITATIONAL 
BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY, AND BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND 
COUNTERMEASURES
NASA research announcement NRA-98-HEDS-02

14)	WORKSHOP:  "LIFE BEYOND PLANET OF ORIGIN"
Ames Research Center release
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SURVEYOR DATA REVEAL MORE EVIDENCE OF ABUNDANT WATER, THERMAL 
ACTIVITY IN MARS' PAST
JPL release

27 May 1998

New mineralogical and topographic evidence suggesting that Mars 
had abundant water and thermal activity in its early history is 
emerging from data gleaned by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor 
spacecraft.  Scientists are getting more glimpses of this warmer, 
wetter past on Mars while Global Surveyor circles the planet in a 
temporary 11.6-hour elliptical orbit.  Findings from data gathered 
during the early portions of this hiatus in the mission's orbital 
aerobraking campaign are being presented today at the spring 
meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Boston.

Among many results, the Thermal Emission Spectrometer instrument 
team, led by Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University, 
Tempe, has discovered the first clear evidence of an ancient 
hydrothermal system.  This finding implies that water was stable 
at or near the surface and that a thicker atmosphere existed in 
Mars' early history.

Measurements from the spectrometer show a remarkable accumulation 
of the mineral hematite, well-crystallized grains of ferric (iron) 
oxide that typically originate from thermal activity and standing 
bodies of water.  This deposit is localized near the Martian 
equator, in an area approximately 300 miles (500 kilometers) in 
diameter.

Fine-grained hematite, with tiny particles no larger than specks 
of dust, generally forms by the weathering of iron-bearing 
minerals during oxidation, or rusting, which can occur in an 
atmosphere at low temperatures.  The material has been previously 
detected on Mars in more dispersed concentrations and is widely 
thought to be an important component of the materials that give 
Mars its red color.  The presence of a singular deposit of 
hematite on Mars is intriguing, however, because it typically 
forms by crystal growth from hot, iron-rich fluids.

Meanwhile, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument is giving 
mission scientists their first three-dimensional views of the 
planet's north polar ice cap.  Principal Investigator Dr. David 
Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, and 
his team have been using the laser altimeter to obtain more than 
50,000 measurements of the topography of the polar cap in order to 
calculate its thickness, and learn more about related seasonal and 
climatic changes.

These initial profiles have revealed an often striking surface 
topology of canyons and spiral troughs in the water and carbon 
dioxide ice that can reach depths as great as 3,600 feet below the 
surface.  Many of the larger and deeper troughs display a 
staircase structure, which may ultimately be correlated with 
seasonal layering of ice and dust observed by NASA's Viking 
mission orbiters in the late 1970s.

The laser data also have shown that large areas of the ice cap are 
extremely smooth, with elevations that vary only a few feet over 
many miles.  At 86.3 degrees north, the highest latitude yet 
sampled, the cap achieves an elevation of 6,600 to 7,900 feet 
(1.25 to 1.5 miles or 2-2.5 kilometers) over the surrounding 
terrain.  The laser measurements are accurate to approximately one 
foot (30 centimeters) in the vertical dimension.

In June, the ice cap's thickness will reach a maximum during the 
peak of the northern winter season.  Thickness measurements from 
April will be compared to those that will be taken in June, 
contributing to a greater understanding of the Martian polar cap's 
formation and evolution.  In addition, the Global Surveyor 
accelerometer team, led by Dr. Gerald Keating of George Washington 
University, Washington, DC, has discovered two enormous bulges in 
the upper atmosphere of Mars in the northern hemisphere, on 
opposite sides of the planet near 90 degrees east latitude and 90 
degrees west longitude.  These bulges rotate with the planet, 
causing variations of nearly a factor of two in atmospheric 
pressure, and systematic variations in the altitude of a given 
constant pressure of about 12,000 feet (four kilometers).

Additional information about these findings and other exciting new 
results from the Mars Global Surveyor mission is available at the 
following Internet sites:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/
http://emma.la.asu.edu/
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html

After a month-long period during which the Sun was between Earth 
and Mars and thus degraded communications with Global Surveyor, 
the spacecraft has resumed taking scientific data in its temporary 
elliptical orbit.  In September, it will once again begin dipping 
into the upper atmosphere of Mars each orbit in a process called 
aerobraking.  The drag from this procedure will allow the 
spacecraft to reach a low circular orbit and begin its primary 
two-year global mapping mission starting in March 1999.
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COMETS PUMMELED EARTH 36 MILLION YEARS AGO
From the Planetary Society

http://planetary.org/articlearchive/headlines/1998/headln-
052198.html

Posthumous Paper by Astronomer Gene Shoemaker Details Evidence of 
Cataclysmic Comet Shower

20 May 1998

Geochemical evidence from a rock quarry in northern Italy 
indicates that a shower of comets hit Earth about 36 million years 
ago.  The findings not only account for the huge craters at 
Popagai in Siberia and at Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, but posit 
that they were but a tiny fraction of the comets active during a 
period of two or three million years during the late Eocene 
period.  The work provides indirect evidence that a gravitational 
perturbation of the Oort comet cloud outside the orbit of Pluto 
was responsible for sending a wave of comets swarming toward the 
center of the solar system.

Shoemaker's Legacy of Discovery

In a paper published today in the journal Science, a group from 
the California Institute of Technology, the United States 
Geological Survey Flagstaff office, and the Coldigioco Geological 
Observatory in Italy, report their evidence of a very large 
increase in the amount of extraterrestrial dust hitting Earth in 
the late Eocene period.  The writers include the husband-and-wife 
team of Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, well known for their work 
detecting comets and asteroids.  Gene Shoemaker died in a car 
crash last year while this research was in progress.  According to 
lead author Ken Farley, a geochemist at Caltech, the contribution 
of Shoemaker was especially crucial in the breakthrough.

"Basically, Gene saw my earlier work and recognized it as a new 
way to test an important question:  are large impact craters on 
Earth produced by collisions with comets or asteroids?" Farley 
says.

"He suggested we study a quarry near Massignano, Italy, where sea-
floor deposits record debris related to the large impact events 36 
million years ago.  He said that if there had been a comet shower, 
the technique I've been working on might show it clearly in these 
sediments."

Carolyn Shoemaker said that she and her husband went to Italy last 
year to perform fieldwork in support of the paper.

Tracking an Ancient Disaster

In geologic samples, the researchers detected a helium isotope 
known as 3He, which is rare on Earth but common in extraterrestrial 
materials.  This isotope is abundant in the Sun, and some of it is 
ejected from the Sun as solar wind throughout the solar system.  
The helium is easily picked up and carried along by 
extraterrestrial objects such as asteroids and comets and their 
associated dust particles.

Thus, arrival of extraterrestrial matter on Earth's surface can be 
detected by measuring its associated 3He.  And even this material 
is unlikely to include large objects like asteroids and comets.  
Because these heavy, solid objects fall into the atmosphere with a 
high velocity, they melt or vaporize, giving their helium up to 
the atmosphere.  This 3He never falls below very high altitudes, 
and soon reenters space.

But tiny particles entering the atmosphere are another story.  
These particles can pass through the atmosphere at low 
temperatures, and so retain helium.  These particles accumulate on 
the sea floor, and sea floor sediments provide an archive of these 
particles going back hundreds of millions of years.

Elevated levels of 3He would suggest an unusually dusty inner solar 
system, possibly because of a flurry of active comets.  Such an 
elevated abundance of comets might arise when a passing star or 
other gravity anomaly kicks a huge number of comets from the Oort 
cloud into elliptical, sun-approaching orbits.

Discovery in Italy

When Farley took Shoemaker's suggestion and traveled to the 
Italian quarry, he discovered that there was indeed an elevated 
flux of 3He-laced materials in a sedimentary layer some 50 feet 
beneath the surface.  Because this region of Italy was submerged 
in water until about 10 million years ago, the comet impacts and 
microscopic debris had accumulated on the ocean bed, and this 
debris was preserved because dying organisms had cooperatively 
covered the debris over the eons.

The depth of the sedimentary layer suggested to the researchers 
that the 3He had been deposited about 36 million years ago.  This 
corresponds to the dating of the craters at Popagai and Chesapeake 
Bay.

More precisely, the 3He measurements show enhanced solar system 
dustiness associated with the impacts 36 million years ago, but 
with the dustiness beginning 0.5 million years before the impacts 
and continuing for about 1.5 million years after.  The conclusion 
is that there were a large number of Earth-crossing comets and 
much dust from their tails for a period of about 2.5 million 
years.

In addition to Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker and Ken Farley, the 
paper was cowritten by Alessandro Montanari, who holds joint 
appointments at the Coldigioco Geological Observatory in Apiro, 
Italy, and the School of Mines in Paris.
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ANCIENT MYTHS AND TREE RINGS POINT TO GIANT COMET'S VISIT TO EARTH
Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council

20 May 1998

Ancient myths, tree ring studies and archaeological evidence all 
confirm that a rare giant comet may have visited the Earth only a 
few thousand years ago, raining fireballs and meteors in its wake.

Dr. Bill Napier, astronomer at Armagh Observatory, and Dr Victor 
Clube of Oxford and Armagh Universities, have investigated the 
doom-laden cosmic myths of early civilization.  From the Persian 
prophet Zooraster, who in 500 BC predicted the end of the world 
caused by "a huge comet sent by Satan," to the description in the 
Book of Revelations of a "burning mountain" falling from the sky, 
early history is full of myths of celestial combat, rains of fire 
and many-headed dragons, which support astronomers' theories of 
the existence of a tumultuous night sky.

Recent terrestrial research has provided "hard" evidence to 
support theories of close encounters with comets.  Tree-ring 
studies of Irish oaks at Queen's University, Belfast, show a 
dramatic climatic downturn around 2354-2345 BC, perhaps caused as 
the Earth entered the path of a comet's meteor stream.  
Archaeological digs in Northern Syria reveal, at around the same 
time, a cataclysmic environmental event accompanied by destruction 
of mud-brick buildings caused by a "blast from the sky," again 
pointing to an encounter with a giant comet.

Dr. Napier's article, "Comets, dragons and prophets of doom" 
appears in the second issue of Frontiers, published by the 
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.  All material is 
copyright free.  Copies can be obtained from the Publicity Team on 
tel.  01793 442123, fax 01793 442002 and e-mail PR_PUS@pparc.ac.uk
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COSMIC CLOUD COULD BURST EARTH'S "BREATHING BUBBLE," NEW BARTOL 
COMPUTER SIMULATION SHOWS
University of Delaware release

30 May 1998

A colorful new computer animation--created by Gary P.  Zank of the 
Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware--shows how 
even a small cosmic cloud could suddenly burst the "breathing 
bubble" that protects life on our planet.

The simulation, presented today during the American Geophysical 
Union's Spring meeting, also should help guide the spacecraft, 
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, through a series of shock waves and a 
massive "wall" in space nearly two decades from now, says Zank, an 
associate professor at Bartol and a leading theoretical 
astrophysicist.

Ongoing studies of Earth's "cocoon" might someday reveal whether 
close encounters with cosmic clouds cause periodic extinctions, 
according to Zank, who earned a National Science Foundation 
Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1993 and a Zeldovich 
Medal in 1996.

"We're surrounded by hot gas," Zank notes.  "As our sun moves 
through extremely 'empty' or low-density interstellar space, the 
solar wind produces a protective bubble--the heliosphere around 
our solar system, which allows life to flourish on Earth.  
Unfortunately, we could bump into a small cloud at any time, and 
we probably won't see it coming.  Without the heliosphere, neutral 
hydrogen would interact with our atmosphere, possibly producing 
catastrophic climate changes, while our exposure to deadly cosmic 
radiation in the form of very high-energy cosmic rays would 
increase."

Zank's startling computer simulations were initially developed to 
support the Voyager spacecraft, deployed as part of the Voyager 
Interstellar Mission.  Even as the sun rolls freely through wide-
open space, he explains, the Earth's ever-changing bubble 
generates shock waves and an enormous wall of hydrogen gas.  The 
wall, he says, will sweep past Voyager 1 around 2015--several 
years later than previously estimated.

Rather like a lung, the heliospheric bubble breathes, but in a 
highly arythmic fashion, because of an 11-year periodic cycle of 
solar wind properties.  By simulating this breathing bubble, Zank 
says, he can predict the location of the boundary between the 
solar wind and the vast interstellar medium of space, which should 
help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 
prepare Voyager 1.  The battery-operated vehicle is running out of 
power, Zank notes.  To make the most of its instruments, NASA 
researchers must conserve energy, by switching systems on and off.

Rowdy Space Clouds

Every 66 million years or so, the solar system traces a regular 
path through the galaxy, oscillating up and down as it sails 
through "all sorts of environments," Zank reports.  Over the past 
5 million years, he says, "We've had incredibly smooth sailing" 
because the sun was lolling through an interstellar medium 
containing less than one atom per cubic inch of space.  That's 
empty space, indeed:  Even wispy clouds are 100 times more dense.  
Currently, Zank says, the solar system is in a region of space 
containing between 3 and 4 particles per cubic inch.

"Space," Zank notes, "is full of clouds." One particularly 
troublesome cloud region, located in a star-forming region towards 
the Aquila Rift, clearly is headed our way, according to Zank.  
Pushed by galactic wind, the cloud may collide with Earth's 
protective bubble within the next 50,000 years, he says, and some 
researchers think we could encounter fluffier knots of gas--
containing 10 to 100 particles per cubic inch of space--far 
sooner.  Our immediate or local interstellar environment is chock-
full of gas clusters known as the Local Fluff, Zank points out, 
and existing instruments aren't sensitive enough to detect 
extremely small clouds.  Consequently, Zank says, "We won't know 
that our heliosphere is collapsing until we see highly elevated 
levels of neutral hydrogen and cosmic rays, and a hydrogen wall in 
the vicinity of the outer planets."

Did a rogue cloud wipe out the dinosaurs? In 1939, British 
cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle suggested that cosmic collisions with 
clouds may obliterate the heliosphere every now and then.  Zank 
agrees.  "The protective solar wind would be extinguished, and 
cosmic radiation might lead to gene mutations," he says.  
"Hydrogen would bombard Earth, producing increased cloud cover, 
leading perhaps to global warming, or extreme amounts of 
precipitation and ice ages.  We can't predict every scenario at 
this point."

A Bon Voyage for Voyagers 1 and 2?

Using powerful new number-crunching computers at Bartol, as well 
as systems at national supercomputing centers, Zank created two 
animations to show the heliosphere in empty space some 5 million 
years ago, and in a dense cloud containing 10 particles per cubic 
inch.  In clear space, the sun blows solar wind at supersonic 
speeds, thereby creating the heliosphere, which Zank describes as 
"a funny, bullet-shaped bubble." When the interstellar medium 
crashes into this bubble, he explains, "it suddenly veers upward 
and around, like water flowing around a rock in the river." The 
result, he says, is a system of massive shock waves and a hydrogen 
wall, which could be 50 times thicker than the distance between 
the Earth and the sun.

Undisturbed by clouds, the heliosphere appears to take a breath 
every 11 years, as fluctuations in solar-wind speeds produce a 
gentle, arhythmic motion, Zank says.  Flowing outward, shock waves 
push the wall and interstellar boundaries farther into space until 
at last they break and wane, allowing the boundary to contract.  
This shifting region between the heliosphere and its boundary may 
filter hydrogen through a process known as "charge exchange," in 
which neutral hydrogen and charged particles swap an electron, and 
so, change identities.

Earth's protective bubble seems to gasp spasmodically in a dense 
cloud, so that it collapses and reforms every 331 days, Zank says.  
The weight of neutral hydrogen, pressing down on the lighter solar 
wind, "would drive great rollups of instability," he says.  "This 
well-defined heliosphere structure would disappear and reappear, 
at times obliterating the hydrogen-filtering region."

Understanding Cosmic Evolution

Zank's colorful images aren't likely to help us avoid a cloud 
collision, but they may spark a new appreciation for life.  On 
Earth, he says, "These days, and the last 5 to 10 millioin years, 
have been extremely benign, in an astrophysical sense, and we need 
to make the most of them, by learning all we can about this cocoon 
in which we live." Moreover, Zank says, "We can't predict our 
future until we understand our cosmic evolutionary history."

The new Bartol simulations were obtained by solving an extremely 
complicated, highly nonlinear system of coupled equations.  First, 
Zank assembled key information about conditions in interstellar 
space, such as the speed, density and temperature, measured by 
instruments on the spacecraft, Ulysses, and extrapolated from 
telescope data.  Then, he used that information in his equations, 
which were fed into computers, along with a second data set 
describing conditions closer to Earth.  Zank's research was 
supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
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MARS ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER OBSERVES NORTH POLAR CAP, CLOUDS ON 
MARS
NASA release 98-072

27 May 1998

The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument has collected 
exciting new observations of the north polar regions of Mars 
during Science Phasing Orbit activities of the Mars Global 
Surveyor mission.

Profiles of topography collected during April 1998 contain 
unprecedented new information about the relief of the north polar 
cap of Mars, as well as its surrounding features, including the 
expansive north polar sand seas.  In addition, the instrument 
obtained the first direct measurements of cloud heights on Mars, 
with clustered cloud features appearing most prominently near the 
edge of the north polar cap.

During April of 1998 the MOLA instrument acquired 59 passes of 
data which span a region on Mars that extends from approximately 
60 degrees north latitude, over the polar cap, and down to around 
15 degrees north latitude.  These profiles include over 50,000 
measurements of north polar cap elevations.  The spatial 
resolution of the MOLA profile measurements is approximately 1,000 
feet (330 meters) and the vertical resolution is approximately one 
foot (30 centimeters).

The MOLA profiles of the northern polar cap show the height of the 
Martian surface to increase sharply by about 0.5 miles (one 
kilometer) above the surrounding terrain at the cap edge at a 
latitude of about 80 degrees north.  The elevation of the cap 
increases toward the pole and achieves heights above the 
surroundings of 1.25-1.5 miles (2-2.5 kilometers) at the highest 
latitude sampled, 86.3 degrees.

The topographic profiles reveal striking surface topology of 
canyons and spiral troughs, which cut through the upper portions 
of the northern polar cap to depths as great as 3,600 feet below 
the ice surface.  Many of the larger and deeper troughs display a 
staircase structure, which may ultimately correlate with evidence 
of seasonal layering of ice and dust observed in Viking images of 
the cap obtained in the late 1970's.

The MOLA data also have revealed that large areas of the ice cap 
are extremely smooth, with elevations that vary by only a few feet 
over many miles.  The profiles across the ice cap will be used to 
understand the processes that shaped the cap, including the 
deposition of water and carbon dioxide, and the modification by 
ice flow, solar radiation, wind and mixing with dust.  These 
observations will ultimately be used to help unravel the history 
of climatic variations on Mars.

MOLA also profiled vast dune fields that surround the polar cap.  
The dunes are typically 50 to 150 feet (approximately 15-50 
meters) tall with crest-to-crest spacings of less than a mile 
(approximately 1 kilometer) in most cases.  Such properties are 
similar to some forms of terrestrial sand dunes, especially those 
that form sand seas or ergs in North Africa deserts.

Over half of the MOLA profiles revealed the presence of clouds.  
Reflections from the atmosphere were obtained at altitudes from 
just above the surface to over nine miles (less than 1 to 15 
kilometers).  Most cloud detections were made at high latitudes, 
at the boundary of the ice cap and surrounding terrain.  These 
observations represent the first direct measurement of the heights 
of clouds in the Martian atmosphere, making MOLA the first 
planetary atmospheric lidar.  The measurements of the thickness 
and distribution of atmospheric reflections over the course of the 
Mars Global Surveyor mission will be used to better understand 
Martian weather patterns, including the transport of dust and 
water in the atmosphere.

MOLA observations of the Red Planet will continue as the second 
part of the Science Phasing Orbit operational phase of the Mars 
Global Surveyor mission begins in late May, and will continue 
until September when aerobraking will resume to place the 
spacecraft in its intended orbital vantage point around Mars.

The principal investigator of the MOLA investigation is Dr. David 
E.  Smith of the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, 
MD.  The MOLA instrument was designed and built by the Laser 
Remote Sensing Branch of Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at 
Goddard.  The Mars Global Surveyor mission is operated by the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif..

More details about the MOLA instrument and science investigation 
can be found at:  http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html .
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MARS SOCIETY CALLS FOR MOBILIZATION TO SAVE MARS 2001 MISSION 
ROVER
Mars Society release

For further information about the Mars Society visit our website 
at http://www.marssociety.org or http://nw.net/mars for our No-
Frames site.

As a result of the Clinton Administration's pulling of $60 million 
in committed funds to support the Mars 2001 mission, NASA has 
canceled plans to fly the "Athena" robotic rover to Mars in that 
year.

Because of greatly expanded science requirements, an extra $60 
million was actually needed to fly the two-spacecraft 2001 Mars 
mission as planned.  The administration's decision to subtract $60 
million, instead of adding it, was a devastating blow.

This decision represents a massive setback to the US Mars 
exploration program.  The Athena rover is a highly instrumented 
mobile rover capable of traveling tens of kilometers across the 
Martian surface; imaging, examining the soil chemistry and 
mineralogy of Mars, drilling beneath the surface, and searching 
for evidence of life.  It is a major scale-up in both size, 
technology, and overall capability compared to the highly 
successful Sojourner rover that flew to Mars during the Pathfinder 
mission of July 1997.  It is meant as the precursor to a still 
more capable rover that would fly to Mars in 2003 to gather 
samples for the Mars Sample Return mission scheduled for 2005.  
Canceling the Athena rover or delaying its flight till 2003 (the 
next mission opportunity) will push back the schedule of the 
entire Mars exploration program by at least two years.

The decision to cancel Athena represents a violation of President 
Clinton's promise made in August 1996 to "put the full 
intellectual and technological might of the United States behind 
the search for life on Mars." It is also a violation of the 
administration's space policy document released in October 1996 
which promised a permanent robotic presence on Mars by the year 
2000.

It's also just plain nuts.  The current JPL robotic Mars 
exploration program is one of the few organizations within NASA to 
actually implement NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's call for 
"faster, better, cheaper" mission design.  Recent missions 
implemented by this group have been carried out at about 1/5th the 
cost of missions of comparable complexity (such as Cassini, 
Galileo, Mars Observer, and EOS) implemented elsewhere or earlier 
by NASA.  To stop this extremely productive program dead in its 
tracks to save $120 million (spread over three years, out of a 
13,000 million/year NASA budget) shows an incredible misjudgment 
of priorities.

There are two other components of the Mars 2001 mission that are 
still scheduled to fly:  An orbiter equipped with a gamma ray 
spectrometer to prospect the chemical composition of the planet, 
and a lander equipped with experiments demonstrating the ability 
to make rocket propellant on Mars out of the local atmosphere and 
for measuring radiation levels on the Martian surface.  Both of 
these components are also vital to the future of Mars exploration.  
Saving the rover by canceling one of these is not an option.  
Instead, the $60 million in funds pulled from the program must be 
restored, and the extra $60 million required added to provide the 
2001 mission the full $400 million budget it needs to be done 
right.

The Mars Society calls upon every individual and organization 
concerned with space exploration to rally to turn this disastrous 
decision around.  You can help by sending e-mail expressing your 
concern to all of the people listed at the end of this section.

And while you're at it, you might also let them know that while 
restoring the robotic Mars exploration program to fiscal health is 
absolutely necessary, it's not enough.  The American space program 
overall needs a mission worthy of a $13 billion per year space 
agency, and that can only be the human exploration of Mars.  The 
Clinton-Gore administration may not be interested in continuing 
America's pioneering tradition in space, but they owe it to the 
American people not to deny the person they choose as their next 
president that option.  Starting now, NASA's Human Exploration and 
Development of Space (HEDS) division needs to be funded to prepare 
human Mars exploration at minimally the same level of funding 
(about $150 million/year) as the robotic Mars program.  This will 
allow the HEDS group to conduct the critical Phase A planning and 
key technology demonstration effort that will enable NASA to say 
to the next President-Elect on the day following the Nov.  2000 
election:  "Here is our plan.  These are our detailed designs, 
time-lines and cost estimates.  We can have people on Mars by 
2008, before the end of your second term.  The choice is yours."

Save the robotic Mars exploration program.  Start the human Mars 
exploration program.  Send these gentlemen a message!

President Bill Clinton - president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Al Gore - vice.president@whitehouse.gov NASA 
Administrator Dan Goldin -dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) - 
senatorlott@lott.senate.gov Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-
GA) - georgia6@mail.house.gov Senator Christopher Bond, Chairman 
VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee -
kit_bond@bond.senate.gov
Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman VA, HUD, and 
Independent Agencies Subcommittee - c/o 
dave.lesstrang@mail.house.gov
------------------------------------------------------------------

MARS SOCIETY FOUNDING CONVENTION GROWING FAST- ABSTRACT DEADLINE 
EXTENDED
Mars Society release

The response to the Mars Society call for papers has been 
overwhelming.  With two months to go before the conference, over 
80 speakers have been confirmed, and additional abstracts and 
requests for speaking slots are now coming in at a rate of over 5 
per day.  As a result, the deadline for submittals of abstracts 
has been extended to June 30.

To present at the conference on any subject bearing on the 
exploration or settlement of Mars, send a 300 word abstract to 
mzubrin@aol.com.  Written papers are not required for 
presentation, however those written papers that are delivered by 
the date of the conference that pass review will be published in a 
series of special issues of the Journal of the British 
Interplanetary Society and subsequently bound and published in 
book form by AAS/Univelt.

For further information about the Founding Convention, see the 
Mars Society website at http://www.marssociety.org
------------------------------------------------------------------

BRITISH CHAPTER OF MARS SOCIETY FORMS
Mars Society release

A chapter of The Mars Society has now been started in the UK.  It 
has been set up to enable British people to participate in their 
own area, lobby their own government and VIP's, and have access to 
working on projects, research and practical, in their own 
locality.  Activity has already begun and there's a lot to do, and 
the inaugural conference of The Mars Society UK will be held in 
September/October 1998.  If you are interested in joining and/or 
participating, please contact Philip Dembo on Tel:0181 569 7967 or 
e-mail to:  Mars@dembo.demon.co.uk

First Issue of "New Mars" Published

The first issue of "New Mars," the Mars Society's electronic 
journal containing the latest news and features concerning Mars 
exploration and settlement has now been published.  It is 
available for viewing through the Mars Society's website at 
http://www.marssociety.org

New Mars is edited by former Ad Astra editor Richard Wagner.  If 
you have an idea for a possible contribution, you can contact him 
at campr2@javanet.com.

If you'd like to be removed from this E-Mail list, please send a 
note to:  marsman@wayback.com We will not be using your E-Mail 
addresses for any purpose other than this kind of informative 
mailing.
------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW PHOTOS OF MARS '98 ORBITER AND LANDER NOW AVAILABLE
JPL release

27 May 1998

New photographs of NASA's Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter and 
Polar Lander, now entering the final stages of testing before 
launch in December 1998 and January 1999 from Cape Canaveral, FL, 
are available on the Internet.

The photographs show the Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter as it 
was undergoing acoustic testing at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, 
Denver, to simulate conditions that might occur at launch.  The 
lander is shown during deployment and testing of its surface solar 
panels.  The photographs are available on JPL's home page at 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov, NASA's Planetary Photojournal web site at 
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov, and the Mars '98 project site at 
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98.

The Mars '98 mission is the next set of launches in a sustained 
program of robotic exploration of the red planet, known as the 
Mars Surveyor program.  The 1998 mission will address the behavior 
of Martian volatiles, such as water vapor and ground ice, and 
reveal more about the history of Mars' climate and current 
resources.  The orbiter, tentatively scheduled for launch on Dec.  
10, 1998, will conduct a two-year mission to profile the Martian 
atmosphere and map the surface.  The lander, set for liftoff on 
Jan.  3, 1999, will carry out a three-month surface mission to 
search for traces of subsurface water in the frozen, layered 
terrain of Mars' south pole.

The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's 
Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.  The spacecraft are in 
development at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, NASA's 
industrial partner in the mission.  JPL is a division of the 
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
JPL release
By Ron Baalke

A new image taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is now 
available on the MGS home page:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/5_24_98_glint_rele
ase/index.html

The image caption is appended below.

Also, fifteen Mars Global Surveyor images used in an article in 
the March 13, 1998 issue of Science magazine (including the image 
on the front cover) are available here:

http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/science_pap
er/index.html

Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Low Resolution Images:
Opposition Surge:  Sunlight Glinting off Mars

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Release:	MOC2-48
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Image ID:
	572239403.13601 572239403.13602 P136-01, 02

[Image]
Click on image for full resolution JPEG (371 KBytes)

You may need to adjust this image for the gamma of your monitor to 
insure proper viewing.

This MOC image is made available in order to share with the public 
the excitement of new discoveries being made via the Mars Global 
Surveyor spacecraft.  The image may be reproduced only if the 
image is credited to "Malin Space Science Systems/NASA."   Release 
of this image does not constitute a release of scientific data.  
The image and its caption should not be referenced in the 
scientific literature.  Full data releases to the scientific 
community are scheduled by the Mars Global Surveyor Project and 
NASA Planetary Data System.  Typically, data will be released 
after a 6 month calibration and validation period.

CAPTION

Mars Global Surveyor was presented with a unique opportunity 
February 13-18, 1998, to image sunlight glinting off of the 
surface and atmospheric haze of Mars.  Orbits 130-137 were devoted 
to obtaining MOC images of this effect, also known as opposition 
surge.  During each orbit in mid-February, the Mars Global 
Surveyor spacecraft passed close to and through the line between 
the Sun and the center of Mars.  In other words, the phase angle 
(angle between the Sun's incident light and the direction from the 
surface to the spacecraft) was near zero degrees.  The sunlight 
reflecting from Mars near the zero phase angle produces the rare 
sun-glint phenomenon.  The size and brightness of the glint 
depends on the physical properties of the surface (dust, sand, and 
rock distribution) and the atmosphere (haze/suspended dust).  
Studies of these images are expected to yield important 
information that can be compared with thermal emission 
observations.

The picture is a color composite of MOC images 13601 (red wide 
angle) and 13602 (blue wide angle).  The green-color band is 
synthesized from the red and blue using a relationship well-
understood from Viking images of the late 1970s.  The large, dark 
region near the top-center of the picture is Sinus Meridiani.  The 
circular feature at the upper right is the impact basin, 
Schiaparelli.  The opposition surge feature--the sun glint--is 
centered around 21.0S latitude, 4.1W longitude.

The two images were taken on Mars Global Surveyor's 136th orbit on 
February 18, 1998.  Orbit 136 was the second-to-last orbit on 
which MOC obtained images of Mars during the first qerobraking 
phase (AB-1) of the mission.  MOC was off between the end of AB-1 
on February 19, 1998, until the start of Science Phasing Orbit-1 
phase (SPO-1), which began March 28 and ended April 28, 1998.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of 
Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars 
Observer mission.  MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in 
San Diego, CA.  The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor 
Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft 
with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from 
facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
------------------------------------------------------------------

GALILEO EUROPA MISSION STATUS
JPL releases

May 29, 1998

The Galileo spacecraft is preparing for its next encounter with 
Jupiter's moon Europa, scheduled for this Sunday, May 31 at 2:12 
p.m.  Pacific Daylight Time, at an altitude of 2,521 kilometers 
(1,566 miles).

On Thursday, May 28, Galileo completed most of its approach 
maneuver sequence of commands, but the process was stopped because 
of an error in the construction of the sequence.  The spacecraft 
aborted the sequence, including the remaining playback of recorded 
data, and put itself in a "safe mode." That means the spacecraft 
places itself in a low-activity state until it receives new 
instructions from the ground.  The spacecraft is set to resume its 
planned activities after a new Europa encounter sequence is 
radioed to Galileo via the Deep Space Network tonight.

Despite the halt in the spacecraft's planned sequence, Galileo's 
onboard tape recorder transmitted to Earth 97 percent of the 
pictures and information that had been scheduled for playback 
during this orbit.  The data were gathered during Galileo's flyby 
of Europa in late March.

Galileo's navigation team has determined that the encounter 
activities, which start on Saturday, May 30, will not be affected 
significantly by the safing event.  This will be the first 
encounter since December of last year to use the full gyroscope 
capability.  The gyro anomaly has been corrected, and at this 
point, the attitude control system is believed to be fully 
functional.  Continual calibrations will be needed to maintain 
this capability.

June 5, 1998

The Galileo spacecraft has spent this past week processing and 
sending to Earth images and science information gathered during 
its latest Europa flyby, from May 30 through June 1.  Data had 
been stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder and includes 
camera observations of the Cilix region of Europa, which contains 
the largest known massif on Europa.  A massif is a block of crust, 
surrounded by faults, that has been displaced without breaking 
apart.  Other images taken by the camera include a very rugged 
region of Europa east of the Tyre Macula impact crater, with pits, 
mounds, and a very prominent ridge.

The flyby went well, with the spacecraft swooping over Europa at 
an altitude of 2,516 kilometers (1,563 miles).  After the point of 
closest approach, the gyroscopes switched on as expected, but 
after about half an hour, the spacecraft turned them off.  The 
Galileo team is currently investigating this minor anomaly.  
Nonetheless, the gyros have been turned back on.  A similar event 
has happened only once before--on August 28, 1993.

A standard gyro performance and calibration test was run on June 
3, and results indicate the performance of the gyros is unchanged 
since the spacecraft's previous Europa encounter in March.  The 
gyro anomaly is expected to have very minimal effect on the data 
gathered during this latest encounter.
------------------------------------------------------------------

STARDUST STATUS REPORT
Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager

5 June 1998

Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities:  
Excellent Progress this week by the Flight System & ATLO Team.  
The flight solar arrays were installed and characterized in less 
time than scheduled.  The navigation camera (NavCam) installation 
was completed and end-to-end connectivity established and tested.  
This marks end-to-end check out and testing of all three active 
science interfaces on the flight system, e.g.  dust flux monitor 
(DFM), cometary & interstellar dust analyzer (CIDA) and NavCam.  A 
fit-check on the NavCam periscope was also completed.  Solutions 
were developed for the waveguide and Power Control Assembly (PCA) 
interference issues reported last week and are being implemented.  
A successful exercise of a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) 
with the software was run and preparations for the upcoming 
Spacecraft Performance Test #1 progressed well.

Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities:  
excellent Progress this week by the Flight System & ATLO Team.  
The flight solar arrays were installed and characterized in less 
time than scheduled.  The navigation camera (NavCam) installation 
was completed and end-to-end connectivity established and tested.  
This marks end-to-end check out and testing of all three active 
science interfaces on the flight system, e.g. dust flux monitor 
(DFM), cometary & interstellar dust analyzer (CIDA) and NavCam.  A 
fit-check on the NavCam periscope was also completed.  Solutions 
were developed for the waveguide and Power Control Assembly (PCA) 
interference issues reported last week and are being implemented.  
A successful exercise of a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) 
with the software was run and preparations for the upcoming 
Spacecraft Performance Test #1 progressed well.

On the name collection campaign:  as of June 4, more than 200,000 
names have been received for the second Microchip.  The "Zoom In 
On the Microchip" section of the Home Page is complete.

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

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE LIFE SCIENCES:  GRAVITATIONAL 
BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY, AND BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND COUNTERMEASURES
NASA research announcement NRA-98-HEDS-02

1 June 1998

This solicitation is available electronically via the Internet at
http://peer1.idi.usra.edu

Proposals requested by this Announcement may be for ground-based 
research investigations or space experiments designed for 
spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle or the International Space 
Station.

Letters of Intent Due:	August 3, 1998
Proposals Due:	October 1, 1998

Paper copies of this NRA are also available by calling (202) 358-
4180.  Please leave a voice mail message and include your full 
name, address with zip code, telephone number with area code, and 
the name and number of the NRA you are requesting.

Questions regarding this NRA may be addressed to NASA 
Headquarters, Code UL, Life Sciences Division, Washington, DC 
20546, Attn:  Dr. Guy Fogleman.
------------------------------------------------------------------

WORKSHOP:  "LIFE BEYOND PLANET OF ORIGIN"
Ames Research Center release
By Christopher P. McKay

Dates:  June 25-26 1998
Location:  NASA Ames Research Center building 245 main auditorium.  
9:00 AM Thursday Start
Convener:  Chris McKay (cmckay@mail.arc.nasa.gov)
Coordinator:  Ragnhild Landheim (rlandheim@mail.arc.nasa.gov)

As you know NASA Ames is taking the lead role in developing the 
roadmap for Astrobiology.  To support this activity Lynn Harper 
has asked me to organize a small workshop to address one of the 
Astrobiology "questions" listed in the Cooperative Agreement 
Notice under which the Astrobiology Institute was selected.  The 
question is:

What is the potential for life to survive and evolve beyond the 
planet of origin?

Personally I find this question the most interesting and novel 
aspect of the Astrobiology program.  It represents the first time 
that NASA is looking seriously at the question of the long-term 
future of life beyond Earth.

Workshop Goals:  1) to determine science background and goals, 2) 
to characterize mission opportunities and technology 
readiness/requirements to take advantage of mission opportunities 
to characterize potential for evolution of life beyond planet of 
origin.  The output of this will provide input to the Astrobiology 
Roadmap of what can be done.  The Roadmap will determine what 
should be done.  The program for the next 5-10 years will evolve 
from that.

I suggest the following list of topics to consider (comments 
welcome)

1.	Natural processes that spread life beyond planet of origin
* from Earth to elsewhere
* from elsewhere to Earth
* Meteorite transport--impacts and mechanics
* Biological dormancy/longevity
* Long therm survival in amber, in salts, in permafrost, in space

2.	Survival challenges in Space (for humans and other living 
things)
* Gravity
* Radiation
* Artificial environments longevity, stability, and expansion

3.	The Case of Mars
* Life support systems on Mars
* Life in 1/3 g
* Life from Earth adapting to Mars
* Ecosynthesis, a second biosphere on Mars

4.	Spread of life beyond the Solar System of Origin
* Natural processes
* Artificial processes

5.	Missions and Technologies
* Space Station
* Molecular Biology
* Habitat design
* How to characterize evolution beyond Earth
	-Adaptation
	-Mutation
	-Genetic changes in population
	-Species sensitivity
------------------------------------------------------------------
End MARSBUGS Vol. 5, No. 15

